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“We never looked to see if it was inside the hailstone.”
    Annie reached in her pocket and pulled out the hailstone. She held it up.

    Jack gasped. Staring out at him from inside the ice was an eyeball. It was about the size of a large marble. The eyeball was white with a sparkling blue center.
    â€œOh, man,” whispered Jack.
    â€œIt’s beautiful, isn’t it?” said Annie.
    â€œI don’t know about that.” Jack felt a little queasy. Seeing an eye outside of a human head was too weird for him. “Put it away for now,” he said.
    Annie put the hailstone back in her pocket. Jack looked around again. The sky had brightened from pale pink to red. A thin sliver of the sun was peeking over the horizon.
    â€œThe sun!” cried Jack. “Hurry!” He and Annie jumped out of the sleigh and charged toward the palace.
    When they got to the entrance, Annie stopped. “Look!” she said, pointing to big paw prints in the snow. “Wolf tracks!”
    â€œOh, no,” said Jack. “Do you think the white wolves are inside? That’s weird.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter! We have to go in! Hurry!” said Annie. They rushed into the palace—just as the fiery ball of the sun rose over the horizon.

J ack and Annie walked through the front hall of the palace, past the ice columns, and into the wizard’s throne room. The walls and floor glittered with the brilliant, cold light of dawn.
    â€œUh-oh,” said Jack.
    The wizard was waiting for them—and the two white wolves were sleeping on either side of his throne. Jack was confused.
Why are they here?
he wondered.
Do they belong to the wizard?
    The wolves lifted their heads and sniffed the air. Their ears pricked up. When they caughtsight of Jack and Annie, they sprang to their feet. They stared at them with piercing yellow eyes.
    The Ice Wizard was staring intently at Jack and Annie, too. “Well?” he said. “Did you bring back my eye?”
    â€œYes,” said Jack.
    Annie took the hailstone out of her pocket and held it up to the wizard. Jack watched the wolves nervously as the hailstone passed from Annie’s small hand into the wizard’s large, rough hand.
    The wizard stared down at the chunk of ice. Then he looked at Jack and Annie. “Indeed, you
are
heroes,” he said breathlessly.
    â€œNot really,” Jack murmured.
    The wizard looked again at his eye inside the hailstone. Then, with a quick movement, he slammed the ice chunk against the arm of his throne.
    Jack and Annie gasped and stepped back. The wizard slammed the hailstone against his throne again. This time, the ice cracked.
    The wizard gently pried his eye out of theheart of the hailstone. He lifted the frozen eyeball into the air and studied it in the light. Then, with an eager cry, he ripped off his eye patch.
    Jack and Annie watched in amazement as the wizard fitted the eye into its dark, empty socket. Jack held his breath. He was horrified, yet fascinated. He couldn’t imagine someone just shoving an eye back into his head.
    The wizard slowly lowered his hand. He seemed to be holding his breath. He had two eyes. But the new one didn’t move. It looked as if it was still frozen.
    Jack grew worried. If the eye didn’t work, the wizard might not help them. “We—we brought you your eye,” he said. “So can you tell us where Merlin and Morgan are now?”
    The wizard jerked his head to look at Jack. He covered one eye with his hand. Then he covered the other. In a frenzy, he went back and forth, covering and uncovering each eye.
    Finally the wizard dropped his hand androared, “NO!” The wizard’s howl shook the ice columns. “You have tricked me!”

    â€œNo we haven’t,” said Annie.
    â€œThis eye is useless!” cried the wizard. “It has no life! No sight!”
    â€œBut that’s the eye you gave to the Norns,”said Annie.