Stephen Chambers

by Jane;the Raven King

  “Now what?” Finn said.

  Jane found a handhold. The rock cut into her fingers. “Now we climb.”

  They climbed until Jane’s arms throbbed, and Manali begged her to take a break. But she didn’t let them stop. There isn’t time, Jane thought. When a slab of gray rock broke away under Finn, he threw himself at the side of the mountain, dragging all four sets of claws in the stone. The broken slab dropped, dropped, and smashed in half far below.

  Jane pulled herself higher, searched for another handhold. The rock cut a line of blood in her palm as she climbed up. Her muscles were trembling with the exertion. Cold sweat stung her eyes as she continued up.

  “I can’t…” Manali said below her. “Please, I have to stop…”

  Jane closed her eyes and pulled with both arms—and as her fingers slipped, she caught herself—but her arms wouldn’t work, and she sank back to her first perch. She tried again, crying out as she lost her handhold once more.

  “Be careful!” Manali said. “Jane!”

  “We have to keep going,” Jane said. Her hands were slick with blood and iron grime. “We have to…” She stared up at the mountain. It went on forever.

  Finn crawled up alongside Jane and then he rolled, huffing, onto a cliff above Jane’s head.

  I can’t do this, Jane thought. I’m sorry. I’m not as strong as Grandma Diana was—Manali’s right; I’m too tired.

  A claw grabbed Jane’s wrist, and before she could yelp, Finn pulled her onto the cliff beside him. There was a cave in the side of the mountain.

  This is it, Jane thought. We’re here!

  Finn helped Manali up, and they stepped into a vast cavern with walls that shimmered with flakes of red. The room was narrow and tall, and it ended at an empty black throne with red wings painted on the wall behind it—as if the chair were ready to fly away. The cave smelled like coal and ash. There was no way out.

  A dead end, Jane thought. This isn’t it, after all. Wait—there! She ran to the back wall: The mirror was embedded in the rock, like a fly frozen in amber. It was as if the translucent stone had somehow formed around it.

  “There it is,” Jane said. “Finn, can you help me get it out? We have to break open the wall!” She found a heavy rock and smashed it against the stone. The rock cracked. “Manali, get another rock and—”

  “Jane…”

  Jane turned. “What?”

  Thomas stood in the cavern entrance, smiling.

  As Thomas approached, he said, “Is that it? Is that the Name of the World inside that wall?” Jane hammered with her rock again. A hunk of stone fell away, exposing the mirror’s handle. She grabbed the handle and pulled. The mirror budged, but it didn’t come out.

  Thomas was still wearing Grandma Diana’s armor. “I appreciate this,” he said. “You led me straight to it. The Raven King can’t see the Name of the World, but I can.” “Stay back!” Manali shouted. “Don’t—”

  Thomas raised one hand and said, “Nova shun!” A bolt of red light knocked Manali into the wall. She collapsed.

  “It’ll take more than a flashlight to handle me, boy,” Finn said. “You’re about to tango with a dragon.” “Really?” Thomas pointed at the ceiling. He called, “Nova shun!” again, and the red light ripped stalactites away in an avalanche that buried Finn.

  Jane pulled harder on the mirror’s handle. Still it wouldn’t break free. Come on!

  “The Raven King’s magic is much more powerful than Gaius’s little spells,” Thomas said. “I can use this spell over and over and over again. But you’re all out of spells, aren’t you? That’s too bad.” Jane braced all of her weight on the handle, but it was no use.

  Thomas raised his hand. “Nova shun!”

  Pain exploded in Jane’s eyes, and she fell against the wall. Her chest felt like it was on fire.

  “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” Thomas said. He picked up a rock and began to chisel out the Name of the World from inside the wall. “First, I’m going to take this mirror out. And then, I’m going to kill you and your friends.” Jane tasted blood.

