Part 23 (2/2)
”The same way you cleaned it,” Jack explained. ”Call it 'Mirror, Mirror.' Then rhyme your question.”
”That's it?” exclaimed the oil salesman. ”That's all there is to it?”
Jack shrugged. ”That's all.”
”Out of the way!” the oil salesman bellowed. He pushed Jack and Jill aside. He took a deep breath.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Make me the king of Marchen!
Jack looked at Jill. She tried to suppress a smile. ”Uh,” Jack said, ”that didn't rhyme.”
”What?” the oil salesman demanded. ”It didn't?”
”No,” said Jill. ”And it wasn't a question. The Gla.s.s only seems to answer questions.”
The silk merchant pushed his brother out of the way and approached the Gla.s.s. He said, Mirror, mirror, king of men, When will my life come to an end?
The mirror was silent. A drop of sweat slid down the side of Jack's face.
But finally, the mirror spoke: Obey this Gla.s.s, through good and ill, And die? Oh no, you never will.
”I KNEW IT!” shrieked the silk merchant, leaping into the air with a scream of demented joy.
The old woman howled: ”LIVE FOREVER! We'll LIVE FOREVER! We've done it! We've done it!”
The Others began to dance around the bone chamber, spinning and leaping and hugging themselves. The silk merchant banged the bones of the wall with his fists and shouted. The oil salesman slapped himself in the face over and over again.
Finally, the obscene celebrations stopped, and the old woman approached the altar. She wiped the sweat of joy from her brow and intoned, *
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the cleverest of them all?
The mirror paused. And then it replied, Up a stalk or down a hill, None is as clever as Jack and Jill.
The Others were about to begin leaping and whooping in celebration again when they caught themselves.
”What?” demanded the old woman. ”What did it say?”
Jack and Jill looked at each other, apparently befuddled. ”It said we were,” Jill shrugged.
”That's not possible!” barked the silk merchant. ”We have the Gla.s.s! We, who have been seeking it for a thousand years! We have it!”
”You're asking the wrong question!” the oil salesman exclaimed. ”Here, let me try.”
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the bravest of them all?
This time the Gla.s.s did not hesitate.
Up a stalk or down a hill, None is as brave as Jack and Jill.
”NO!” screamed the Others, all together. ”NO! It isn't possible! How could it be?”
”We are the cleverest!”
”We are the bravest!”
”Aren't we?”
”Aren't we?”
”Aren't we?” they all howled.
The oil salesman came right up to the Seeing Gla.s.s and peered into its crystalline face. ”Please, Gla.s.s, please. We are the bravest, aren't we? Aren't we, Gla.s.s? Aren't we? Tell us we are!”
”Let me ask!” the silk merchant demanded. Everyone moved back, and he chanted: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the wisest of them all?
And the voice of the Gla.s.s rang out like a brazen trumpet: *
Up a stalk or down a hill, None is as wise as Jack and Jill!
The chamber resounded with a scream so heart-wrenching and terrible that it would have brought you to your knees. ”No!” the Others howled. ”Tell us it isn't so! Say it is not so!”
But it was so. The Gla.s.s had decreed it.
”How is it possible?” the Others screamed. ”They are children! Stupid children!”
”They are not clever!”
”They are not brave!”
”They aren't even smart!”
”Not wise like us! None is as wise as us!”
And then Jack said, ”You can ask why it thinks we're so brave and wise and clever.”
”Or,” suggested Jill, ”maybe it can tell you how to be even better than us?”
The old woman looked at her, eyes burning and demented. ”Yes!” she cried. ”Yes, of course! Now that we have the Gla.s.s, we can know exactly what to do! Move aside!”
So everyone moved aside, and she bellowed, *
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