Snow White's Mirror

by Shonna Slayton

  “What is this?” Fremont perked up from his slump in the corner and scrambled to the mirror. “I had a lump of raw copper in my pocket when I went in that last time. Winnings from a game. I wonder if that is how I got out. You think having copper on your person prevents the magic from taking full effect? Have you tried leaving the mirror?”

  No, she hadn’t. Imagine if, after all this time, all she had to do was step out of the mirror.

  “Try it,” Lou said.

  Billie jabbed her hand at the mirror, stealing herself against the icy-hot feeling. The surface bent with her hand, causing ripples to spread toward the edges. “I’m pressing into it, and if feels like it’s stretching. What does it look like on your side?”

  “Hard to see now that the sun is rising, but your hand isn’t coming out,” Winn said. He sounded disappointed. “Take a running leap at it, like how we can toss items through. Maybe it needs some force with it.”

  Run and fling herself at a mirror. It went against every instinct she had. But if she closed her eyes and thought of it as a portal, perhaps it would work if she didn’t think about crashing into a hard surface.

  “Okay. Here I come.” She backed up and ran, diving forward at the last second and squeezing her eyes shut. The mirror stretched and stretched but snapped her back. She landed on her backside.

  “I bet that looked like the fairest of them all,” Billie said sourly.

  “It was worth a try,” Lou said.

  “No, no. This is important,” Fremont said. “We know something that I bet she doesn’t know.” He laughed. “We can use the copper against her.”

  “Looks like I need to start collecting pennies for my wedding shoes.” Winn wiggled his eyebrows at Billie.

  “That’s actually a great idea,” Billie said. “I can sew pennies into all our hems. Maybe it’ll keep the window from closing while we’re inside. A safety net in case our plan fails.”

  Fremont stopped laughing as if the full realization of their plan had hit him. He was free, but he’d be sacrificing his freedom to help them catch Matron.

  So much depended on him, and there was a risk that he would end up trapped in the mirror. Lou handed him her carbide lamp. “Let’s get you hidden in the mine. We don’t want her knowing you’re back.”

  Billie and Winn looked long and hard at each other through the mirror.

  “It’ll work,” he said. “We’ll get out.”

  “Do you think Fremont will do it?” asked Billie.

  “I don’t know. I wish we could find the portal ourselves, and then it wouldn’t matter.”

  “Except we’ve been looking for days and haven’t found another portal inside the mirror, nor another mirror in Matron’s office,” Billie said. They’d torn that office inside out. “We need him.” She lowered her gaze as she tried to keep the what if’s out of her mind. That’s when she noticed the frame inside the mirror had changed.

  “Winn, did you see?” The words came out in a rush. “The fairies moved from where I last sketched them.” The two little ones at the bottom were now leaning one elbow each on the pomegranate. She got nose to nose with them.

  “Please tell me what to do. We’re running out of time.”

  The figures stared back at her, smiling their sweet smiles. A quick glance at the other fairies was enough to show her that these were the only two who moved.

  “Fine, don’t say anything, but I caught you. Won’t take me long to learn more.” I hope.

  “At least we know where in the frame to focus on,” said Winn. “Hey, look, there’s all this condensation on the edges of the window. Must be cold this morning.”

  Billie examined the edges. “Doesn’t look any different on this side.”

  “That’s not condensation,” Lou said, closing the mine door. “The window is turning back into a proper mirror.”

  Billie and Winn locked eyes.

  “I noticed it earlier but didn’t want to scare you.”

  Billie’s mouth went dry. The mirror was changing, and she was the one inside.

  “We can’t wait any longer then,” said Winn. “It’s got to be today.”

  They all nodded their agreement.

  Fortunately, Billie didn’t have long to wonder if the window would close in on her. Before Winn and Lou had finished breakfast, she was shoved out of the mirror and Winn was back in.

  “What’s going on?” Billie said, spinning back to the mirror. “Matron is next in the rotation.”

  Lou studied the mirror. “I don’t know, child. Maybe she figured it out, and that’s why the window is closing.”

  Billie didn’t want to accept that answer. “Winn? Are you okay?”

  Because of the light, his face was faint, like he barely existed. “Same as always.”

  “Don’t worry. Fremont and I will find the other portal today.”

  Billie called Fremont out of his hiding place and explained to him what had happened.

  He scratched his chin. “Hmm. Sorry to see that. We better get started. Later, Lou!” Fremont casually strode out of the cabin.

  “Keep an eye on him,” Winn said. “He’s awfully light-hearted about all this.”

  “Right. I don’t trust him, either.”

  Too much of their plan was riding on Fremont.

  Chapter 46

  After stopping by her hotel room to collect all her pennies, Billie took Fremont to the back alley of the Poisoned Apple. “Is this where you came out?”

  He cringed. “Ja.”

  “Up you go, then.”

  It was a risk that Matron would be in her office, but what else could they do? They needed that other mirror no matter what it took to get it.

  When he got to the top of the stairs, Fremont looked down, and Billie waved him on encouragingly. “What is she going to do to you in her office?” she whispered. “We need that mirror, and you’re the one who has any clue as to where it’s hidden.”

