Almare - The White Mirror

The Council of the Nine Kingdoms went to bed in Wendell’s palace that night with mixed feelings. Some expected their kingdom to be completely obliterated by the trolls and their allies, dragons or no dragons. Others were more optimistic, because after all, having dragons on your side is useful, right? It all depended on how it went over the next day.

The Governor brought in an entire wagon-load of very quiet and well-behaved hunting dogs that next afternoon. He had driven with two other trusted Dwarves all through the night and the better part of the day to bring them from Dragon Mountain to Wendell’s palace. When they arrived at the front gate, the Governor drove the wagon to the stable, where the fourteen dogs quickly and quietly lined up in a row. Wendell and Cinderella themselves came to escort them into the council room.

Servants peeked out curiously from each doorway as their king, Queen Cinderella and three Dwarves led a pack of dogs through Wendell’s sparkling clean corridors. The hounds followed them with heads held high, padding along in a straight line. When they reached the room where the council sat with barely-contained excitement, Cinderella motioned the dogs toward a line of satin chairs near her end of the table. The dog-shaped dragons took them graciously, each bowing slightly to the queen and Wendell as they took their seats. The council tried not to stare.

“Honored guests,” Cinderella began slowly, addressing the dragons. “We have been told by the Governor of the Dwarves and of the Ninth Kingdom that you have graciously and bravely agreed to help us in our fight against the troll nation. Is this so?”

The dragon/dog closest to Cinderella who appeared to be the leader answered. “It is.” His voice was incredibly low and deep as he spoke with the dog’s mouth.

“You understand that the trolls and their allies are a worthy enemy, and there may be casualties on your part?” Cinderella asked.

“We do, and are prepared to fight.” The dragon spoke as if this was the only logical thing to do, as if he didn’t understand how anyone could not fight for this good cause, even if it meant death.

“Then we thank you humbly and are at your service,” Cinderella told him with a smile and a bow of her head. The rest of the council did the same. The Governor looked very pleased with himself.

Still smiling, Cinderella asked the dragon, “What may we call you?”

The dragon/dog paused. “I have many names. I suppose you should call me Tamun-Ra. It is easiest to say in your tongue, I think. The names of my friends you need not know.” The dragon gestured awkwardly with his paw to all the other dogs. “A dragon reveals a name only when necessary.”

“If I may ask, Tamun-Ra,” Rapunzel said haughtily, “What exactly are your battle plans? The troll army is very large, and you don’t want to be taken by surprise when you actually get there, you know.”

Cinderella and Wendell exchanged a wince. Didn’t the fool realize how important politeness was at this moment?

Tamun-Ra was undaunted, however. “The Governor has given us an idea of what we are fighting,” he said in his deep, deep voice. “We know that there are Sasquash, elves, giants, and red dragons in addition to the trolls. I have also been told that all of your armies together could perhaps defeat only the giants, or only the Sasquash, or only the trolls and elves, but you have no chance against all of them.”

The council nodded again, this time in regret.

“Now that you have us as allies, however, we will be able to fight for you.”

“Not just for us,” Wendell said quickly. “We will fight with you, of course.”

“Of course, and that is appreciated and needed,” Tamun-Ra replied.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Rapunzel reminded the dragon as she began to braid her golden hair. Wendell wanted to bang his head on the table a couple of times. She was braiding her hair in front of the dragons in the council of the Nine Kingdoms!

“Our specific attack plans have not yet been devised,” the dragon answered patiently. “I admit that the troll’s army is impressive and it will be difficult for us to defeat them. But we gold dragons have several magical abilities that red dragons don’t even know of. I would demonstrate, but obviously I cannot demorph inside the confines of your castle.” Tamun-Ra nodded toward Cinderella respectfully.

“What are some of these abilities?” Queen Riding Hood asked.

“We can be shielded from the red dragon’s fire breath, put up a cloud around our enemy to confuse them, create a globe of invulnerability, or use fire blasts or chlorine gas that can temporarily blind another dragon, among other abilities.”

Rapunzel smiled widely. “So you could basically wipe out an entire troll regiment with one breath.”

“Not quite,” Tamun-Ra said slowly. “It is true that we could cause great damage to the army if we tried. We could kill most of them. We could massacre them.” The dragon paused, his black dog ears twitching. “But it is against our law.”

“Our law-making body, the Council of Wyrms, and our good king Bahamut, have forbidden it,” Tamun-Ra told her. “We must not kill those who cannot defend themselves against us. It is law, and we will follow it.” His intelligent dog eyes silently dared them to disagree.

For once Rapunzel didn’t speak. Cinderella answered him, “We understand and respect that, Tamun-Ra and dragon friends.”

“Thank you,” the leader of the dragons replied. “And now, with the council’s consent, we would like to retire for the night. Tomorrow you can start to bring in your troops, and, if it pleases Your Majesties, we shall all meet again soon.”

The entire council agreed and stood up to applaud the dragons, their last hope.

She saw nothing at all. Virginia didn’t know if she had been passed out for hours, or if she had walked through the mirror only a minute ago. All she knew now was that everything was white.

She didn’t seem to be standing on anything. She wasn’t in water either. With that thought she looked down at the ring. It wasn’t needed anymore. And it was so heavy. She slipped it off her finger.

She couldn’t breathe! She inhaled air but there was no oxygen in it. The air was so thin, and yet so humid... Gasping for breath, Virginia fumbled to put the ring back on her hand.

She took long, deep gulps of air and held a shaking hand to her neck. Maybe she was too high up. The atmosphere was thin... She didn’t want to think about it. The ring would never leave her finger again as far as she was concerned.