  “There.” The mirror broke free. Thomas frowned as he examined it. “This is what all the fuss was about? I’ve got to be honest, I’m a little disappointed. After all of that, I figured it would be something more dramatic, you know?” He raised his foot at Jane’s face. “You know what? I’ve wanted to kick in your head since the day we met.” Thomas brought down his heel, and Jane grabbed his ankle and twisted hard. He fell with a startled shout. The Name of the World clattered to the ground.

  “You stupid…” Thomas raised his hand. “Nova—” Jane grabbed the Name of the World.

  “—shun!”

  The red light bounced off the mirror and hit Thomas’s face. He shouted and flopped backward.

  Slowly Jane stood, wincing at the pain in her chest. I have it! she thought. Now where is—?

  The throne wasn’t empty after all.

  The Raven King watched with his hands folded. Jane couldn’t see his face, but a hooked beak curled out where his mouth and nose should have been. A small gray tree grew on his left side, and the mannequin of Grandma Diana—with blue marble eyes and a frozen face—was propped on his right side. Sansi covered the walls of the cavern; they blocked the exit. They moaned like a dying ocean.

  “Put that down,” the Raven King said. He sounded bored. Jane felt younger as she approached. The Raven King is so old and cruel, she thought, and who am I? I’m a little girl—that’s all.

  “You,” Jane said. She tried to sound brave. “You have to…let us go and—” “Put it down,” the Raven King said. “I will not ask again.” “I’m not afraid of you anymore.” The Raven King was suddenly standing. “Yes, you are.” There were black wings on his back. Jane heard distant bells, like a funeral at a cathedral. There were bugs crawling all over the floor and across Jane’s shoes. She tried not to look at them.

  “I can stop you,” Jane said.

  “You can?”

  Why isn’t he scared? she thought. He can’t see it—remember, the Raven King doesn’t even know what the Name of the World is. Jane’s stomach spun in circles, her hands shook, and her legs felt weak.

  “My grandmother beat you…”

  “Yet, here I am,” he said.

  “You have to stop.”

  The Raven King was right in front of her. Jane smelled rotten fruit, and she tasted glue. There was cold terror in her belly. Her legs and arms and heart—every part of her wanted to run. She heard her pulse in both ears. She was breathing too fast.

  “You are about to die, Jane,” the Raven King said. “Just like your grandmother.” Jane raised the Name of the World—and he knocked it away. The mirror hit the wall and shattered into a thousand pieces.

  No.

  Jane stared at the slivers of broken glass all over the cavern floor. The tension in her stomach jumped to her chest, and she felt tears behind her eyes. She drew the black knife—but what was the point? I’ve gone through so much, she thought. I came all this way for nothing. The Name of the World is ruined. I can’t fight him now. I can’t do anything.

  She looked at the rocks that had buried Finn and at Manali, who was still paralyzed on the floor. Jane felt dizzy. I won’t cry, she told herself. The knife trembled in her hand. But this was really happening: She had lost. It was over.

  “It’s all right,” the Raven King said. “You tried your best, but you are unarmed and helpless.” When he touched Jane’s shoulder, she started to cry. She couldn’t move; she couldn’t speak. Behind her, the sansi were creeping closer.

  A hole opened in the ceiling of the cavern. The sky was blue with puffy white clouds. That’s topside Earth, Jane thought. That’s the real world. The Raven King is about to go up there and turn everyone into his sansi slaves. He’ll burn the cities the way he burned the Purple Marsh, and soon, everything will be brown and dead.

  “Now that it’s over,” the Raven King said, “will you help me?”

  Jane s
tumbled backward. “What?”

  “You don’t have to die here, Jane. The world will be clean and ordered again. There are still children hiding from me—the ones who didn’t hear my electric songs. But you and I know that they can’t win. They belong to me. If you help me find them, I will give you anything you want. You must be hungry…” Behind the Raven King, there was suddenly a table full of food. Jane saw a Thanksgiving turkey, waffles, tacos, and chicken vindaloo. “And you like to read, don’t you?” Full bookshelves—as tall as houses—appeared around the table. “Anything.” Televisions and beanbag chairs and computers grew out of the cave floor.

