Some kind of path out of the castle, maybe to Highmark’s harbor. We were headed generally southeast, though I was no navigator.
We came to a door, and Liora set her palm to it. A glow emanated from her fingers, and the door unclicked and opened with a ghostly moan. Dust poured out, and Liora crossed the threshold.
Eury went after her, as fearless as a creature could be.
I stepped into the doorway as, across the room, Liora yanked an enormous sheet off a rectangular object. My own reflection stared back at me.
A mirror.
The room was covered in sheeted objects like a storage space, though I had no idea how they had transported all of this through that ancient hallway.
Eury moved up to it, her own reflection appearing. “Another mirror-way.”
“How can you tell?” Liora sounded truly surprised.
Eury’s fingers lifted, but she didn’t touch the glass. “It holds the same depth as the mirror in my chamber, before it was shattered. Like a pond with no bed.”
Liora came to stand beside her, the two of them alike in height and build. “That’s Noctere’s magic you see. It’s an imprint.”
I took Eury’s other side. “Permanent magic, like on the doors of Sylvanwild’s citadel.” I met Liora’s eyes. “Why do you have so many mirror-ways, Dawnmaker?”
“Why else? They’re useful,” Liora said. "It’s a shame they’re limited to noxveil. This one dates back to when Noctere had a more pliant queen.”
One of the handmaidens approached, and Liora’s face came into brighter relief. With precise motions, the handmaiden retrieved asword belt with a sheathed sword and a chalk pouch and offered them to me.
I took the belt and tied it around my waist. She proffered a black cloak; I took it and swung it over my shoulders. It was the correct length, though not of Sylvanwild. This was fine, thick Highmark make.
“Where will the mirror put us?” I asked.
“A cave,” Liora said. “Not far from the outer wall.” So this was how Highmark did it. For our part, we’d always had to go on horseback.
“I’ll go first,” Eury said.
"No," I said at once.
Lioratchedagain. “If it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t use it, fool.”
She turned to Eury, lifted her palm, and pressed something into it. A small stone, dark and worn smooth. “You’ll need this, where you’re going.” Liora’s voice had lost its edge, gone almost soft.
“And where is that, exactly?”
“The endless dark.” Liora closed Eury’s fingers around the stone. “Never forget that you are, by birth, a Seelie of the light.”
Something passed between them—a look I couldn’t read. Then Liora stepped back and said, at a normal pitch, “Go. Find your fate.”
Eury’s thumb moved over the stone. Then, without a word, she stepped forward. She didn’t wince, didn’t hesitate. She stepped right into the mirror and disappeared into its depths.
I moved toward it.
“Wait,” Liora said.
My head snapped toward her, my lip curling in a snarl. “What?”
Liora’s hand gripped my wrist. “You love her for her courage. For her intelligence. But will you love the person her fear brings out of her?”
The fae queen blurred beneath my stare as though she’d slapped me. That word—love. She’d said it so freely, like she saw what I could not.
Liora stepped closer. “You saw the acid rain. You saw herstanding amidst it. You saw how she killed Rhiannon, didn’t you?” Her voice lowered. “And though you already loved her, you felt fear of her. Didn’t you?”