The spell didn’t take much effort. Merlin heard another click and quickly tested the safe’s door. He breathed a sigh of relief when the safe door swung open. He looked into the safe and saw several bags and a large box. Not sure what was in either of them, and not wanting to steal anything besides the mirror pieces, he glanced inside the box first since it was more likely to hold the pieces. After all, if the pieces were in a bag they would probably just end up breaking even more.
As he suspected, the mirror pieces were in the large box. He was about to pick them up when he decided that he couldn’t resist. He had to see what was in the sacks. Opening one up, he glanced inside. Once he saw what was inside of it, he almost dropped the sack.
Gems of various colors and sizes were in the sack. It had to contain millions of dollars' worth of diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires he thought. “Oh, my goodness,” he muttered. Putting the sack back, he picked up the box with the mirror pieces. “Ugh,” he said as he realized the box was heavier than he expected. He wouldn’t be running anywhere with this box. He really should have exercised more.
Merlin staggered down the hallway back the way he had come. He was amazed everything was going as smoothly as they had gone. He had been sure something terrible was going to happen. As if sensing his thoughts, he heard Ms. White’s voice, “Let’s check the office. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they were outside.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” Merlin said. Thinking furiously, he muttered a spell he had come up with on the ride to get to the business.
“Give me the power,
To run for an hour
Away from this place,
And to hide my face.”
Merlin kept chanting as he ran until the spell took effect. Suddenly, although he was bone tired, he had enough energy to run through the building and out the back door. Okay, maybe part of it was adrenaline, but most of it was the spell. Either way, he didn’t think he would like the results if they caught him.
As he was at the back door, he heard the shouts of several angry men and one furious Ms. White. Yep, they had definitely found out the mirror pieces were gone. And yes, they were definitely not happy about it.
By the time he had reached the car, he could hear both his friend shouting for him to hurry and get into the car and the angry men and Ms. White yelling at him to stop. It didn’t take a genius to know which group he should listen to. Hopping into the car, he said, “Let’s go.” As if they needed his advice.
Mr. Prince tore out of the parking lot. At least they would have a head start, Merlin thought. It would take a minute for Ms. White and her companions to get to a car and start following them.
Merlin half expected to hear police cars. Hopefully, Ms. White wouldn’t want the cops involved. At least he hoped. Mr. Prince drove back the way they had come, back to the cabin in the woods. That was understandable for several reasons. The most important thing was that Ruth was still waiting for them there.
At first, he thought they had gotten clean away. It didn’t occur to Merlin for a few minutes that they might have a problem. “Mr. Prince, I have a question. If you know where Ms. White is all the time. Doesn’t that mean she also knows where you are?”
The car slowed for a second. Apparently, Mr. Prince hadn’t thought of that. “That’s true. We need to make it quick once we get there,” he said. “We probably won’t have too long before they find us after we stop.”
Frank suddenly spoke up, “Why don’t we use the mirror right now everyone?”
“That’s a good idea,” Lucas said. “Start with Frank.”
Nodding, Merlin carefully pulled out one of the biggest pieces. Even so, he managed to cut his fingers when Mr. Prince made a quick turn. “Okay Frank, Lucas. When I say so, I want you both to look in the mirror and think about my words.”
Frank nodded, “Okay.” He then moved and got cheek to cheek with Lucas so they could both see themselves in the mirror piece.
Lucas said, “Will do.”
Preparing himself, Merlin began the words he had prepared for Frank and Lucas.
“Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
A friend and not some weird freak,
Change back to what you used to be.”
It was hard to concentrate in the moving car, but somehow he managed. Ignoring the pressure, he continued with the next two stanzas.
“Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
A friend and not some weird freak,
Change back to what you used to be.
Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
A friend and not some weird freak,
Change back to what you used to be.”
Merlin watched Frank as he sat staring into the mirror. Amazingly, his scarred face began to change. As the last word was spoken, there was a burst of pressure and a feeling of something being released. Glancing at Lucas, he noticed that Lucas’s claws were changing back into normal fingernails. Within seconds, both of them had returned to what they looked like previously.
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“Dang,” Merlin muttered. “That took a lot out of me. Okay, you’re next Mr. Prince,” he said.
“While I do thank you for the thought, I doubt I should take my eyes off the road,” Mr. Prince said.
Merlin felt like an idiot. Okay, maybe he should have thought through that idea a little longer before making the suggestion. Then again, he was tired. “Okay. As soon as we reach the cabin we can try to break the curse on you and Ruth.”
No one mentioned they might not have time to do that. Ruth would be underground most likely. Maybe they could reach her and get them both changed back before Ms. White and his friends showed up. What would they do after that, however? He would be the only one with powers against Ms. White and the seven people with her. Also, he still needed to get back home to use the mirror piece on his friends.
Considering what might happen, Merlin decided to take the precaution of putting a mirror piece inside his backpack. He was tempted to hide another piece in the car but decided against it. He didn’t want pieces of the mirror floating around everywhere. It would probably be safest to keep the pieces together as much as possible.
By the time they reached the cabin, Merlin had come up with a variation of the mirror spell and was ready to cast it as soon as they found Ruth. It then occurred to him that it might be hard to do in the cave. There wasn’t much light there and it would be hard to see the mirror. Even if Ruth could see in the dark, Mr. Prince probably couldn’t.
Mr. Prince stopped the car in front of the cabin this time so they didn’t have to walk. Getting out of the car, they ran inside. Frank was already yelling before they were inside, “Ruth! Ruth!”
