We walked through the woods for some hours; it felt as if he was forcing himself to match my tired pace and not the other way around.
After some minutes, he started asking questions about the family: who was alive and who wasn't, what I knew about my grandmother, my parents, Uncles Roger and Lewis —my mother's brothers—, even my own brother Carl.
«This is a very particular world, you see», said he. «It is a mirror world in most of the senses. Things don't work here the way they work out there.»
We got to a crossroads. Two paths made of pressed soil opened to our left and right, forming a perfect Y. The road on our right was surrounded by a forest of tall swaying pines; the one on our left was flanked by short dry bushes, and it led right to the hillside. There was a pole with two arrow-shaped signs where the two roads split. On the one on top, pointing to the left, the word "city" was clear, while on the other one it read "hill"; the writing on each arrow was mirrored.
«You mean, like the writing?»
«Not just that», he said, taking the road on our left. «The people in this place, they are our exact mirror images. They look like us, but they aren't. Semaj, for example, was my exact opposite. Where I was polite and agreeable, he wasn't. Where I was gentle on my manners, he was rude and cold.» The road started climbing the hill, and we climbed with it. The rocks and bushes around us had strange shapes, it looked as if someone was hiding underneath a blanket. I was almost waiting to see the fabric wave and reveal the hidden person. «And when I got to train my very own cousin, Julia, and I met Luj, I realized it wasn't random. They despise human contact, they are disgusted by our sentimentality, they are masters on toying with people.»
«Sounds like they're not people.»
«No, they are not. Human feelings are not part of them. Human emotions are not part of them. All those things we need the most are not pleasant for them, so, in our world, they isolate, and in theirs, they isolate us. And that same isolation takes us to our doom. There was only one of us, my great-great-grandfather Ulrich, a vile and vicious man, who managed to lose the Games and still be accepted by them. The rest of us have been too humane to win.»
«What do you mean by "our doom"?»
«Do you see the scenery here, my dear? All those plants and rocks? They used to be family. Now, they're part of this dead world. We don't just die, that is not how this world works. We live for hundreds of years, then one day the road will call us, we choose our spots and remain there. Lots of laws of our world are nothing here. Not even the laws of physics are respected», he said, and started walking on the trunk of a nearby tree.
I watched him spellbound as he trod up the trunk. His clothes didn't move, his hair never got far from his back. It was as if he had his own force of gravity. He cut a leaf from a small branch six feet over my head, walked back down and handed it to me.
«There's a lot I need to learn», I said, taking the small leaf. It was dry, but still greenish, and it felt like old paper between my fingers.
«Yes, indeed», he said, and kept on walking. «But we still have time for that. Right now, you need to know what is at stake. And the reason why we need you to succeed.»
«Why? Why hasn't anyone won these Games?»
«There's always something. You see, the Games are made for anyone but us. They're never the same; they usually take our worst defects and turn them against us, but in ways we'll never see coming. Like me, for example. I know how to read and write, but I hate sports. And although I won the first three Games and got the initial advantage, the Final Race, the only one that counts, that one I lost. Because I hate sweating, and I hate sports, and my clothes weren't comfortable enough. Julia was in a wheelchair. Margaret trusted Gep; it was a huge mistake, you cannot trust them. Lewis is too self-confident, and Mark isn't self-confident enough. As I said, there is always something about us that makes us lose.»
I was committing all those things to memory, trying to prepare mentally for the Games, whatever they were. «I... Do you...?»
«It matters not if I believe or don't believe in you, Alexis. You need to do it yourself, you need to believe you can make it, and not give up.» We got to the top of the hill. A wall of glass shone under the moldy sunlight, and I could feel the sand carried by the wind in my hair and lips. I turned to follow his gaze; he was looking behind me, at the valley. «I used to live in a very big house, with huge, deep green gardens. I loved those gardens, they gave me the sensation of being in the sea. But it wasn't the blue, cold sea, no; this was a fresh, calm, soothing, silent ocean of plants. I had made my mind, before I got here; I was going to spend as much as necessary to keep my gardens green. And here I am, in a barren place, where there is no green, where plants die, where there is nothing I can do about it.»
«Can't you get out?»
«Not even if you bargain. In fact, Thomas did it. He won the Race, but he tried to bargain; he'd stay in here to make Catherine go out to her children. The key disappeared from his hand, and he was banished from the arena, and appeared right next to us. Mot got out, Catie stayed in, and so did Thomas.»
«I promise», I said, looking at Cousin James, «I promise I'll try with all of myself to get out of here.»
«Well, you better succeed. For two reasons, my dear. First, because if you don't destroy the mirror, your brother will be next. And, should he be defeated, like the rest of us, our family will disappear. And second», he added, pointing his fingers to the glass wall.
The wall was as high as my eyes reached, and there were no doors to go through. I pressed my nose against the glass and shaped my hands to get some shade; valleys just like the one at my feet filled the distance, dozens of gray, dead bowls of rocks, pines and stone as far as the eye could see.
«Are they--?»
«Just like our own, and each of them belonging to a family», he said, and sighed. «You need to win, Ali. You need to win and destroy the mirror. Because if you don't destroy the mirror», he said, and turned towards our valley, «someone else will share our fate.»
YOU ARE READING
The Mirror Games
FantasyAli was delighted when she received the old mirror that belonged to her old Great-Aunt Peg. She couldn't possibly imagine that her Great-Aunt herself had been a prisoner in the Mirror realm for over fifty years, and that the mirror she had received...
