The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) (25 page)

Though sleep brought relief from her worries, she would almost always fade from the peace of nothingness into nightmares, where the entity with the funerary mask for a face waited for her every night. Sometimes it appeared to her in different forms: a skeletal wolf with black eyes, an old woman with a wasted frame, a clock with a broken pendulum, an emaciated beast with hands like the withered branches of a dead tree. It would arrive guised as these varied phantasms, but it was never able to fool Penny. She could always tell what it was―she knew it was always there. She could feel it hovering, breathing, and beckoning to her at the crossroads where a dream would take the wrong turn into a nightmare. She awoke with a start many times in the black night with the terrified delusion that the masked entity had been only inches away, or remained only inches away. After calming down, she would be lulled back to sleep by the rhythmic and comforting sighing of Simon and Hector in the beds on either side of her, and by daybreak the threat of the iron sarcophagus mask was worlds away. She felt no dread in daylight, not when the fantastic city of Iverton was calling her name.

Even with the disturbed dreams, life in Iverton was rich and sweet, like golden summer fruit. The days were full of wild breezes and soon-to-be memories painted in a thousand different colors, and the nights were lit by warmth and wonderment. Penny found freedom for the very first time in the shady pathways of the parks and by the diamond-white sands of the lakeshore. She’d felt it as she leaned out of the window listening to the whine of faraway music while she gazed at the distant constellations of the Elydrian sky. Each hour that swept past in Iverton was an earthy-rich wine, intoxicating her with the sense that she was already more a part of this world than she had ever been of Earth.

“WELL, I DID it,” Penny announced as she threw the door open and tromped into their room at the inn. Hector looked up from his reading and Simon peered at her from where he lay on the bed. Penny crossed the room to where Hector was leaning back in his chair and placed a pair of clear spectacles beside him. They were of the pince-nez variety, with circular frames joined in the center and no ear-rests.

Hector studied them for a moment and then looked at Penny. Simon lost interest and went back to his nap. Penny gestured again, and sighed with exasperation when Hector still didn’t catch on.

“I found a pair of glasses with lenses that aren’t meant to correct vision! They’re just made from normal glass. Now you can enchant them so I can read, too,” Penny reminded him, and a look of understanding dawned on his face. He smiled and shook his head in disbelief.

“I don’t know how you did it. All right, clear away and I’ll set up the spell.” Hector set his book aside and began magicking silver designs directly into the table-top. The enchantment took a minute to complete.

Excited, Penny scooped the glasses up as they faded back to their proper color and fitted them onto her nose. Hector handed her a book and she opened it with a quivering hand. Her eyes ran over the letters and she laughed out loud, seeing she could read them all. “Works! Works like a charm!” she cheered, skipping over to the mirror to see what the eccentric frames looked like on her face.

“Of course it works,” Hector retorted.

Penny noticed Simon in the reflection of the mirror studying a piece of paper. “What have you got there?” She approached Simon and snorted with laugher when she saw he held the bundle of tickets for
The Cursed Kiss of Anthony Adonis
.

He looked up at Penny with a dampened expression. “It’s playing tonight. Opening night,” he said, his voice heavy and sullen.

“So go! I bet you’ll have a great time―maybe you’ll even get to meet that Collette Bordeaux,” Penny encouraged.

“It’s
Annette Deveaux
, and―and―” Simon stuttered, looking embarrassed as he tried to get the words out.

“What?” Penny prompted. Simon’s face flushed deep red.

“I don’t want to go alone! Please come with me!” Simon begged, clutching at Penny.

She threw him off and shot him a disgruntled look. “No way! I can’t stand that romantical stuff.”

Simon gave her a heartbroken look and clasped his hands together. “I’m sure it won’t just be romance!” he whined. “It’s not asking too much…” His eyes were wide and glistening with hope. Penny sighed, looking over at Hector, who was watching their argument out of the corner of his eye while he pretended to read.

“I’ll go if he goes,” she compromised, jerking her head in Hector’s direction. “There’s no chance I’m going to something like that alone with
you
. You’re incorrigible enough as it is.”

“I would not be completely averse to attending a theatrical performance,” Hector injected, his eyes still fixed on his book. Simon leapt off the bed.

“Oh, Miss Annette! This shall be the most glorious night of our lives―it will be the day we meet!” Simon declared to the poster on the wall. Penny noticed that he had doodled a little mustache and goatee on the man sharing a passionate kiss with Annette.

Penny resigned herself to looking out of the window as Simon scurried into the bathroom to primp himself. She stared out at the velvet sky sprayed with clusters of stars, feeling the autumn breeze breathe in and shiver through her hair. The aromas from the nearby bistros and the hay from the stable below teased her nose. She didn’t realize she was smiling until Hector spoke.

“My, don’t you look different,” he remarked.

She turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. “What are you talking about?” she questioned, feeling self-consciousness rising in her chest. “You mean the glasses?”

