The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) Page 4

  “I don’t know, to be perfectly honest. In my entire life I’ve never seen anything remotely like that creature.” His look was almost pleading. “Do you have even the faintest clue about why this is happening? Any reason at all?”

  Penny racked her brain for a moment and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t have a clue.”

  The professor gave a humorless laugh and rubbed his temple. He looked crestfallen as he repositioned his glasses yet again, studying the carpet beneath his feet. “To hear this, Miss Fairfax…” he paused and sighed. “It’s disappointing, I must admit.”

  Penny looked at him with mild concern. “Why? What exactly were you expecting?”

  Professor Arlington looked into her eyes and for the first time since she’d known the man, she saw real pain behind them. He seemed to sense Penny’s surprise and cast his eyes away. His mouth opened and he hesitated.

  “I―”

  Penny’s eyes fell to the window behind Professor Arlington’s chair, where the face of a stranger, dead-eyed and chalk white, stared right back at her.

  Penny leapt from her chair, screaming. Professor Arlington scrambled up, looking about for what startled her. Seeing the man staring in at them from outside, he froze. Penny cowered behind her professor, clutching the back of his shirt. The man outside was too still. He didn’t blink, nor did his eyes move.

  “Do you know that man?” Professor Arlington whispered.

  Penny made a small noise to show she didn’t. Without warning the skin on the man’s face started to stretch. His teeth sprouted into tusks. Both eyes rolled back into his head, leaving two gaping sockets as the skull grew long and malformed. He put his hand up to the window as if reaching out for help, and bones burst through his fingers, becoming razor-edged claws.

  Penny felt the world go black, and then a blast of freezing cold air as the window shattered brought her back to reality with a shock. The demonic creature leapt into the room with that awful inhuman wail. Penny was so frightened she could not manage to utter a sound. Her legs were limp as Professor Arlington pulled her to her feet and dragged her down the hall. The creature bounded behind them, snarling and gnashing its jaws. Professor Arlington turned back to face it, and with a sweeping motion of his hand, an arcane circle wreathed in gold light burst forth through his fingers, blocking off the entire hallway. The beast threw itself against the disc barrier and it began to crack like glass.

  Noises of devastation sounded in the kitchen, followed by a furious pounding on the front door. Penny had a mere second to share a terrified glance with her teacher, whose hand she held with a vice-like grip. More abominations were coming.

  “Hurry! This way!” Professor Arlington said, making a mad dash for the basement door. Behind them the arcane circle shattered and the beast thundered forward, jaws open wide, ready to sink its tusks into their flesh. The door slammed behind them just in time. An ominous thud sounded, followed by an enraged shriek.

  “They’re everywhere…they’re all around the house. What do we do?” Penny panicked as Professor Arlington created a stream of silver runes, enchanting the door. Penny felt an intense rush of lightheadedness and wobbled in place.

  Out of the trembling quiet, another crash resonated. They both stared at the door with fierce intensity. The basement was cramped and windowless, and the only light came from the faint glow of the arcane enchantment on the door. Penny could hardly see Professor Arlington as he turned around to face her, but she could tell from his silence and stony demeanor that something was very wrong.

  “There must be…at least five of them…maybe more,” Professor Arlington sputtered.

  “That will keep them out, though. It’ll keep them out, right?” Penny gasped and drew closer to him.

  “Not for very long.” His voice was weak and Penny’s chest deflated when she saw the hopelessness on his face.

  “You can fight them, though. You got that other one! These ones should be nothing, right?” Horror surged through her like a runaway train. Another deafening crash came, and they scurried farther away from the door rumbling and shaking with the force of the creatures behind it.

  “Miss Fairfax, I―” Professor Arlington breathed, “―I was never trained in combative enchantments. I cannot act quickly enough to destroy this many.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Penny blanched. “You can’t be serious! You―”

  With an ear-splitting crack, the door and the enchantment that barred it began to splinter. Penny watched in transfixed terror as a long, scythe-like bone pierced through the wood. Gripping Professor Arlington’s arm, she willed him to react, but he hung his head in despair.

