Deserts of Glass - Free Read (3 chapters)
Chapter One
Blue lightning snaked across the night sky in the sleepy, desert town of Benton, and Jasper woke in a cold sweat from the nightmare. His bedroom window faced the storm, and the lightning’s blue luminescence made his blood run cold. It meant the evil sorcerer Guido Sismondi was here in Benton, and hunting him.
***
Life had been so good when he and Elena had at last reached Benton. Jasper still couldn’t quite believe Elena loved him so much that she’d gone into the cold mist of the magic mirror and five hundred years into the future to be with him. And his mother’s joy when he and El magically appeared from inside the Amethyst Mirror made his heart feel like it would burst with happiness. He was the luckiest boy alive to have escaped the prison of the mirror and be home again with El and his mother.
Of course, Mom and El had been awkward around each other at first. Mom wasn’t blind. She could tell he and El were in love. She kept sending worried glances their way because she thought El really was the pretty boy she was dressed as. But when he revealed that El was really a girl, and made clear just why she was in disguise, she relaxed. It was El who finally won Mom over with her willingness to pitch in and help around the house with chores. Mom was touched, because she knew El came from a privileged life of nobility where she’d had servants to do the work. After that, she’d accepted El as part of the family, and insisted she call her by her first name, Lauren, instead of “Mrs. Selkirk.”
So they eventually all settled into a comfortable routine around the antique shop and the cozy, renovated old house, although at first, everything in the modern world had been frightening to El. She’d jumped in terror when bright lights flooded rooms at the touch of a little switch, or hot water mysteriously poured out of a tap at the twist of a handle. The washing machine dancing and thudding as it magically washed garments without any maids to scrub them was especially alarming. It had been hard for her, but her fiery spirit and Jasper’s reassurance that modern appliances weren’t dangerous got her through. After a while, she seemed to decide that electricity, motor cars and telephones were all some kind of magic that she didn’t understand but didn’t need to fear.
About a month after he and El arrived in Benton Jasper woke up shivering from the first nightmare. It had seemed so real. He rose, and cold with dread, peered out the window into the night, expecting to see blue lightning in the sky. He could breathe again when all he saw were twinkling stars. But the next night he woke from the same nightmare to the actual sight of the blue lightning of Guido’s sorcery in the sky. It was real! Guido was here in Benton! His hands shaking, Jasper paced his room all night with his mind in a whirl. By the time sunrise cast rose on the amber, pine walls of his room, he knew what he had to do. The only thing he could do. He and El would have to run away.
He didn’t tell El or his mother about the nightmare or the lightning the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the old butcher block table in the kitchen. They both sensed something was up with him, though. His mother kept watching him push the scrambled eggs and bacon around his plate. Elena sent him questioning glances and picked at the French toast on her plate.
His mother finally set down her coffee cup with a determined clatter, and asked, “What’s wrong, Honey? You’ve barely touched your breakfast. Are you feeling okay?” She reached over and felt his forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Is something bothering you?”
Jasper couldn’t bring himself to tell her about his nightmare. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about something that happened at school yesterday. Joel Markem and his gang are giving me a hard time because I’m not into sports or joining in their childish pranks. It’s nothing new. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.” He smiled to reassure her, and forced himself to finish his breakfast.
Lauren’s brow furrowed in anger as she rose to pour another cup of coffee, and said, “Those toughs should be reported to the Principal, Mr. Thatcher. It’s not right they get away with bullying the other kids.”
Jasper carried his plate to the sink, as he said soothingly, “Don’t worry, Mom. Joel is all talk and bluster. Besides, if he knows someone ratted on him to Thatcher, it will just make him worse.”
His mother brushed a wayward copper curl back from his cheek, and said with a sigh, “I still think I should call Mr. Thatcher.”
“It’ll be okay, Mom. I can handle Joel and his gang,” Jasper said. Glancing at his watch, he added, “Got to go now or I’ll be late.” He darted upstairs to his room, his hands shaking as he grabbed his backpack and books.
Lauren and El were both in the antique shop when he came back downstairs. He parted the red velvet theatre curtain that separated the kitchen from the antique shop and called, “Bye Mom, bye El.” His mother sent a worried glance over the old pocket watches she was arranging in the display case. Elena stopped sweeping and peered at him questioningly. She knew something was up, and didn’t believe his story about being bullied at school. Avoiding her gaze, he ran out the door. Now that Guido was really here, he knew he would have to tell her about his nightmare.
Elena cornered him in the kitchen when he arrived home from school that day. “Now, tell me what’s really bothering you,” she demanded.
Jasper put his arms around her, as he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, El, but I didn’t want to believe it myself.” He took a deep breath, and then continued, “I’ve been having nightmares about Guido being here in Benton. Then last night I saw the blue lightning of his sorcery in the sky. He’s here in Benton. He’s come after us. He must have called the mirror back to your time and used it to travel here. That must be why the mirror vanished right after we came through.”
Day’s fading light through the window cast Elena’s face in shadow as her green eyes clouded with fear. She clutched Jasper’s arms, and said in panic, “Guido won’t rest until he takes his revenge on you.”
Jasper was about to answer when his mother pushed aside the curtain and came into the kitchen. She said with a weary sigh, “Customers! I thought I’d never get rid of them, but thank God they’re gone. You know the type, Honey,” Lauren said to her son, still looking exasperated. “They handle everything in spite of the sign that says not to, and ask endless questions when they have no intention of buying anything.” She took a vintage wine glass down from the glass cabinet above the sink and filled it. After a few sips she asked, “Is scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon okay for dinner? I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer this morning.”
“That’s fine Mom,” Jasper said, and shot a covert glance at Elena to caution her not to continue with what they’d been discussing. “El and I are going out to the Petroglyphs after supper. It’s a harvest moon tonight and I want her to see it from out there.”
“Okay, but don’t stay out too late. Remember tomorrow’s a school day.” She put on an apron, lifted an old warhorse of an iron skillet from a drawer, put it over a flaming burner, and laid thick strips of bacon in it. The bacon sizzled and popped as she cracked half a dozen eggs into a bowl and whipped them to a creamy froth. “Don’t forget you promised to stain that nineteenth century desk in the restoration shed. A customer is coming by this week to see it.”
“Sure, I’ll get to it tomorrow,” Jasper said, with another anxious glance at Elena.
There was silence as they sat around the kitchen table. Lauren sipped her wine and seemed lost in her thoughts. Elena picked at her food and sent Jasper fretful glances whenever his mother wasn’t looking. The ticking of the Grandfather Clock in the shop drifted in through the curtain and sounded like a death march drum to Jasper. His stomach felt like he’d swallowed a brick, but he cleaned his plate anyway so his mother wouldn’t know something was up.
“We’re sure are a lively bunch tonight, aren’t we?” Lauren remarked.
“Sorry, Mom,” Jasper said, and forced a smile.
Lauren said, “I was worried you might be fretting over something that happened at school again. Joel Markem and his gang aren’t still harassing you, are they?”
“No, I was going over a madrigal I’m composing in my mind. You know how lost I get in my music,” Jasper answered. He hated lying, but he couldn’t tell his mother what he was really thinking about.
“I haven’t exactly been a chatterbox myself tonight. Guess I’m just tired. It’s been a long day,” Lauren said, with another weary sigh.
Elena shot him a pleading glance, so Jasper pushed away his plate, rose from the table, and said, “Moon will be rising soon. El and I better get going.”
“Be careful,” Lauren cautioned, as she collected the dirty plates and carried them to the sink. “Even with the light of a full moon, hiking
on the desert at night can be tricky.”
“Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll be fine. I know that trail like the back of my hand,” Jasper said, as he carried his plate to the sink and wiped the crumbs from the table with a wet sponge.
Elena helped carry the greasy platter and cups to the sink and picked up a dish towel, as she said, “Thanks for supper Mrs. Selkirk . . . uh,
Lauren. It was delicious.”
Lauren glanced up from washing the dishes with a warm smile. “It was nothing, El. I’ll make up for it tomorrow, I promise. We’ll have roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and summer squash. I know that’s your favorite.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Elena said, forcing a smile. Mrs. Selkirk had been so kind and she felt guilty for keeping important secrets from her. Jasper’s mother had a right to know her son was in grave danger. The truth nearly spilled out, as she looked at Mrs. Selkirk’s
pleasant, careworn face, but she bit her lip and picked up a plate from the dish rack to dry.
Lauren glanced out the kitchen window as the rising moon illuminated the Jacaranda tree outside in a ghostly light. “You two better get going. I’ll finish cleaning up.”
“You sure you don’t want us to help, Mom?” Jasper asked.
“No, you go ahead, Honey, and enjoy yourselves.”
Jasper gave her a warm hug before hurrying out the door with Elena.
The harvest moon rose over the Snake Mountains like a huge, orange Halloween lantern and cast a spectral glow over the desert, as Jasper and Elena hiked the trail out to the Petroglyphs. The desert looked surreal under the full moon. It always made Jasper feel like he was on another planet. “I’ve been thinking, El,” he said, breaking the tense silence. “If Guido is here, then the mirror must be, too. He must have hidden it somewhere. There aren’t many places in a small town like Benton where such a distinctive object could be hidden for long. It occurred to me he might have concealed it in the old mine shaft in Tunner’s Canyon. No one ever goes there anymore.”
Elena shot him an exasperated look, and said more crossly than she’d intended, “But what difference does that make? Who cares about the damn mirror! What are we going to do about Guido?”
“Don’t you see, El?” Jasper implored, as he hastily side-stepped a prickly pear he nearly bumped into while he was looking at her. “If we can find the mirror, we can use it to escape him.”
“You can’t be serious!” Elena burst out. Her mouth fell open in shock when she realized he was. “But… but…where would we go?”
“I don’t know,” Jasper admitted. “Believe me, El, the last thing I want to do is to go back into that blasted mirror again after being trapped in it for so long! But anything’s got to be better than staying here and waiting for Guido to kill me.”
“But what if something goes wrong and we both get trapped in there?” Elena asked, shivering in the warm desert breeze.
“The idea of being imprisoned in the mirror again scares me to death, but how else are we going to escape Guido’s sorcery? He knows we’re here, and if we try to run from him in this place in time, he’ll track us like a hound after prey. I don’t think we have a choice.”
Elena turned away and gazed up at the moon, her pretty face pale and pinched with fear. He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but sensed she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. After a while, she turned back to him and confessed, “I do feel guilty about having left my Aunt Agnes without a word. She must have given me up for dead by now. If we do find the mirror, I think we should return to my time so I can let her know I’m still alive.”
“It’s decided then,” Jasper said, and kissed her. “That’s where we’ll go. Assuming, of course, we find the mirror. I’ll be home from school early tomorrow and we can head up to search the old mine shaft.”
“But what about your mother?” Elena asked. “You can’t just vanish again without telling her. It would be too cruel.”
“Of course you’re right,” Jasper admitted, with a sigh, as the guilt he’d been trying to ignore filled him. “But El, if I tell her what we’re planning, she’ll try to stop us. I feel awful about it, but what else can we do?” No matter what he did, it was going to hurt his mother. It tore him apart, but he didn’t have any alternative. After a while, he said, “Maybe I can leave a note explaining everything to Mom. I know it’s not much, but at least this time she’ll know where I’ve gone and why.”
Wind woke the sage and foxtail with ghostly whispers, as Elena said, “I’m frightened. What if Guido finds you first?”
He didn’t want Elena to know how scared he was, so Jasper caressed her cheek, and said to reassure her, “There must be some reason why he hasn’t come after me yet. I’m sure we’ll be okay for another day or so. By then, we’ll have found the mirror and escaped.”
