Clearheart (15 page)

Just as Ella was beginning to wonder whether this wild ride was ever going to end, they began to slow down. Ella could feel the land flatten beneath them. Ralph weaved left and right as if he had lost control. She peeked up, but the sting of the cold forced her face down again. Eventually they came to a standstill, but not before they heard a cacophony of
cu
,
cu
,
cu
,
cu
,
cu
,
cu
,
cu
sounds and then a scrambling and a splashing, as if hundreds of rocks had fallen into the ocean. Ralph barked loudly. The splashing and scrambling and
cu
,
cu
ing stopped. Ella looked up from the hood of her anorak and caught her breath.

Hundreds of penguins stood before them, their heads raised in fear.

Charlie listened as the seal made his sounds.

‘He's going to leave us here, or the
rest of the penguins will get scared and dive into the ocean. Not that he actually eats penguins,' Charlie whispered, slipping off the seal's back, his hand resting on the creature's neck. ‘Much,' he added.

‘Well please tell him from me that that's very thoughtful of him,' said Ella, slipping off too. She could barely believe how ridiculous this whole situation was.

Ella smiled gratefully at Ralph while Charlie bid him farewell. The beautiful fur seal watched them walk towards the penguins.

‘I suppose it's not that often that you get to meet a human out here, never mind one who understands you, hey?' said Ella, looking over her shoulder to see if the seal was still there.

‘I suppose not,' said Charlie, breathing in the fresh air and strutting as if he were a great explorer with unstoppable survival skills.

‘Do you think he'll find some friends now?' asked Ella.

‘I don't know,' said Charlie. He looked at Ella fondly. She smiled at him, so glad she hadn't had to come all the way here on her own. She was glad she had a Protector.

‘Thanks for coming to Antarctica with me, Charlie,' she said.

‘No problem.' Charlie kicked a spray of loose ice up into the air with his right foot. ‘Didn't really have much choice,' he
whispered to Harold (who had reinstated himself on Charlie's shoulder) out of the side of his mouth in Animumble. The frog tut-tutted him at once.

‘Be proud, Charlie,' the frog croaked, struggling to speak clearly through a mouthful of tears. ‘You are a very important Flitterwig. Remember to act like one, in a gentlemanly fashion.'

As they began to close in on the penguins, Charlie decided it would be a good idea to let them know they were friendly. The only problem was, he wasn't sure what penguin sounded like. The noise the penguins had made on approach had been one of such panic, he hadn't been able to catch the nuances of it at all. All Animumble, of course, was basically just Animumble, but until he heard the intonations and sounds a particular animal made—which he had a gift for immediately mimicking—he wasn't sure what to do. He decided to go for a puppy sound, being one he was familiar with and which he didn't think would scare the funny birds.

He was sort of right and sort of wrong. The gentleness of his Animumble calls obviously made the penguins think Charlie was not foe, but it also made them fuss over him terribly. Within minutes of his call, the penguins had closed in on the two children. Both male and female became very clucky around Charlie, herding him this way and that, trying to huddle close to keep
him warm. It was quite embarrassing. For Charlie. It was very amusing for Ella.

Charlie soon found the right tone, however. The penguins moved away, but they were full of questions. Never before had they come upon anything like the two children so close up, and they certainly had not encountered a human who understood them.

Over a spot of lunch (some sap tasting—Ella had a salad and mayonnaise sandwich, Charlie had a cheese one), Charlie answered questions. When he could get a word in, that is. For when Adelie penguins (which is what these little chaps were), get talking, they really get talking!

‘Don't you think it's strange that our ice caps are melting? That's pretty strange!' said one.

‘Strange! Try the fact that there aren't enough fish in the sea to feed us,' said another.

‘How about this for strange?' said yet another. ‘I met a seal who is a vegetarian the other day. He's starving, of course. Sometimes he has to cave in, as he really hasn't much choice, but he said he'd rather not eat fish if he could avoid it.'

‘That is pretty strange,' said Charlie.

Ella waited patiently for Charlie to translate. He was halfway through trying to do so when one penguin, shorter than
the others (although his wings were much bigger, and his tone much squeakier) piped up. ‘Strange. You think that's strange. I was talking to an Arctic tern the other day who said he saw a creature that looks a bit like a human, but much scarier and with wings.'

Charlie stopped mid-sentence. ‘What did you say?'

‘I said, I know a tern who saw a creature who looks a bit like you two, but much scarier and with wings.'

Charlie put his hand up to hush all the other penguins. Much muttering and back-turning and waddling-off ensued in response to the boy's officious behaviour.

‘Well, fancy that,' one twittered.

‘Throwing his hand up in such a fashion,' said another.

‘As if he were in charge of us or something,' added yet another.

‘Showing off how long his arms are,' said a fourth.

‘Very strange indeed,' twittered a fifth.

‘Well you see,' said the diminutive penguin, his voice getting even squeakier with so much attention focused on him. ‘I spend quite a bit of time with the terns, because I believe they can teach me to fly.' The little
bird raised his wings, and Charlie saw that they really were very large indeed. ‘And even though I get teased for it,' the penguin continued, his voice hardly audible now, ‘I keep trying.'

