Secrets of the Looking Glass by J. Scott Savage

Author:J. Scott Savage
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2022-08-25T17:28:18+00:00

Chapter 25

Hope

Hatta was right about the stink. Long before they reached the port, a smell like a thousand cans of rotting tuna filled the air with a stench so thick Celia felt it sticking to her skin.

She rubbed her hands down the front of her shirt. “What kind of fish smells that bad?”

“Maybe it’s not the fish, but where they’re catching them from,” Tyrus said as they got their first view of the Nix.

The water was as flat and black as a pool of oil. There were no waves, no surf, and no beach of any kind. One moment there was land, and the next minute there wasn’t—a line as smooth and even as a knife cut.

Tyrus shivered. “I don’t like the looks of that.”

“Neither do I,” Celia agreed.

There were no trees along the ocean’s edge, no bushes or grass. Even the scrubby weeds died several yards away from the dark surface.

The only thing standing out against the flat land and even flatter ocean was a collection of small wooden buildings and three ships, their tall sails hanging lifeless in the still air. Figures ­hustled between the ships and the buildings, carrying boxes and bags. Celia noticed they all kept a safe distance from the Nix, walking carefully up and down the ramps connecting the ships with the docks.

Celia bumped Tyrus’s shoulder. “Unless Black Sheep’s ship has already sailed, our mirror images are down there somewhere. C’mon.”

About a hundred yards from the buildings, they reached a low hedge running north and south in a straight line as far as they could see.

Tyrus started to step over it and paused. “If the Looking-Glass World is a chessboard, I think this is one of the sides.”

Celia imagined herself as a chess piece looking out from the game into . . . what? What happened when you crossed from the known to the unknown? From the light to the dark, the safe to the dangerous? As strange as the Looking-Glass World was, she felt like she could understand it the same way she understood the rules of a chess match. But what rules might a new world have? If they had any at all.

Tyrus reached out and took her hand. “On three? One, two, three.”

Together they stepped over the hedge and left the border of the Looking-Glass World behind.

“Do you feel any different?” Tyrus asked.

“I don’t think so,” Celia said. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she noticed something by the docks—a fourth ship, larger than the others with something that looked like long, spindly legs sticking out from the sides. But when she turned, she saw only the original three ships.

Tyrus followed her gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her eyes, but nothing changed. “Let’s see what we can find out at those buildings.”

By the time they reached the docks, it was clear they weren’t going to be able to slip up to the ships unnoticed. “I thought Black Sheep was just the pirate captain’s name,” Tyrus whispered.

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