by Holly Webb
Emily nodded. “I know.” She reached for her school bag, which was sitting on the table in front of the window seat, and rooted around in the inside pocket. “What about this?” It was a tiny mirror that Rachel had given her for Christmas, a round one set with sparkly jewels in the back.
“Yes.” The fairy girl smiled, and came to sit next to Emily on the window seat, peering into the mirror. “Perfect. Hold it with me.”
They cupped their hands together around the mirror, and Emily felt the rush of magic through the girl’s fingers as she closed her eyes and began to whisper to herself. Something inside Emily seemed to jump, and a warmth spread through her, stretching out to the fairy by her side. Emily sighed delightedly as she saw her fingers glowing softly golden – and then she was holding the mirror by herself. The fairy girl had gone, and the mirror was dancing in her hands, the jewelled back tickling her fingers.
“Did it work?” she whispered hopefully. “Are you all right? Are you squashed?”
The fairy girl looked out at her from the mirror and laughed, and Emily laughed back. “I suppose not. I don’t know how these things work.”
“I shall be fine. But you should sleep. I’ll watch, in case they come.”
“What’s that?” Robin demanded, looking over Emily’s shoulder as she packed her things into her school bag and munched toast.
Emily jumped, and closed her hand over the glass. “Just a mirror.”
Robin rolled his eyes. “If you’re checking your hair, I can tell you now it’s a total disaster at the back.”
“Thanks,” Emily muttered. She could feel the mirror quivering under her hand, as though the fairy girl was laughing.
“I’m going slug-hunting when I’ve finished my breakfast,” Robin told her, grinning evilly, and Emily gave an anxious sigh.
“Don’t you dare! I told you not to!” But Robin was gone. “He’s as bad as Katie is,” Emily growled to herself. He wasn’t going to leave her alone about Katie, it was obvious. But she had more important things to worry about right now. Katie’s nastiness didn’t seem to matter much. Which actually meant it was a good day to laugh in Katie’s face, if she got the chance.
Emily glanced over her shoulder. No one else around. She looked into the mirror again – it was full of swirling mist. She’d have to make sure it stayed hidden at school, or get the girl to make it look like a normal mirror somehow. She smiled to herself. She hoped the girl knew what a normal mirror was like. Probably all the ones she’d ever seen were haunted, or charmed, or had secret doors in them. She rubbed it gently and was about to call her when she frowned. She’d never asked…
“I’ve just thought of something,” she whispered into the mist, and it cleared slowly to show the fairy girl’s face.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know your name. I’m sorry, I should have asked you… I’ve just been thinking of you as the river fairy.”
“Oh.” She smiled out of the glass and nodded. “Sasha. Like the sound of the water.”
“It’s pretty,” Emily told her. “It suits you,” she added shyly. “Look, I have to go to school, and we can’t let anyone see you. I suppose I could hide the mirror in my pocket or something. But then you won’t be able to see out. Can you make sure it stays looking like a mirror? Not misty, or anything like that?
She shuddered, imagining what would happen if Rachel happened to look in the mirror, or even worse, Katie or Ellie-Mae.
“What’s the matter?” Sasha asked her curiously. “You look like someone walked over your grave.”
Emily glanced at her, startled by the horrid phrase – and that Sasha could tell what she was feeling. “Oh… There are some girls teasing me. It’s nothing. Nothing like you being chased. Don’t worry about it.”
“Why?” Sasha frowned at her out of the mirror, and Emily sighed.
“I don’t think there’s a reason. They’re just like that.”
“I can help.” Sasha smiled, and Emily felt a sudden ripple of magic around her, soothing and gentle. “Don’t be sad.”
Emily sighed. “I’m not really. I was, but now I’m more worried about Robin. He wants to put slugs in Katie’s lunch – she’s the worst of them. She pulled my hair out.”
Sasha leaned closer to look at Emily properly, and the glass stretched and moulded so that her features jutted out of the mirror. Her voice was suddenly much more serious. “That’s not just teasing.”
