‘Oh shit,’ I said. ‘Well, there’s nothing for it but to take a look around.’
‘I will keep watch on the far door,’ said Torvid.
‘You approach the mirror. In its surface, slightly foxed by time, your frightened faces stare back at you, with the chamber in the background.’
‘What if we try and take the mirror off the wall? Could there be something behind it?’
Adam rolled the dice. ‘You carefully lift the mirror away from the wall, its iron frame chilly in your hands.’
‘Fucking hell, don’t drop it, whatever you do, you two.’
‘Without letting the glass fall, you lower the mirror carefully to the ground. It was suspended from a fine steel chain, which looped over a hooked spike driven deep into the stone.’
‘Is there anything on the back of the mirror? A note, maybe?’
‘You turn the looking glass and examine its reverse side. Faintly, on the wooden surface, you can see runes, which appear to have been scratched or etched into the wood.’
‘I can read runes!’ Annella exclaimed. ‘I learned in magic college. Can I understand these ones?’
Again, the dice clicked on the table. Adam smiled, and for a second he was just Adam again, not the all-powerful Dungeon Master. ‘You are able to decipher them. The inscription reads, “All is not what it seems.”’
‘Cryptic, much? I don’t see that that’s much help, to be honest.’
‘Maybe we should hang the mirror back on the wall,’ I suggested, ‘and check that the reflection of the room is accurate. Maybe there’s some weird spell going on.’
‘Oooh, good shout!’
‘Carefully, you replace the mirror and step back. Again, you see your puzzled faces, the tapestries on the opposite wall, the flickering oil lamps.’
‘What about the chest?’ I said. ‘Didn’t we see a chest, when we came into the room? Is it there in the reflection?’
Again, Adam’s smile flashed out. ‘In the reflection, the chest is positioned centrally, but in the room itself it is in the corner, near the door through which you entered.’
‘Let’s move it and see what happens!’
‘Torvid and I will do it,’ Annella said hastily. ‘Galena, you stay looking in the mirror and tell us when we’ve got it in the right place.’
‘You tug and heave the heavy chest, but once it begins to move, it slides freely over the rush matting. Galena watches your stooped backs and straining arms, until at last she says—’
‘Stop! You’ve got it!’
‘All at once, the mirror moves, opening away from the wall with a creak. Beyond, you see brilliant light, and you are powerless to resists its enchanted pull. You step forward, through the gap in the wall, and you hear a sound like a thunderclap as the magic portal slams closed behind you. Galena, you are alone – at least that is what you think at first. Then you see before you a figure, wrapped in a rich dark velvet cloak, a jewelled circlet on his dark hair.’
‘Lord Brandrel!’ exclaimed Tim.
‘Of course, we wouldn’t be there to see what happened next,’ Lana said.
‘Maybe we should step outside while Adam and Zoë – I mean, while Lord Brandrel and Galena – fight it out?’ suggested Freddie.
‘But I want to know what happens,’ Archie protested.
‘Ssshh,’ Nat hissed.
‘But you guys are in the party,’ I said. ‘I can’t just… How would it work normally, Adam? You’re in charge.’
‘Well,’ Adam said slowly, ‘we wouldn’t normally have split the party, but all of you have seen what’s been going on with the other group, so… Ouch!’
‘Sorry,’ Freddie said. ‘Was that your ankle? My foot must have slipped.’
Kelly came over with a tray laden with a bottle of prosecco and seven glasses. ‘Alice sent this over. She mentioned that her office happens to be free right now.’
‘We’ll step in there, shall we, Zoë?’ Adam said. ‘Unless you’d rather…’
But Freddie had already poured the wine, and he handed a glass to me and one to Adam. ‘Off you go then. Come back soon and tell us what happened.’
‘But…’ I began, but it was too late. Adam had picked up his glass and headed purposefully off in the direction of the tiny cubicle that held Alice’s desk, a filing cabinet that no one ever filed anything in, because all our admin was online now, and often other random crap as well. Today there was a hoover in there, a stack of samples of hard seltzer that a supplier had sent to see how it went down with the punters, and a crate of orange pumpkins we’d ordered in for the family Halloween event.
There was barely room for Adam and me to squeeze in, but we did, pulling the door closed behind us.
Suddenly, he seemed very close to me and very tall. I looked up at him, and he looked down at me, and then we both looked away again and took great gulps of our drinks. Adam hadn’t brought any of his notes, I noticed, although I could see his hand tightly clenched around a few of the translucent multi-sided dice.
He cleared his throat. ‘Lord Brandrel is alone in this strange room with you. You don’t know what form of sorcery has brought you here, or what your fate will be. You feel your gaze irresistibly drawn to his, and you wonder if this is part of the same magic that created the mirror illusion.’
My gaze was irresistibly drawn to Adam’s, just like he said. His eyes were the deepest green and his brows were two black arches above them. He had the most ridiculously long eyelashes, I noticed, and they were black too, like his beard, standing out against his pale skin.
‘Why have you brought me here?’ Galena demanded.
‘I think you might wish to ask yourself why you came,’ countered Lord Brandrel.
‘I – and my companions, who wait without – are here to rescue the maiden Zarah, who was captured by your troops from the village.’
‘I think you’ll find,’ said Lord Brandrel, ‘that Zarah merely wished to escape her overbearing mother and is not in any kind of captivity. Rather, she is gainfully employed here at the castle as a kitchen maid.’
‘But – but you captured her. You intended to force her to become your bride!’
‘I did no such thing. She came here of her own free will, escorted by my soldiers. However, I cannot deny that stewardship of this castle is a lonely life, and should I find someone to share it with me, my heart would be lighter.’
‘But I am a fighter!’ Galena said. ‘I will not set aside my freedom for any man.’
‘And I shall make no serf of any woman!’ blazed Lord Brandrel. ‘I seek an equal in all ways, to fight alongside me, share my board and my bed and my riches, even as she shares my heart.’
I felt a tightness in my throat, and swallowed to try and make it go away.
‘So long as she’s willing to share her cat with me,’ said Adam.
I tried to find Galena inside me, but I couldn’t. It seemed like she had… not vanished, exactly, but melted, back into the part of me that had imagined her in the first place.
‘There’s just one thing,’ I said. ‘What star sign are you – I mean, is Lord Brandrel?’