Lee’s trials

In a mirror

*Thalia*

Ari's face sharpens in the little mirror.

"Lee?" she says again, louder this time. "Why are you in a shed?"

Behind her, Kieran leans into view with his dark hair sticking up on one side and a knife in his hand.

"Why is he wet?" he asks.

Lee looks down at himself. His borrowed green coat is soaked through at the shoulders. Mud has dried in a brown stripe along one cheek. There are leaves in his curls.

"Long story," he says.

"That means a bad story," Kieran says.

"It means we need you in New York. Now."

Ari stops moving.

The bright, sleepy confusion leaves her face. She looks at him properly, taking in the dark shed, the rain, the way I am crouched beside him behind alder roots while guards search somewhere beyond the wall.

"Moon above," she whispers. "What happened?"

"My grandfather is ill. Fileas has made himself regent. We found a message from my father." Lee says.

Ari's eyes widen. "Pericles?"

Lee nods. "He may be alive."

For a second, nobody says anything.

Kieran lowers the knife.

Then he says, "Where are you?"

"Larkspur Crossing. West of Eirawen."

"You got out of the city?"

"Through a drainage tunnel."

Kieran blinks once. "You did what?"

"Later," I say.

His gaze shifts to me. "Thalia?"

"Hi."

"You sound like you've been underwater."

"I have been underwater."

Ari pushes Kieran aside enough to fill the mirror again. Her eyes catch the pale moonlight in what must be Kieran’s room.

For a painful second, I want to be there instead or at the school. I want Ari to complain that I have tracked mud across her floor. I want Kieran to appear with too much food and make somebody else responsible for the plan. I want Silas and Finn to have a silly discussion and Lian to pop up making someone jump in surprice.

Ari's mouth tightens.

"Tell me exactly what the message said," she says.

Lee looks at me.

I take the compass from my jacket pocket. It is dry, somehow. My shirt beneath it is not. I open the brass casing and hold the note close to the mirror.

Ari reads it without speaking.

Trust no one who wears the crown.

The address in Queens.

Her expression changes as her eyes reach the final line.

"Do not come alone," she says.

"No," Lee replies. "I thought that part was fairly direct."

Ari looks past the mirror, toward the window. "I saw something tonight."

Kieran makes a warning sound. "Ari."

"I know."

"What did you see?" Lee asks.

She folds one hand around the moon pendant at her throat. The gesture is quick, almost hidden.

"A streetlamp flickering over wet pavement. A man standing under an awning with no coat, even though it was raining. He was holding a paper cup with both hands." Her eyes lift to Lee's. "There was blood on the cuff of his sleeve."

The shed seems to tilt.

"Was it him?" Lee asks.

"I didn't see his face."

"Was it Queens?"

"I don't know. There were elevated tracks overhead. A laundromat sign. A red awning."

Kieran steps into view again. His jaw is tight.

"That could be half of New York," he says.

"Yes," Ari says. "But I saw it before Lee called."

His eyes go to her.

She does not look away.

"I thought it was one of those strange little visions that makes no sense until afterward. I wrote it down. I was going to tell you in the morning."

"Why didn't you wake me?" Kieran asks.

Ari's mouth opens.

Nothing comes out at first.

He watches her, hurt slipping through his irritation.

"Because you have not slept properly in three days," she says at last. "Because you were healing from the sparring injury. Because I thought it might be nothing."

"It was about our friend bleeding in New York."

"I did not know that."

"You never know anything. You just say it in a very pretty voice and then act like that makes it less terrifying."

The words land hard.

Ari goes still.

Kieran closes his eyes briefly, as if he wishes he could drag them back.

"That was unfair," he says.

"Yes," Ari replies.

Her voice is light, almost careless. I have heard that voice before. It means she is hurt enough to make everything sparkle.

Lee rubs his jaw. "We can discuss Kieran's crimes against diplomacy later. Can you get here?"

Kieran exhales through his nose. "Yes."

Ari looks at him.

He meets her eyes this time.

"I mean it," he says. "I'm sorry."

She studies him for a second longer, then reaches through the edge of the mirror and pokes the blurred shape of his shoulder.

"Be sorry while packing."

He nods.

The mirror wobbles as he moves away. I hear drawers opening, something metallic falling to the floor, then Kieran saying, "Why do you own six silver scarves?"

"Because I have taste."

"You have a hoarding problem… are you part dragon?"

"They are not the same."

Ari turns back to us. The forced brightness has eased a little.

"There is a moon gate beneath the north observatory," she says. "It can take us to the old station outside Larkspur if the clouds break enough."

"How long?" Lee asks.

"An hour, perhaps two. The moon is fighting the storm."

"We don't have two hours," I say.

Outside, voices rise near the shed.

The guards have not gone far.

Ari hears something in my voice. "Are you being followed?"

"Yes."

"How many?"

"I don't know."

Lee glances toward the broken wall. "At least three warriors on horseback. There may be more at the bridge."

Kieran returns with a canvas bag slung over one shoulder and a shirt half-buttoned.

"Then get moving," he says. "There is an abandoned signal cabin north of the mill. We used it during that field exercise with the swamp hounds."

Lee frowns. "How do you know that?"

"You invited us to your birthday thing there."

"I did not invite you to a birthday thing. It was a study retreat."

"It had cake."

"That does not make it a birthday thing."

"It had decorations," Ari calls from somewhere off mirror.

Lee stares at the glass. "You are both unbearable."

"Cabin," Kieran says. "North side of the tracks. Can you reach it?"

I picture the old mill bridge. The dark road. The horse lanterns moving between the trees.

"We can try," I say.

"Do more than try," Kieran replies. "Stay off the road. Keep the river to your left until you reach the tracks, then cut uphill. There is a stone culvert beneath the line. The cabin is fifty yards past it."

"That is oddly specific," Lee says.

"I pay attention when I am being chased by swamp hounds."

Ari returns, dragging a thick blue cloak around her shoulders. Her face is pale in the mirror.

"Lee," she says.

He looks at her.

"Bring the compass. Do not let anyone else touch it."

"I know."

"And if the address leads nowhere, we don't stay in Queens after dark. There are places in that city where the veil is thin. If Pericles crossed through something unstable, it may have changed him."

Lee's expression tightens. "Changed him how?"

Ari hesitates.

The answer sits visibly behind her teeth.

"Memory," she says. "Names. Magic. Sometimes people come through with pieces missing."

My stomach drops.

Lee looks down at the compass.

He does not say anything for so long that I reach for his hand. He takes mine automatically, his fingers cold and damp.

Ari sees.

Her gaze softens.

"We'll find him," she says.

Kieran appears beside her, already wearing his coat and gloves. "We are leaving now."

Lee leans toward the mirror. "Signal cabin. One hour."

"Be careful," Ari says.

"That is deeply insulting," he tells her.

Then the mirror goes dark.