Authors: E.G. Foley
Red backed him up with a growl.
“Fine,” the elf huffed. He lifted his hands, allowing Jake to tie the sash around his waist like a leash.
Archie checked his knot and tightened it a little while the sounds of the melee in the ballroom echoed down the hallway to them.
Jake doubted they had more than another minute or two before the Snow Maiden realized they were gone.
“You’ll need your compass,” Humbug told Archie. “We’re heading northwest.”
Archie took it out of his tool-bag, while Jake glanced at the girls. “Ready?”
They nodded.
“Good. Stand back, then.” With a moment’s concentration, he summoned up his telekinesis, then fired it full force at the tall, frozen metal door. It flew off its hinges with a bang. At once, snow swirled into the hallway. “Let’s go!”
Jake held tightly onto Humbug’s leash as they ran out into the usual blizzard-like conditions.
Archie glanced at his compass, then pointed ahead. “That way!” he yelled over the wind.
“The woods?” Dani cried. “What about the yetis?”
“This time, no one’s going to summon them,” Jake said with a sharp glance at Humbug. “C’mon. The trees will give us some cover from the wind.”
Knowing that the Snow Maiden and her forces
could easily follow their tracks in the snow, their only hope was speed. The more distance they could put between the castle and themselves, the better off they’d be.
Desperate as they all were to escape, it felt like they were going at a snail’s pace.
Even with the magic spell that kept their high-fashion clothes somewhat warm, the cold numbed their limbs; the wind made breathing harder; and without Archie’s snowshoes, each step was more like climbing as they sank up to their hips in snow with every stride.
It was exhausting, and
after five minutes, the snowy woods still seemed no closer. They were going as fast as they could, but Humbug was beyond frustrated at having to travel so slowly.
“Hurry up!”
“Don’t yell at us!” Dani warned. “You’re the one who caused all this when you threw Spiteful Spice on us!”
“How f-f-far is it t-to Santa’s?” Archie chattered.
“Two miles that way, once you reach the road!” Humbug pointed at the woods. “Now will you let me go?”
“
Road? You must be joking,” Jake said. “How are we supposed to find a road under all that snow?”
But suddenly
, there was a shout behind them.
T
hey realized they had been discovered.
“After them!” the Snow Maiden bellowed, pointing from astride her polar bear.
The kids looked back in dread to find an army of giant toy soldiers pouring out of the castle. Two long rows of the tall wooden men came goose-stepping after them, their long wooden legs allowing them to march over the deep snow as if they were on stilts.
Half a dozen wolves also burst out of the doorway and came racing after them, barking all the while.
While the soldiers were relentless, the wolves were fast. They quickly flanked the Snow Maiden’s infantry lines, gaining on the kids with shocking speed. With their thick fur, the wolves were indifferent to the cold, bounding through the snow like they were born to hunt in it—which, in fact, they were.
“Head them
off!” Her Highness ordered the menacing canines.
They obeyed.
Rather than attacking the kids, the wolves rushed past them and got into position ahead, blocking the way to the woods.
“What do we do?” Archie shouted. “Summon the yetis to keep them busy?”
“No!” everyone else said in unison.
“Caw!” Red
flew off to keep the wolves distracted.
“Be careful!” Jake called
, watching the Gryphon flap up into the sky.
Red proceeded to dive-bomb the wolves, taunting them by gliding just over their heads, lifting higher when the animals leaped
up to try to catch him, their fanged jaws snapping.
While
Red kept the wolves distracted, Humbug looked around. “Quick, that way!”
Following the elf’s urging, t
hey ran down the slope between the woods and the castle, helping each other along.
Jake worried about where they might end up. The Snow Maiden would not leave the road t
o Santa’s compound unprotected.
But for now, they had no choice but to change course. It was
that or get recaptured.
The twin lines of
giant toy soldiers marched after them, while Red continued harrying the wolves from the air.
“Oh
no!” Dani said when they found themselves coming up to the edge of the water. “We’re trapped!”
“You tricked us!” Isabelle said, turning to glare at Humbug.
“I didn’t, honestly!” he cried.
“Wait, look!” Jake glanced around at his feet. “We’re standing on ice.” At once, he drew Risker from its sheath and knelt down, slamming the blade into the ice with both hands. It cracked, but he had a long way to go. “Anything you can do,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Screwdriver!” Archie plunged his hand into his tool-bag and pulled out his screwdriver, along with a hammer.
