The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen by Delia Sherman Page B

use wearing yourself to a thread over it.”
    “You don’t know that,” I protested.
    “I do so. Can you call to mind a single quest that ended before its set time? Of course not. So stop fretting and go to bed. Unless I’m much mistaken, you’ve got school tomorrow.”
    Next day, I skipped lunch to sit on the back stairs and fret without interruption or question. When the horn blew, I went to Diplomacy, where I did my best to pay attention while the Diplomat talked about the difference between bargains you have to keep and bargains you can fudge a little.
    When I looked up from taking notes, Tiffany was glaring at me meaningfully.
    Obviously, summoning Bloody Mary was a bargain I had to keep.
    When the last horn blew, I headed to the library to look for maps of New York Between.
    Espresso cornered me on the stairs. “What’s happening, man?”
    “Nothing. I have to go to the library.”
    “No, you don’t. You have to come with me.”
    Espresso speaking Village I could ignore. Espresso speaking plain English meant business. I put on my coat and followed her outside.
    Fortran was on the swings again, kicking at a maple branch. Stonewall and Danskin were lounging against the iron fence. Mukuti was playing hopscotch. When she saw us, she ran out of the grid and threw her arms around me.
    “You missed lunch,” she said into my shoulder. “We were worried.”
    “I had to do something. No big deal.” I wiggled uncomfortably. “Mukuti, you can let go now.”
    Mukuti stepped back. “Sorry.”
    Everybody gathered around me. “You think we’re not hep to your jive?” Espresso asked. “You’re way off-beat, man. We want to know why. Say we’re curious. Say we’re your friends. They’re both true.”
    I looked around at the circle of faces. Even Fortran looked serious for once. “I can’t tell you much,” I said apologetically. “There’s a kind of geas involved.”
    Stonewall shrugged. “So tell us what you can. We won’t ask questions.”
    I wanted to believe him. I did believe him. I licked my lips. “Okay. Here it is. I have to find the Mermaid Queen’s Magnifying Mirror before the Winter Solstice.”
    Fortran gave me a grin I could have read by. “Is that all? That’s easy. It’s in Riverside Park.”
    I liked Fortran. He was smart, and he put his whole heart into everything he did. But he lied. And this was just the kind of thing he could practically be relied on to lie about.
    “I don’t believe you,” I said. “You’ve never been inside a Park in your life.”
    The grin dimmed. “I have so,” Fortran protested. “I’ve been there lots of times. I won an acorn off an oak dryad once. Wanna see?” He unzipped one of Backpack’s pockets and produced an acorn. It was battered and worm-eaten. “Wicked, huh?”
    Stonewall picked it up, examined it, put it back in Fortran’s hand. “So not impressed.”
    “Okay, I picked it up on Riverside Drive,” Fortran admitted. “But I do know where the mirror is. This goblin’s been howling. Everybody’s heard it that lives on Riverside Drive.” He shot me a look. “You can ask anybody. Howl, howl, howl all night, every night. Nobody’s got any sleep since before the Equinox.”
    “What’s that got to do with the Mermaid’s mirror?” Mukuti asked reasonably.
    “Well, a bunch of the guys got fed up and snuck into Riverside Park to shut it up. They heard what the goblin was muttering about between howls.”
    “’I’ve got the Mermaid Queen’s Magic Mirror, and now I know everything?’” I asked sarcastically.
    “No-o. It was something about glass beads and a nymph.” He paused. “ And a magic mirror.”
    We looked at each other. “That’s it?” Danskin said. “That’s your big scoop?”
    “There couldn’t be that many mirrors in the Park,” Fortran explained patiently. “What else could the goblin be talking about?”
    “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Stonewall said.
    “I do,” Espresso said unexpectedly.