by R. Moses
Chapter Five
“Go. The dragons will be able to breathe fire soon.”
Her mind was buzzing blankly with the impossibility of the voice's origin. She looked past the girl and at the moving mouth of the long-dead unicorn.
The unicorn tilted its sawdust-filled head, glass eyes twinkling. Her mouth cracked open again and a shower of stuffing fell out. “Flee.”
The unicorn stopped moving and an icy thrill swept over Kara. It motivated her and snapped her out of her shock. She said, “Hold the lamp.” Kara shoved the lamp in her hand before she could agree. She whipped her knife out and yelled, “Follow me!”
They bounded past slowly unfurling snakes, sprinted over a pride of stirring lions. Then the dragons took notice of their zig-zag flight.
The blue dragon raised its serpentine head and wove back and forth. Talons swiped at her, and she ducked under and thrust her knife between the scales. She wondered how was she going to defeat a manor's worth of monsters with one knife and a nearly comatose girl tagging along.
For a split second, for the space between stuttering heartbeats, Kara thought about leaving her behind. Her mind was likely broken anyway...The girl would be just another burden, just another worry, just another sad ending.
She was just another abused girl in a world full of them.
Kara's knife pushed all the way through the scales and she ripped sideways. A cloud of sawdust blanketed her and she crashed into something, blinded, her eyes burning.
Then the girl's fingers were wrapped around hers and she was pulling them away. Kara stumbled on, blind and trusting, waiting for talons to slice her back to shreds. She coughed and blinked, tears streaming down her face.
The girl yelled something and a wheezy roar sounded behind them. Two thumps pounded. A rush of warmth shot over them. Kara gasped, “Did you stop the dragons?”
“For a moment. We must keep moving.”
Kara sucked in another lungful and kept stumbling after her guide. “How?”
“I threw the lamp at them. They caught fire from all the dry sawdust.”
That seemed a just death for two dragons to her. They kept on running through the manor, the crackling behind them growing louder. The girl seemed to know where she was going. Kara sensed no hesitation when she chose which room to dart in, which way to turn in the halls. How did she have know the layout of such a vast manor?
Kara blinked the last of the sawdust away and opened her eyes. She could just see the glint of broken mirrors in the next room as they caught reflected flames. She whispered a 'thank you' to the Goddess in her heart. They were so close to getting out...
The crackling became a roar as something massive caught behind them. The flames swept by, racing over walls and up to the ceiling.
They burst into the mirrored room and immediately came to a halt. There was no exit. Where the door to freedom had once been, now there was only an enormous mirror.
It was the only whole mirror in the room, and it shone with subtle magic.
Kara whipped her head around and saw the doorway they had come through was morphing into another mirror. She could see the flames beyond for a second. Then the mirror finished making itself and they were plunged into inky darkness yet again.
She clung to the mystery girl, her ears roaring as the blackness pressed down with cloying thickness. She tried to take her usual three slow breaths but panic was causing her breath to come in short and sharp. She could bite, cut, or hit a human opponent, but this was something she did not know how to fight. This was the oldest of magic, powerful and mysterious. And clearly intent on doing them harm.
Yet nothing happened. The darkness, thick and pressing as it was, slithered with no horrors. They were trapped, but why?
The girl whispered, “I think we have to break the ensorceled mirror to escape.”
Kara untangled their fingers, ashamed that she had latched on so desperately. “How do you know there is even a way to escape?”
“I do not know for sure.”
Kara paused, then asked, “What is your name?”
Silence for so long that she began to grow uncomfortable, then, “Call me Lyla. I seem to remember that name.” She added after another long moment, “I do not remember much else.”
“Okay. My name is Kara. My companions were Icari, Vayne, and Naomi.” She figured the mirror-breaking plan was as good as any. “I'm going to start breaking mirrors since I am wearing leather boots and have some protection against flying shards. You are just wearing a thin tunic.”
Lyla said nothing, so Kara took a step away, her boots crunching on glass. A thought stopped her cold.
“Won't the fire smoke us out soon?”
Lyla said, “This is a place where fire cannot go.”
“Fire can go anywhere it wants.”
“Not here,” Lyla whispered. “She is protecting us with her water song. But she is not strong enough to free us. We must help her.”
Kara sighed through her nose. She was grateful that Lyla had saved her life, but it was obvious she was crazy...
A silvery glow shimmered in the left corner of her eye. She blinked and turned, hoping the room was opening again.
The light outlined the mirror that covered the exit. Crackles of molten power raced around the edges. Kara made herself finish walking towards the mirror as this mystery unfurled. The silver within flowed like water under moonlight to form something beautiful. Kara slowed her steps, mesmerized, as the mist morphed into a unicorn. It stood perfectly still and looked at her with the saddest eyes she had ever seen.
And she had seen a lot of sadness in her eighteen years.
The unicorn came and lowered her horn. She placed the tip on her side of the mirror. Spiderweb cracks stretched from the point of impact. She pushed harder, her split hooves pawing the ground.
Kara took another step forward, fascinated by this being of light and love. She wondered why the unicorn was helping them and why it was here. Was it trapped but wanted them to escape?
A darkness billowed in the mirror behind the unicorn. It was rotten, a thing so foul it should not even exist.
And it wanted Lyla and Kara to stay with it, feeding off them, hurting them...
It rushed upon the unicorn and enveloped her purity. She flew back into the dreamy distance, defeated. The blackness pushed against the webbing of cracks and the mirror bulged.
Kara ran forward and smashed her boot into the mirror. An echoing wail sliced through her head as her foot shot through, but she saw the open doors of the manor's foyer beyond the mirror.
And sunlight, the most beautiful thing in creation right now, winked at her.
Lyla ran past her and grabbed her hand. Kara shouted, “Wait! Your feet!” She winced as she saw the bloody footprints Lyla was leaving behind and knew it was too late to fuss over cut feet. She stumbled after her and they sprinted past the sweeping staircases into the glorious light of day. Sticky warmth embraced her the second she crossed back into the world of light.
Kara stumbled forward, releasing the girl, and fell to her knees to touch the sun-warmed grass. She knew they were safe for now. The faceless evil that had chased them could not enter the light of day.
Icari dropped before her and he hugged her so tight she could not breathe. He was trembling with relief, and she was touched. She hugged back fiercely.
He babbled, “They stopped me from going back to you, thank the Goddess, I will carve a shrine to her tonight, oh Kara...”
She clutched his back and in that dozy moment under the blue of a summer sky, she knew she had one true friend.
Vayne said, “Goddess, Kara. We didn't think you were going to make it.”
For the first time since she had met Vayne, she did not care that he was speaking to her. She continued to hug Icari until he composed himself and drew back on his own. He gave her a weak smile. “I apologize for grabbing you. I needed to make sure you were alive and not an illusion.”
She returned the smile a
nd they stood up. “Quite all right.” She whispered, “But I think the girl we found needs our help.”
He looked over to Lyla, who was facing the manor while lifting her left foot and picking out the glass. Kara looked at her too, then at the manor-and saw no smoke. The house sat silent and still as always.
Kara said, “Thanks for burning the dragons, Lyla.”
Naomi piped up. “Your name is Lyla?”
Lyla nodded, her pale lips parted. She said, “I tried to burn it all down. But the loosed demons chilled the flames. The fire is gone now. The house will not burn.”
Blood ran down her toes and dripped into the waiting grass.