As they got closer to the cellar door, they could see Ruth waiting at the top of the steps. She didn’t look good. Maybe she needed more blood. Or maybe that was how she looked during the day. Pushing such thoughts aside, he motioned for Mr. Prince and Ruth to stand in front of the mirror.
While Mr. Prince seemed to feel a little apprehensive about standing cheek-to-cheek with Ruth, he did so anyway. Merlin hadn’t really thought much about it since Frank and Lucas had squeezed cheek to cheek when they looked into the mirror.
After all, it wasn’t that big of a mirror piece. With Ruth, however, well, she did look really hungry. Oh yeah, no worries there, right? Hopefully, he would be able to finish the spell before hunger overcame her and she decided Mr. Prince looked like a tasty treat. Merlin ignored such thoughts and began the spell again.
“Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
Friends who stand there cheek to cheek
Change back to what you used to be.”
Merlin felt the pressure slam into him. Apparently, the magic didn’t appreciate him using almost the exact same spell. Ignoring the feeling, he shoved on.
“Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
Friends who stand there cheek to cheek
Change back to what you used to be.
Listen to the words I speak
And gaze upon what I do see,
Friends who stand there cheek to cheek
Change back to what you used to be.”
After the second stanza, he was sweating. By the end of the third, his head ached, and he couldn’t really see that well. Then, suddenly, the pressure was released.
Merlin collapsed to the ground. Ruth had begun to change during the second stanza, as had Mr. Prince. By the end of the spell, Ruth looked back to normal. Mr. Prince looked younger and younger until he appeared to be only thirty or forty years old.
Staggering upright, he was about to ask the two how they felt when Ms. White and her friends arrived. The clip-clop of their boots on the wooden porch warned them they were not alone anymore. At least they had time to break the curse on Ruth and Mr. Prince.
Speaking of Mr. Prince, he stepped forward in front of Merlin and his friends. Ms. White came to a stop in front of the door. Seven ugly bearded faces peeked through the door around her. None of the faces came any higher than her shoulder. Everyone stared at the eight figures, struck by the surreal image standing in front of them.
“Greetings,” Mr. Prince said. “It’s been a long time.”
One of the short men pushed past Ms. White and stood with his hands on his hips, “Indeed it has. I see you look different. How might that be?”
Mr. Prince said, “As you might have felt, things have changed. Do you really want to have this fight right now?”
Slowly, the other short men filed into the cabin, seeming to fill it up with their presence. They then stared at Ms. White, as if waiting for her to decide what to do.
Ms. White seemed speechless as if she had never expected what had actually happened. She looked at the short men around her, and then at the children. Finally, she looked at Mr. Prince.
“The Mirror of Seven Sins has been broken. It is up to you what will happen next,” Mr. Prince said.
“No, it’s not,” one of the short men said, grabbing a lamp and throwing it at Mr. Prince.
The other short men started attacking a moment later. Well, one of them didn’t, and instead hung back and watched, looking quite bored. That was fine with Merlin. If he was too lazy to take part in the fight, then that was one less person to fight.
“Give me your magic baubles,” one of the short men said, grabbing at Merlin. “I deserve them. You made them because of our mirror. Now give them to me,” he said, tearing at Merlin’s clothes.
Since it didn’t look like the short greedy man was trying to hurt him, he decided to give him what he wanted. Tugging out one of the magic items, he threw it at the short greedy guy.
He imagined the words he had spoken the night he picked up the cocooned fly and said them again in his mind.
“Instead of cocooning this fly,
Make the webs cocoon this bad guy.”
Just as he had intended, the webs expanded and wrapped up his attacker. While it might not hold him long unless Merlin kept on concentrating, he would at least be slowed down while trying to get out of the webbing.
That gave him long enough to look around the room. One of the short men who was quite a bit more round than all the others were attacking Frank while saying something about “How dare you to make me miss a meal!” Really, that was what he was worried about? Luckily, he was getting in the way of one of his friends who was also attacking Frank. That one went from muttering to shouting insults, and actually seemed to be frothing at the mouth.
“Okay,” Merlin said out loud. “That is one angry guy.”
Ruth and another one of the short men were staring at each other when he asked, “Why didn’t you give me your power? I loved your power. It was so nice. I could have used that much better than you did.”
Merlin had been about to try another spell when he realized what the envious short man had said. “You can pass the curse to someone else?” He said in surprise. Why hadn’t Mr. Prince told them that?
Pushing aside such thoughts, he pulled more enchanted objects to hurl at the remaining men attacking them. The fight became chaotic after that. Even the lazy one joined the fight after the tide started to turn against the seven short men. Finally, as if by some silent signal, the short men dragged their injured friends down into the cavern and away from the fight.
None of them were in good enough shape to chase after the seven short men, but that was probably for the best. If they had power over the rocks like Mr. Prince seemed to think, then maybe it was wise to let them escape.
Speaking of Mr. Prince, he didn’t look good. In fact, he looked pretty bad. Blood covered his face. Ms. White was standing over him with blood on her hands. She stared from her hands to Mr. Prince and began to cry. Silently, she sank to her knees and bowed down over Mr. Prince. When she bent over and kissed Mr. Prince’s forehead, Merlin felt a great pressure sweep over the room.
Merlin looked at Ms. White. Had she just broken the curse on herself without any help from the mirror at all? Was that even possible? Was Mr. Prince going to be alright?