The Mirror King

by Jodi Meadows

  “Mirrors, Tobiah!” I hated to force his magic, but we’d never make it if he didn’t do this.

  Tobiah leaned over me, his arms tight around my waist. His breath came hard and ragged, but he didn’t let go.

  Ahead, a handful of new mirrors glimmered to life on shop walls. Tobiah gasped with the effort, but the force of wraith behind us paused. One of the guards riding alongside us cheered, but James shushed him.

  “It’s not stopped,” James shouted. “We aren’t safe until the barrier is up.”

  We turned onto Castle Street and rode for my home with everything in us. Drumming hooves, Tobiah’s ragged breath, the screams of people fleeing wraith—these sounds filled my head as I kept my eyes on the castle. The overlook was visible from here, a wide, flat surface lit with dozens of gas lamps.

  Closer. We were closer.

  The street ahead was clear. I urged Ferguson faster and faster.

  The crack and shatter of glass blasted again over the pounding and the blood rushing through my head. Tobiah groaned and his hands slipped around my middle. His weight pulled away from me.

  I reached around and pressed my hand on his back, trying to keep him from slipping off. But as Ferguson picked up another burst of speed, Tobiah slid backward.

  James rode up alongside us and heaved his cousin back into place. “We’re almost there! Just hold on a little longer.”

  Thin tendrils of wraith slipped up behind us, nipping.

  One of the horses shrieked and a soldier cried out, but there was no time to look back. Tobiah groaned and shook himself conscious once more, his grip tightening on me when he realized we were still in transit.

  “More mirrors?” James kept his hand on Tobiah’s shoulder, a feat while we ran at full speed toward the castle.

  Tobiah’s answer was faint. “No.”

  There was no other option, then.

  As we reached the castle rampart, I reined Ferguson hard, pulling him to a stop at the thick gate, left open for our return.

  Other guards thundered by before they realized what I’d done, but James was still beside us. “What are you doing?”

  “The only thing left.” I stripped off a glove and dug Connor’s small, silver mirror from a pouch on my belt. Dented, tarnished, but still reflective. “Wake up,” I whispered, and the mirror began to shine in my hands. I pressed it against stone. “Wake up, stay here, and grow. Grow until you cover the entire wall.”

  Dizziness swarmed through me, filling my sight and stealing my balance, but Tobiah kept his grip on me, and James added his strength, too. I breathed through the magical exertion as silver rippled outward, spreading across the stone.

  All across the city, wraith halted.

  “James, the overlook.” My words felt slow. “Get us there now.”

  The overlook stairs were nearly impossible to climb.

  Tobiah and I staggered up the narrow passage, James and Melanie at our heels.

  “We couldn’t get the carts through,” Paige said from the rear, “so Rees and I improvised. People carried the barrier pieces in baskets and scarves, anything they could find. Is that all right?”

  “As long as the pieces are there.” I lurched up the last steps to find a huge glittering pile of barrier scales in the center of the overlook, and a small crowd of nobles and military.

  Stumbling forward, I caught Queen Francesca’s eye, Kathleen Rayner’s, even Chey’s. Near them stood the Corcorans and a handful of other Indigo Kingdom nobles, all watching with frightened expressions. Many of them still wore their ball gowns from earlier this evening.

  It seemed like ages ago.

  The Ospreys were there, too, with Aecorian nobility and the remainder of the Queen’s Guard. Claire leaned against the railing, both feet attached.

  I glanced at Paige. “Why is there an audience?”

  “They’re afraid,” she said. “They want to know what’s happening.”

  “Then they’ll have to wait until we’re finished. We can’t delay.” As Tobiah and I marched toward the barrier pieces, Melanie and James flanking us, I wondered what they saw. A king and queen, dressed as vigilantes? Or two young people, thrust into power before they were ready?

  The castle shuddered as wraith strained against Connor’s mirror.

  “What’s your plan?” Melanie took my arm to steady me.

  “Don’t even ask,” Tobiah muttered. “She hates telling people her plans.”