The eerie howls of a coyote pack on the hunt tore the desert stillness as Elena clung to him, and said, “I hope you’re right.”
The next day after school, Jasper led Elena up the trail to Tunner’s Canyon. They didn’t see anyone as they hiked through a thorny forest of sage, cactus and ocotillo. Heat rose in shimmering waves from the sand, and sweat soaked his shirt, as they climbed the steep hill to the canyon. Fortunately, his mother had been out grocery shopping in Stillwater when he’d arrived home from school. He’d scribbled a note to her, grabbed his lute, which he’d need if they found the mirror, and he and Elena took off.
A sea of broken glass, rusted cans, and pop-tops sparkled among the sagebrush, as they reached the entrance to the narrow canyon. Jasper wiped the sweat from his forehead, and pointed to a shored up cave entrance tucked into the hillside. “There’s the old mine.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to go in there?” Elena asked, with a dubious glance at the weathered beams propping up the entrance.
“Don’t worry, El, I used to play here when I was a kid. Those support beams are stronger than they look.” He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and led Elena into the mine.
The tunnel smelled of dank earth and dark secrets, and their flashlight beam illuminated a myriad of cobwebs, strung like curtains, beyond the entrance. They ducked as a flurry of bats, disturbed by the light, chittered and flapped by them. The tunnel bore into the mountain about half a mile and then opened into a large, natural cavern. Stalactites jutted down from a limestone ceiling, and milky water from an underground spring dripped into a murky pool.
The sound of dripping water echoing off the cave walls seemed unnaturally loud to Elena. She started to feel like she couldn’t breathe. The walls seemed to close in and she was suddenly terrified the earth above would collapse and crush them at any moment. “Let’s hurry and find the mirror!” she urged.
Jasper leaned his lute against a stalagmite and took Elena’s hand and they set out to explore the cavern. Flashes of pink and green limestone reflected like a kaleidoscope in the flashlight beam. They advanced slowly, circling the entire cave, stopping to examine every nook and cranny, but found no trace of the mirror. “It isn’t here,” he said despondently. “I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.”
“Come on then, let’s hurry and get out of here,” Elena urged.
They had to wade through the murky pool on their way out of the cavern. Jasper jumped, as something in the water slithered against his leg, and the flashlight flew out of his hand, landed with a resounding crash, and rolled into a crevice. “Damn!” he swore.
Elena covered her ears as the echoes reverberated off the walls in a wrathful chorus. From its resting place, the flashlight flickered off and on, and Jasper prayed fervently its light would last until they got out of the mineshaft. He went to retrieve it, and when he bent down, he saw the sparkle of amethyst in the shadows against the wall. “El, I think I’ve found the mirror!” he cried. He went over to investigate and there it was, the Amethyst Mirror, tucked snugly into a large crevice. Elena soon joined him and they both stared at the beautiful glass sparkling in the flashlight beam.
“Now we just have to hope the same sequence of notes still unlocks the mirror’s magic. Guido might have changed the spell,” Jasper said. His hands were cold and clammy as he went to retrieve his lute and rejoin Elena. He didn’t want her to know how scared he was, so he smiled, and said, “Well, here goes, El. You’ll be seeing your aunt again soon.”
Elena clung to him for a moment, and then let go so he could play the magic spell on his lute. She kept a tight hold on his flannel shirttail. She wasn’t taking any chances they might get separated inside the mirror. She nodded at him, and said bravely, “Okay, let’s go.”
Dulcet tones filled the cavern and chimed off the walls, as Jasper strummed the notes of the spell. A blinding, amethyst light emanated from the mirror and illuminated the cavern and the walls spun dizzily as the magic engulfed them. His mother’s voice came into his mind just as he took Elena’s hand and the spell whirled them into the mirror. “Don’t forget you promised to stain the eighteenth century desk tomorrow.”
***
The clatter of the Venetian blinds in the breeze grated on Guido’s nerves. Frowning at the annoying racket, he pushed back the covers on the fold-out cot that had been his bed for what seemed an eternity. The half-healed knife wound in his back made him wince as he gingerly rose and went over to the window. Sunset over the Snake Mountains cast the main street of Benton below in blood-red. Curse that boy! He fumed, his mind tracing yet again the events that brought him here. He ruined my beautiful plans for revenge against my siblings! His hands clenched the window frame in fury and blue lightning crackled from his fingers to burn jagged streaks in the wood. The wound in his back pained him when he stood for too long, so he stumbled back to the cot and collapsed. Once he killed the boy from the future, this future, he would use the mirror to travel back to his own time and take revenge on his brother, Castius. It was Castius who had stabbed him, and he would pay with his life. Guido’s desire for revenge was what kept him going through the long, dreary days of his recovery.
He looked around Frank Murdock’s dingy apartment as he brooded and plotted. He snorted in disgust at the pictures of women tacked to the dirty walls. If the women from his time dressed like these women, they would be branded harlots! He hated this messy, cramped room he was trapped in, but he’d needed somewhere to recuperate, so he’d forced Frank to take him in by threating him with sorcery.
In the evening, after the Roadrunner Diner closed, Frank returned bearing a plate of food for Guido. With a nervous, skittish glance, he’d set the plate of burger and fries on the table beside the cot and gone into the matchbox bathroom to shower. Guido watched Frank scurry around the cluttered room like a timid mouse. In his weakness when he’d arrived in Benton, he’d needed Frank’s help to hide the mirror, and he’d had to explain its secret. He would have to kill the fool, of course. He couldn’t allow anyone from this future world to know of the mirror’s power to travel through time.
Sitting up in his cot with a grimace, Guido took a bite of the burger. It was disgusting and greasy, as all the food from the diner was, but he forced himself to finish it. He had to eat to get his strength back. A waft of steam accompanied Frank out of the bathroom. He took a beer from the mini fridge and downed its contents with noisy gulps. “Be back later,” he mumbled, and rushed out the door without looking at Guido.
Twilight tinged the plaster walls of Frank’s apartment violet as Guido brooded in the shadows. A moth, drawn by the neon Roadrunner sign outside the diner below, fluttered about the ceiling in dusty whispers. Blue lightning shot from his fingers and incinerated the moth to ash and burn a jagged hole in the ceiling.
***
“No, Jasper!” Lauren cried, as she read the note penned in his neat hand. She’d returned from shopping in Stillwater to find the house empty and the note on the kitchen table. The grocery bags fell from her arms onto the counter with a loud crash and she rushed out the door.
Lauren hurried down Benton’s main street, past the tattered umbrellas and sun-bleached tables outside the Roadrunner Diner. The cigar store Indian on the porch of the Calico Mercantile stared with its long-suffering gaze as she ran by. Gladys Hornsby, the spinster librarian, waved at her from the door of the Airstream that served as Benton’s library. The last thing Lauren needed right now was to engage with the verbose Gladys, so she averted her gaze and continued down the street.
Tucked off Main Street in a welcome haven of green was the cottage of her friend, Julian Cosgrove. Lauren pushed the wrought iron gate open, ignored its rusty shriek, and rushed through a yard filled with a rainbow of wild flowers and tangled vines to his studio behind the cottage.
Julian looked up from his canvas, paintbrush in hand, as Lauren rushed in, gasping for breath. Dropping his brush and pallet, he hastily wiped the paint from his hands and went to hold her. “What is it Lauren? What’s happened?”
“Jasper’s gone back into the mirror,” Lauren began with a sob. “He…he… left a note saying he and El were going into the mirror to escape a madman who has come here from the past to kill them!”
Julian stared at her in confusion for a moment, and then said, “You better start from the beginning and tell me the whole story.” He guided her to a tattered, paint-stained armchair, poured her a shot of whiskey, and pressed it into her shaking hands.
“Remember what I told you when Jasper returned?” Lauren began, after she downed the whiskey. “How he’d been trapped in this mirror I bought from an odd, little man named Guido?”
Julian nodded.
Lauren shot him a rueful glance, as she continued, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but the mirror has the power to transport people back and forth through time. When Jasper got trapped inside the magic mirror, he was transported back to Renaissance England where Guido came from.” Julian refilled her glass and Lauren paused to take a sip before she continued, “This Guido apparently has some kind of sorcerous powers. He is in Benton right now, stalking my Jasper!” Her hands trembling, Lauren set her glass down and clenched them together in her lap. She was afraid to look at Julian. Afraid she’d see pity or worse, polite tolerance in his eyes.
Julian scratched the dusting of stubble on his cheek and considered carefully what to say. His hastily-wiped fingers left behind a streak of cerulean. He didn’t really believe Jasper had vanished into a magic mirror, but Lauren believed it, and that’s what mattered to him.
“What do you want me to do?” He asked.
Looking into Julian’s eyes with a fierceness that frightened him, Lauren said, “We’ve got to find this Guido and stop him, no matter what it takes, before he hurts my Jasper!”
Chapter Two
When Jasper’s head stopped spinning, he opened his eyes to the twilight world inside the mirror. Crystal flutes, peaks, and gullies all glowed around him with a frosty, amethyst light. The numbing cold of the mirror’s landscape made him shiver. He’d never forget the nightmare of having been trapped inside it for what had seemed an eternity.
“Are you all right, El?” he asked, helping her stand.
“I… I… think so,” Elena answered shakily. “I forgot how disorienting it is to be inside the mirror.”
A harsh voice from outside the glass made them both jump. “Stop gossiping and get the table set for dinner, you lazy good-for-nothings, or his Lordship won’t be pleased!”
Jasper exchanged anxious glances with Elena as they crept up to the mirror’s smooth surface and peeked out. The mirror seemed to be resting on a high surface because they had to look down to see what was going on in the room outside. His heart sank at the sight.
Three men dressed in black and white Victorian servant’s livery bustled around a long dining table covered with an elegant cloth. The footmen set neat rows of forks, knives and spoons beside fine china plates and crystal glasses. Then they measured the distance from each chair to the table with a wooden rod. A gaslight chandelier, two candelabras and a marble fireplace lit the elegant dining room.
Jasper’s mouth fell open in shock when he glanced past the dining table to a lit study beyond. In the corner of the study was a slant front desk. It was newer, but otherwise identical to the one waiting in his mother’s restoration shed for him to stain. Oh, no! The mirror must have responded to my guilt about breaking my promise to Mom, and transported us to the desk’s point of origin in the past!
“Where are we?” Elena whispered.
“We’re in the past, but it’s the wrong time,” Jasper admitted ruefully. “It matters what the person who activates the mirror’s magic is thinking about when the spell is activated. Sorry, El, I got distracted and wasn’t concentrating on your time. I’ll have to play the spell again and make sure to focus.”
Fascinated by the strange scene outside the mirror, Elena hissed, “Look!” and pointed.
All the servants had left the dining room by then, except the unpleasant man who seemed to be in charge. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then took a vial out of his pocket. Pulling the cork, he poured its dark contents into one of the wine glasses and slipped the empty vial back into his pocket with an evil grin. He walked around the room inspecting everything, and as he glanced up at the fireplace mantle where the mirror rested, his cruel mouth fell open in shock. Astonishment soon turned to a greedy leer, and he rushed towards the mirror.
Jasper and Elena instinctively jumped back as the man’s cruel face loomed on the other side of the glass, even though they knew he couldn’t see them. “Hurry, El, we’ve got to go!” he urged, He grabbed his lute and quickly strummed the notes of the spell. Purple flutes and peaks whirled and spun dizzily as the magic swept them away.
