Page 67 of Mirror of Malice
Penn spread out his arms. “Welcome to the academy, Lilypad.”
I couldn’t believe the next words that were about to come out of my mouth. “I’m not in the academy. Not yet.”
Penn leaned back onto his hands. “And why is that?”
“I have to spar with you. Shadow told me on our first day of training that that was the final task everyone had to complete. A sparring session.”
Penn quirked an eyebrow, shifting his big body. “You want to spar with me?”
“I want to be like everyone else. I want to earn my place.”
And to kick his ass. His nice ass. Which I was not thinking about, to be clear.
Penn cocked his head, that same look—like he was seeing me in a new light—passing over his face. “Then we’ll spar. But you need to rest first.”
I shook my head. “There’s no time for that. Every second we waste my people suffer. My best friends are still imprisoned.” I took a deep breath. “Tell me about this mission. I want to know everything.”
Penn let out a sigh. “Okay, we’ll start with this: the mirror? I assume you know it came from Sorrengard.”
The shadow court.
“Obviously. There’s nowhere else dark magic can come from.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t make sense, though. How could she have gotten the mirror? She’s never been to Sorrengard.”
Penn’s jaw ticked. “There are people who sail to the island, specifically to steal its magical items and bring them back to Arathia to sell on the black market. Have you ever heard of the pirate lord of the Dark Seas?”
I blinked a few times. “Are you telling me he’s real? Not just a silly story made up to scare children?”
Parents often warned their misbehaving children that if they didn’t listen, the pirate lord would come to steal them away when they were sleeping, forcing them onto his boat and into a life of piracy.
“No,” Penn said, “he’s very much real, and he’s one of the few who’s made it out alive from Sorrengard multiple times. He’s infamous for the powerful items he brings back, selling them to the highest bidder. But there are also ways to get into Sorrengard. He sails people there, to the island—for a high fee, of course.”
So that was how my stepmother did it? She bought the mirror off the pirate lord? I didn’t even know how she got in contact with him, arranged something like that.
Penn leaned forward, a strand of blond hair falling over his forehead. “Do you know much about the dark magic of Sorrengard? How their magical items are made?”
I only knew what we’d learned in school. That those in the shadow court had the ability to steal a person’s shadows. “I know that sixty years ago Sorrengard waged war on the rest of Arathia, targeting Shiraeth first. They decimated the star people, wiped the star court off the continent, and it became the Deadlands. That the other courts banded together to banish the shadowpeople back to their island, and they haven’t been heard from since.”
“That’s not quite true,” Penn said. “They haven’t attempted to wage war on Arathia, but that doesn’t mean they’ve disappeared. I think they’ve sent spies over the years, that they’ve been working to infiltrate the courts.” He gestured outside the cave, to the desert. “Look at Gilraeth, the sorceress who’s cursed Princess Seraphina. Something is stirring. Something dark, and I think it’s all connected to Sorrengard.”
I sat back, mind reeling with this information. This was all so much bigger than just my stepmother or the mirror or this sorceress.
“I have good news, though,” Penn said. “Rumor has it Seraphina has awoken from her curse.”
“What?” I said. “How? When? Where is she?”
Penn waved away my questions. “She’s in good hands. She can handle herself.”
Oh, I knew that. Seraphina was smart and brave, and I always knew she’d make an amazing leader to the fire court. I hoped she kicked Jasper’s ass. After she killed the sorceress and foiled whatever plan Sorrengard had to infiltrate Gilraeth.
“We have to do our part,” Penn said. “Destroy that mirror and unseat your stepmother. Right now, if Sorrengard were to attack, the earth court would be useless in the fight. No one has magic, the entire court is practically destroyed. We can’t have that. Arathia has to be at its full strength for whatever Sorrengard has planned.”
“So how does it work?” I twirled my hand in the air. “These magical items? How does Sorrengard have them? I know they have the ability to steal people’s shadows, that when they do take the shadows, the people are then trapped on the island, never able to leave, never able to age.”
My father had told me horror stories about people who were stuck in Sorrengard, puppets for the shadow people to use. Once they captured your shadow, your shadow was under their control and your body unable to leave their island, unable to age. It was like time had no meaning on that island. I shuddered at the thought.
“There’s another piece to their magic,” Penn said. “For every shadow they steal, a magical item is made, appearing on the island. It’s full of them from the shadows they’ve taken. Dark magic, powerful items. That’s what people go to the island for, and most end up getting their shadows taken, never to be seen again. Only the most desperate attempt it.”
My lungs squeezed tight, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Sorrengard was more dangerous than I realized. It wasn’t just shadows they stole, but they also had powerful items at their disposal?
