The Mirrors of Elangir (The Schemes of Raltarn & Tomaz, volume I)

The Mirrors of Elangir chapter 3

Chapter 3

I reached our street just as the curfew bell rang, and trotted the rest of the way. No light came from any of our windows - Mara would have gone home already, and Uncle must be in bed. I stood in the porch to catch my breath, still not quite believing the ultimatum Shanu's father had given me. I'd thought things had been going well - to be honest, I'd hoped her parents would help to support us for a year or so after the wedding.

Three months to earn as much money as I had in the last year. Could it be done? Not by clearing junk from dead people's houses, that much I knew. Four hundred svara would be a very good start to a household for most people. Did I really want such a grasping, calculating man as my father-in-law? No, but I had no choice. People had no influence over who their parents were.

I cast a light spell and went into the visiting room, trying to estimate how much we'd get for the stuff from Dyareg's house. Fifty svara, maybe, once our costs were taken out, split between Uncle and me. Perhaps seventy-five if we separated the valuable items and found more specialised buyers for them.

My gaze fell on the mirror we'd taken to Yindrath. That had to be worth something now that we knew what it did. If he was right that it was Elangic - and the workmanship and its enchantment seemed to confirm that - it had to be at least a thousand years old. How much could we get for it? I had no idea. On the one hand, it was rare, possibly one of only two in the world. On the other, it had little practical value except as something to see your reflection in. Unless...

I moved to pick up the mirror, and my light went out. I froze for a moment, then backed away, hoping I wouldn't trip over anything in the dark. I cast another light spell. This one was noticeably dimmer than the first. I went to the kitchen for a candle - Mara, being an indifferent magician, found them easier than making her own light. I lit it with another spell and retrieved the mirror, then went upstairs to my room.

By itself, the mirror was an ornament or a piece of art. But what if we had the other one of the pair as well? Two people could communicate at any distance, as quickly and easily as if they were in the same room. To get the other mirror, obviously I'd need to know where it was. It could be anywhere in the world, but there might be clues in the picture itself that would help me.

I removed the mirror from its leather case and propped it on my chair. I took a deep breath and touched the mirror's rubies in the sequence I'd discovered.

Straight away the snowy scene appeared before me. I gasped involuntarily at its brightness and sharp detail. Yindrath had said the snow meant it had to be in a high latitude. The sun had appeared at the left of the picture, fairly high in the sky, and I took this as meaning the other mirror was west of here. West and south would put it on an island in the Tian Ocean, or perhaps even the continent of Elangir. The latter made more sense, given the mirrors' provenance - perhaps in the days when Elangir had an empire, the emperor used these mirrors to stay in touch with the provincial governors.

The city looked deserted. Its walls might hide a multitude, but any inhabitants would surely light fires to keep themselves warm, and I saw no smoke.

I reached under the bed and pulled out a flat wooden box, disturbing a thick layer of dust as I did so. Mara never cleaned under there; perhaps she thought the past was better left buried. With a deep breath, I flipped the catches.

Inside, my father's navigation instruments shone as brightly as the last time I'd looked at them. That would've been a year or so after Uncle had come home and told me he was going to be looking after me from now on. Sight blurring, I set the box on the floor and lay on the bed. I'd thought I was done crying over Father.

I didn't see him all that often when I was a boy, but when he was at home, he packed in more than other boys' fathers did in the whole time they were there. I still remembered how scared I'd been of the rhinoceros in the old Zoological Gardens, and how curious I'd been about the bears, sweltering under their fur. Then there were the fishing trips upriver, and the jaunts around the bay in Uncle Tomaz's rowing boat. Tomaz had done his best to raise me, but Father's death had dealt me a blow from which I'd never fully recovered.