The Conjuring Glass (20 page)

Tovar lay, still as death, on the other side of the door.

Not dead
, she thought,
just knocked out
.

Somewhere past him, on the other side of that open door, The Birdman held Zoe prisoner. Zoe and the other kids, she had no doubt.

Before she stepped through, she raised her wand and forced the hinge bolts out of their rusty sleeves. They fell to the dirt, and then the door itself tipped over, crashing to the ground in a puff of dust and leaves.

If she was going to go through that door, she wanted to make sure it would be open when she and Zoe came back.

If
she and Zoe came back.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Penny crossed the threshold from the hollow into The Birdman’s lair.

Flight of The Birdman

Penny considered the doors around her, then turned back to the one she’d just come through. Second on the right coming in from the emergency exit, the one Zoe had spied trees behind when she’d looked through the keyhole.

She’d seen her reflection in the first one. A mirror, but what kind of mirror?

Zoe and the rest of the kids were behind one of these doors, she was certain of it.

Now, how to open them?

Penny turned back to Tovar, still lying sprawled out next to the open door, and spied the golden glint of a chain around his neck. She stuck his black wand into the waistband of her pajamas, pointed hers at him, giving it a quick
come to me
flick.

Tovar’s key, smaller than her Phoenix Key, old and tarnished, slipped from underneath his cloak, pulling the chain tight as it tried to fly to her. Another flick of her wand and the chain quivered, tightened, then snapped. It flew into the palm of her waiting hand.

“Gotcha!” Penny jammed the key into the closest keyhole, twisted it, and resisted the urge to cheer when the lock clicked.

She twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. A quick scan revealed a large and empty room furnished with antique-looking furniture, every wall draped with scarlet tapestries.

Next, and more out of a wild, irresistible curiosity than any real hope of finding anything, Penny opened the door behind which Zoe had seen her reflection. There was no room behind that one, but a mirror standing the length and depth of the opening. This mirror had a wet, swimmy look to it, as if it were made of a sheet of standing water rather than glass. Penny found herself wanting to reach out and touch it, and forced her hand back to her side.

The next door opened on a room not much larger than a closet, and after a moment she realized that’s exactly what it was. Through rows of hanging robes, every color from scarlet, to green, to black, she spotted another door. She pushed her way through and grasped the plain brass doorknob. The door was unlocked, but opened on nothing.

As Penny turned to leave, she regarded the rows of hanging robes. After a brief hesitation, she riffled through them. It wouldn’t be good for the other kids to recognize her if she did manage to find them. She found a red one. It was a little too large for her, but it would have to do. On her way through, she grabbed a green one that looked about Zoe’s size and stuffed it into one of her robe’s oversized pockets.

She opened other doors at random; one opened on what she thought was the inside of a cargo trailer stuffed with dismantled bleachers, a stage, and other props from Tovar’s show. She realized she was looking out through the open door of the giant safe.

The next two doors opened on nothing at all, just black, open space that seemed to vibrate a faint, discordant hum. These she slammed shut, not liking that hum or the possible horrors such an endless black space might hold.

The next door opened on a cavern, furnished with more of the hanging scarlet tapestries and a stone table covered with flickering candles, giving it the appearance of a secret, underground office—a place where unspeakable business is done and horrible deals made.

There was a door at the far end, standing feet away from a wall of solid stone. A large oval mirror hung on the front of the door, a mirror that at first glance appeared to be too filthy to reflect. As she ran toward it, Penny realized it was not filth, but a gray fog swirling in the interior.

Flickering candlelight glinted off something lying on the floor beside the door. A chain, Penny saw as she neared it. When  she bent to examine it closer, she saw it was the lock chain from her own front door.

This is where he came through
.
This is where he brought Zoe
!

This door had a plain doorknob, and there was nothing beyond it when she opened it but the room’s stone wall.

The engraved doorknobs always go to the same place
, she thought.
The ordinary doors go where you want
.

If she only knew how.

It didn’t matter. She had to find Zoe.

