The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

“What is that?” she whispered, looking toward the mouth of the grotto.

“Someone’s coming,” he hissed.

W
hat’re we gonna do? What―”

“Shush!”

In tense silence they listened as the steps echoing throughout the tiny cave grew louder. Hector signaled for Penny to get behind him and she did, feeling a buzzing in the air followed by the now familiar tug of energy that meant Hector was pulling magic from her. They both waited, the air around Hector’s fingers crackling with energy. Moments later a shadow crept toward them. Penny braced herself for the fierce break of tension as she studied the approaching shape on the cave wall. Whoever was coming wore a tall hat.

Penny’s heart leapt as the intruder poked his head around the corner and peered at them. With a rush of disbelief and surprise, she recognized the familiar top hat and mustache. Hector tensed at her side, ready to attack.

“No! Please, I-I surrender!” Simon whimpered, throwing his hands up as he locked eyes with Hector and saw his aggressive stance.

“What are you doing here?” Hector demanded, relaxing only a little.

Penny put her hands out too to assure him that all was safe. “This is that Simon person I was telling you about! The one from the marketplace, remember?” she said, moving over to where Simon groveled. His once crisp clothes were now bedraggled with tears, tatters, and a number of stains.

“Oh, I thought I’d never find you again!” he whined. He rubbed at red eyes with the back of his hand and leaned against the cave wall, sniffling and looking pathetic. Hector shot Penny a bewildered glance and she shrugged. Simon seemed to be struggling to pull himself together.

“How in the world did you find us here?” Penny questioned as Hector crept closer, eyeing Simon with apprehension.

“I’ve been following you! And if it weren’t for that blasted beast of yours I would have caught up miles ago! I
told
you I had something extremely important to tell you! Why did you just
wander
off?” He looked and sounded as if he had been through quite an ordeal, his voice hoarse and his face sallow and stretched.

“Um, let me think,” Penny shot back. “I have no reason to trust you, for one thing―and for another,
you
were the one who ran away!”

Simon responded with a perturbed grimace. “I had no choice! The baron guy with the ponytail―if he had seen me, he would’ve killed me, so I had to get away as fast as I could! Did you hear me?
Kill me
!”

Hector shot him a skeptical look. “Kill you? Why would he want to kill you?” he asked, inching protectively between them.

“Because I wasn’t able to murder Penelope like he told me to, but―” Simon said with a dismissive wave, as if there were more important things to explain at the moment.

Hector grabbed him as Penny leapt back in fear. Simon squealed, trying to avoid Hector’s grasp but failing.

“
What did you just say?
” Hector gasped, trying to look fearsome and not quite succeeding. It was still enough to make Simon cower back in terror, spitting out one frantic jumble of words after another. Hector turned to Penny with an uncertain look.

“Should I―” he started to ask, but Simon cut him off.

“No, wait! Let me explain, please! I’m on your side, really!” he sputtered. Hector looked at Penny for a signal and she shrugged.

“We might as well hear him out,” she reasoned. It made sense to hear what he had to say, even if it was a complete fabrication.

Simon smiled and thanked her several times in the same breath, and she and Hector allowed the harried magician a moment to collect himself. When he spoke again, his voice still trembled.

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’ll tell you exactly what happened to me―no lies or tricks. But after I’m done, will you
please
help me? I’ve been through hell. I don’t know anything about this place or camping in the woods or how to get back, o-or―”

“Start talking, Simon, and we’ll see,” Penny said as she crossed her arms, trying to look tougher than she felt. He faltered for a moment, then launched into his story.

“A few days before we met, I came into that Podunk town I assume you live in to do a show with my partners. It was a cheap price to rent out that theater, and times are hard so we all figured we could make a few bucks while passing through. Just the same old card tricks, levitation, rabbit-out-of-the-hat crap, you know? Okay, so here was my problem. Though my partners really have the skill to put on an entertaining show, I myself haven’t really got the materials or talent. As soon as they realize how much better off they’ll be without me, I’m going to be out of a job―in other words, I was desperate.” Simon looked back and forth from Penny to Hector with large soulful eyes, as if he were expecting some sympathy.

“That’s all very unfortunate, but what does this have to do wi―” Hector began to interject.

“I’m getting there!” he retorted, looking indignant. The magician snorted and continued, “Anyway, I was handing out some fliers to advertise for our show and I ran into that baron guy with the ponytail. What was his name…Damien?” Simon stroked his mustache and goatee as he thought.

“Deimos. I remember it from the marketplace,” Penny corrected. “Go on.”

“Well, I handed him a flyer and he looked at me with such
great
amusement. He had this creepy guy with him, too, who had this weird eye, and his left arm was all mechanical-like, and―” Simon had been grimacing as he recalled the man, but suddenly shook his head. “It’s beside the point. This Deimos, he made some small talk, asking me about this and that, and then he just pulled out a magic wand. A
real
magic wand. This wand, to be exact.” Simon produced the same silver and crystal wand he had used in the coffee shop to transform the cards.