  “What are you doing?! Don’t just stand there! At least try to fight them!” Penny begged him. Paralyzed, her professor watched as huge chunks of wood splintered away from the door.

  Her fear and frustration reaching a boiling point, Penny stamped her foot and cried out in rage, “DO SOMETHING!” She pushed him as hard as she could and he stumbled. Tears stung at her eyes, and Penny felt her knees give out as she saw something dark and snakelike forcing its way through the network of splinters that was once a door.

  “Please,” Penny implored with a sob, fighting to stay on her feet, “please don’t let me die here.”

  As if Professor Arlington had been jolted by electricity, his expression contorted into one of wounded anguish. Her words had stung, but they seemed to have gotten through to him. With a sharp gasp, he slapped a hand to his forehead. “Of course, why didn’t I think of―come here.” He grabbed Penny around the shoulders and she clung to him as the door exploded into bits.

  The last image Penny saw before shutting her eyes was Professor Arlington’s hand reaching outward into the darkness of the basement in a dire grasp for nothing at all.

  Expecting to feel needle-sharp fangs rip through her body, Penny screamed, but the burst of pain never came. Without warning it was as if she had been sucked into a powerful vacuum and was hurtling through space at several hundred miles per hour. Her eyes were pulled open by the sheer force of the pressure and she saw everything around her empty away into a void, like she had been riding atop a rocket that launched straight into a curtain of impenetrable darkness. The air was stolen from her lungs. A catastrophic nothingness stretched out around the both of them. Professor Arlington still clutched her and she clamped down on the folds of his shirt, sure that if she let go she would be torn apart by the powerful force that sucked them through the void. The deep pit of emptiness continued on for minute after excruciating minute.

  Let it stop, let it stop, oh please, let it stop. Kill me, I don’t care, just let it end.

  Her prayers were answered as the terrible sensation came to an abrupt halt with the feeling of being ejected from the end of a long tube. They were tossed through the air and Professor Arlington was thrown from her grip before she landed hard on her shoulder, her head bouncing onto a hard surface. All her senses were swept from her body, and there was only deep, visionless sleep.

  CONSCIOUSNESS CAME BACK to Penny in shallow levels. She was aware that she was rocking back and forth, her legs dangling and her head rolling from side to side. With a groan, Penny forced her eyes open and found herself staring up at the strained face of Professor Arlington.

  Realizing that he was carrying her, Penny kicked up her legs and cried out in protest. Her sudden reaction startled him into dropping his hold, and she tumbled onto a dirt road. Still gasping, Penny scrambled to her feet and steadied herself. She looked around and the intense dread returned.

  An unfamiliar, rustic setting stretched out behind them, and before them stood a high-walled town cluttered with buildings, steeples, and roofs ornamented with stone carvings.

  “Where are we?” Penny turned on Professor Arlington, spitting with rage and fear. He held out his hands and she backed away, trembling in her pajamas in the center of the dirt path, looking like a bedraggled mouse that had escaped disappearing into a sewer drain.

  �
��Miss Fairfax, try to stay calm,” he pleaded and crept toward her.

  “Explain this. All of this,” Penny snarled, balling up her fists.

  “I suppose I―I should....” he tried, his face ashen. “Perhaps you had better prepare yourself. This might come as something of a shock, Miss Fairfax,” he warned and Penny’s body stiffened.

  “What do you mean?” she urged. “Tell me where we are now.”

  Professor Arlington let out a dejected sigh and his shoulders dropped. “You’re not going to accept this straight away, I’m sure. But if you want the simple facts of our situation, it appears that in my struggle to escape from the basement—” he hesitated for a moment and winced as he looked at Penny, “—that I may have unintentionally brought us to―to another world.”

  Penny stared at him and shook her head. “You—you’ve got a really bad sense of humor,” she said.