Penny scanned the cavern again and saw no one. No sign at all that anyone might still be there. Just as she was ready to leave the cavern behind and search the next door, a faint ripple ran across a small section of tapestry to her left. Briefly, through a part in the curtain, she saw the cavern extended past that portion of tapestry.

Penny ran to it, very aware of how long this was taking. Also very aware that Tovar would awaken soon and come for her, and that The Birdman, who had not shown himself yet, could be anywhere.

Maybe even behind this
, Penny thought, and hesitated with a fold of the hanging cloth bunched in her fist. Feeling equal parts hope and fear, Penny at last yanked the tapestry aside, tearing it from the wall.

She found Zoe behind it, and for a moment, all thought drowned in the certainty that she was too late. Zoe, her best friend, was dead.

The cold hand that seemed to have gripped her heart slowly loosened.
Not dead
, she realized with a rush of relief.
Only sleeping
.

Stretched out across the dirt
‐
and pebble-strewn ground as comfortable as a baby in a crib, and sleeping.

Beside Zoe, and around her, other kids also slept—and not just the four from Dogwood. Some Penny recognized, but most she didn’t.

A loud snort from a boy nearby made her jump.

Penny ran to Zoe, knelt beside her, and gave her shoulder a shake.

“Zoe, wake up.”

She knew it wouldn’t work. The Birdman had put them into some kind of enchanted sleep only he would be able to break.

It did work.

Zoe’s eyes popped open, and she seemed on the verge of screaming until she focused on Penny’s face.

Resisting the urge to throw her arms around her friend, to shout with relief, Penny said, “Shhh, be quiet.”

She pointed all around them, and Zoe followed her finger, seeing the others sprawled across the cavern floor.

“Put this on. Hide your face,” Penny said, handing her the green robe.

For a moment Zoe only goggled, then she nodded, stood, and slipped the robe on. When it settled over her shoulders, she pulled the hood over her head.

Penny pressed Tovar’s black wand into Zoe’s hand and said, “We have to get them out of here, and quickly, before The Birdman comes back.”

Zoe gaped at the wand in her hand, then faced Penny. “How?”

Penny pointed toward the open door back into the House of Mirrors trailer.

Zoe looked through, her eyes growing wider by the second. Then the look of disorientation left her face and she nodded.

They realized quickly that it
was
an enchanted sleep. The Harvest Day parade could have proceeded through the cavern full volume and they wouldn’t have awakened. The key to breaking the enchantment was a simple one though.

“Katie,” Penny whispered, grabbing Katie West’s shoulder as she did so, and the girl’s eyes flew open at the sound of her name. Penny was sure Katie had seen her face beneath her hood before she had backed away, and could only hope she wouldn’t blab later.

Zoe had already awakened the other three town kids, but the others remained deaf to them.

“We’re going to have to carry them,” Zoe said.

Penny groaned, then nodded.

Penny went out first, peering cautiously through the open door, first one way, then the other, to see who might be waiting for them.

No one was waiting for them, but she was far from relieved.

Tovar was gone. He had awakened and escaped. Or maybe his feathery friend had carried him away. Someone had closed the mirror door, and Penny could almost picture Tovar walking through it, the reflective surface parting around his shape to admit him, then closing when he was through.

She had no doubt at all he was somewhere close, maybe hiding, but most likely watching and waiting.

There was nothing to do but go forward though, so she motioned to Zoe and Katie, who got the others moving in her direction.

Penny moved into the hallway, half carrying, half dragging the youngest of the sleeping kids, a girl a few years younger than she was, but only a little smaller. She moved slowly and kept her wand pointed ahead, just in case. Katie followed her, struggling under the weight of another sleeping kid slung over her shoulder. The oldest girl, the one who’d sprouted flowers during Tovar’s first show, carried one of the young twins from Auburn over each shoulder. The boy followed her, moving easily under his cargo. Zoe was last, grunting under the dead weight of a sleeping boy, her wand also out and ready to use.

The door at the end of the hall, the one that led nowhere but outside, was locked, and Tovar’s key didn’t fit it.