  She waved him on again, and he entered the second floor. After ten minutes had passed and he didn’t come back out, Billie grew worried. What if Matron could do something to Fremont?

  She quietly made her way to Matron’s office. The door was ajar, and she could just make out Fremont’s arm as he stood before the desk.

  “You really think I would fall in love with the likes of you?” Matron said, using the voice and tone which revealed her true nature.

  Billie gasped. That’s what Fremont was hiding. He had fallen in love with Matron. So, his copper experiment had been about helping her escape. They were right to be cautious with their trust.

  “I failed you once, but this time, I know what I am doing,” he said.

  Billie balled her fists. She had to put a stop to this. Winn’s life was at stake.

  “How could you?” Billie said, storming into the room before Fremont could reveal their plan.

  Fremont whirled around. “No. No, it is not what you think.” He held up his hands. “Ja, okay some of what you are thinking. I felt sorry for her. I am softy at heart, and a damsel in distress is my weakness. She had all these ideas about how she could break the spell. She sounded so remorseful I thought she had changed, and then our family could finally release this burden. Not all of us want to be miners and live on the edge of civilization, you know. I researched the old family stories and learned we needed a conductor. Copper, and lots of it to interfere with the boundaries of the mirror.”

  Matron looked bored.

  “But it did not work out the way I thought it would. I think she knew it all along.” He cast her a scowl. “Lou was always so strong. She should have been the one to protect the mirror from the start, not me.”

  Fremont spoke directly to Matron. “I believed that people could change, and I thought you had had enough time to learn from your mistakes. I should have buried you in that mountain and never looked back.”

  Matron cackled. “Doesn’t matter anyway. One of those kids is going to end up in the mirror. Soon, by the looks of things. I’d have give
n you a role in my kingdom if you’d shown more loyalty than this. You left as soon as things got uncomfortable.”

  “Your kingdom?” Billie said. “There aren’t kingdoms anymore.”

  “Doesn’t matter what you call it, I’m well on my way to taking over this town. The mirror has provided me the funds I need to buy the shares in Queen Consolidated. Conquest may not happen with armies in this land, but it still happens. This entire town will soon be mine. Now get out. I don’t need you anymore. Either of you.”

  “Wait.” Billie stalled for time. With the hope that Fremont was still on their side, she needed to create a distraction so he could find the second mirror. He was already meandering around her office, picking up pieces and setting them down in a different spot. Not how Billie would have gone about it, but at least he was headed toward the closet.

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  Matron’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t know what you have to offer me that I want. I don’t need anything from Bergmann Consolidated, even if you had the authority to give it.”

  “Once you’re out of the mirror, you can’t get any more objects from it. Am I right?”

  A twitch in Matron’s otherwise superior smile gave her away. She apparently had thought about that.

  “A mirror that reveals who is the fairest of them all? Really.” Matron smirked. “They thought they were punishing me by making me wear those red-hot iron shoes, but I’ve had the last laugh. After I danced my way into the mirror, I turned them into ruby slippers, and have been living like a queen ever since.”

  Matron’s words rang hollow. If she was living so grandly inside the mirror, she wouldn’t be trying so hard to get out.

  Being in the mirror had changed Winn for the better. Just like the sun could melt ice and at the same time hardened clay, Winn’s heart melted but Matron’s hardened like Pharaoh’s of old. And Billie could use that to her advantage.

  “I need you to teach me how to get objects from the mirror, and then if I’m the one trapped at the end of all this, I’ll continue to help you. But if you refuse, I won’t give you anything at all.”

  Fremont was now behind Matron, at the closet door.

  “Greedy little thing, aren’t you? Just like your mother.”

  Billie paused, confused. “W-what do you mean? You’ve never met my mother.”

  Matron’s lips curled into a snarl. “Once. I almost had her, but the barrier wasn’t thin enough, then. Her hand went through the glass as she tried to grab a trinket she wanted.”

  “I don’t believe you. She was never here.”

  “Not here. Your father’s office in Boston when Fremont was on his way to this mining town. How is she, by the way?”

  Billie pictured Mother’s mottled purple skin that had started on her hand but had spread up to her elbow. How she had covered all the mirrors so she wouldn’t be reminded of how she looked. But that wasn’t why she covered the mirrors. She was afraid of mirrors not because of what they reflected but because of what they represented? Or what they could do?

  Matron continued talking as if what she had revealed hadn’t shaken Billie.

  “Although, I’ll grant you that living inside a mirror isn’t so bad when you add furnishings.” Matron glanced around the office. “You can—”

  Billie stopped her. “My mother was the first one you tried to trap in the mirror, wasn’t she?”

  Matron waved her hand as if it was of no consequence. “I’ve been running my experiments for years. Some have been more successful than others. Take you, for example.” Matron leaned back in the chair. “Bit by bit your vanity and greed have been binding you to the mirror. You can have anything you want in there, except freedom. Just wait, you’ll be trapped by your vanity, and then forced to wallow in it. If you can figure out the proper way to ask the mirror for what you want.”

