The terrible Zog has surely been very clever in this last attempt to destroy them.  Trot thought it all over, and she decided that inasmuch as the queen was unable to wave her fairy wand, she could do nothing to release herself or her friends.

But in this the girl was mistaken.  The fairy mermaid was even now at work trying to save them, and in a few minutes Trot was astonished and delighted to see the queen rise from her couch.  She could not go far from it at first, but the ice was melting rapidly all around her so that gradually Aquareine approached the place where the child lay.  Trot could hear the mermaid’s voice sounding through the ice as if from afar off, but it grew more distinct until she could make out that the queen was saying, “Courage, friends!  Do not despair, for soon you will be free.”

Before very long the ice between Trot and the queen had melted away entirely, and with a cry of joy the little girl flopped her pink tail and swam to the side of her deliverer.

“Are you very cold?” asked Aquareine.

“N-not v-v-very!” replied Trot, but her teeth chattered and she was still shivering.

“The water will be warm in a few minutes,” said the Queen.  “But now I must melt the rest of the ice and liberate Clia.”

This she did in an astonishingly brief time, and the pretty princess, being herself a fairy, had not been at all affected by the cold surrounding her.

They now swam to the door of Cap’n Bill’s room and found the Peony Chamber a solid block of ice.  The queen worked her magic power as hard as she could, and the ice flowed and melted quickly before her fairy wand.  Yet when they reached the old sailor, he was almost frozen stiff, and Trot and Clia had to rub his hands and nose and ears very briskly to warm him up and bring him back to life.

Cap’n Bill was pretty tough, and he came around, in time, and opened his eyes and sneezed and asked if the blizzard was over.  So the queen waved her wand over his head a few times to restore him to his natural condition of warmth, and soon the old sailor became quite comfortable and was able to understand all about the strange adventure from which he had so marvelously escaped.

“I’ve made up my mind to one thing, Trot,” he said confidentially.  “If ever I get out o’ this mess I’m in, I won’t be an Arctic explorer, whatever else happens.  Shivers an’ shakes ain’t to my likin’, an’ this ice business ain’t what it’s sometimes cracked up to be.  To be friz once is enough fer anybody, an’ if I was a gal like you, I wouldn’t even wear frizzes on my hair.”

“You haven’t any hair, Cap’n Bill,” answered Trot, “so you needn’t worry.”

The queen and Clia had been talking together very earnestly.  They now approached their earth friends, and Aquareine said: 

“We have decided not to remain in this castle any longer.  Zog’s cruel designs upon our lives and happiness are becoming too dangerous for us to endure.  The golden sword now bears a fairy charm, and by its aid I will cut a way through our enemies.  Are you ready and willing to follow me?”