Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror (7 page)

“It's a very powerful spell, to make someone's picture,” the girl whispered faintly. “I didn't think you'd come.”

“I wanted to! I wanted to come before, but that man grabbed me. And then it was so hard to get back. My parents made the spells stronger, you see, when they realized I'd gone through the doors. I promised I wouldn't do it again,” she added hesitantly.

“You shouldn't have done,” the girl agreed, and her voice sounded weary. “It's too dangerous. I shouldn't have called to you, but I was desperate, and I felt you close by. I'm sorry…”

“Of course you should have done!” Emily gripped the girl's cold hand. She could feel her shivering. “You helped us before; it was my turn. And I could tell how scared you were. I wanted to help
you
.” She paused, suddenly feeling rather stupid. All she had been thinking was that she must get to the river girl and help her. She hadn't thought any further, and now both of them were stuck in a dark wood, with hunters and dogs circling around them. She had no idea what to do next.

“You can't rescue me,” the girl said gently. “I'm running from the Ladies' huntsmen.”

“But we have to be able to do something,” Emily whispered urgently. “Can't we find somewhere to hide? Until they've given up on you?”

“They won't give up! The hounds never give up on a quarry!”

Emily shook her head, confused. “But what are you going to do, then? You're worn out already. You can't just keep running for ever!”

“That's all there is. Better that than being chased down by the hounds.”

Emily put her hand up against her mouth, feeling suddenly sick. “They wouldn't … hurt you?”

“They would.”

Emily took a deep, steadying breath and shook her head angrily. “No. And I don't care if it's against all the laws.” She wrapped her arms tightly around the river-fairy girl and begged all the magic in the house to bring them home.

Emily was back on the window seat, shaking, and staring into the darkness. The cushions were still piled up around her as if she had never moved.

So it
had
been a dream – she had been here all the time. But surely she had brought the girl back out of the dream with her? She must have done. It couldn't all have been for nothing.

“Are you there?” she breathed, not daring to speak above a whisper. If it had worked, who was to say that the girl was all she had brought?

There was a waiting, anxious silence. And then someone shifted at the other end of the window seat, and the faintest shimmer of silver uncoiled itself and stood in front of her.

“Are we in one of the other places?” the river fairy asked, her voice breaking and squeaking a little. She sounded terrified.

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it,” Emily whispered. “I couldn't see what else to do. You were so frightened, and so tired. I didn't want them to catch you. Or me either,” she added honestly. “I was dreaming, but it felt properly real. It felt like those hounds could have sniffed me out too.” She reached out shyly to take the girl's hand again. “I'm so sorry.”

But the river fairy knelt down in front of her, and her skin shone silvery in the dark, so that Emily could see she was smiling. She caught Emily's hands.

“I'm not angry. Please don't think that! You were right; I couldn't have run for much longer. It feels strange to be here –” she shivered a little “ – but better here than thrown to the hounds.”

“Uuurgh! They'd let the hounds eat. … Oh no!” Emily pressed her hand to her mouth, disgusted.

“You really don't know?” The fairy girl stared at her, and then smiled, seeming to find her innocence truly funny. “They only eat what they catch. That's why they're always hungry, and they never give up on a quarry.”

Emily put both hands over her face now, her shoulders shaking. “How could they? And Ash and Eva come from there! My parents! They would never let anything like that happen.”

The girl looked at her in surprise. “I suppose Lord Ash left to guard the ways before the Ladies began to grow so strong. The king stays shut away in the palace so much now – perhaps your parents don't know what it's like any more.” She frowned. “But our world is a hard place. Cruel, sometimes.”

Emily nodded. She'd had a glimpse of that, when her father told her so firmly that the worlds must be kept apart. “What are we going to do?” she asked in a small, tired voice. “If I tell my family you're here, I don't think they'll be happy. No one is supposed to come through the doors without them knowing.”

The girl glanced up at her. “They'll have seen us, then, the Lady Eva and Lord Ash.” She looked round at the door anxiously, as though she expected someone to come storming through it, to send her back to the hounds.

Emily shook her head. “I don't think so… My mother made a spell, but it didn't work, because I cheated.” She glanced down at her hands. “She laid it on my bed. It was to stop me dreaming – that's why I slept here by the window, and then dreamed my way through the window glass to the woods, and you.”