  Billie struggled to control her anger. It wouldn’t do to become too vulnerable. “You don’t know what I want most from the mirror, but it’s nothing for my vanity, as you say.”

  “Hmm. Curious. Freeze Fremont.” Matron flicked up her index finger. “Don’t you take another step.”

  He turned at the closet door and met Billie’s gaze.

  “Men?” Matron called out.

  Two bruisers with matching horseshoe mustaches filled the doorway.

  Where did they come from?

  “Escort these two out, please, and don’t let them back in. They’re banned from the premises.”

  The bouncers insisted on gripping their arms as they shoved them through the hall and down the outside stairs.

  “I’ll go on my own,” Billie said, trying to get free, but the man holding her only squeezed harder until they’d descended the stairs.

  Fremont scowled at his escort as the man shoved him on his way.

  “You heard the lady, you’re not welcome back,” one said, before standing guard at the bottom of the stairs.

  After Billie and Fremont returned to the main street, Fremont dusted his arms off, “She knew I was in town. I don’t know how, but she was expecting me.”

  “I was afraid you were going to tell her our plan.”

  “No, I was trying to lull her into thinking I was still trying to get her out.”

  “And did you know about what she did to my mother?”

  Fremont vehemently shook his head. “That I did not know. I cannot watch her every second of the day.”

  “Miss Bergmann! Miss Bergmann!”

  Miss Brooks, from Lacey’s beauty salon, ran down the street toward them. She wore a greasy apron and had hiked up her long skirt with one hand so she could run faster.

  “Wait here,” Billie said, and went to meet Miss Brooks.

  “I saw what happened,” she said. “At back of Matron’s place. Horrible woman. There was no need for those men to shove you down the stairs like that.”

  “I’m fine, Miss Brooks. Thanks for checking on me. How are you? Working somewhere else?” Billie automatically slipped into her polite-charm-school small talk but couldn’t help stealing a glance at Fremont. They had to find another way into Matron’s office.

  “Yes, but that’s not why I stopped you. I’m working in the restaurant up the street and was tossing out some trash when I saw you getting flung out of the Poisoned Apple. She always treated you like something special, and I didn’t like seeing her turn on another gal like that, specially one like you who’s in mourning.”

  “Thank you. But I could say the same for you, too.”

  Miss Brooks shook her head. “Doesn’t matter what she done to me. I’m leaving town tonight, but I want to give you something before I go. I’m not normally one to be so spiteful, but Matron has soured enough people in this town, and I don’t mind getting her goat a little. You can decide what to do with it.”

  Billie reached out and touched Miss Brooks’s arm. “What are you talking about?”

  “Follow me.”

  After a few minutes, Billie realized they were going to Lacey’s, and she’d also lost sight of Fremont.

  Miss Brooks looped her arm through Billie’s so they could talk easier without being overheard. “I saw her hide something last night. I was saying my goodbyes to the gals at the beauty salon when she came in. They hid me in the back since they knew there had been trouble, and so I saw her put something behind the filing cabinet. Made me suspicious since what she was hiding used to be in her office at the saloon, and here she was acting all sneaky-like. It might be something you could use.”

  Billie couldn’t dare to hope it was what she thought it was. But if Matron realized Fremont was back, she might have guessed they knew about another portal.

  Miss Brooks breezed through the beauty salon to the back room, and then reached behind a tall filing cabinet. With a little bit of effort, she pulled out a mirror.

  It was oval and shared the same patina as the frame at Lou’s. Billie’s heart skipped a beat. They found it.

  “I don’t know why she hid it back here i
nstead of putting it on the wall,” Miss Brooks said. “It’s such a pretty thing; the customers would love it.” She gave the mirror one last glance before handing it over.

  Billie licked her lips and accepted the mirror. “Thank you, Miss Brooks. I know just what to do with this.”

  Billie hugged her tight.

  “Oh, goodness.” Miss Brooks became flustered. “Weren’t that big a deal.”

  “To me it is. Best wishes on your new life in California,” Billie said, squeezing her one last time.

  Billie practically skipped outside with the mirror, the beauty salon girls exchanging looks and preparing for gossip as soon as the door closed.

  Fremont stood waiting on the street, a bit out of breath.

  “We got it!” Billie said.

  “I had a feeling. So, I inquired about the next step in the plan. Good news. The touring company you told me about left their glass at the Opera House. It was the end of the run on that show and since the glass is delicate to transport, they left it behind. I may have hinted that Bergmann Consolidated might become a benefactor if they let us use their building today.”

  Finally, their plan was lining up nicely. Billie hugged the mirror. “Can I trust you to bring this to Lou?”

  “Ach. How could you ask?” Fremont gave her an exaggerated hurt expression.

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “I promise. Hand it over before her royal highness sees us.”

  “Take these, too. Have Lou sew them in for you.” Billie poured a handful of pennies from her reticule into his hand.

  “I can sew.” He tugged proudly on his collar. “Bet Lou can’t.”

  “Tell Winn I’ll meet him at the Opera House.”

  Fremont didn’t look back but waved, whistling a happy tune as he headed up the mountain to Lou’s mine.

  Could they count on Fremont to do the next, most important step?

  Chapter 47