Almare - The White Mirror

Cinderella’s guards led the four travelers to their chambers. Virginia and Wolf were to share a room and so were Wendell and Tony, since Cinderella had other guests and hardly any spare guest rooms. But when Tony remarked that there might not be enough space (what with Wendell’s nose), Wendell had said “Fine!” and Tony got his own room. Virginia didn’t know when her father would realize that Wendell’s nose was a touchy subject.

“What do you think of Acrotis?” Virginia asked Wolf later, looking up from a book she had found on one of the shelves in their room. It was on the history of mirrors.

“If she helps us find Patrick, she’s fine by me,” Wolf said shrugging. He was standing by another shelf, looking for books.

“She seems kind of strange,” Virginia continued, “and she was reluctant to help us at first.”

“ ‘Acrotis’ sounds kind of like a bug,” Wolf said absently.

Virginia laughed, “Yeah.” Then she frowned. “I just hope she really will help us.”

“So do I. But what’s the worst she could do? She’s just a little girl. She looked like she was about fifteen.”

“Cinderella said she’d hired her when she was very young. Maybe she kind of adopted her, too. And she also said she had witnessed one of the disapperings,” Virginia remembered. “She does seem to know a lot. That’s probably why.”

Wolf nodded. “You’d definitely want to learn as much as you could about the White Mirror if you saw a disappearing,” he said as he began flipping through yet another huge book.

“Right. Well, we have a long way to go tomorrow, so I’m going to bed. Good night,” Virginia said as she leaned up to give Wolf a kiss.

“Good night.”

Then she got into bed and fell asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. She dreamed...

She dreamed she was in a purely white void that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Acrotis stood about twenty feet away from her and in her arms she held Patrick, sleeping peacefully. Virginia reached for him and tried to walk closer but she couldn’t move. Acrotis stood still and silent, a small smile on her face. She held out the sleeping Patrick to Virginia, but Virginia still couldn’t move any closer, though she tried like there was fire behind her. When Acrotis saw that she couldn’t move, she sighed and shook her head. Then,with a very sad expression, she dropped Patrick. He fell right through the white floor next to her, fell further and further until Virginia couldn't see him any more, and she screamed and then couldn’t tell if she was the one falling...

he woke in a cold sweat, sitting straight up in bed. The room was pitch black. She found that comforting. Just as long as nothing was white.

Virginia could hear voices across the hall. Cinderella and Wendell were discussing royal matters. She caught the word “trolls”. She decided to go see how they were. She needed some conversation; she had never been so wide awake. Virginia pulled back the covers and slipped her feet into some slippers that were located conveniently under her bed. She flip- flopped over to the door and pulled it open silently.

Light was streaming from a room a couple of doors down. When Virginia appeared in the doorway, Cinderella smiled and said kindly, “You’re up late.”

Cinderella could cheer up pretty much anyone. Virginia smiled back. “Bad dream. Mind if I join you?”

“Of course not, dear, come and sit down.”

Virginia walked over to a chair and obeyed.

“We were just discussing the troll problem,” said Wendell with a sigh.

Virginia put on a concerned expression. “Problem?”

“Oh, we wouldn’t want to bore you with the details, dear,” said Cinderella, “ but to sum it up, they’re pushing for a war.”

“Why?” asked Virginia. “Dose it have to do with the three that kept chasing us?” If it did then there was obviously nothing to worry about. Those were the three biggest fools Virginia had ever seen. They were surely no threat against a huge kingdom like Wendell’s.

“I’m afraid it does,” said Cinderella. Then, seeing the expression on Virginia’s face, she added, “In this case, we’re not taking it lightly, and with good reason. King Burly, Blabberwort, and Bluebell were not at all pleased to learn that the queen had been killed -” Cinderella stopped. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“No, no,” said Virginia quietly, shaking her head. “I’ve gotten over that, I understand now...” Virginia cast her eyes down to her white hands. Her mother. She hadn’t let her thoughts stray to her for quite a while now. What would she think of all this?

Virginia looked up and broke the awkward silence. “So,why do the trolls care that the queen was killed? She murdered their father, not me.”

“We tried to tell them that, hundreds of times,” Wendell said, “But they won’t hear reason. They say we are honoring a murdering traitor by letting you into our kingdom, or any of the Kingdoms, in fact. They think you should either go back to the ‘Tenth Kingdom’ for good or surrender to the ‘mighty troll nation’. They want revenge for two people now, Relish the troll king and the queen.”

“So this is all my fault?” Virginia tried not to whimper.

“Unfortunately, no,” Cinderella sighed. “If it was only that, we could end this quickly, with some sort of bribe, threat, or compromise that would satisfy the little scoundrels. But there has always been tension between the Third Kingdom and the Fourth Kingdom. And, now, with the new leadership of Burly, the troll troops are elated. Relish did not exactly do well with the upkeep of his kingdom; the trolls’ new leader has undoubtedly made all sorts of promises that involve expanding the troll nation. It’s all our troops can do to keep them inside their borders.”

