Fairest (28 page)

“I killed her, didn't I? Did she really die?”

“You are the fairest once again.”

I called out, “Ivi! I'm here.”

She didn't hear me. “How could I have killed her? I used to like her so much. When she was the oaf, she was my friend.”

The
oaf
!

She must have picked up the mirror. I felt no sense of movement, but my view of the ceiling around her face slid away, replaced by tapestry and wall. She continued to weep.

I yelled louder. “Ivi! Listen! Ivi!”

Again she didn't hear.

“My brave, brave queen, the oaf wouldn't have made herself beautiful if she had truly been your friend.”

“But now she's dead. I'd have been content if she'd grown oafish again.”

“Mourn her, my queen. I'd think less of you if you did not.”

“I loved my poor oaf.”

“Your loving heart is speaking. Your clever mind knows the beautiful Aza was your rival.”

“That's true.” She wiped her eyes. “She was my rival. She kissed Ijori.”

“And he wished to marry her.”

“She deserved to die.”

“Your High High Highness, your lowly servant is worried for you.”

She frowned. “Why? The oaf is dead, and you're watching out for me, and you'll always be faithful.”

“And why will I always be faithful?”

She answered promptly. I could tell she'd said this many times. “Because you worship at my face.”

Sickening!

“Yes,” Skulni said, “I do. I'm worried because of the guard Uju. He is a danger to you.”

Not Ijori! I felt a rush of joy and then shame. I didn't want Uju to die.

“How is he a danger?”

“You instructed him to kill your oaf.”

“I didn't!”

“Not in so many words, but you promised to knight him if she died in his company. And you failed to knight him.”

“He didn't kill her!”

“Yes, but he may be angry, perhaps angry enough to speak against you.”

It was believable, maybe even true. I stood over Skulni, rising on my toes in frustration. Then I felt my heart in Gnome Caverns stop. A dozen seconds passed before it beat again.

On that beat I had an idea. I illused my voice over Skulni's mouth. “Your Majesty? It's Aza.” Your oaf. I sang, “I'm in the magic mirror.” As I sang, I felt my strength rise again.

Skulni waved his hand in front of his mouth, trying to erase my voice.

I illused and sang, “Skulni doesn't want you to know I'm here.”

“Aza? Where are you?”

I sang, “In the mirror.” As I sang, I looked down, trying to think of what to say. “Here, in the mirror.” It was then that I noticed the carpet. While I sang, my feet sank into it. I had weight! I stopped singing. The carpet pile sprang back. Singing gave me true strength.

Ivi cried, “Are you still beautiful?”

“My queen,” Skulni said, “don't—”

I slid my voice over his. “He's trying to get you killed. He lied to you. He—”

She screamed, “Are you still beautiful?”

I sang, no longer illusing, “Go away! Move! Go away!” I pushed Skulni off his chair. He was lighter than dust. I saw his startled face, creasing into fury.

I sat. The chair felt like an ordinary chair, but as soon as I was seated, I was linked to the mirror. It became as much a part of me as my hands, and using it was as easy as pointing. I thought what I wanted Ivi to see in the mirror. The image came to mind. I projected it.

First I showed her my former face.

She began to smile. “Aza!”

I showed her my present self and sang, “I'm still beautiful.”

“Aza!” Her face dropped away, and her chamber swung by. I saw the ceiling again. Then I saw her hems and her slipper with its sharp heel coming our way.

Yes!

Was I about to die?

The slipper pounded on the mirror-window. It didn't break. Pounded again. Again. She was stamping on it.

But she couldn't smash it.

She tried other ways. She swung the mirror into her doorknob. She attacked it with her paring knife.

At my side, Skulni bowed and smiled a spider's smile.

I heard her shrieking, “I can't break you. Why can't I break you? Skulni, why can't I break you?”

I sang, “He wants to get you executed, so he—”

“Aza?” Her face was back. “After you died, you went into the mirror? With Skulni?”

I said yes.

“If I kill myself, will I be with you, too? Will I be?”

Skulni thrust his head next to mine and answered, “Yes, my queen. I've been longing for you.”

“Then I'll do it. Skulni wants me, not you.”

“No!” I cried.

She must have put us down. The mirror-window showed only the ceiling. Skulni crossed his arms, grinning mightily.

She was back. I saw her hands, pouring white powder into a tumbler.

“No!” I shouted. “Don't!” I tried to think of something to show her in the mirror. Then I thought what to attempt. I sang:

Still singing, I leaped up, overturning the chair. My connection to it snapped. Still singing, I made a fist and punched the mirror with all my strength.

It sounded as if all the keys of a piano had been banged at once.  A jagged crack formed, but the mirror held.

Ivi stirred the poison with a spoon. “Oaf, I'm coming. Ogress, I'm coming.”

I sang, full voice, “Ijori! My love … Ayortha …” and struck the mirror again.

Another crack formed, but the mirror still held.

Ivi raised the tumbler.

I was a chorus, a choir. I threw myself—shoulders, elbows, knees, all my singing weight—into the mirror. I sang, “I won't remain in a mirror, a beauty in a—”

A roar drowned me out.