Emily shrugged. “She does that sort of thing all the time,” she murmured. “Not just to me.”
“That’s not right – there’s someone coming!” Sasha sealed herself back into the glass in a second, and Emily scrabbled the mirror into her bag as Lark and Lory walked in.
“Aren’t you ready for school?” Lark asked.
“Is she ever?” Lory flipped Emily’s ponytail. “Hurry up.”
Emily nodded, and grabbed the last, slightly stale chocolate-orange muffin out of the tin for breakfast on the way. She reckoned she might need it.
“Please tell me you didn’t do it!” Emily whispered, sneaking in next to Robin in the lunch queue, and he shushed her crossly.
“Don’t make it obvious!” he whispered. “Uh-huh. Two of them. She’s got cheese and lettuce in her sandwich. It was perfect. It would have been harder to persuade the slugs in if it was ham or something.”
Emily glanced sideways across the hall, looking for Katie.
“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked, leaning over to look too. “You’ve gone pale.”
“I feel sick. Robin put slugs in Katie Meadows’ cheese sandwiches. We can’t let her eat them!”
“Oh no,” Rachel gulped. “You’re right. We can’t. Even though I’d love to see Katie Meadows eat a slug…”
Emily sighed, and started walking across the hall. Katie was unwrapping her sandwiches already, so there wasn’t much time.
“What are you going to do?” Rachel whispered frantically, jogging after her.
“I don’t know!” Emily hissed. But she could feel the mirror in her pocket. It was warm, and she slipped her fingers round it for comfort. Sasha had said she would help. And she had Rachel with her. Two good friends, she realized suddenly, and the thought made Katie look less frightening.
Emily pulled up short by Katie’s table, and Katie and Ellie-Mae and Lara stared at her.
“What do you want?” Katie demanded.
Emily said nothing. She certainly wasn’t going to explain what Robin had done. She just reached down and snatched the sandwiches, and hurried away across the room.
“Oh, she’s going to kill us,” Rachel whispered. “She looks like she doesn’t know whether to scream for a teacher or throw her water bottle at your head.”
“I don’t care. Whatever she does, if we’d let her eat a slug she’d have done something worse, wouldn’t she?” Emily stuffed Katie’s sandwiches down into the bin where they emptied the trays, burying them under leftover beans and bits of cottage pie. “There. She won’t fish those out.”
She hurried back to the end of the line, passing Robin, who glared at her furiously, and stood there staring at the floor tiles. Now it was just a case of waiting to see what Katie would do to get them back.
It was the waiting that was the worst part of it, Emily decided. All through the afternoon, Katie kept looking at her. Just a slow, steady stare that seemed to say, You wait. Emily wanted to stand up in the middle of the classroom and yell at her, just to make her do something, but she forced herself to smile sweetly back, as though she didn’t care. It only works if she thinks you’re scared, she told herself. She only picks on people if they’re scared of her.
In the end, Katie waited until they were walking home. Emily supposed she should have worked that one out – it was the ideal chance for her to get them on their own, without any teachers around. She hadn’t thought of it, though,
because she knew that Katie’s mother usually picked her up from school in the car. The girls had assumed that Katie was leaving them till tomorrow.
“They’re following us,” Robin said, nudging Emily with his elbow.
“Should we run?” Rachel asked nervously, glancing behind her.
Emily shook her head. She was scared of Katie (only someone with no sense wouldn’t be) but she was a lot less scared than she had been before last night. Katie wasn’t going to throw her lifeless body to a bunch of hunting hounds, after all. The mirror trembled in her pocket, and she pulled it out, glancing quickly down into it. Sasha was there, smiling at her, and Emily rubbed her thumb gently over the mirror glass, feeling a little tingle of magic. She had saved Sasha. She could deal with stupid Katie Meadows.
She stopped walking, and caught Rachel’s arm to stop her too.
Rachel looked at her anxiously, her eyes round and pleading. She wanted to run away, Emily could tell.
