Sumi's Book Page 11

  “Halt!” the queen screeched.

  I didn’t obey. I couldn’t simply call Takara to claim the fifth shard. It had to be in my possession first.

  Queen Mitsu was just as determined to stop me as I was to finish my task. The tiny mirrors lining the corridors suddenly expanded and fused together into large mirrored panels. They reminded me of the distorted mirrors in a horror-movie carnival funhouse. The reflections of my hideous new form were now life-sized in the mirrors surrounding me. The queen’s image was much smaller, but it got bigger as she drew closer.

  “You can’t have the shard back,” Queen Mitsu hissed.

  Although I could tell she was getting closer, I couldn’t pinpoint her location. She, on the other hand, knew exactly where I was in the maze. That put me at an even greater disadvantage.

  “It’s mine now,” the queen growled.

  The glint shimmered, as though urging me to move.

  I limped down the corridor on newly clawed feet and two legs that were no longer the same length. I had stopped caring what I looked like, only how the changes affected my ability to survive.

  As I approached the next corridor, I suddenly hung back. Queen Mitsu could be waiting just out of sight.

  “Boo!” She cackled at her own joke.

  I jumped.

  The light glided across the face of the large mirror, paused at the edge, and then zipped around the corner.

  I fought back my fear and moved ahead, holding my breath until I saw that the connecting corridor was clear. So was the next one. The vastness of the City of Mirrors was helping me, but sooner or later Queen Mitsu would catch up.

  That thought stopped me in my tracks. I glanced back, suddenly realizing that Queen Mitsu could just as easily sneak up from behind as ambush me from ahead. There was nowhere to hide in this maze.

  Unless she couldn’t see me!

  As I concentrated on making myself disappear, I thought about Kano. He would love a form that didn’t stand out at all.

  It was a great idea, but it didn’t work. My see-through talons slowly faded, then snapped right back to full visibility again. Becoming transparent took too much energy.

  “I told you no one has more power than me.” The queen stepped out of a side corridor to stand in front of me. She grinned, amused by my shock.

  I couldn’t help it—I ran back and ducked into another corridor. It was a useless attempt to escape, and the queen didn’t even bother to hurry after me. She could find me anywhere, and there was no need to rush.

  As I stood there, unable to decide which way to run, I suddenly had an idea. Maybe there was a way to be invisible! I quickly transformed into a copy of the evil queen.

  “What?” Queen Mitsu squawked. “Where did you go?”

  I froze, hardly daring to hope.

  Minutes passed. My image didn’t change. From every angle I looked like a mirror image of the queen. I stifled a grin.

  “You can’t trick me!” the queen raged.

  Apparently, I could.

  When I caught sight of the glint, I hesitated. The queen was watching the mirrors, trying to get a fix on my position. The instant I started after the light, she would know which image was mine.

  I took off.

  Part Three

  Sewing It Up

  12

  Takara’s Truth

  “Got you!” Queen Mitsu snarled as she ran after me.

  She was faster and more agile than I would have thought, but I still had the advantage. Queen Mitsu had to pause to sort out our images, while I had the glint to guide me through the maze.

  When the glint stopped on a small piece of glass, there was no doubt I had found the fifth missing shard. The glass was wedged into a corner, sparkling like sunlight between gray clouds. I reached up with twisted talons and pulled it free.

  “Takara’s truth.” I spoke the phrase in the queen’s gravelly voice, but the family talisman knew it was me. In a flash of golden light, Takara appeared in my hand and the shard snapped right into place.

  “No!” Queen Mitsu screamed behind me.

  I turned and stared into the fairy’s terrified black eyes as the City of Mirrors began to collapse. I clutched the Yugen mirror to my chest. Then I shouted the magic phrase, and the mirror disappeared.

  Now I had to worry about me! I had half hoped I would disappear with the mirror and be whisked home again, but no such luck.

  Queen Mitsu’s black eyes bore into me with hatred. She crouched, ready to spring, when shattered glass rained down on her, momentarily distracting her. The queen ducked and turned to escape, but a large sheet of mirror dropped down to block her escape.

