Reflection: The Stranger in the Mirror

by Rachel R. Smith

  “There is no reentry if you leave. It can be a distraction to the actors and audience,” he warned.

  “I understand. Thank you,” Shae replied.

  He opened the door barely far enough for them to slip through, and it swung closed silently behind them. Shae sighed with relief and patted her purse. The book inside was quite heavy, so she didn’t really need to feel it to be sure it was still there, but the gesture was reassuring nonetheless.

  Shae had been feeling unusually anxious recently. This was partly because she had never stolen anything before and partly caused by a dream she recently had. The dream involved a group of merchants coming to her home. There was nothing about their behavior that was threatening, but something about them reminded her of the men who had accompanied Queen Echidna. One of the men, with long black hair and olive skin, stood out to her in particular. There was a message—a warning—that she was supposed to give to him. The ending of the dream was the real cause of Shae’s anxiety. When the men departed, Desta had gone with them. She didn’t know the reason why Desta left, but she did know that her daughter was supposed to go with them. Whether or not it was meant to be, as a mother, Shae was not ready to allow her sixteen-year-old daughter to leave with a group of strangers.

  “Let’s hurry while the lobby is still empty,” Shae said as they began to descend the stairs.

  “Yes, it’s hard to tell how long it will stay this way,” Desta agreed. She scampered down merely a step behind her mother.

  The moment Desta’s foot left the bottom step, the doors they had just come out from opened again. Shae half-expected to see the usher, but instead two young couples sauntered out.

  The blonde woman fanned herself as the doors closed. “It’s simply far too hot to remain in there a single second more,” she declared.

  “Oh, I kn-ow,” the brunette woman cooed in response. “I don’t understand how it’s possible for the theater to be so hot, especially considering tonight is such a cool night.” She, too, began fanning herself ostentatiously.

  Despite her nerves, Shae found the pair amusing. They were moving their fans in perfect synchrony.

  “It didn’t seem terribly hot in there to me,” Desta whispered.

  “You aren’t wearing layer upon layer of petticoats like they are,” Shae argued even though she agreed with Desta. “Ah, here’s the ladies’ room!” she said, intentionally speaking loudly enough to be heard by the two couples. Shae took Desta’s elbow and guided her away from the stairs. They strolled across the lobby slowly, trying to look as casual as possible.

  The couples sashayed across the lobby together, with the women fanning themselves all the while. They paused near the valet window, beneath the Carriages sign. Promptly after one of the men rang the bell on the counter, the pale, thin valet appeared.

  “Please summon our footman to have our carriage brought around. Tell him that we don’t wish to roast in this place any longer,” the brunette said, right before Shae and Desta entered the ladies’ room.

  Once inside, Shae pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear the conversation in the lobby. She heard the women say, almost in unison, “We will be waiting outside in the fresh air.”

  Shae sighed with relief. “It sounds like they will be leaving soon,” she said.

  Desta pulled her eyes away from the elegant decor of the powder room and pressed her ear against the door as well. She heard the tapping of high-heeled shoes against the marble floors and then the sound of the anteroom doors opening and closing.

  Desta and her mother had intended to visit the library soon after they arrived in Niamh. Their plan had been to search ahead of time for books with crystals in their spines and note their locations. That part of the plan could be done during regular library hours, but the rest had to be done in secret. Since the crystals would only glow for the One, Shae and Desta would have to resort to peeling back the inner covers. They had no doubt that the librarians would frown upon people damaging their collection. On top of that, Desta and Shae intended to borrow the book once they found the correct one. Except, in this case, “borrowing” was less like checking out the book and more along the lines of stealing it.

  Unfortunately, their original strategy was foiled by the fact that the library had been closed both days for festival preparations. Instead, they had settled for gathering information by talking with the innkeeper, whose son was attending the University. The woman was quite proud of the fact that her son had received a scholarship. She had been more than happy to discuss anything related to the University, and her son’s studies, at length. It seemed the woman was an expert, but Shae suspected that her knowledge was fueled by maternal pride more than personal experience. Shae made a point to casually mention that they wanted to visit the library to look for an original copy of her favorite collection of lore. The innkeeper had immediately suggested that they look in the Special Collection Room since that was where the old and rare books were stored. That, at least, gave Shae and Desta a place to start their hunt, even if they didn’t know where the Special Collection Room was.

  Time passed, and there were no more sounds from the lobby aside from the muffled voices of the actors in the play. The door to the ladies’ room opened a crack, and two pairs of eyes peeked around the edge into the lobby. The man at the valet counter was gone. The lobby was empty. The entry to the library was conveniently located next to the ladies’ room, so they needed to dash just a few feet and duck beneath the velvet rope that barred entry to the hallway.

  “Let’s go,” Shae whispered, tip-toeing back into the lobby. Desta followed behind her.

  The sightless eyes of stone statues, frozen in depictions of scenes from famous plays, were the solitary witnesses to the women slinking through the short hallway. The only evidence of their passing was the gentle swaying of the Closed sign that hung from the rope.

