Almare - The White Mirror

King Wendell swallowed hard as he looked at himself in the mirror and smoothed down his neat blond hair nervously. In less than half an hour he was going to have to appear in front of the Council of the Nine Kingdoms and perhaps several hundred onlookers. He had been asked to explain to them exactly what had happened yesterday on the battlefield, why they had somehow won the war without any of the soldiers coming away with so much as a scratch, and why the beanstalk forest had burned to the ground while it was simultaneously being flooded.

Well, actually, they didn’t expect him to answer that last question. After all, floods and lightning were a part of nature, no matter how strangely appropriate their timing, there simply was no explanation for that. But then, Wendell wondered for the thousandth time in utter confusion, what in the fairying forest were those invisible-lightning-dome things?

Wendell had learned later what had been happening all over the Kingdoms while the storm was raging around his army and the trolls’. Once the rain started, it came down non-stop, sheets of water cascading down from the sky, but the clouds were centered directly over Wendell’s army and the forest, and nowhere else. People in these towns claimed to have been working under blue skies. When they heard thunder and looked up, however, they could see huge storm clouds looming over the beanstalk forest and land close to it, and the next second a wave as big as a mountain was rushing toward the farms and villages. All the water coming from the sky that wasn’t flooding the beanstalk forest was headed straight for unsuspecting and very frightened people who could do nothing but watch.

But, as soon as they could blink, the people found themselves, their villages, and their farms being surrounded by lightning, lightning that did not quickly strike the ground and disappear, but moved across the earth tracing a path around their houses and themselves. In the lightning’s wake was a watery, transparent shield that could hardly be seen but could not be broken. And just as the wave hit the lightning bolts finished their circles and disappeared, leaving the people safe and sound inside their strange shelters. The wave continued, not harming any person in its path, until it reached the river not far away. The river swelled and downstream Rivertown was forced to make sure the water didn’t overcome its banks. But no one was harmed, thanks solely to the very mysterious invisible-lightning-domes, as everyone immediately called them. They disappeared as the last trickles of water either seeped into the ground or flowed in the river, and minutes after the onset of the flood in the valley near Wendell’s troops (who, of course, were also protected by a dome) and the wave that threatened everyone for miles around, the land was almost dry and the sun was shining brightly again.

Better yet, the beanstalk forest and the only home the trolls and giants could call their own was gone. It had been burned to the ground by an angry bolt of lightning with a different purpose than dome making, and all that was left was a large field of black ashes and the twisted roots of once mighty beanstalks. The fire, as mysterious as the domes, had put itself out once it reached the borders of the forest.

Wendell’s army had marched back to the Fourth Kingdom in a daze. Many of them had left that morning prepared to never see the rising sun again. They had been expecting to be defeated. Now, though... what had happened? They had won, that was for sure. But they were confused. And when they arrived home and told everyone they met what had happened, all the Nine Kingdoms became just as baffled. And now, they had all asked Wendell, their King, to explain it to them. Wendell didn’t have any answers. And to make it even worse, Tamun-Ra, the leader of the gold dragons, and three of his friends had left without so much as a word to Wendell. They were probably insulted, Wendell thought, that they had come all the way to the Fourth Kingdom to help them, and now it was for nothing. But there wasn’t anything he could do about that.

Wendell glanced at a clock hanging on his bedroom wall. Ten more minutes. He adjusted his crown and stared at his long-nosed reflection disparagingly. He didn’t have the slightest idea what he was going to say to the Council and all the people.

I’ll just tell them the truth, he thought. But what was the truth?

He turned away and started walking toward the door, heading for the balcony where he was going to speak. As he passed the Truth Mirror that the Dwarves had given him at his coronation (it was working again now; the Dwarves at Dragon Mountain had finally fixed the mirrors after the shut-down), he noticed something in his reflection that made him a little less self-conscious, at least... his nose was normal sized. When he reached up to touch his face, however, it was still a couple inches longer than it should have been. Wendell sighed and walked out the door.

When he reached the balcony, the king timidly peered out of the curtain shielding him from the view of the courtyard. The Council of the Nine Kingdoms sat in a row up front, all of them looking anxious for Wendell to arrive. Behind them stood a huge crowd of onlookers, each with a different bemused expression on his or her face. Wendell’s heart sank. He wondered how he ever got in this position, but there was so much to think about that he just closed his eyes and shook his head. One of the guards standing near him tapped him on the shoulder and said quietly that it was time for him to go out there. Easy for you to say, thought Wendell wretchedly. But there was no use waiting.

He stepped out onto the balcony, and was instantly bombarded with a rush of cheering and applause. Blinking, Wendell walked out to the railing and paused to look up at the clear, blue sky before he had to completely humiliate himself. He saw something there he didn’t expect.

Soaring down from the heavens, like four mammoth eagles caught on the wind, were the dragons. They were flying toward Wendell’s castle from the north at an amazing pace. Their presence alone surprised the King and everyone else in the courtyard who had begun to look up and stare, but then he noticed what was riding on the dragons’ backs, and Wendell almost jumped for joy. Tony, Wolf, Virginia, and best of all baby Patrick were clinging to the dragons with the wind whipping back their hair and their eyelids plastered to their faces. They were alive!

