The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1)

by A. R. Meyering

  Hector either didn’t or couldn’t respond and stopped moving. When a few long moments passed, Penny opened her eyes.

  “Look,” he breathed, gesturing with his head to the sky. Amid the swirling clouds of mist there floated a cluster of transparent, glowing entities. They reminded Penny of the deep sea creatures that bobbed with the currents of the ocean, sightless and delicate. The apparitions moved as if underwater, pulsing with a gentle incandescent light, wandering through the air without an obvious destination. Their frilled appendages fluttered, each one unique.

  “What are they?” Penny whispered.

  Hector shook his head and began walking again at a faster pace, still looking up in reverie at the entities. After a few minutes of moving along through the clusters of dead leaves, a great twisted tree trunk loomed out of the mists. More of the ethereal creatures danced and weaved among the crooked branches, like a string of lights hung on a Christmas tree. Grass swept high and wild around the gnarled trunk, obscuring the area. Hector laid Penny down with her back to the tree and tromped through the dry grass. Penny’s eyes remained fixed on the sky, and she decided that whatever the beings above her were, they weren’t dangerous. They seemed almost sad, or lost. She took several deep, sharp breaths as a sudden and cruel wave of pain tore through her.

  “I found it!” Hector cried from somewhere behind her. He emerged from the tall grass and proceeded to help Penny crawl through the overgrowth until they reached a tiny opening in a metal fence that bordered the graveyard. Hector forced Penny through, each movement digging into her like a hot knife. With effort, they emerged out the other side on a small path bordered by trees. A line of chalk-like powder was laid on either side of the road.

  Hector picked Penny back up and hurried. The opening of a cave sealed by a set of stone doors became visible through the gloom of the tree-lined path.

  “Look, we’ve made it! You’re going to be okay!” Hector shouted, sounding as relieved as if it were his own life that was about to be saved instead of hers. Penny could not muster enough energy to reply, the crawl through the fence having all but finished her off. The hot pain in her chest was growing unbearable, and her heart was skipping beats.

  The doors opened with a grinding rumble the moment Hector pushed the pendant into the depression. When they stopped their trundling movement, all that was left was a vacuum of silence and the cold air that sighed out of the gaping throat of the cave, coaxing them as they twisted down into the cavern.

  In the darkness, Penny could see luminous crystal formations growing from the ceiling and the sides of the wall. The tunnel seemed to be made of a sparkling mineral that glittered like thousands of miniature constellations. Another short turn through the tunnel and they came to the spring itself. The water was eerily placid and smaller than a pond, but it sunk deep and black. A few bits of old furniture were piled up in the corner, some covered with filthy sheets.

  “We made it! Penelope, look!” Hector cried, scraping across the smooth stone and putting Penny down near the edge of the pool. It felt impossible to keep breathing; even the shallowest of breaths brought a jolt of agonizing pain. She was overpowered by weariness as Hector tried to shake her awake, and could not find the strength to move. In the furthest reaches of her perception, Penny became aware of a voice beckoning to her, as if someone was calling her from far away―a sound lost on high winds. She felt Hector pick her up again, cradling her in shaking arms and causing Penny an enormous amount of pain. She didn’t want to take the plunge into the dark waters. What would come after that seemed as if it would be much more difficult than fading away in Hector’s arms.

  Before she could process another thought, she felt herself tumbling through empty space. She crashed like a bag full of stones into the icy water, the angry cold biting into her and refusing to let go. Penny’s eyes shot open in shock and she caught a glimpse of Hector’s distorted visage through the rippling surfaces. Helpless, she watched as the dark gathered with every inch she sunk into the pool. Her legs and arms immobilized, she was unable to fight against the water that seemed to be dragging her downward. Penny choked and had no choice but to suck in great mouthfuls of frigid water. It was a point beyond pain or fear; there was only the most sublime explosion of emotion―the last spark of a firework. Seconds later, her heart stopped and her eyes drifted closed.

