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.I sensed strange figures walking along the stone floors, humans and non-humans and creatures that could never be mistaken for humans.It all poured into my brain and I staggered, falling against Master Revels as he caught me and held me gently until I recovered.Time itself seemed to be breaking down around me and I caught sight of my past, present and future.I was a young girl, riding a pony at the travelling fair; I was learning from one of the greatest magicians in the world; I was wearing sorcerer’s robes and preparing for a duel.all at the same time.I struggled to focus my mind, concentrating on the here and now.Everything seemed to slide alarmingly as it fell out of focus – I had the bizarre feeling that I had fallen into my body from a great height – and then the world stabilised around me.I was clutching Master Revels for dear life, hard enough to bruise him, as we stood together in the stone corridor.Embarrassed, I let go of him and stumbled backwards.I still felt as if I was drunk, but at least I could stand upright without collapsing.“Don’t worry,” Master Revels said, as he rubbed his arms where I’d held him.I didn’t want to know how badly I might have bruised him.“It hits everyone that way the first time.”I stared.“Why didn’t you warn me?”“You have to learn to adapt on your own,” Master Revels said, flatly.“If I had tried to tell you what to expect, it would just have hit you worse.Quite a few people have stepped through the mirror into a looking glass world and discovered that their minds couldn’t cope with it at all.”He took my hand and gently squeezed it.“Don’t worry,” he told me.“You’re doing fine.”I allowed him to lead me through the strange stone corridors, unable to believe my eyes.It felt as if we were walking through endless underground catacombs in perfect silence, like some of the underground passages in Scotland’s castles.The silence rapidly became oppressive, yet nothing we said seemed to echo back to us.The stone walls were decorated with carvings and strange etchings that seemed to change every time I looked at them.They started out as fairly mundane images, yet they rapidly became either disturbing or incomprehensible.I couldn’t make head or tail of them.There was one etching that started out as a scene from history, a group of humans bowing down in front of an elf.I assumed it was an elf, although it looked more like Mr Spock with more exaggerated pointy ears.It changed as I watched, becoming a scene where the humans were enslaved by the elf and then tortured to death, before disintegrating into total incomprehensibility.It became an image of a sinister octopus-like creature with staring eyes and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.I shuddered and looked away, towards the images on the other side.They were no better.As I followed them, they showed a brother and sister who had somehow found their way onto the Fairy Roads and reached one of the Elfish Kingdoms.They were tricked by the Queen and pushed into eating something, becoming trapped in the Fairy Court.The Queen enjoyed their company for a time – there was no way to judge timescale in the images – and then grew tired of them, handing them over to the lesser members of their court to use for experiments.The boy was warped into a horrible monster; the girl was made beautiful, so beautiful that to look on her was to love her, yet given a sociopathic personality, one that drove her to use her charms for evil.The Elves had released them back into the mundane world and laughed to watch the chaos.It had kept them amused for weeks.I shivered as a cold wind blew down the stone corridors.We had reached an arch that led to a widening stone chamber.and a bridge over a dark river that flowed silently onwards to an unseen destination.I clutched Master Revels’ hand tightly as I took in the bridge.It was tiny, barely large enough to allow a single person to cross at a time.Down on the river, I caught sight of a hooded figure pushing a boat along, with a handful of passengers.I couldn’t make out the passengers’ faces, but they didn’t seem human.There was something so sad about the scene that I felt tears trickling down my cheeks.I watched the boat vanish into the distance and looked up at Master Revels.He was frowning.“They’ve changed it again,” he said, grimly.I looked up at him in surprise.It should have occurred to me that the Fairy Roads shifted as often as other constructions in the magical world.There was something timeless about them, but they still moved.“I’m going to cross the bridge first.Once I am at the far end, you can follow me, carefully.If you fall into the water, you will never be seen again.”I nodded, feeling my body tremble.I had never been scared of heights before, yet the more I looked, the further the fall seemed.and then there was the eerie dark water below.I stared down at the river, hoping to see fish or even a riverbed, but there was nothing apart from the darkness.I found myself wondering if it was even water.It might have been something else, something far stranger.Master Revels gave me a quick hug and started to cross the bridge.It was terrifying to watch him moving, step by step, into the distance.I didn’t want to watch and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]