While Jake continued sawing through the ice with Risker, Archie used the screwdriver like a chisel, angling the sharp tip again
st the ice and banging the top of the handle with the hammer to drive it in.
Dani and Isabelle started jumping nearby, using their own weight to help widen the growing crack in the ice. They steadied each other, for it was slippery, and falling into the Arctic Sea
would surely mean death in minutes.
Finally, t
here was a great crack, a crunch, and a splash as the piece of ice broke off along the water’s edge. The girls dropped to their knees to keep from sliding off into the water as the ice floe rocked beneath them on the waves.
The boys reached out to push off
the land, sending them farther out into the current.
The soldiers were on their way
, with the Snow Maiden on her polar bear, giving orders like a general as she raced in their direction. “Stop them! They’re getting away!” she screeched.
B
ut she was too late.
Jake beckoned to his Gryphon. “Come on, Red! We’re getting out of here!”
Red wheeled around up into the sky and flew after them.
“Caw!” Red did not like what he saw as he approached.
“Come on down, boy! It’s all right.” Jake watched nervously, knowing that if there was one thing Red hated, it was flying over the ocean. “You can do it! Don’t be afraid!”
Somehow, the nob
le beast forced himself to join them, and even used his wings to propel the ice floe farther out to sea as he descended, hooking his lion claws into the ice to get a firmer grip.
Behind them, on the icy shore, the Snow Maiden bellowed in rage, but her giant toy soldiers could go no farther.
Cursing with such language that would have surely got her name put down on the top of Santa’s Naughty list, she seemed half inclined to urge her polar bear into the water after them, but in the end, she didn’t bother.
T
hey drifted out to sea.
CHAPTER FIF
TEEN
The Prodigal Elf
I
f it was freezing cold on land, the kids soon found it was unbearably frigid out on the Arctic Sea. There was nothing to break the bitter wind, and worse, the waves rocked the slippery slab of ice on which they stood, continually threatening to tilt them into the water.
They huddled together for warmth in the middle of their little floating island, holding on
to Red, who kept them anchored to the ice by digging in his claws.
“We have to do something,” Archi
e said. “We can’t just drift out here until we die.”
“You
are
a genius, aren’t you?” Humbug muttered with his usual sarcasm.
By now, they were learning to ignore it.
“I could use my telekinesis,” Jake offered uncertainly, though he had no real notion of where to aim it, what to do.
“How’s t-t-that goin’ help?” Dani chattered.
“I don’t know!” he answered. Once again, the sheer pain of the cold was making it hard to think. Their faces stung and their limbs tingled with the first signs of frostbite.
“Let me try something,” Isabelle murmured. “I think I have an idea…”
“Isabelle, come back!” Dani shouted as the older girl moved toward the edge of the ice floe, still holding her hand.
Isabella ignored her and stared into the deep. With her blond hair blowing wildly in the sea wind, she lifted her free hand out over the water and closed her eyes with a look of concentration.
“What is she doing?” Jake whispered.
Understanding filled Archie’s freckled fac
e. “She’s reaching out telepathically to any animals in the area.”
“Animals? We’re in the middle of the ocean,” Dani said. “The last thing we need is another polar bear—”
A sudden spout of water in the distance to the starboard side of their ice floe gave the answer.
Jake smiled in relief as Archie nodded.
“Look at that. Clever girl, sis,” he said. Then he glanced at Dani. “Whales aren’t fish, they’re mammals, remember? I guess that means she can talk to them, too.”
“Lucky for us,” Jake said
.
Dani stifled a small cry of terror when
a huge whale tail broke the surface of the water, as if the passing leviathan were waving casually at them.
The tail alone was larger than their ice floe.
“It’s coming closer!” Dani hugged Red harder, clinging to the Gryphon for all she was worth.
“Of course it did. She summoned it,” Archie said, peering toward the waves.
“Please tell me she knows what she’s doing. That thing is gigantic. What if it swallows us like Jonah?”
“We’re dead either way,” Jake replied.
“Please help us!” Isabelle called aloud, for their benefit, so the others would know what she was mentally transmitting to the massive creature. “We’re lost. We’re just children,” she added, since whales probably had a low opinion of the species that commanded the whaling vessels that roamed the seven seas. “Please, we need to get to Santa’s!”
