The sun spilled brightly into the tower room. Kya stretched and yawned and rubbed her eyes. She blinked wearily at the window, flopped back down, and buried her face in the pillow.

  A maid knocked at the door. “Five more minutes,” Kya grumbled, but the maid entered anyway. Still tired, the princess rolled out of bed and plopped down at her desk, where the maid was arranging a breakfast tray. Whether she liked it or not, a new day had begun.

  By the time she was fed and dressed, Kya was a great deal more awake. She flounced out of her room in a casual dress and found her tutor in the library. “Good morning,” she curtsied.

  Her tutor bowed slightly and managed to keep his stack of books from falling. “Good morning, Princess Kya. Shall we begin your studies now?”

  Kya’s father passed by them and gave a friendly wave. Then he turned and directed a few more servants in preparation for the ball that took place after Picnic Day. Kya gave him a quick curtsy and nodded at her tutor.

  The day’s lesson plan focused on a history of curses. Kya took her usual seat at her desk, the only one in that corner of the library, and waited for her tutor to set things up. Her eyes wandered over to the door and she sighed. Usually, Saro would show up for a quick visit before his more advanced classes, but he hadn’t come today. He seemed so busy lately.

  Of course, Kya had plenty of things to do herself. While the teacher rattled off the names of famous fairies, commoners, and royals who had cursed and been cursed, Kya diligently wrote each one down. In her head, she started ranking the curses from absolutely terrible to fairly neat and not entirely undesirable. Her tutor was just finishing up his lecture on her seven-times-great grandmother Queen Emeni, who had been cursed by a witch to have hair that grew a foot a year and that could never be cut. When a dragon came to the kingdom, Emeni had been carried off, but she used her hair to bind the beast’s limbs, wings, and mouth while it lay sleeping. The dragon could not break free, and thus Emeni was hailed as a hero. Kya thought that the curse was more on the bad side of the spectrum, but Emeni’s adventure had been pretty cool.

  “And of course,” the tutor went on, “that brings us to the most recent monarch to be cursed: King Tir.”

  Tir the twice-cursed, Kya couldn’t help but think. Her father’s story was familiar to her, so the tutor’s lecture was nothing new. It still made her sad to hear how in his youth, King Tir had been enchanted by a rather mischievous fairy who cursed him to fall in love with the next human he laid eyes on. When he returned home, covering his eyes out of fear that he might see someone, his parents had implored a local wizard to reverse the spell. Unable to undo the fairy’s magic, the wizard settled for the next best thing: making it so that Tir would marry not the first person, but the first princess that he laid eyes on. And of course, he was unlucky enough to see Saro’s crazy mother.

  Well, it wasn’t all bad, Kya figured. The day that the old queen disappeared, the spell had broken and Tir had been able to marry as he wished. And now he was happier. Kya blushed. It was so silly to think of her parents in love! Quickly, she straightened up. Her tutor hadn’t noticed her inattention.

  After an hour’s worth of rambling on about magic frogs, the lesson was finished. Kya couldn’t leave the library quickly enough. She jogged through the castle and into the courtyard, where pairs of armored figures were practicing swordplay. She would have that lesson after lunch, and then embroidery and dancing and music. Gosh, even dinner was paired with a class in etiquette! She wanted to make every second of this free time worthwhile.

  A whistle blew and the figures stopped fighting. Kya watched them doff their armor impatiently. Not one of them was Saro. Confused, Kya caught sight of her father across the yard and weaved her way toward him. He noticed her and waved. “Good morning, Kya,” he smiled.

  “Hi Dad. Did Saro not go to practice today?”

  The king stroked his chin, noticing that his son was not among the students present. “I suppose not,” he frowned. “Messenger!” he called over a servant. “Tell my son I would like to see him right away.”

  The servant nodded and paused. “Your Majesty,” he said, “with all due respect, we have been searching for him since this morning. A search party was sent out when he didn’t show up for class.”

  “Then send out another one! And why wasn’t I notified of this?” The servant nodded quickly and left, and the king sighed. “Boys, always running off to somewhere,” he sighed. “How were your classes, Kya? I certainly hope you went to them.”

  “I did. I learned about curses!”

  He cracked a smile. “Quite an enchanting subject, eh?” A golden mist gathered above his head. Kya squinted at it, and it darted upwards quickly. The king frowned. “Is something the matter?” he asked.

  Kya blinked. The mist was gone. “No, Daddy. Everything’s fine.”

