The Queen's Admiral

Chapter 56: The Return of the Beast

"I'm sorry I haven't exactly encountered a problem like this before. I've never made a spell that entailed moving great distances," Mezzanotte contritely explained. It did little to quell my growing panic that we were about to lose our flying melon-carriage and crash into the sea in less than two minutes.

"It's okay," said Admiral Westergard calmly. "It's better for us to fall into water rather than on solid earth anyway. Can you get our birds to fly lower?"

Mezzanotte tapped her wand and the birds descended to a lower altitude.

"And then what?" I asked. I was conscious of my pocket watch ticking away the seconds.

"Jump into the water and swim until you create for us an iceboat, Fredrik. Can you do that?" Admiral Westergard asked.

"I-I can try," I said though I could feel the pressure of this task on me. I don't even know if I can sustain an ice-made object for lengthy periods if we had to row our way towards shore from Lord knows where exactly in the middle of the sea.

"Please do," Mezzanotte said apprehensively. "I can't swim and my powers don't work after midnight until dawn."

Oh great, that just about doubles the pressure on me now.

I felt a violent jolt. We all stared at our roofless carriage and saw that the birds carrying us were shrinking back to normal size. At the same time, the coach started shaking. We all stared at Mezzanotte.

"Sorry, my alarm's not exactly accurate. It's probably more like thirty seconds rather than two minutes."

The birds above us have now shrunk so much I knew they wouldn't be able to hold our weight for much longer. They abruptly let go. We screamed as we began free-falling while the walls of the carriage began to enclose in around us. Admiral Westergard wrenched open the door before it disappeared and he didn't have to order me to jump first. I felt my companions jump behind me.

I smoothly hit the water and immediately kicked myself up to the surface. I felt for the rose which to my relief was still intact and safely kept in ice in my jacket pocket. In a moment Godmother appeared next to me, treading the water well enough. We immediately found the other half of our party in a little distance for they were making quite a racket.

"COLD! COLD! COLD!"Mezzanotte was shouting as she trashed about in the water, even as Admiral Westergard held her in his strong paws.

"Keep still, I've already got you!" Admiral Westergard complained.

"No, she's right, it's getting colder," Godmother said. "Fredrik, are you doing this?"

It took me a while to realize that the water around us was beginning to freeze even if I wasn't making an effort. I was quite calm so I knew it couldn't possibly be me even subconsciously.

"It's not me," I said. "Quick, get above the ice before we get trapped in."

We climbed on top of the ice that was now covering the surface of the water just before it closed in around us. I could see lights from a short distance and I recognized the familiar shape of my home. To my immense relief, I realized we were already on the fjord that was freezing solid, which meant I didn't even need to make a boat for us. We can just walk up to castle.

Then it started snowing which was unusual for we were in the middle of spring.

"It's still not me," I repeated in answer to Admiral Westergard's silent question.

He stared forward and his eyes focused on a ship in the harbor trapped in ice. "That's a Southern Isles ship! Heinrik's already here. If you're not causing the snow, then..."