Virginia looked again at her surroundings, or what there was of them. She was standing (no, not standing - more like floating) in a thick mist. She reached out and grabbed a fistful of the swirling steam. It simply flowed through her fingers and was gone. The idea occurred to her then, that she was in a cloud.

“Am I dead?” she shouted, frustrated, into the nothingness. “If this is heaven, I’m not impressed.”

She stood in the mist for awhile, wondering what to do next.

“It’s not heaven,” a voice said from her right.

Virginia jerked suddenly and then realized that the mist she was standing on was slippery. She fell with a thud. A thud?

“It’s a force field.” The voice came again, as shimmery and elusive as the mist. It was a woman’s high voice, and it sounded very young, like Raelee or Acrotis. Virginia edged to her left. The force field was like a glass floor beneath her.

“We’ve been waiting.”

Virginia was silent. It made her very uncomfortable hearing a voice and not knowing to whom it belonged to. The invisible speaker didn’t go on, however, so Virginia hesitantly answered.

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“I can’t give you a name,” the woman said passively. “But we are the reason you came.”

“I came to find my son,” Virginia yelled in sudden anger. Enough games. “Where is he?”

“Near.”

It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming. Patrick was near her and he wasn’t in her arms? “Bring me to him!”

“You want to see him now?” the strange voice asked.

Stupid questions! “Of course!”

The mysterious woman paused. The silence was infuriating.

“I suppose that’s all right. Follow me.”

“Wait!” Virginia cried, trying to get up from the slippery floor. “How can I follow you? I can’t even see you!”

The voice laughed, not unkindly. “You’ll get used to not seeing people around here.”

Then slowly a figure emerged out of the mist. A tall, slender girl walked toward Virginia. Her hair was just like Acrotis’s, black and slightly curled. Her eyes were sky blue, like her long dress. Her skin was pale and ghostly white, but not like Snow White’s skin at all. And yet, this girl didn’t look evil or wrong in any way. Why had she taken Patrick?

“Come on, Virginia.”

Virginia was startled. “How do you know my name?”

“I know more than your name. I also know that someone who loves you is about to come through that mirror right about...now.”

Wolf stumbled through nothing onto the force field, slipped, and landed on his back all in one quick motion. Virginia ran over to him and helped him up.

“Virginia!” he cried. “You’re alive!” He paused. “Are you?” He glanced around for the first time. “Are we in heaven?”

“I hope not,” Virginia murmured and hugged him tight. “He’s here!” she whispered urgently.

Wolf tensed and looked around. “Where? Did you see him?”

“Not yet.” The young woman spoke. Wolf stared at her. “When?” he asked with narrowed eyes.

“We should wait for everyone, don’t you think?” The girl smiled at him as if their situation amused her.

“Did you tell them to come right away?” Virginia asked Wolf quietly.

“Yes. There was no use waiting around. Tony should be coming next.”

As if in reply, Tony appeared in front of them and went sliding across the force field with his arms flailing. Virginia broke his fall.

“Sorry, sorry. Oh, you’re alive!” Tony squeezed his daughter so tightly that Virginia couldn’t breathe.

“Get off! Patrick’s here.”

Tony jumped up and would have fallen down again, but Wolf caught him.

“Where? And who’s she?” Tony looked at the girl for the first time.

“We don’t know either of those answers right now,” Virginia told him as the young woman smiled at them.

“Okay, let’s go,” Wolf said.

“What about Acrotis?” the girl reminded them.

Tony started. “How’d you know her name?”

“She knows us somehow, Dad,” Virginia explained.

They stared at the girl, who just smiled back for a few long seconds. Then Acrotis appeared.

She didn’t slip. She didn’t fall. And when she had fully come out of the mirror and into the mist, she slipped the ring off her finger.

“Acrotis!” Virginia screamed. “You shouldn’t! It’s too...”

But Acrotis didn’t even notice her words. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. And when she opened her eyes again, she looked up at the mysterious girl and smiled.

Virgnia’s mind was in slow motion. Acrotis couldn’t know the girl. Acrotis couldn’t breathe up here. Because Acrotis was a young human girl and she lived in the Nine Kingdoms. Yes, that was the truth and what was happening was wrong.

“Lorelei.” Acrotis’s voice was cold as her smile. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Forgive and forget, Lorelei. It was a long time ago.”

“Two hundred and twenty-eight years. An instant.” The girl named Lorelei lowered her voice and narrowed her eyes.

“Was it only that long? Time passes so slowly down there.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve brought them. Now you can go.”

Acrotis’s smile slowly turned into a frown. “This isn’t the warm welcome I expected from my sister.”

“You shouldn’t have expected anything!” Lorelei shouted. “Traitor! Go back to where you belong!”

“I don’t belong anywhere.”

“Leave now! Or I’ll call the others!”

For the first time a flicker of fear crossed Acrotis’s face. “All right,” she whispered. “All right. I’ll go.”

Lorelei’s body trembled with hatred. “That is wise.”

Acrotis turned around quickly and her eyes seemed to feel for the mirror. She turned back to the frightened Virginia before she left.

“I’m sure my sister will explain everything to you, but I want to warn you not to believe everything she says. She calls me a traitor,” Acrotis’s voice cracked with anger, “But she doesn’t know it all. I wouldn’t care what you thought, but it matters now. What you and your son do matters now. Decide for yourself.”

With that Acrotis stepped through the mirror and was gone. Virginia, Wolf, and Tony stood stunned. Lorelei fumed with her fists clenched. And somewhere far off, a baby cried for his mother.