CHAPTER 11
According to Darcie’s instruments, Tobin had used the magic from the glowing sphere to translocate himself and Darcie clear across Elden Forest, almost to the Western border of the Forest near the Mureton Mountains. The new magical signal Darcie had detected originated just a few days north of their present position.
“I think we should establish some ground rules,” Darcie said, as they left the little town of Cumbleton behind. Darcie had already started on a blueberry muffin she had purchased from the bakery before they had left.
“Ground rules for what?” Tobin asked.
“Well, we both have a tendency to rush in whenever we finally find the source of the signal,” Darcie replied.
“And by ‘we’, you politely mean ‘me’,” Tobin said, smiling widely.
“Yes, well, you’re not the one who landed us in that pit the last time,” Darcie said frowning to herself. She seemed quite upset with herself for having missed the signs of entrapment, so Tobin hastily changed the subject.
“Don’t you find it strange that the signal keeps jumping around all over the place, changing direction so quickly?” Tobin asked Darcie. “It feels like we’ve seen most of Elden at this point.”
“I have a theory about that,” she replied. “I don’t think the signal is being randomly transmitted, and the Field Scope is just picking up on it. I think the signal is being sent out purposely, by someone who is trying to lure us to the copper orbs, and then trap us.”
“Do you think it’s Celeste, trying to contact us?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think so. It’s really not her style,” Darcie replied, biting her lip. “I can’t really see my grandmother trapping us inside the manor house, or trying to bury us in that pit.”
“Okay,” Tobin said slowly. “What do you think it is, then?”
“I’m beginning to think that someone set all of this up, from the moment that first copper orb was sent to the castle. I think it was intended to destroy the Travelling Mirror Network.”
“Which it did.”
“Yes, but first the copper orb passed underneath your house. And I think it responded to your latent abilities as a magician, and that’s why it exploded. Everything after that, the manor house, and the tree illusion has all been an attempt to trap us.”
“What could do something like that? And to what end?” Tobin asked.
“I really don’t know,” Darcie replied. “But I’m starting to think that we’re dealing with a ‘who’, not a ‘what’.”
Since they were much closer to the Muredon Mountains, after Tobin had accidentally translocated them, the air was brisk, and cool. Tobin had pulled his cloak out from the bottom of his rucksack, and ensconced himself within it. He was glad that they were moving. If they were still for any long period of time, he could feel the cold start to creep into his body. The trees in the forest were set farther apart this close to the border, and the undergrowth was not so wild, and tangled. It wasn’t long until Darcie too pulled out her cloak.
They stopped in preparation for the night by a small grove of cedars. Darcie went off to find firewood, while Tobin unpacked the supplies they would need for the night.
Late afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees. Tobin breathed out expressively and watched the cloud of his breath dissipate in a ray of light. The woods were silent, here in the northernmost reaches of Elden. Tobin found the silence strange, and unsettling.
Humming quietly to himself to fill the stillness, Tobin placed stones in a ring around the fire to contain it. He cut off abruptly when he heard a sudden noise behind him.
“Darcie?” he called into the woods, straightening, and looking around the woods.
“Hold fast scoundrel!” came a sudden reply.
Tobin stopped dead. That was not Darcie’s voice.
“Turn around slowly, and face me like a man!” the voice echoed strangely.
Tobin turned around slowly, as the hollow voice had instructed and blinked in surprise.
No one was there.
“Who’s there?” he called into the silent forest.
“Silence you knave!” came another cry.
Tobin was beginning to tire of this game. “Show yourself!” he demanded, far more boldly than he felt.
Five fully armoured knights stepped from behind trees. Now Tobin understood the echoing quality of their voices. They all wore heavy helmets, with the visors down.
“Who are you to question us?” the lead knight asked Tobin, and all the knights began to advance, their swords held aloft, glinting in the sunlight. Tobin cast around desperately, looking for something with which to defend himself, though he knew he wouldn’t be a match for even one of the five knights.
Just then, Darcie strolled back into the campsite, her arms full of wood for the fire.
“Tobin who were you talking…” she said, and trailed off as she saw the knights. Far from being frightened, her eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Oh bother,” she sighed, dropped the firewood, and put her hands on her hips.
The knights immediately halted their advance at the sight of her.
“A fair maiden!” the first knight exclaimed. “No doubt this blaggard has abducted you for his own nefarious purposes! Never fear distressed damsel, we will dispatch this ruffian for you!” he proclaimed, waving his arms about in what he no doubt assumed was a grandiose fashion. The effect was somewhat dulled by the stiff movements, inhibited by the heavy armour.
The knights began their advance on Tobin again.
Darcie frowned at the knights, surveying them in disgust.
“Excuse me?” she demanded in irritation. “If anyone needs to be dispatched, it’s you lot! What do you think you’re doing?”
“We have been charged by the King himself, to rid this forest of a fearsome ogre.”
“Oh! Well that’s different,” Tobin said, relieved. “We actually were the ones who –”
“Just a minute, Tobin,” Darcie interjected. “You’re hunting ogres, are you?” she asked the armoured knights.
They nodded solemnly.
“Well you’d need a questing permit for that sort of thing,” Darcie said firmly. “Do you have one?”
The lead knight paused for a moment. “Of course we have a questing permit! Signed by the King of Elden Forest,” he declared loudly. “What kind of knights do you think we are?”