  “Help me!” The queen reached out a hand as the walls began to close around her.

  She sounded so pathetic, I couldn’t ignore her plea. I took a step toward her, but another panel slammed down between us, cutting me off.

  The second after the evil queen was trapped, a warm tingling flooded my body. I looked at my arm and gasped as gray leathery skin softened and the muscle fleshed out. I ran my hand through the silken strands of my real hair. I was changing back to Sumi!

  But I didn’t want to be human. Not yet.

  When Takara took the final Yugen shard from the maze, the fairy queen’s power must have been suddenly drained. There was no way she could keep the maze of mirrors intact. All around us glass exploded and crashed as the maze broke down. But since Queen Mitsu had been holding the City of Mirrors together, all those pieces were attracted to her like metal shavings to a magnet.

  And I was in the way.

  A human girl couldn’t survive the tons of broken glass streaming toward the powerless queen. I quickly thought of an animal with plates of armor and found myself turning into an armadillo. Now low to the ground, I scrambled away from the tornado of glass surrounding the queen.

  My stubby little legs were fast, but my hard claws couldn’t dig into the ground. When the force of speeding glass pellets and pieces knocked me off my feet, I curled into a ball. Broken mirrors battered and rolled me about, but the sharp edges didn’t penetrate my armored plates.

  Queen Mitsu’s screams rose above the sounds of glass smashing against glass. She commanded the mirrors to retreat. When they didn’t obey, she screeched with rage and then cried out in despair. Before long, a thick wall of glass muffled her sobs.

  When all was quiet, I slowly uncurled and looked around.

  Every speck of glass in the mirror maze had fused to form a huge sphere that imprisoned Queen Mitsu. I felt sorry for her, but, in a strange way, encased in a perfectly round, dazzling ball of mirror, she had finally achieved the perfection she wanted.

  And I had completed my mission. I had found the five missing pieces of the Yugen mirror and defeated an evil fairy queen. That was a totally unexpected bonus. I hoped it meant that Bristolmeir would be restored. I wouldn’t know until I found my way back up into the city.

  With the mirrors removed, I could see that salmon-colored shells formed the foundation of the city. The shells weren’t decayed or littered with debris. They looked bright and new, with gleaming, curved walls.

  Since I couldn’t sense anything dangerous, I changed back into Sumi and inhaled deeply, savoring a salty breeze. There were no mirrors left to look into, so I patted my hair and face to make sure everything was in the right place. My original fairy dress, scarf, bracelets, and sandals were back on and felt newly washed. I felt as clean and fresh as I had at the beginning of my journey.

  After a quick survey, I found a little brook weaving its way through the shells. I followed the flow of the water, hoping it would take me toward the city and not away from it.

  In case there were more obstacles to overcome, I resisted an urge to call the brass hand mirror back. After all I had been through to put it together, I didn’t want the mirror to break until Queen Patchouli scattered the pieces for my daughter many years from now.

  My daughter?

  I was much too young to think about getting
married! I didn’t even have a boyfriend. I adored Kano in all his strange forms, but he lived in Aventurine. Long-distance friendships could last. Long-distance romances usually did not.

  I put these thoughts aside and watched the creatures under Bristolmeir awaken. Like the fairy hiding in a cocoon above, the animals under the city had escaped the queen by hibernating. All sorts of animals, some that I recognized and some that were completely foreign, came out of their nests, caves, and tunnels and looked around as if in a daze. I was trying to find the bubble lift that I had taken down into the City of Mirrors, and I would have completely missed it if a turtle hadn’t walked into it. A large bubble popped out of the tube walls and shrunk to turtle size around the passenger. I watched the turtle bubble rise, then rushed forward. It would get me back into the dome.

  When a large white bird flew past me and up through the tube, I stopped short and blinked. Apparently, there were two ways back into Bristol-meir: ride the bubble or fly. That was no contest. Transforming into a white bird, I spread my wings.

