The MirrorMasters

by Lora Palmer

  "We need to get that key," Jenny said, her tone suddenly fierce as she leaned toward me and fixed me with a piercing gaze. "You'll need it, Leah. I noticed there was a key to that box, and that key probably opens what's inside."

  "Take a step back, people!" David said. "You’re seriously thinking of, what, stealing evidence?"

  Jenny stared at him. "Without that evidence, they can't prove that there are aliens here. The trail won't lead back to Leah. Look, as long as we don't get caught, they'll never know the key didn't just become part of any metal surface nearby to disguise itself."

  "Sentient metal?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "What? Like that’s crazier than anything else I’ve heard today?" Kevin’s chuckle seemed to break the tension in the group.

  David appeared deep in thought, his gaze focused far beyond, but finally shook his head. "I can understand the need to find out as much as possible about Leah, but you’d better be careful about how you act! You guys can't afford to take any chances."

  "Well, we have a way to do some discreet research," Kara explained, an enigmatic smile curving her lips upward. "So we have a bit of an advantage."

  Out of all the group, Brian listened with the greatest intensity as Kara described my success with mirror-gazing.

  Chapter 10

  "David is going to kill me," I moaned. "He may have said he was fine with us looking into my past, but he’s not expecting it to happen today." I’d met Kara and Jenny after work to walk over to the social services agency together.

  Laughing, Kara slung an arm around me. "I’m surprised he didn't show up at Celia’s and make sure you didn't go through with this."

  "He has another hour to go." Still, I scanned the boardwalk, searching for anyone we knew and needed to avoid.

  "Works out well, then. Leave it to me. I'll make sure he understands what's at stake and why all of this is so important."

  "He does, Kara. Or, at least he would if he’d let himself believe. It's just that all of this is such a huge risk, and there's so little to go on."

  "What more evidence do we need?" Kara asked, ticking off the list with her fingers. "We have futuristic weapons, a glowing necklace and other alien artifacts, and a prophecy handed down from a man who came from another planet. Once we get the key, I'm sure we'll find even more clues to this whole thing."

  "An alleged prophecy written in an ancient language we can't decipher," Jenny reminded us.

  "The ring will be your guide," I said.

  "What?" Kara stopped short, grabbing my arm and gazing at me expectantly.

  "That's what Madame Helena said. Maybe the ring will help translate the prophecy. I'll try it later tonight. If that doesn't work, we need to find someone to decipher the prophecy and get me to that other world." Too fast. This was all happening too fast, but I couldn’t waste time stalling just to prepare mentally for leaving my life here behind. Every day that passed meant more deaths, more disasters.

  "The answer is probably closer than you think."

  Jenny’s cryptic statement hung in the air, leaving me to puzzle over it as we reached the agency. How would Jenny know that?

  "Leah! Girls, what can I do for you? We'll be closing soon," Melinda Barrett greeted us, a wide smile gracing her freckled, youthful face. She stood shorter than me in her flats.

  "Ms. Barrett, I was wondering if I could look over my record," I said. "You know, my adoption file with whatever information there might have been at the time I was found. Sorry we got here so late, but we all had our first day of work today."

  Melinda swiped her pale blond hair from her face. "Of course. I'd been wondering when you were going to ask for your file. This way."

  I heaved a sigh of relief; I hadn’t expected it to be this easy. Fidgeting with my hands, I wondered what I would discover in my file and what David’s reaction would be later when he found out what I’d done. No — I was not going to think about that. Not yet, anyway. Melinda led us into a reading room, a private conference area with a round table and several chairs set up so that people could comfortably view their records or complete chart reviews.

  "Wait right here while I locate that file," Melinda instructed. Soon, she had returned with a thin file in hand and sat down with them. She glanced through everything before handing me the record. "I'm afraid there isn't much here. We completed genetic testing, of course, to see if there were any matches in government databases. That was our effort to locate your parents, but nothing ever turned up. There was something abnormal in the results, though. An odd genetic marker that's never turned up before in any other known genetic analysis."

