Page 151 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
Nothing.
It was like descending into the night sky, only a sky devoid of stars. A stormy, silent dark. The stone was blue and veined with black and purple. The foliage had disappeared, replaced instead with giant thorn-like plants, the thorns as shiny as patent leather and wide and sharp as scythes, glassy and obsidian. No one spoke, as if fearful of their own echoes. Not a whisper passed between them for the longest of times.
“I don’t usually say this,” Minerva said eventually, “but it’s time to spread out. First rule: stay within yelling distance.”
She and Bell briefly convened to set up a clear plan in order to search the caverns quickly, thoroughly and safely. Aislinn knew they had the right idea, but the quietness of this particular set of tunnels had a permanence to it. She could hear nothing. When was the last time she had been somewhere without the steadydrip-dripof water or the sound of something breathing or scuttling nearby?
Not since they entered this place. So why was it so silent now?
They split up into twos, searching every cavern, every nook and cranny. They expected the entrance to the Mirror’s hiding place to be concealed, else it would surely have been found by now.
“If I was hiding a mirror of dubious origin,” Beau said, as he quietly blasted apart another rock, “I wouldn’t bother putting it in a grand chamber or a temple or some such. I’d just plonk it in the ground and bury it, leaving it completely unmarked.”
“Your mortal side is showing,” Aislinn remarked, “no faerie or dwarf would dump it so unceremoniously. It doesn’t make for a good story.”
Beau launched into a tirade about what made a good story and how his plan made perfect sense and how if hewasa villain, he’d be the best one that ever was, but Aislinn was barely paying him any attention. Her mind was focused on finding the mirror, unable to dislodge her conversation with Caer yesterday.
He needed them to find this. He needed to be able to stay in Avalinth.
A part of her had been hoping that they wouldn’t find it, that he would have to leave, that they’d be able to find something in Faerie that could block his powers, but after his confession last night… she wasn’t even sure such a thing existed. There was somethingotherabout Caer’s powers, something she’d never heard of before.
Something, she realised with a sinister ripple, that was never supposed to exist.
They reconvened with the others at the allotted time and progressed further into the dark.
Luna sang a song as they marched. Aislinn imagined she was trying to dispel the quiet, but the tune seemed to amplify it, the melody as haunting and echoing as a ghost.
“Fathoms below in the depths of the stone
Lives a mirror, best left alone
More than darkness lives inside
Leave it alone if you wish to survive
Mirror, Mirror, way down deep,
What ancient secrets do you keep?
No one knows
No one knows…
Far below
Far below…”
Her words hung in the air for an age after she sang, hovering like tendrils of frost. For a long while, no one dared to speak.
“You’ve a beautiful voice,” remarked Dillon finally.
“Thank you!” She beamed. “Although I’m now wondering if that was the best choice. Maybe a little ditty or a ballad about—”
“Hey look!” said Beau, voice forced with cheer. “Vines!”
He pointed to a desecrated curtain of foliage so bleak and grey, Aislinn initially mistook them for rocks. Frowning, Aislinn dismounted and went over to touch them. They were as quiet and still as the stone.
Dillon appeared behind her, reaching over her shoulder.