“Not very good ones,” Darcie retorted, and she marched right up to the lead knight, and pushed his visor up, so that his face was visible.
A young boy, no more than thirteen years old peered anxiously out at them.
“Hey!” Tobin shouted, deeply annoyed at the deception.
“Does your mother know you’re out here?” Darcie asked the teenage boy, her face serious.
The boy shifted uncomfortably under her stern gaze. “Yes... technically.”
“But she doesn’t know you’re out here impersonating the knights of King Gerald’s Council, does she?” Darcie raised her eyebrows. The boy’s face flushed a deep scarlet, confirming Darcie’s guess.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Phillip,” he replied. “Are you going to tell my mother?”
“I’m still deciding,” she told him. “Now, how did you know about the ogre?”
“My brother works in the armoury at the castle. He used one of the Communication Mirrors, and called home. He told us the knights had been given a questing permit for an ogre that had last been seen towards the west.”
“Is that also why you have armour?” Darcie asked. “Did your brother give it to you?”
The boy nodded, eyes downcast. “We didn’t mean any harm. We just wanted to play.”
“How far are you away from your home?” Darcie asked.
“Not far. We usually play over by Darwil’s Pond. But there’s something strange over there.”
“Strange?” Darcie asked. “What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to describe it, but we play there every day, and
something is not right.”
Darcie looked at Tobin and raised her eyebrow. This was almost certainly what they had been searching for.
Darcie turned back to the boy.“Show us,” she said.
Philip had been quite correct. It was definitely strange. In the late afternoon sun, the gleaming light reflected brightly off of Darwil’s Pond. But behind the pond, the horizon seemed to warp, as though they were looking at it through a thick, clouded pane of glass. The boys in armour stayed with Tobin and Darcie just long enough to point to the strange phenomena before they were running back off through the forest, to reclaim the last precious hours of playtime.
Holding her compass out in front of her, Darcie walked the length of the strange phenomenon slowly, passing the Field Scope up and down in a wide sweeping motion. Tobin didn’t need to hear the wild pinging of her compass to know that this strange phenomenon was what they had been searching for.
Remembering their agreement not to touch anything, or go rushing into anything, Tobin kept his hands firmly in his pockets. But he moved forward to get a closer look at the anomaly. As he walked forward, a sudden movement caught his eye. Glancing toward it, he froze in shock and disbelief. It felt as though his heart had stopped.
Another Tobin was standing across from him, staring directly at him, looking just as horrified as Tobin felt. Slowly, Tobin raised a hand. His reflection did the same. It was as though he were standing in front of a mirror, except he couldn’t see the edges of the mirror.
“Darcie,” he whispered, looking back over his shoulder at Darcie for an explanation. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Tobin and his reflection.
“I don’t know, Tobin. I have no idea. Whatever it is, it’s extremely powerful,” she said.
Tobin turned back to his reflection, and raised his other hand. His reflection did the same. A strange lassitude crept over him. He felt as though he was just about to fall asleep, seeing the world through a cloudy haze. Tobin heard a buzzing, that grew louder and louder, filling his mind with confusion and chaos.
Suddenly, Tobin’s hand moved forward, toward the reflection, of its own accord. It was as though his reflection was suddenly controlling his movements, and Tobin was just a puppet.
Slowly, his hand moved toward the mirror image, contacting his likeness. Instead of feeling the cold glass of a mirror, Tobin’s hand continued forward. It felt like sliding his hand into a scalding liquid. Tobin hissed in pain, but he couldn’t retract his hand. The buzzing sound had stopped the moment his hand had touched the reflection. Tobin tried to pull his hand, but couldn’t. Every thought he had was too slow, he just wanted to sleep.
The mirror-like surface around his hand began to glow. A tiny part of his mind screamed at him that something was very wrong, but everything seemed cloudy inside his head.
“Darcie!” he called, alarmed. His voice sounded strange; apathetic, and tired. Trying to convey his anxiety, he called her name again. It came out as barely a whimper.
She looked up from her instruments, and frowned. “Tobin, come away from there. I told you, I don’t know what it is.”
“I can’t. I’m stuck,” he tried to explain, but he wasn’t even sure if the words made it out of his mouth. Dizzy and confused, his head felt like it was filled with cotton. He knew he should be more panicked, but it was just too exhausting to muster up such an emotion.
Darcie moved towards Tobin, and her reflection appeared, mirrored behind his own. Tobin felt the remainder of his arm move forward, as though being pulled from the other side. Leaping forward, Darcie grabbed his arm to stop the forward motion, to no avail. She tried to pull her own arm back from the mirror-like surface, but it too was stuck fast.
Tobin’s body was being pulled towards his reflection faster now; his elbow was almost submerged. The part of Darcie’s hand that rested on his arm was also encompassed, and she was beginning to be pulled into her reflection.
Tobin looked helplessly at Darcie.
“There’s nowhere left to go but through,” she said, resigned. Tobin nodded, and felt Darcie step resolutely forward into their mirror image.
He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, allowing himself to be pulled through the mirror-like surface. It felt like being submerged underwater. Tobin heard muffled sounds, as though someone were trying to talk to him, but their mouth was covered. Trying to breathe, Tobin found himself overwhelmed with a sudden weight pressing in all around him from every side.
It lasted only for a moment though, and then he opened his eyes onto a world of white.