The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen (10 page)

So there I was, totally and completely lost, groping around in the dark with leaves brushing the back of my neck, ghosts moaning around me, and a fresh wind stirring up a smell of rotting leaves and wet rock, when something swooped at me, chittering.

I ducked, tripped, and fell into a bush.

There was a complicated moment full of scratchy branches. And then I was in a clearing with hard, grainy rock under my knees and the Lady in front of me, lounging on a boulder. At her feet sat Councilor Snuggles. Since the moon wasn’t anywhere near full, he had two legs instead of four, but he was still plenty hairy and toothy and sharp-eyed. The Lady’s face glowed in the darkness like a lamp, rich amber-green, with the ropes of her bark-brown hair coiled around it.

I scrambled up and bowed with my hand to my chest.

“Snuggles,” the Lady said. “Why do I know, whatever she says, I ain’t gonna like it?”

Councilor Snuggles cocked his head in a doggy shrug.

All Folk are easier to deal with if they think you’re not afraid of them. Ignoring the fluttering in my stomach, I stuck my hands behind my back so I couldn’t play with my hair. “I need a boon,” I said.

“Mortals,” the Lady said. “They never show up unless they need something. What d’ya want?”

I took a deep breath. “I want to ask a question of the Magic Magnifying Mirror.”

Apparently, this was exactly the wrong thing to say. The Lady grew taller and incredibly skinnier. Her eyes spun like sparklers. Her head tipped back and started to grow into her neck, and she started to hiss like a kettle boiling over.

Part of me shook like a tanuki’s belly. Another part, trained by the Diplomat, noticed that the Lady’s fangs stayed folded in her mouth and that Councilor Snuggles didn’t bother to move away from her tail. Was it possible that this fairy fit was more for show than for real?

I took a harder grip on my fingers. “Very scary. But I’m not going away until I get my boon.”

The Lady-serpent hissed. “I am the Genius of the Green Places of New York. Who are you, to make demands of me?”

At last—a question I could answer. “I’m your champion. I got the mirror for you in the first place. That gives me rights.”

To my surprise and relief, the Lady shrank back to her usual size.

“Okay, you’re my champion. You got rights. I didn’t blast you for getting on my nerves. That’s plenty of rights for one day. Now go away.”

There was something about her voice and the way she wasn’t looking at me that reminded me of Fortran telling the Diplomat that he hadn’t put beans down Lightbulb’s back. Folk can’t lie, but they can mislead.

“Genius of the Green Places,” I said formally, “Green Lady of Manhattan Island, Guardian of the City’s Heart. As your champion and your Voice, I charge you to answer me: Where is the Magic Magnifying Mirror of the Mermaid Queen?”

Councilor Snuggles winked at me.

The Lady bit her lip. “You’re asking as my champion?”

“And your Voice.”

The Lady sighed. “All right. I’ll tell you. When a Voice asks, a Genius answers. That’s the rule.”

I waited.

The Green Lady yawned and looked up at the sky, where a nail-clipping moon balanced on the treetops. “What were we talking about again?”

“The Mermaid Queen’s mirror.”

Emerald eyes gazed into mine. “You’re a good kid. Smart. Brave, too. Great Voice material. I always knew it.”

“Thank you, Lady. Now tell me about the mirror.”

Her dreads gave a slither. “I lost it.”

I thought about the Diplomat and kept my eyes steady on the Lady’s face.

The Lady’s hair retreated into a quivering braid.

“That’s too bad.” My voice was astonishingly level. “Do you have any idea
where
you might have lost it?”

“Somewhere green?”

Calm. Poise. Pleasant expression. “In Central Park, maybe?”

“I don’t think—nah. Definitely not.” She lifted her chin defensively. “I’m on it, though. Remember the scavenger hunt?”

I’d totally forgotten the scavenger hunt. “Of course. The scavenger hunt. How did it work out?”