  “Lovely.” He strode towards the castle. “Your mother woke up not feeling well, I’m afraid. Would you like to come visit her with me?”

  “Sure!”

  The father and child made their way into the castle and headed up the stairs, chatting as they went. Kya glanced at one of the windows and saw a patch of golden mist hovering outside. She hesitated, watching it drift to the side. Then it darted out of view.

  Kya’s father noticed her lag behind and paused as well. “Everything all right?” He peered through the window. Then somebody screamed.

  Not wasting a moment, the king drew his sword and rushed down the hallway. “Dad!” Kya screamed, and another shriek pierced the air.

  “Run, Kya!” her father ordered, turning around for a split second while he ran.

  That’s Mom’s room, Kya realized, and a chill seemed to seep through her, freezing her on the spot. Her father burst through the door, and from the other end of the hallway, Kya could see another patch of that golden mist inside of the room, swirling around her frantic mother. It condensed, and she was gone. “Mom! Dad!” she screamed again, and the mist was upon her father. It closed over him like a curtain while he slashed at its intangible form, and then the sword clattered to the ground. He had disappeared.

  The mist hovered at the doorway, regarding Kya with what could have passed as sentience. The princess gulped and realized that she had started running, but she’d been heading towards her parents’ door, not away from it. Outside, somebody screamed, and around the corner, a suit of metal fell. Kya backed away, watching the mist with reverent fear. Then she spun around and ran.

  “Mom! Dad! Saro!” she screamed. Nobody answered, and she dared not look behind her to see how close the mist was to catching up. Kya raced down the stairs, past the Grand Hall, and back into the courtyard. It was empty, except for more mist. It shimmered for a moment, and then advanced.

  Somewhere in the back of Kya’s mind, the words “secret passage” seemed to recall themselves. Kya dashed back towards the Great Hall, where the pursuing mist awaited. She ran at it head on, screaming all the while, and at the last second she dodged to the side and got past it. She shoved the mirror out of the way and tumbled through the hole, slamming the entrance shut behind her. A thin sliver of light told her that it was not completely closed, but she didn’t have time to turn back. She pulled her dress up and ran.

  The passageway ended at a wooden door in the exterior garden, just outside the outer wall. Kya shoved the door open as effectively as she’d closed the one on the way in, and she just managed to squeeze through it to freedom. The lake sparkled ahead, as pristine as always. Kya made a beeline for it. She splashed in and dared to turn around. The mist was gone.

  Gasping and sobbing with relief, Kya knelt down in the water and let it soak into her dress. The ripples cleared, and she could make out her face. Next to it was Saro’s.

  “Saro!” she gasped, and whipped around. No one was there. She breathed a little faster, and looked back at the water. There, plain as day, was her brother’s reflection.

  As Kya proceeded to freak out for the second time that day, the reflection waved its hands frustratedly. “C—m —own!” She jumped back, and ripples washed over her brother, distorting his face and speech into incomprehensible gibberish. Steadying herself, Kya tried to stand still and stop making ripples. The message became clearer. “Calm down.”

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  Kya couldn’t be completely cool with her brother’s independent reflection talking to her through a lake, but she did manage to calm down a little bit. The wind rippled across the lake and the reflection tried to say something else. She concentrated on his mouth. “Duck? Swan?”

  A scream split her focus. Suddenly cold, Kya turned back towards the castle just in time to see an immense cloud of mist rise up from behind the wall. Silhouetted against it was something else. “—our room. Mirror,” the reflection ordered. “Ru—“

  Kya dashed back to the secret passageway, praying that the mist hadn’t noticed her. She pulled the door open and yanked it shut, breaking it free of its jam. Through the small gap that was left open, she watched the mist drift towards the lake. The smaller figure was clearer now—she could see that it was a swan. It circled around the lake once and let out a piercingly mournful cry. Then it folded its wings and dove. When it reached the surface, there was no splash.

  The mesmerization over, Kya turned and jogged back through the tunnel. Her feet squished around in her shoes, leaving a trail of muddy footprints behind her. Well, there wasn’t much time to worry about cleanliness now, she figured. Meeting no one on the way, she headed into her room and shut the window and door, breathing hard. Then she latched both and collapsed onto her bed.

  “You okay now?”

