The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) (52 page)

Penny decided to lie down early to save herself from the awkwardness of the situation, but stayed wide awake nonetheless. Her body was desperate for sleep, but she felt that she could not handle another nightmare, especially in this place of deep magic. She was sure that losing sleep for another night would be better than waking up to find she had tried to drown herself.

Hector remained awake long after the others had laid down to rest. Penny surreptitiously watched as he strode across the clearing through the flowers, his glasses alight with the reflection of the mushrooms’ phosphorescence. He lay down beside Penny sometime near midnight and she closed her eyes to keep from being noticed. She listened to his breathing for a while, feeling the temperature around her dropping until even her bones seemed frozen.

There was not a moment before this that she could remember feeling so helpless, so small, and so alone. She lay there, struggling with her expended body and all its unrelenting pains, feeling the eyes of the forest on her back. Tears threatened to stream from her eyes and her heart sank even deeper with the realization that she was going to give in, after all the times she had stopped herself from weeping. Misery ate at her as she shook and whimpered in the frigid cold, until a small sound stirred Penny from her misery.

“Penny?” Hector’s voice was soft, cautious, and very much awake. She said nothing, forcing her arms and legs to quit their shivering in an attempt to fool Hector into thinking she was asleep.

“Are you all right?” Hector asked, ignoring Penny’s poorly-concealed act.

“Y-yeah. I’m f-fine,” she stammered through chattering teeth, angry with herself. She felt raw and exposed, and that was something she could not abide in Hector’s presence. Hector propped himself up on one elbow and looked over at her with a searching glance, increasing Penny’s feeling of defenselessness.

“You don’t seem to be fine. In fact I could’ve sworn you were―”

“I was not crying!” Penny argued, sitting up quickly, and Hector leaned back. She hung her head, her shoulders resuming their shaking as she lay back down. “It’s just so—so damn cold out here…”

“That’s it?” Hector prodded.

On any other night, under any other condition, or even if Hector had spoken just a bit differently, Penny was certain she would have answered “Yes” and it would have ended there, but Mulgrith had pushed her too far. Everything tumbled down before she could stop it, and hot tears burned her cheeks.

“I’m tired―tired beyond anything I thought tired could ever be. I haven’t really slept for days and I feel like I’m dying, I’m scared senseless out here, everyone’s blaming me for not being able to find Della, and I―I just want…I just want to go home…” Penny couldn’t stop the tear flow and covered her face in shame. She hated everything about herself and this moment. Out of nowhere Hector’s arms wrapped around her exhausted body and pulled her tight. She gasped, inhaling his signature cedar pine scent.

“Penny…” his voice effused comfort as he put his hand on Penny’s back and held her, the warmth from his body soothing the cold in hers. Penny was rigid with shock for a few moments, but as she became aware of the safety and affection behind his gesture, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against his chest as her tears ebbed. With shaking hands she grasped Hector around his midsection and linked her hands together behind his back as she listened to his heart beat erratically in his chest.

“You’re all right...Good Heavens, you are cold.” Hector pulled her in tighter, then lay down beside her and used the blankets to cover them up. “Is that better?”

“Y-yes. Thanks,” Penny stammered. She was starting to feel dizzy again.

“Why haven’t you been sleeping?” Hector prompted from close beside her. Penny shut her eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.

“I―well, I haven’t been completely honest up to this point. That night on the dirigible―I fell because I’ve been having this strange nightmare, always with this―I don’t know, it’s―it’s like something from Hell. It wears a mask and a dark cloak. I saw it first on that night I almost died in Warwick’s Grotto. It’s like it’s been following me since then, showing up every time I shut my eyes. It
made
me try and jump. I’m afraid I’ll have another nightmare like before―and―” Penny couldn’t finish the thought, and Hector frowned.

“I understand why you’ve been avoiding it, but for now I wish you’d go to sleep. You’ll die without rest in a place like this. I’ll stay awake all night long to ensure that nothing happens. You’ll be safe, I promise,” Hector assured her.

“B-but―”

“Don’t worry…” Hector lifted his hand to try and perform the spell that sent Penny off to sleep, but she stopped him.

“No, not that, please…It feels too much like dying,” Penny admitted, leaning forward until the tip of her forehead just touched his chest. Hector said something in a low murmur that Penny did not catch, but it was comforting regardless. The warmth from Annette and Hector on either side of her eased the ache and numbness in her bones, and Penny drifted to sleep.

“LET ME SEE it,” Simon ordered, holding out his hand for the glass orb Argent was inspecting. After morning broke, they had set their minds to trying to figure out its function, once and for all.

Argent pretended not to hear him. Simon made an irritable swipe for the orb, which Argent dodged. “Give it here!” Simon shouted, taking hold of Argent’s wrist and tugging.

“Get away!” Argent yowled, batting at Simon’s face.

“It doesn’t belong to you!” Simon squawked, still fighting.

“It doesn’t belong to you,
either
,” Argent growled, stepping back as Simon lunged for the orb again. Hector, Annette, and Penny watched for a moment as the intensity of the scuffle increased. Penny rose to her feet and stalked across the clearing to break them up.