Snuggles gave a bark of laughter. “It would’ve been great if we’d been looking for mica chips and tinfoil. We also scored some silver earrings and a couple mirrors in plastic frames and some sharp metal disks with rings on top that smelled like tuna fish. Everything came from Central Park. The other Green Places didn’t play.”

I sighed. “Well, at least we know it’s not here.”

“You have any idea how many Green Places there are in New York Between, little mortal?” Snuggles asked.

Of course I knew. When I was very little, Astris sang me to sleep with them: Fort Tryon, Riverside, Gramercy, East River, Inwood, Washington Square, Bryant, Morningside. And those were just the big ones. It was hopeless. Even if the Pooka let me quit school and I spent every minute of the next three months looking, I’d never find the Mermaid’s mirror.

“That stupid mirror,” the Lady said, “has been more trouble than it’s worth. I wish I’d never heard of it.”

“Me, too,” I said, “seeing how everybody in the Park is going to get poisoned.”

The Lady ignored this. “I can never remember how to turn the dumb thing on, and when I get you to fire it up, it won’t answer my questions.”

I stared at her. This, I thought, was what the Diplomat referred to as a piece of unearned luck. “So you’d be willing to give it back to the Mermaid Queen? If you had it, that is.”

The Lady made a sour face. “Yes. No. I dunno. Look—the mirror’s mine. Her Fishyness is just a bad loser. But she’s threatening my Park, my Folk. I’m the Genius, right? I have to protect them.”

Something sparked in my head. It wasn’t a plan, it wasn’t even a whole idea, but it was the beginning of one. “So if I go on a quest for the Magic Magnifying Mirror and find it, I have your permission to return it?”

The Lady looked mulish, then thoughtful. “Maybe.”

“And you promise you won’t try to keep the mirror for any reason expressed or unexpressed?” I wasn’t sure what this meant, but I’d heard the Diplomat say it and it sounded official.

The Lady’s face puckered like she’d eaten a basket of lemons. “A promise is no fun if I can’t mess with it.”

“That’s the deal,” I said. “No backsies.”

She exchanged a long look with Councilor Snuggles, then sighed. “Howzabout this. I ever find out you ratted on me about losing the mirror, the deal’s off.”

It was the best I was going to get. “All right. I wouldn’t anyway, but I promise I won’t tell anyone you’re the one who lost the mirror.” I wouldn’t have to, I thought. They’d figure it out for themselves. “Let’s shake on it.”

So we did that, her hand like polished wood in mine, smooth and hard and cool.

When the Lady let go, she said, “You’re at that mortal school, now, aren’t you? Whose bright idea was that?”

“The Pooka’s,” Snuggles said.

“Yeah, I remember. He jawed at me until I was ready to blast him.”

Councilor Snuggles scratched his ear. “You said yes instead.”

“Here’s hoping I don’t regret it,” she said, and melted back among the trees with Councilor Snuggles, leaving me standing in the middle of the Ramble in the dark. I had to cry before a moss woman would show me the way home.

 

 

S
o now I had permission to return the Mermaid’s mirror and save the Park. All I needed was a clue where to start looking for it.

Astris and the Pooka weren’t any help. When I came back to the Castle and told them about my new quest, they just nodded. I was a hero; I found things nobody else could find. It was all part of being official Park changeling.

They weren’t worried about whether I’d find it by the Solstice deadline, either. Astris laughed when I started listing all the Parks of Manhattan. “Silly pet. Don’t you worry. It’ll be the last place you look. It always is, in quests.”

The Pooka was just as optimistic. “I wouldn’t be questing too hard to begin with. Whatever you do, you’ll not be finding it until the very last moment, so there’s no use wearing yourself to a thread over it.”

“You don’t know that,” I protested.

“I do so. Can you call to mind a single quest that ended before its set time? Of course not. So stop fretting and go to bed. Unless I’m much mistaken, you’ve got school tomorrow.”

Next day, I skipped lunch to sit on the back stairs and fret without interruption or question. When the horn blew, I went to Diplomacy, where I did my best to pay attention while the Diplomat talked about the difference between bargains you have to keep and bargains you can fudge a little.