***
The frantic bray of a mule roused Jasper. He opened his eyes and this time found he was sprawled across a tall stack of hay bales, and his hair and clothes were littered with straw. Spitting out a stalk, he peered into the dusty light filtering in through the cracks in a weathered barn. A swayback old mule in the stall below stared wide-eyed up at him as it heehawed and bucked. The mirror lay balanced precariously beside him on the stack of bales. Amethyst light emanated from the glass to form a halo around its carved, rosewood frame. His hands glowed purple as he clasped the mirror and carefully moved it back from the edge so it wouldn’t topple off the haystack. Jumping down, he searched every corner of the barn for Elena, but she wasn’t there.
The barn door swung open with a loud crash as he rushed outside to a yard peppered with sagebrush and cactus. A crumbling stone well stood between the barn and a weathered cabin, and an unpleasant odor drifted from a rickety outhouse behind the cabin. He called Elena’s name, but the only answer was the wind through the sage and the braying of the mule in its stall. His mouth fell open in shock when he noticed the mountains in the distance. They were the Snake Mountains! My God, I’m still in Benton!
An old timer in a tattered cowboy hat and scuffed boots stepped out onto the porch of the cabin. He aimed his rifle at Jasper, and growled, “What are you doing trespassing on my land!”
That prickly cuss looks like a character right out of an old western! Jasper thought in panic. What time am I in? And how did Elena and I get separated? Something must have gone wrong with the mirror’s magic! He sputtered, “A… ah sorry for trespassing, Sir, but I’m lost. I was traveling west with a girl who seems to have wandered off somewhere.”
“I don’t take kindly to trespassers!” the old man snapped. “Most are lying thieves and up to no good!” He glared over the rifle barrel for what seemed an eternity to Jasper, and then a puzzled expression crossed his face, as he asked, “Where you from, boy? Ain’t never seen anyone dressed so peculiar in all my days. What kind of boots are those? They look like Injun moccasins.”
Jasper said the first thing that came into his head and hoped the old codger would believe it. “Ah, well, my girl and I were traveling west with Professor Cure-all’s Medicine Show. We got separated from the professor’s wagon when our horse spooked. These clothes are my costume for the medicine show.”
“If you’re lying, boy, I’ll kill you right now and let the buzzards pick your bones!” The old cuss snapped, and gestured with his rifle for emphasis.
“Like I was saying,” Jasper continued, after he cleared the frog from his throat, “our horse spooked and we got lost. We saw the light from your place in the distance. We only wanted to sleep in your barn. When I woke this morning, my girl was gone. I’m worried something has happened to her.”
“Hmm… a girl you say?” The old man remarked, and lowered his rifle. Scratching his scruffy beard, he added, “This here’s dangerous country for a female to be wandering around alone. Wells Fargo stage comes through with shipments of silver to the waystation in Benton. Robbers hide up in Scorpion Pass to ambush the wagon on its way west. And if the robbers don’t get her, there’s plenty of rattlesnakes in the rocks and gullies round here that will.” He pointed to the rattlesnake skins nailed to the walls of the cabin. “We best go look for her, boy, afore she gets herself killed.”
Breathing a sigh of relief that the old man wasn’t going to kill him, Jasper said, “I sure appreciate your help, Sir.”
“Name’s Sam, but folks around here call me Rattlesnake,” the old man said. “I’ll search the creek bed behind the cabin and you head towards Benton,” he pointed west across the sea of sand and sagebrush.
“How far is Benton from here?”
“Maybe a mile or so,” Rattlesnake said. Squinting at the blazing sun, he added, “Your girl won’t last long in this heat without water, neither, so we best get moving.” Grabbing two canteens off pegs on the wall, he tossed one to Jasper. “Fill it at the well and we’ll meet back here in an hour or two.” Then he turned and strode off with a bowlegged gait towards the gully below the cabin.
After Rattlesnake left, Jasper went back into the barn and hid the mirror and his lute behind the haystacks. It wouldn’t do to let Rattlesnake find the mirror. He filled his canteen at the well, and then headed west towards Benton.
Dust devils spun all around him as he made his way across the desert towards the buildings in the distance. A cow skull, sprouting sage out of its eye sockets, poked out of the sand at his feet. The eerie cry of a hunting hawk as its shadow passed overhead seemed to mirror the desolation in his heart. What if he couldn’t find Elena? What if something terrible had happened to her? The thought spurred him to run the rest of the way towards town. He wasn’t sure what time he was in, but guessed it had to be somewhere in the mid-to-late 1800’s. He’d read about the colorful history of Benton in his history class. It was populated with odd and dangerous characters who all packed guns. He’d have to watch his step.
The Wells Fargo waystation was the first building Jasper came to. The building had been renovated in the Benton of his time and now served as the town bank.
Darting around a corral filled with horses and up onto the porch of the waystation, Jasper pulled up sharply at the six shooter pointed at his chest.
“Where you going in such a rush,” a tall, wiry man in a cowboy hat and leather chaps demanded over the pistol. “No one runs in these parts unless they’re up to no good.” The man motioned with his gun, as he added, “inside and explain yourself or I’ll lock you up.”
Great, just what I need! Jasper thought, as he went inside the waystation.
Wanted posters covered the brick walls of the station above a weathered desk and chair. A rifle rack hung on the wall next to the desk, and a cell with a cot was tucked behind the office. The man sat behind the desk and kept his pistol aimed at Jasper, as he snapped, “Now start talking.”
“Ra… Rattlesnake sent me,” Jasper sputtered the first thing that popped into his head. He was getting awfully tired of people pointing guns at him! “We’re searching for a girl I was traveling west with. Maybe you’ve seen her? She’s a pretty girl, with short blonde hair and fiery green eyes and she’s wearing clothes kind of like mine.”
“Nope,” the man answered. “Only women round these parts are the Widow Betty, who runs the mercantile, Mrs. Smith, whose husband has a cattle ranch outside of town, Ma Kelsey who runs the saloon, and Lil and Grace the saloon girls.” Chewing on his long mustache, the man stared appraisingly over his pistol. To Jasper’s intense relief, he holstered his gun a moment later, and said, “I reckon if you’re a friend of Rattlesnake’s you can go about your business. You can board and eat at Ma’s down the street. Name’s Bill. I’m the Wells Fargo agent and acting sheriff in these parts.”
As Bill was talking, Jasper noticed the desk he was seated behind. It was an old slant-front desk, more weathered and beat up, but otherwise just like the one sitting in the shed at home! That damn desk is haunting me! He thought. “Thanks for your help, Bill,” he said, and shook the sheriff’s hand.
Jasper felt like he was in a dream as he left the Wells Fargo waystation and walked out onto the rutted, dirt main street of Benton. He couldn’t believe how different, yet strangely familiar the town was. Most of the old buildings still stood in modern Benton. A man drove a wagon filled with grain sacks down the street and the dust from the wagon wheels made Jasper cough. Two shady looking men watched him as they lounged against the hitching post in front of a building with a sign out front: “Ma’s Saloon, Room and board, 2 bits a day.” The men eyed him in a way that made him uncomfortable as they rolled cigarettes and spat into a brass spittoon. “Have you seen a stranger in town, a pretty girl about my age, with short, blonde hair?” he asked the men.
The taller man, who had an ugly scar on his cheek, gave a nasty laugh. “If we had, sonny, she’d be with us.” He spat into the spittoon and then yanked hard on Jasper’s hair, as he sneered, “What kind of freak are you, boy? With them pretty curls and silly shoes, you look like a girl!”
The other man, who reminded Jasper of a weasel, said in a voice that chilled him, “And we don’t like freaks!”
Jasper pushed the weasel-faced man out of his way and darted into the saloon. The men ran in through the swinging door on his heels with pistols drawn. The few customers at the bar looked up at the commotion and hurried out of the line of fire.
“Hey, what’s all this! You boys know I don’t hold with gun play in my place!” A matronly woman with a commanding air barked from upstairs. She marched down the narrow stairs and up to the men. Glaring, she snapped, “Now holster those guns boys, before I get really riled!”
The man with the ugly scar gripped his pistol tighter and looked as if he wanted to protest, but reluctantly holstered his gun and left. The weasel-faced man grinned sheepishly at the woman and trailed after him.
Eying Jasper up and down, the woman remarked, “We don’t get many strangers around these parts look as odd as you, Mister, if you don’t mind my saying.” A moment later, she extended her hand, as she added, “Ma Kelsey, proprietor of this place. Will you be wanting a
room or supper?”
“Thanks for your help, Mrs. Kelsey,” Jasper said, and shook Ma’s hand. “I’m not staying in town. I’m just looking for a girl.”
Ma smiled and nodded knowingly, and waved to two women sitting at a table in the corner. The women wore faded red dresses, black lace stockings and droopy feathers in their hair. They rose and came over to Ma.
“Young fella here is looking for company,” Ma said to the women. She turned to Jasper, as she added, “This is Lil,” gesturing towards the older of the two women, “and this is Grace,” nodding at the dark-haired, mousy-looking girl. “Tuck’s barkeep,” she pointed towards a stocky man sporting a handlebar moustache and slicked down hair behind the bar. “If you change your mind about the room, Lil can show you where it is. Now, excuse me, young fella, but I’ve got bookkeeping to do. Place don’t run itself!” Ma said, with a wink, and bustled back upstairs.
Lil smiled invitingly as she took Jasper’s arm, and inquired, “Where you from? We don’t get many in town as young and handsome as you.”
Jasper flushed, and sputtered, “Ah… sorry ladies but there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m not looking for company. I’m looking for the girl I was traveling with.”
Lil tugged playfully on his curls, and said with a knowing smile, “Now don’t be bashful. We’ll take good care of you, won’t we Grace?”
Grace giggled, and clutched Jasper’s other arm.
“Ah, sorry, but I have to go now,” He said, with an apologetic grin, and gently disengaged from the girl’s clutches. He walked out the swinging door, before they could object, and pulled up sharply at the rifle pointed at his chest.
“You aren’t going anywhere!” the man with the ugly scar snapped over the rifle. He gestured with his gun towards an alley beside the bar, as he added, “In there.”
Jasper’s heart felt like it would pound right out of his chest as he walked ahead of the man with the rifle into a narrow alley reeking of vomit and horse urine.
“That’s far enough!” the man snapped. “Dirty little coward is all you are! We’ll see how brave you are now there’s no skirts for you to hide behind!” He punched Jasper hard in the stomach, and when he doubled over in agony, he brought the rifle butt down on his head with a resounding crack.
Blinding pain shot through Jasper head and he stumbled and fell into the mud.
“Get up!” The man barked.
His head throbbing and the brick walls spinning dizzily, Jasper’s hand closed around a fistful of mud. He squeezed it into a firm ball behind his back as he rose to face his tormentor. When the man glanced away for a moment to snicker at his partner, Jasper lobbed the mud into his face and took off running down the alley. Momentarily blinded, the man cursed and shot wildly after him. Bullets whizzed by and ricocheted off the walls of the alley as Jasper ran for his life. He tipped over a stack of empty barrels and they rolled into the men, who by now were chasing him. Cursing as the barrels knocked them down, the men fired after him.
Once out of the alley and across the street, Jasper ducked behind the mercantile before the men pursuing him could see where he’d gone. Bill, the town sheriff, roused by the gunshots, stopped the men as they ran out of the alley. Breathing a sigh of relief, he took off running for Rattlesnake’s cabin.
Sweat soaked his clothes and poured down his face as he ran across the desert. It was clear Elena wasn’t in the Benton of this time.
