[Half/Time 01] Half Upon a Time (9 page)

“On the giant’s tongue,” said the voice. “It’s more stable, if only a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jack said. “I’ll just jump over there in the dark, miss, then fall down the throat. Watch out, I might give this guy a little indigestion, and let’s be honest, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes if he burps.”

“You may fall,” the voice conceded, “or you may reach safety.” The voice paused. “Perhaps it is safer to stay there. At the very least, slipping into the giant’s throat gradually will let you live longer than if you jump over here and miss.”

“True,” Jack admitted. “But if I jump and make it, I might live longer than
that
, by like decades, even.”

“Those
are
the two possibilities,” the voice said, now sounding amused.

Jack growled again. “Stop being annoying and just tell me how far to jump!”

“No farther than is necessary,” the voice said.

“Oh, I get it!” Jack shouted. “You’re here to torture me!” Before the voice could respond, Jack angrily took a deep breath, pulled his feet up underneath him, then launched himself backward, kicking off the slippery column as hard as he could.

He sailed through the dark for what felt like hours, absolutely positive he’d missed the tongue completely and was now tumbling down into the giant’s stomach….

And then Jack splashed into something warm and wet, spit raining down all over him. He never would have thought he’d be so happy to have landed on a giant’s stinking, soggy tongue.

“It looks like you made it,” the voice said dryly from behind him.

“Well, after all your help, how could I not?” Jack said, trying to wipe the giant’s saliva off himself and failing miserably.

“What made you jump?” the voice asked.

Jack gradually made it to his feet after a few slippery attempts. “I decided that it was better to take the chance and die than live a few more minutes listening to you,” he said.

The voice laughed.

“Who
are
you?” Jack said, taking a careful step toward the laughter.

“No one important.” Jack could almost hear the voice smiling. “Not anymore, at any rate.”

“That’s helpful,” Jack said, taking another step. The man—the voice was so quiet he had to guess, but it seemed more masculine than feminine—always seemed to be just a few feet away at all times, despite the fact that Jack couldn’t hear him moving around. And he should have been able to hear the man moving, considering how much sloshing Jack himself was making with every step. The giant’s spit didn’t make sneaking around very easy.

“As I said before,” the voice said. “I
can’t
help you, Jack. Not here, anyway.”

“Not here?” Jack asked, straining to locate the voice. “But I was really starting to get used to this place. Kinda homey, you know? We don’t have to leave, do we?”

“You didn’t ask how I know your name,” the voice said, sounding almost proud. “You’re not curious?”

Jack continued moving toward the voice. “I don’t especially care,” he said.

“A stranger in the mouth of a giant knows your name, and you don’t care?”

Jack shrugged. “Should I? It’s not exactly the most shocking part of all this.”

The voice laughed again. “I like talking to you, Jack. You’re quite a remarkable young man.”

“I get that a lot,” Jack said, “usually with more sarcasm.”

“You’re keeping me talking so you can find me,” the voice said. “Clever. Would some light help?”

“Do you
have
some light?” This stopped Jack. If the voice had light, why hadn’t he used it before Jack jumped?

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

And suddenly, Jack could see. The light, a sort of long, thin, whitish glow, came from a corner of the giant’s mouth. Jack quickly glanced around, taking in his surroundings, then
swallowed hard as he suddenly realized how close he’d been standing to the edge of the giant’s tongue.

Even worse, he saw how far the skin flap he’d been hanging from hung out over the throat.

There was
no way
he could have made that jump. It wasn’t even close to possible.

“Is that better?” the voice said, suddenly behind him, and Jack whirled around. A man leaned casually against the wall of the giant’s mouth, dressed in black armor from head to foot, a midnight-blue cloak covering the armor and the man’s head. On the cloak, right at the man’s chest, was a silver circle within a silver oval.

It was a symbol even a child would have recognized, from bedtime stories and nightmares. It was a symbol that grown men talked about in quiet tones, afraid they’d be heard. It was a symbol that made Jack’s blood run cold at the very sight of it.

It was the symbol of the Wicked Queen’s inner circle, her cruelest, most vicious knights.

It was the symbol of the Eyes.

“Oh,
fantastic
,” Jack said, backing away from the Eye despite his close proximity to the throat.

The Eye stood up and took a step toward Jack. “Is there a problem?”

“You really think I don’t recognize that?” Jack said, pointing at the man’s chest.

From underneath the hood, Jack could just make out the man’s wry grin. “So you’ve heard of us?” the man said. “Still, you have nothing to fear. I’m a knight, nothing more.”

“You’re no knight,” Jack said, his eyes narrowing in disgust. “You’re one of them. You’re an
Eye
.”

“That’s not exactly …,” the man started, then sighed.
“This is hardly the time for explanations. You’re not safe here.”

Jack glared at him. “That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said.” He glanced around, looking for something to use against the Eye. Was it too much to ask for a toothpick or something?

“You’re looking for a weapon?” The man gestured toward the light. “Here, take mine.”

Jack glanced quickly at the light, then stopped and stared. A long, thin piece of glass pierced the giant’s mouth in the corner. Inside that glass swirled a white liquid that gave off an eerie glow, the source of the light. On top of the glass was a hilt, off of which hung a dark blue scabbard.

Jack’s throat went dry. The light … it was the Eye’s
sword.
If anything was more feared than an Eye, it was the Eye’s weapon—the source of the knight’s power, cursed to destroy anyone who touched it other than the knight himself.

Jack tried to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out.

“My sword,” the knight said simply, as if introducing Jack to it. “Now do you truly think I wish you harm? I had ample opportunity to strike you down in the dark.”

