“By all means, come inside, if you yearn for death,” Jinzen said brightly. “I can use the exercise.”
The double doors slammed shut, cutting off escape. Corkscrewing like a twirled ribbon, Jinzen streaked away into the maze of mirrors. For a prolonged moment, multiple reflections of his glittering body stretched across dozens of surfaces, elongating the dragon to impossible dimensions, until he was no longer in view.
“Let’s start by leveling the playing field,” Warren said, rushing past the columns to the nearest mirror, sword raised. At least a dozen reflections of Warren from various angles swung their swords in unison. The blade rebounded off the mirror with a clang.
“Ow!” Warren cried, switching his sword to his less dominant hand so he could shake out his arm. He banged the mirror with the hilt of his sword, then rubbed his free hand against the reflective surface. “I can’t even leave a smudge.”
Returning his sword to his dominant hand, Warren stabbed the mirror twice and slashed it once more without making a scratch. “It’s like steel.”
“It’s probably enchanted glass,” Raxtus said. “Look out!”
With a telltale whoosh, Jinzen arrowed back into view. Warren flattened himself against the mirror as Jinzen streamed by. The dragon’s laughter emanated from all directions.
After the golden dragon zoomed out of view again, Warren staggered away from the mirror, blood spreading across his shoulder. “I feel like I picked up fifty deep paper cuts,” Warren said. “The worst one is on my shoulder.”
“He’s playing with you,” Raxtus said. “Come away from there.”
Warren ran back to the shelter of the colonnade.
“I could use a hand, Kendra,” Raxtus said.
Kendra placed her palm on the dragon’s neck, and prismatic radiance shone from his metallic scales as her power flowed into him. Raxtus breathed a minty mist onto Warren, who sank to his knees.
“That feels good,” Warren said dreamily.
“I’m especially adept with slits and scrapes,” Raxtus said.
Vanessa slapped Warren. “Snap out of it,” she said. “We need you.”
“Right,” Warren said, getting to his feet. He raised a bottle to his lips and upended it. His steps began to wobble, and the arm holding the sword stretched longer than his other one. “This dragon wants to play? I can play too.”
“What do we do?” Kendra asked Raxtus.
“The corners are too tight and the passages too narrow for me to fly in there,” Raxtus said. “Jinzen doesn’t have to worry about wings. Let me see what I can learn on foot. He’s scary fast, but not terribly huge. If I could just get a hold of him . . .”
Wings tucked, Raxtus charged into the maze. Dozens of reflections of the silvery dragon dashed one way or another until Raxtus raced out of view. Fierce laughter resounded through the room, and Kendra heard the crunch of a big collision. A moment later, Raxtus came hurtling from the maze to slam against a nearby column.
“Raxtus!” Kendra cried, running to where the dragon lay curled around the foot of the column. “Are you all right?”
His head swiveled up, eyes not entirely focused. “Great, except for getting hit by a freight train. He has blazing speed and unearthly reflexes. I’m out of my depth. And he uses at least some of the mirrors as cross-dimensional portals.”
“He flies into them?” Vanessa asked.
“And comes out from other ones,” Raxtus said.
“Can you do that?” Kendra asked.
“Not in his playground,” Raxtus said. “He has a major home field advantage.”
“Are you going to remain by the entrance?” Jinzen asked from all directions. “The way you’re currently grouped, I could dispatch all of you with one pass. Come, make a sport of it.”
“What should we do?” Kendra asked.
“Give him the best you have,” Raxtus said. “It’s now or never.”
“If I mention fairy treasure, close your eyes,” Kendra whispered, displaying her ring.
Warren charged into the maze on wobbly legs, sword gripped in two hands.
“Speed potion,” Vanessa whispered.
“I’ll try the same,” Tanu said.
“Give me one too,” Kendra said.
“Remember, after the burst of speed, this mixture will leave you depleted,” Tanu cautioned. He passed Vanessa a potion and handed Kendra one as well. Then he followed Vanessa into the maze, their many reflections overlapping before diverging and vanishing.
Raxtus arched his neck as Kendra placed both hands on the flawless armor of his scales. With his entire body shedding light, his tail swished, and he stood up. “Wow, that’s potent energy. I’m back. What do you need?”
“Can you get me to a spot in the maze with maximum reflections?” Kendra whispered.
“He’s a dragon of light,” Raxtus cautioned. “It may not blind him.”
“Raxtus, could you be blinded by too much light?” Kendra asked.
“Probably, in enough excess,” Raxtus said. “I can’t look directly at the sun.”
“You’re a dragon of light,” Kendra said. “This is the best idea I’ve got.”
Kendra ran into the maze with Raxtus at her side. The strategically angled mirrors threw her reflections everywhere, along with duplicates of Raxtus. In some spots, repetitions of herself stretched outward toward infinity. Most of the mirrors showed true reflections, but occasionally Kendra found herself and Raxtus upside down, or magnified, or refracted into thousands of miniature likenesses.
They reached a portion of the maze where the ceiling and floor were mirrored as well, extending space to forever in all directions. Endless rows of herself and Raxtus repeated outward along unexpected diagonals, and she began to blunder into mirrors.
Kendra caught fleeting glimpses of Jinzen and Tanu at odd angles and from a distance. She reached a pocket of the maze where images of Warren repeated. The reflections of Warren multiplied until she found him on the ground. From the waist down Warren had been squished flat, and teeth had left deep, bloodless impressions in his chest.
“Are you all right?” Kendra asked.
“Fine,” Warren said. “Except I lost my sword, and it might take a minute for my legs to return to their proper shape.”
As Kendra watched, the indentations decreased, and Warren’s legs regained more functional proportions. Raxtus brought a sword in his jaws and dropped it beside Warren.
“Jinzen is unbelievably fast,” Warren said.
