Chapter Seven

It only took Eoin, Freya and Serena a matter of minutes to work their way to the top of the cliff, thanks to Serena who had chanced upon a series of ledges that they could climb up on one side of the rocky balcony. It was a dangerous climb, but neither Eoin nor Freya thought twice about throwing themselves into the pursuit of their little sister who had been taken by the Ice. Eoin soon found that handholds and footholds seemed to grow where he needed them, and Serena climbed with the confidence of someone who knows that if they slip, they will always have the good fortune to find something to hang on to just in time.

It had still taken too long. There was no sign of Willow or the Ice-Eoin, just a few drips of water at the top of the cliff to mark the place where they had been. The three of them scanned in all directions, but the landscape was broken up into small craggy hills and ravines and it was impossible to say which way they had gone.

"We could just chance it," suggested Serena, who felt as though the loss of Willow were entirely her fault. "I nearly always hit on the right way."

"We need to be certain," said Freya, shaking her head.

"If it helps," said Serena, "your sister didn't seem to be scared or anything. That Ice-guy didn't look like he was dragging her away or anything. In fact she looked like she knew him."

"It's her twin brother," Freya conceeded. "Apparently. And he looks like Eoin. But I don't know that she's safe with him. What do you think, Eoin?"

But Eoin wasn't listening. He was fumbling with the catch of the leather-bound book he had been carrying in his waistband. He unclipped the spine and the covers of the book fell apart, the whole book opening up like an accordion. Various drawings and diagrams covered the pages, but there were no words, and nothing to tell them apart in Eoin's eyes. He gathered the book back together and started flipping through the pictures in despair.

Serena watched him impatiently, then snatched the book out of his hands. She opened it at random then handed it back to him. "That one," she said.

Eoin stared at the mess of lines on the page in front of him. "But this doesn't..." he broke off as he realised that the line at the bottom of the page matched up exactly to the sea stacks and the bay behind him. He looked up at Serena in confusion. "But...?"

Serena shrugged as though it were too boring to explain. "Just lucky, I guess. We probably need to go here." She pointed randomly at a spot marked in an oval near the top of the page. "And the quickest way to get there is probably this way."

"You're not even looking!" complained Eoin.

"One thing I've learnt from my father is that looking at things often doesn't help. I feel it's right; I know it's right. Looking would just distract me."

Eoin shook his head in despair. He looked at the diagram for a while, uncertain if what he was looking at was a map or just a doodle. A burning sensation in his left ear told him that Freya was looking over his shoulder.

"We can't stay here," she said. "And Serena did save our lives. We're going to have to trust her, Eoin."

Eoin nodded in resignation. "But she didn't even look," he muttered.

"Nor did you," said Freya, "when you moved that boulder in the lava tubes."

Following the line on the map took them into the hills and after a few minutes they found themselves walking alongside a small stream. Freya looked at it warily but it looked unnervingly like the way streams had always looked, all the water flowing calmly in the right direction. "Makes sense," she said, "that the Ice would want to stay near water."

"Looks like we basically just have to follow the stream," said Eoin, squinting at the map. The sun was high overhead now and glaring off the page into his eyes. The hills around them sloped gently up, and though occasionally Eoin climbed a hill to look ahead, he always found the horizon blocked by yet more hills. 

Serena kept up a constant chatter on the way, about how lucky it was to find them in the caverns, about her mother Destiny who she'd just left at home and the surprise visit she had planned for her father.

Eoin frowned when he heard this. "But your father was expecting you, wasn't he? He sent us to find you."

"I didn't tell him," said Serena. "I don't think he was expecting me. Did he mention me by name? I'm not his only daughter, of course. Maybe he meant Nullie. But I'm not sure how she could help you. Help you drown, of course."

"Wait, wait," said Freya. "Nullie is his daughter too?"

Serena nodded. "My half-sister, technically. We're not big on family reunions, though. That reminds me, last year I went to visit my sister - well, half-sister, one of my other half-sisters, I've got quite a few, you know, my half-sister Patience, well anyway..." She launched into a story which lasted for rest of the walk, until the three of them followed a bend in the stream and stopped abruptly as they found the stream's source. Serena's voice tailed off.

The stream flowed out of a lake which stretched away into the distance. The glass surface mirrored the sparse clouds drifting aimlessly overhead. Near the centre of the lake was a small island, almost entirely covered by a perfect hemisphere of ice which caught the late morning sun and refracted it into thousands of points of light, giving the hills to one side a soft glow. It looked almost like a giant igloo but there was no entrance or opening to be seen.

