The Mermaid's Mirror - L. K. Madigan [87]
Melusina clapped.
"I guess I'll take off the shirt, too," said Lena, hesitating.
"Of course."
"Even though my, um, chest will show."
"Ah," said Melusina, smiling. "You shall have a necklace to wear, if you feel modest."
"Could I have one like yours?" asked Lena. "With the white and black pearls?"
"We shall dive for pearls together until we have gathered enough for you. But it would bring me immense pleasure to have you wear mine, until we make you a necklace of your own. Yours should contain diamonds, as well, in honor of your village on land."
"Wait till Nix sees me." Lena began to slide out of her jacket, feeling something in the pockets as she did so. She put her hand into the left pocket and pulled out the coral comb she had found in her father's sea chest.
She blinked. "Oh," she said. "I forgot this was in there."
Melusina stared at the heavy coral comb. "My ... that is my comb," she said in confusion.
Lena held it out to her. Melusina took it, turning it over in her hands. She lifted it to her head and drew it slowly through her hair, her eyes fluttering shut. "This was given to me when I was a small maid," she whispered.
With something like dread, Lena felt in her other pocket, and withdrew the mermaid's mirror. She lifted it to her face and saw her own startled reflection. Then, in a swift whirl of colors, the surface of the mirror began to change. She barely had time to think, Now that I'm down here, what will I see in the mirror?
And there, suddenly, in the crystalline glass, was her father. And Allie.
Lena's memories crashed back into her mind.
The cloak, she thought. That damnable cloak. It stole my memory.
Her parents were in their bedroom, yellowish light from a bedside lamp illuminating their still figures. It had been so long since Lena had seen electrical light that she squinted against its brightness. Her dad was sitting up in bed, a book in his lap, but he wasn't reading. He stared blankly in front of him, his face wan. His blue eyes were dull. Allie lay in bed next to him. Her eyes were closed, but she looked so rigid and miserable that Lena knew she wasn't asleep.
Lena began to tremble, which caused the mirror in her hand to shift perspective. Now she could see the rest of their room. The sea chest was sitting on top of their mahogany bureau, and next to it were her sneakers, the shoes she had left on the rocks at Magic's.
"Oh, no," she said.
Melusina opened her eyes and saw the mirror in Lena's hand. "My mirror," she whispered. For a long moment, she remained frozen, as if carved from marble. A combination of longing and horror came over her face, yet she did not move.
Lena heard her un-Cloudedt hought: I will remember.
Melusina lifted her eyes and looked steadily at Lena, as if to prolong this last moment between them before she looked upon the visions in the mirror. Then she lowered her gaze to the glass. Her lips parted.
"Brian," she said.
CHAPTER 46
A look of such terrible pain swept over her mother's face that Lena thought she would surely cry out. Instead, the sound of her mother's voice in Lena's mind was almost a whisper. "My beloved Brian ... I remember now..."
Melusina's eyes remained fastened on the mirror, then she said unc ertainly, "Allison?"
Lena put a hand to her mouth. She had forgotten her mother once knew Allie.
Comprehension flooded Melusina's face, and she backed away from the mirror, putting her hands to her head as if to block out the storm of memories crashing into it.
Lena's trembling increased as she looked from her grief-stricken mother beside her to her grief-stricken father and stepmother in the depths of the mirror.
Where was Cole? She turned the mirror until it obeyed her wish, and the view moved outside of her parents' bedroom, down the darkened hall, and into Cole's room.
Cole's room was illuminated only by the weak glow from his Raiders night-light. Lena zoomed in on the small form in his bed.