Win points at the cross that marks the fish’s eye. “This is where it’s hidden!” he says. “Up in the tree I could see that this island is shaped like a fish, and those rocks over there”—he waves at a clump of rocks sitting in the water—“they make a fishy tail, and these”—he pauses here to pat the rocks—“are where its eye should be.”

“Huh,” says Mitch, staring at her own tattoo. Then she looks up and grins. “X marks the spot! I’m a genius!”

We don’t waste another moment. We start scooping up handfuls of snow and digging around the base of the rocks. Then Rose hisses, “I can feel something!”

Together, we push snow out of the way until smooth surfaces are revealed. I wipe off the last layer of snow, and suddenly there it is: a very ordinary cardboard box wedged into a hole in the rock.

Win laughs and throws a handful of snow up in the air, but Rose and I just sit and stare. The Box is a beautiful, terrifying sight. The jolly goldfish smiles at us. Carefully we dig around the edges until Mitch is able to slide it out. “It’s so light,” she says. “Are you sure there’s something in there?”

“If there’s not something in there now, there will be soon,” I say. I’ve been keeping a close watch on the Box, looking for any sign of glimmering letters. Rose and I only had to be near the Box for the words to appear, but right now it’s just a plain, brown cardboard box.

“I wish the lid wasn’t so loose,” I say. It looks dangerously flappy and we’ve got no tape or string to hold it down. Win and Mitch wouldn’t open it, but what if the words appear and we drop it, or it falls open by accident?

“Don’t worry about that,” says Rose. “Let’s get out of here. The snow is slowing down.”

I look up. Now there’s only a light dusting of snow falling and we’ve still got to walk through the forest and get back to the Alisha.

“Mitch, can you make any more?” I say.

She riffles through the amulets she’s strung around her neck, pulls out a bronze bottle, and shakes the contents onto a handful of snow. A few red drops fall like blood. “That’s all I’ve got left,” she says, then she blows it from her fingers straight into the sky. It whirls around and around, and more snow starts to fall, but it’s nothing like the storm she produced earlier.

Mitch wriggles back toward her hole in the ice. “You’d better be quick,” she says as she slips into the water. “I’ll get the boat and meet you at the shore!”

Chapter 36