  “Please, I know it’s hard to come to terms with. I responded the same way when I first came to Earth.” Professor Arlington reached out to touch the side of her arm. “We can make the best of things if we only just―”

  “Don’t you dare touch me, you creep!” she screamed, slapping his hand away and dashing toward the cobbled road of the town. Wherever she was, there had to be someone sympathetic to her plight. She could borrow a cell phone to call her mother, or the police. Someone would help her reach safety.

  Professor Arlington’s footsteps scraped behind her as he tried to catch up and Penny quickened her pace. Bursting through the gate and onto the street, Penny staggered to a stop and gaped.

  The gables and towers spiraling up toward the sky looked as if they belonged in another time period. The people that bustled by on their busy ways wore frock coats, silken gowns and tall hats, gold-rimmed spectacles, goggles with lenses the color of wine bottles, frilled bonnets, stockings with boots, and all manner of strange clothing. Gas lamps lined the tightly-wound streets. Fair ladies sported feathered hats with tiny fake birds that almost looked and sounded alive. All around them the alluring scent of baking goods wafted, coming from a warm bakery with an ornate crafted crystal window. Further down the street, huge piles of alien, jewel-like fruits were stacked high, while a man with a bowler hat and wild mutton-chops shouted at the passing crowd in a language Penny couldn’t even begin to identify. Penny choked back a yelp as a small collection of fuzzy brown bird-like creatures with huge orange eyes hopped past in a little flock. A child in a lacey headdress and pinafore chased after the flock.

  “Miss Fairfax! Please wait!” Professor Arlington’s voice called from close behind her.

  Penny turned away and bumped into someone. She turned to apologize, and felt the blood drain out of her face as she looked into the eyes of a creature she had no name for. It had needle sharp teeth glittering under a snake-like nose and two round golden eyes that looked just like a toad’s. Though its face was monstrous, the creature stood upright and wore a smart suit. It spoke to her in a foreign tongue, using a polite but scolding tone.

  Penny did an instant about-face and shot past Professor Arlington, biting her tongue hard enough to stop from screaming aloud in hysteria. Through the narrow, crowded street she went, colliding with townsperson and signpost alike. The afternoon sun had stained the town an orange-red, adding to the surreal nature of what she was seeing.

  She hurtled around the corner of the street, anxious to put as much distance between herself and the creature she’d bumped into as possible. Weaving through a line of carts in an alleyway selling what she hoped were just a collection of bizarre souvenirs, she burst onto another main street covered in flags and iron archways. Penny stumbled back until she felt a wall behind her, and pressed herself up against it, gawking at what lay before her.

  Penny no longer needed convincing that this was a different world. Only a few feet away, an eight-foot-tall, black-scaled dragon wearing a cravat and a long coat purchased a fine cut of a meat from a bald butcher with a robust mustache. Penny stared shamelessly in its direction.

  Black scales. Huge talons, a pair of wings. That…that’s a dragon. I’m actually looking at a dragon right now, she thought as a whine escaped. Another one of the short, toad-like creatures played a flute in the center of the street, busking for spare change. Penny slid down the wall, transfixed and horrified all at once, when a voice beside her made her look up.

  A man and another creature that made Penny’s heart surge were addressing her with concern. The thing beside the gentleman had the head of a lion and the horns of a ram, though it wore an elegant cloak and monocle, stood upright and spoke politely to her, as if asking what the matter was. It reached a comforting paw in her direction, trying to help her up. The words were pure gibberish to Penny, and the sheer confusion, panic, and frustration of the moment brought tears to her eyes.

  No, she scolded herself, averting her eyes to stare at the cobblestones. Don’t cry. Don’t let this break you. I know there’s a…a cat man standing right there, but just stay calm. Take a deep breath. Find Professor Arlington.

  Not knowing what else to do, Penny rose on shaky legs and bowed to the strange pair. They blinked at her in astonishment as she pushed between them, racing back the way she had come, searching the crowd for Professor Arlington. She called out, her heart leaping every time her gaze fell upon one of the unfamiliar creatures that populated the town. Winding down another alleyway, her heart sank once more.