When I looked up from taking notes, Tiffany was glaring at me meaningfully.

Obviously, summoning Bloody Mary was a bargain I had to keep.

When the last horn blew, I headed to the library to look for maps of New York Between.

Espresso cornered me on the stairs. “What’s happening, man?”

“Nothing. I have to go to the library.”

“No, you don’t. You have to come with me.”

Espresso speaking Village I could ignore. Espresso speaking plain English meant business. I put on my coat and followed her outside.

Fortran was on the swings again, kicking at a maple branch. Stonewall and Danskin were lounging against the iron fence. Mukuti was playing hopscotch. When she saw us, she ran out of the grid and threw her arms around me.

“You missed lunch,” she said into my shoulder. “We were worried.”

“I had to do something. No big deal.” I wiggled uncomfortably. “Mukuti, you can let go now.”

Mukuti stepped back. “Sorry.”

Everybody gathered around me. “You think we’re not hep to your jive?” Espresso asked. “You’re way off-beat, man. We want to know why. Say we’re curious. Say we’re your friends. They’re both true.”

I looked around at the circle of faces. Even Fortran looked serious for once. “I can’t tell you much,” I said apologetically. “There’s a kind of geas involved.”

Stonewall shrugged. “So tell us what you can. We won’t ask questions.”

I wanted to believe him. I did believe him. I licked my lips. “Okay. Here it is. I have to find the Mermaid Queen’s Magnifying Mirror before the Winter Solstice.”

Fortran gave me a grin I could have read by. “Is that all? That’s easy. It’s in Riverside Park.”

I liked Fortran. He was smart, and he put his whole heart into everything he did. But he lied. And this was just the kind of thing he could practically be relied on to lie about.

“I don’t believe you,” I said. “You’ve never been inside a Park in your life.”

The grin dimmed. “I have so,” Fortran protested. “I’ve been there lots of times. I won an acorn off an oak dryad once. Wanna see?” He unzipped one of Backpack’s pockets and produced an acorn. It was battered and worm-eaten. “Wicked, huh?”

Stonewall picked it up, examined it, put it back in Fortran’s hand. “So not impressed.”

“Okay, I picked it up on Riverside Drive,” Fortran admitted. “But I do know where the mirror is. This goblin’s been howling. Everybody’s heard it that lives on Riverside Drive.” He shot me a look. “You can ask anybody. Howl, howl, howl all night, every night. Nobody’s got any sleep since before the Equinox.”

“What’s that got to do with the Mermaid’s mirror?” Mukuti asked reasonably.

“Well, a bunch of the guys got fed up and snuck into Riverside Park to shut it up. They heard what the goblin was muttering about between howls.”

“’I’ve got the Mermaid Queen’s Magic Mirror, and now I know everything?’” I asked sarcastically.

“No-o. It was something about glass beads and a nymph.” He paused. “
And
a magic mirror.”

We looked at each other. “That’s it?” Danskin said. “That’s your big scoop?”

“There couldn’t be that many mirrors in the Park,” Fortran explained patiently. “What else could the goblin be talking about?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Stonewall said.

“I do,” Espresso said unexpectedly. “Bigger ones go down in fairy tales all the time.”

The whole thing sounded like a long shot to me, but it was a place to start. “All right,” I said. “I’ll check it out tonight.”

“Wizard!” said Fortran. “I wish I could help.”

As we were leaving the courtyard, Stonewall went to walk by Fortran. “By the way, what happened to the guys? Did they get the goblin to shut up?”

Fortran grinned. “They woke up a kelpie, and it chased them all the way back to the Riverside wall. The goblin’s still howling.”

 

Even though she’d never taken me to Riverside Park, Astris had made me learn a lot of facts about it. I knew that it covered 266.791 acres (Central Park covered 840.01) in a kind of long, reedy ruffle along the western shore of Manhattan Island. Nature spirits live there, and most of the Swamp Folk—Jenny Greenteeth, kelpies, Viz-Leany, enchanted frogs. And marsh goblins, of course.