Page 31 of Lucifer's Mirror
“Likely the same as you,” I reply. I hadn’t even attempted to sleep; there’s too much going on in my head. While she calms Fury, she sends me into a frenzy of what-ifs. “I couldn’t sleep, and then the wolves started their song.”
“Friends of yours?” she asks. “Wolfy family?”
I snort. “No.”
“Do they do this often? Come and serenade you, I mean?”
“Never. But then I suspect it’s not me they are singing to.” I study her, my head cocked to one side. “Just what are you?”
“I don’t know.” She sighs. “But what sort of girl gets serenaded by wolves?”
For the first time, I get a glimpse of what it must have been like for her, waking up with no memories.
Then she sighs again. “I don’t think they mean us harm.”
“Is that another of your intuitions?”
“Yes.”
“I think you’re right,” I say. “There’s no sense of ill will from them, and it appears they’ve chased the monsters away.”
She’s silent for a moment, chewing her lower lip. Finally, she says, “Is Zayne going to be okay?”
“I think so.” And strangely enough, that’s true. The boy is stronger than I thought. “If you want to know more, talk to him. It’s now his story to tell.” I stare up at the sky for a minute, then back down at her. “You should go back to bed. We have a long way to go tomorrow.”
“Where are we going?”
“The city of Zandar Aurion.”
“So there are cities here? With people?”
“Yes. Zandar Aurion was once the capital city, home to the ruling family. But not anymore. It’s been deserted for a thousand years.”
“Have you been there before?”
“Once or twice.” It was the first place I visited once I’d realized that the girl from Khendril’s message wasn’t about to materialize. I found nothing, just the empty ruins of a dead city. I came again once each year, but with the same results. If this Thanouq exists, then he’s determined not to show his face. To me, at least.
“Wow, do you realize that you’re actually telling me something? Maybe we need more midnight meetings.”
Or maybe not. I ignore the comment.
“So why are we going?” she asks.
“To meet a man called Thanouq, who hopefully knows how to find the Crone.”
“Then what, I wonder?” She’s silent for a minute, likely thinking up her next question. She has so many. I should go, but I can’t make myself leave.
“Tell me about Lucifer,” she says. “I know you have no clue about his mirror, but you must know something about him.”
I do. So I’ll tell her what I know, and with luck, the information will jolt her memory. But like the Crone, Lucifer is a creature of legend, though maybe that wasn’t always the case. “The first records of him are from just over five thousand years ago. No one knows from where he came.” Except maybe my father. But he refuses to speak of Lucifer. “For hundreds of years, he moved freely from Hell to Valandria, and Earth to a lesser extent. I presume he had access to mirrors at that point, though they must have been different, since apparently, he never ventured to Astrali and the Chamber of Mirrors.”
“That’s the place we went to? The rooms with all the mirrors?”
“Yes. All the mirrors lead there. On Valandria, Lucifer was building an army. He lured many to his side with promises of wealth and power, and he killed many others. So my father created an army of Guardians, half-breeds, with the power to shift. For a long time, there was a war waging, and Lucifer was winning. It seemed that the whole of Valandria would fall under his dark power.”
“It hasn’t, has it?” She glances around as though expecting to see Lucifer pop up out of the shadows.
“No. Something happened five thousand years ago. Lucifer vanished and has not been seen in person during all that time.”