  I don’t recognize this…I…I’m lost. Penny bit her bottom lip, anxiety raging out of control inside of her. She looked about for something that would help her and spotted a clock tower rising above the other roofs.

  I’ll be able to get a good look from there, she realized and ran in its direction. Her feet were bruised and raw by the time she located it. Panting, she circled the tower until she found a set of stairs. Not bothering to ascertain whether she was allowed inside, Penny climbed them, emerging onto a wooden platform that overlooked the town. She leaned against the railing, trying to catch her breath and make sense of the landscape.

  Beyond the city walls lay idyllic farmland, and small collections of twinkling lights could be seen below the dusty purple sky. In the distance was a great cluster of trees that seemed to stretch on forever. South of the town, a valley lay nestled among green hills that extended until they transformed into a small mountain range shrouded in a veils of mist. Tiny villages were visible in the forms of quivering star points, but even in the farthest regions, Penny saw no hint of anything familiar. She squinted at the horizon and thought she could just see the shining surface of what appeared to be a river, but it might have been a trick of the light.

  She turned her gaze then to the town itself and searched for any sign of Professor Arlington. After an hour of studying the area, darkness blanketed the town and ended her search. In the sky among the waking stars, two moons gleamed in the sky above Penny, and she stared up at them in dizzy horror.

  Her chest feeling as if it had been emptied, Penny let herself sink to the ground. She took several deep breaths and ran her hand through her tangled hair, her cut and dirty feet aching as the cold air numbed her limbs.

  Something very peculiar caught her eye in the gloom. A thin thread of golden light floated in the air beside her. She tapped it, discovering it felt like a strand of silk. With a shock, Penny realized it sprouted from her chest and led over to the staircase. She touched the spot where the thin golden thread fed into her collar bone and gave it an experimental tug. She felt nothing.

  How long has this been here?

  A noise sounded from below the platform, echoing softly at first, but growing louder with each passing moment.

  Footsteps.

  Penny stood back up with a gasp as the footsteps grew closer. The golden thread trembled and Professor Arlington’s head poked into view. He climbed onto the platform, looking irritated and holding the delicate thread in his free hand. Penny felt relief flood through her.

  “There you are,” he drawled. “I see you’re still in one p
iece.”

  “How did you find me?” she asked, astonished.

  “Simple.” Professor Arlington gingerly tugged at the golden string and it melted away into thin air. “A tracking spell.”

  Ah, magic spells. Of course, Penny thought with sarcasm. She frowned. “Thank you,” she said humbly. “F-for coming to find me, I mean. I’m sorry I ran off like that, it’s just…”

  “It’s quite a shock to the system, I understand completely. Still, I could’ve done without roaming all over the town trying to find you,” he said, and Penny grinned a little. He exhaled and walked over to where she stood.

  “This…this is really happening, isn’t it? This isn’t a dream.” Penny looked at him with a solemn expression and he nodded. His hand twitched upward as if he was considering putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, but decided against it.

  “Look—I know you’ve no reason to trust me at this point, but...it really will be for the best if we stay together. It’s true we hardly know one another, but I guarantee you that somehow I’m going to get you home. I can’t help but feel responsible for this.”

  “Wait a minute…If you brought us here so easily, can’t we just…go back?” Penny frowned.

  “If only it were that easy,” he sighed. “Before last night, I’ve only managed to jump between worlds once, and it was completely by mistake―in a moment of panic. I spent the better part of these last four years trying to figure out anything I could about trans-world travel, but it’s amounted to nothing more than mere speculation. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to know that I have this ability, but am unable to use it. But where there’s a can, there’s a how―so there’s got to be somebody or something that has an explanation,” Professor Arlington mused.

  “Well, as long as we’re mixed up in this, we might as well make the best of it, hmm?” He leaned his head to the side and tried to smile. “So, um―I’ll look out for you until I find a way of getting us back. What I mean is―you can trust me, I suppose,” he added, sounding afraid of what he was promising.