Amber's First Clue (5 page)

The mermaids put their hands on Magnus's broad shoulders to give him an extra push.

“One, two, three—
Mermaid S.O.S.!
”
they cried, and with one huge heave the last chunk of ice cracked into a thousand shattered pieces.

“Oh, thank you, Magnus,” said Amber as they all wriggled out of the tunnel to make way for the beluga whales.

“Anytime you want something shifted, just call for Magnus,” said the narwhal, waggling his tusk one last time. “My folk will always be happy to help the Sisters of the Sea. Good-bye!”

The mermaids waved gratefully to Magnus as he glided away. Then they waited anxiously for
the whales to swim down the icy tunnel to freedom. First came Ana's friend Benjy, shining silver-gray in the water.

“And here are my mom and dad and aunts and uncles,” he cried weakly. “You have rescued my whole family!”

Slowly, the thin and tired adult whales began to head out of their prison. But as they did so, the young mermaids got an unexpected surprise. The smooth skin of the fully grown beluga whales wasn't gray like Benjy's. Instead, it gleamed like pure, pearly-white snow.

As the white whales floated slowly out of the tunnel making their haunting cries, the young mermaids turned to each other and exclaimed, “The ‘white ghosts'! We've found them!”

Amber and her friends swam through the cold, clear water after Benjy, the baby whale. He was bravely making his way to the overwater world, where Ana was waiting for him at the ice edge. The little girl greeted Benjy with delight, then looked at the mermaids bobbing up and down in the sparkling waves.

“You have saved his life,” Ana said gratefully.

“Not only that,” replied Jess. “We've found the meaning of the first clue!”

“You see, Ana,” explained Amber, “we need to save even more than your friend Benjy. An evil mermaid, Mantora, has stolen the snow diamonds that keep everything cool and frosty. If we don't get them back soon, Ice Kingdom will melt.”

“That would be terrible,” cried Ana. “If everything warms up, our home will be destroyed, and the whole world will be changed forever!”

All the mermaids shuddered. It was too horrible to imagine.

“Our only hope of finding the snow diamonds is to solve Mantora's fiendish
clues,” said Katie. “She thinks it's fun to taunt us with hints about where the diamonds really are.”

“Mantora thinks we can't find them, but we're going to prove her wrong,” added Poppy with a stubborn tilt of her chin.

“And now we're sure that the white ghosts in the clue are the beluga whales,” said Becky, gently swirling her peach-colored tail in the water. “So we need to ask Benjy and his family if they have seen the diamond.”

The graceful white whales slowly circled the young friends in the fresh, cool waves, enjoying their new freedom.

“Ask us anything you want, mermaids,” they called in their echoing voices. “We want to repay you for rescuing us.”

“Have you seen Mantora?” Jess asked eagerly.

“We haven't seen her,” piped Benjy, “but we've heard her!”

“What do you mean, Benjy?” said Amber, turning to the friendly baby whale with a smile. “Please tell us everything you heard.”

“It was just before Ana came to see me today at the ice hole,” said Benjy. “We were all swimming sadly in our little prison under the ice. Then we heard a strange sound above us. It came from the overwater world. But it wasn't Ana's gentle voice—it was horrible, sneering laughter. Then I heard someone boasting about ‘Mantora's riddling rhymes' …”

“That was Mantora all right! What happened next?” urged Poppy.

“Something dropped into the ice hole,” Benjy continued. “I thought it might be food, but it was like a sharp stone. It
grazed my cheek—look! Then it sank to the bottom of the cave and slipped down a crack in the ice.” Benjy's mother and father and the other belugas murmured in agreement.

“That sharp stone must have been the snow diamond,” said Amber hurriedly.

“And don't you remember that the clue said something about ‘digging deep'?” added Becky. “The diamond must be hidden deep at the bottom of that crack.”

“Come on, everyone, back through the tunnel into the cave,” cried Poppy. “I bet I'll see the diamond first!”

Amber dived back under the waves with a flash of her shining lilac tail. The others leaped after her like a bright rainbow. Now they really did have a chance of
finding the first diamond! The mermaids' hearts were beating wildly with hope and excitement. They streamed down the underwater tunnel and into the icy cave, where the belugas had been trapped.

“There are cracks in the floor if you search closely,” said Katie, looking through the water at the frozen layers beneath them. “But which one contains the diamond?”

Amber darted down toward a shadowy nook in a dark corner of the cave.

“I thought I saw something
twinkling down here!” she declared. The others gathered next to her, as Amber tried to peer into a deep, jagged crack in the ice.

“It's too dark,” she said. “I can't see anything. We need a light … oh!”

She lifted up her wrist and stared at her bracelet in astonishment. Her silvery stardust locket, which was in the shape of a graceful fish, had started to glow.

“Look!” Megan
said. “All our stardust lockets are glowing, just when we needed some light to help us. Princess Arctica said they had magical powers, and she was right!”

The mermaids gratefully held their lockets up like gleaming lanterns, as rays of golden light poured out around them.

“I can see much better now, thanks to our stardust lockets,” said Amber, peering down the deep crack. “Wait, there really
is
something sparkly down there … or is it just a splinter of glittery ice?”

The others hovered over the crack and tried to take a look as well.

“If only your locket could shine a little bit brighter, Amber,” they murmured.

At that moment, Amber's stardust locket twirled around on her bracelet,
shooting out bright silver sparks that lit up the deep crack like a firework.

“That's amazing!” cried Amber. “Now I can see all the way to the bottom of the crack. And I can see the diamond!”