Jake and the others gasped when they heard the whale answer
Isabelle. Its mysterious, ancient voice vibrated the air around them with a series of clear, submerged tones, low then high.
But
even Jake, determined as he was to act brave, let out a shout of terror as the impossibly huge animal surfaced and swam up slowly behind the ice floe.
Its long, charcoal-gray back was as big as the hull of the old Viking ship they had seen in Norway.
They gripped on to each other, but there was nowhere to run.
“It’s going to eat us!” Dani whimpered.
“I believe it eats plankton,” Archie said in a tight voice. “A gentle giant. Right?”
“We’re about to find out,” Jake muttered, while Dani pulled Isabelle back from the edge.
The whale lowered its barnacled head a bit—a head the size of a carriage—and pushed the ice floe gently with its brow.
“Mother Mary,” Dani whispered. “We’re moving!”
“Thank you so much!” Isabelle called down to the whale in relief as their frigid floating island ceased drifting aimlessly. Instead, it headed back toward the distant outline of the land. “Not too fast, mind you!” she added anxiously. “We don’t want to tip over!”
Jake’s heart beat a frantic staccato, but after a few minutes, he noticed in relief that the whale was pushing them toward a spot well north of the Snow Maiden’s castle. As an added benefit, the fishy-smelling breath coming out of its blowhole warmed the air around them just a bit.
“It’s a good thing he knows where Santa lives,” Archie said when he finally overcame his shock.
“All the arctic creatures know where Santa lives,” Humbug spoke up
after a moment. “They come to us when they need help.”
“Us?” Jake echoed. He glanced skeptically at their little friend. “I thought you were done with all tho
se tiresome Christmas preparations at the North Pole.”
Humbug stared at him
, for once with no sarcastic reply at the ready.
Jake was
rather intrigued. “Provided this whale doesn’t eat us, are you going to come in once we get there?”
“I don’t know.” Humbug’s gaze fell slowly. “I’m not sure they’ll let me in.”
“Oh, come. Santa and Mrs. Claus put out a reward for your safe return.”
“So they could punish me once they got me back!” he cried.
“Don’t be silly,” Jake said. “Even the Snow Maiden said Santa gives everybody second chances.”
Humbug heaved a
sigh. “I don’t know. If I did, at the very least, I imagine I’m going to be in a lot of trouble. He’ll probably put me on reindeer stall-mucking duty.”
“Well, maybe you should just continue on your way to Halloween Town
, then,” Jake said, slanting him a shrewd look.
Humbug frowned at him.
“Would you really rather dedicate your life to scaring people instead of spreading Christmas cheer?” Dani asked.
“Scaring people’s fun! Besides, people are a pain! They deserve it,” Humbug insisted, but he did not look as convinced about the whole thing as before.
“Well, suit yourself,” Jake said, but when he glanced at Isabelle, she gave him a knowing smile.
It did not take an empath to see that, despite his protests, Humbug was truly torn about what to do.
“Whoa, look at that!” Archie pointed toward the land.
They were approaching the nar
row, rounded entrance to an ice-cave, like a tunnel in the glacier.
“
Of course!” Humbug murmured, recognizing it. “The whale’s taking us to the runway.”
“What is it
?” Jake asked.
“The tunnel Santa drives the sleigh through on Christmas Eve when it’s time for takeoff. He returns through it, too.”
“You mean we’re almost there? At the North Pole?” Dani exclaimed.
“You’re looking at it,” Humbug replied, nodding at the broad, snow-covered hill that bulged up, dome-like, just behind the glacier.
“I don’t see anything,” Jake murmured in amazement, scanning the landscape before him as the whale pushed them ever nearer to the icy shore.
“No, you woul
dn’t, would you?” Humbug said. “That’s the whole point. The Great Igloo is perfectly camouflaged for its surroundings. Warm, too. You’ll feel better once we get inside.”
“‘We?’” Archie asked pointedly.
But Humbug merely frowned and still wouldn’t give an answer about his intentions.
At last, the floating ice floe bum
ped up against the frozen edge at the entrance to the tunnel. They jumped off and thanked the whale profusely, waving farewell.
The whale answered in kind as it d
ove deeper to somersault underwater, turning back out toward the open sea; its huge tail surfaced, flicking them with sea foam that froze instantly on their clothes as it waved goodbye.
“What a wonderful creature,” Isabelle breathed. “I shall never be talked into wearing a whalebone corset after that.”