“Play nice, children,” Penny snapped, pushing the two of them apart and holding her hand out to receive the orb. Argent tried to hand it over, but Simon made one final attempt to snatch the orb away, his fingers grazing the sides of the smooth glass. Penny watched it roll straight out of Argent’s hand and plummet toward the ground.

She made a wild grab for it, but it was too late. The delicate glass landed on rock with a sickening crack, amidst a chorus of frantic yells. Frozen in horror, Penny watched in disbelief as the swirling sands that had been encased behind the thin layer of glass spun into the air.

“
You idiot!
What’ve you done?” Argent snarled at Simon. Penny’s eyes remained locked on the smashed sphere. The sparkling sand spiraled upwards, forming a gleaming trail in midair. Annette screamed as the sand streamed into Penny’s eyes, nostrils, and mouth in a sudden rush.

Penny couldn’t scream as the particles flowed into her, feeling nothing as the specs of white light blazed into her eyes. Once all the sand disappeared inside her eyes and mouth, Penny stood wobbling on the spot for a moment as all thought was wiped from her head like a wave pushing up onto the sand. She caught a final glimpse of her friends’ expressions, stricken with stark horror, before she collapsed in a heap among the flowers.

W
ater rushed past, frigid and green, sweeping by until there was nothing but a dark tunnel that stretched on and then turned upwards, back into air. Darkness flew by, speckled with bright blue stars. The smell of limestone hung in the air.

Trees were all around now, some heavy with fruit. Everything came to a quiet stop in a clearing, pausing long enough for Penny to see a lone doorway. Then the world began to blur and fade, but a small star kept blinking, sparkling in quick flashes from the knothole of a willow tree, a willow tree just like the one…

“Just…like the one…” Penny mumbled as Argent lifted her from the ground. Her head lolled back.

“Penny, can you hear me? Are you okay?” Annette called, drawing Penny back into reality. Her eyes fluttered open to see the concerned faces of her friends peering down at her. Simon stood in the background, his hands still clamped over his mouth. Penny lurched out of Argent’s grasp, almost falling on her face as she tried to recapture her footing.

“It―it was a dream,” Penny said, her voice sounding as if it was underwater. It took a moment for her hearing and vision to regain normalcy.

“What did she say?” Simon questioned, still looking horrorstruck.

“A dream! Adrielle stored it inside the glass ball,” Penny cried, unable to holster in her joy at having solved the mystery, however unorthodox the method had been. “I saw the way to go! It’s in the pool, under the water.”

“What?” Annette’s bafflement was evident.

Penny wobbled over to the side of the green pool and peered into its murky depths. Sure enough, she could make out a dark space near the bottom she had not noticed earlier. Penny prepared to dive in.

Hector grabbed her shoulder. “Penny, what are you doing?”

“Please, just trust me, it’s this way,” she pleaded, and reluctantly Hector released her.

Penny took a deep breath and dove. She propelled herself down to the bottom, ears aching as the pressure increased. Off to the side of the pool was a long, dark tunnel. Fear flared up for a moment, but it was too late to turn back. Penny shot into the tunnel, swimming until all the light faded and panic set in. The tunnel had seemed so much shorter in the dream. Penny kicked harder, her chest screaming with pain as she fought with all of her strength to move forward. It was much too late to go back now; if she tried to turn around, she’d drown before she got halfway.

To die in a place like this was unacceptable. Her head and chest pounded with pain until she thought they would explode, and Penny exhausted every last bit of energy she had to keep swimming. Just when the dark began to dissipate and a misty blueness shimmered above, Penny’s lungs burst and she inhaled a mouthful of freezing water. She kicked upwards in desperation, hoping that she had not aimed wrong and was not about to meet a head full of hard stone and almost certain death.

Penny broke the surface, coughing up water as she tried to take a deep breath. She paddled forward until she found land and hacked up the last of the water. Collapsing on the stone beach, Penny cursed herself for being so thoughtless.

A moment later a sopping wet Hector broke the surface of the water, his glasses covered with clusters of droplets as he swam for shore, shivering. Clambering onto the beach, Hector dragged Penny to her feet and further onto dry land. Conjuring a blast of hot air from his hands, he proceeded to dry the two of them off. Penny looked around to see that they had surfaced in a shallow, subterranean cavern just tall enough for Hector to stand in. Electric blue mushrooms lined the sides of the cavern, and the pale blue stars from the dream now made sense. The smell and sounds of mineral-rich, rushing water echoed around them.

Simon, Annette, and Argent burst up from the water’s surface, each of them clinging for dear life to the cottony cloud from Simon’s wand as it pulled them forward, beaching them on the cavern floor. Once everyone had dried off, Penny led the way forward, following the only path they could see in the cavern.

The group made their way through the tunnel, crouching as the ceiling got lower and the sides began to press in. When a tiny spot of bright daylight shone warm and yellow into the cave, Penny pushed forward, her arms scraping the sharp stone that lined the cavern until she found a shaft that led back up to the surface. She strained to hoist herself up through the hole, bursting into warm sunlight that streamed from a cloudless blue sky. Scrambling out of the way, she helped Hector out next, and waited until everyone had climbed out of the hole to look around.