  The sensation of swooping upward through the tube was as thrilling as I had imagined and a thousand times better than flying in my dreams. The wind rushed past, and my wings were in complete control. It was awesome!

  I didn’t land on the nearest tree when I cleared the hole in the floor. Although tiny hints of green and red leaf buds dotted the branches, the bark wasn’t completely healed and sap still oozed out. I couldn’t resist flying a few loops around the central tower.

  Above me, more and more crystal lights twinkled on until they lit up everything under the dome. The drizzle stopped. Below, the shadows retreated as crushed mosaic walkways became whole and melted towers regained their former shapes.

  Wings outstretched, I caught an air current and circled a large plaza garden. Black cocoons vanished in a puff of dust and sleeping fairies stepped out. Dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, they flew on gorgeous wings or danced along the mosaic paths. The underwater city was healing itself and coming back to life.

  I had never felt freer or more beautiful in my life, and I almost wished I could stay a white bird that lived in Aventurine.

  As usual, Kano brought me back down to earth.

  “Having fun?” another white bird asked in Kano’s voice.

  “Yes!” I laughed, happy to see him. “But I earned it. The City of Mirrors was awful!”

  “You found the missing shard,” Kano said matter-of-factly.

  “It was in Queen Mitsu’s mirror maze,” I said. “That’s why she had so much power.”

  “Not anymore,” Kano said as we flew in a few more lazy circles around the tower. After a moment, he broke away. “C’mon! There’s someone you have to meet.”

  I didn’t want to stop flying so soon, but I was anxious to get home. Following Kano, I glided downward into a wooded glade and landed on a large yellow toadstool. I turned back into a girl, and hopped down to the ground.

  Kano, the handsome boy with the mischievous smile, landed gracefully beside me.

  “Sumi Hara, this is Queen Patchouli of the Willowood Fairies,” Kano said.

  A tall, regal fairy stepped out from under the toadstool’s shadow. She wore a soft green gown with rich golden embroidery. Her hair fell in chestnut waves to her knees, and bees buzzed lazily around her crown of flowers. Her gentle smile and bright eyes warmed me like a summer sun. The silver-clad Queen Kumari stepped out to stand beside her.

  “It’s an honor to meet you, Queen Patchouli.” I spoke softly and bowed.

  “And for me to meet you,” Queen Patchouli said. “You restored the Yugen mirror and Bristolmeir.”

  “Your name will be honored in all of Aventurine,” said Queen Kumari.

  Queen Patchouli nodded. “You have accomplished an extraordinary task under very difficult circumstances, Sumi.”

  “To be honest, I’ll kind of miss all the excitement,” I said.

  “You’ll have plenty of excitement as a fairy godmother,” Queen Patchouli said. “But that’s for another day. Now it’s time to call the Yugen mirror.”

  My happiness dimmed a little. Takara wouldn’t remain with me. It stayed with Queen Patchouli in Aventurine. I didn’t want to give it up, but I had to honor the tradition.

  “Takara’s truth!” The mirror flashed into my hand.

  “Look into the glass,” Queen Patchouli said.

  I hesitated, remembering when I had looked into the empty frame when I first arrived in Aventurine. I had seen Kano’s image but not my own. What if I still didn’t have a reflection?

  “Go on,” Kano gently urged me.

  I raised the glass.

  “There’s a lot more to Sumi Hara now,” Kano said, peering over my shoulder.

  My face smiled back at me from the glass. “Why am I glowing?” I asked. My head was ringed by a glowing mist.

  “The Yugen mirror sees who we truly are,” Queen Patchouli explained. “The aura is the reflection of the warm, caring, and courageous person you are within.”

  I blushed.

  Queen Patchouli smiled and held out her hands.

  The box I had found in the antique store appeared. The wood, hinges, and clasp were clean and polished. I could see every detail in the bird, flower, and leaf design.

  “I will keep Takara safe until it is next needed,” Queen Patchouli said, opening the box. “You can stay in Bristolmeir a while longer, to say your good-byes.”

  I gently placed the mirror on the silk padding and blinked back tears. With a nod, both queens vanished.

