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She smiled at the biting cold of the water as it splashed her skin. She grinned at the vicious ice behind them that threatened to crush them at any moment.

"Are you all right?" cried Questrid, alarmed by Copper's frozen smile. He had stashed the oars at the bottom of the boat and, like Copper, was gripping the sides and staring ahead into the darkness. He was damp and shivering.

"Yes!" she shouted back. "Don't worry. It'll be all right."

She wanted to shout, I've got a mother and a father, just like I always knew I had. I've found them at last. But she only smiled.

"Look, there's light up ahead. Daylight," cried Questrid.

"I see it," said Copper. "I knew it would be all right. I just knew it."

The circle of light grew brighter and larger as they sped toward it. Then, suddenly, they were at the end of the tunnel and the wave gushed out, like water from a burst pipe. Questrid and Copper popped out into the fresh air, screaming and shouting.

There was nothing in front of them now except the snow-covered hill stretching out below.

Copper tensed, ready for the boat to crash onto the ground, but it didn't. The wave of water had thrown them down onto the hillside, and as the water met the freezing air it turned to ice beneath them, and now the boat was speeding down the hillside, sailing on a frozen ice river.

"Yahoo!" Questrid cried, pulling himself onto his knees in the prow. "Yahoo!"

The boat tipped and tilted as it slithered down the blue and silver mountainside, smooth as glass, toward Spindle House far below.

The boat was going home.

"Wheeeee!" cheered Ralick, peeping through the front of Copper's coat.

Behind them, the great shards and blocks of ice pushed and bounced and tumbled along as if trying to catch up. Looking back, Copper half expected to see Granite and his men somersaulting along among the ice, but there was no sign of them, they were safe inside the Rock.

At last the boat slid slowly into the courtyard where everyone was waiting for them.

"Copper! Questrid! We saw the ice. We saw it all falling and we didn't know . . . ," cried Oriole, rushing to them and hugging them.

"Oh, thank goodness you're back."

"What's been going on?"

"Copper? Questrid, are you all right?"

They pulled them out of the boat and kissed them and hugged them.

It was a hard moment for Copper. The one and only time she'd seen her father, she had run away from him, and now she didn't know what to do. She avoided meeting his gaze, and when Cedar touched her, she was as solid as a tree trunk in his arms. Pretending she'd dropped her crochet needle in the boat, she went back to it, to have a moment alone.

"What's the matter?" hissed Ralick.

"Nothing. Just avoiding someone, that's all."

In case she was being watched, she pretended to search the boat. Of course there was nothing there, but she saw something she hadn't noticed before: the boat's name. Carved in intricate letters on the little boat's prow was the name
LINDEN.

Copper was astonished. Was
this
the Linden she had to be kind to? Was it possible to be kind to a boat? But it was a Linden who had been kind to them and saved them from Granite. I'm sure Aunt Ruby said a person called Linden, she thought. What's the connection? Silver. Linden. Amber and Cedar . . . She looked up at her father, who was watching her, and then away. What could she say to him? Would they ever be able to say anything to each other?

Quickly she followed the others into the kitchen, which smelled wonderful—of new bread and wood smoke. The birds twittered noisily. When Questrid and Copper had put on dry clothes, they sat by the fire and sipped hot chocolate. Copper propped Ralick up against the warm stove to dry, and Questrid described his part of the adventure.

"Well done, Questrid," said Cedar, when he'd finished. "It was very brave of you to go into the Rock. I wish I could have fit through that broken window."

"You should have seen your father, Copper," Oriole said. "He made such a fuss and banged and yelled. But we couldn't get in. The Rock's as impenetrable as a fort."

"We were going to send the birds in to drop smoke bombs," said Robin. "We contemplated setting fire to the wooden bits but we worried about hurting you."

"We didn't want to endanger you," said Cedar. "We were going to go back with reinforcements."

"Thank you for trying," said Copper quietly, staring at her feet. "Oriole, I do so want Aunt Ruby to come. I need her. Could Robin send a message with one of his birds, do you think?"

Oriole nodded. "Of course. Now, can you tell us what happened to you?"

Copper told them, starting at the beginning when she had been enticed out of the garden by Silver.

"Silver!" cried Oriole. "But she would
never
..."

"I know," agreed Copper. "She didn't look happy at all.... I think she'd had her puppies and I think the Rockers
must have kept them from her. It's the only thing I can think of."

Then Copper repeated what Granite had told her about Great-Grandfather Ash stealing their gold. Uncle Greenwood looked embarrassed.

"It could be true," admitted Cedar, meeting Copper's gaze. "But I can't believe it myself. I think he was a good man, but. . . the truth is, he did disappear and so did all the gold, but he might have had an accident. People do get lost up there, fall down ravines or get caught in snowfalls."

"Did anyone look for him?"

Greenwood nodded. "I remember our father telling us about the searches that went on, but I was only a small boy then. He never believed the Rockers had given Ash the gold in the first place. There was bad feeling on both sides, you see? And it grew and grew. No one is entirely bad or entirely good, but events can push you one way or the other."

"Granite seems to blame the Wood family for every misfortune he's had," said Copper.

Cedar nodded. "He was beside himself with anger when I married Amber. It wasn't the first time a Wood had gone off with a Rock. His own sister did it, so the hatred was already there."

"But . . ." Copper was confused. "Why was it worse for Granite when Amber married you?"

Cedar opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

"Was he in love with her?" asked Copper.

