The MirrorMasters (8 page)

"What is it?" I asked. Power still flowed through my veins, eager to stretch its wings and explore what it could do. And despite my reservations, I was curious and ready to let it.

"Would you be willing to try testing the limits of your…abilities?"

"How?"

"See if you can get the image crystal clear and hold it in place, then travel there."

"Travel there?" I blinked in surprise. "You mean, through the mirror?"

"Exactly."

"Start with your room," Kara suggested, bouncing on her toes as a bright smile lit up her face.

"Sure, I'll try. But even if this works, it doesn't mean I'd be able to travel that way to some planet that could be halfway across the galaxy for all we know."

"Don't underestimate yourself, Leah. Come on." Jenny put an arm around me and guided me to stand directly in front of the mirror. "Now, picture your room."

I did so, holding my gaze on the mirror. Moments later, the image shimmered into place. My room appeared hazy at first, as if blanketed in fog, and it flickered in and out of existence in tandem with my vacillating emotions. Did I
want
this to succeed or not? What if I ended up trapped between mirrors in some sort of limbo, never making it out to the other side? Then again, what if mastering this ability allowed me to help others, even save lives? At this thought, the image stabilized.

With an effort of will, I made the image as clear as possible, as though I were gazing into my room from outside the balcony door. In front of me, close enough to touch, I found the French doors that led inside. The walls of my room, a light sage green, complemented the high vaulted ceilings, the crown molding, the baseboards, and the hardwood floors, all of which were a deep mahogany like my bedroom set. Over my bed hung one of Mrs. Taylor's paintings, along with a collection of framed photographs I had taken of the beach, my friends, and my travels.

"Good," Jenny whispered into my ear. "Now, reach out and try to go through the mirror."

Gently but firmly, Jenny led me forward, raising my right arm toward the mirror. How did she know what to do? To my shock, when my fingers came in contact with the mirror, it was no longer solid. Instead, it had become a rippling, shimmering sea of iridescent glass. It parted at my touch, allowing my hand to pass through. I froze, eyes wide.

"Focus!" Jenny hissed, reminding me to hold the gateway open. It widened, inch by slow inch — and my battle for every bit of expansion made me lightheaded — so that there was nothing between this room and mine but the open gateway I'd created via the mirror. Now, I felt nothing but air.

Tentatively, I reached my hand further through and splayed my fingers. I had just reached into my own room!

"Oh, my goodness!" I exclaimed, slowly stepping closer to the mirror. But I'd lost my focus, and what had been empty air became liquid glass again. My hand was submerged up to my wrist. Around the edges of the mirror, the liquid began to solidify, and the rest of the mirror rapidly began to do the same inward toward the center. With a startled cry, I snatched my hand back just in time.

"Woah! It actually worked! You almost walked through that mirror into your room!" Kara exclaimed in amazement.

"Did that just happen?" I asked, gazing at my reflection and Jenny's in the mirror before reaching out once more to touch it. This time, my hand met solid glass.

"
Y
ou didn't
. Tell me you didn't!" David exclaimed, his jaw set and fists clenched tightly in anger. "Already?"

It was later in the evening, and we were hanging out in my room. I sat cross-legged on my bed, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun. Mom and Dad were downstairs, but they had already said that dinner would be in twenty minutes. One of them could come up and knock on the door at any moment.

I glanced down, unable to bring myself to say anything. Earlier today, he had tried to be supportive of my plans for looking into my past, but this went so much further. I'd known he would hate this scenario.

"Leah!"

"David, I had to!" I said, finally managing to find the courage to lift my chin and look him in the eye. "There's a planet somewhere out there in peril. My home planet. Millions, maybe even billions, of lives are at stake, and, according to the prophecy, I'm the one who needs to find out how to save them."

"You don't know that," David protested, but his real meaning was clear. He didn't want to believe it.

"If it's true, I owe it to them and to myself to find out."

"How are you going to do that? By putting yourself at risk, investigating things you should leave alone?"