‘Show-off,' twittered a nearby penguin, towering over the wee one.

‘Well,' the little penguin continued, looking at his webbed feet in dismay. ‘The other day, I went for a, you know, a lesson, and this tern told me he was flying over the ice and he saw this sort of large, pointy, shiny protrusion. Very beautiful, he said. Like the glaciers that rise up out of the ocean, with their points spiking through the clouds. And outside of it stood a creature that looked a lot like a person, but much scarier, with wings. It was yelling most bossily at some very small black creatures. He was a long way down, but the tern has pretty good eyesight.'

Charlie stared at Ella as he translated. ‘I think he saw the Duke,' he said.

Ella stared at the little penguin. Charlie didn't have a chance to translate anything else, for the penguins seemed to have forgotten his wave of the arm and were twittering again.

‘Yes. Rufus is pretty strange,' said one of the more talkative of the talkative penguins, pointing at the little penguin with her wing. ‘Always disappearing off on his own. Showing off about how he has big enough wings to learn how to fly. I mean, a
penguin who flies! It's just embarrassing.'

‘If you take me with you, I'll show you where the terns roost,' said little Rufus, staring up at Ella and Charlie hopefully. ‘It's not far from here.'

‘It's pretty strange that you two have turned up here like this,' gabbled a penguin.

‘It's pretty strange that you arrived on a seal,' crowed another, leaning back on its heels and poking out a rather full belly.

‘You think that's strange,' a scrawny specimen piped up. ‘Have a look at the little green thing on the boy's shoulder.'

This chirruping of penguins was never going to end!

‘That would be great!' Charlie called to Rufus, quite unable to take the noise anymore. ‘The sooner the better.'

‘Well that's a bit strange,' said a particularly skinny penguin.

‘Yes, pretty strange indeed,' said his neighbour.

Charlie hurried Rufus along. Thanking all the penguins profusely for their time, with a promise to return Rufus as soon as possible, he distanced himself from the twittering melee as quickly as he could.

When they had a walked a few hundred metres away (rather slowly, it must be added, for Rufus wasn't terribly quick on his feet), Charlie let out a sigh of relief.

‘Blimey, they can talk,' he said.

‘Why do you think I like to get away?' said Rufus. Charlie looked at the penguin, with his dangling wings. Rufus was as odd among his own as he and Ella were among pure humans. Charlie liked him already.

The terns were not too far away at all, in a roost in a sheltered spot on a hill. After basic introductions, Charlie got straight to business.

‘So where was this man with wings?' he asked.

‘Oh, quite a way from here,' said one tern thoughtfully. ‘Quite a long way indeed.'

Charlie turned to tell Ella this, but she wasn't listening at all. She was deep in thought, surveying the little penguin with the long wings. Rufus watched as terns flew in and out of the roost, his eyes a perfect reflection of Ella's own longing when she watched Samantha fly. Ella took a deep breath.

‘Give us a minute would you, Charlie,' she said, cutting Charlie off before he could say anything. She took Rufus by the wing and put her skateboard bag on the snow. She plucked Harold off Charlie's shoulder and put him on her own. ‘See what you can find out,' she called over her shoulder to Charlie as she began the short trek up another steep incline.

At the top of the ridge, Ella turned to Rufus. ‘I'm trying to
learn how to fly too,' she said. ‘I even know a spell that helps it happen. Shall we try to say it together and see if that brings us luck?' Rufus looked at Ella mutely. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, but he was somehow in thrall to her gentle voice. Harold (albeit with deep reservations) translated. Ella made the penguin repeat the spell a few times and tried to get him to tweak his ear in some fashion. Which was impossible, so she promised to do it for him—if she could find his ears, that was! At least Dixon wasn't here to try to stop her this time.

The thought of the pixie tugged at Ella's heartstrings and she breathed in suddenly. Interestingly, the act did not make her wheeze. Could it really be true, as she had been taught in Environmental Science, that her asthma was simply a result of Earthly pollution on her part-elven lungs?

Ella took a deep breath, pulled her anorak away from her shoulders enough to allow space for her wings, closed her eyes and tweaked her left ear. The Candlefloss inside her swelled with heat to protect her exposed shoulders. She whispered the incantation under her breath. Nothing happened. She tried again. Not so much as a shudder of the shoulderblades. She opened her eyes and looked around. ‘Come on, Ella,' she said to herself. A huge expanse of ice spread out below her. She looked over at the penguins, tiny specks on the edge of the ice, and out
to the ocean beyond them. An ice formation the shape of a bridge loomed out of the water like a vision. The sky was almost luminous. It's blueness reflected against the snow and turned the edges of everything sapphire. This place was magnificent. ‘Come on, Ella,' she said again.

She tweaked Rufus's ear (or where she thought it was). The penguin made some indecipherable noises. The spell, she hoped. Ella winked at the penguin and jumped. The penguin jumped too.

‘What
are
you doing?' said Charlie, staring down at Ella, lying flat on the ice before him in a crumpled mess.