Someone would have noticed her. If Rattlesnake hadn’t found her, maybe she was still trapped inside the mirror? A chill ran through him at that image, in spite of the blistering heat, and he ran faster.
Rattlesnake was perched on a chair on the porch of his cabin, picking his teeth with a wood chip, when Jasper rushed up out of breath.
“Did you find her?” He gasped.
“Nope,” Rattlesnake said. “I was hoping maybe she’d made her way to Benton, but seems not.”
“Well, thanks for your help, Rattlesnake, but I’ve got to be going now,” Jasper said, after he’d caught his breath.
“Where you headed?” The old man inquired, with a curious glance, and scratched his tobacco-stained beard.
“Well, I was headed west with the medicine show. I’m thinking maybe my girl might have found the professor’s wagon. Maybe she’s on her way to San Francisco right now.”
“You be careful, now. There’s a whole lot of dangerous country to cover tween here and there,” Rattlesnake observed, with a sagely nod. He rose from the rocker, extended his calloused palm, and added, “Well, wish you luck, boy. Sure hope you find her.”
“Thanks,” Jasper said, and shook the old man’s hand warmly.
“Watch out for them robbers up in Scorpion Pass,” Rattlesnake cautioned. “If you take the old trail west instead of the pass road you can avoid them. Trail’s just on the edge of town, behind the blacksmith’s.” He pulled on his hairy ear, gave Jasper an apprising look, and then asked, “You got any money, boy?”
“No. The professor promised to pay us when we reached San Francisco,” Jasper said, with a rueful grin.
“I ain’t got much, but I’ll let you have a canteen, and if you hold on a minute, I’ll fetch you some beans and flour,” Rattlesnake said, and strode into his cabin.
As soon as Rattlesnake went inside, Jasper darted into the barn. A twinge of guilt ran through him at running off without a word when the old man had been so kind, but he had to find Elena! Retrieving his lute from behind the hay stack, he strummed the notes of the spell. The mule brayed and bucked as purple light flooded the barn and Jasper was swept into the mirror.
***
Elena woke to find her hands bound behind her back, and stone walls enclosing her. A huge rat scurried out of the shadows and across her foot. She shivered in revulsion as she kicked it away. “Jasper!” she called, into the dark corners. The scuttling of the rats was the only answer. Her hands shook as she realized she was alone. Something must have gone wrong with the spell! I’m free of the mirror, but where am I? And what’s happened to Jasper? Her heart pounding, she rose and paced her prison.
A narrow slit high in one wall let dim light into the cell from an overcast sky. The floor was covered with filthy straw, and there was a heavy wooden door in one wall. Elena held her breath, as she hurried to the door, but it was bolted on the outside. A tear rolled down her cheek and she sank down on the straw.
The rattle of keys outside her cell a while later jarred Elena from her despair. The cell door swung open with a loud bang, and an odd looking woman in a white gown swept in. Her skin was as pale as snow, and her ice-blue eyes reminded Elena of a frozen lake. A frosty air
blew in with the woman and chilled her to the bone.
“I want to know where the Amethyst Mirror is and where that rat Guido is hiding!” the woman demanded in a voice that sounded like clinking ice.
“I… I… don’t know,” Elena sputtered.
“You’re lying!” The woman snapped, and clenched her reedy fingers in fury, as an ice cloud formed and swirled around her.
As Elena watched the ice cloud form around the woman, she realized in shock, “My God, she must be Guido’s sister, Melina Sismondi, the winter sorceress! She’s as dangerous as he is! The four Sismondi siblings had each been imbued with the power of a season by their sorcerous mother. Guido’s power was the storm and lightning of autumn. Melina’s was the ice and snow of winter. The other siblings, Castius and Faun, had the powers of summer and spring. Elena’s mind spun in terror, but she knew she had to say something or the sorceress would kill her. And she had the feeling Melina could tell if she wasn’t being truthful. She stammered, “Ah… ah… Guido was chasing us so we used the mirror to escape him.”
Melina stared at her as if she were a freak in a sideshow. Then she knelt in a flurry of white to touch Elena’s sneakers and jeans. “You are dressed strangely, girl. Where are you from?” She demanded.
Icy cold shot up Elena’s leg from the sorceress’ touch. Shivering, she sputtered, “My… my friend is a traveling minstrel with the Commedia. He gave me these clothes when we ran away from my father, Giles Culstone.”
“You are Giles Culstone’s daughter?” Melina snorted in disbelief as her eyes flashed like a winter’s gale about to break. “You’re lying! Giles Culstone’s daughter disappeared without a trace ten years ago. You aren’t old enough to be her!”
Ten years! It’s not possible. I’ve only been gone a fortnight! Elena thought incredulously. “Ah, well, I escaped into the mirror with my friend and have been in his time. I don’t understand how the magic of the mirror works, but I swear I’ve only been gone a fortnight.”
Melina rose and paced the cell as tiny flakes of snow swirled around her in a white mist. Abruptly she stopped and turned back to Elena. “So, you went through the mirror to this future world where Guido said he hid the Amethyst Mirror?”
Elena sputtered, “H… how did you know that?”
“You forget who you’re speaking to, girl! I am Melina Sismondi. I know of the mirror’s power to transport whoever activates the spell through time!” The sorceress paced the cell and seemed to have forgotten Elena was there. The rats squealed and ran in terror into the corners, writhing in a frantic heap, as ice pellets rained down on them. Sunlight broke through the clouds and shone through the slit in the cell wall to illuminate Melina’s narrow, angular face. She glared at the light and hastily stepped back, as she said, “If Guido is in this future world, then that is where I will go. I’ve outsmarted him this time. He doesn’t know I used one of mother’s spells to enchant the Sapphire Mirror with the power of time travel!”
Elena’s heart thudded wildly. The Sapphire Mirror was the smaller, sister glass to the mirror she and Jasper had used! Maybe somehow she could use the Sapphire Mirror to find Jasper? But how, when she was a prisoner? To her shock a moment later Melina motioned for a guard outside the cell to unlock the cuffs on her hands.
“I will need your help to reach this future world, girl. You will come with me!” Melina commanded, and swept out of the cell in a flurry of sleet.
As Elena followed the sorceress up a long, circular stairway, her relief at being set free quickly faded. Her hand shook on the stair rail, and a chill ran through her, as she realized Melina would kill her once she didn’t need her help anymore. And if Jasper was still in Benton, he’d have two powerful sorcerers after him!
Chapter Three
Lightning shot from Guido’s hand into the ocotillo and it exploded in blue flames. A lizard slithered out from the conflagration and it too erupted in blue fire. He’d just emerged from the old mine shaft in Tunner’s canyon after discovering his mirror was gone. It had to be that cursed, thieving boy! The boy was the only one who knew the musical key to unlock the mirror’s magic. Pacing the smoke-filled, narrow gully in fury, he cursed the day he’d stumbled into this future world.
He’d been experimenting with the mirror’s magic, going forward in time, in an attempt to find a place to hide the glass that his siblings would never find. Since he had no idea what the future looked like, he’d used a portrait of his mother hanging in the Sismondi ancestral castle as a focus. The mirror had whisked him far into the future to this desert wasteland. He woke to find himself in an eerie, dilapidated mansion, just outside of Benton, his mother’s portrait, faded with time but still imposing, glaring down at him from the wall.
But regardless of how he’d ended up here, he had to deal with matters as they were. He took deep breaths to calm himself so he could think. Where and when would the boy go? He had to know where the mirror was in order to call it back. He was trapped in this miserable place until he found the mirror.
Smoke from the fires burned his eyes, so Guido climbed the hill to where he could see Benton in the distance. He scratched at the fleur birthmark on his cheek, as he always did when deep in thought. Maybe the boy’s mother might know where he’d gone. It was worth a try. In the meantime, he’d have to find somewhere to stay and get clothes appropriate to this time. He’d considered staying at Frank’s again, but couldn’t bear to be around him. Frank had mentioned something about a motel, which he’d gathered was some kind of inn. But they would want payment and he didn’t have any money. He had no other way to acquire some, so he’d have to steal it.
Twilight cast the desert in violet by the time Guido headed down the trail towards Benton. He’d have to return to Frank’s hovel to get clothes and money. It would be dark by the time he reached town, so if he went up the back stairs to Frank’s, he wouldn’t be seen.
Main Street was deserted when he reached the outskirts of town, but Guido took care not to be seen anyway. He stuck to the shadows and darted around buildings to the stairs behind the diner. The smell of fried food from the diner made his stomach turn. He’d never forget that disgusting smell as long as he lived! The back door to Frank’s was locked, so he climbed in through the unlatched window.
Frank was at work in the diner so he wouldn’t be disturbed. Guido went to the battered dresser and took out two pairs of jeans and three shirts. Shedding his soiled Renaissance garments, he slipped into the clothes. They felt strange, and were too big, but he rolled up the sleeves and cuffs. He’d seen Frank take money out of his top dresser drawer one night when he thought Guido was asleep. Rummaging through the drawer, he found the rolled up bills tucked inside a cigar box. He had no idea of the value of these pieces of paper, but hoped it would be enough to pay for food and a room.
The red, neon motel sign with the burned out “t” flickered at the end of town, as Guido headed through the shadows towards it.
A grey-haired, frumpy looking woman with glasses glanced up from her book as the bell on the motel office door jangled. The woman eyed Guido, and inquired, “Can I help you?”
“I’d like a room,” he said.
“Will that be for just tonight then?” The woman asked, pushing her wire rim glasses up on her nose and handing a pen and paper to him.
Guido stared at the questions on the registry page and had no idea what most of them meant. The woman was watching him suspiciously, so he scribbled in a fictitious name and wrote in some numbers where he thought they should go. Handing the form back to her, he said, “I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying.”
The motel proprietor’s brows twitched as she scanned the form and gave Guido another odd look. This man made her uncomfortable. His eyes held dark secrets, and the information he’d scribbled on the registry was gibberish. He had no luggage or car, and his clothes were ill-fitting and looked like they belonged to someone else. But customers were scarce this time of year and she needed the money. “You’re in room 205, upstairs and in the back,” she finally said. “Ice machine is at the end of the hall and there’s complimentary coffee and pastry in the lobby from seven to ten in the morning.” She handed Guido a key with a plastic handle and then went back to reading her book.
The room wasn’t much bigger than Frank’s hovel, but at least it was cleaner, Guido noticed as he flipped on the light switch and walked in. After hanging the clothes he’d stolen on the clanging metal hangers, he opened the heavy drapes and stared out at the lit parking lot below. Tomorrow he’d question the boy’s mother. If that didn’t work, he would be stuck in this dreary town until the boy returned.
Lighting crackled around Guido’s fingers as he clutched the drapes in fury. The curtains caught fire. Swearing under his breath, Guido rushed to the bathroom sink, filled the ice bucket he found there with water and hurried back and dowsed the curtains before the fire could spread. The rusty handle shrieked as he opened the windows wide and fanned the smoke outside. He’d have to be careful. That busy-body proprietor was already suspicious and he didn’t want her snooping around. He took deep breaths to calm himself, and gradually the sparks around his fingers winked out.
The laughter of teenagers in the parking lot below, as they drank beer and caroused, drifted in the window of Guido’s room. He closed the window to shut out the sound of their rowdy horseplay, sat on the lumpy mattress and ate a ham and cheese sandwich taken from Frank’s fridge. Much as he hated waiting, he could do nothing more until morning. Tomorrow he’d find his mirror, kill the thieving boy, and leave this God-forsaken place forever.