"No! Look, I needed to know about my past. About how I got here and anything else they knew."

"And?"

I filled him in on the discoveries we'd made at the social services agency, followed by what we'd gleaned from experimenting with mirror-gazing at Jenny's.

David listened, curious despite himself. His expressions ranged from gratitude as I told him of the family that had rescued me, to thoughtful as I recounted the evidence: the unusual language, the supposedly drunk guy who swore he saw me appear out of nowhere, my newly discovered abilities.

"It's an interesting story, but it doesn't tell us much. You can actually do that with mirrors? I never imagined abilities like that were real."

I nodded, my expression solemn. "I'll show you."

Closing my eyes, I concentrated for a moment, and then opened them to focus on the mirror. Deciding to show David that crystal castle by the sparkling purple ocean, I focused on the scene as I remembered it from my first effort. Soon, the image in the mirror shimmered and rippled, finally settling to display the castle and ocean beyond. When I heard David's startled gasp, I knew I'd succeeded.

"Wow, that's so beautiful. Is that where you think you're from? Look, it has two moons! And....is that two suns, one reddish-yellow one setting, and a blue one higher in the sky?"

"It is!" I exclaimed, eyes wide as I took in the scene. "I think there's a third moon, over there. Yes, there it is, just like in my dream last night. And there should be a beautiful ringed gas giant planet dominating the sky. Maybe it hasn't risen yet. It...it all looks so familiar. I'm sure that's where I'm from. David, I'm sorry. I didn't ask for any of this, and it's all happening so quickly."

David put a hand on my shoulder. "There's nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who's sorry for giving you such a hard time. Finding out about your past is important to you. I just want you to be safe."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. I know this is hard for you, too."

We shared a brief sibling hug, and to my astonishment, the scene was still there in the mirror when I looked up again. It hadn't disappeared for lack of focus. "It's still there! Usually the image is gone if I lose focus. Maybe I'm getting better at this."

A chair creaked down in the living room. I jumped as I heard heavy, slow footsteps on the stairs a moment later. The image in the mirror faded as my heart beat fast and my concentration scattered. Dad was coming upstairs! When the mirror returned to normal, a knock sounded on the door.

"Dinner in five minutes, kids! If you're not helping set up, you two can clean up the dishes afterwards."

David and I shared an amused glance. "Okay. We'll be ready in a few," I called. I listened, relieved to hear Dad heading back downstairs.

Excited by my success, I attempted to see more of my homeworld. My first thought was to see my parents, my birth parents, but I didn't want to do that with David here — it would be too uncomfortable. I loved Mom, Dad, and David. It seemed like a betrayal to even think about trying to find out about my birth family. Yet, a part of me wanted to know them, too. It was an internal conflict I wasn't quite ready to deal with yet, so I was relieved to discover my faint attempt to see them hadn't worked.

"Beautiful world," David remarked." Wouldn't it be great if we could all go? If you have to save that world, I want to help. I'll bet Kara, Jen, and Kevin would all feel the same way. But part of me cautions that we don't even know whether it's real. You could be seeing only what you expect or want to see."

"All of us going there together would be amazing! But it seems like a dangerous place. In my dream, there was a horrible sandstorm in the desert by a red palace. Why would I expect or want to see a dangerous world, a place so ravaged?"

I concentrated on exploring the world, and what I saw alternated between breathtakingly beautiful landscapes. Floating mountains, bioluminescent jungles, plains surrounded by forests of crystal, and cities of luminous glass skyscrapers on the sea, all left me and David in awe. But as the mirror revealed image upon image of that other world, it began to show evidence of severe damage from natural disasters. One desert seemed to be scarred black in jagged gashes along much of what had once been pristine white sand. A shoreline in a tropical area was now covered in feet of snow, and the waters were now mainly frozen slush, a few scattered palm trees just visible above the snow.

A painful lump constricted my throat. "It's getting bad. I've got to figure out something before it gets worse." I couldn't bear to see any more.

"What does this prophecy say?" David asked as the image in the mirror faded.

