“What if I hurt Rosemary?”
“That is a risk you will have to take, boy,” said Puck. “Do it!”
In the reflected room, the door burst open. With a guttural snarl, something bounded through.
“Peter!” Rosemary screamed.
Closing his eyes, Peter swung the axe into the glass.
Rosemary broke into a million pieces.
Then she found herself outside the mirror, on the floor, gasping. She was surrounded by little pieces of glass: little pieces of the girl’s face, laughing at her. She scrambled to her feet. Peter caught her with one arm. He was still holding the axe. “Are you okay?”
“Sage Rosemary,” said Puck. “Do not be afraid. You are free now.”
Rosemary stared at the mirrors. She raised her hand and pointed. Peter and Puck looked.
The mirrors surrounded them with angry faces. People glared in from every glass, people of all ages, all shapes and sizes, in all forms of dress. There was a woman in a torn dress that used to be elegant, a boy with a black eye, and more.
Then they heard a scream from behind them. “Rosemary, help me!”
Rosemary whirled around.
Framed in the mirror was a young woman of around twenty. Her blue-green taffeta was torn and her blonde hair was tumbling from its bun. She beat against the mirror. “Let me out! For the love of God, let me out! Something’s in here with me!”
“It’s Lydia!” Rosemary rushed forward. “We’ve got to help her!”
Puck grabbed her and held her back. “No. Remember the princess!”
From behind Lydia there came the sound of a grunting animal. She whirled around and pressed her back to the mirror. “No! Keep away from me! Keep away!” Then something lashed out and pulled her from view. Peter winced and Rosemary buried her face in Puck’s tunic as the screams and the animal snarls rang through the room.
“We should have helped her!” Rosemary sobbed.
“It was a trap,” said Puck, his hands in her hair. “It is still a trap.”
The figures in the mirrors turned so that they faced away from the ballroom. They started to walk away. Rosemary frowned. Why would they be walking away?
Then a thought jabbed her in the stomach. What if the mirrors were showing what was really in the room? In the mirrors, the characters were closing in on her reflection and the reflections of Peter and Puck. “We’re under attack!”
Peter shivered. He gripped his axe. “I can’t see them, but I can feel them. They’re getting closer!”
Rosemary coughed. The smell of mildew clawed at her lungs.
Puck pulled Peter and Rosemary close to him. His voice rang out. “Attack a young maiden without even the courtesy of letting her see you? Are you not honourable characters?”
At once, the room was filled with angry whispers.
“Coward!”
“Abandoner!”
“No honour in her!”
“Revenge!”
Peter gulped. “You made them mad.”
“I made nothing. They were already mad,” Puck muttered. “Let us move to the doors. I can see these rogues, and there is still a pathway.”
Rosemary glanced at the mirrors. The characters were almost in a circle around them, tracking them as they crept towards the doors.
“Get her!” whispered a voice.
Peter shot a look at the mirror and his eyes went wide. “Rosemary! Look out!” He lunged for her, swinging his axe. There was the sound of ripping paper, and two halves of a bear fell out of the air, its paws raised to claw.
Suddenly Rosemary rose into the air, choking. Peter looked to a mirror for some guidance but was knocked to the ground. Rosemary cried out as something struck her in the back of the head.
Puck rushed forward, transforming in a whirl of green and gold into a giant eagle. The bird’s body was as big as Puck’s had been, and its wings seemed to fill the room. The great talons struck at whatever was holding Rosemary. She crumpled and lay on the floor in a daze.
The eagle swept its huge wings forward, scattering their invisible foes with audible crashes. But in the mirror, Lydia stepped behind Puck and raised a fireplace poker.
Peter shouted a warning, but it was too late. The poker hit the eagle in the temple.
Puck gave a skirling cry and toppled out of the air, catching himself on human hands.
Peter scrambled up, swinging the axe. Around them, characters folded into existence, arms raised.
“Flee!” Puck cried. He gathered up Rosemary and stumbled for the door. Peter followed, staggering backward, swinging the axe to keep the folding people at bay.
At the last mirror in the ballroom, the girl in the horn-rimmed glasses tracked them as they darted past.
They burst through the back doors. Puck carried Rosemary out into the thunderstorm.
Behind them, steady in the buffeting winds, the Zeppelin hovered over the house.
CHAPTER NINE
THE MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
“No, don’t hurt her!”
— Theo Watson
Rosemary dreamt of chrome and Zeppelins, of three children drinking cocoa from melamine cups.
***
“What if we could travel at the speed of thought?” Marjorie pushed her horn-rimmed glasses further up on her nose. “Wouldn’t it be great? We could go anywhere, see all the planets, and not have to worry about spacesuits, rocket ships, and stuff.”
“Yeah, right,” snorted her brother, John. “You know, Marjorie, your flights of fancy are probably the reason the other kids think you’re so weird.”
“I don’t think that’s weird,” said Andrew. “They used to think flying was impossible, or travelling around the world. Who knows? Maybe we could travel at the speed of thought in the future.”
“Why not now?” said Marjorie.
Andrew looked at her. “Okay, maybe that is a little weird.”
Marjorie scowled at him.
***
Rosemary’s dream faded into a distant train whistle.
“Marjorie,” murmured Rosemary. A light rocking and a whispered clickity-clack brought her slowly back to consciousness. She felt weak and warm. Somebody had covered her with a coat. She kept her eyes closed because she knew the world would tilt and reel the moment she opened them. Around her, voices whispered.
“Why did they attack us like that?” Peter’s voice came from just over her head.
“To send us a message,” said Puck, further off, “that they are angry.”
Peter gave a hollow laugh. “That came through loud and clear.”
“Angry enough they care not for the rules,” Puck muttered. Then he perked up. “You seem troubled, young Peter.”
“They tried to kill us!” “
It is more than that.”
“Well ...” Peter said nothing for a moment. Rosemary realized that she was on her back on a cot or a long seat. Peter