Book One – Chapter 1

Guided by the pendulum, they moved deeper into the spiralling labyrinth of mirrors.

The only sign of any other life was a singular corpse: an avian beast, impaled high upon a monolith and half-decayed. Yves could not tell whether it had been a wild creature or a familiar, or perhaps even a Worldbender wizard. He had been warned that this place distorted the senses of both beasts and wizards, unravelling instinct and reason alike.

As they passed beneath it, the creature’s feathers rustled. The movement was slight, almost graceful. Not because there was any life in them, but because where the avian had fallen, wind and heat refracted through the glass and rose in warped currents. Yves halted. For a moment, he only stared at the torn body, at the dark blue feathers lifting and straining upward with each distorted current that moved through them. It seemed as though they were trying to rise with the wind, still answering a logic that no longer applied to the dead.

Yves’ right hand slid toward the inner pocket of his undercoat, reaching for somethi_ng that was not there.

Midnight stopped and turned her head toward him. Her stare cut through the layered reflections.

Yves became aware that she was watching him. He tore his eyes from the avian corpse and lowered his hand. Then he turned his attention back to the pendulum and resumed his pace behind her. Behind them, the feathers shuddered once more before settling into stillness; the movement so faint that it may well have been his imagination.