  But she did not see darkness.

  There, on the very thread that separated life and death, flashed an image. Penny found herself face to face with a black iron mask, smiling mirthlessly atop a flapping black cloak. It was glad to see her. It was a cold face, devoid of humanity, yet so expressive it seemed alive. It welcomed her hungrily and without words, the tips of its cloak reaching out in anticipation for her.

  I’ve been waiting for you…I’ve been looking for you, a voice hissed, sounding like dead leaves rattling across pavement. Sublime horror filled Penny and she was filled with a sudden desperation to live, so long as it meant escaping this masked entity. The trails of the cloak reached for her, winding around her ankles and pulling her downward.

  I am yours, and you are mine.

  NO! Penny screamed. With a soundless blast of retaliation, Penny’s whole body jerked back to life. Her heart pumped as she clawed at the water toward the blur of light that offered her only escape. She had to move, she had to live. Death was no longer a comfortable form of noble defeat, but a hideous void where that grinning mask waited, patient and still. With every ounce of strength she possessed, Penny kicked her way upward and tore through the surface of the pool.

  When she felt the dry, musty air of the cavern touch her tongue, Penny knew she had escaped from the masked entity’s claws. Hector’s voice echoed in the cavern as he pulled her from the spring and dragged her thrashing body out with a single powerful motion. For several long moments she kneeled on all fours, evacuating every drop of water from her lungs. Unable to stay upright, she collapsed in an exhausted heap, her head finding Hector’s knee.

  “Penelope!” he sputtered, wiping the thick masses of wet hair from her eyes. Penny looked up at him, her chest still heaving. She smiled at his look of relief, a light flutter of nervous laughter escaping.

  They both laughed with unbridled relief, sharing the moment with shy elation. Penny closed her eyes again and sighed. Part of her was screaming to let Hector know what she had seen as she’d crossed the border of life—to warn him—but another part wanted to never speak of it, to keep it locked safe inside and let it be forgotten, though she could not imagine how she would ever forget that atrocious image.

  “Do you think you’re going to make it?” Hector inquired. Penny thought about it, taking her time to reply.

  “I think so,” she said, her eyes still closed. “Everything’s stopped hurting―Only, I feel really tired, like I’ve just run miles and miles without stopping. But it feels like― I don’t know, I just want to lay here for a while, if that’s okay…”

  “Of course it’s okay,” Hector laughed with endearing warmth.

  Whether she rested there for hours or for mere moments, Penny wasn’t sure. Time seemed to have lost much of its importance since she’d entered the grotto, and a subtle sadness now ached within her, though she could not understand why. She would have stayed there through the night if a noise reverberating through the tunnels had not stirred her from her tranquil half-sleep. Alarmed, Penny sat up.

  “What is that?” she whispered, looking toward the mouth of the grotto.

  “Someone’s coming,” he hissed.

  What’re we gonna do? What―”

  “Shush!”

  In tense silence they listened as the steps echoing throughout the tiny cave grew louder. Hector signaled for Penny to get behind him and she did, feeling a buzzing in the air followed by the now familiar tug of energy that meant Hector was pulling magic from her. They both waited, the air around Hector’s fingers crackling with energy. Moments later a shadow crept toward them. Penny braced herself for the fierce break of tensio
n as she studied the approaching shape on the cave wall. Whoever was coming wore a tall hat.

  Penny’s heart leapt as the intruder poked his head around the corner and peered at them. With a rush of disbelief and surprise, she recognized the familiar top hat and mustache. Hector tensed at her side, ready to attack.

  “No! Please, I-I surrender!” Simon whimpered, throwing his hands up as he locked eyes with Hector and saw his aggressive stance.

  “What are you doing here?” Hector demanded, relaxing only a little.

  Penny put her hands out too to assure him that all was safe. “This is that Simon person I was telling you about! The one from the marketplace, remember?” she said, moving over to where Simon groveled. His once crisp clothes were now bedraggled with tears, tatters, and a number of stains.