"I don't know yet, beyond this lost MirrorMaster who will return in a time of disasters to put a stop to them. But there's got to be more to the prophecy. It's in an ancient language, so unless we have a way to translate it, I'm not sure how to find out what it says. Madame Helena said something about the ring — one of the things inside this box — being a guide. Maybe it can help translate the prophecy."

I searched under my bed to find the box. After a few moments, my fingers came into contact with the familiar wood. As I drew it out from under the bed, the box glowed bright green in my hands.

"So that's the prophecy?" David whistled under his breath. He watched as I opened the box, withdrawing the ring and a delicate parchment scroll.

"It's written in some sort of symbolic language. I just hope this ring will translate it. Otherwise, I have no idea what to do, short of finding someone on that planet who can tell me what it says."

I placed the ring on my finger and unrolled the parchment. As I did, an electric tingle flowed through my hands, emanating from the ring and into the parchment paper. Like the writing on the box, the symbols on the parchment glowed green. Then, the symbols began to change, forming familiar letters and words.

"
A terrible destruction shall be unleashed on Jantyr and all of the galaxy. Waters rising to overcome everything in its wake, reaching cities far inland. Fire and smoke from deep within the earth, burning and choking all in its path. Wind as cold as space flash-freezing all it touches. When these signs are seen, there shall be no doubt that the world will end: Blue flame in the heavens, the earth's crust slipping, the suns bursting apart. When you see the first sign, the next ones are soon to follow. But hope yet remains.

A lost First Daughter, a MirrorMaster, shall return before the final three signs. She has been touched by the gift of healing and returned from the dead. Her soul alone is capable of the power needed to end the destruction. Seven crystals she must wield, each in their proper places. Soul, Illusion, Protection, Knowledge, Power, Healing, and Influence. The ring shall be her guide. Seek the legends of old, and the places to wield them shall be revealed. Then, magic and technology united can stop the apocalypse and renew the world, the galaxy. A word of warning: her task must be completed before the final sign."

Cold dread settled in the pit of my stomach as I read. So much was at stake. Even if I could figure out my newfound abilities quickly enough to travel through space and time using mirrors, I still wasn't sure I could do this. The distance was so far that it might not work. But then, I had managed to get the mirror to show us the planet. So why couldn't I take it a step further and travel there? It was a scary, exhilarating thought.

"Oh, heavens, I have to find seven crystals and the places to wield them before this cataclysm destroys the whole galaxy?" I moaned, burying my face in my hands, and almost succumbed to despair. Then I thought of the people there, like my birth parents and that little girl from my dream whose family perished in a sandstorm. Up to the task or not, I was apparently the only one who could accomplish it. That beautiful world and all the people who lived there weren't meant to die like this. I had no choice but to do everything I could to save them.

"You don't want us going because it's dangerous?" David said. "Leah, this is way beyond dangerous. This sounds like a suicide mission! There's no way you're going. Look, I know you want to save these people. I do, too. But…"

"Please understand — I have to! I can't leave them to that fate. No matter how terrified I may be, no matter how badly I want to stay here... I can't. This could affect Earth, too, if it's in the same galaxy." I had never been so fiercely determined, so lit with inner fire. Even David couldn't talk me out of this.

David sighed. I knew the expression that he wore, brows furrowed together and a look of worry and understanding in his eyes. He was thinking deeply, but finally shook his head. "It's just... this is a lot to take in. Come on, let's go get dinner."

M
y eyes flew
open as a vivid dream ended, leaving me wondering whether it had been just a dream. No, it had been too vivid, and inside I knew my instinct was right. It had actually happened.

On the night of the anniversary, the woman who resembled me had done some sort of ritual using a crystal, the same orb I had seen glowing in the mirror that night. Now the crystal was imprisoning all the spirits, and worse, Jenny was bound to it because of that ritual in the cemetery. Those nightmarish images were real.

Wide awake now, I had no intentions of going back to sleep. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed, knowing that I had to help them, that I had to retrieve that crystal — likely one of the seven I needed.