“You don’t have to stay,” she whispered. “It’s Robin’s fault we got into this. Go home!”
“My fault!” Robin squeaked crossly. “I didn’t get into a fight with Katie Meadows, I just helped you two out. You should have let her eat the sandwiches. You just wasted good slugs.”
“I’m not going home,” Rachel muttered out of the side of her mouth, as Katie and Ellie-Mae and Lara came closer. Emily and Rachel and Robin stood staring at them.
“Ahhh. You’ve got your little brother to protect you,” Katie sneered.
Emily smiled at her thoughtfully. Katie had no idea what Robin could really do – except most of it he couldn’t, of course, in case someone saw what he was.
But I could, someone said. Emily looked round, frowning, and then squeezed the mirror gently. She could hear Sasha, and it was obvious that none of the others could.
Because you’re touching the mirror, I think. I can hear you too. Listen, Emily. Robin would get into trouble if he used magic, and he has to be careful not to let anyone see what he is. But no one knows that I’m here. I can protect you from them!
I suppose, Emily agreed. What shall we do?
She could feel Sasha laughing. Let’s wait and see.
“What exactly did you think you were doing at lunchtime, Emily?” Katie snapped, glaring at the three of them.
Emily simply shrugged, and smiled at her. The smile was a bit forced to start with, but it got much easier to smile as she watched Katie seething. She hated it that Emily wasn’t scared.
“You are so strange. Weird. Stealing sandwiches? Do you think that’s clever now?” Katie sniggered, and the other two joined in dutifully, but Emily just smiled and smiled.
“What are you smiling like that for?” Katie demanded. “Can’t you talk? Honestly, I think she’s lost her mind…” She whipped round to look at Rachel. “I’m not surprised, the way she hangs around with you all the time. She’d have to be stupid. You both are.”
Rachel gulped and tried to say something, but only managed to get out a feeble little mutter. “Not stupid.”
“What?” Katie sneered. “Say it again, cheese-brain.”
Emily moved closer to Rachel, and flicked a glance at her and Robin. They were both looking at Katie; they wouldn’t notice the mirror. She slipped it out of her pocket, and a wisp of silvery mist wove around her hand.
Make her take the mirror, Sasha said. Hold it up so the light sparkles on the jewels. She’ll want it.
Will you be all right? Emily worried, but she could feel the mirror dancing in her fingers. Sasha wanted to help. After the hopeless terror of the hunt, this was a way she could fight back. She let the sunlight sparkle on the mirror, as Sasha had told her.
“What’s that?” Katie snatched at the glittery little thing and smirked at Emily. “I’ll have this. As a swap for my sandwiches.”
“But…” Rachel began to protest, but Emily caught her hand and squeezed, and she fell silent.
Katie turned the mirror over in her hands and peered into it.
Emily felt suddenly dizzy as Sasha’s magic burst out of the mirror and wrapped itself round Katie, sealing her in a shimmery haze.
Katie’s eyes widened, and she staggered a little, and the mirror fell from her hand, sunlight sparking off it as it turned over and over.
Emily swooped in and caught it before it hit the ground, and then stood back watching as Katie stared at her in horror.
Now she knows what she looks like, Sasha said, sounding a little smug. The mirror showed her what everyone else sees. The bully. The mean girl that you all hate.
Ellie-Mae and Lara were fussing over Katie, trying to get her to tell them what was the matter, but she didn’t say anything. She pulled away from them and started to walk back up the road, staring at her feet.
“What’s the matter with her?” Rachel whispered.
“I don’t think she liked what she saw in the mirror,” Emily told her, shrugging.
Once Robin had got her inside the house, he dragged Emily up to her bedroom.
“I’ve got homework, you know,” Emily tried to say, but Robin only scowled.
“Shut up!” He slammed the bedroom door. “All right. Where is it?”
“What?” Emily widened her eyes and stared at him, but he was scaring her. He didn’t look like her eight-year-old brother just now. His face was longer, and sharper, and his eyes were bigger. Any moment now, his wings were going to burst out of his back.