Ella shook her head and smacked herself on the forehead. Who was she kidding? She couldn't fly. ‘Where's Rufus?' she asked. Charlie looked around, gathering a dazed Harold in his fist. Rufus was nowhere to be seen. And then he looked up. There was the little fellow, up in the sky. Bopping about all over the place, flying—albeit in a rather circular and unruly fashion. Ella smiled brightly.

‘You're a good person, Ella,' said Charlie.

‘Thanks,' said Ella.

‘Now concentrate. We have to find Dixon,' said Charlie. Ella stared at him in disbelief. As if she'd forgotten that!

‘The tern is going to show us where she saw that person with
wings,' he said, ignoring her. ‘I've tied her to your skateboard with that tendril the giant gave us,' he said. Harold beamed despite his fall. He was proud of how far the young boy had come.

‘You have to Stretchify the tendril though, ‘cause it isn't long enough,' said Charlie, all business.

‘How?' said Ella. ‘I don't feel in the slightest bit teary,' she said, ‘and there is no way I'm going to let you poke me in the eye again,' she added, sticking her hands on her hips.

‘I don't have to,' said Charlie, tying the Giant's hanky tightly around his waist. ‘Because I am such a brilliant Protector! Harold and I collected your tears as we slid down the hill on the back of that seal and Harold has regurgitated them. Look!' Charlie's freckles fairly sparkled with pride as he pointed at a glimmering collection of diamond tears lying upon the snow.

‘Nice work, Charlie,' said Ella. ‘But do you have more tears for later?' Charlie slapped himself on the forehead. It reminded Ella of Dixon, which made her sad.

‘You shouldn't have puked up all the tears!' he reprimanded Harold.

‘I didn't,' said Harold smugly. ‘There are a few more where they came from.'

Thomas, woken by a Tingle Alert, had watched the entire scene unfold. Was he never going to get a full seven hundred and twenty hours sleep again? Finding his mouth to be dry, he had stretched his enormous arm out under the Earth until he felt the edges of an aquifer. Pulling himself towards it, he had gently penetrated the aquifer's stream. Catching the new flow that squirted from it in his hand, he had quickly carved a path in the rock so as not to stifle its flow. He had let the water pour into his hands and taken a good long sip. Realising that he had a perfect Waterway before him (poor Giants, they aren't that quick), Thomas had looked into the Waters and found Ella.

She was standing on her skateboard with Charlie, attached by a tendril to an Arctic tern. The children had managed to Stretchify the tendril to use as reins. Resourceful indeed, these two Flitterwigs. The boy was proving himself to be a true Goblin Protector. But his pinkie had not tingled to show him that the children were capable of Stretchification or quick thinking. His pinkie had tingled so that he could see the girl's generosity of spirit. Up in the air above them, a peculiar penguin with oversized wings flew. Not very well, it had to be said. But it
was
flying. It was thanking Ella as it dive-bombed past her head and crashed in the snow. The child had helped the penguin to fly. Well that was selfless indeed, considering the child could not fly
herself. How much had he loved the Clearheart of old, with her kind heart and her goodwill, the Giant thought, sighing. Could it be that another of her kind walked the Earth today? Thomas rolled over and, just before passing out once more, thought to himself, ‘I certainly hope so.'

‘You're going to have to Stretchify the bird,' said Charlie, frowning. Goodness, this was all hard work. The tern stood politely on the snow before them, at their service.

‘But I'm rubbish at Transmogrification!' said Ella.

‘But you Stretchified your own grandparents,' said Charlie.

Ella sighed. ‘Okay,' she said. ‘I'll give it a try, but you'd better ask the tern if she's all right about it.' She crouched down so as to focus more fully, and conjured Dixon up in her mind's eye. She thought of the first time she had met him, in her bedroom in London, when he had tried to convince her he was real. The memory of his sad face when she wouldn't believe him made her neck warm. She remembered how he had taken her out to the garden and introduced her to the Royal Court of Magus. How he had been delighted to see her fascination. Her hair began to flare. A vision of his little body encased in a giant lollipop when he lost his mind to sugar at the lollipop factory made her smile,
and a strong heat beat down her back. The memory of his distress when he had thought they would never see each other again, before the Queen lifted the Ban, made her shoulderblades itch.

‘Come on,' she urged herself once more, holding tight to her ear and willing the magic inside her to find its way out. And then she thought of him alone, a prisoner of the Duke, all because of her. Her shoulderblades began to pound with such force it sent an ache through her spine and down to her feet. She said the incantation for Stretchification out loud and stood up straight. Harold spat tears onto the tern's back. She could do it. She could do it. She could. She focused all her energy on the tern, sending every bit of magic she could muster into the air. The tern bulged and stretched and swelled before them. Quite frightening it looked too, its feathers pulled taut over its transparent skin.

‘I can perform magic no other Flitterwig can!' she yelled triumphantly up to Rufus, as he took his leave and zigzagged uncertainly back to his penguin family.

Standing on the skateboard, the children tied themselves to the tendril. The tern pulled at the tendril and the board began to slide across the ice, Ella keeping balance like a master.