"The Soul Crystal," I whispered. Yes, that made sense. Which other one would bind spirits to it?

Gazing into the large mirror atop my dresser, I focused on the location of the Soul Crystal. After a few moments of quiet reflection, I watched as a familiar image rippled into view. With a similar bone structure to mine, and the same blond waves and slim build, the woman was unmistakable as the one I had seen before. Hands on her hips, she — my birth sister — stood in the spartan, all white-and-metal lab room at the Forensic Research Institute, the same room that held the key while I'd mirror-gazed with Kara and Jenny. My heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, no. She's going for the key!"

How could the woman know about the key, or the fact that I'd been searching for it? Pushing that thought aside to hold the image of the lab room in the mirror, I concentrated on holding that image as clearly as possible: a wide room — longer than it was deep — with windows that stretched from floor to ceiling along the outside wall, a long, low metal table in the center of the room, and shelves full of testing equipment.

As I watched, my birth sister staggered back, crying out in rage. She appeared drained and weakened, needing to lean against a nearby wall for support. Slowly, I stood and approached the mirror, never taking my eyes off the image within. With no time left for doubts about how I was going to get the crystal, or to even plan what I would do once I got there, I rushed to my dresser, climbed onto it, and kneeled. Then I reached out and touched the mirror. As before, the glass became a shimmery iridescent liquid and parted to become a doorway. I pushed myself through to the other side. A sterile, antiseptic smell stung my nostrils the second I stepped into the Forensic Research Institute.

"Why have you come here?" a sharp voice demanded from behind me.

I whirled to face the woman, my back now against the outer windows. We stood across the table from each other in a dim room, eyeing each other in wary tension. My gaze drifted to the key, held in a glass jar on the table. In the darkness, lit only by pale moonlight filtering through the windows and a single fluorescent bulb, the key began to glow with a pale white light.

"I came for the Soul Crystal and the key." My voice, slower and more deliberate than that of the other woman, carried well inside this room. Drawing myself up to my full height, still several inches shorter than the woman standing before me, I reached my hand out, palm up. Wary, hopeful, I took a tentative step forward, then another, more determined one. "Please. They're the only chance of stopping the disasters on that other world."

"You do realize they have hidden cameras here," the woman said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. That nose sloped in the same way as mine. Those high cheekbones with a smattering of freckles were just like mine, too. "You'll be caught. But then, perhaps it won't matter. I wanted to spare you, Leah. Under the circumstances, I don't think that's possible."

"How do you know my name? I don't even know yours," I said, cautiously edging closer. Her words had chilled me straight to the core. Whatever protection my own crystal offered, I could only hope it would suffice to get me safely through this.

"
I am Aedalina, Queen of Jantyr's Desert Lands. If you want to live to return there, you need to do exactly as I say." Evidently feeling stronger, Aedalina pushed herself off the wall and advanced on me, standing straight, with shoulders back and head held high. Her hard, clipped tone carried the air of authority of someone who is accustomed to being obeyed.

I had never done well with obedience. "Meaning let you take over, trust you to save the galaxy, right?"

Since I stood closer to the glass container holding the key, I decided that my best option would be to go for the key first. I made a run for the table, grabbing the container.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't open. The key lit up a brilliant green, and the glass vibrated at my touch. The metal inside twisted and spun, knocking against the confines of its prison as it tried to get out.

"No!" Aedalina screamed out as she dove across the table at me. "You will not have that key! That key is mine!"

Reacting on instinct, I threw the glass container to the floor. It hit with a sharp crack, then a tinkling of shattering glass as it scattered along the floor. Aedalina tackled me hard to the ground. I reached out for the key, and it melted into a pool of shimmering liquid metal, then flowed smoothly toward my outstretched hand. It was surprisingly cool against my skin as it flowed up my arm, to my neck, and became part of my pendant.