  The leather soles of their shoes made a soft tapping sound on the checkerboard floor, but in the dark stillness of the empty library it seemed more like a deafening echo. The arms of the chandeliers hung empty, like branches with no leaves, and no glow lamps hung from the sconces on the walls. Desta was relieved that the clouds from earlier in the day had broken, and the moonlight provided sufficient illumination to see by. The walls here were a deep shade of red and decorated with carvings of golden phoenixes that seemed to be flying toward the ceiling. The curled feathers of their outstretched wings cast odd shadows across the walls and onto the floor as the moon drifted in and out of transient clouds. Desta knew it was her imagination, but it still felt like the shadows were following her as she moved. She quickened her pace and reached out to grasp the strap of her mother’s leather bag.

  Shae flinched and spun around. “What are you doing?” she gasped. “You scared me!”

  “This place is creepy,” Desta replied timidly, shrinking back from her mother’s ire. “I didn’t want us to get separated somehow.”

  Shae glanced around at the cloth-covered easels and pedestals that lined either side of the central aisle. Those must be the paintings and sculptures that had been on display earlier in the day during the first part of the festival. In this dim light, it would be difficult to discern between the artwork and another person.

  “It’s a good idea to stay close,” she said. “Be careful not to knock anything over, or we’ll be caught for sure.”

  They crept onward, pausing every few feet to read the signs posted on the endcaps of the towering bookcases. The signs indicated the type of books on each set of shelves and occasionally pointed in the direction of other areas. Halfway through the history section, they found the first sign labeled Special Collection Room. The arrow pointed to the left, so the pair turned to walk down the narrow aisle between two of the cases. The space felt confined compared to the openness of the main aisle, even though there was still ample room for Shae and Desta to walk side by side.

  A groaning sound broke the silence around them, and Shae halted. Desta, hardly a step behind, bumped r
ight into her back. They both stumbled awkwardly forward.

  “Did you hear that?” Shae hissed.

  “How could I not hear it?” Desta gulped. She looked up as a shadow flickered across the ceiling. “The bookshelves aren’t going to fall on us, are they?”

  Shae was more worried about whether or not they were being followed. She pulled herself together. If anyone had seen them sneak in, the person would confront them directly, not follow them. Now was not the time to be paranoid. “Of course they aren’t. That noise wasn’t any different from the sound of a house settling. You’re being silly.”

  “You’re the one who froze up when you heard it,” Desta replied sullenly. Her sweaty grip on the purse strap slipped a bit as Shae started walking again.

  At the end of the aisle, was another sign pointing toward the Special Collection Room. The occasional creaks and groans persisted, spurring Shae and Desta to quicken their pace and continue onward. They followed the bookcases along one wall until they finally reached a tall, arched opening leading to a tenebrous hallway. The sign above the arch read Special Collection Room.

  They huddled together as they inched through the hall. It was so dark here they could see little else but the opening at the far end. They passed several recessed coves that contained still more sculptures. Though Desta couldn’t tell what the subjects of the statues were, she assumed these were permanent decorations since only one was covered with a cloth.

  “We made it,” Shae said, relieved, as they reached the opposite end of the hall.

  “It seems my luck is with us tonight,” Desta said, gesturing toward the metal lattice gate that stood open in front of them.

  Shae stepped through the opening into a spacious room. It was as ornately decorated as the rest of the library. Moonlight poured down into the room from short, wide windows near the ceiling. Even that didn’t provide enough illumination to penetrate the darkness that filled the gaps between the massive bookcases that lined the walls. The center area of the room was populated by sturdy-looking tables. All but one of them was empty.

  “That is fortunate,” Shae said. “I didn’t anticipate any section of the library would be locked. We would have come all this way for nothing if this gate had been closed.” She pulled the purse off her shoulder and set it down on a table near the bookcases.

  “Let’s start by searching for any books that have crystals with them. The ones we are looking for must have crystals, or at least an empty spot where a crystal could have been,” Shae instructed.

  Desta ran her hands over the spines of the aged books as she walked. “I know,” she replied softly, rolling her eyes.

  “Don’t roll your eyes at me,” Shae chided.

  “You can’t see well enough…I mean, I didn’t!” Desta argued.

  Shae heaved a sigh and climbed up one of the tall ladders as quietly as she could manage. They hurriedly combed the shelves, with Shae looking over the highest ones and Desta those closest to the floor. Not a single one had a crystal embedded in the spine.

  Shae descended the ladder, frustrated. “Maybe the crystals were somehow hidden inside the other five books,” she mused.

  “If that’s the case, could they have the same title or author name as ours, or a matching symbol somewhere on the cover?” Desta proposed.

  “That’s a good thought,” Shae replied. “Let’s look at our book one more time to see if there might be any clues.”

  Desta hurried over to the table where Shae had left the purse containing the book. There couldn’t be much time left before the play ended. They had to be sure to get back by then so they could blend into the crowd to leave. She reached in and lifted the book by its spine. The leather slipped in her sweaty grip, and the crystal popped free from its pocket. It rolled across the floor and disappeared into one of the dark gaps between the bookcases.

