Almare - The White Mirror

Virginia had woken up with a horrible headache and it had taken her a few minutes to figure out where she was. When she realized that they were in Cinderella’s palace and they were going to Dragon Mountain to get advice and provisions from the Dwarves and then go swimming to the bottom of the Great Northern Sea to get to a magic mirror that they would then go through and hope to find Patrick, she wanted to close her eyes again and cover her head with her pillow. Instead she got up and fifteen minutes later she, Wolf, Tony, Wendell, and Acrotis were standing outside the palace getting ready to leave.

The atmosphere was grim, despite that it was a beautiful day. Acrotis was not at all grim, however. In fact she was bobbing up and down with excitement, much to the annoyance of everyone else. Acrotis obviously did not get out much.

They five of them had been planning to take the tiny carriage, albeit unhappily. But Cinderella, who was out to wish them farewell, suddenly had an idea.

“Flying carpets?” Tony laughed, as if she must be joking.

“They’re almost four times as fast as a horse - drawn carriage, and trust me, they’re perfectly safe. I use them myself whenever possible.”

“That’s very generous of you,” Virginia thanked her. “Where are they?”

Cinderella whistled and seconds later, five small, beautifully woven and very fast little carpets zipped up in front of each of them. They were each woven a different, rich color; Virginia’s was a bright green.

“I don’t think so!” yelled Tony as the others climbed on to their carpets.

“Fine, Dad, stay here.” Virginia tried to sound indifferent as she sat down cross-legged on the carpet. It was actually very comfortable.

“If you’re chicken,” Wolf added, hopping onto his deep blue carpet.

Tony shot him the look of death and tentatively climbed on his rug. He lay down on his stomach, gripped the edges tightly, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Wendell and Acrotis climbed on and Wendell called to Cinderella, “Thanks Cindy, for everything.” Everyone else called their thanks.

“It was a pleasure,” she called, smiling. “Oh, Wendell, don’t forget to talk to Rapunzel.”

“Of course not,” Wendell said, and rolled his eyes.

“So, how do you steer these?” Wolf asked.

“I’ve already told them to take you to Dragon Mountain,” Cinderella said. “They understand. When you get there, the Dwarves can help you. Just whistle to start them.”

The air was suddenly thick with whistles and carpets zipping away as Cinderella yelled, “Goodbye! Good luck!”

And then they were gone, flying over the treetops to Dragon Mountain and an unclear future.

“I need to get one of these carpets,” Wolf said, flying up from behind Virginia.,P> “Sure,” she groaned, hanging her head off the side. “Personally, I’m going to be sick.” She leaned all her weight to one side to dodge a high tree. They had found that they could steer by leaning to one side, although if they wanted to turn around, it was impossible. Dead ahead was Dragon Mountain, although they couldn’t see it yet. Suddenly, Virginia was forced to duck as Acrotis’s scarlet carpet grazed the top of her head.

“Watch it!” she yelled for the hundredth time.

“Sorry!” Acrotis shouted back.

“Yeah, right, whatever,” Virginia growled to Wolf. He smiled.

They heard a moan and looked over at Tony. He was gripping his carpet so tightly his knuckles were turning white and he was lying down very flat. His eyes were screwed shut, so the others had to scream warnings at him when there was a large tree or cliff face he was about to crash into. Tony was the only one who looked sicker than Virginia.

Wendell, on the other hand, was having the time of his life, even though they were on a serious mission. He wove in and out of the trees, flew upside- down and was generally a pain to Virginia, whether he intended that or not. Still, Wendell wasn’t nearly as bad as Acrotis. Virginia had thought the girl was rather irritating when they started out on the journey. After three hours of non- stop flying, she was infuriating.

Wolf sped ahead as the five of them reached a steep hill. They had passed some mountains on their way, but had not seen Dragon Mountain yet. However, they were flying pretty low. They hadn’t flown over Kissing Town or any other town for that matter, because they were coming from he opposite direction than they had a year ago. Nothing looked familiar to Virginia until they crested the top of the hill.

Dragon Mountain loomed in front of them. It took Virginia’s breath away as it had when she’d first seen it. Even though she had a completely different vantage point, the mountain was unmistakable. It seemed to radiate power, majesty, and ancient knowledge. Its snow-capped peak reached into the clouds and its rocky base looked just as impossible to climb as before. This time, luckily, they wouldn’t have to climb the rugged mountain's base.

“Come on!” Virginia yelled to the others. There was no time to waste. Tony managed to open his eyes, and they sped upwards and to the side, where the entrance they had used before was - the one with the dragon’s skull leading into darkness. When they spotted it, the five of them swooped down and hopped off their carpets.

There was no one in sight. The huge head of the dragon sat in front of them, its gaping mouth lined with three-foot long teeth. Virginia stared down into the blackness and took a tentative step over the bottom tooth of the skull. Everyone else followed, each of their carpets hovering close behind them. Acrotis was jumping up and down with excitement.