"Give it to me!" Aedalina hissed, grabbing at the key. When it slipped through her fingers, she grabbed me around the neck and pushed me against the floor. "You need to surrender that key to me now! You cannot fight me, Leah, so why even try? Since you've barely begun to use your powers, you're too weak to stop me from taking it from you, along with the box and your pendant. Without them, Jantyr will be destroyed! Is that what you want?"

"No!" I choked out as the force of my protective pendant hurled Aedalina across the room, toward the wall of windows. Aedalina smacked against the windows with a sickening thud, collapsing into a heap on the floor. Her cry of pain made me wince. A trail of blood spilled from beneath Aedalina's arm, stark red against the white tile floor. Moments later, Aedalina sat up, too, leaning against the glass wall of windows. I grasped at my throat, coughing, my breath coming in shallow gasps when I managed to sit up. "How did you know about that box?"

"I know much more than you realize. You would be wise to accept what I'm offering you. Either join me and help save our world, or I will take your powers and drain your soul to do it myself."

A leaden feeling of guilt settled in the pit of my stomach at the sight of blood dripping from a gash in Aedalina's forehead. She hadn't moved, instead keeping her posture straight and her pose with limbs askew, somehow managing to look regal. Noticing, I took advantage of the brief reprieve to recover, sitting slumped by the table with my knees drawn up to my chest. "I want to stop the disasters and save our world, Aedalina. I do. But…how do I know, you're not the one who unleashed the disasters and placed our world in jeopardy to begin with? Why should I trust that you want it stopped?"

"They needed to see the horrors of what technology can do, and if I hadn't started it, others would have. By then it would have been too late. Trust me when I say that one way or another, I
will
save the planet, with or without your help. I don't want it destroyed, whatever you may believe." With a graceful wave of her hand over her forehead, Aedalina wiped the blood from her wound.

I wanted to scream at her for all the people she'd murdered in the process, but now was not the time for that. I had to be careful. With a great effort of restraint, I simply said, "Then give me the crystal and set the spirits free, including my best friend Jenny, and I'll help you. You don't need them now."

"Wrong answer, dear sister. It doesn't work that way."

"Why not?" I held her gaze. "How will those spirits help, if all their energy is drained before we even have a chance to make it to that world? That's what the Soul Crystal does, doesn't it — traps someone's soul and drains their energy, harvests it to power whatever you want it to? You will have destroyed them...for nothing! My soul is enough!"

Aedalina's expression was calculating as she pondered my words. "What do you know about what needs to be done?"

"Seven crystals need to go in seven different places around the world before the final sign."

"Where? What sign?" Aedalina's eyes lit up in hunger at this information. A predator stalking her prey, she stepped closer, reaching out to casually play with my hair. "Tell me."

I stiffened, the only sign of my inner conflict over how much to tell Aedalina. Standing stock-still, hands at my sides, I refused to back away. "I don't know where. The prophecy didn't say. But it says I'll make it back to that world before the final three signs, and there won't be much time left once they start. The first is a blue flame in the sky, followed by the earth's crust slipping, and finally the suns bursting apart. If we don't stop it all before it gets to that point, the entire galaxy will be destroyed. That's the horror you've unleashed!"

Aedalina lunged at me. Reacting on instinct, I kicked out at the metal examination table, sending it flying in her direction with all the force I could muster. The table crashed into her, knocking her into the wall with a loud smack. "Sorry!" I cringed at the sound of my sister's head striking the wall.

Aedalina's only reply was a narrowing of the eyes as she glared at me. She reached up to touch her head, grimacing in pain. Though I felt terrible about having done this, I reacted quickly, taking the opportunity to make a grab for the crystal. But with a wave of her hand, Aedalina sent me flying backward into the opposite wall. I struck hard, with a thump, then crumpled and fell. A spike of pain hit as my elbow cracked against the floor, adding to the sudden pain in my head. Dazed, I cried out as I watched Aedalina stalk toward me. Something metallic — blood, I realized — tasted sharp and bitter on my tongue.

Move
, I told myself fiercely, but my body wouldn't follow any commands.