Penny cursed under her breath and stepped away from the door. She’d hoped to avoid this, but she wasn’t strong enough to break the door down, so she had no choice.

Holding her wand so the others could not easily see it, she pointed it at the door and blasted it open.

The sound was like a gunshot in the enclosed corridor, eliciting shocked cries from behind her. The door buckled and flew off its hinges, landing with a muffled crash outside.

The view beyond the door was perhaps the sweetest sight Penny had ever seen, the dark green of moonlit grass and the lazily moving water of the river.

Penny led them around the House of Mirrors and through the deserted park, winding through the games, rides, and booths until she reached the tree at the edge of the park, the one she’d seen Zoe reading under on her first trip into town. She dropped to the grass, relieving herself of the sleeping girl’s weight.

When they had all arrived, Katie opened her mouth to speak.

Penny shook her head and put a finger to her lips. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Disguising her voice as well as she could, Penny pointed at Katie. “Go to the Sheriff’s Office and tell them to come back here.”

Penny turned to the oldest girl and the boy, startling them back a step. “You two stay here and wait.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Zoe whispered, and Penny nodded.

They ran back to the House of Mirrors, jumped the back fence, and sprinted through the blasted back door.

Zoe stopped at the open door to the hollow, but Penny restrained her, grabbing the back of her robe.

“We can’t yet.”

“What?”

“They,” Penny paused for a second, not wanting to say the name, but knowing she had to. “Tovar and The Birdman used the mirrors to find people. They use these doors to kidnap them and get away.”

Zoe nodded. “Okay then. Let’s make sure they can’t use them again.”

Little as either wanted to, they made their way back to the cavern door.

“That’s the one,” Penny said, pointing to the big oval mirror on the door. “He used it to look through our little mirrors to find us.” She stepped through, back into the cavern, and ran to the door. Zoe followed, and when Penny bent down to pick up the door chain to her front door, Zoe nodded.

“Yeah,” Zoe said, and moved in front of the door, turning to view the cavern from this new perspective. “This is the room I saw when he took me.”

Penny dropped the door chain into her robe’s pocket, stepping back from Zoe’s raised wand.

After a few moments Zoe lowered her wand, frowning. “It’s not working.”

Penny raised hers, pointing it at the mirror, preparing to shatter it into a million glittering pieces.

Her wand would not respond. There was not even the fizzle or pop that usually meant she wasn’t focused enough.

After a moment’s debate, she grabbed the oval mirror and lifted it from its hook on the door. Carrying it under one arm, she followed Zoe through the cavern door.

“What now?” Penny wondered aloud.

Zoe considered the question for a moment, then she raised the black wand, pointed it toward the dead end of the corridor, where it led deeper into the House of Mirrors, and when she tried the black wand again, it did work. She sent a fat, boiling fireball flying down the hallway. A second later the hallway was in flames, and they ran toward the exit. The flames followed them, rolling across the floor like a wave.

Penny slid to a stop short of the exit and grabbed Zoe’s sleeve, yanking her to a stop.

“What are you doing?” Zoe almost screamed.

“Through there,” Penny said, pointing through the open doorway into the hollow.

They rushed through, and as Penny’s feet hit the ground on the other side, elation lit her from within.

“We did it!”

Elation quickly gave way to panic as flames licked the empty doorframe, dancing through and reaching toward the lower boughs of the willows like the merry tongue of a demon.

Zoe shouted in shock, then frustration. “Where’s the door?”

A second later, she spotted it and bent down, dropping Tovar’s wand and digging her fingers into the dirt under its edge. She struggled with it, lifting her end several inches off the ground.

Penny helped by lifting it with her wand, and Zoe guided it back into the frame.

“Hold it!” Penny dropped to her knees in front of the door, searching for the hinge pins.

“Hurry up. It’s getting too hot!”

Penny found the first, then the second a few inches away, and scrambled to the door on her hands and knees. She shot the first bolt into the bottom hinge, but was too short to reach the top.