Chapter One
Blue lightning snaked across the night sky in the sleepy, desert town of Benton, and Jasper woke in a cold sweat from the nightmare. His bedroom window faced the storm, and the lightning’s blue luminescence made his blood run cold. It meant the evil sorcerer Guido Sismondi was here in Benton, and hunting him.
***
Life had been so good when he and Elena had at last reached Benton. Jasper still couldn’t quite believe Elena loved him so much that she’d gone into the cold mist of the magic mirror and five hundred years into the future to be with him. And his mother’s joy when he and El magically appeared from inside the Amethyst Mirror made his heart feel like it would burst with happiness. He was the luckiest boy alive to have escaped the prison of the mirror and be home again with El and his mother.
Of course, Mom and El had been awkward around each other at first. Mom wasn’t blind. She could tell he and El were in love. She kept sending worried glances their way because she thought El really was the pretty boy she was dressed as. But when he revealed that El was really a girl, and made clear just why she was in disguise, she relaxed. It was El who finally won Mom over with her willingness to pitch in and help around the house with chores. Mom was touched, because she knew El came from a privileged life of nobility where she’d had servants to do the work. After that, she’d accepted El as part of the family, and insisted she call her by her first name, Lauren, instead of “Mrs. Selkirk.”
So they eventually all settled into a comfortable routine around the antique shop and the cozy, renovated old house, although at first, everything in the modern world had been frightening to El. She’d jumped in terror when bright lights flooded rooms at the touch of a little switch, or hot water mysteriously poured out of a tap at the twist of a handle. The washing machine dancing and thudding as it magically washed garments without any maids to scrub them was especially alarming. It had been hard for her, but her fiery spirit and Jasper’s reassurance that modern appliances weren’t dangerous got her through. After a while, she seemed to decide that electricity, motor cars and telephones were all some kind of magic that she didn’t understand but didn’t need to fear.
About a month after he and El arrived in Benton Jasper woke up shivering from the first nightmare. It had seemed so real. He rose, and cold with dread, peered out the window into the night, expecting to see blue lightning in the sky. He could breathe again when all he saw were twinkling stars. But the next night he woke from the same nightmare to the actual sight of the blue lightning of Guido’s sorcery in the sky. It was real! Guido was here in Benton! His hands shaking, Jasper paced his room all night with his mind in a whirl. By the time sunrise cast rose on the amber, pine walls of his room, he knew what he had to do. The only thing he could do. He and El would have to run away.
He didn’t tell El or his mother about the nightmare or the lightning the next morning at breakfast as they sat around the old butcher block table in the kitchen. They both sensed something was up with him, though. His mother kept watching him push the scrambled eggs and bacon around his plate. Elena sent him questioning glances and picked at the French toast on her plate.
His mother finally set down her coffee cup with a determined clatter, and asked, “What’s wrong, Honey? You’ve barely touched your breakfast. Are you feeling okay?” She reached over and felt his forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Is something bothering you?”
Jasper couldn’t bring himself to tell her about his nightmare. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about something that happened at school yesterday. Joel Markem and his gang are giving me a hard time because I’m not into sports or joining in their childish pranks. It’s nothing new. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.” He smiled to reassure her, and forced himself to finish his breakfast.
Lauren’s brow furrowed in anger as she rose to pour another cup of coffee, and said, “Those toughs should be reported to the Principal, Mr. Thatcher. It’s not right they get away with bullying the other kids.”
Jasper carried his plate to the sink, as he said soothingly, “Don’t worry, Mom. Joel is all talk and bluster. Besides, if he knows someone ratted on him to Thatcher, it will just make him worse.”
His mother brushed a wayward copper curl back from his cheek, and said with a sigh, “I still think I should call Mr. Thatcher.”
“It’ll be okay, Mom. I can handle Joel and his gang,” Jasper said. Glancing at his watch, he added, “Got to go now or I’ll be late.” He darted upstairs to his room, his hands shaking as he grabbed his backpack and books.
Lauren and El were both in the antique shop when he came back downstairs. He parted the red velvet theatre curtain that separated the kitchen from the antique shop and called, “Bye Mom, bye El.” His mother sent a worried glance over the old pocket watches she was arranging in the display case. Elena stopped sweeping and peered at him questioningly. She knew something was up, and didn’t believe his story about being bullied at school. Avoiding her gaze, he ran out the door. Now that Guido was really here, he knew he would have to tell her about his nightmare.
Elena cornered him in the kitchen when he arrived home from school that day. “Now, tell me what’s really bothering you,” she demanded.
Jasper put his arms around her, as he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, El, but I didn’t want to believe it myself.” He took a deep breath, and then continued, “I’ve been having nightmares about Guido being here in Benton. Then last night I saw the blue lightning of his sorcery in the sky. He’s here in Benton. He’s come after us. He must have called the mirror back to your time and used it to travel here. That must be why the mirror vanished right after we came through.”
Day’s fading light through the window cast Elena’s face in shadow as her green eyes clouded with fear. She clutched Jasper’s arms, and said in panic, “Guido won’t rest until he takes his revenge on you.”
Jasper was about to answer when his mother pushed aside the curtain and came into the kitchen. She said with a weary sigh, “Customers! I thought I’d never get rid of them, but thank God they’re gone. You know the type, Honey,” Lauren said to her son, still looking exasperated. “They handle everything in spite of the sign that says not to, and ask endless questions when they have no intention of buying anything.” She took a vintage wine glass down from the glass cabinet above the sink and filled it. After a few sips she asked, “Is scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon okay for dinner? I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer this morning.”
“That’s fine Mom,” Jasper said, and shot a covert glance at Elena to caution her not to continue with what they’d been discussing. “El and I are going out to the Petroglyphs after supper. It’s a harvest moon tonight and I want her to see it from out there.”
“Okay, but don’t stay out too late. Remember tomorrow’s a school day.” She put on an apron, lifted an old warhorse of an iron skillet from a drawer, put it over a flaming burner, and laid thick strips of bacon in it. The bacon sizzled and popped as she cracked half a dozen eggs into a bowl and whipped them to a creamy froth. “Don’t forget you promised to stain that nineteenth century desk in the restoration shed. A customer is coming by this week to see it.”
“Sure, I’ll get to it tomorrow,” Jasper said, with another anxious glance at Elena.
There was silence as they sat around the kitchen table. Lauren sipped her wine and seemed lost in her thoughts. Elena picked at her food and sent Jasper fretful glances whenever his mother wasn’t looking. The ticking of the Grandfather Clock in the shop drifted in through the curtain and sounded like a death march drum to Jasper. His stomach felt like he’d swallowed a brick, but he cleaned his plate anyway so his mother wouldn’t know something was up.
“We’re sure are a lively bunch tonight, aren’t we?” Lauren remarked.
“Sorry, Mom,” Jasper said, and forced a smile.
Lauren said, “I was worried you might be fretting over something that happened at school again. Joel Markem and his gang aren’t still harassing you, are they?”
“No, I was going over a madrigal I’m composing in my mind. You know how lost I get in my music,” Jasper answered. He hated lying, but he couldn’t tell his mother what he was really thinking about.
“I haven’t exactly been a chatterbox myself tonight. Guess I’m just tired. It’s been a long day,” Lauren said, with another weary sigh.
Elena shot him a pleading glance, so Jasper pushed away his plate, rose from the table, and said, “Moon will be rising soon. El and I better get going.”
“Be careful,” Lauren cautioned, as she collected the dirty plates and carried them to the sink. “Even with the light of a full moon, hiking
on the desert at night can be tricky.”
“Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll be fine. I know that trail like the back of my hand,” Jasper said, as he carried his plate to the sink and wiped the crumbs from the table with a wet sponge.
Elena helped carry the greasy platter and cups to the sink and picked up a dish towel, as she said, “Thanks for supper Mrs. Selkirk . . . uh,
Lauren. It was delicious.”
Lauren glanced up from washing the dishes with a warm smile. “It was nothing, El. I’ll make up for it tomorrow, I promise. We’ll have roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and summer squash. I know that’s your favorite.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Elena said, forcing a smile. Mrs. Selkirk had been so kind and she felt guilty for keeping important secrets from her. Jasper’s mother had a right to know her son was in grave danger. The truth nearly spilled out, as she looked at Mrs. Selkirk’s
pleasant, careworn face, but she bit her lip and picked up a plate from the dish rack to dry.
Lauren glanced out the kitchen window as the rising moon illuminated the Jacaranda tree outside in a ghostly light. “You two better get going. I’ll finish cleaning up.”
“You sure you don’t want us to help, Mom?” Jasper asked.
“No, you go ahead, Honey, and enjoy yourselves.”
Jasper gave her a warm hug before hurrying out the door with Elena.
The harvest moon rose over the Snake Mountains like a huge, orange Halloween lantern and cast a spectral glow over the desert, as Jasper and Elena hiked the trail out to the Petroglyphs. The desert looked surreal under the full moon. It always made Jasper feel like he was on another planet. “I’ve been thinking, El,” he said, breaking the tense silence. “If Guido is here, then the mirror must be, too. He must have hidden it somewhere. There aren’t many places in a small town like Benton where such a distinctive object could be hidden for long. It occurred to me he might have concealed it in the old mine shaft in Tunner’s Canyon. No one ever goes there anymore.”
Elena shot him an exasperated look, and said more crossly than she’d intended, “But what difference does that make? Who cares about the damn mirror! What are we going to do about Guido?”
“Don’t you see, El?” Jasper implored, as he hastily side-stepped a prickly pear he nearly bumped into while he was looking at her. “If we can find the mirror, we can use it to escape him.”
“You can’t be serious!” Elena burst out. Her mouth fell open in shock when she realized he was. “But… but…where would we go?”
“I don’t know,” Jasper admitted. “Believe me, El, the last thing I want to do is to go back into that blasted mirror again after being trapped in it for so long! But anything’s got to be better than staying here and waiting for Guido to kill me.”
“But what if something goes wrong and we both get trapped in there?” Elena asked, shivering in the warm desert breeze.
“The idea of being imprisoned in the mirror again scares me to death, but how else are we going to escape Guido’s sorcery? He knows we’re here, and if we try to run from him in this place in time, he’ll track us like a hound after prey. I don’t think we have a choice.”
Elena turned away and gazed up at the moon, her pretty face pale and pinched with fear. He wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her, but sensed she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. After a while, she turned back to him and confessed, “I do feel guilty about having left my Aunt Agnes without a word. She must have given me up for dead by now. If we do find the mirror, I think we should return to my time so I can let her know I’m still alive.”
“It’s decided then,” Jasper said, and kissed her. “That’s where we’ll go. Assuming, of course, we find the mirror. I’ll be home from school early tomorrow and we can head up to search the old mine shaft.”
“But what about your mother?” Elena asked. “You can’t just vanish again without telling her. It would be too cruel.”
“Of course you’re right,” Jasper admitted, with a sigh, as the guilt he’d been trying to ignore filled him. “But El, if I tell her what we’re planning, she’ll try to stop us. I feel awful about it, but what else can we do?” No matter what he did, it was going to hurt his mother. It tore him apart, but he didn’t have any alternative. After a while, he said, “Maybe I can leave a note explaining everything to Mom. I know it’s not much, but at least this time she’ll know where I’ve gone and why.”
Wind woke the sage and foxtail with ghostly whispers, as Elena said, “I’m frightened. What if Guido finds you first?”
He didn’t want Elena to know how scared he was, so Jasper caressed her cheek, and said to reassure her, “There must be some reason why he hasn’t come after me yet. I’m sure we’ll be okay for another day or so. By then, we’ll have found the mirror and escaped.”