Aedalina knelt beside me, gazing down on me with an odd mixture of menace and regret. "I had hoped that it would not come to this once I knew you were my sister. You're the only family I have, but you have left me no choice."

"We should fix this together," I said, stalling for time as I recovered and making one last effort to get through to my sister. I pushed myself up to sit propped with one hand, my legs curled beneath me. Lying on the floor with Aedalina leaning over me made me feel too vulnerable. "Until I saw you in the mirror, I didn't know that I had other blood relatives, either. But this affects everyone we care about. My parents, my brother, all my friends — they'll die too if we don't —"

"You shouldn't even have any family here, if not for all that traveling between worlds. This mixing cannot lead to anything good. But no matter — I will take care of that."

"No, you'll leave it alone!" I said fiercely, sensing the intention behind my sister's words. "If not for that 'mixing,' you and I would not even be who we are today. Leave it alo—"

My words cut off as my pendant began to close around my throat. Aedalina stretched her hand out toward the pendant, squeezing her fingers into a fist in one swift motion. Oh, she was trying to get me to remove it willingly! Even in my panic, I knew that I couldn't. It was the only way for Aedalina to obtain the crystal necklace, and I refused to cooperate.

"Stop!" was the last thing I managed to say, my voice harsh and raspy. Then, I could no longer take in air to form words. Terrified and clutching at my neck, I silently begged my crystal and the metal key to do something to stop what Aedalina was doing.

Leave the room!

The sharp command echoed clearly in my mind. Not knowing who the voice belonged to and not questioning the order, I staggered to my feet and fled, tears streaming down my cheeks. As the door closed behind me, the necklace no longer constricted my throat. I collapsed against the wall, coughing and gasping in as much air as I could. A bright green light shot out of my pendant to form a forcefield along the lab room door. Aedalina stood on the other side, a stunned and furious expression on her face. Then, a look of determination settled on Aedalina's features. Some sort of reddish yellow light emitted from her hand to fight the forcefield.

Go! The force field won't hold long.

Again, I obeyed the order without hesitating, not questioning the information. Running as fast as my legs could carry me, I fled the hallway in search of anywhere I might find a mirror. I turned down one hallway, and then another and another, sure that at any moment, Aedalina would be out of that room and right behind me. Finally, I spotted the restroom — to my tremendous relief — and skidded to a halt in front of the door. Quickly pushing my way in, I found one wall that had a narrow floor-to-ceiling mirror, and ran to stand in front of it.

"Okay, focus," I whispered to myself, breathing deeply and closing my eyes for a moment to calm my frantic mind and the rapid beating of my heart. When I opened them, my nerves had steadied somewhat.

Picturing my bedroom, I was again flooded with relief to see it rippling into view inside the mirror. Seconds later the glass became liquid to the touch and parted away from the center. Experimentally, I reached a hand through. I maintained the portal in place, focusing with all my will, and stepped through just as the bathroom door slammed against the wall with a sharp crack. Gasping, I climbed down from my dresser and whirled to face it, eyes wide.

"Close!" I pleaded with the mirror, praying that somehow it could hear me. As Aedalina approached, the portal rapidly closed, glass sealing itself against her before she could get through. Aedalina was forced to snatch her hand back before it was cut off, and she managed to do so just in time. Even so, I backed away, terrified, never taking my eyes off the mirror.

Seconds passed, yet each one felt like an eternity as I kept watch. A minute passed, then two. Nothing happened. I finally sank down onto my bed, allowing myself to hope that Aedalina wasn't here by now because she couldn't get through. Maybe Aedalina wasn't a MirrorMaster like me, but that didn't mean she wouldn't end up here eventually. What if she knew where I lived? Oh, I had to do something quickly, before Aedalina found her way here and hurt my parents and David! Should I warn them? I had no idea how to even begin to explain it all to Mom and Dad, and David was probably asleep. But if I kept quiet out of fear of sounding insane, and Aedalina caught my family unaware, it would be so much worse.