In seconds the dragons reached the courtyard. The people screamed as the wind form the dragons’ wings sent them tumbling over each other. The dragons’ riders were dropped off on the balcony, and one by one the huge animals swooped off to alight on a different turret of the castle to watch.

Virginia brushed herself and the baby off and then laughed at the shocked expression on Wendell’s face. She handed Patrick to him, and then Wendell laughed too, trying not to cry, in fact. He had been so worried about them for such a long time. He had heard nothing from them at all since they had separated at the edge of the beanstalk forest days ago.

“Where have you...? How did you...?” Wendell stuttered as he hugged the baby, who gave him a big sloppy kiss/lick.

“Can we tell you inside?” Wolf asked quietly, looking pointedly at the astonished crowd, which was now picking itself up. Some people were staring fixedly at the dragons perched on the towers like enormous gargoyles, others were gaping at the people on the balcony, and many were just screaming. The public had not been informed that dragons were part of their army. The Council sat in front of them and tried to calm everyone down. Wendell hurriedly waved to the crowd with the hand that wasn’t holding Patrick and herded Virginia, Wolf, and Tony inside.

The guards inside were also too surprised to do anything about Wendell’s quick get-away, so the five of them made their way without hindrance to the king’s chambers. There Virginia and Wolf sat themselves down on a couch, Tony fell into a big armchair, and Wendell stood speechless with Patrick giggling as he tried on his crown.

“So, are you glad we’re alive?” Tony joked. He could certainly tell by Wendell’s face that he was glad to see them.

“How?” Wendell managed after several attempts to say something. There were so many questions, he didn’t know where to begin.

“After you left us at the beanstalk forest?” Wolf said, thinking. “Let’s see...”

They took turns telling Wendell the whole story. He sat down and listened silently, his eyes getting wider at many points. When they told him about the Loch Ness monster guarding the White Mirror and planning to smash it if there was any news of a disappearance, Wendell immediately sent for a messenger nymph to tell the Mermaid Queen that she needn’t worry anymore. Virginia stopped him, though, and told him not to say anything too specific. She began to explain about their promise.

He listened to the rest of their tale without interrupting, except for the occasional sharp intake of breath. But when they got to the part about Acrotis’s death, his shoulders sagged. Watching his expression, Virginia remembered the kiss on the cheek Acrotis had given him the last time they saw him. She wondered if maybe... then shuddered. No. She sighed. If things had only been different!

After they finished telling Wendell every incredible thing that had happened to them, he shook his head and sat back in his large armchair. Virginia, Wolf, and Tony waited patiently for him to digest it all and waited for his response.

“No wonder,” he said softly to himself after several seconds, and shook his head again.

“What?” Virginia asked, sitting forward.

“I was thinking, no wonder it was raining so much here and in Man Hat In. It was the Guardian’s doing; he was trying to get rainwater into the Traveling Mirror, then lure you into the Kingdoms by causing the power outage, so that he could take Patrick and then draw you to the White Mirror and Welkin. It makes sense, in an absurd sort of way.”

They considered that for a moment. Tony raised his eyebrows and said, “That means they have power over our world’s weather, too.”

Virginia looked at Wolf. “Do you think that has anything to do with the stars being the same in both dimensions?”

He shrugged. “It might. But I doubt the Guardian or anyone up there in his city has any influence on the stars. I think they’re a little out of their league.”

Everyone nodded. In a way, it was a relief to know that some things just couldn’t be controlled.

Wendell stood up and handed Patrick, now sleeping, to Wolf. They had been talking for a quarter of an hour. Tony got up and went over to look out the window.

“What are all those people doing in your courtyard?” Virginia finally asked Wendell.

The king closed his eyes and bit his tongue hard as he remembered. “I was supposed to be telling them what it was that happened yesterday on the battlefield. Now I actually know, but I can’t tell them, or anyone else. What am going to do?”

“And,” Wolf piped up, not being entirely sympathetic of Wendell’s predicament, “We still have no idea where the trolls and their army went.”

Wendell opened his eyes suddenly and grabbed at his hair. “You’re right! Where in the Nine Kingdoms could they be? They must be found!”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Virginia comforted him. “They’re certainly in no position to be planning another attack. I would say they’re taken care of for good. The beanstalk forest is destroyed, and since that’s where they were hiding in the first place they’ll have no where to go now.”

“Except to the Northern lands,” Wolf said. “And that’s where the red dragons live. I’m sure they won’t make life easy for the trolls, Sasquash, giants, or elves now. Knowing all of them, if all those species try to live together in one place, they’ll start fighting each other in no time at all. They’ll wipe themselves out.”

“You’re right, or I sure hope you are,” Wendell said, his shoulders sagging in relief. “At least that’s what I’m going to tell all the people outside.”