The eerie howls of a coyote pack on the hunt tore the desert stillness as Elena clung to him, and said, “I hope you’re right.”
The next day after school, Jasper led Elena up the trail to Tunner’s Canyon. They didn’t see anyone as they hiked through a thorny forest of sage, cactus and ocotillo. Heat rose in shimmering waves from the sand, and sweat soaked his shirt, as they climbed the steep hill to the canyon. Fortunately, his mother had been out grocery shopping in Stillwater when he’d arrived home from school. He’d scribbled a note to her, grabbed his lute, which he’d need if they found the mirror, and he and Elena took off.
A sea of broken glass, rusted cans, and pop-tops sparkled among the sagebrush, as they reached the entrance to the narrow canyon. Jasper wiped the sweat from his forehead, and pointed to a shored up cave entrance tucked into the hillside. “There’s the old mine.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to go in there?” Elena asked, with a dubious glance at the weathered beams propping up the entrance.
“Don’t worry, El, I used to play here when I was a kid. Those support beams are stronger than they look.” He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and led Elena into the mine.
The tunnel smelled of dank earth and dark secrets, and their flashlight beam illuminated a myriad of cobwebs, strung like curtains, beyond the entrance. They ducked as a flurry of bats, disturbed by the light, chittered and flapped by them. The tunnel bore into the mountain about half a mile and then opened into a large, natural cavern. Stalactites jutted down from a limestone ceiling, and milky water from an underground spring dripped into a murky pool.
The sound of dripping water echoing off the cave walls seemed unnaturally loud to Elena. She started to feel like she couldn’t breathe. The walls seemed to close in and she was suddenly terrified the earth above would collapse and crush them at any moment. “Let’s hurry and find the mirror!” she urged.
Jasper leaned his lute against a stalagmite and took Elena’s hand and they set out to explore the cavern. Flashes of pink and green limestone reflected like a kaleidoscope in the flashlight beam. They advanced slowly, circling the entire cave, stopping to examine every nook and cranny, but found no trace of the mirror. “It isn’t here,” he said despondently. “I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.”
“Come on then, let’s hurry and get out of here,” Elena urged.
They had to wade through the murky pool on their way out of the cavern. Jasper jumped, as something in the water slithered against his leg, and the flashlight flew out of his hand, landed with a resounding crash, and rolled into a crevice. “Damn!” he swore.
Elena covered her ears as the echoes reverberated off the walls in a wrathful chorus. From its resting place, the flashlight flickered off and on, and Jasper prayed fervently its light would last until they got out of the mineshaft. He went to retrieve it, and when he bent down, he saw the sparkle of amethyst in the shadows against the wall. “El, I think I’ve found the mirror!” he cried. He went over to investigate and there it was, the Amethyst Mirror, tucked snugly into a large crevice. Elena soon joined him and they both stared at the beautiful glass sparkling in the flashlight beam.
“Now we just have to hope the same sequence of notes still unlocks the mirror’s magic. Guido might have changed the spell,” Jasper said. His hands were cold and clammy as he went to retrieve his lute and rejoin Elena. He didn’t want her to know how scared he was, so he smiled, and said, “Well, here goes, El. You’ll be seeing your aunt again soon.”
Elena clung to him for a moment, and then let go so he could play the magic spell on his lute. She kept a tight hold on his flannel shirttail. She wasn’t taking any chances they might get separated inside the mirror. She nodded at him, and said bravely, “Okay, let’s go.”
Dulcet tones filled the cavern and chimed off the walls, as Jasper strummed the notes of the spell. A blinding, amethyst light emanated from the mirror and illuminated the cavern and the walls spun dizzily as the magic engulfed them. His mother’s voice came into his mind just as he took Elena’s hand and the spell whirled them into the mirror. “Don’t forget you promised to stain the eighteenth century desk tomorrow.”
***
The clatter of the Venetian blinds in the breeze grated on Guido’s nerves. Frowning at the annoying racket, he pushed back the covers on the fold-out cot that had been his bed for what seemed an eternity. The half-healed knife wound in his back made him wince as he gingerly rose and went over to the window. Sunset over the Snake Mountains cast the main street of Benton below in blood-red. Curse that boy! He fumed, his mind tracing yet again the events that brought him here. He ruined my beautiful plans for revenge against my siblings! His hands clenched the window frame in fury and blue lightning crackled from his fingers to burn jagged streaks in the wood. The wound in his back pained him when he stood for too long, so he stumbled back to the cot and collapsed. Once he killed the boy from the future, this future, he would use the mirror to travel back to his own time and take revenge on his brother, Castius. It was Castius who had stabbed him, and he would pay with his life. Guido’s desire for revenge was what kept him going through the long, dreary days of his recovery.
He looked around Frank Murdock’s dingy apartment as he brooded and plotted. He snorted in disgust at the pictures of women tacked to the dirty walls. If the women from his time dressed like these women, they would be branded harlots! He hated this messy, cramped room he was trapped in, but he’d needed somewhere to recuperate, so he’d forced Frank to take him in by threating him with sorcery.
In the evening, after the Roadrunner Diner closed, Frank returned bearing a plate of food for Guido. With a nervous, skittish glance, he’d set the plate of burger and fries on the table beside the cot and gone into the matchbox bathroom to shower. Guido watched Frank scurry around the cluttered room like a timid mouse. In his weakness when he’d arrived in Benton, he’d needed Frank’s help to hide the mirror, and he’d had to explain its secret. He would have to kill the fool, of course. He couldn’t allow anyone from this future world to know of the mirror’s power to travel through time.
Sitting up in his cot with a grimace, Guido took a bite of the burger. It was disgusting and greasy, as all the food from the diner was, but he forced himself to finish it. He had to eat to get his strength back. A waft of steam accompanied Frank out of the bathroom. He took a beer from the mini fridge and downed its contents with noisy gulps. “Be back later,” he mumbled, and rushed out the door without looking at Guido.
Twilight tinged the plaster walls of Frank’s apartment violet as Guido brooded in the shadows. A moth, drawn by the neon Roadrunner sign outside the diner below, fluttered about the ceiling in dusty whispers. Blue lightning shot from his fingers and incinerated the moth to ash and burn a jagged hole in the ceiling.
***
“No, Jasper!” Lauren cried, as she read the note penned in his neat hand. She’d returned from shopping in Stillwater to find the house empty and the note on the kitchen table. The grocery bags fell from her arms onto the counter with a loud crash and she rushed out the door.
Lauren hurried down Benton’s main street, past the tattered umbrellas and sun-bleached tables outside the Roadrunner Diner. The cigar store Indian on the porch of the Calico Mercantile stared with its long-suffering gaze as she ran by. Gladys Hornsby, the spinster librarian, waved at her from the door of the Airstream that served as Benton’s library. The last thing Lauren needed right now was to engage with the verbose Gladys, so she averted her gaze and continued down the street.
Tucked off Main Street in a welcome haven of green was the cottage of her friend, Julian Cosgrove. Lauren pushed the wrought iron gate open, ignored its rusty shriek, and rushed through a yard filled with a rainbow of wild flowers and tangled vines to his studio behind the cottage.
Julian looked up from his canvas, paintbrush in hand, as Lauren rushed in, gasping for breath. Dropping his brush and pallet, he hastily wiped the paint from his hands and went to hold her. “What is it Lauren? What’s happened?”
“Jasper’s gone back into the mirror,” Lauren began with a sob. “He…he… left a note saying he and El were going into the mirror to escape a madman who has come here from the past to kill them!”
Julian stared at her in confusion for a moment, and then said, “You better start from the beginning and tell me the whole story.” He guided her to a tattered, paint-stained armchair, poured her a shot of whiskey, and pressed it into her shaking hands.
“Remember what I told you when Jasper returned?” Lauren began, after she downed the whiskey. “How he’d been trapped in this mirror I bought from an odd, little man named Guido?”
Julian nodded.
Lauren shot him a rueful glance, as she continued, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but the mirror has the power to transport people back and forth through time. When Jasper got trapped inside the magic mirror, he was transported back to Renaissance England where Guido came from.” Julian refilled her glass and Lauren paused to take a sip before she continued, “This Guido apparently has some kind of sorcerous powers. He is in Benton right now, stalking my Jasper!” Her hands trembling, Lauren set her glass down and clenched them together in her lap. She was afraid to look at Julian. Afraid she’d see pity or worse, polite tolerance in his eyes.
Julian scratched the dusting of stubble on his cheek and considered carefully what to say. His hastily-wiped fingers left behind a streak of cerulean. He didn’t really believe Jasper had vanished into a magic mirror, but Lauren believed it, and that’s what mattered to him.
“What do you want me to do?” He asked.
Looking into Julian’s eyes with a fierceness that frightened him, Lauren said, “We’ve got to find this Guido and stop him, no matter what it takes, before he hurts my Jasper!”
Chapter Two
When Jasper’s head stopped spinning, he opened his eyes to the twilight world inside the mirror. Crystal flutes, peaks, and gullies all glowed around him with a frosty, amethyst light. The numbing cold of the mirror’s landscape made him shiver. He’d never forget the nightmare of having been trapped inside it for what had seemed an eternity.
“Are you all right, El?” he asked, helping her stand.
“I… I… think so,” Elena answered shakily. “I forgot how disorienting it is to be inside the mirror.”
A harsh voice from outside the glass made them both jump. “Stop gossiping and get the table set for dinner, you lazy good-for-nothings, or his Lordship won’t be pleased!”
Jasper exchanged anxious glances with Elena as they crept up to the mirror’s smooth surface and peeked out. The mirror seemed to be resting on a high surface because they had to look down to see what was going on in the room outside. His heart sank at the sight.
Three men dressed in black and white Victorian servant’s livery bustled around a long dining table covered with an elegant cloth. The footmen set neat rows of forks, knives and spoons beside fine china plates and crystal glasses. Then they measured the distance from each chair to the table with a wooden rod. A gaslight chandelier, two candelabras and a marble fireplace lit the elegant dining room.
Jasper’s mouth fell open in shock when he glanced past the dining table to a lit study beyond. In the corner of the study was a slant front desk. It was newer, but otherwise identical to the one waiting in his mother’s restoration shed for him to stain. Oh, no! The mirror must have responded to my guilt about breaking my promise to Mom, and transported us to the desk’s point of origin in the past!
“Where are we?” Elena whispered.
“We’re in the past, but it’s the wrong time,” Jasper admitted ruefully. “It matters what the person who activates the mirror’s magic is thinking about when the spell is activated. Sorry, El, I got distracted and wasn’t concentrating on your time. I’ll have to play the spell again and make sure to focus.”
Fascinated by the strange scene outside the mirror, Elena hissed, “Look!” and pointed.
All the servants had left the dining room by then, except the unpleasant man who seemed to be in charge. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then took a vial out of his pocket. Pulling the cork, he poured its dark contents into one of the wine glasses and slipped the empty vial back into his pocket with an evil grin. He walked around the room inspecting everything, and as he glanced up at the fireplace mantle where the mirror rested, his cruel mouth fell open in shock. Astonishment soon turned to a greedy leer, and he rushed towards the mirror.
Jasper and Elena instinctively jumped back as the man’s cruel face loomed on the other side of the glass, even though they knew he couldn’t see them. “Hurry, El, we’ve got to go!” he urged, He grabbed his lute and quickly strummed the notes of the spell. Purple flutes and peaks whirled and spun dizzily as the magic swept them away.
