Part 21 (2/2)

More, though, than all of these questions and worries and p.r.i.c.kings of new wisdom, Jack and Jill wondered whether the grimy disc that Jill carried really was the Seeing Gla.s.s. And what would happen-what would really happen-if it were not.

So preoccupied were the children that they barely noticed all the people that pa.s.sed them on the road. They did not notice the fat man who was carrying his prize goat in his arms to see the doctor in town, nor the young woman with four baskets of fresh-picked wildflowers to sell at the castle.

They did not notice a man with a round face and pale blue eyes lugging two enormous cases of silks, who eyed them for a moment as he pa.s.sed by. They did not notice an old woman with the face of a baby who hobbled along with a stick and watched them for just a moment too long. They did not even notice when a great cart rattling with bottles of potions and elixirs pa.s.sed, and a man with long black hair and missing teeth peered out at the two children, smiled, and hurried his nag ahead.

Nor did they notice when the road forked and they, without even thinking about it, followed the smaller, lonelier fork that led them under the heavy branches of dark trees. They did not notice when the path became narrower and narrower and narrower. They did not notice that the light was falling, the air was cold, the smell of the pines became sharp like winter.

But they absolutely did notice when the path ended altogether, and they found themselves in a clearing of towering trees, a ramshackle cart parked off to one side, and an enormous stone mansion tucked into the dark pine needles. Three people stood on the steps of the stone mansion, watching Jack and Jill expectantly: a round-faced silk merchant; a dirty, ponytailed snake-oil salesman; and a bent old woman with a baby's face. All three followed the children with eyes so pale they were almost white.

Jack and Jill stopped dead in their tracks.

”You return!” said the old woman. ”How nice.”

”Do you have the Gla.s.s?” asked the silk merchant, stepping down from the stone steps and walking toward them.

”They would be foolish indeed to return without it,” added the ponytailed man, following close behind.

Jack opened his mouth. No sound came out. Jill looked from the old woman to the silk merchant and back again. She stammered, ”You . . . you know each other?”

The three pale-eyed people grinned.

”Know each other? We're siblings!”

Jack closed his eyes tight and shook his head. He opened his eyes again.

”They call us the Others,” said the silk merchant silkily. And something Begehren had said echoed in the children's memories.

”And we have been watching you,” continued the old woman, ”for a long, long time. We thought, perhaps, you were special. That you would, perhaps, be able to get the Gla.s.s. Were you?”

Jack turned to Jill. She took a deep breath, and then she held out the disc, encrusted with Eddie's stomach juices.

”What is that?” the ponytailed man demanded.

”Don't play with us, children,” said the silk merchant, his pale eyes glowing in the dusk. ”We had a bargain. You remember the terms.”

The two men stepped closer to Jack and Jill. The shadow of the great house enveloped them all. Its windows twinkled with yellow candles.

The snake-oil salesman snarled. ”Have you failed us? That is not the Gla.s.s.”

The silk merchant grabbed it from Jill's hands. He turned it over. ”What is this crud on it?”

Jill swallowed. Jack said, ”From the stomach of the Eidechse von Feuer, die Menschenfleischefressende.”

The Others stared at the children. Then the old woman reached for the disc and said, ”Let me see that.” The silk merchant gave it to her, and the Others huddled around. The dusky light, gray and blue and yellow, filtered through the trees. The old woman drew a deep breath, and then began to chant: Mirror, mirror, of the truth, Old in years, long of tooth, Reveal to us your honest hue; s.h.i.+ne to us like you were new!

Around the disc, the three strange figures bowed and hummed. Then they all began to make disgusting gurgling sounds in their throats. Finally, they all spat on the disc. The old woman rubbed it with her elbow.

Suddenly, in the clearing, there was a light much brighter than the dying light of dusk. It shone clear and clean and silver and true out of the small disc.

”Yes . . .” the old woman murmured. ”I think it is . . . It may be . . .”

The silk merchant said, ”We must test it! We must try it!”

The oil salesman was grinning like an idiot and clapping his hands together. ”At last! At last!”

”Come with us,” the old woman said to the children. ”We will try it. And then you shall have your reward!”

Something about the way she said this did not inspire joy in Jack and Jill. They wondered why.

The foyer of the great stone house was grand and bright, with rich carpets on the floor and paintings in gilded frames hanging from the walls.

”You have a lovely home,” Jill said politely.

”Thank you, my dear,” replied the old woman. As she said it, the oil salesman bolted the front door behind them. Jack saw him pocket a large iron key. The old woman said, ”We need some time with the Gla.s.s. To ensure that it is indeed what you say it is. Feel free to look around.”

Jack and Jill watched the three pale-eyed Others disappear through a small door. It shut quietly. The children looked at one another.

”Let's get out of here!” the frog hissed, hidden deep in Jack's pocket.

Jill looked to Jack. ”Maybe, for once, we should listen to him. I don't trust them.”

”Too bad,” said Jack. He gestured at the heavy door, bolted shut. ”They have the key.”

”We can try a window,” said the frog.

”Come on,” Jack gestured. ”Let's just have a look around.”

”I say we start by looking at the windows,” the frog insisted.

They began to explore the house. Each room was different, and each more luxurious than the last. Great beds sat on plush rugs or s.h.i.+ning, polished floors; the wallpaper was a riot of color in one room and a luscious cream in another; grand salons sat silently under towering, painted ceilings.

As they explored each room, the children's nervousness grew. What if it wasn't the Gla.s.s after all? What would the Others do? They wouldn't really kill them, right?

Furthermore, they noticed that the house had no windows.

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