  “You can have anything in the world,” the Raven King said. “Do you remember all those children at school who made fun of you? Do you remember the teachers who didn’t like you? You can be the most popular person in school, Jane. You can be a queen. They’ll worship you like a god. You can get back at them all if you want to.”

  Jane’s mouth was dry as she continued to back away. Flies buzzed in her ears. Even though she could smell the wonderful food on the table, Jane could still taste something rotten on the back of her tongue, as if there were garbage buried under the floor.

  “And I will give you one more thing if you help me, Jane,” the Raven King said. “You can have your family back. I will spare your parents and your brother and even your grandmother. I’m offering you a good life. The Name of the World is gone. The mirror is destroyed. You have nothing. You can’t win—but you don’t have to lose. Will you help me?”

  One hand tight on the black knife, Jane wiped sweat from her eyes. He’s right, she thought. I can’t win now, but I can save my family. It’s the smart thing to do, isn’t it? Then why won’t my arms stop shaking, and why won’t my heartbeat slow down? I have to do what he wants to save Michael, Mom, and Dad—and Grandma Diana. She opened her mouth to say yes.

  “This is what you wanted, isn’t it, Jane?” the Raven King said. “You want everything to go back to normal—but this will be even better than that.”

  Jane stared at the shattered fragments of the mirror. The Name of the World is broken, she thought. I have to help my family. Jane saw herself reflected in the glass shards, bloodied and dirt-streaked, the knife in one hand. The blade was bright in the reflection, as if the Sharp Map were white-hot. Strange, but she didn’t have time to think. Who would that make me if I help the Raven King? No. I still have the black knife. I have to fight him, Jane told herself, even though I’m going to lose—because otherwise, what good is it to be alive? Everything in the world may be chaos, but there’s still right and wrong.

  Jane raised her knife and said, “No.”

  The cavern was empty again; the food, the bookshelves, the televisions—all of it was gone. The ceiling hole closed.

  “I’m sorry, Jane,” the Raven King said. “It’s over.”

  He opened his hand, and a black beam lanced at Jane—she turned and tripped over Thomas, and Grandma Diana’s armor stopped the black light.

  The Raven King was standing over her, his voice calm, “You are unarmed. And you are a fool.” He leaned down slowly, his dark fingers reaching closer. “It will be over soon, child.”

  Jane tried to crawl backward, but when his hand touched her cheek, ice jolted in her heart and caught her breath. The world flashed black in a frozen rush that flooded Jane’s chest, stomach, arms, and legs, up to her throat. She tried to scream, tasted blood, and drove the knife into the Raven King’s chest. As he recoiled, air surged back into Jane’s lungs, washing away the cold. The Raven King jerked, as if he’d been struck by lightning, and when she pulled out the blade, he screamed—it wasn’t a human noise; it was the screech of a bird being crushed by a car. She stabbed him again. The Raven King exploded into a cloud of black birds that cawed and flapped in a whirlwind, thundering out of the cave.

  The Raven King saw the mirror, Jane realized. That meant the mirror couldn’t be the Name of the World. But the Raven King didn’t see the black knife. Then what was the mirror? The broken pieces of the mirror should have reflected the ceiling or the walls; instead, they had reflected the black knife. She dropped the knife and slumped to her knees. Her hands were streaked with black blood. She smelled a zoo.

  Someone said, “Our savior. Clear-Eyed Jane…”

  The cave was packed with animals: horses, deer, rhinos, and bears all crowding her. The sansi had been transformed back. A pair of elephants cleared the rocks off of Finn. He rubbed his bruised head and said, “So what did I miss?”

  “Jane?” a familiar voice said. The animals parted for Gaius and Grandma Diana. They were both smiling. “My Clear-Eyed Jane,” Grandma Diana said. “Dear, you have saved us all.”