“You cheated one of
her
spells?” the girl asked, her eyes widening.

“I think so,” Emily admitted. “Do you know her, my mother?”

“Of course. She's one of the great Ladies. There are stories about her. And Lord Ash is a prince – one of the king's highest courtiers.”

“Really?” Emily blinked in surprise. Her dad spent most of his time shut up in his study under the stairs, typing and occasionally throwing things when work wasn't going as it should. He didn't seem princely at all. Although – she remembered his fairy form, the soft ash-grey of his skin and hair, the diamond blackness of his eyes. Perhaps he was.

“If you twisted your way out of her spell, there must be strong magic inside you,” the girl said, squeezing Emily's hands. But it didn't make Emily feel much better.

“What are we going to do?” she asked again. When she'd set off on her daring rescue, she hadn't imagined bringing the girl back with her. She was just going to help, somehow, and that was all…

“You'll have to hide me,” the river fairy murmured, looking around the room. “I'm not supposed to be here. There'll be trouble for everyone if I'm caught.”

“Everyone?” Emily frowned. “Only me and you. It was me who brought you.”

The girl sighed. “But who's going to believe that? You're a human child, you see. You aren't one of us, and you shouldn't have any magic. Lady Eva and the prince, that's who'll be blamed, if anyone finds out where I've gone. Or your sisters, perhaps.”

Emily swallowed, suddenly seeing the truth of this. “You're right. Lark and Lory are already in trouble. Lots of trouble. My mum had to go and grovel, my father said.” He'd explained it all to her only yesterday. It seemed an awfully long time ago. “It's because they came and dragged me away from the Ladies…” Emily leaned down and looked sharply at the river fairy. “Why were the huntsmen after you?”

The girl sighed, and her head drooped, the greenish-silver hair falling over her face. “They found out.”

Emily's eyes widened, and she gripped the girl's hands tighter. “About you helping us escape? You mean you're in all this trouble because of
me
?”

The river girl didn't say anything, but Emily knew that it was true.

“Just because I got angry and ran through the doors by mistake…” Emily's voice shook.

“Yes.”

Emily straightened her shoulders and tried to breathe, and think. “Will the huntsmen try and chase you here?” she asked, remembering the power and fearsomeness of Lady Anstis and the others. She couldn't imagine them giving up. “They shouldn't be allowed through the doors, but we did it, somehow. If we left traces, could they follow us?”

“I suppose they might,” the girl agreed, glancing over her shoulder at the stormy glass in Emily's windows, and shuddering.

“But they don't know this place,” Emily told her determinedly. “I'll hide you. We'll find somewhere, and we won't tell my parents either, in case they have to send you back.” She shook her head. “I don't think they would. I don't see how they could be so cruel.” But her dad had said, hadn't he? No mixing between the worlds. And her family had to live by the rules, Emily understood that. It didn't mean that she was going to let them give the girl back. “You hide for now – and then we'll find somewhere for you to go. To stay…” Her voice trailed away.

“Where can I hide?” the girl asked, looking around Emily's little room with a frown.

“What about the mirror on the landing?” Emily asked. “I saw you in it before. You were looking out at me, and I almost came through. Is it a mirror on your side too?” she asked curiously.

“No.” The girl laughed. “Well, I was looking at it like a mirror. It was just a patch of sunlight on the water. It was glittering, and I looked in, and I saw you walking past. I could tell you were a human child. So I'd go back to look, in that same place. It didn't always work, but quite often I saw you, and I wondered who you were. Then one day you looked back.”

Emily laughed. “You were the first fairy I saw. Or the first one I knew about, anyway. Would another mirror work? Could you hide in it?”

“Maybe. But it would be better if there was some way you could keep me with you – if the huntsmen chase us down through your magic, I won't leave you to fight them on your own.” She looked hopefully back at Emily. “Do you have any jewels?”

“Not really. I mean – bracelets and things. Is that what you mean?”

“Ye-es. Something small, that you can carry with you. I can work a spell to hide myself, I think. Especially if you help.”

Emily nodded. “I know.” She reached for her school bag, which was sitting on the table in front of the window seat, and rooted around in the inside pocket. “What about this?” It was a tiny mirror that Rachel had given her for Christmas, a round one set with sparkly jewels in the back.