  “Do you remember when I told you about Mirror Lake?” I knelt at the pile of barrier scales, shining in the light of gas lamps and wraith. Our audience moved to hear, but guards kept them back. “And the other night, you, James, and I talked about creating a barrier ring around Aecor.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You’re going to turn the Red Bay into a bigger Mirror Lake.” Her eyes were wide as she gazed at the massive pile of scales.

  “Not just the Red Bay. Tangler Bay, all the way through the Hand River and Grace Bay and the Wildern Sea. Yes. All of it.” I glanced from Melanie to James to Tobiah. “Mirror Lake didn’t just hold back the wraith for longer than the barrier, but normalized everything that touched it, everything that reflected over it. We’ll need to remove the wraith that’s in the city, but once it’s gone, we should be able to hold on for a few more years.”

  Someone in the crowd asked, “Will this be enough?”

  The pile of barrier scales here stood taller than my head. There were thousands of pieces. Hundreds of thousands.

  “I can’t even consider that we won’t have enough.” There hadn’t been many pieces in Mirror Lake, but this was so much larger. I bent to take a scale from the edge of the pile; it was warm, but not as warm as those from Mirror Lake had been. Though maybe with the wraith heat pouring over the city, everything else felt cool by comparison.

  “They won’t be alive, will they?” James stood at Tobiah’s side. “Like Chrysalis or”—he lowered his voice—“me?”

  I shook my head. “They have magic in them, but they’re not magic, or wraith. They’re just pieces of metal formed in a very specific way.”

  And if they did become truly alive, we’d know right away, because I’d be dead.

  The castle shuddered again, making our audience shriek. Guards pushed them back.

  It was just the four of us now. Tobiah, Melanie, James, and me—and this immense pile of silver scales that could be our salvation, or could ruin everything.

  If I died, the mirror would fail. Chrysalis would revert. James would die.

  Tobiah lifted his eyes to mine, something desperate and hopeful in there. “Are you sure?”

  I repeated the words I’d told Melanie before I ventured into the wraithland. “If I’m not willing to take risks for my people’s well-being, I don’t deserve to be queen.”

  He bowed his head. “I’d make the same choice.”

  “Wake up.” I squeezed the barrier piece in my ungloved hand. “Wake up and when I command one piece, I command you all. Do this exactly: scatter in the water, circle the entire peninsula, and hold your position. Refuse to wash out with the current. Resist being swallowed. Don’t let yourself be buried.”

  The expected dizziness came, making me sway. I breathed through it. Maybe that was all. Then black fuzzed the edges of my sight and my temples gave a single warning throb.

  Everything spun. I groped for something to hang on to as I dropped forward. Hands grabbed for me—I caught the shapes of James and Melanie in my fading vision—and they held me upright.

  “It’s working.” Tobiah sounded far away.

  “Go into the water,” I commanded. “Follow my orders.”

  Silver shimmered and people shouted. Barrier pieces slithered across the overlook, waterfalling into the Red Bay below. I clutched my piece, my connection, and peered over the edge of the cliff.

  “Hold her!” Tobiah shouted. “Don’t let her fall!”

  The hands on me tightened, but faintly I could see the shine of the barrier as it surged into the water, t
hrough the dark depths, and vanished.

  Then the world faded.

  FORTY-EIGHT

  “IT’S NOT GOING to be enough.” That sounded like Chrysalis.

  My head throbbed as I climbed back into consciousness. Melanie’s hands were cool on my cheeks and throat as she checked my pulse, which meant I couldn’t have been out for long. A few minutes. My head rested on her knees.

  “What do you mean?” Melanie looked to her left, and the breeze caught her hair. “It has to be enough.” Her face was fuzzy.

  No matter how deeply I breathed, I couldn’t clear my vision of the blackness simmering at the edges, fading into gray in the center. It would be a miracle if I could stand.

  “You poured magic into the barrier, but not enough.” Chrysalis stood on the wall around the overlook, staring into the dark waters of the bay below. The white suit he’d worn to my coronation was battered and bloody, torn in a hundred different places. “This won’t work without more magic.”

