The Mirror of Her Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

to send me somewhere. Something about me is crucial. Apparently.' He lifted his shoulders. There was a lot of argument. Master Quillon said I should go. But Master Eremis said that forcing me to translate myself out of existence was as good as a death-sentence-and he isn't usually that serious about anything. That surprised me. I don't like Master Eremis, and I thought he didn't like me. But in the end the Congery decided to let me try.
     
    ' So I made the mirror-I made it and made it, until we cquld all see the champion in it perfectly, and the Masters said it was right.' He frowned in bafflement. 'I worked on that so hard. I swear it's an exact duplicate of the original. But when I stepped into it'-he met her gaze and shrugged-'I came here.'
     
    She waited until he was finished; but she already knew what she was supposed to say next. 'So now you think the augury was misinterpreted. It said you had to go get someone. It didn't say who that someone was.'
     
    He nodded slowly, watching her face as if she could make what she was saying true.
     
    This time the Congery might be wrong.'
     
    He nodded again.
     
    For no good reason, she still wasn't afraid. 'So when you did what the augury showed, you came where you were supposed to be, not where the Congery decided.'
     
    After a moment, he said softly, 'Yes. It doesn't make any sense, does it? It's impossible. A mirror can't translate something it doesn't show. But no matter how badly I foul up, I can't stop thinking things like that. You must have done something. You must have brought me here.' He glanced away, then looked up at her strongly. 'You must have had a reason.'
     
    This remark restored the logical reality of the situation, took away the illusion that she was having a comprehensible conversation. A comprehensible conversation with a man who fell into her living room out of nowhere, shattering one of her mirrors in the process? She wanted to answer him. None of this has anything to do with me. But she had never learned how to say things like that out loud. Often she felt a quiver of shame and a personal fading when she thought them. Looking for an escape from the dilemma-or at least from the room, so that she could try to pull herself together away from the influence of Geraden's intent brown eyes-she said instead, 'Would you like a cup of tea?'
     
    She had his undivided attention. 'I think I would'-his smile was at once abashed and pleased-'but unfortunately I don't know what 'tea' is.'
     
    'I'll get some,' she said. 'It'll just take a few minutes.' Keeping her relief to herself, she started towards the kitchen.
     
    Before she had gone three steps, he said in a completely different tone-a voice strong and formal, and yet strangely suppliant- ' My lady, will you accompany me to Mordant, to save the realm from destruction?'
     
    In surprise, she stopped and looked back at him.
     
    At once, his expression became contrite and embarrassed, 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I don't have the right to place demands on you. I just suddenly have the strongest feeling that if you leave this room you won't come back.'
     
    As soon as he spoke, she realized that one reason she wanted to go into the kitchen was to reach the phone. She wanted to call security and tell them there was a crazy man in her apartment babbling about mirrors and translation and champions.
     
    'Do you have these feelings often?' She was stalling while she tried to figure out what to do.
     
    He shrugged; his expression held the shape of his formal question. 'Not often. And they're always wrong. But I trust them anyway. They have to mean something.' He hesitated for a moment, then said, 'One of them made me apprentice myself to the Congery. I don't know why-it certainly hasn't done me any good. I've been an Apt for almost ten years, and I never get any further.' His tone was quiet; she heard anger rather than self-pity in it. 'But I still have the strongest feeling that I must become a Master. I can't stop