The Glass Word by Kai Meyer Page B

mean?”
    â€œThe water helps her do it.” Eft waved Serafin a few steps farther away and there—on the bank of the frozen Nile—Serafin now learned what was special about Merle’s water mirror.
    He folded his arms over his chest and rubbed his upper arms under the fur, more from nervousness than from cold. “Is that the truth?” he asked with a frown. “I mean, are you really serious?”
    Eft nodded.
    Serafin lowered his voice. “But what does Merle have to do with Lalapeya?”
    The mermaid showed her teeth: a smile. “Can’t you figure that out?”
    â€œNo, damn it!”
    â€œShe’s her mother, Serafin. Lalapeya is Merle’s mother.” Her fearsome grin grew wider, but her eyes remained human and wondrously beautiful. “Your friend is the daughter of a sphinx.”
    Merle listened with concentration to the phantom’s words while at the same time she struggled not to let her trembling fingers dip too far into the reflection. She mustn’t let the connection to him break off now, she hadto hear what the sphinx—her mother—had to say to her.
    â€œShe says you must go to Boerbritch,” the phantom repeated.
    â€œBurbridge?” Merle asked.
    â€œYou should go to him, only there are you safe. Safer anyway than in the Iron Eye.”
    â€œBut we just got away from Burbridge, out of Hell! Tell her that.”
    A while passed, then the phantom brought back the answer. “She wants me to tell you that you should meet him in his mirror room. You and your friend. She should guide you there.”
    â€œJunipa guide me into a mirror room?”
    â€œYes. Wait, that’s not all … ah, now. She should take you to him. There you will be safe.”
    Merle still didn’t understand. “Safe from whom? From the sphinxes?”
    Again a pause, then: “From the Son of the Mother, she says. Whatever that means.”
    Merle growled in annoyance. “Would you be so good as to
ask?”
    While the phantom obeyed, the Queen chimed in.
“I do not know if that is such a good idea, Merle. Perhaps you should—”
    No, Merle thought decidedly. You stay out of this. This is my affair alone.

    The voice of the phantom reported back. “The Son of the Mother. That seems to be something like a name for … yes,
the
forefather of the sphinxes, as it were, their oldest ancestor. A kind of sphinx god, I guess. She says he is on the way here, or is even in the fortress. She is not sure. And she says that the sphinxes are going to try to awaken him to life again.”
    Merle was startled when the Queen uttered a strange sound. How much do you know, really? she thought for the hundredth time.
    â€œThe Son of the Mother,”
whispered the Queen.
“Then it is true. I felt him hut I thought it was impossible…. By all that is holy, Merle, you must not do what she asks. You must not go away from here.”
    You could have told me about that before, Merle thought bitterly. You ought to have trusted me.
    The phantom went on, “She keeps saying the same thing, Merle. That your friend must take you to Burbridge, before it’s too late. That you should go into his mirror room and should wait there for him if necessary. She says he can explain everything to you, about you, about her, and about your father.”
    â€œAsk her who my father was.”
    The pause grew longer. “Burbridge’s son,” said the phantom finally. “Steven.”
    Steven Burbridge. Her father. The thought felt strange and frightened her.

    â€œWhat is her name?”
    â€œLalapeya,” said the phantom.
    Merle felt her fingers begin to tremble. She bit her lips and tried to pull herself together. It was all so confusing and so overwhelming at the same time. Had the sphinxes not been her enemies from the beginning? Were they not the true rulers of the Empire? If her mother was actually a sphinx, then her people