  I pushed myself into a sitting position, swaying. “When did you get here?”

  The wraith boy flashed a smile my way. “Just a moment ago, my queen. I’m glad you’re awake.”

  “Then this was pointless?” Melanie jabbed a finger at the bay. “Magic went into the barrier while the metal was molten. Now what do we do?”

  I pried my hand open, stretching my fingers around the anchor scale.

  Dizziness still swarmed my head, but my vision cleared a little. Around us, guards, nobles, and Ospreys stared on, their expressions a mix of fear and uncertainty. The queen mother and her sister moved to the fore of the crowd, closer to their sons.

  Everyone was scared, which meant I should stand up and take charge.

  James and Tobiah edged closer so that when I climbed to my feet and let them take most of my weight, it wasn’t obvious I needed help.

  Chrysalis stepped off the rail and strode toward me, his movements mimicking mine after all this time spent together. “My queen.” An odd gentleness filled his voice. “I promised to protect you from the wraith, that I’d never let it hurt you.”

  “I remember.” I brought my fingertips close to one of the burns on his face, but didn’t quite touch. He went so still he was nearly lifeless. “You did protect me tonight. When I told you to control the wraith, you did that, too.”

  His eyes never shifted from mine. “But you also said it isn’t just you anymore. It’s the entire kingdom, and you need to protect everyone here, too.”

  “That’s right.” I dropped my hand and stepped backward, carefully, because my balance was still weak. Behind me, one of the boys breezed his hands over my shoulder and waist, keeping me steady.

  Chrysalis seemed to study me, or memorize me, and then he said, “I can do it. If you want.”

  Yes, of course I wanted him to protect Aecor.

  “I’m made of wraith,” he said. “Same as the beasts they used for the barrier. If I—” He shifted his weight and lowered his eyes. “You gave me life for a little while. I had the chance to experience something incredible, even though I made everything harder for you. But maybe this time I could help you get what you want—what you truly want.”

  Silence fell across the overlook as people realized what he meant.

  “You would sacrifice yourself for Aecor?”

  “I would sacrifice myself for you, my queen. If that’s what you want.” Chrysalis tilted his head. “I’ve made many wrong decisions in my desire to serve you.” His gaze flickered toward Tobiah. “I’ve done many things that, now, I understand were bad. Even tonight, freeing Patrick and bringing the wraith. I thought only to help you. I thought I could control something uncontrollable. I don’t want to make more mistakes. I don’t want to cost you anything else.”

  “So you’re waiting for me to order you to do this.” My throat tightened.

  He nodded as the castle shuddered again. “I know you will make the right decision.”

  No.

  It was an impossible order to give.

  It was the kind of order queens had to give all the time.

  But I’d made him. I’d brought him to life. Unwittingly, yes, but now it was my responsibility to teach him and care for him and ensure he did the right thing.

  “I won’t make you,” I whispered. “When I bring something to life, it’s never sentient. Almost never. It never has a choice but to do what I order.”

  Clothes brushed behind me, like James and Tobiah exchanging glances. But I wouldn’t look. I wouldn’t give anyone here a reason to question Captain Rayner and his miraculous life. It was his secret to tell, when he was ready. If.

  A low rumble filled the air: the wraith still struggling against my mirror.

  “You’re sentient, Chrysalis. You have a choice. You said you’ve made wrong decisions in the past, and I know you have. Many of us have paid the price of those decisions. But this one is about you, and your life. I won’t take that decision away from you.” He was a person, not a tool. I could no longer treat him as one.

  The wraith boy bowed his head. “You honor me.”

  “We don’t have much time,” someone said.

  I lifted my hand, signaling the crowd to be quiet.

  Chrysalis pressed his palms to his chest. “I’ll do it. For you.”

  Someone breathed praise to all the saints.

  “But I won’t be enough. Not to make the kind of mirror you need.”

  A small noise escaped me. “What?”

  His shoulders slumped. “I can make myself part of the barrier; you’ve already linked it all together. But it wouldn’t last. Liadia poured so much magic into their barrier and I can provide only a fraction of that. I’m just wraith, after all. I’m more about destruction than anything.” He lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry I can’t be more.”

