Daro got the mirror out of the sealed hall without breaking it. That was the first thing he intended to mention when Vess arrived.
The second was how heavy it was.
He leaned the tall frame against his handcart in the alley. Its hinged silver shutter covered the glass. An instruction on the frame read: Lift the shutter. Show your face.
The hall had been closed since the old fae court fell. Vess had offered to cancel Daro’s gambling debt in exchange for its mirror. Daro had once made a living juggling at court dinners. Since the dinners ended, he had spent more time losing money than catching things.
Vess was late.
Daro lifted the shutter.
His face appeared, pale and sweaty. Then the glass cleared, showing a hall lit by small blue lamps. He could smell smoke.
He looked away. The hall remained. He lowered the shutter. Gone.
He tried it again. Opened with a face, closed with the shutter. The hinge and handle were on this side of the frame.
He could leave it alone until the buyer came. Instead he crouched through.
Inside, the floor was gray with ash. The opening behind him still showed his cart and the alley. It was a narrow door now, not a reflection. He could see the shutter’s edge outside, beyond his reach unless he climbed back through.
A woman stepped from beside a blue lamp.
“You aren’t the court,” she said.
“No court left.”
She gripped his sleeve. “Which year?”
He told her.
Her hand dropped.
“Seven years,” she said.
Farther down the hall, an older man stood at a barred gate. A tall shape moved behind it.
“Aven,” the man called. “Keep him near the door.”
“I can keep myself there,” Daro said.
He meant to. Already he regretted the step inside.
The woman, Aven, showed him names cut into the wall. Beside each was the reason for a banishment: refusing a levy, sheltering a rival, mocking a judge. One reason said only disrespect.
“The court put us here,” she said. “We were told the mirror would be opened at the end of our sentences.”
“They didn’t leave it where anyone would find it.”
“So I see.”
The older man introduced himself as Neret, keeper of the inner hall. He had been sent here for losing a court ledger. His work now was keeping the tall creature away from the other prisoners.
“That one?” Daro pointed.
“The Gatherer. It served the court. Brought people through. It would like to go back to that work.”
The shape behind the gate leaned close. Its arms were thin enough to pass between the bars. Neret moved his hand away.
“Close the outside shutter if it reaches your door,” he said. “It can use an opening as easily as you.”
Daro looked toward the alley.
Vess had arrived. He stood beside the cart, dressed much too well for a man handling stolen goods. He did not cross the threshold.
“Found them?” he asked.
Daro felt Aven’s grip return to his sleeve.
“You knew people were here?”
“Certain useful people. Bring them out. The debt goes away.”
“Their sentences ended.”
“Then they need somewhere to work.”
Vess held up a roll of papers. Daro recognized the kind. His own debt had been written on one: service until payment, terms chosen by the creditor.
“Seven years for them,” Daro said.
“Whatever their work is worth.”
Aven let go of his sleeve.
“I’m going to the harbor,” she told Vess. “My family is there.”
“Your family may have moved.”
“Then I’ll find out.”
Vess reached for the frame. “Bring her through, Daro. Don’t make this difficult.”
Behind Neret, the gate shook. The Gatherer had begun pulling a bar loose.
“If you want to leave,” Neret told them, “leave now.”
“Come too,” Aven said.
“There are people down the other halls. I have to warn them.”
Daro looked from the gate to the outside shutter. If Vess took the mirror, he could open it whenever he pleased. He could offer people escape on terms worse than their prison, or let the Gatherer loose to fetch them.
“What if I break it?” Daro asked.
Neret looked at him.
“Then our way out is broken.”
“But that thing stays here.”
“So do we.”
The gate shook again. Aven took a step toward the door. She had chosen.
“I can’t ask everyone,” Daro said.
“No,” Neret told him. “And I can’t choose for all of them.”
There was no kind answer waiting in the blue light.
Daro crouched through first. Vess tried to catch his collar. Daro struck his wrist and kept one hand on the shutter handle.
“Aven. Now.”
She came through, ducking under Vess’s arm. Behind her, Neret braced the loose bar with both hands. The Gatherer was still beyond the inner gate.
Daro shut the silver panel.
The alley smelled of wet stone instead of smoke.
Vess drew a short club from his coat.
“Open it.”
Daro could not pull the heavy cart away while defending the frame. He could leave the mirror and run. Vess would have what he wanted.
Aven knocked the club arm sideways. It struck the wall. Vess shoved her back and reached for the shutter again.
Daro pulled the iron pin from the cart handle. He lifted the silver panel with one hand and struck the glass with the other.
One blow. Two.
The surface broke into bright scraps. For a moment, a blue lamp appeared in each. Then the lamps went out.
Vess stood with the club raised. Daro held the iron pin between them. Aven picked up a fallen brick.
“It’s gone,” she said. “You can’t buy it now.”
Vess looked at the broken frame, then at the brick.
“The debt isn’t gone.”
“I know,” Daro said.
The collector backed out of the alley. He did not forgive the money. He did not need to. Daro would have to deal with it somewhere other than here.
Aven bent over a shard. It showed only her hand.
“Neret is still there,” she said.
“Yes.”
“The others.”
“Yes.”
She put the shard down. Daro did not ask her to tell him he had done the right thing.
From the street came the call of a ferry seller. Morning boats were leaving for the harbor.
Aven asked where to buy a ticket. Daro pointed. She counted coins from a purse she had carried through seven years of prison and walked toward the voice.
He went the other way, toward a lodging house that charged by the night. He had enough for one night. Tomorrow Vess would begin looking for him.
At the corner he turned back. Aven was arguing over the fare, alive and impatient. The cart stood empty in the alley behind her. Daro kept walking.
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