Mikkel nodded. “You go,” he said, his voice teasing. “Theo and I are used to handling everything else.”
Anders shot him a quick grin, remembering the pair’s elaborate efforts to fool the Dragonmeet into thinking their friends were still somewhere at Drekhelm. “You can eat our dinner if we’re back late,” he promised.
They packed up some food, found the girls’ harnesses, and launched from the landing pad, leaving behind theirfriends as they turned southwest.
When they cleared the fog around Cloudhaven, it turned out to be a bright, sunny day, though it was cold so high up. They left the Icespire Mountains behind them and crossed the Efrivain River, which tumbled along beneath, young and lively at its source up in the mountains.
They kept to the north of the village of Little Dalven, and soon after that, they saw a new river beginning up in the highlands.
At first, it was just hints of white water and glints in the sun, hidden in among the rocks. But soon it gathered momentum, and as Rayna tilted her wings to allow Anders a better look at the ground, he saw it snaking down south toward the sea, tumbling through the golden green of the grass on its way to Port Baernor.
Just as the map had promised, three times it swelled out to make a lake, and each of the three lakes bore an island. The lower two were covered in trees, but the highest and smallest was covered in grass, marked only by a single tree that had grown taller than the highest building in Holbard, stretching its limbs up joyfully toward the sun.
Anders considered the shade of the two larger islands. That confirmed it. This was the only island that permitted the sun to touch it.
Rayna and Ellukka obviously agreed, for after a short, trumpeted exchange, the girls began to spiral down, landing side by side on the smallest of the three islands. Anders slid down his sister’s shoulder and tugged free her harness, so she could transform without becoming tangled in it.
“This is the place,” she said as soon as she was back in human form.
“And that’s the tree,” Anders agreed. “It’s the only landmark on the island. Let’s start by digging around its roots and see if Drifa buried the mirror there.”
It turned out that the artifact was only half a foot beneath the surface, wrapped up in a waterproof cloth to keep the dirt away from it. Drifa had been right—the weapons had been harder to find than the artifacts meant for peace.
Lisabet carefully lifted it out of the hole and peeled the cloth aside, revealing a small, round mirror about the size of a dinner plate, with an intricately carved pattern of runes all around the edges. Some of them looked worn, and the mirror itself was dull, but all four of them leaned over it anyway, squinting at their blurry reflections.
“I wonder what it actually does,” Anders said as he lifted his head once more. “It...” But he trailed away, because he had his answer. Seated around the mirror, andstaring at him with amazed expressions, were three other versions of himself.
“You all look like me,” said one of them in his voice.
“No, you all look likeme,” insisted another.
“You definitely... oh,” said the third.
“I’m Anders,” tried Anders, “and I’m seeing three of me.”
“I’m Rayna,” said one of the other Anderses, “and I’m telling you, there are three Raynas right here.”
“And let me guess,” said Anders, “you two are seeing three other Ellukkas and three other Lisabets.”
They both nodded.
“This is perfect,” Anders said, excitement building. “They’ll all look into the mirror, and they’ll all see themselves. Who do they trust more than themselves? Who do any of them think is smarter than themselves?”
With a soft popping sound, the effect ended, and suddenly he was looking at his friends once more.
“It didn’t last very long,” Lisabet said, her brow creasing.
“We’ll have to hope that’s what needs fixing about it,” Anders said. “Maybe the dragonsmiths Drifa told us about, Tilda and Kaleb, can help. She said Hayn could too.”
“Or maybe the Staff of Reya will do something,” Lisabet suggested. “I wish we knew what it was for.”
“I just hope it’s in one piece,” said Ellukka, “not four, like the Sun Scepter.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Rayna said, “but let’s eat our sandwiches while we look at the map again.”
They wrapped the mirror up and set it aside, then laid out the map once more.
This time Anders pricked his finger, squeezing a drop of blood onto the compass rose and speaking carefully. “We would like to find the Staff of Reya.”