"Perhaps. Maybe he thought he was. I can't believe he could ever love anything."

"Can't you? Don't you believe anything he says? Why else would he want her free of the ice unless he loved her? If he loved her, he can't be all bad, can he? If he
loves
her
,
I mean."

Cedar looked uncomfortable. "If," he repeated quietly.

An awkward hush fell until Oriole said, "I can't help thinking about our poor Silver, trapped up there in the Rock with her puppies just born and everything. She's such a good dog . . ."

"Wolf,
you know she's a wolf!" said Copper crossly. "You can stop pretending now."

Now Oriole looked uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you," said Robin. "I imagine it feels like we tricked you, but we didn't want to scare you. I am sorry."

"Silver belonged to Amber," said Cedar. "Amber found her starving in a cave and brought her home and nursed her. Silver would never do anything to hurt Amber. She'd rather die."

"So the Rockers have her and her puppies," said Questrid.

"And Silver will do anything the Rockers want."

"Poor Silver, those poor babies," said Oriole. "And they must still be up there in that dreadful, cold stone place."

It was a strange day. Copper felt restless and unhappy.

"Everyone knows everything and I know nothing," she told Oriole. "All these secrets that they share. It's not fair."

"I suppose Robin and I did know about your father," admitted Oriole. "But we also didn't. We were part of the secret and yet we were not. Nobody told us. When we came to live here, there was only Greenwood. I sent food upstairs, but I never asked why."

"It was safer for Cedar that way, I suppose," said Copper.

"Yes. But I wish we'd told you. Or that they had told you," said Oriole. "Still, you've started to change things. You've shaken us all up, stopped us from behaving so stupidly. You should be proud of yourself."

But Copper wasn't proud of herself, and she was sure that her father wasn't either. Her running away had not been brave.

She sat in the kitchen and knitted three socks for Ralick— none of which fit—a bit of a tea cozy and three fingers of a glove, then pulled everything out.

"I wish I knew what I wanted to knit," she moaned. "I need a pattern, that's what I need, but I don't know what of.... Oh, I can't stop thinking about Amber still up there in the ice. She must be so cold! We shouldn't have left her. Or Silver."

"Imagine being so miserable that your only way out is to lock yourself up in the cold, cold ice." Oriole shivered. "Poor Amber. A terrible choice. But we'll get her out somehow."

"You know what else," Copper went on. "It was so odd, just being there, knowing I half belonged there, since I am half a Stone person and half a Wood person. I mean, Granite seemed to hate me for being a
mixture, but actually I think it's the best."

"So do I," agreed Questrid.

"What did happen when I was four? Only Aunt Ruby can tell me. Dear Aunt Ruby, she's so good at sorting things out. I do hope she comes soon."

"I don't suppose I'm of any use," said her father suddenly.

Copper jumped up in surprise. Cedar had slipped into the kitchen very quietly.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yes, just me. Copper, will you come into the sitting room and talk to me? I need to talk to you." He held out his hand and touched her briefly on her cheek. "Please . . ."

Copper thought about that moment a lot afterward. She knew that if her father hadn't touched her, hadn't said please, she might never have gone with him and then she might have been shut off from him forever.

"I shall sit here in the oak tree chair," said Cedar, "because I need its strength. Sit there, Copper, in the sandalwood chair. It's very soothing."

Nervously, Copper did as he suggested.

They looked at each other.

"I'm sorry," said Cedar. "That's the main thing. I am really sorry that I am just about the worst father a girl could have. I'm sorry for everything, and if you can ever forgive me, I will try to do better."

Copper didn't know what to say. She stared at her father. He was so tall and thin and awkward-looking. So shy and anxious with such pleading eyes, and the way he leaned toward her, his long fingers covering his knees like the roots of
a tree clutching a rock, was endearing. She recognized herself in him. She recognized the need to be wanted. "I'm sorry too," she said shyly.

"You don't need to be," said Cedar, dropping down onto his knees and taking her hands in his. "I've failed you and you've done nothing wrong at all. If I'd ever thought you were alive, Copper, I swear I would have combed the world for you until I'd found you."

Copper grinned at him. "Good," she said. They talked for a long time, and afterward she and Cedar began to be real friends.

Much later that night Copper found she couldn't sleep. She couldn't settle down. She moved piles of clothes from here to there, rearranged the books and her knitting, unmade then remade her bed.

"You can move it all a thousand times," said Ralick, "but it won't sort out your life, you know."

"I know," said Copper, pulling the rug straight. "But it
helps."

"I'm tired. My tummy still hurts. Can't we go to bed?" "Poor Ralick," said Copper, stroking his mended seam. "I'm not very good at sewing. It was the best I could do. I keep thinking about Aunt Ruby and my mother. About how to stop this crazy war between the Woods and the Rockers. It's up to us, you know, Ralick. I don't think the grown-ups have any intention of sorting things out. I don't expect you're going to agree with me, but I think
we've
got to do it!"

21. An Extraordinary Block Of Ice

The kitchen seemed
crowded the next morning with the addition of the two brothers.

"It will be strange not sending things up in the lift anymore," said Oriole. "And I will have to learn which of you is which."

Cedar winked at Copper. "I'm more handsome!" he said.

"And neither is as handsome as me!" said Robin, laughing.

Copper grinned. "Did you send a message to Aunt Ruby, Robin?"

"I did," said Robin. "The pigeon's not back yet. Still, it's a long way to the other end of the line, and they do go off-course sometimes."