Part 23 (1/2)

The old woman slid up to Jack and lifted her face to his. ”You have an hour to make the Gla.s.s work. Our patience has expired.”

And she swept past him, past Jill, and out of the chamber of bone. The silk merchant flashed Jack a smile. For the first time, Jack noticed that his teeth were like pins, tiny and sharp, sticking up from blue gums. Jack shuddered. The silk merchant laughed and left. The oil salesman followed him.

Jack and Jill walked up to the Seeing Gla.s.s, now clean and clear. They brought their faces before its s.h.i.+ning pane.

In the Gla.s.s, Jack saw a boy. His face was lined with sweat and caked with filth. His mouth was set in fear.

In the Gla.s.s, Jill saw a girl. Her hair was wet and matted to her forehead. Her skin was blistering and deathly pale.

Above their faces, along the top of the Gla.s.s, ran a strange script. It read, ”Fo timb hat da jeek, bok no father.”

”What does it mean?” whispered the frog, peering from Jack's pocket.

Jack and Jill shook their heads.

”This is it?” asked Jill. ”It just looks like a mirror.”

Jack picked it up from the bone altar. ”Fo timb hat da jeek, bok no father,” he muttered. Then he shrugged. ”How do you think it works?”

Jill rubbed the silvered pane. Nothing happened.

Jack shook the Gla.s.s. Nothing.

The frog begged it: ”Please do something! Please! Please?” Of course, nothing.

”I don't understand,” said Jack. ”Begehren said it was the greatest treasure in the world.”

”Even Meas said it was worth looking for,” Jill agreed.

So they redoubled their efforts. They tried everything they could think of to make it work, from singing to it to wearing it like a hat. Nothing helped.

The hour was nearly gone.

”I give up!” Jill cried at last. ”Forget it! It's just a stupid mirror!”

”Now she says it's a stupid mirror,” says the frog. ”Now that we've gone to the sky, and underground, and are trapped in a room of bone by psychopathic cannibals. Now it's just a stupid mirror.”

Jack muttered, ”They'll kill us. They'll kill us.”

The children sat down. Above their heads, the body bags swung slowly at the end of creaking twine. A few drops of blood fell to the bone floor between the two children.

”Oh G.o.d . . .” Jill groaned.

”Okay, that's it, good-bye,” said the frog. ”I'm going to go hide. They've never seen me, as far as I know. As far as I know, they don't know I exist. So I'm just going to hide. Sorry, guys. Good luck to you. Good-bye.” He hopped from Jack's s.h.i.+rt and began looking for a place to stow himself until the carnage was over. ”I'd stay and die with you,” he added, ”but this was not my idea. In fact, as you recall, I counseled you against this course of action about, I don't know, a thousand times.”

”They've never seen you . . .” Jack murmured.

Jill let her head collapse in her hands.

”They've never seen you,” Jack repeated, standing up.

”So?” said Jill.

”So I'm going to survive this thing yet!” announced the frog.

”They've never seen you!” Jack grinned.

Jill and the frog looked at Jack like he was crazy.

Ten minutes later, the Others slid back into the room. Their faces were dark, but their eyes were bright.

”Well?” said the silk merchant. ”Have you prepared yourselves?”

”With salt and rosemary, perhaps?” the oil salesman smiled.

Jack and Jill spun from the mirror at the same time.

”It works!” they both cried excitedly. ”It works!” Jill ran to the old woman and grabbed her arm. ”Come see!” she cried. ”Come see!” Jack was standing by the mirror, grinning madly.

The three Others rushed to the Gla.s.s. They peered into it. ”What?” demanded the old woman. ”How? I can't see anything!” She was shaking, as if the antic.i.p.ation of this moment was too much for her. ”Show me!” she barked. ”Show me!”

Jill said, ”Step back.”

All three Others stepped back at once, their eyes glued to the Gla.s.s.

And Jill said, Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the fairest of them all?

And, from deep within the altar of bone, a voice resounded: In eye, in cheek, in hair, in hand, The queen is the fairest in the land.

”IT WORKS!” the Others screamed. ”IT WORKS!” Their cries rumbled from the pits of their bellies and ended in a screech so high it hurt Jack's and Jill's ears. ”IT WORKS!”

The old woman grabbed Jill. ”Do it again! Ask it another question!”

Jill took a deep breath.

Mirror, mirror, tell me, sing, Of the giants, who is king?

And the mirror replied, Great of arm but weak of head, Aitheantas was. Now he's dead.

”IT KNOWS!” the old woman shrieked. ”IT KNOWS EVERYTHING!”

”How does it work?” the silk merchant demanded, grabbing Jack by the arm. ”How did you get it to work?”