Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,61
“There is nothing forgivable about what I’ve done.”
She turned her back, refusing to meet his gaze.
“We’ll still need to leave,” Lola Urduja said softly. “I understand your anger, hija, but let’s all wait until we are somewhere safer. Baby, how fares the looking glass?”
“It’s been banged up some, but it still works, even after all these years.” The tita traced an odd pattern on the surface of the now-clean glass, leaving a silver streak wherever her finger made contact.
“Can you contact the Gallaghers this way?”
“I think…yes. Just a few more seconds…”
The golden mirror gleamed brightly, their reflections disappearing as the surface shimmered, then faded, revealing a dark-skinned, doe-eyed boy with curly brown hair and a nervous grin.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” Ken called out. “Tell me I’m the fairest of them all.”
“You do this every time,” the boy complained, by way of greeting. “Zoe? Loki? West? You guys there?”
“A cuh-couple more seconds. This sanctuary’s looking glass hasn’t been used in about…well, f-fifty-eight years, from the feel of it. It won’t take you all in at once, but I think I can oh crann’i santua, is that the firebird?”
The inquisitive creature had approached the mirror. Its beak touched the surface, warping the boy’s features for a few seconds. By the time it cleared up again, the boy had his face pressed up against the mirror in his eagerness.
“Of course it’s the firebird, Dex,” Ken drawled. “That’s the whole purpose of the top-secret mission we’re on that no one else knows about, remember?”
“A real f-firebird,” the boy in the mirror breathed, staring in awe, and then looking absolutely goggle-eyed when he spotted Alex. “Your Majesty,” he squeaked. “I-it’s an honor! My great-great-grandfather fought yours at the Caucasus Front—I mean, he fought with yours against the Ottoman—”
“Thank you,” Alex said politely. “I know of you Gallaghers. My father had nothing but high praise. Severon Gallagher is your father, right? The inventor of the fortune splicer?”
“There’s very little time, Mr. Gallagher,” Lola Urduja said, stepping forward.
Something like a squeak escaped Dexter’s throat. “Y-you’re th-the Captain Urduja of the Lost brigade! And the Katipuneros!”
“Yo,” Tito Boy signed.
“But that m-means…” The boy was now staring at Tala. “And you, y-you’re a Makiling, aren’t you?”
“Guilty.”
“It’s very nice to meet you. I-I’m Dexter Gallagher, r-represent!”
“Represent?”
“Oh, is that not the customary greeting in America? Hom-mies, to represent? ’Sup, Gee cheese doodles? To th-throw one’s hands in the air and wave them in clockwise or counterclockwise motions to express nuh-nonchalance?”
“Susmaryosep,” Lola Urduja growled. “Dexter.”
“Sorry, sorry. You guys better suh-step back for a minute. The looking glass hasn’t been used in a while, so I c-can’t tell you what to expect activating this twice in so short a time.”
“Activated?” Tala echoed. “He can do that?”
“Like Zoe pointed out,” Ken said. “Gallagher’s a spellforger. The first eighteen-year-old category one spellforger, I might add. They’d put him down in the Guinness Book of World Records if they knew he existed. His family claimed asylum in Norway, but you know what they say: You can keep us out of Avalon, but you can’t keep Avalon out of us.”
“It’s a very precise science,” Dexter said proudly. “All quite muh-mathematical. Like a…a Tardis! See, I’ve watched many of your American and British television series, and I know s-some things. I know what a Tardis is, and operas in space, and what many of your countrymen refer to as a gym, a tan, and a laundry.”
Zoe lifted a hand to her face in resignation.
“What’s a Tardis?” West asked.
“I’m going to regret wading into this,” Ken said, “but it’s from a television show, West. Doctor Who.”
“Doctor who?”
“Exactly.”
“Which doctor?”
“Doctor Who.”
“That’s what I want to know.”
“Can we postpone the interesting discussions until we’re back at the Cheshire’s, gentlemen?” Lola Urduja asked tartly. “We compromise revealing the duke’s location in England with every second we delay.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I m-mean, Sarge. I m-mean…” Dexter flailed, then abruptly disappeared. A strange humming noise whirred through the room before the mirror pulsed and glowed again, but with a brighter, steadier light.
“We’re going inside the mirror?” Tala asked.
“O’course,” West said. “How else are we gonna get to the Cheshire’s?”
“R-ready when you are,” Dexter’s disembodied voice reported from somewhere behind the new portal. “You’ll all have to hurry. I can’t hold this up indefinitely.”
“Get Lumina through first,” Tala’s father suggested, his voice low.
General Luna lifted her mother gently, nodded at the others, and stepped through the mirror. The light faded slightly as they passed through,