They soon reached a Dwarf slide: a fifty-foot-long laundry chute which Tony called a “dragon feeding trough”. Virginia wasn’t too keen on sliding down the narrow piece of metal but she didn’t know any other way down to the mines. She certainly didn’t want to get lost in the labyrinth of tunnels again.

“I’ll go first,” Virginia said. She took her carpet from its place, hovering obediently behind her, spread it out on the slide, and sat on it. She took a deep breath and pushed off. Stalactites (or stalagmites, she could never tell which) that were hanging from the ceiling forced her to duck her head or be decapitated. She shot downward and would have fallen on her face when she reached the bottom, but her magic rug zipped around and caught her.

Smart carpet, she thought as she hurried out of the way. Wendell came down next, followed by Wolf, Acrotis, and finally Tony. All their carpets caught them as well.

“I like these things,” Wolf declared as they set off again.

They went down one more slide without much difficulty, and when they got to the bottom there was only one more passage to turn into.

When they entered the main mirror-making chamber that Virginia, Tony, and Wendell had stumbled into a year ago, the sight could not have been more different. Back then, the Dwarves had been working at many different stations, boiling vats of quicksilver, rolling wheelbarrows around, and they had even pulled Wendell’s Truth Mirror out of its mold. Now it was dark and gloomy and Virginia had to squint to see. The Dwarves were doing pretty much nothing. They stood or sat around in little groups, some whispering, some just staring. They all looked very grim, as if any thought that was not utterly desolate had been wiped from their minds. None looked up as the five travelers and their carpets entered.

“Is that the Governor?” Tony whispered. He pointed to a large desk on a platform where a blond Dwarf sat with his forehead resting directly on the wood in front of him.

“I think he’s dead,” Acrotis murmured. She had stopped bouncing.

“He’s not dead,” Virginia snapped. Actually he could have very well been dead, except that he momentarily raised his head and waved half-heartedly at them to come over. They hurried to the desk, sidestepping lethargic Dwarves and tripping in the dark. Tony fell on his back with a muffled oof as a tiny Dwarf foot stuck out into his path. Apparently the Dwarves had good memories.

“Glad you could make it so soon,” the Governor said and smiled a bit weakly as they approached. “Sorry it’s so dark,” he added. “Our mirrors produced most of our light, but of course they’re off now because of the shut-down. Everything is. My men have nothing to do all day except worry that the White Mirror will take them next.” The Governor lowered his voice. “I reassure them, Wendell, but there’s little more I can do. If we don’t do something about this quickly, I don’t like to think what will happen. But in any case, why are you...?” The Governor stopped suddenly, and his brow furrowed.

“Wendell, what in the Nine Kingdoms did you do to your nose?” He leaned forward to get a better look.

“Anyway,” Wendell started hurriedly, “we came to you for some help. We would have been here sooner, but we stopped at Cindy’s.”

“Ah, yes. And that, I suppose, is why you travel with her mirror expert. Acrotis, isn’t it?” the Dwarf asked, eyeing her.

“Yes,” Acrotis smiled.

“So, why are you here?”

“I’m coming along to help them when they get to the White Mirror because I’ll be able to reactivate it so we can go through it.”

There was a very pregnant pause, during which the Governor turned several shades of a pale color. Finally, he croaked, “That isn’t funny.”

“It isn’t a joke,” Wendell replied matter-of-factly. “Why shouldn’t we go through the mirror?”

“Why shouldn’t you?” the Dwarf cried in disbelief. “That’s the most idiotic question I’ve ever heard! Why do you think we deactivated the mirror in the first place? Because it was the worst mistake in Dwarf history! I’m not about to let it happen again.”

“But Governor,” Wendell tried to explain, “The mirror is already partly reactivated. Their son,” he motioned to Wolf and Virginia, “has been abducted. You must realize that this is the only way...”

“To do what?” the Dwarf demanded loudly. “To get yourselves killed? To endanger more lives? Really Wendell, I had thought you had more sense than to bring all this into the mix at a time like this, when the Fourth Kingdom needs you the most...”

“The Fourth Kingdom is defenseless without mirrors. You of all people should know that!” Wendell argued. “I need to do this, for my country, and my friends.”

“But nothing will come of it! There must be other ways to do this than to fling yourselves into that death trap.”

“What do you suggest?” asked Wendell coldly.

The Governor froze and stood motionless, one hand on the desk, one in the air, his eyes searching for something Virginia couldn’t see. Finally he sat down in a deflated sort of way.“What makes you think that you can get out again when no one else could?” he asked, as if in a last attempt to speak reason into them.

“Maybe no one came back because they liked it there so much.” Acrotis’s voice surprised everyone.

“Where?” the Governor asked, bemused.

“That place where everyone must go if they step through the mirror,” Acrotis explained as if it made perfect sense that the world beyond the mirror was some sort of paradise.

“Yes,” said Wendell, gazing sadly at Acrotis. “Maybe.”