“Communication mirror,” Theo replied. “You can see and hear what’s on the other end, and so can the person who has the matching one. They’re relatively common, but most of them have one of the pair broken these days. And of course the other one has to be somewhere useful. This symbol here means it’s intact, though, our mirror. Wherever it is.”
Wasthe other one somewhere useful? Had Anders seen this design in the last few days here at Drekhelm, or was he remembering it from someplace in Holbard? And if so, where?
Suddenly a deep voice sounded from behind them. “Can I help you?” It was Valerius, Ellukka’s father, and he didn’t look pleased to see them. His brows crowded together in a frown, a line forming between them. “What are the two of you up to?”
Theo promptly eased the big book closed. They both knew without saying a word that it wouldn’t be a good idea to admit to a member of the Dragonmeet that they’d been looking up artifacts that might let them see—or even contact—people in Holbard. “I was showing Anders my work,” Theo said, radiating innocence.
“Anders doesn’t have permission to be in here,” Valerius replied. “This is not an area for sightseeing tours, Theo.”
“Apologies,” Theo said politely. “It’s time we were going to lunch anyway.”
The two boys climbed out of the middle of the machine and walked out under Valerius’s watchful eye. And as he followed Theo through the door, Anders racked his brain, trying in vain to think where he’d seen the matching mirror before.
Nearly everybody struggled to concentrate in class that afternoon. At first Anders didn’t notice, he was so caught up in thinking about the mirror and wondering if it could give him a way to find out what was happening in Holbard, and what Sigrid was planning. But then Ellukka forgot the thread of her story three times, and quiet Isabina dropped her latest invention, sending pieces skittering across the classroom floor in every direction.
Rayna and Mikkel hunted for their books all over the classroom, lifting up everyone’s sheaves of paper and disrupting all the other students, only to realize they’d left them on the table in front of their usual seats. Even Nico and Krissin didn’t seem to be in the mood to snipe at anyone.
And when Leif noticed the disruption at all, he seemed to have been jolted from his own daydream, looking up at the chaos his students were creating and blinking in slow surprise.
“What’s going on?” Lisabet asked plaintively, looking around her at the dragons in disarray.
“We all have bad days sometimes,” Leif answered absently.
“This isn’t a bad day,” Krissin replied, irritable, which was unusual—normally she kept that tone for her fellow students, rather than her teacher. “This is everyone having a disaster afternoon at once.”
“And I’m freezing,” Nico said with a scowl, drawing grumbles of agreement from all around the room. Anders looked across at Rayna, and his heart thumped as he saw his sister’s shoulders hunched over, her eyes dull as she hugged herself.
It was Lisabet who suddenly saw what was happening. “It’s the weather,” she said. “Itiscold. I was feeling particularly good, the best I’ve felt since we’ve arrived. I feel like I can really concentrate for the first time. How about you, Anders?”
“I feel about normal,” he confessed.
“There you have it, then,” she said, with a snap of her fingers. “It’s making me feel wonderful, everyone else feel rotten, and Anders isn’t affected—just as the heat hasn’t been affecting him.”
Krissin, their science expert, stood up and stalked over to the instruments she kept by the window, tapping the glass on the barometer. “The pressure’s dropping,” she announced. “The wolf’s right, it’s getting colder.”
Ferdie, whose constant good nature had been reduced to a quiet frown, looked up through his glasses, running his fingers through his blond hair. “Is that why I was having trouble transforming at lunch?” he asked.
“No doubt,” said Lisabet. “I’ve found it really hard to transform ever since we got close to Drekhelm. But if the cold weather is outweighing the lava now...”
“Is it the Snowstone?” Bryn asked, hugging one of her languages textbooks against her chest, her voice quiet.
“Most likely,” Leif agreed. “I should go and speak with the Dragonmeet. Please do your best to continue with your work.”
Leif slipped away, and one by one the students at least pretended to get on with their studies, though most of them really couldn’t concentrate. Anders exchanged a worried glance with Lisabet and tried to ignore the glares directed his way by Nico and Krissin, and even by Patrik, who didn’t seem to particularly like them but was rarely outright nasty.
Their friends managed to stay at least moderately friendly, but everybody’s tempers were a little short. After a time he went and sat with his twin, trying to warm her hands up between his and distracting her with quiet talk about anything he could think of.
As the afternoon went by, the temperature slowly began to ease back up again, but the damage had been done. At dinner, Anders and Lisabet were on the receiving end of scowls and glares from dragons who’d begun to get used to their presence. Everybody had seen what the Snowstone could do now, and as wolves, they were the closest thing available to blame.
Anders was preoccupied all the way to bed, the evening’s conversation washing over him, endless questions fighting each other for room at the forefront of his mind. It wasn’t until he was actually lying in bed that night, listening to Lisabet’s soft, even breathing on the other side of the room, that it suddenly came to him.
“Lisabet!” He sat bolt upright.
“Hmmmwhatsitnow?” she murmured, rolling over in bed and propping up on one elbow. He could only catch a glimpse of her in the moonlight through their window, black hair askew, pale face sleepy.
He pushed his covers back, hurrying over to turn on a light and pour her a glass of water from the pitcher by the door. “Wake up, I’ve remembered something,” he said, and she obediently sat up, accepting the glass and taking a long gulp.
He told her about his lunchtime excursion with Theo—about the storage rooms and the endless books, records, and artifacts, pushing past the moment when her eyes lit up at the thought of exploring a place like that. He told her about the big record book they’d found, about the mirror and its description, and the symbol that said that somewhere in Drekhelm, the mirror was probably still working.