Freya looked at the lake in despair. "I can't get across that," she groaned. "If that's where it's - he's - taken Willow, I can't get there. Unless... Serena?"

Serena shook her head. "Luck's got nothing to do with this. You can't be so lucky that you find out that water's not wet."

"We'll have to get rid of the water," said Eoin thoughtfully. He looked at where the stream left the lake, a small waterfall dropping about a metre before it flowed away back the way they had come. He approached it cautiously.

"Don't touch the water," said Freya.

Eoin watched the water carefully. "Now it's got Willow it doesn't seem bothered about us. I wonder if it ever wanted us at all. Perhaps it was just after Willow this whole time." He took a large step and placed one foot the other side of the stream, straddling the little waterfall, but nothing happened. He thought back to how he had opened the rock like a curtain back on the beach. Then he placed one hand on the rocks either side of the waterfall and pulled them apart.

They moved as easily as pulling the pillows apart on a bed. The waterfall was instantly a little wider, but it wasn't enough. He put his feet up on one side and his hands on the other and pushed them as far apart as he could, but it still wasn't enough. 

There was only one thing for it. He took a deep breath and stepped into the water. It swirled around his ankles, but did no more damage than water ever had before it had torn his home apart that morning. He braced himself against the bed of the stream and started to push at the side of the waterfall, like opening a giant door.

A torrent of water poured down, the force of it sweeping him off his feet and carrying him a little way down the stream. If only I was heavier, he thought, and abruptly stopped dead in the middle of the stream. The water didn't seem to be pushing him with so much force anymore. He stood up and waved to Freya and Serena, who were watching anxiously from the bank, just a few metres away. "I'm fine," he said. "I think I've just made myself really heavy." He walked back to the waterfall and kept pushing at either side until the water was pouring from all along the edge of the lake and the little stream they had walked beside was now a gushing river just like the one that had swept their hut away. 

Eoin climbed out and stood on the bank. At first Freya shied away from his dripping body, but then she had an idea and held up her hands wide around him. The gushing water was creating a breeze and as it passed Freya's hands it became a blast of hot air that dried Eoin out in seconds. Eoin caught Freya's eye and they smiled at each other.

"You guys are so lucky," said Serena. "Having a twin. I've only got half-sisters and I don't get on much with any of them."

As she spoke, the sound of the waterfall slackened off, and the three of them turned to see why.

The lake was almost empty. There were still large puddles of water, but between and around them were huge expanses of mud and rock.

"What do you think?" said Eoin to Freya, but she shook her head.

"Still too wet for me. Unless..." She climbed up to stand in front of the wet rocks and concentrated for a moment. She thought about how she had made flames in the caverns and how she had felt when she had dried Eoin. Then she held her hands out at the wet rocks. There was no breeze here to carry the heat, but she could feel a force pushing out along her forearms. Blue flames pulsed outwards from her palms and scorched the rocks in front of her, drying them instantly. She moved forwards into the lake bed, keeping away from the mud, but finding a way along the rocks, drying them in front of her as she went. Eoin and Serena followed at a safe distance, the steam from the baked rocks rising up around them and making them sweat. In less than ten minutes, the three of them arrived at the island and climbed up to stand beside the ice dome, which was smaller than they had expected, not much taller than they were.

Without breaking step Freya turned her hands on the dome to try and melt a way in, but as soon as her hands got close a sharp crack made her step back like a startled animal, almost colliding with Eoin and Serena behind her.

"Look!" cried Eoin. A huge crack had appeared in front of them, zig-zagging its way like lightning up to the top of the dome. "And there!" he pointed. More cracks were appearing round the dome. "Is it hatching?" he said.

Freya shook her head slowly. "Something worse than that," she said.

The top of the dome was folding inwards, and pieces of ice were bending in on themselves as though the dome were forming new shapes.

"Get back!" said Freya. "Back in the lake!"

"Willow!" cried Eoin.

Through the gaps in the ice blocks he could see Willow, standing with her back to him, watching the ice reforming. She turned and saw him and jumped up and down in excitement. "Eoin! Freya!" Her face split wide in a massive smile and she waved with both hands.

"Willow, we're coming!" said Eoin.

"It looks like a trap," warned Freya.

"I know," said Eoin. "But what choice do we have?"

Serena stepped nervously up to the dome. "I'll get her," she said. "I lost her last time."

"No. We're strongest together," Eoin said. "Luck might not be enough this time. Ready?"

One after the other they jumped through the gap, avoiding the edges of the ice as though it were broken glass, into the middle of the broken dome, and into the trap.