  Desta wanted to curse, but she couldn’t with her mother around. She laid the book on the table and hesitated, pursing her lips, before finally dropping onto her hands and knees to reach into the nook. She patted the floor and was startled to touch a large, solid shape that resembled a shoe. That was odd. It must belong to a statue that was obscured by the darkness in the nook. And then Desta realized that the shoe was warm. She yanked her hand back and skittered away from the gap. Her heart skipped a beat then thumped so hard that she feared it would fly right out of her chest.

  A hand extended from the nook, and a male voice said, “Is this what you’re looking for?” The fingers of the hand uncurled to reveal the dropped crystal. Desta’s heart skipped a beat again—this time not from fear.

  The crystal was glowing with a bright white light.

  Read more in Reflection: Harbinger of the Phoenix

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  Supplemental Material

  Prologue

  Darkness threatened to engulf the tiny flame in Argia's lamp as it flickered and sputtered, struggling to remain alight while she and her companion raced through the damp corridor. She found herself wishing that her feet would sprout wings and grant them flight. It was the only way she would be able to keep up this speed through the labyrinth of tunnels in the dark underground of Maze. Two juxtaposed sounds reached her ears: the echoes of their hasty footsteps bouncing off the surrounding walls and the tranquil lap of the water flowing through the canal. Valen looked back and squeezed her hand. He smiled reassuringly, but he did not slow his breakneck pace as he led her to their hidden destination.

  While Valen's confidence was appreciated, it did nothing to ease her mind. Even knowing everything that was about to happen did not alleviate her anxiety. It required all of Argia's focus to avoid slipping on the smooth, wet stones and falling into the deep channel just inches away. This canal was one of hundreds of identical waterways through which an underground river flowed. The network of twisting and winding caverns had seemingly countless entrances and exits leading to alleys, cellars, and streets all over the city. Long ago, the natural formations had been reinforced to create the tangle of canals for which the city was named. The climate in this area was harsh, with heavy snow in the winter and overabundant rain in the spring and fall. The canals allowed for the transport of goods by raft throughout the city during these times and had quickly made Maze a bustling center of trade in the newly united Renatus.

  Argia had never dreamed she would be in her current situation. Yet, one week ago, it was a dream that had led her here. The women in Argia's family were well known for their ability to predict the future. There were imposters that sought fame and riches by using gimmicks and trickery to give false prophecies. However, those in Argia's family truly possessed the talent. Ever since she was a child, Argia's visions came in the form of dreams which were intensely vivid and startling in their accuracy. But this particular dream was unlike any even she had before.

  Valen stopped abruptly and Argia realized that they had reached a dead end. She did not need to ask him where they were. She had already seen what would come next in her dream. With the apparent ease that comes from habit, he reached forward and pushed two seemingly random bricks simultaneously. They slid into the wall with a soft click. A portion of the ceiling above them moved away, and a rope ladder rolled down. Valen motioned for her to go first. Argia gingerly climbed up, and he followed shortly after, deftly rolling up the ladder and closing the hatch behind them. The darkness of the room was oppressive, seeming to close in on the tiny pool of light cast by the guttering lamp in her clammy hands.

  "Were you followed?" A woman's voice suddenly shattered the silence.

  "Of course not." The words had barely left Valen's mouth when the room was flooded with light, revealing a well-dressed woman with short, graying brown hair standing not ten feet away.

  "Don't become overly confident. The Gullintanni have eyes everywhere. If they ever learn of our actions..." The woman's stern voice trailed off ominously. Though short in stature, she possessed such a noble air and regal dignity that she seemed to tower over them both. This was th
e first time that Argia had seen her, but, clearly, this woman was one of the members of King Gared's council.

  "It is safe to speak now. There is no risk of eavesdroppers here," the woman said, her severe expression melting away.

  “Who are the Gullintanni?” Argia asked. Judging from the woman’s expression, they must be quite formidable, but Argia had never heard of them before. The dream had showed her that they would not be caught, regardless of who the Gullintanni were, but she still felt uneasy about breaking the law. The crime I am committing now is for the greater good of Renatus in the future, she told herself.

  After a brief pause, the woman looked Argia straight in the eyes and said, "Since you are in this as deeply as we are, you need to know about them. You must never speak of them to anyone outside this room. Their existence is one of our kingdom’s most carefully guarded secrets. The Gullintanni are King Gared's personal guardians. They watch over the country from the shadows, guarding against traitors, reporting governors who abuse their powers, and eliminating threats to the peace. As our current actions go directly against the King’s most recent proclamation, I suspect the Gullintanni would consider us to be in the first category."

  “I understand,” Argia replied. She twisted her hands nervously and took a deep breath to compose herself. No matter how accurate she knew her visions to be, there was no way to prepare for actually being in a situation like this. Sometimes her talents were as much a curse as they were a blessing.

  A door at the side of the room opened. The frame was so short that Valen's mentor, Luca, had to duck as he stepped into the room. In the brief seconds before the door closed, Argia could hear a sputtering hum emanating from the adjoining room. “Argia, Valen, I am glad to see that you are already here,” Luca said. “Are you ready to begin?”