  The mirror was speaking to her. More precisely, Saro’s reflection in the mirror was speaking to her, but it was about as strange as the first explanation. Kya turned around out of habit, but there was nobody there. Her brother sat down on the bed, seemingly right next to her reflection, but on her side of the mirror, he was invisible. “Some morning, isn’t it?”

  Well, it certainly looked like Saro. And it sounded like him, too. Kya stepped off of the bed and watched her reflection step away from Saro’s. “Who are you, and how did you get here? What did you do to my brother?” she glared.

  Mirror-Saro ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, I am your brother. Or part of him, I think. I have no idea how I got here.”

  Kya squinted. “What happened to Mom and Dad and everyone else? Where did that golden mist come from?”

  Mirror-Saro breathed heavily. “Well, I’m sorry to say that I really have no clue what happened after that golden swan dunked—“ He was cut off by a new round of screaming. Kya scrambled back and opened the curtains on her window as much as she dared. Outside, the swan was circling the lake once again, and when it opened its beak, a cry of anguish pierced the air. It sounded so eerily human that Kya shuddered and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the swan was a golden speck headed for the horizon. It grew smaller and smaller, until at last she could only see the lake.

  “Well, at least it’s gone.” Kya turned to her brother, who scratched his head with his left—or was it his right?—hand. “What do you suppose we should do now?”

  Kya’s grimaced. “I don’t know. Everyone in the castle is gone.”

  “I know.”

  “Saro, what’s happening? How did you get there?” She shivered. “What are we going to do?”

  Her brother stood. The slight indentation that marked where he had sat on his side, and only his side, slowly righted itself until it was as smooth as the bedspread in the real world. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “I thought I saw my mother last night.” Kya looked reasonably surprised, and Saro went on. “I went to the cliffs, but your mom was there. She pushed me,” Kya covered her mouth, “and while I was falling, the swan showed up. I don’t know what it did, but instead of hitting the water, we went through it, and then the swan flew back up. I’ve been here ever since.”

  Kya touched the mirror. “That’s terrible.”

  “I’d say you’ve made an accurate statement.”

  Kya looked out the window. “Saro, we have to fix this.”

  “How? You’ve seen what that swan can do. It’ll make you disappear, just like everyone else.”

  “Except you,” she pointed out.

  “Right. But I can’t do anything in here that can help you, see?” He reached over and picked up Kya’s crown on his side of the mirror. Its reflection remained in Saro’s hand while he held it, but when he attempted to toss it in the air, it vanished the second it left his grasp, reappearing on his sister’s head. In the real world, it never moved.

  Kya flashed him a dirty look and frowned. “Okay, so I guess it’s up to me to save everyone.”

  “No, it’s up to you to stay in the castle and keep yourself safe. I’ll go after the swan.”

  Kya crossed her arms, forgetting her fears upon being denied a part in the adventure. “Oh yeah? What are you gonna do to it?”

  “I can fight it when it comes into the mirror. I’ll—”

  Kya had stopped listening. She was staring at a book on the floor, reflected through the mirror. Unlike everything else in the room, it had no real-world counterpart. “Saro?”

  “—I’m going to kick that swan and—oh, what?”

  “Saro, what does that book say?”

  He looked down and noticed it. “Kya, where did you get this?”

  “It’s not mine! I’ve never seen it before.”

  “Okay, okay, gee! It’s just that it has your name on it.”

  Kya’s eyes widened. “Saro, that book isn’t on my side. Read what it says!”

  Now Saro looked surprised. He swooped down, picked up the book, and flipped it open. Quickly, he began reading. “Once upon a time, a king called Tir and a queen named Harmony had a baby, and they named her Kya. On the first of May the child entered the world—Kya, this is all about you!”

  “Who wrote it?”

  Saro flipped through it, studying the cover with excitement. “It doesn’t say,” he finally frowned, and then looked up. “Whoa, where did all those come from?”

  “All those what?” pressed Kya.

  “Those books! They’re everywhere! Look, I can’t believe I didn’t notice them before!” As Saro spoke, he began to disappear, slowly fading so that Kya’s reflection stood all alone. “Argh, if I could just reach…Kya, do you think—“

  “Saro, you’re disappearing!”

  Instantly, her brother snapped back into focus. “Wow, that was weird.”

  “What happened?”

  Saro stuck a finger in his mouth and drew a circle on the mirror. “Gross, Saro! What the heck?”

  “Just gimme a sec—I’m trying to draw something.” With another glob of spittle, the prince painted a stick figure and some squares. He added a few scribbled details and said, “There.”