  “I’ll be sad to see you go,” Kano said as we walked through the wooded garden.

  “I thought you didn’t like me,” I teased him to lighten the mood. All around us, fairies and their companions were celebrating.

  “Maybe not at first,” Kano admitted, “but I do now. That’s why I asked Queen Patchouli if I could help with your training.”

  “Really?” I was so happy, I completely forgot to be coy. I squealed and gave him a huge hug. Then I jumped back. “What did she say?”

  Kano laughed. “She said yes.”

  “She did!” I couldn’t stop smiling. “When? Will it be long? Will I still be a shape-shifter?”

  “I don’t know when,” Kano said, “but you are a shape-shifter. Now and forever.”

  Everything was turning out much better than I’d expected. Now that I wasn’t saying good-bye to Kano forever, I could enjoy strolling through Bristolmeir with him.

  A cluster of yellow bugs with bright red spotted wings flew from flower to flower collecting nectar. Fish jumped and splashed in fountain pools, and birds sang from high perches in trees bursting with new leaves. Fairies danced and laughed as they watered indoor plants and opened windows to let the light into rebuilt homes.

  With the walkways fixed and the debris removed, it took us less time to get back to the entrance.

  “I want to say good-bye to Krogan,” I told Kano.

  “I’m not sure you can,” Kano said as he led me down a path toward the dome wall.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because his job is done, and Krogan is the type to only appear when he’s needed,” a velvety voice said.

  “Darcy?” I glanced around the colorful toadstools and flower bushes crowded together in the glen. I didn’t spot the dog until she waddled out of the bushes.

  “I am happy to see you again,” the dog said. Her eyes were clear and bright, and her silky brown fur shone. “Everything is gloriously imperfect again!”

  “I’m happy to see you, too. Is Ilsa okay?” I asked.

  “She is helping clean up the big mess,” Darcy said.

  I frowned, puzzled. Since flying into the dome, I had seen crystal buildings, walkways, and other structures rebuild themselves. All the plants, animals, and fairies had recovered from the black rot. The other debris had vanished in puffs of dust like the cocoons or dissolved into the ground.

  “What big mess is left?” I asked.

  “The one Kroga
n built to keep Queen Mitsu’s evil in,” Darcy explained. “That trash won’t go away by itself.”

  “Look.” Kano parted a curtain of soft green vines so I could see through the clear dome.

  I gasped.

  The sea outside Bristolmeir had been transformed from a dark junkyard guarded by a grotesque monster into a bustling paradise filled with fish, fairies, mermaids, and lush fields of seaweed. The water was clear and tinged with a tropical blue-green cast, and the glitter walk sparkled like millions of sequins.

  The piles of junk were the only ugly thing left on the picturesque seascape. Fairies and other creatures worked together, moving everything into a large ring that circled the city.

  “There must be a way to get rid of the trash,” I said.

  “It’s not trash now,” Kano said. “It’s a new reef.”

  I pressed my face against the crystal wall. All along the mound of old, discarded stuff, plants sprouted and colorful buds grew into sea anemones with waving tendrils.

  Okasan would love this, I thought with a smile.

  “Can we go back out into the water?” I asked Kano.

  “The door is right over there,” Kano said.

  I turned to Darcy. “Good-bye, Darcy. I’m glad we met.”

  The dog nuzzled my palm. “Farewell, young fairy godmother.”

  Kano was waiting for me by the sand dollar door.

  “Let’s be mermaids again!” I exclaimed as the door opened.

  “Someday,” Kano said, looking sad.

  I didn’t understand what he meant until I stepped through the door.…

  I sat up with a start. It was dark, but there was no mistaking where I was. I was back in New York. My green digital alarm clock read 7:21 a.m. My sheets were cool and soft to the touch, and I was wearing my pajamas.

  Although I was glad to be home, I felt a twinge of regret for the new friends I had left in Aventurine. I didn’t know when I’d see Kano again. I had to be satisfied just knowing I would. In the meantime, there were other friends I had left behind and neglected.