“Yes.” The fairy girl smiled, and came to sit next to Emily on the window seat, peering into the mirror. “Perfect. Hold it with me.”

They cupped their hands together around the mirror, and Emily felt the rush of magic through the girl's fingers as she closed her eyes and began to whisper to herself. Something inside Emily seemed to jump, and a warmth spread through her, stretching out to the fairy by her side. Emily sighed delightedly as she saw her fingers glowing softly golden – and then she was holding the mirror by herself. The fairy girl had gone, and the mirror was dancing in her hands, the jewelled back tickling her fingers.

“Did it work?” she whispered hopefully. “Are you all right? Are you squashed?”

The fairy girl looked out at her from the mirror and laughed, and Emily laughed back. “I suppose not. I don't know how these things work.”

“I shall be fine. But you should sleep. I'll watch, in case they come.”

 

“What's that?” Robin demanded, looking over Emily's shoulder as she packed her things into her school bag and munched toast.

Emily jumped, and closed her hand over the glass. “Just a mirror.”

Robin rolled his eyes. “If you're checking your hair, I can tell you now it's a total disaster at the back.”

“Thanks,” Emily muttered. She could feel the mirror quivering under her hand, as though the fairy girl was laughing.

“I'm going slug-hunting when I've finished my breakfast,” Robin told her, grinning evilly, and Emily gave an anxious sigh.

“Don't you dare! I told you not to!” But Robin was gone. “He's as bad as Katie is,” Emily growled to herself. He wasn't going to leave her alone about Katie, it was obvious. But she had more important things to worry about right now. Katie's nastiness didn't seem to matter much. Which actually meant it was a good day to laugh in Katie's face, if she got the chance.

Emily glanced over her shoulder. No one else around. She looked into the mirror again – it was full of swirling mist. She'd have to make sure it stayed hidden at school, or get the girl to make it look like a normal mirror somehow. She smiled to herself. She hoped the girl knew what a normal mirror was like. Probably all the ones she'd ever seen were haunted, or charmed, or had secret doors in them. She rubbed it gently and was about to call her when she frowned. She'd never asked…

“I've just thought of something,” she whispered into the mist, and it cleared slowly to show the fairy girl's face.

“What is it?”

“I don't know your name. I'm sorry, I should have asked you… I've just been thinking of you as the river fairy.”

“Oh.” She smiled out of the glass and nodded. “Sasha. Like the sound of the water.”

“It's pretty,” Emily told her. “It suits you,” she added shyly. “Look, I have to go to school, and we can't let anyone see you. I suppose I could hide the mirror in my pocket or something. But then you won't be able to see out. Can you make sure it stays looking like a mirror? Not misty, or anything like that?

She shuddered, imagining what would happen if Rachel happened to look in the mirror, or even worse, Katie or Ellie-Mae.

“What's the matter?” Sasha asked her curiously. “You look like someone walked over your grave.”

Emily glanced at her, startled by the horrid phrase – and that Sasha could tell what she was feeling. “Oh… There are some girls teasing me. It's nothing. Nothing like you being chased. Don't worry about it.”

“Why?” Sasha frowned at her out of the mirror, and Emily sighed.

“I don't think there's a reason. They're just like that.”

“I can help.” Sasha smiled, and Emily felt a sudden ripple of magic around her, soothing and gentle. “Don't be sad.”

Emily sighed. “I'm not really. I was, but now I'm more worried about Robin. He wants to put slugs in Katie's lunch – she's the worst of them. She pulled my hair out.”

Sasha leaned closer to look at Emily properly, and the glass stretched and moulded so that her features jutted out of the mirror. Her voice was suddenly much more serious. “That's not just teasing.”

Emily shrugged. “She does that sort of thing all the time,” she murmured. “Not just to me.”

“That's not right – there's someone coming!” Sasha sealed herself back into the glass in a second, and Emily scrabbled the mirror into her bag as Lark and Lory walked in.

“Aren't you ready for school?” Lark asked.

“Is she ever?” Lory flipped Emily's ponytail. “Hurry up.”

Emily nodded, and grabbed the last, slightly stale chocolate-orange muffin out of the tin for breakfast on the way. She reckoned she might need it.