  “Oh, I thought I’d never find you again!” he whined. He rubbed at red eyes with the back of his hand and leaned against the cave wall, sniffling and looking pathetic. Hector shot Penny a bewildered glance and she shrugged. Simon seemed to be struggling to pull himself together.

  “How in the world did you find us here?” Penny questioned as Hector crept closer, eyeing Simon with apprehension.

  “I’ve been following you! And if it weren’t for that blasted beast of yours I would have caught up miles ago! I told you I had something extremely important to tell you! Why did you just wander off?” He looked and sounded as if he had been through quite an ordeal, his voice hoarse and his face sallow and stretched.

  “Um, let me think,” Penny shot back. “I have no reason to trust you, for one thing―and for another, you were the one who ran away!”

  Simon responded with a perturbed grimace. “I had no choice! The baron guy with the ponytail―if he had seen me, he would’ve killed me, so I had to get away as fast as I could! Did you hear me? Kill me!”

  Hector shot him a skeptical look. “Kill you? Why would he want to kill you?” he asked, inching protectively between them.

  “Because I wasn’t able to murder Penelope like he told me to, but―” Simon said with a dismissive wave, as if there were more important things to explain at the moment.

  Hector grabbed him as Penny leapt back in fear. Simon squealed, trying to avoid Hector’s grasp but failing.

  “What did you just say?” Hector gasped, trying to look fearsome and not quite succeeding. It was still enough to make Simon cower back in terror, spitting out one frantic jumble of words after another. Hector turned to Penny with an uncertain look.

  “Should I―” he started to ask, but Simon cut him off.

  “No, wait! Let me explain, please! I’m on your side, really!” he sputtered. Hector looked at Penny for a signal and she shrugged.

  “We might as well hear him out,” she reasoned. It made sense to hear what he had to say, even if it was a complete fabrication.

  Simon smiled and thanked her several times in the same breath, and she and Hector allowed the harried magician a moment to collect himself. When he spoke again, his voice still trembled.

  “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’ll tell you exactly what happened to me―no lies or tricks. But after I’m done, will you please help me? I’ve been through hell. I don’t know anything about this place or camping in the woods or how to get back, o-or―”

  “Start talking, Simon, and we’ll see,” Penny said as she crossed her arms, trying to look tougher than she felt. He faltered for a moment, then launched into his story.

  “A few days before we met, I came into that Podunk town I assume you live in to do a show with my partners. It was a cheap price to rent out that theater, and times are hard so we all figured we could make a few bucks while passing through. Just the same old card tricks, levitation, rabbit-out-of-the-hat crap, you know? Okay, so here was my problem. Though my partners really have the skill to put on an entertaining show, I myself haven’t really got the materials or talent. As soon as they realize how much better off they’ll be without me, I’m going to be out of a job―in other words, I was desperate.” Simon looked back and forth from Penny to Hector with large soulful eyes, as if he were expecting some sympathy.

  “That’s all very unfortunate, but what does this have to do wi―” Hector began to interject.

  “I’m getting there!” he retorted, looking indignant. The magician snorted and continued, “Anyway, I was handing out some fliers to advertise for our show and I ran into that baron guy with the ponytail. What was his name…Damien?” Simon stroked his mustache and goatee as he thought.

  “Deimos. I remember it from the marketplace,” Penny corrected. “Go on.”

  “Well, I handed him a flyer and he looked at me with such great amusement. He had this creepy guy with him, too, who had this weird eye, and his left arm was all mechanical-like, and―” Simon had been grimacing as he recalled the man, but suddenly shook his head. “It’s beside the point. This Deimos, he made some small talk, asking me about this and that, and then he just pulled out a magic wand. A real magic wand. This wand, to be exact.” Simon produced the same silver and crystal wand he had used in the coffee shop to transform the cards.

