Chapter Text
“Where are we?” Segundus asked, exhausted. “And for some reason I also want to ask: why are we here?”
They had been walking the King's Roads for at least three hours since they lost their mirrors and any understanding of the direction.
"It feels, and it makes me very uneasy, as if it might be a start of something fateful," Childermass said quietly.
"This is unusually pessimistic of you," retorted Segundus. "Surely, we would have known something about such an event if it were determined to happen. You saw nothing like it in the Book."
"We haven't deciphered it all, though."
"Or your cards would at least have made a hint," the schoolmaster continued and asked anxiously right away, "They haven't, have they?"
"No, they haven't. And yet, I'm still… I would even say, afraid," admitted Childermass.
Segundus squeezed his hand.
"I feel more magic around now than I've ever felt on the Roads, so I can't but agree."
***
At the beginning, it was an ordinary trip to the King's Roads, but when after an hour or so of sketching and making notes Segundus reached for his pocket mirror to come back to Starecross, he found it cracked in the frame. A lightest touch, and it crumbled to the ground.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, clumsy as always," he apologized. "I must have broken it when I walked into that pillar."
"Haven't you only hit your head, but not your pockets?" Childermass carefully tilted Segundus's head by the chin to have a better view of the injury, then kissed the lump with even more care.
"I don't remember, really. We'll have to use your mirror."
Childermass put his hand in his inner pocket to provide the mirror and went pale.
"You haven't forgotten it, right?" Segundus whispered.
"No, it's here," Childermass took it out. "But it's broken too."
"There was no chance it could have broken. You are careful."
"And it was next to the firm memorandum book. Well, maybe it has cracked before I put it in the pocket. Don't worry, let's find another way out."
They followed their intuition, which was enhanced by the navigation spell, and found something that felt like a mirror. But it didn't open for them.
Childermass cursed under his breath, and they went to find another. But the next three or four attempts had the same result.
They repeated the navigation spell, and then those they didn't normally use, and felt none of their magic around them. Cold inside, they put protection spells on each other (same feeling), and clasped hands.
***
Now Segundus couldn't get Childermass's hypothesis from his head, and it made him even more tired, so he suggested they sit for a bit on a low stone wall to have some rest.
One of them (or maybe both of them) started a long kiss, full of trembling anxiety, hope, and exhaustion, as if they wanted to take as much of each other before they wouldn't be able to do it any more.
They were still holding hands, just in case.
They stopped suddenly when they heard a roar of wind.
"Seems close," Childermass said. "We have to find a hiding place.'
Neither of them had experienced changes of weather on the King's Roads, but it was mentioned in Strange's notes and in works of other magicians, so they weren't surprised much.
Either one of the spells or Segundus's inherent sense of direction brought them to a small building, that looked like a tiny church. It had no doors to shut, but the stone walls were sturdy and windowless, and it looked suitable for a cover.
"So it's not navigation that fails," Segundus hypothesised. "It's the mirrors?"
"As if someone doesn't want us to leave," Childermass answered gravely.
Segundus shivered and cuddled closer.
"We shouldn't sleep. It's not Fairie, but dangerous nonetheless," he said wistfully.
"Let's tie our hands together, just in case," Childermass suggested, and they did it immediately with a length of red yarn.
They waited for the storm to come, but it didn't. After an hour of battling sleep away, the magicians stood up from the cold stone floor, stretched with effort and risked going outside. The weather was fair, if you can say so about the empty grey sky and permanent chill of the Roads.
"I wish I believed in prayers," sighed Segundus.
"I rather wish they worked regardless of your belief," Childermass muttered.
"We can try asking Uskglass to help us," the schoolmaster suggested.
Childermass hummed, considering the idea, closed his eyes and mouthed something. Segundus looked at him with worry.
They waited for five or so minutes of nothing happening, and without a word started to the closest bridge.
Suddenly, Segundus exclaimed, "Do you see that? It's a mirror!"
But the other magician didn't see it and was rather distracted by a shadow in the corner of his eye. They pulled each other in opposite directions, their hands unclasped, the yarn dissipated, and once there was no connection between them, everything went dark.