  Kara and Jenny glanced at me pointedly, and I shifted in my seat, keeping my gaze lowered to the file. "What kind of marker?" I asked, swallowing.

  "I don't know for certain, and I don't believe even the geneticists understand it. There's much more to learn in that field. Anyway, it's probably nothing to worry about. You're obviously healthy."

  "Yeah." I nodded, sighing in relief.

  Kara placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Jenny had a calculating expression as she kept her gaze on Melinda.

  "So they thought nothing of it?" Jenny asked.

  "No. Like I said, there's probably nothing to be concerned about."

  "My doctor never mentioned anything about it. I'm sure it's fine," I said, careful to keep my tone casual. My best friends had a pretty good idea of the significance of this new piece of information, but I didn't want anything further to be said that might raise suspicions.

  "So, is that everything, girls? I wish there were more to give you. Oh, but I can tell you a bit more about where and how you were found, in case you never heard the story."

  "Please." My breath caught in my throat as one hand clutched the file. I had never heard this before. "You mean, my parents know...something...but they've never told me?"

  "I wasn't the one to handle your adoption. The social worker who covered for me was a dear friend. I'm not sure what she discussed with your parents. She moved away soon afterward, but we kept in touch. She's passed now. Helena over at the bookstore might be able to help you. She was a trainee here back then, and she might have been working with her that day."

  "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!" A sharp pang pierced my heart. I couldn’t begin to imagine how gutted I’d be if I lost Jenny or Kara, or anyone close to me.

  "You were going to tell us the story?" Jenny reminded Melinda.

  "Of course." Melinda paused a moment, rubbing her chin while gathering her thoughts. "You were so little, Leah, only two years old. Did you know that you came to us from the hospital after emergency services brought you there?"

  "The hospital?" I asked, shocked. Now a vague memory I had from that time made sense.

  There was no air. I was tumbling in water, totally disoriented, and couldn't breathe or find my way out! It had been so pretty and sparkly, a safe place to hide among all the people splashing around in the waves, and just this once I wanted to go play in it like Mommy and Daddy never let me…

  "Eyewitnesses reported that you'd wandered into the water all by yourself. One person swore you'd appeared out of thin air on the beach first." Melinda laughed, shaking her head. "His college buddies said he'd had too much to drink that afternoon. It was during summer break, and the beach was crowded that day. Nobody else noticed anything odd. But one young mother saw that you'd wandered into the water and seemed to have no parent watching you. Her husband watched their son while she ran into the water to retrieve you. By then, she said, a big wave had washed over you. You were unconscious, maybe even dead briefly. She had to do CPR to revive you while emergency services were called. Meanwhile, nobody could find your parents, and nobody came to claim you. So when you were released from the hospital, you came to us."

  "Oh…I just remembered a little of it — being trapped in the ocean, unable to breathe or find my way out..." I shuddered and rubbed my arms, forcing air into and out of my lungs to ease the tightness in my chest. So that h
ad happened.

  "No wonder you don't like getting out in the ocean," Kara said, her blue eyes wide with amazement. "Is there anything else you remember?"

  I shook my head, but Ms. Barrett held up a finger, eyes widening.

  "There is one more thing. You were barely talking, and most of it was unintelligible, but there were some clear words you used, words that you were determined meant those objects. They weren't in English, so we always thought that maybe you could have been foreign. No search from the databases of other countries turned up anything, though. You called yourself Leah, did you know that?"

  I smiled, a tense, tight little smile. To say that I was foreign would be an understatement. Wow. I remembered something from before, then. If I still can, it might help us. "No, I hadn't heard that. I just always assumed Mom and Dad picked my name."

  Melinda checked her watch. "I'm sorry, girls. It is time for me to lock up."

  "Thanks again, Ms. Barrett." I stood and shook Melinda’s hand.

  Back in Jenny's room, a modern space decorated in furniture and artwork with clean, fresh lines and bold colors of black, white, and red, we reviewed our progress.