***
The frantic bray of a mule roused Jasper. He opened his eyes and this time found he was sprawled across a tall stack of hay bales, and his hair and clothes were littered with straw. Spitting out a stalk, he peered into the dusty light filtering in through the cracks in a weathered barn. A swayback old mule in the stall below stared wide-eyed up at him as it heehawed and bucked. The mirror lay balanced precariously beside him on the stack of bales. Amethyst light emanated from the glass to form a halo around its carved, rosewood frame. His hands glowed purple as he clasped the mirror and carefully moved it back from the edge so it wouldn’t topple off the haystack. Jumping down, he searched every corner of the barn for Elena, but she wasn’t there.
The barn door swung open with a loud crash as he rushed outside to a yard peppered with sagebrush and cactus. A crumbling stone well stood between the barn and a weathered cabin, and an unpleasant odor drifted from a rickety outhouse behind the cabin. He called Elena’s name, but the only answer was the wind through the sage and the braying of the mule in its stall. His mouth fell open in shock when he noticed the mountains in the distance. They were the Snake Mountains! My God, I’m still in Benton!
An old timer in a tattered cowboy hat and scuffed boots stepped out onto the porch of the cabin. He aimed his rifle at Jasper, and growled, “What are you doing trespassing on my land!”
That prickly cuss looks like a character right out of an old western! Jasper thought in panic. What time am I in? And how did Elena and I get separated? Something must have gone wrong with the mirror’s magic! He sputtered, “A… ah sorry for trespassing, Sir, but I’m lost. I was traveling west with a girl who seems to have wandered off somewhere.”
“I don’t take kindly to trespassers!” the old man snapped. “Most are lying thieves and up to no good!” He glared over the rifle barrel for what seemed an eternity to Jasper, and then a puzzled expression crossed his face, as he asked, “Where you from, boy? Ain’t never seen anyone dressed so peculiar in all my days. What kind of boots are those? They look like Injun moccasins.”
Jasper said the first thing that came into his head and hoped the old codger would believe it. “Ah, well, my girl and I were traveling west with Professor Cure-all’s Medicine Show. We got separated from the professor’s wagon when our horse spooked. These clothes are my costume for the medicine show.”
“If you’re lying, boy, I’ll kill you right now and let the buzzards pick your bones!” The old cuss snapped, and gestured with his rifle for emphasis.
“Like I was saying,” Jasper continued, after he cleared the frog from his throat, “our horse spooked and we got lost. We saw the light from your place in the distance. We only wanted to sleep in your barn. When I woke this morning, my girl was gone. I’m worried something has happened to her.”
“Hmm… a girl you say?” The old man remarked, and lowered his rifle. Scratching his scruffy beard, he added, “This here’s dangerous country for a female to be wandering around alone. Wells Fargo stage comes through with shipments of silver to the waystation in Benton. Robbers hide up in Scorpion Pass to ambush the wagon on its way west. And if the robbers don’t get her, there’s plenty of rattlesnakes in the rocks and gullies round here that will.” He pointed to the rattlesnake skins nailed to the walls of the cabin. “We best go look for her, boy, afore she gets herself killed.”
Breathing a sigh of relief that the old man wasn’t going to kill him, Jasper said, “I sure appreciate your help, Sir.”
“Name’s Sam, but folks around here call me Rattlesnake,” the old man said. “I’ll search the creek bed behind the cabin and you head towards Benton,” he pointed west across the sea of sand and sagebrush.
“How far is Benton from here?”
“Maybe a mile or so,” Rattlesnake said. Squinting at the blazing sun, he added, “Your girl won’t last long in this heat without water, neither, so we best get moving.” Grabbing two canteens off pegs on the wall, he tossed one to Jasper. “Fill it at the well and we’ll meet back here in an hour or two.” Then he turned and strode off with a bowlegged gait towards the gully below the cabin.
After Rattlesnake left, Jasper went back into the barn and hid the mirror and his lute behind the haystacks. It wouldn’t do to let Rattlesnake find the mirror. He filled his canteen at the well, and then headed west towards Benton.
Dust devils spun all around him as he made his way across the desert towards the buildings in the distance. A cow skull, sprouting sage out of its eye sockets, poked out of the sand at his feet. The eerie cry of a hunting hawk as its shadow passed overhead seemed to mirror the desolation in his heart. What if he couldn’t find Elena? What if something terrible had happened to her? The thought spurred him to run the rest of the way towards town. He wasn’t sure what time he was in, but guessed it had to be somewhere in the mid-to-late 1800’s. He’d read about the colorful history of Benton in his history class. It was populated with odd and dangerous characters who all packed guns. He’d have to watch his step.
The Wells Fargo waystation was the first building Jasper came to. The building had been renovated in the Benton of his time and now served as the town bank.
Darting around a corral filled with horses and up onto the porch of the waystation, Jasper pulled up sharply at the six shooter pointed at his chest.
“Where you going in such a rush,” a tall, wiry man in a cowboy hat and leather chaps demanded over the pistol. “No one runs in these parts unless they’re up to no good.” The man motioned with his gun, as he added, “inside and explain yourself or I’ll lock you up.”
Great, just what I need! Jasper thought, as he went inside the waystation.
Wanted posters covered the brick walls of the station above a weathered desk and chair. A rifle rack hung on the wall next to the desk, and a cell with a cot was tucked behind the office. The man sat behind the desk and kept his pistol aimed at Jasper, as he snapped, “Now start talking.”
“Ra… Rattlesnake sent me,” Jasper sputtered the first thing that popped into his head. He was getting awfully tired of people pointing guns at him! “We’re searching for a girl I was traveling west with. Maybe you’ve seen her? She’s a pretty girl, with short blonde hair and fiery green eyes and she’s wearing clothes kind of like mine.”
“Nope,” the man answered. “Only women round these parts are the Widow Betty, who runs the mercantile, Mrs. Smith, whose husband has a cattle ranch outside of town, Ma Kelsey who runs the saloon, and Lil and Grace the saloon girls.” Chewing on his long mustache, the man stared appraisingly over his pistol. To Jasper’s intense relief, he holstered his gun a moment later, and said, “I reckon if you’re a friend of Rattlesnake’s you can go about your business. You can board and eat at Ma’s down the street. Name’s Bill. I’m the Wells Fargo agent and acting sheriff in these parts.”
As Bill was talking, Jasper noticed the desk he was seated behind. It was an old slant-front desk, more weathered and beat up, but otherwise just like the one sitting in the shed at home! That damn desk is haunting me! He thought. “Thanks for your help, Bill,” he said, and shook the sheriff’s hand.
Jasper felt like he was in a dream as he left the Wells Fargo waystation and walked out onto the rutted, dirt main street of Benton. He couldn’t believe how different, yet strangely familiar the town was. Most of the old buildings still stood in modern Benton. A man drove a wagon filled with grain sacks down the street and the dust from the wagon wheels made Jasper cough. Two shady looking men watched him as they lounged against the hitching post in front of a building with a sign out front: “Ma’s Saloon, Room and board, 2 bits a day.” The men eyed him in a way that made him uncomfortable as they rolled cigarettes and spat into a brass spittoon. “Have you seen a stranger in town, a pretty girl about my age, with short, blonde hair?” he asked the men.
The taller man, who had an ugly scar on his cheek, gave a nasty laugh. “If we had, sonny, she’d be with us.” He spat into the spittoon and then yanked hard on Jasper’s hair, as he sneered, “What kind of freak are you, boy? With them pretty curls and silly shoes, you look like a girl!”
The other man, who reminded Jasper of a weasel, said in a voice that chilled him, “And we don’t like freaks!”
Jasper pushed the weasel-faced man out of his way and darted into the saloon. The men ran in through the swinging door on his heels with pistols drawn. The few customers at the bar looked up at the commotion and hurried out of the line of fire.
“Hey, what’s all this! You boys know I don’t hold with gun play in my place!” A matronly woman with a commanding air barked from upstairs. She marched down the narrow stairs and up to the men. Glaring, she snapped, “Now holster those guns boys, before I get really riled!”
The man with the ugly scar gripped his pistol tighter and looked as if he wanted to protest, but reluctantly holstered his gun and left. The weasel-faced man grinned sheepishly at the woman and trailed after him.
Eying Jasper up and down, the woman remarked, “We don’t get many strangers around these parts look as odd as you, Mister, if you don’t mind my saying.” A moment later, she extended her hand, as she added, “Ma Kelsey, proprietor of this place. Will you be wanting a
room or supper?”
“Thanks for your help, Mrs. Kelsey,” Jasper said, and shook Ma’s hand. “I’m not staying in town. I’m just looking for a girl.”
Ma smiled and nodded knowingly, and waved to two women sitting at a table in the corner. The women wore faded red dresses, black lace stockings and droopy feathers in their hair. They rose and came over to Ma.
“Young fella here is looking for company,” Ma said to the women. She turned to Jasper, as she added, “This is Lil,” gesturing towards the older of the two women, “and this is Grace,” nodding at the dark-haired, mousy-looking girl. “Tuck’s barkeep,” she pointed towards a stocky man sporting a handlebar moustache and slicked down hair behind the bar. “If you change your mind about the room, Lil can show you where it is. Now, excuse me, young fella, but I’ve got bookkeeping to do. Place don’t run itself!” Ma said, with a wink, and bustled back upstairs.
Lil smiled invitingly as she took Jasper’s arm, and inquired, “Where you from? We don’t get many in town as young and handsome as you.”
Jasper flushed, and sputtered, “Ah… sorry ladies but there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m not looking for company. I’m looking for the girl I was traveling with.”
Lil tugged playfully on his curls, and said with a knowing smile, “Now don’t be bashful. We’ll take good care of you, won’t we Grace?”
Grace giggled, and clutched Jasper’s other arm.
“Ah, sorry, but I have to go now,” He said, with an apologetic grin, and gently disengaged from the girl’s clutches. He walked out the swinging door, before they could object, and pulled up sharply at the rifle pointed at his chest.
“You aren’t going anywhere!” the man with the ugly scar snapped over the rifle. He gestured with his gun towards an alley beside the bar, as he added, “In there.”
Jasper’s heart felt like it would pound right out of his chest as he walked ahead of the man with the rifle into a narrow alley reeking of vomit and horse urine.
“That’s far enough!” the man snapped. “Dirty little coward is all you are! We’ll see how brave you are now there’s no skirts for you to hide behind!” He punched Jasper hard in the stomach, and when he doubled over in agony, he brought the rifle butt down on his head with a resounding crack.
Blinding pain shot through Jasper head and he stumbled and fell into the mud.
“Get up!” The man barked.
His head throbbing and the brick walls spinning dizzily, Jasper’s hand closed around a fistful of mud. He squeezed it into a firm ball behind his back as he rose to face his tormentor. When the man glanced away for a moment to snicker at his partner, Jasper lobbed the mud into his face and took off running down the alley. Momentarily blinded, the man cursed and shot wildly after him. Bullets whizzed by and ricocheted off the walls of the alley as Jasper ran for his life. He tipped over a stack of empty barrels and they rolled into the men, who by now were chasing him. Cursing as the barrels knocked them down, the men fired after him.
Once out of the alley and across the street, Jasper ducked behind the mercantile before the men pursuing him could see where he’d gone. Bill, the town sheriff, roused by the gunshots, stopped the men as they ran out of the alley. Breathing a sigh of relief, he took off running for Rattlesnake’s cabin.
Sweat soaked his clothes and poured down his face as he ran across the desert. It was clear Elena wasn’t in the Benton of this time.
