“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asked.
“Jacob forgot to pack food. We walked almost the whole day before we noticed and had to turn around. We never did go back.”
Mirror turned in his seat and addressed the passengers. “Folks, at this rate we won’t get there until Thursday, so I’m going to put the pedal to the metal, as they say. So keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. Hold on to your seats, sit back, and enjoy the ride.”
The trolley lurched forward. Sabrina felt the skin on her face pull back as the hallway flew by. They were going so fast everything around them turned into a blur of color and light. It was terrifying; however, Puck seemed to be having the time of his life.
“Faster!” he shouted. “It’s not fun until someone wets their pants!”
When the trolley slowed and the world came back into focus Sabrina realized she had held her breath the whole way. She peered out at the unfamiliar length of hallway. The doors at this end were even more bizarre than the ones she had already seen. One looked as if it was made of a whirling blue gas with several ancient skeletons suspended in it. Another appeared to be the mouth of a huge monster, with gnashing teeth and a horrible forked tongue. Another door was constructed from the gigantic bones of a prehistoric animal.
When Mirror brought the trolley to a complete stop, Sabrina stepped off feeling light-headed. She held on to the side of the trolley until she felt better. It seemed that everyone else in the group felt the same way, except for Puck, who begged Mirror for another ride.
Once her head stopped spinning Sabrina studied her surroundings. A massive wall, much like the one at their end of the hall, stood before them. She didn’t see a magical portal that led into the real world, though, just a single door made from a rough stone slab. Hieroglyphics and intricate symbols were chiseled into its surface. Sabrina had no idea what any of it meant, but the biggest of the symbols gave her a creepy feeling: It was a large sculpted eye gazing down on everyone. It moved like a real eye and studied each person intently.
“Uh, creepy?” Daphne said as she watched the eye move up and down the length of her body.
Unlike the other doors in the Hall of Wonders, the big stone door did not have a lock on it. Mirror pushed it open and led everyone inside to a circular room draped in black curtains. The floor was made of a spotless varnished pine. Twenty-five full-length mirrors were placed an equal distance from one another against the room’s walls. Sabrina understood why it was called the Room of Reflections.
“Are these magic mirrors?” Veronica asked, running her hand along one’s surface. The tips of her fingers disappeared in the glass and the image rippled like the surface of a pond. “Oh, they are. Aren’t they?”
“Not exactly,” Mirror said. “The best way to describe them is to think of them as back doors into the twenty-five magic mirrors created by Bunny Lancaster, also known as the Wicked Queen.”
“Are you saying that we can go into all twenty-five magic mirrors from this room?” Goldilocks asked. “We can step right into their Halls of Wonders?”
Mirror shook his head and looked slightly offended. “There is only one Hall of Wonders. Each mirror is unique, designed specifically by the Wicked Queen for the people who purchased them. Each mirror also comes equipped with its unique guardian. I am the guardian of the Hall of Wonders.”
“So, if we step through one of these portals we can go into someone else’s magic mirror?” Veronica asked.
“And then we can step through its portal into the real world,” Granny explained.
“Bunny created this room as a fail-safe in the case of a malfunctioning mirror or guardian. If one needed fixing, she could simply step in through this back door and make repairs. She chose this mirror, my mirror, to be the hub, the only place where you can go to all twenty-five, making me all the more unique,” Mirror said proudly.
“Gravy!” Daphne cried as she rushed to the closest mirror. “I’m going to go into this one!”
Before she could jump into the reflection, Granny Relda yanked her back. “Liebling, no!” She pointed to a sign hanging at the bottom of the mirror that read “Out of Service.” “You can’t just jump into these things. Some of them don’t work.”