Reckless (Mirrorworld 1)

Clara wanted to shout into the dismal face of this world.

Let him go!

But the world behind the mirror was also reaching out for her. She already felt its dark fingers on her own skin. "What do you want here?" the strange night whispered. "What skin shall I give you? Do you want fur? Do you want stone?"

"No," Clara whispered back. "I will find your heart, and you will give him back to me."

Yet Clara already felt her new skin growing. So soft. Far too soft. And she felt the dark fingers reaching for her own heart.

And she was so afraid.

17

A Guide To The Fairies

It was true what they said about the Fairies. Nobody came to them if they didn't want you to. That had also been true when Jacob had first searched for them three years ago, but even then there had been a way to find them.

You just had to bribe the right Dwarf.

There had always been those Dwarfs who claimed they traded with the Fairies and who proudly displayed lilies on their family crests. Most of them, however, had just told Jacob dusty old tales about their ancestors before finally admitting that the last family member who had actually seen a Fairy had died more than a century ago. Finally, however, one of the Dwarfs at the imperial court had mentioned the name Evenaugh Valiant.

At that time, the Empress had offered a fortune in gold for a lily from the Fairy lake, for its scent was reputed to turn ugly girls into beautiful women. The prince consort had been declaring himself increasingly disappointed with the appearance of their only daughter. He had died shortly afterward in a hunting accident which, as sharp tongues had claimed, had been arranged by his own wife. But since the Empress had always valued her husband's taste more than the man himself, she had not withdrawn the reward for the lily, and so Jacob, who at that time was already working without Chanute, had set off to find Evenaugh Valiant.

Finding the Dwarf had not been hard, and for a sizable amount of gold, he actually led Jacob to the valley where the Fairies lived. But his guide had neglected to tell Jacob about the creatures that guarded the valley, and Jacob had nearly paid with his life for that little excursion. Valiant, however, sold the lily to the Empress, and it turned her daughter, Amalie, into an acclaimed beauty, and him into a purveyor to the court.

Jacob had imagined many times who he would settle his score with the Dwarf, but after he returned from the Fairies, he had lost his taste for revenge. He'd won the imperial gold through another assignment, and finally he had managed to push out of his mind any memory of Evanaugh Valiant or the island, where he had been so happy that he had nearly forgotten himself. So what does that teach you, Jacob Reckless? he wondered as the first Dwarf dwellings appeared among the fields and hedgerows. That, on the whole, revenge is not such a great idea. All the same, his heart clenched at the prospect of meeting the Dwarf again.

Not even the hood could conceal the stone on Will's face any longer, and Jacob decided to leave him and Clara behind with Fox while he rode into Terpevas (which, in the language of its inhabitants, means nothing else but ‘Dwarf City’). In a little wood, Fox found a cave that the local shepherds used as a shelter. Will followed his brother into its shade as if he couldn't wait to get out of the daylight. There was only a small patch of human skin left on his right cheek, and with every passing day Jacob found it harder to look at him. The eyes were the worst. Both were drowning in gold, and Jacob had to struggle ever harder against the fear that he might have already lost his race against time. Sometimes Will would return his glance as if he had already forgotten who he was, and Jacob thought he could see their shared past fading from his brother's eyes.

Clara had not followed them into the cave. When Jacob walked with Fox back to the horses, he saw her standing among the trees, still wearing men's clothes and looking so lost that for a moment Jacob mistook her for one of the orphan boys found everywhere in this world, waiting by the roadside, ready to do any kind of work. The autumn grass growing between the trees was the same color as her hair, and he could barely see the other world in her anymore. The memories of the streets and houses where they all had grown up, of the lights and the noise, and of the girl she had been there — all but faded, far away. The present swiftly became the past, and the future suddenly wore strange clothes.

"Will doesn't have much time left."

She didn't phrase it as a question. She faced things, even if they scared her. Jacob liked that about her.

"And you need a doctor," she said, seeing him flinch with pain as he swung himself onto the mare. All the flowers, leaves and roots Fox had shown her had done nothing to check the infection in his shoulder. It was already making him feverish.

"She's right," said Fox. "Go to one of the Dwarf doctors. They're supposed to be even better than the Empress's personal physicians."

"Yes, if you're a Dwarf. Their only ambition with human patients is to make them pay and then send them to an early grave. Dwarfs don't think very highly of us," he added in response to Clara's puzzled look, "even those who serve the Empress. Nothing earns a Dwarf more prestige than having successfully fleeced a human."

"But you still know one you can trust?"

Fox uttered a scornful growl. She brushed around Clara's legs. Forging an alliance. "Trust? The Dwarf he's going to see is even less trustworthy than the others! Ask him where he got the scars on his back."

"That was a long time ago."

"And? Why should he have changed?" Anger had replaced the fear in Fox's voice.

Clara looked at Jacob with even more concern.

"Why don't you at least take Fox with you?"

For that, the vixen brushed around Clara's legs even more affectionately. She now always sought Clara's company, and for Clara she had even begun to shift into her human form more often.

Jacob turned the horse about.

"No. Fox stays here," he said.