Hector shook his head, a distant understanding in his eyes. He was silent for a long while as he organized his books, and Penny was glad for the chance to ponder his words. Hector finished fiddling with his books and papers and rose from his chair, padding across the carpet toward Penny and joining her by the window to peer out at the frosty stars. He touched Penny’s back for what she felt was almost too short a time. The reassuring contact caused Penny’s face to burn. He spoke to her in a tranquil tone, a light, silver laugh laced into his voice.

“You look happy.”

T
he excitement around the theater was so palpable it seemed to vibrate through the air, mingling with the misty glow of multi-colored lights streaming from the theater’s front entrance. Richly dressed people, composed of mostly humans and elves, made a dull roar as they struggled to get past the gates. Hector and Simon flanked Penny, the professor frowning while the magician beamed. Penny grasped their wrists to keep from losing them as she plunged through the horde.

“What can possibly be so exciting about a silly play?” Hector complained.

After twenty minutes of waiting behind a woman in a satiny purple dress, whose hat was adorned with two huge glittering, live beetles, they made it to the ticket gate to find a harried looking Aldridge assisting two young workers in rounding up tickets. He gave Penny a small nod of recognition and a wave, which she returned with an awkward grin.

The halls of the theater were decorated in deep red and gold, giving it quite a different appearance than its exterior of stone suggested. Huge staircases draped in the royal crimson fabric wound up and down the main hall, leading to different floors of seating.

It was a captivating to observe the ocean of people, their various jewelries and fabrics glinting in the reddish gloom of the theater. Inside the noise level was more hushed and restrained, and Hector looked very grateful for this. They sidled through the aisles past a couple of therios in their lavish formal garments, and took their seats in the cushy theater chairs in a row near the middle.

Hector sighed in relief and took off his glasses. “I hope you’re satisfied, Simon,” he murmured, breathing on one of the lenses until it fogged.

“Quite,” Simon replied. His eyes were locked on the stage, ready for the moment when the orchestra would announce the play’s commencement. Penny leaned back in her own seat, flipping through the program. She stopped at the collection of cast members’ biographies, and read with interest through one success story after another, including Annette’s section:

—Annette Deveaux—

This twenty-three year old darling of the performing world has been training in the arts since the age of five. She has often said that nothing makes her happier than giving her all for the grateful fans of Iverton. Miss Deveaux made her debut at the Iverton Central Theater at age sixteen, but didn’t receive her breakthrough role as ‘Elizabeth’ in Aldridge Alenter’s “The Shore Beyond” until four years later. Since then, she has been the shining beacon of Iverton’s performing arts society, claiming the starring role in more than 10 different plays and singing in 14 musical festivals.

The illustration below the short biography showed the doll-like Annette flashing a charming smile. The next page offered another short summary about the leading man, Fredrick Weberforth, and Penny passed it on to Hector and turned her attention to studying the crowd. Many of the audience members were drinking fragrant beverages that smelled of alcohol, and Penny scanned the hall until she discovered a small bar in the top tier of the coliseum.

Noting her interest, Simon whisked away to get them both large glasses of the strong-smelling wine. Penny, who had never had alcohol before, drank it down with only a few gulps. Simon sniggered at her as her cheeks turned red and Hector gave her a scolding glare.

Feeling quite dizzy now, Penny resumed studying faces in the crowd. Farther down the row in front of her was a familiar person; a beautiful woman with black hair, cropped short in a chic style, and an unpleasant expression on her face. In her gloved hand she cradled a long cigarette from which plumes of sparkling violet smoke poured, accenting her low-cut, tight red gown. Despite all of her adornments and elegance, she exuded an air of trying to act and look younger than the telltale age lines on her face revealed her to be.

The lights in the theater started to dim, and Penny refocused her attention to the stage as a hush fell across the theater. The band began a merry overture as the curtains whipped open, revealing a set depicting a tavern. Simon squeaked when he spotted Annette standing behind the fake counter, dressed in a disheveled barmaid’s outfit as she pretended to scrub it clean.

A peal of applause rang out for the starlet. Annette’s voice rang through the amphitheater crystal clear as she started off her dialogue with another actor, who portrayed a regular at the bar. Annette’s character had been stuck at the dead-end bar for years, with no way out and no future. Penny decided that Annette Deveaux was deserving of her fame; her acting was charming, and she did her best to turn the cliché script into something that commanded the attention of the audience.

The first musical number was nothing short of spectacular; special effects reached a new level with the assistance of magic. Penny was just getting drawn into the plotline when something in the audience distracted her. She shot a quick glance back at the black-haired woman, her face still maddeningly familiar, and a heavy shock made her breath catch in her throat. Next to the black-haired woman was Deimos; the very same man that had tried to coax Simon into murdering her over a month ago. The sound of her strangled heartbeat drowned out all the dialogue from the stage and Penny stared at her knees, trying to keep calm.