Someone would have noticed her. If Rattlesnake hadn’t found her, maybe she was still trapped inside the mirror? A chill ran through him at that image, in spite of the blistering heat, and he ran faster.
Rattlesnake was perched on a chair on the porch of his cabin, picking his teeth with a wood chip, when Jasper rushed up out of breath.
“Did you find her?” He gasped.
“Nope,” Rattlesnake said. “I was hoping maybe she’d made her way to Benton, but seems not.”
“Well, thanks for your help, Rattlesnake, but I’ve got to be going now,” Jasper said, after he’d caught his breath.
“Where you headed?” The old man inquired, with a curious glance, and scratched his tobacco-stained beard.
“Well, I was headed west with the medicine show. I’m thinking maybe my girl might have found the professor’s wagon. Maybe she’s on her way to San Francisco right now.”
“You be careful, now. There’s a whole lot of dangerous country to cover tween here and there,” Rattlesnake observed, with a sagely nod. He rose from the rocker, extended his calloused palm, and added, “Well, wish you luck, boy. Sure hope you find her.”
“Thanks,” Jasper said, and shook the old man’s hand warmly.
“Watch out for them robbers up in Scorpion Pass,” Rattlesnake cautioned. “If you take the old trail west instead of the pass road you can avoid them. Trail’s just on the edge of town, behind the blacksmith’s.” He pulled on his hairy ear, gave Jasper an apprising look, and then asked, “You got any money, boy?”
“No. The professor promised to pay us when we reached San Francisco,” Jasper said, with a rueful grin.
“I ain’t got much, but I’ll let you have a canteen, and if you hold on a minute, I’ll fetch you some beans and flour,” Rattlesnake said, and strode into his cabin.
As soon as Rattlesnake went inside, Jasper darted into the barn. A twinge of guilt ran through him at running off without a word when the old man had been so kind, but he had to find Elena! Retrieving his lute from behind the hay stack, he strummed the notes of the spell. The mule brayed and bucked as purple light flooded the barn and Jasper was swept into the mirror.
***
Elena woke to find her hands bound behind her back, and stone walls enclosing her. A huge rat scurried out of the shadows and across her foot. She shivered in revulsion as she kicked it away. “Jasper!” she called, into the dark corners. The scuttling of the rats was the only answer. Her hands shook as she realized she was alone. Something must have gone wrong with the spell! I’m free of the mirror, but where am I? And what’s happened to Jasper? Her heart pounding, she rose and paced her prison.
A narrow slit high in one wall let dim light into the cell from an overcast sky. The floor was covered with filthy straw, and there was a heavy wooden door in one wall. Elena held her breath, as she hurried to the door, but it was bolted on the outside. A tear rolled down her cheek and she sank down on the straw.
The rattle of keys outside her cell a while later jarred Elena from her despair. The cell door swung open with a loud bang, and an odd looking woman in a white gown swept in. Her skin was as pale as snow, and her ice-blue eyes reminded Elena of a frozen lake. A frosty air
blew in with the woman and chilled her to the bone.
“I want to know where the Amethyst Mirror is and where that rat Guido is hiding!” the woman demanded in a voice that sounded like clinking ice.
“I… I… don’t know,” Elena sputtered.
“You’re lying!” The woman snapped, and clenched her reedy fingers in fury, as an ice cloud formed and swirled around her.
As Elena watched the ice cloud form around the woman, she realized in shock, “My God, she must be Guido’s sister, Melina Sismondi, the winter sorceress! She’s as dangerous as he is! The four Sismondi siblings had each been imbued with the power of a season by their sorcerous mother. Guido’s power was the storm and lightning of autumn. Melina’s was the ice and snow of winter. The other siblings, Castius and Faun, had the powers of summer and spring. Elena’s mind spun in terror, but she knew she had to say something or the sorceress would kill her. And she had the feeling Melina could tell if she wasn’t being truthful. She stammered, “Ah… ah… Guido was chasing us so we used the mirror to escape him.”
Melina stared at her as if she were a freak in a sideshow. Then she knelt in a flurry of white to touch Elena’s sneakers and jeans. “You are dressed strangely, girl. Where are you from?” She demanded.
Icy cold shot up Elena’s leg from the sorceress’ touch. Shivering, she sputtered, “My… my friend is a traveling minstrel with the Commedia. He gave me these clothes when we ran away from my father, Giles Culstone.”
“You are Giles Culstone’s daughter?” Melina snorted in disbelief as her eyes flashed like a winter’s gale about to break. “You’re lying! Giles Culstone’s daughter disappeared without a trace ten years ago. You aren’t old enough to be her!”
Ten years! It’s not possible. I’ve only been gone a fortnight! Elena thought incredulously. “Ah, well, I escaped into the mirror with my friend and have been in his time. I don’t understand how the magic of the mirror works, but I swear I’ve only been gone a fortnight.”
Melina rose and paced the cell as tiny flakes of snow swirled around her in a white mist. Abruptly she stopped and turned back to Elena. “So, you went through the mirror to this future world where Guido said he hid the Amethyst Mirror?”
Elena sputtered, “H… how did you know that?”
“You forget who you’re speaking to, girl! I am Melina Sismondi. I know of the mirror’s power to transport whoever activates the spell through time!” The sorceress paced the cell and seemed to have forgotten Elena was there. The rats squealed and ran in terror into the corners, writhing in a frantic heap, as ice pellets rained down on them. Sunlight broke through the clouds and shone through the slit in the cell wall to illuminate Melina’s narrow, angular face. She glared at the light and hastily stepped back, as she said, “If Guido is in this future world, then that is where I will go. I’ve outsmarted him this time. He doesn’t know I used one of mother’s spells to enchant the Sapphire Mirror with the power of time travel!”
Elena’s heart thudded wildly. The Sapphire Mirror was the smaller, sister glass to the mirror she and Jasper had used! Maybe somehow she could use the Sapphire Mirror to find Jasper? But how, when she was a prisoner? To her shock a moment later Melina motioned for a guard outside the cell to unlock the cuffs on her hands.
“I will need your help to reach this future world, girl. You will come with me!” Melina commanded, and swept out of the cell in a flurry of sleet.
As Elena followed the sorceress up a long, circular stairway, her relief at being set free quickly faded. Her hand shook on the stair rail, and a chill ran through her, as she realized Melina would kill her once she didn’t need her help anymore. And if Jasper was still in Benton, he’d have two powerful sorcerers after him!
Chapter Three
Lightning shot from Guido’s hand into the ocotillo and it exploded in blue flames. A lizard slithered out from the conflagration and it too erupted in blue fire. He’d just emerged from the old mine shaft in Tunner’s canyon after discovering his mirror was gone. It had to be that cursed, thieving boy! The boy was the only one who knew the musical key to unlock the mirror’s magic. Pacing the smoke-filled, narrow gully in fury, he cursed the day he’d stumbled into this future world.
He’d been experimenting with the mirror’s magic, going forward in time, in an attempt to find a place to hide the glass that his siblings would never find. Since he had no idea what the future looked like, he’d used a portrait of his mother hanging in the Sismondi ancestral castle as a focus. The mirror had whisked him far into the future to this desert wasteland. He woke to find himself in an eerie, dilapidated mansion, just outside of Benton, his mother’s portrait, faded with time but still imposing, glaring down at him from the wall.
But regardless of how he’d ended up here, he had to deal with matters as they were. He took deep breaths to calm himself so he could think. Where and when would the boy go? He had to know where the mirror was in order to call it back. He was trapped in this miserable place until he found the mirror.
Smoke from the fires burned his eyes, so Guido climbed the hill to where he could see Benton in the distance. He scratched at the fleur birthmark on his cheek, as he always did when deep in thought. Maybe the boy’s mother might know where he’d gone. It was worth a try. In the meantime, he’d have to find somewhere to stay and get clothes appropriate to this time. He’d considered staying at Frank’s again, but couldn’t bear to be around him. Frank had mentioned something about a motel, which he’d gathered was some kind of inn. But they would want payment and he didn’t have any money. He had no other way to acquire some, so he’d have to steal it.
Twilight cast the desert in violet by the time Guido headed down the trail towards Benton. He’d have to return to Frank’s hovel to get clothes and money. It would be dark by the time he reached town, so if he went up the back stairs to Frank’s, he wouldn’t be seen.
Main Street was deserted when he reached the outskirts of town, but Guido took care not to be seen anyway. He stuck to the shadows and darted around buildings to the stairs behind the diner. The smell of fried food from the diner made his stomach turn. He’d never forget that disgusting smell as long as he lived! The back door to Frank’s was locked, so he climbed in through the unlatched window.
Frank was at work in the diner so he wouldn’t be disturbed. Guido went to the battered dresser and took out two pairs of jeans and three shirts. Shedding his soiled Renaissance garments, he slipped into the clothes. They felt strange, and were too big, but he rolled up the sleeves and cuffs. He’d seen Frank take money out of his top dresser drawer one night when he thought Guido was asleep. Rummaging through the drawer, he found the rolled up bills tucked inside a cigar box. He had no idea of the value of these pieces of paper, but hoped it would be enough to pay for food and a room.
The red, neon motel sign with the burned out “t” flickered at the end of town, as Guido headed through the shadows towards it.
A grey-haired, frumpy looking woman with glasses glanced up from her book as the bell on the motel office door jangled. The woman eyed Guido, and inquired, “Can I help you?”
“I’d like a room,” he said.
“Will that be for just tonight then?” The woman asked, pushing her wire rim glasses up on her nose and handing a pen and paper to him.
Guido stared at the questions on the registry page and had no idea what most of them meant. The woman was watching him suspiciously, so he scribbled in a fictitious name and wrote in some numbers where he thought they should go. Handing the form back to her, he said, “I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying.”
The motel proprietor’s brows twitched as she scanned the form and gave Guido another odd look. This man made her uncomfortable. His eyes held dark secrets, and the information he’d scribbled on the registry was gibberish. He had no luggage or car, and his clothes were ill-fitting and looked like they belonged to someone else. But customers were scarce this time of year and she needed the money. “You’re in room 205, upstairs and in the back,” she finally said. “Ice machine is at the end of the hall and there’s complimentary coffee and pastry in the lobby from seven to ten in the morning.” She handed Guido a key with a plastic handle and then went back to reading her book.
The room wasn’t much bigger than Frank’s hovel, but at least it was cleaner, Guido noticed as he flipped on the light switch and walked in. After hanging the clothes he’d stolen on the clanging metal hangers, he opened the heavy drapes and stared out at the lit parking lot below. Tomorrow he’d question the boy’s mother. If that didn’t work, he would be stuck in this dreary town until the boy returned.
Lighting crackled around Guido’s fingers as he clutched the drapes in fury. The curtains caught fire. Swearing under his breath, Guido rushed to the bathroom sink, filled the ice bucket he found there with water and hurried back and dowsed the curtains before the fire could spread. The rusty handle shrieked as he opened the windows wide and fanned the smoke outside. He’d have to be careful. That busy-body proprietor was already suspicious and he didn’t want her snooping around. He took deep breaths to calm himself, and gradually the sparks around his fingers winked out.
The laughter of teenagers in the parking lot below, as they drank beer and caroused, drifted in the window of Guido’s room. He closed the window to shut out the sound of their rowdy horseplay, sat on the lumpy mattress and ate a ham and cheese sandwich taken from Frank’s fridge. Much as he hated waiting, he could do nothing more until morning. Tomorrow he’d find his mirror, kill the thieving boy, and leave this God-forsaken place forever.