Tony, who had been silent through the last part of the conversation, suddenly stood up very straight as he was staring out the window. A wide grin began to spread across his face.

“What is -?” Wendell demanded, but before he could say another word something, a small, round, greenish something, shot in through the window, knocked down a lamp, a vase, almost decapitated Virginia (who screamed), and flew smack! - into the far wall of the room.

Wendell and Wolf were stunned for several seconds, but Tony hurried over to the mysterious speeding object. It had slid down the wall after impact and now lay in a crumbled heap on the floor. The rest of them hurried over, just as a small bearded and smiling face was emerging from the folds of dirty green fabric.

“Nicholas?” Wolf said incredulously.

“’Ello!” the sprite exclaimed happily in his unique speech, as though his presence there was not at all strange or unexpected.

“What is a filthy pixie doing in my palace?” Wendell roared. He was not pleased that an enemy, no matter how small, had dared enter his own bedroom.

“Calm yourself,” Virginia ordered him, although she too was looking at the bruised but delighted fairy like he had three heads.

“I don’t think you’ll consider him so filthy,” Tony said, grinning, “after you see what’s he’s brought for you.”

As everyone watched, Nicholas the pixie picked himself up, brushed off his tattered clothes with his tiny hands, straitened his lopsided cap, and flapped his spidery wings until he had climbed to Wendell’s eye level. Not for half a second did he stop smiling like he had just bagged a magic fish. They could see that he was lugging something along with him, and he hid it under his cloak. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been bigger or heavier than a large peanut, but that was plenty for the delicate creature to carry.

Wendell frowned at the pixie, but looked him straight in the golden eyes nonetheless. His frown deepened when Nicholas laid a tiny hand on the King’s oversized nose. Then, to Wendell’s utter humiliation, the fairy hoisted himself onto his nose and sat on it like it was a park bench. Still he was smiling, but Wendell would fix that.

Looking at him cross-eyed, Wendell ordered, “Remove yourself this instant or I swear by the seven dwarves I will smack you right back to wherever you came from.”

At that Nicholas just laughed. But just as Wendell was raising his hand, he said loudly, “Would yu rather I be removn’ meself from yur nose, or....” In the blink of an eye, Nicholas reached inside his coat, pulled out a vial of a purple liquid, opened it, and poured it all over Wendell’s nose. In a split second, without any flashes or bangs but certainly with an effect, the pixie wasn’t sitting on anything at all. “...the other way ‘round?”

Wendell joyously reached up to his face. With a cry of elation he felt not two inches of extra nose, but a beautifully normal one. He would have embraced Nicholas very tightly if it wasn’t for the fact that he would break all the bones in his body. The king was speechless, but the pixie understood. He hovered by Wendell’s face and beamed.

Virginia was extremely amused by all of this. “How did you manage to get that?” she asked, laughing.

“Well, it was eesy, really,” Nicholas boasted. “All them trolls was out fightn’, so thir pa-lace was just ‘bout deserted. Nobody be noticn’ tiny leetle me sneakn’ in and out of thir dungeon where theys keeps all them potions locked up. It was hard to find s’actly the right one, but I did be figuren’ it out in the end. Then I draaged it all the ways back here, just so I could be’s helpn’ this here kingy. Yu like it, kingy?”

Wendell didn’t look like he had caught half of that, but he nodded and conveyed his heartfelt thanks.

Wolf looked over at Tony, who had his arms crossed and just shrugged at him. But Wolf said, “Oh, you don’t fool me. This was your idea, wasn’t it? This is what you couldn’t stop grinning about all the way back in Welkin when Nicholas left.”

Tony shrugged again, and smiled. “I didn’t want to steal any of Nicholas’s credit since he’s obviously enjoying it, but yes, it was my idea.”

“How sweet of you, Dad,” Virginia said, still laughing. Patrick was waking up in Wolf’s arms, and when he saw everyone laughing and noticed his favorite play toy zipping around by Wendell’s face, he shrieked for joy.

Virginia looked around the room at each of them, and for the first time in a long time felt truly contented and complete.

“Would you call this a happy ending?” she inquired pleasantly of no one in particular.

“Absolutely,” Wolf said, putting his arm around her. “And now I think it’s time to go home.”

“Maybe I should go with you guys,” Tony suggested slyly, glancing at Wendell. But the king would here none of it. In fact, he looked slightly alarmed.

“I think not! You have to finish my bouncing castle, and I expect it done in a month! I want my courtyard cleaned up as soon as possible.”

“All right, all right,” Tony said with a smile. Virginia had the idea that he never had any intentions of leaving at all. “Maybe Nicholas could help me with finishing up the work, you think?” He looked at the pixie, sitting on a lampshade, imploringly.

“I woodn’t be mindn’ that at all!” Nicholas said, looking very flattered at being offered this opportunity.

“As you were saying, Wolf,” Virginia said as she took Patrick, “Time to go home.”

“Yes,” King Wendell chuckled, “and maybe next time you come to the Kingdoms, you’ll have a more relaxing stay.”