Whatever After #6: Cold as Ice by Sarah Mlynowski Read Free Book Online

the little robber girl. So she’s going to let Gerda escape, which means we will be able to escape, too. Hmmm. Maybe going back with the band of robbers and meeting up with Gerda isn’t the worst idea.
    Maybe it’s actually a good idea.
    “Get in the sled!” the mother snarls. “Second row!”
    And we don’t seem to have much of a choice, anyway.
    “Let’s go,” I tell Jonah.
    I climb inside the second of four rows. Jonah climbs into the space beside me.
    The others climb into the other rows.
    “Does this have a seat belt?” I ask.
    Everyone ignores me.
    I try to calm down. Everything will be fine. We’ll hitch a ride with Gerda back to the igloo castle, and then we’ll save Kai and Prince. Presto, we’re done. And that way, we don’t mess up the story at all! Easy peasy. Smooth sailing.
    Or in this case, smooth sledding.

A bout half an hour later, we jerk to a stop.
    “Get out,” Mother orders.
    There is a large house in front of us. It’s in shambles. It looks as if it’s been abandoned for years. The paint has peeled and it’s surrounded by sludgy snow. It is not an igloo castle. It is not even an igloo.
    “Is this where you live?” I ask Tree Girl as we all get out of the sled.
    “Yeah,” she huffs. “Do you have a problem with that?”
    “No,” I say quickly.
    “Put them in the basement with the girl,” Mother tells Tree Girl. “And don’t forget the reindeer,” she adds.
    The reindeer, too? He’s a prisoner? Why?
    We walk into the house, past a crumbling dining room table and broken chairs and half-burned-out chandeliers. In the corner of the room are piles of cutlery, statues, paintings — just like the stuff in the sled. Stuff they stole from other people, I’m sure. They are robbers.
    Tree Girl leads us to a staircase.
    “Here’s your new home,” she says, giving me a slight push down the stairs. “Don’t come out.”
    Jonah and I head down reluctantly, and the reindeer clomps along behind us.
    “Horrid, stupid, miserable place,” he mutters.
    I glance back in surprise. I’m still not totally used to him talking.
    The basement is about the same size as our basement at home. It smells like basement, too. Cold and damp. There’s no furniture. Just a pile of brown blankets in the corner. Water leaking from the ceiling has frozen into threatening-looking icicles. There are also patches of frosty green mildew growing on the walls.
    At least this basement is bigger than the last location Jonah and I were trapped in, Rapunzel’s tower. Although this place is much grungier. And darker. The only light comes from one oval window near the high ceiling.
    There’s a very skinny girl in the center of the room. She’s doing jumping jacks and wearing a bright orange tracksuit.
    “I’m back,” the reindeer says. “They kidnapped some more prisoners.”
    “A penguin and a polar bear?” the girl asks between jumps.
    “They’re costumes,” I say, taking off my headpiece. “I’m Abby. And this is my brother, Jonah. Are you Gerda?”
    Please let her be Gerda, please let her be Gerda!
    “Yes,” she puffs.
    “Hooray!” I exclaim. “It’s so nice to meet you!”
    Gerda is Asian, with straight black hair that she’s wearing in two low pigtails. Her face is heart-shaped and tanner than mine, and she looks to be about my age.
    “Oh, sure,” the reindeer grumbles in my direction. “Introduce yourself immediately to the human. I’ve only been with you two for hours. Did you introduce yourself to me? No, you did not.”
    I flush. “Sorry. I didn’t realize! It’s just that —”
    “That I’m a reindeer?” he humphs.
    “No, that I wanted to meet her!”
    That sounded better in my head.
    The reindeer double-humphs and turns up his black nose.
    “Don’t mind him,” Gerda says between jumps. “He’s a sweetheart under all the grumpiness.”
    “Rudolph the grumpy reindeer,” Jonah sings, and I laugh.
    “You would be grumpy, too,” the reindeer huffs, “if the