  Someone in the crowd was crying. Another cursed him for offering false hope. And all around us, the castle rumbled and wraith shone bright across the city, waiting, straining. There was no way to know how much longer the mirror would last.

  “What about me?”

  Everyone looked at James.

  “What?” Tobiah grabbed his cousin by the jacket. “Don’t say that.”

  Murmurs fluttered through the crowd. “What’s he talking about?”

  “The king’s cousin is made of wraith?”

  “No!” Kathleen Rayner pushed through the crowd. “James—”

  He placed one hand on his cousin’s shoulder, and the other on his mother’s. “This is a very long story that Tobiah will have to tell.”

  Tobiah shook his head. “I won’t let you.”

  “Why not? What makes me any different from him?” James pointed at the wraith boy.

  “You’re my friend. My cousin. I still need you.”

  “Your friend, maybe, but not your cousin. That boy died ten years ago.”

  Lady Rayner’s eyes went wide, and tears dripped down her cheeks. The queen mother joined the group, standing by Tobiah’s side. “What do you mean that boy died?” she asked.

  My heart climbed into my throat as I looked between them. In the audience, people pressed their hands to their mouths and whispered uncomfortably.

  “You made me because you missed the first James.” A faint, sad smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “You asked Wilhelmina to bring me to life because you needed me, and I’ve spent every day of my life protecting you, because that was my purpose.”

  “What are you talking about?” Lady Rayner grabbed James’s arm. “You’re my son. You’re my child. You’re not like that creature at all.”

  Chrysalis dropped his head. “He’s not like me, but he’s not human, either. He’s made of magic. He’s stronger than I am. Better.”

  “Shut up,” Tobiah growled. “Don’t encourage him.”

  “Is that true?” Francesca asked. “Just—just explain, please.”

  Tears shone in James’s eyes as he repeated a shorter version of Tobiah’s story, outing the king’s secret, my involvement,
and his own existence. “That’s why I healed so quickly after the Inundation. Because I’m not human. Not really.”

  Others tried to close in, but Melanie and a handful of guards held them back. I wanted to help, but not all the buzzing was from the wraith; my head spun with magic being sucked out of me. James, Chrysalis, the mirror, the barrier: something had to go.

  Sandcliff Castle shuddered in agreement.

  “Earlier tonight,” James said, “I asked if I made my own decisions. You said I did. Let me make this one now.”

  “I can’t lose you too, James.”

  “It’s not just you anymore, Tobiah.” James glanced at me, Melanie, and everyone standing on the overlook, praying for a miracle to stop the wraith. “It’s the entire kingdom. There’s only a little of the world left. Someone has to take care of it.”

  Tobiah looked at me for help. “Say something.”

  “I can’t.” A sob lodged in my throat. “I don’t want to lose him, either, but what kind of queen would I be if I gave Chrysalis a choice, but not James? What kind of friend?”

  “A friend who doesn’t want to lose one of the people they love most?” Tobiah lifted his palms in supplication. “I need your help, Wil. Command him. Change his mind.”

  I shook my head, just slightly. Everything spun. “He’s not mine to command. He never has been. He’s a person, Tobiah.”

  Tobiah hissed through gritted teeth, lifting his eyes to the sky.

  “Would I be enough?” James asked Chrysalis. “If I did this with you, would Aecor be safe? Would the barrier work like Mirror Lake?”

  Chrysalis bit his lip.

  “Tell the truth,” I said.

  The wraith boy nodded. “The two of us, yes. We’d be stronger. There’s so much magic in you after all these years. You don’t know half of what you could do.”

  “No.” Lady Rayner let out a long, low wail. “No, James.”

  Tobiah blinked back tears. “How can you even know that?”

  “I’m made of wraith.” Chrysalis offered him a sad smile. “I know what I wouldn’t touch.”

  “All right,” James said. “What do we do?”

  Tobiah grabbed James’s shoulders. “No. I forbid you. You can’t.”