  “After he proved to me that it really worked, I was shocked, but of course I was excited, too―if I could somehow use real magic in my show and dress it up to make it look like an illusion, I’d be more famous than Harry Houdini in a matter of months. Then it would be Oliver and Sam who’d be begging to stay a part of my show! He was offering me my dream,” Simon emphasized.

  “So, he showed me how to use it, and then he said if I wanted to keep it, all I’d have to do was dispose of someone in town named Penelope Fairfax. He told me that you’d be about twenty years of age, and that you lived in the area, but that’s all he knew. So I told him I would and he disappeared but—” Simon stopped, cut off by an angry growl from Penny.

  “You’re telling me, in so many words, that you’d take an innocent person’s life for your own personal gain? You slimy little―” Penny puffed up with rage, but Simon interrupted.

  “I wasn’t actually going to kill you! I planned to take off. I was going to use the wand to escape from him and to defend myself if he ever came around looking for trouble. That day, I came to warn you about him. I’d never be able to forgive myself if I’d been indirectly responsible for the death of an innocent, unsuspecting girl―and I had no regrets about double-crossing anyone who would wish for something so awful! So I tracked you down and found your photo online—by the way, you should really check the privacy settings on your profile. The point is, you should be thanking me for risking my neck to help you.” His tragic attempt at nobility was almost laughable, but Penny couldn’t muster a smile under the circumstances.

  “That still doesn’t add up to much, if you ask my opinion,” Hector growled.

  Simon frowned in exasperation. “Well, I didn’t ask, and if you’d all stop interrupting, maybe I could actually get on with the convincing. Anyway, I was going after you outside of the coffee shop, when I ran into this amazingly pretty woman. No, not just pretty―she was gorgeous. It was almost scary how perfect she was. She had great big wings, too…looked just like an angel.”

  The description disturbed Penny; it sounded much too similar to the man from her memory. I was so sure that had only been a nightmare…what if that memory was all real? Stranger things have happened in my life recently―but Simon said it was a woman. The face I remember was definitely a man.

  “She appeared on the street beside me, stood there for a moment, then touched the side of my face―and just like that I fell straight asleep. When I woke up, I was in a beautiful garden, and it was the middle of the night. I was scared stiff at first…but I wandered around for several hours, and that’s when she returned. But there was something different about her―her skin was covered with these black blotches, and she was struggling to stay awake. She said that she didn’t have much time. She asked me why I had been following you and I told her everything. It was like I was compelled to tell the truth. She could hardly stay conscious,
but she managed to give me this.”

  From underneath his cape Simon pulled out a small box carved out of rich, lacquered cherry pine. The edges were gilded in a beautiful design.

  “She said that to make up for what I had done I’d have to find you and give you this―she said it would help you. That you’d know what to do with it. Then, just before she passed out, she grabbed onto me and pulled me through―well, the thin air. The world just sort of melted away, and I went through this―this huge stretch of darkness. Nothingness, more like,” Simon explained, looking as if he were still unsure exactly what had happened. “When I came through, I was in that town…and she was gone. Anyway, I suppose that angel lady must’ve known you were nearby, because I found you the next morning! You remember, in the market?” he prompted, then sighed and looked distastefully at the box. “All that trouble just to give you this stupid thing.”

  Penny lifted the box from Simon’s hands and inspected it. “This has got to be a big mistake. I’m not who they think I am. Why are all these people I’ve never even heard of trying to kill me or―or help me or―”

  Simon’s face contorted. “Excuse me? Do you mean to tell me that you don’t have a clue about what’s going on here? I thought you were the one with all the answers! I need you to protect me, to help me get back! And, if I may ask, who the hell is this guy?” Simon gestured at Hector, who took mild offense. “Who are you, Penelope Fair―”

  “It’s Penny, okay? And I just told you! I’m nobody. I’ve done nothing to deserve this,” Penny moaned. She looked toward Hector. “He was my lit teacher. We somehow got tangled up in this together when a bunch of monsters attacked me. He’s the one who’s special, not me. He’s some sort of wizard from a messed up planet.”