Free

Iris

I wake up to a sky streaked with pink, red and gold and the thunk of arrows hitting wood. I sit up as Cressida reloads her bow and aims at the trunk of an apple tree, then sends it flying barely a centimetre from the first.

I stand up and wander towards her, then sit down on a tree stump. Sky is curled up at the other side of the clearing with her back to us, but I don't need to see her face to know she's asleep.

"Do you really think we can trust her?" says Cressida quietly. She's looking at Sky too, her features curled into a worried frown.

"I'd know if she was up to something," I reassure her. "Trust me."

Cressida sighs and turns round to face the tree again, raising her bow to her shoulder. An arrow soars towards the branches, plunging right into the juicy centre of a plump red apple. A second one flies towards another.

"It's not you I don't trust," she says through gritted teeth, spearing yet another apple. I sigh, reading her mind.

"Can you blame me?" she says defensively. "She tried to kill us!"
Crunch. Another arrow. Another apple.

"She saved our lives!"

Crunch.
"Not for us. She said it herself. It was for the mirror."
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
She raises her bow again and aims carefully. This time the arrow slices straight through the stalk of an apple above us, sending it falling to the ground. Cressida catches it in her left hand and takes a bite.

"Not bad," a voice remarks. "Last bit was a bit showy, but all in all you're a pretty good archer."

Cressida and I swing round to see Sky standing a couple of metres behind us, watching us with a strange smile on her face. Bitter thoughts spiral from her mind towards me. She heard every word.

"I can't blame you, I suppose," Sky leans against a tree trunk and studies her fingernails. "Isn't that a waste of arrows?"

Cressida clears her throats awkwardly and places her foot on the trunk of the apple tree, stretching towards a low branch, preparing to climb.

"Allow me," says Sky smoothly. She flicks her wrist and the apples and arrows float gently to the ground.

I flinch at her thoughts, sour and accusing.

"Sky..." I say quietly. "Give us a chance- we've only just met you!"

Silence hangs oppressively in the air, tingling with tension.

"So how does that mirror work?" asks Sky abruptly. I clear my throat and start talking. Anything to break the icy awkwardness.

"We have to wait until noon. That's the only time the magic will work. When the sun's at its highest point, we have to hold the mirror to the light and let the rays reflect off the glass onto any surface. Then we think of the place we wish to go, and the sunlight we direct becomes a portal. All we have to do is walk through."

"A little mirror can do that..." murmurs Cressida in wonder. She pulls the mirror out of her satchel and looks into the misted glass. Sky reaches for it too, but Cressida's fingers tighten around the handle. Just for a split second, but long enough for Sky to notice. Blushing, Cressida hands it over.

"I'm sorry..." she whispers.

Sky looks at the mirror, but I know that she's not really seeing it. Her lips tighten. She tilts her chin upwards and faces us, and the eyes that meet mine are shadowed. As I look into them, a memory surfaces, blurred and distorted by pain...

Glittering blue wings.

A little fairy girl smiling up at me.

A sudden, terrifying surge of power in my hands...

"Sky- What's that? Sky, what are you doing?"

"Trust me, Lila, it's completely fool-proof. Nothing can go wrong-"

The sweet, happy face suddenly taken over with fear...

A blinding flash of blue-

"Stop it!" Sky shrieks. I blink and drag myself back to the present to Sky glaring at me, pale and breathing unevenly. Her blue eyes are dark with anger and fear. "Stop reading my memories!"

"I'm sorry," I manage to say. I'm shaking from the power of that one, unformed memory. "I can't help the visions...they just happen...when someone with me feels something really strongly..."

"What did you see?" she yells, making me jump. She suddenly drops the mirror and shoves me hard against a tree, and I feel the coldness of a knife at my throat.

"Stop it!" cries Cressida, and I see her draw an arrow on her bow, but a flick of Sky's free hand sends her flying to the other end of the clearing. She crashes into another tree and crumpled at the foot of it, unconscious. The arrow goes off course and lands in the tree trunk a few inches from my face.

The sudden hatred I feel from Sky combined with the power of my vision leaves me too weak to fight. I can only look at Sky, wild-eyed, her breath coming in sharp hisses. I know that the memory I just saw was something private. Something horrible that happened to Sky once that she buried deep in the back of her mind. So horrible that it haunts her mind every day. Someone seeing that, even just a glimpse, must have pushed her over the edge.

"I don't know..." I croak. "It wasn't clear at all... I only saw a little bit of it... just a little fairy girl... and a flash of blue light..."

Sky stands frozen. Then she moves away from me and makes a sudden slashing movement with her hand. I feel myself hurtle through the air and land beside Cressida with a jolt. Pain explodes at the back of my head, and dark spots dance in my vision as I watch Sky pick up the mirror and run, away from us, and away from any last traces of our shaky alliance.

I close my eyes and let the darkness pull me away.