“Me neither,” Dani said.
Jake
looked askance at her with a bit of a smirk, amused at the thought of the tomboyish carrot-head ever being grown up enough to need a lady’s corset, of all things.
“I reckon we go this way?” Archie pointed up the mysterious ice tunnel. Now that they were sheltered from the wind, his usual cheer was quick to return. “I can’t believe we’re about to meet Santa! Hurry up!”
“Well, Humbug? Are you coming, or is this where we part ways? You’re small enough to slip out around the edge of the tunnel entrance there. If you want to go, we won’t stop you, true to our word. Of course, that means I can’t collect the reward. It’s too bad,” Jake said. “That wish would have meant a great deal to someone out there.”
“Who?” the elf
shot back with a defensive scowl.
“A six-year-old boy I know named Petey.”
“Who is he to you?” Humbug asked, trying once more to sound sarcastic—but failing.
Jake couldn’t
answer the question. His voice had evaporated at the thought of his young friend spending yet another Christmas in that dreary place.
Staring at Jake,
Dani answered for him. “Petey was a kid at the orphanage with Jake. Practically worshiped him.”
“Orp
hanage, you say?” Humbug echoed as his eyes widened slowly.
Jake cleared his throat and looked away. “Well, it’s your choice.”
Humbug stared down the tunnel. “I guess I could just show you where the elevator is.” He turned away impatiently. “Well, come on, if you’re coming!”
The grumpy elf trudged
off ahead of them.
They exchanged
surprised glances that Humbug had not fled yet. Then they followed him.
As
they walked up the dim, bluish ice tunnel, Dani turned to Jake, wearing a smile from ear to ear. “I’m so proud of you!”
“Oh, shu
t up,” he mumbled with a blush.
She laughed. “I figured out your wish.”
“Don’t say it! You might nix it.”
Not that Santa was going to give him the reward unless Humbug willingly chose to turn himself in. After all, Jake had given his word to let the little miscreant go if he’d cooperate.
Soon, the tunnel ended in a formidable pair of tall iron doors, but cattycorner to them stood a smaller pair of shiny brass ones.
The latter turned out to be the
elevator, which they discovered when Humbug pushed the button set into the wall beside it at elf-height, down around their knees.
“What’s through there?” Archie asked, nodding at the big doors while they
waited for the elevator.
“That’s the doorway for the sleigh to come through,” Humbug said. “The reindeer training area is behin
d it, and the stables. Reindeer give off a surprising amount of heat. They live on the lower floor beneath us because of course heat rises. Just another way we keep the place warm.”
“I see.”
The elevator doors opened with a
bing!
They stepped in and immediately noticed Christmas music playing softly. Humbug winced; Jake and Archie glanced at the elf and each other in amusement.
Then the brass doors slid shut, and the elevator trundled upward into the great dome.
Humbug seemed nervous about what sort of punishment he might receive for deserting his post. But as the elevator rose,
and the threat of doom faded behind them, the kids grew breathlessly excited to see Santa’s famous operation.
Few people ever did.
Jake’s heart pounded, and he could not help himself—as soon as the elevator glided to a stop, he rushed out the moment the brass doors parted.
The others followed
suit.
“Wait for me!” Humbug said in annoyance.
But the four of them had already crossed the red-carpeted waiting area outside the bank of elevators. They reached the brass railing that overlooked the huge, open area below and stared in amazement.
Nobody said a word.
As the warmth flooded back into their frozen extremities, they watched the busy scene before them, speechless with wonder.
Jake could not believe he was just one flight of stairs away from
the global headquarters of Christmas itself.
“Do you see him
anywhere?” Dani whispered, scanning the crowd.
“No.” Jake knew that she meant Santa
Claus, of course.
“It’s so beautiful,” Isabelle murmured.
“Blast it, can’t see.” Archie took off his spectacles, which were fogging up now that he’d come inside where it was warm.
Jake didn’t even want to blink
to avoid missing any of the astonishing sights.
Christmas trees decorated every way a person could imagine ringed the wide-open space. The pillars that held up the dome
of Santa’s Great Igloo were candy-striped, the air smelled of cinnamon pinecones, and the whole place was crawling with elves, who sped about at their duties, kicking up red-and-green sparkles as they worked. They were stacking brightly wrapped boxes into seven towers, headed, Jake guessed, for each of the seven continents.