“She’s no match for Dara,” I said.
“Ever since she defeated Jasra, she’s had a high opinion of herself. It has not occurred to her that Jasra had grown lazy and lost by a trick, not by a matter of power. She would rather believe her own strength greater than it is. And that is her weakness. She would be reunited with you to put you off-guard as well as to turn your brother against you once again.”
“I am forewarned, and I thank you–though there are really only six others in the running for the Throne. I was number one, but a half dozen pretenders have recently turned up. You said seven. There’s one I don’t know about?”
“There is the hidden one,” she said. “I do not know his name to tell you, though I know you saw him in Suhuy’s pool. I know his appearance, Chaotic and human. I know that even Mandor considers him a worthy antagonist when it comes to scheming. Conversely, I believe Mandor is the main reason he removed himself to our realm. He fears Mandor.”
“He inhabits the mirrorworld?”
“Yes, though he is not yet aware of our existence there. He found it by a near-impossible accident, but he simply thinks he has made a marvelous discovery–a secret way to go nearly anywhere, to see nearly anything without detection. Our people have avoided his awareness, using curves he cannot perceive let alone turn. It has made him considerably more formidable in his path to the Throne.”
“If he can look out–even listen–through any mirror without being detected; if he can step out; assassinate someone, and escape by the same route–yes, I can understand it.”
The night suddenly seemed very cold. Rhanda’s eyes widened. I moved to the chair where I had thrown my garments and began dressing myself.
“Yes, do that,” she said.
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Yes. The hidden one has located and brought back an abomination to our peaceful realm. Somewhere, he found a guisel.”
“What is a guisel?”
“A being out of our myth, one we had thought long exterminated in the mirrorworld. Its kind nearly destroyed the shroudlings. A monster, it took an entire family to destroy what was thought to be the last of them.”
I buckled my sword belt and drew on my boots. I crossed the chamber to the mirror and held my hand before its blackness. Yes, it seemed the source of the cold.
“You closed them and locked them?” I said. “All of the mirrors in this vicinity?”
“The hidden one has sent the guisel through the ways of the mirrors to destroy nine rivals to the Throne. It is on its way to seek the tenth now: yourself.”
“I see. Can it break your locks?”
“I don’t know. Not easily, I wouldn’t think. It brings the cold, however. It lurks just beyond the mirror. It knows that you are here.”
“What does it look like?”
“A winged eel with a multitude of clawed legs. It is about 10 feet long.”
“If we let it in?”
“It will attack you.”
“If we enter the mirror ourselves?”
“It will attack you.”
“On which side is it stronger?”
“The same on either, I think.”
“Well, hell! Can we enter by a different mirror and sneak up on it?”
“Maybe.”
“Let’s give it a shot. Come on.”
She rose, dressed quickly in a blood-red garment, and followed me through a wall to a room that was actually several miles distant. Like most of the nobles of Chaos, brother Mandor believes in keeping a residence scattered. A long mirror hung on the far wall between the desk and a large Chaos clock. The clock, I saw, was about to chime a nonlinear for the observer. Great. I drew my blade.
“I didn’t even know this one was here,” she said.
“We’re some distance away from the room where I slept. Forget space. Take me through.”
“I’d better warn you first,” she said. “According to tradition, nobody’s ever succeeded in killing a guisel with a sword, or purely by means of magic. Guisels can absorb spells and lashes of force. They can take terrible wounds and survive.”
“Any suggestions then?”