“After he proved to me that it really worked, I was shocked, but of course I was excited, too―if I could somehow use real magic in my show and dress it up to make it look like an illusion, I’d be more famous than Harry Houdini in a matter of months. Then it would be Oliver and Sam who’d be begging to stay a part of
my
show! He was offering me my
dream
,” Simon emphasized.

“So, he showed me how to use it, and then he said if I wanted to keep it, all I’d have to do was dispose of someone in town named Penelope Fairfax. He told me that you’d be about twenty years of age, and that you lived in the area, but that’s all he knew. So I told him I would and he disappeared but—” Simon stopped, cut off by an angry growl from Penny.

“You’re telling me, in so many words, that you’d take an innocent person’s
life
for your own personal gain? You slimy little―” Penny puffed up with rage, but Simon interrupted.

“I wasn’t
actually
going to kill you! I planned to take off. I was going to use the wand to escape from him and to defend myself if he ever came around looking for trouble. That day, I came to
warn
you about him. I’d never be able to forgive myself if I’d been indirectly responsible for the death of an innocent, unsuspecting girl―and I had no regrets about double-crossing anyone who would wish for something so awful! So I tracked you down and found your photo online—by the way, you should really check the privacy settings on your profile. The point is, you should be
thanking
me for risking my neck to help you.” His tragic attempt at nobility was almost laughable, but Penny couldn’t muster a smile under the circumstances.

“That still doesn’t add up to much, if you ask my opinion,” Hector growled.

Simon frowned in exasperation. “Well, I
didn’t
ask
,
and if you’d all stop interrupting, maybe I could actually get on with the convincing.
Anyway,
I was going after you outside of the coffee shop, when I ran into this amazingly pretty woman. No, not just pretty―she was
gorgeous.
It was almost scary how perfect she was. She had great big wings, too…looked just like an angel.”

The description disturbed Penny; it sounded much too similar to the man from her memory.
I was so sure that had only been a nightmare…what if that memory was all real? Stranger things have happened in my life recently―but Simon said it was a woman. The face I remember was definitely a man.

“She appeared on the street beside me, stood there for a moment, then touched the side of my face―and just like that I fell straight asleep. When I woke up, I was in a beautiful garden, and it was the middle of the night. I was scared stiff at first…but I wandered around for several hours, and that’s when she returned. But there was something different about her―her skin was covered with these black blotches, and she was struggling to stay awake. She said that she didn’t have much time. She asked me why I had been following you and I told her everything. It was like I was
compelled
to tell the truth. She could hardly stay conscious, but she managed to give me this.”

From underneath his cape Simon pulled out a small box carved out of rich, lacquered cherry pine. The edges were gilded in a beautiful design.

“She said that to make up for what I had done I’d have to find you and give you this―she said it would help you. That you’d know what to do with it. Then, just before she passed out, she grabbed onto me and pulled me through―well, the thin air. The world just sort of
melted away,
and I went through this―this huge stretch of darkness.
Nothingness
, more like,” Simon explained, looking as if he were still unsure exactly what had happened. “When I came through, I was in that town…and she was gone. Anyway, I suppose that angel lady must’ve known you were nearby, because I found you the next morning! You remember, in the market?” he prompted, then sighed and looked distastefully at the box. “All that trouble just to give you this stupid thing.”

Penny lifted the box from Simon’s hands and inspected it. “This has got to be a big mistake. I’m not who they think I am
.
Why are all these people I’ve never even
heard
of trying to kill me or―or help me or―”

Simon’s face contorted. “Excuse me? Do you mean to tell me that you don’t have a
clue
about what’s going on here? I thought you were the one with all the answers! I need you to protect me, to help me get back! And, if I may ask, who the
hell
is this guy?” Simon gestured at Hector, who took mild offense. “Who are
you
, Penelope Fair―”

“It’s Penny, okay? And I just told you! I’m nobody. I’ve done nothing to deserve this,” Penny moaned. She looked toward Hector. “
He
was my lit teacher. We somehow got tangled up in this together when a bunch of monsters attacked me.
He’s
the one who’s special, not me. He’s some sort of wizard from a messed up planet.”

“I am the last surviving member of the Nelvirnee race and an enchanter of the Seventh Order of Seival,” Hector corrected.

Simon blinked. “Well…there’s
that,
” he deadpanned, and it became apparent a lengthy explanation was in order.

It took quite a bit of effort on Hector’s part to convince Simon that he was indeed from a world other than Earth or Elydria, and it took even longer before Simon was able to understand the situation they were in. Hector demonstrated his abilities by casting the universal communication spell on Simon, and he was placated by this small miracle.

While Hector was elaborating, Penny’s gaze strayed to the pool as an idea nagged at her. Amongst the collection of dusty paraphernalia littered about, Penny spied a small bottle that still had a stopper. She glanced over at Hector and Simon to see they were still in heated discussion. Satisfied that neither would take much notice of her, she inched over to the bottle and wiped the dust off on her jacket. The enchanted spring was so deep and plentiful, and it was a rarity to be allowed access to it. Penny decided to fill up the small flask as stealthily as she could.