  “I hope you clean that. That’s my mirror you’re spitting on,” Kya complained.

  “Just look at the picture, okay?” He pointed at the circle and ignored Kya’s glare. “I can see you and your room. It’s like I’m in it, but this place is weird. I can walk around just fine,” and he paced in a circle to demonstrate, “but I can also do this. Am I disappearing again?”

  “Yes, Saro!”

  “Relax; it’s okay, see?” He returned with full opacity. “There’s a whole bunch of stuff in here, in the back. It’s not like the back where you walk backwards, but it’s Back. Another back.” He pointed to the drying spittle square, and Kya squinted in confusion. “It’s weird. I couldn’t see it until I picked up your book, but I wonder if I can…” He started to fade.

  “Saro!”

  “Okay, okay, gee. I’m being careful.” He held up another book. Backwards, the title read Historie of the Northe Tower. “I snagged this off one of the bookshelves. I wonder how far back they go?”

  Kya wrinkled her nose. “It has funny spelling. Does this one say who wrote it?”

  Saro looked it over. “No.” He opened it. True to its title, it seemed to be all about the tower room that Kya was in. Saro stepped back just a little, not enough to vanish entirely, and glanced over the collection of books that appeared. If their covers were to be believed, he had access to information on every flagstone, bug, and servant that had ever been in that part of the castle. Still, the bookshelves stretched on. He couldn’t even remember what spot he’d taken the book he was holding from, there were so many volumes.

  The book on the North Tower trembled in his grasp. Saro let it go in surprise, and it flapped to its slot in the shelf. “Kya?” He returned to the mirror and relayed the latest piece of news. “I sure wish the library at home could do that.”

  Kya frowned for a moment. “If it puts the books back by itself, maybe it also gives them to you. Why don’t you try asking it for one?”

  “Worth a shot.” Saro drifted back to the bookshelves and looked up at their vastness. “Show me the golden swan,” he ordered.

  There was a creak as the books on the shelves shuddered and jolted. One detached itself from high up on the shelf and floated over to Saro. He looked it over, dismayed to see that it was not really a book, but rather a thin wooden card. On it was a picture of a book with the golden swan on the cover. He showed it to Kya. “It didn’t work.”

  “Then what are you holding?”

  “I asked for a something about the swan and the only thing that showed up was this. It’s just a card, though. There was no book.”

  Kya’s frown deepened. “Maybe there is a book. Maybe…maybe that’s just a placeholder for it. Like to say that they have it, but it’s being checked out at the moment.”

  “Kya. This is a fake library inside of a mirror. Who else would be checking out the books?”

  She shivered. “I don’t know.” Then she put her hands on her hips. “Ask for a book about Kari and Amie’s house.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it, Saro! I have an idea.”

  He flickered out and came back with another card. “This one didn’t work, either, see.”

  “Good, now ask for a book about the dress I’m wearing.”

  “Kya, what?”

  “Ugh, just do it, won’t you?”

  “Gee, you don’t have to be so pushy about it.” He rolled his eyes and faded out. “Stupid little sisters. Here’s your book.”

  Kya smirked. “I think I’ve got it.” Saro raised an eyebrow. “Okay, the dress worked, but Kari’s house didn’t. We’d need to try more stuff to be sure, but what if the library only shows you books about things that are close to you? Like, if you wanted the book on Kari’s house, you’d need to get really close to it before you ask.”

  “So we would need to get really close to the golden swan if we wanted to find out about it.”

  “No, I would need to get really close to it. You’re going to stay here.”

  Kya was aghast. “Yes too I’m coming with you. You need me!” She crossed her arms. “Saro, you’re stuck in a piece of glass right now. You couldn’t do anything to that swan, even if you wanted to, and you can’t stop me from coming with you. Besides, you need me for this.”

  “I’m beginning to think you’re enjoying my predicament.” He rolled his eyes and glared. “Look, who had Hero Training class, me or you? I’m older than you are, so I know more about this stuff. If you start crying the moment your dress gets muddy for the first time, don’t blame me. Besides, there’s no way for us to talk to each other unless we happen to find a random puddle, so you won’t be able to ask me for help.”

  Kya’s eyes gleamed. “What if I used this?” She produced a handheld mirror, showing Saro inside. “We can use it to communicate while we’re traveling there.”

  Saro frowned, searching for a way to protest. “Fine,” he finally decided. “You have to change out of that dress, though.”