he was still alive. He would have told her about the castle if she had stayed asleep, but there was no way that she could fall back asleep now. It was too cold, and there was no guarantee that she would even be able to contact Donnie again. She closed her eyes and tried to get back in touch with him. Unfortunately, all she came up with was her own thoughts. She could not get back to him, no matter how hard she tried.
The only thing that made her feel good was that she had heard his voice. From that alone, he seemed to be okay. He had mentioned that he was in the Queen’s main castle, and she had told him everything. She knew it had to be the right one because he was trying to tell her about the difference. She thought again about the last thing he had tried to say.
I’m in the one castle that is—
Her eyes widened as she focused on that sentence. The real castle was different from the others because it was something, not because it had something. The question was, how had he wanted to finish the sentence? Was the castle different because it was square, or was it different because of its color? Or was made of something special? That couldn’t be it, because every castle would be made of ice and snow, she thought. Everything had to be identical. The Queen wouldn’t be foolish enough to make her fortress stand out like that. She had to be clever. If this castle was something, then the difference wouldn’t be visible on the outside.
So he must have been talking about the inside of the castle! That made a lot more sense. The Queen wouldn’t make her castle different on the outside, so she chose to put the difference inside of it. Thank you, Donnie. Even without telling me everything, you still got the message across.
“Guys!” Olivia called out to the group, who was now busy fixing the sleigh. The snow was starting to fall harder, but she felt good inside. Just thinking about Donnie was making her happy. “I think I know how we can tell the castles apart!”
“You do?” Ms. Howard asked, coming to her side. “Did you get in touch with Donovan?”
“Kind of. He was about to tell me everything before I woke up, but I think I figured it out anyway. He was trying to tell me that he’s in the Queen’s castle, but it’s different because it’s—something.”
Alice looked unimpressed. “Oh, that’s helpful.”
“No, you don’t understand. It didn’t make sense at first, but then I thought about what he said. He said it was something, not that it had something. Now, the Queen wouldn’t be foolish enough to make the difference so obvious to people on the outside.”
“So you’re telling me that the difference is on the inside?” Jei asked. “That means we’d have to go inside each and every one to find out which is different.”
“Yeah, that’s the big problem,” she sighed. “In order to see the difference, we’d have to go inside all of them. I know we have a big group now, but I doubt we’ll be able to finish that fast enough. There’s got to be another way to figure out what’s different.”
“Can you try contacting him again?” Gemma asked.
“I’ve been trying that for awhile now, but with no luck. I guess I’ve lost my mojo.” She said, looking at the ground. Then a thought hit her. “What does this town produce?”
“What do you mean?” Astrid asked.
“Like, what are the imports and exports? What does it trade with other places? I highly doubt all you guys sell is ice and water.”
“Well, that is one of our exports, but we also have a big mining and lumber industry,” Astrid nodded. “That’s why a lot of people come into our woods. We ship the lumber everywhere.”
“So it is entirely possible the castle that we’re looking for is made out of wood on the inside,” Olivia noted. “What do people mine around here?”
“Oh, the usual. Gold, silver, diamonds—all the gems that have been discovered anywhere else,” Astrid said. “Rumor has it that the Hearts Under Ice were found in the mines. No idea who found them or where they ran off to, though.”
“Then maybe the castle is made of diamonds or something. That could confuse people,” Alice said. “Look, we can ponder all of this later. We need to get to those castles first. The good news is