“Just give it to me!”
“I won’t!” Emily snapped back, giving up the pretence. She felt too tired to argue with him, anyway. “Why should I?”
“Because it’s dangerous, of course! If someone came through into the house who wasn’t meant to, then they’re dangerous!”
“She didn’t just come through,” Emily started to explain, but Robin had seen the mirror, still gripped in her hand, and he snatched it.
“I knew you had it hidden somewhere.” He flung the little mirror down on the floor and pointed, his eyes glowing eerily green.
“Don’t hurt her!” Emily yelled, trying to grab for the mirror, but Sasha was already misting out of it, standing on her bedroom floor – or just above it, actually – and eyeing Robin cautiously.
Robin stared at the silvery figure, and looked suddenly a lot less frightening and fairy-like. “I know you,” he said accusingly. “You’re that water sprite that used to look out of the mirror on the landing.”
“Yes,” Sasha agreed.
“What are you doing here? Did you come through the mirror? You could be in trouble, you know. No one’s supposed to go through the doors. And how did you, anyway? They’re meant to be sealed.”
“It was me,” Emily said apologetically. “She was being chased. When I went to the art gallery with school yesterday, I saw a painting, and she was in it.”
“Who was chasing you? Hunters?” Robin asked, frowning.
“You knew about them?” Emily demanded. “They were going to let their hounds eat her! I can’t believe that’s allowed.”
Robin only shook his head at her. “It was the hunters, then?” he asked Sasha.
“Yes.”
“What did you do? Why were they after you?”
Sasha sighed. “Because I showed your sisters the door, when they were running from the Ladies.”
“I had to help her,” Emily told him, her eyes pleading. “Don’t you see?”
“I suppose,” Robin muttered. Lark and Lory hadn’t taken him with them to rescue Emily, and he still minded. “But what’s she going to do now? If she goes back, they’ll be on her scent again.”
“They wouldn’t have given up, once they couldn’t find her?” Emily asked hopefully, rubbing a hand across her eyes. “It’s been nearly a whole day.”
“They never give up,” both the fairies said together, and Emily sighed. She was so tired, she
felt suddenly desperate to sleep. She slumped down next to Robin, leaning against the door, and gazed exhaustedly at Sasha glittering in the light from the window.
“You’ll have to stay here,” she murmured, forcing the words out past the dreadful weariness. What was the matter with her? “I know it must be awful to be dragged away from everything, but you can’t go back.”
Sasha shivered, like dust motes dancing in the light, and then she darted suddenly towards the mirror, which was still lying on the floor.
“I must hide! They’re coming!”
Emily tried to make herself care – to get up, to stand with Sasha and help protect them all. But she couldn’t move.
“Who’s coming?” she heard Robin demand. “They can’t be – the hunters couldn’t get through the doors.”
“They don’t need to – look at Emily! She’s dreaming again – they’ll just follow the same dream-path we used, through there!” Sasha pointed at the windows, and Emily caught a last glimpse of the forest growing up around the palace, and flashes of white as the hounds poured through the trees. Then her eyes began to close.
She was leaning sleepily against Robin’s shoulder now, fighting against the weariness that her settled through her, weighing her down like a chain. Somehow she couldn’t fight against it enough to worry about Sasha and Robin.
Robin. She could feel him shaking her fiercely. Her eyelids flickered, and she saw mists growing, trailing through the trees, little wisps coiling out into her room. Soon the hounds would come racing through them, the mist coiling round their paws.
“Emily, wake up! They’re too strong for me to stop. You dreamed your way to rescue Sasha, and now the hunters are chasing you both back through the dream. You have to wake up now! There’s not time for me to get anyone to help; they’ll get Sasha any moment. The mirror’s no good – they’ll just track her to it and smash it.”
“Can’t… Too tired…” she murmured, her eyes closing again as the figures in green began to follow the hounds out through the dark trees in the window glass.
“I can’t wake her!” Robin said over her head, and she heard Sasha sigh.
