Amber's First Clue (3 page)

“Amber, you've done it. You've solved the clue!” cried Katie and Becky.

“Not completely,” objected Poppy, with a shake of her coppery curls. “We still don't know where the diamond is.”

“But the first step is to try and talk to those owls,” said Jess firmly. She flicked her strong turquoise tail and sped over to the secret entrance of the Ice Cavern. “Let's go up to the surface as quickly as we can to look for them!”

The others followed her, rippling their pearly tails through the icy water. Only Amber waited for a moment, taking one last look at the empty casket. She knew that Princess Arctica was relying on her and the other young mermaids to save the snow diamonds—and the whole
of Ice Kingdom. It was Amber's first important task, and she was determined not to fail.

“When we come back, we'll bring the snow diamonds with us,” she promised in a whisper, glancing around at the glittering statues. Then she swiftly darted after her friends.

Jess led the way from the Ice Cavern, swimming up through the clear, green water to the sparkling surface of the overwater world. As they reached the surface, the mermaids saw the frozen lands of Ice Kingdom all around them. The craggy tips of icebergs gleamed white and blue in the sun. The cold, deep sea lapped against a shore made of thick, flat stretches of ice, strong enough for polar bears to walk over.

Amber quickly caught up with her friends and swam with them to the ice edge. With a clever twist of their glistening tails, the mermaids pulled themselves out of the water. Their tails glinted pink, peach, lilac, turquoise, lemon, and blue, as they sat gracefully on the smooth, white snow.

“Could you please get out your harp, Katie?” asked Amber. “Then you could try calling the owls for us. Let's hope they're not too far away.”

Katie was very musical and never went anywhere without her delicate little mermaid harp. It hung over her shoulder on a braided cord. The lively, friendly mermaid could make all sorts of special melodies to call the birds and creatures to her.

Quickly, Katie strummed the harp's golden strings and played a haunting tune. It sounded just like the snowy owls calling
to each other. Very soon, Amber and her friends could see the owls themselves, gliding over the snow toward them.

“Good job, Katie,” whispered Amber. “That was quick work.”

The snowy owls landed by the mermaids in a flurry of soft white wings.

“Your music has called us from the heights of the clear air, Sisters of the Sea!” said the leader, whose name was Orlando. “How can we help?”

Amber quickly explained about the missing snow diamonds and the first clue.

“So you see,” she said, “we wondered whether
you
might be the ‘white ghosts' that Mantora was talking about. We thought you might be able to give us some help in solving the riddle.”

The owls ruffled their feathers and laughed gently in funny, hooting voices.

“Ha-hoo-ha!” Orlando chuckled. “We've never been called ghosts before. I can assure you-hoo, my dear mermaids, we are all alive and well! And we have not seen anything of Mantora or the snow diamonds. We cannot be the ‘ghosts' you are looking for.”

Amber groaned. She had been so sure that she had solved Mantora's puzzle.

“Oh dear.” She sighed. “We'll have to think again.”

Orlando looked around kindly at their disappointed faces.

“We will do-hoo our best to help,” he hooted. “We know how important it is to get the diamonds safely back to the Ice Cavern.”

“Can you think of anything unusual that you have seen as you have flown over Ice Kingdom?” Jess asked quickly.

The owls went into a little huddle, softly cooing to each other. Then Orlando hopped over to Amber, blinking in the sunshine.

“There is one thing we can tell you-hoo,” he said in a low voice. “We've seen one of the hoo-hoo-humans!”

“Humans?” murmured the mermaids, all asking questions at once. “Where? Are there a lot of them? Are they dangerous?” The friends were worried, because Princess Arctica and their parents had warned them not to go near any humans.

“Dangerous?” Orlando turned his head thoughtfully. “I don't know about that. This one was only small, and it looked very young, like you. It was one of the humans living in these snowy lands, who-hoo call themselves the Inuit people. And it was do-hoo-ing something odd.”

“What was it doing?” asked Becky nervously. “Was it hunting?”

Orlando gave another snuffly hoot. “No, it wasn't hunting,” he replied. “In fact, it was very strange. The odd little creature was sitting all by itself on the ice, far from the rest of its kind. And it was sobbing, with water streaming down its cheeks like raindrops.”

“You mean it was crying!” exclaimed Megan. “Oh, Amber, the poor little thing.”

Amber and her friends looked at one another in surprise. This was very mysterious—a human crying all by itself in the snow! What did it mean?

“Perhaps we should take a peek at this human?” wondered Amber. “Is it far, Orlando?”

“Just on the other side of this snowy bank that sticks out into the water,” replied the milk-white owl. “You-hoo could swim around there and see if this human has anything to do with Mantora's clue-hoo.”

“No way!” said Poppy. “My mom says
the humans spoil the sea and everything that Mother Nature made. I'm not going anywhere near a human and that's that!”

“You'll have to, if the rest of us think we should,” said Jess hotly.

“Let's not fight,” pleaded sensitive Becky. It made her sad to see her friends argue. “Amber, you're always so sensible. What do you think we should do?”

Amber looked worried. “I think we're going to have to do lots of strange new things while we're looking for the snow diamonds,” she replied. “Let's start by taking a look at this human, to find out what is going on. Thank you, Orlando, and good-bye!”

The owls slowly flew away into the distance. Amber slipped from the snow
into the cold blue sea, with a ripple of her lilac tail. Then she beckoned her friends to follow her as she swam around the gleaming white tip of the ice. When she reached the other side, Amber glanced cautiously toward the open stretch of wide, smooth ice.

Huddled on the ice, sitting in a sad heap a few feet from the water's edge, was the human.

“But it's only a little girl!” exclaimed Amber softly to her friends as she bobbed up and down in the waves. “She's not much older than we are.”

“And she seems so unhappy,” whispered tenderhearted Megan.

The little girl was hunched next to a round hole in the ice. She was looking away from the mermaids, but they could see that she wore a soft, thick coat and a snug fur collar to keep her warm. The girl had silky black hair, and her dark eyes were wet with tears.

“I'm going to try and talk to her,” said Amber boldly. “Besides, it's only the grown-up humans we mermaids have to hide from. Princess Arctica once told me that the human children love the sea and its creatures almost as much as we do. I'm sure this girl will help us.”

“Or more likely
we'll
have to help her,” muttered Poppy under her breath.

Amber swam quickly over to the ice edge and Jess, Becky, Katie, and Megan darted along behind her. Poppy followed sulkily. Soon, all the mermaids had pulled themselves expertly from the waves onto the flat, smooth ice.