  "We have learned a lot already," Kara observed. "I don't see how the evidence can get any more concrete. It all points to one thing."

  "Leah is the First Daughter, the MirrorMaster," Jenny concluded for her, a conflicted look in her eyes.

  I nodded, conflicted myself about the whole thing. "It appears so."

  Part of me was miserable at the thought of having to leave the only life I'd ever known, yet a strong part of me needed to help that other world, my homeworld. Needed to find out who I was and where I came from. Which part was stronger? I didn’t know. Maybe there was some way to manage being of two worlds. A small hope rose in me at this thought. Once my home planet was safe, maybe I could travel between worlds and forge a life that included both. Home planet. Both worlds. It felt strange to think the words.

  "So now what?" Kara sat on Jenny’s bed, leaning back against the pillows with her legs curled beneath her.

  "We find the key and figure out what it goes to," I said, leaning against the wall. "It could be anything — my box, something on a spaceship."

  "Guess we have our next question," Jenny said with a smirk, leaning against her desk.

  A horrible thought occurred to me. "What if there is no one else on Earth from there? Maybe there’s no spaceship to use because the government has seized control of it, torn it apart for spare parts or advances in technology or something. I wonder how Madame Helena's refugee with the box and those strangers from the legend got here."

  "Oh, I asked Madame Helena about that today, and she didn't know. He never explained his means of travel to anyone. ‘It was one of his many secrets,’ she said."

  "Great, that helps," I muttered, sighing. I had no idea how I was going to get to my homeworld, much less what I was supposed to do if — no, when — I got there.

  "We'll figure it all out," Jenny said, resting a comforting hand on my shoulder.

  I placed one hand over hers in gratitude. Without the support of my best friends through all this, I didn't know what I 'd do. "Okay, should we try the mirror-gazing thing again?"

  "Of course," Kara agreed. We settled ourselves comfortably facing Jenny's cheval mirror. Just as yesterday, we closed our eyes to calm our minds and focused on the question we needed answered.

  "Where is the key?" Kara and I said at the same time, and we both snickered. It took an effort of sheer willpower to avoid getting distracted.

  I kept repeating the question like a chant in my mind as I focused on the key. It would probably be easier if I had actually seen it and had an image in mind, but hopefully the word ‘key’ would be enough. After a few minutes, that familiar power coursed through my body. Everything from my fingertips to my toes tingled. Though I managed to keep calm and let the energy flow without fighting or blocking it this time, it took another few minutes of hazy, fleeting images before the practice paid off. Progress! The glass in the mirror rippled, making it once again resemble a shimmering pool of water. Then, it settled into a clear image of a lab, where two scientists, one male and one female, examined the key.

  "Where is that?" Jenny asked, voicing the question that I’d been wondering myself.

  The image in the mirror pooled again, then resolved to show the outside of a white stone building with huge multilevel glass windows, situated on beautifully landscaped grounds with colorful flowers, grassy and wooded areas, and clean white sidewalks. To the side of the entryway, leading up to the staircase outside the main doors of the building, was a sign, reading "Forensic Research Institute".

  "Convenient," I observed, and all three of us laughed. When this broke my concentration, the image fizzled away while I fought to keep it in place. "Stay there, stay there, stay there," I requested, then commanded, then pleaded, but the glass — or maybe the power —wouldn’t listen.

  "Okay, so now we know where it is. Maybe we should try to get ahold of it before the analysis is done and it ends up back at the police station," Kara said.

  "Leave that to me," Jenny said.

  "Wait — I should go with you," I protested. "You shouldn't do this alone. If you're caught…"

  "I won't be. Look, my...mom has connections. A friend of hers works there, so she might be able to get me in to observe. Consider it research into a potential future career or something. Whatever. I'll handle it."

  "Okay," I relented, biting my lip at the thought of all that could go wrong with this plan.

  "She's the best person for the job," Kara said. "You know she can talk her way out of anything." Turning to Jenny, she added, "Remember the last time you got stopped for speeding? I can't believe you were actually able to get out of getting a ticket."

