Part 46 (2/2)
”The mirror?” He finished checking the position of the purple mouse, flipped the narrow braid back over his shoulder, and shrugged. ”Sure.”
That was easy.
”Can you unlatch the crate?”
”Sorry, little furry dude, not unless Arthur says it's okay.”
Oh, well. Worth a try.
Back in the Emporium, Austin had used a mirror to talk to the magic mirror and then used the magic mirror to connect to him. Well, technically, Claire; but the basics were the same. If he could use the budgie mirror to contact the magic mirror, then he could find out where Claire was and if Diana was okay. Sam ran through that one more time, just to be certain it made sense, then had Stewart hook the mirror over the crossbar. Ignoring the dangling bell and bits of fake feather, he stared at his reflection.
His reflection stared back.
Apparently, there was a trick to it.
He leaned closer until his breath fogged the gla.s.s. Leaned a little closer until there was less than a cat-hair's width between his nose and the mirror. He was not in the mood for tricks. ”HEY!”
Blue-on-blue eyes snapped up out of nowhere. ”I'm not deaf! Or I wasn't,” Jack added petulantly as Sam jumped back. His eyes slid from one side of the mirror to the other, then widened. ”Okay, this is new. Hold it!”
Sam froze, one paw in the air.
”Don't move your reflection off the gla.s.s. It's all that's holding me here. Not that it should be holding me here. Or that I should be here at all.” The eyes narrowed speculatively. ”Who knows, maybe our earlier connection left some residue or something. So what do you want?”
”Information.”
”Yeah? Well, I'm a mirror, not a database.”
”Information on Claire and Diana.”
”You lost both Keepers?”
Sam really didn't like the way that sounded. ”You know something.”
”Not about Claire, I haven't seen her since you guys crossed over, but ...”
Jack's pause suggested all sorts of horrible possibilities. ”But what?” Sam demanded, surging back toward the mirror.
”Diana was in the store; her and some elfin cutie. They stopped and talked, I told them what I knew, and they went into the back room. I don't know how to break this to you, kid, but from the buzz I picked up later, they got caught.”
”By the bad guys?”
Blue-on-blue eyes rolled. ”No, by the Publishers' Clearing House prize patrol. Of course by the bad guys!”
”And?”
”Sorry, kid. That's all I know.”
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