“So Burly is getting them all psyched up for war,” Virginia mused. “But still, I don’t see how they are going to cause any problem. They’re all really quite dense, aren’t they?”

Cinderella shook her head sadly. “They’re not the brightest creatures in the world, dear, but never underestimate them. They have powerful weapons and, worse, powerful allies.”

“Like who?”

“Like what, would be more accurate,” Wendell said, pouring Virginia a cup of tea which she accepted gratefully. “The giants have always been on good terms with the trolls, and so have the swamp pixies- I believe you’ve met some of them?”

“Yes,” Virginia said, remembering the three fairies that had given them tips in the swamp, and then had “separated” herself and Tony, in a very literal manner. She could see how those little devils were in league with the trolls.

“The trolls also have ties with the Sasquash,” Cinderella said grimly, and Wendell nodded. Virginia had no idea what the Sasquash were, so she asked Cinderella.

“Oh, you know, dear. Bigfoot.”

“Ah.”

“Very dangerous creatures,” Wendell explained. “Treacherous and powerful. They could pick up a soldier and throw him out of their way like a twig. And they’re used to harsh conditions, living in the mountains.”

Virginia took a sip of her tea and glanced at Cinderella. She looked older than ever at that moment; the flickering candlelight caused her elegant wrinkles to cast shadows over her face. She seemed lost in thought. When she finally spoke her voice sounded tired, and she talked to Wendell as if Virginia wasn’t there.

“I am certain that the trolls have already assembled the giants and the Sasquash. Acrotis showed them to me through her Spying Mirror. Pixies have been buzzing around for the past several days, not even trying to disguise their presence. They’re getting bolder, Wendell.” The queen sighed. “I cannot say exactly how many of them there are, but I do know that our enemy’s army consists of thousands. How large is your army?”

“Two thousand strong.”

“You don’t mean to say there’s actually going to be a war?” Virginia asked in disbelief.

“That’s what we’ve been telling you, dear,” Cinderella said with a patient smile before she turned back to Wendell. “Two thousand. Unfortunately, my army has been hit with a measles epidemic, as I’m sure you’ve heard. Terrible; we haven’t found a cure yet, magical or not. Consequently, I have only about one thousand men.”

There was going to be a war. Virginia coughed into her tea. She had thought Cinderella and Wendell were being melodramatic. But it was true. A war, and they were right in the middle of it. To make matters worse, the trolls seemed to have it more than good.

“I suppose we’ll have ask Rapunzel the Third for assistance,” said Wendell with a grimace. “That woman aggravates me. She loves her hair and nothing else.”

“Yes, but she has a sizable army, so don’t insult her. At least not to her face.”

Wendell grunted and took a drought of tea as if he wished it to be something stronger.

How could they be so casual about it? “Excuse me,” Virginia interrupted in almost a panic, “But how exactly is this war going to affect us? I mean, is it going to stop us from getting to the sea?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” Cinderella crooned soothingly. “I’m sure this war will not reach the Northern Sea for a long time, if anything at all goes well with our troops. With Rapunzel’s army we will have a few more men than the trolls do.”

This was somehow not comforting to Virginia. From what Wendell had said, a few men, a couple dozen maybe, might take down one Sasquash, a troll, and three pixies if they were lucky. They were still horribly outnumbered.

“Don’t worry about it, love,” Cinderella urged her after seeing the agonized expression on Virginia’s face. “We’ll be taking care of this thing all by ourselves and you needn’t have anything to do with it. You all have enough on your plates at the moment, what with finding that poor dear, without having to be thinking about this madness. Even you, Wendell, you concentrate on your business for the time being, and that business is getting back the baby. I’m sorry it was even brought up.”

“No, Cindy, I’m glad I know,”Wendell said, waving away her apologies. I have a duty to my kingdom as well as my friends, after all.”

Virginia thought about that as she took a small sip of tea and the other two fell silent. He had said it so seriously. With a pang of remorse, Virginia realized that she was reminded of a scraggly yellow dog less and less now when she was with Wendell. It was not that she disliked the change; she certainly hadn’t wanted the king to remain under that curse forever. But something in the way he talked now brought to her heavy emotions of changing times, and she didn’t deny a sense of loss. She wondered now what her life would have been like if that dog hadn’t knocked her off her bike one night. She found it too much to wonder about, and stood up.

“Thanks for filling me in,” Virginia said to Cinderella and Wendell as she placed her half-empty teacup on a table “I wish you luck with this war. If there’s any way I can help, just let me know, but I think I really must be getting back to bed. We have a long way to go tomorrow. See you in the morning.”

“Good night,” Cinderella and Wendell said in unison, and Cinderella added, “I hope you don’t have any more bad dreams.”

So do I, thought Virginia as she said good night and padded back to her room. Because I certainly have more bad thoughts to make nightmares out of now.