  "True." I let out a chuckle, somewhat less apprehensive about the plan. No one would find out, and Jenny wouldn’t get arrested, or worse, hurt.

  "Let's try this again and see if we can get it to show us what that key unlocks," Kara suggested, seeing that Jenny had begun tapping her foot against the bed frame.

  "I have to say, you are impressive at this, Leah. You're an incredibly fast learner," Jenny commented. "Sure, Kara and I are helping provide energy, but you're the one doing the work."

  "Maybe it's an alien thing." I shrugged. "Anyway, sure, let's give it a try. It’s getting easier. I'm not as tired as yesterday."

  "That's good," Jenny replied.

  "It's probably like exercise. You build up with practice." Kara shrugged, nudging me with her shoulder to continue.

  With a nod, I once again focused on the mirror, centering my thoughts on the question of what the key unlocked. The answer came even more quickly this time. Once the ripples subsided, an image of the box came into view.

  "I knew it!" Jenny crowed with triumph.

  "Yes, you're always right," Kara remarked dryly, rolling her eyes and throwing a pillow at her. A pillow fight ensued, and soon we all collapsed on Jenny's bed, laughing.

  "Hey, I want to try something," Jenny said, sitting up.

  "What is it?" I asked. Power still flowed through my veins, eager to stretch its wings and explore what it could do. And despite my reservations, I was curious and ready to let it.

  "Would you be willing to try testing the limits of your…abilities?"

  "How?"

  "See if you can get the image crystal clear and hold it in place, then travel there."

  "Travel there?" I blinked in surprise. "You mean, through the mirror?"

  "Exactly."

  "Start with your room," Kara suggested, bouncing on her toes as a bright smile lit up her face.

  "Sure, I'll try. But even if this works, it doesn't mean I'd be able to travel that way to some planet that could be halfway across the galaxy for all we know."

  "Don't underestimate yourself, Leah. Come on." Jenny put an arm around me and guided me to stand directly in front of the mirror. "Now, picture your room."

  I did s
o, holding my gaze on the mirror. Moments later, the image shimmered into place. My room appeared hazy at first, as if blanketed in fog, and it flickered in and out of existence in tandem with my vacillating emotions. Did I want this to succeed or not? What if I ended up trapped between mirrors in some sort of limbo, never making it out to the other side? Then again, what if mastering this ability allowed me to help others, even save lives? At this thought, the image stabilized.

  With an effort of will, I made the image as clear as possible, as though I were gazing into my room from outside the balcony door. In front of me, close enough to touch, I found the French doors that led inside. The walls of my room, a light sage green, complemented the high vaulted ceilings, the crown molding, the baseboards, and the hardwood floors, all of which were a deep mahogany like my bedroom set. Over my bed hung one of Mrs. Taylor's paintings, along with a collection of framed photographs I had taken of the beach, my friends, and my travels.

  "Good," Jenny whispered into my ear. "Now, reach out and try to go through the mirror."

  Gently but firmly, Jenny led me forward, raising my right arm toward the mirror. How did she know what to do? To my shock, when my fingers came in contact with the mirror, it was no longer solid. Instead, it had become a rippling, shimmering sea of iridescent glass. It parted at my touch, allowing my hand to pass through. I froze, eyes wide.

  "Focus!" Jenny hissed, reminding me to hold the gateway open. It widened, inch by slow inch — and my battle for every bit of expansion made me lightheaded — so that there was nothing between this room and mine but the open gateway I'd created via the mirror. Now, I felt nothing but air.

  Tentatively, I reached my hand further through and splayed my fingers. I had just reached into my own room!

  "Oh, my goodness!" I exclaimed, slowly stepping closer to the mirror. But I'd lost my focus, and what had been empty air became liquid glass again. My hand was submerged up to my wrist. Around the edges of the mirror, the liquid began to solidify, and the rest of the mirror rapidly began to do the same inward toward the center. With a startled cry, I snatched my hand back just in time.