T
HE MIRROR CRUMBLED
in a bedlam of jangling notes. Skulni shrieked as the walls crumbled, too. For a moment he and I stood on Ivi's dressing table, each of us smaller than a thimble. My feet were in a puddle, and I glimpsed shards of the vials that had contained the potions. I saw Ivi drop the tumbler.

I was lifted up and drawn backward toward the door. As I went, I heard Ivi's cry of dismay and watched Skulni dwindle and fade from sight. Then I was torn away, through corridors and out of the castle. Again I whirred along the Ormallo range. Again I was pulled through solid rock.

Below was the market cavern. I saw my body, covered by a jeweled blanket, surrounded by pillows. zhamM knelt at my side, holding my hand.

I swooped down. Oh! My face was no longer beautiful. I slipped into myself.

The world disappeared. I couldn't move so much as a finger. I was a tiny flame, tinier than a candle's flame, buried deep in a glacier. I felt zhamM's hand and the weight of the blanket, but they were a mile away.

A wisp of air entered the glacier. My ribs rose the slightest bit. My heart beat weakly. Against the weight of a glacier it could do no more.

My heart beat again. And again. And stopped. My flame guttered. My heart beat. And stopped. And beat. I felt my consciousness fade. As my flame winked out, I heard a dog bark.

Someone raised me and struck my back. My mouth fell open. The apple flew out. I flared back to life. I breathed deeply, then fainted.

I awoke in my cavern bedchamber.

zhamM sat in a chair next to my bed. “Maid azacH?”

I smiled at him. I loved his kind, leathery face. I tried to thank him for saving me, but my mouth was too dry. I licked my lips.

“I have broth.” He raised my back and piled pillows behind me. I was too weak to help. When I was propped up, he went to a brazier. He poured the broth and brought it to me in a steaming mug.

I held out my hands for the mug, but then I couldn't hold it. zhamM hadn't let go, so nothing spilled.

My hands, on the mug, were wide with broad fingers. My old hands. Memories flooded in. Skulni. Ivi.

I tried again to speak.

“Wait. Let the broth cool. Drink and then tell me.” He sat next to me on the bed, holding the mug.

I waited impatiently. Someone should go to Ontio Castle immediately, to protect Uju.

zhamM held the broth to my lips. I sipped. Root-vegetable broth. It tasted good anyway.

After a few swallows I found my voice. “widyeH zhamM, how long since I spat out the apple?”

“Only yesterday.”

“How long since … since my appearance changed back?”

“Yesterday as well.”

Then not so much time had gone by. That was a relief. I wondered if I'd really destroyed the mirror. If I had, what had happened to Skulni? Might he have been freed? Might he be in the castle now, as a man, working his wiles for his own ends?

“widyeH zhamM, Ivi gave me the poisoned apple.” I tried to get out of bed, but I could hardly move the covers. “Guard Uju is in danger.” Skulni hadn't had time to talk to Ivi about killing him, but he might have said enough to get Uju imprisoned or sent on a perilous mission.

“You need to rest,” zhamM said. “widyeH bynoK, the physician, believes you'll be fine after food and a day's rest. Of course, to be exact, he's never treated a human before.” He smiled. “But you're part gnome.”

I smiled back. He was such a friend, to be exact. “Thank you. You saved me again.”

“Not I. I only hovered and worried.” His expression changed. “Your queen was here?”

“Disguised as a gnome.”

“Maid azacH, a human couldn't disguise herself as a gnome. Not among gnomes.”

“She drank a potion that changed her.”

“Like your beauty potion?”

I nodded.

He said, “The prince should be told.”

I'd never heard about any gnomish prince, only their queen. “What prince?”

zhamM hesitated. “Prince Ijori. We were going to wait un—”

My heart stopped again and then beat wildly. “Ijori!”

“Guard Uju told him where to find you. It was the prince who struck your back and forced out the apple.”

“Where is he now?”

“He isn't part gnome. He can't live down here. He's camped outside our main gateway.”

“Ogres!”

“Exactly outside, to be exact. If he sniffs even a whiff of a whiff of an ogre, he'll nip inside and shut the door.” He stood. “I'll summon him.”

“widyeH zhamM? Is my hair htun again?”

“Yes. It's beautiful.”

“Would you bring back a mirror after you send for Ijori?”

He returned in a few minutes. I took the mirror, and my hand was strong enough to hold it.

I was myself once more. I had the face and shape I would keep always. I would have to learn to accept it. I wouldn't try again to transform myself.

Still looking in the mirror, I held my other hand out to zhamM. He took it. My hair
was
htun. Oh! It was beautiful.

Ijori and Oochoo came soon. Ijori rushed toward me but then stopped. Oochoo leaped on the bed and covered my face with kisses. Her tail wagged so wildly, the bed shook.

“Are you all right? Oochoo! Hop off!”

She continued to stand over me, panting and wagging.

I reached up and scratched her neck. “I'm fine.”

Ijori sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand as cautiously as if it was made of glass.