  At the bottom of the Steel Mountain, all the trees had turned back into bobbins. There were beautiful female bobbins with golden fur and silver eyes, and young warrior bobbins in heavy armor and helmets. There were child bobbins that looked like serious, overdressed kittens. Gaius cast a spell that took them all back to the bobbin ruins—but they weren’t ruins anymore. The overgrown stones had been transformed into proud, ivy-covered buildings that reminded Jane of an expensive college campus. The streets were shiny glass, and the grass was green and full of chattering animals. They were all waiting their turn to step inside the elevator and return to topside Earth so they could resume chasing and eating each other.

  Gaius and Grandma Diana let Thomas go back too.

  “The Raven King used this boy,” Grandma Diana said, “the same way he tried to use you, Jane. It’s not really his fault. But I knew all along that you wouldn’t give in. Not my Jane. Did you get the envelope I sent with Miles?” “I got it,” Jane said.

  “And you found the Name of the World with the Sharp Map on it, right where I left it all those years ago.” Grandma Diana smiled at Gaius. They were standing at the elevator, watching the bobbins and animals rebuild part of the city.

  “But all this time, I thought that mirror was the Name of the World,” Jane said.

  “The Diamond Mirror wasn’t a weapon, Jane,” Grandma Diana said. “Mirrors show us the world more clearly. The Raven King hid the Diamond Mirror in his cave because it can reveal the Name of the World to the right person. You saw the Name of the World in the mirror, didn’t you?” “Yes,” Jane said. “The mirror reminded me that I could still fight back.” “You are welcome to stay here, you know,” Gaius told Jane. “You don’t have to go back.” Behind him, Finn called, “Now why would she want to do that?” Manali was riding on his back. “Down here, there are nothing but talking dragons and puffed-up cats. I mean, just look at all those cats! I think I liked them better as trees.” Manali said, “Finn!” She hopped down and gave Jane a hug.

  “Thank you,” Jane said.

  “Hey, I didn’t do much,” Manali said. “I knew you’d save everybody. We all did—except Gaius and his tests.” Gaius cleared his throat. “Those three tests have a time-honored tradition—” “—of picking the wrong kid and getting us all into trouble,” Grandma Diana said.

  They all laughed.

  “Diana Starlight and Clear-Eyed Jane, you are welcome back any time,” Gaius said. “And you too, Manali.” “Except you don’t get a cool name, Manali,” Finn muttered.

  “I’m going to miss you, Jane,” Manali said. “But you have my phone number, yeah?” “Yes, I’ll call you—I promise,” Jane said. “And thank you for everything, Gaius. Finn…” Finn farted a fireball. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Were you saying something?” Finn hugged Jane with one massive paw. “No more good-byes—dragon tears are lethal.” Grandma Diana squeezed Jane’s hand. “It’s time to go.”

  As they went to the elevator, Jane asked, “Will Michael and Mom and Dad—will they all be okay?” “Yes, dear. Everything is fixed because of you. The Raven King is gone.” She brushed Jane’s hair out of her eyes. “The real world is waiting. Don’t be scared. It’s going to be all right, I promise.” And it was.

  Acknowledgments

  I have to begin by
thanking my wife, Ceceley, for her faith in me. It’s no exaggeration to say that she made this possible. Thanks also to William and Ellie, for keeping me honest.

  Huge thanks are due to my agent, Peter Rubie, for his commitment through all of these years and to my wonderful editor at Sourcebooks, Rebecca Frazer.

  I am grateful to everyone who has helped and humored me since I began this project—you all know who you are.

  About the Author

  While still in high school, Stephen Chambers sold two novels, Hope’s End and Hope’s War. He has recently collaborated with bestselling author Adam Blade on The Chronicles of Avantia. Stephen is currently a doctoral candidate in the history department at Brown University.