2 Spoiled

CHAPTER 2

Spoiled "My meats! My poultry! My pies and custards! All my food is going to go bad!" cried Cook. "How can I make the royal meals with spoiled food?" Lucas had to admit, he hadn't thought about the food spoiling. It had been fun to hide behind the ice blocks, and Ruskin had just as much fun melting the ice with his fiery breath. This had been the best game of hide-and-seek they'd ever played. "Can't we just order more ice?" asked Lucas as he, Clara, and Ruskin followed Cook upstairs to the kitchen. Cook wheeled around on the steps and stared at Lucas.

"No, we cannot!" shouted Cook. "We had our ice delivery yesterday morning. The giants deliver ice from Flatfrost only once a month!" Cook shook his head. "I don't know which is more spoiled," he went on, "my food—or you!" Lucas hung his head and Ruskin cowered behind his master. "Do you children know what the giants have to do to bring ice to the palace?"

Lucas and Clara shook their heads. They had no idea, but they had a feeling they were about to find out.

"Each and every block of ice is hand-cut from one of Flatfrost's high mountain lakes. It's very hard work. The giants haul the harvested ice down the mountain by horse-drawn sleds. At the bottom of the mountain, the ice is transferred onto wagons. Then the ice is brought over rocky dirt roads to the castle."

"Oh," Lucas said. He and Clara had occasionally seen the wagonloads of ice arrive at the castle, but they'd never really given it much thought. Then Cook shook a fat finger in the children's faces. "Ice is a luxury!" he declared. "It involves hard work— something you two know very little about."