“Maybe you couldn’t see,” Jack said, his eyes still on the sword.

“Maybe I
could
,” the knight said.

Jack shivered. “I’m not touching an Eye’s sword,” he said. “Those things are evil. And cursed. And …
evil
.”

The man shook his head. “No, they are not. They are tools, nothing more.”

“They destroy anyone who touches them,” Jack said, staring at the sword.

“A convenient story to keep thieves at bay,” the man admitted. “But a story is all it is.”

Jack turned back to the man. “Okay, fine. I’ll take your sword, and then I’ll have all the power or whatever.” He took a step toward it, then turned to look at the Eye again. “You’re just going to let me take it?”

The knight’s only response was a smile. Creepy.

Jack sloshed carefully over to the glowing sword. “I still don’t trust you,” he said.

“You will.”

Jack stopped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

But the knight went silent, only watching him.

Jack kept his eyes fixed on the man while carefully reaching a hand out toward the sword.

“It won’t hurt you,” the knight said, making Jack jump.

“Could you be
quiet
, please?” Jack said. “I’m nervous enough as it is!”

When the man didn’t respond, Jack reached out again for the sword. He flinched as his fingers moved closer, but the liquid within the crystal-clear sword just swirled around and around, not reacting to him at all. Just to test it, Jack barely brushed the tip of his index finger against the hilt, then yanked his hand back.

Nothing happened.

The knight didn’t say anything, but Jack imagined him laughing anyway. His anger growing at this entire situation, Jack gritted his teeth, then reached out and grabbed the sword. His hand didn’t burn off, his whole body didn’t turn to dust, and he wasn’t transformed into a frog. In fact, the hilt was even cool to the touch, despite the sword’s glow.

Jack took the scabbard off the hilt and slung it over his shoulder while he considered his next step.

“You’ll need to pull it out,” the knight said.

“I thought you were being quiet,” Jack said, and yanked on the sword.

It didn’t move.

He yanked again and again, but the weapon didn’t budge.

“Was I not clear on the pulling part?” the knight asked. Jack just growled in frustration. This time, he grabbed the sword with both hands and pulled on it as hard as he could.

The sword suddenly pulled loose, and Jack’s effort threw him backward toward the giant’s throat. He stumbled toward the knight, but the man made no move to grab him. At the last moment, Jack managed to grab a fold in the giant’s cheek, stopping his momentum just enough for him to recover his balance less than a foot from the edge of the throat.

When he could breathe again, Jack looked at the knight incredulously. “Thanks for the help there!” he shouted, his heart almost bursting through his chest.

“I told you,” the knight said. “I can’t.”

Jack nodded bitterly. “That’s about what I’d expect from one of you.”

The knight tilted his head. “I bear you no ill will, Jack. Remember that.”

“Oh, really?” Jack said, holding up the sword. “Well, I bear you
plenty
of ill will, buddy. And what makes you think I won’t attack you with your own sword?”

The smile reappeared, but this time it seemed sad. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Jack just stared at the knight. “No one likes cryptic people,” he said finally. “Either way, I’m leaving and you’re staying. I don’t know how you got trapped here, but the more I think about it, the more I think you and the giant deserve each other.”

The knight tilted his head again. “As you wish.”

Jack aimed the sword at the knight and slowly walked toward the front of the giant’s mouth. The knight didn’t move, which helped Jack’s confidence a bit, so he sloshed his way over to the giant’s teeth, only stopping when the knight spoke.

“I’ll see you soon, Jack,” the Eye said softly.

Jack glared at him for a minute, then shook his head. “You better hope not,” he said, trying to sound dangerous but failing miserably. Giving up on winning that fight, Jack instead flipped the sword around in his hand to hold it with the point facing downward.

Then he stabbed the sword right into the giant’s tongue, probably the most sensitive part of the giant’s entire body.

Immediately, the giant sucked in an enormous breath, sending Jack flying off his feet and into the giant’s throat. He had just enough time to thrust the sword back in its scabbard and throw that over his shoulder before the air flow reversed, and the giant
let out a bellow of pain louder than anything Jack had heard in his entire life.

The force of the scream sent Jack flying past the knight and straight out the giant’s gaping mouth. The knight, however, never moved. As powerful as the giant’s scream was, it didn’t even ruffle the man’s cloak.

“Yes,” the knight said as the giant’s scream died down. “I’ll see you soon.”

And then the Eye disappeared into thin air.

Jack wanted to scream, but he couldn’t find the air when he saw how high he was. This was the second time he’d been dropped from this height; how many times could one person take the same fall? And now, he didn’t even have a feather to not help. Not that the giant would save him this time either, given that the monster was busy yelling loudly over the pain in his tongue.

As Jack dropped toward the trees he took comfort in knowing that at least the knight hadn’t been blown out with him. Hopefully, the man had ended up digested in the giant’s stomach, but even if not, he was still trapped. Scant comfort, sure, but hurtling to his death, Jack would take what he could get.

And then, for the second time that day, something stopped Jack’s fall. Again, his stomach fell down around his toes, and before he really understood what was happening, he was swung up and over what appeared to be a broomstick, right behind someone with both blond and blue hair.

The broomstick made a quick circle, banking in midair, and shot back toward the giant. The monster roared furiously and made a grab for them, but May dropped the broomstick down several feet, angling them just beneath the giant’s hand. A second later, they were out of the giant’s reach, circling around and around, dropping with each turn, until the broomstick bumped to a stop at the monster’s feet.

Jack immediately leapt off the broomstick: His first thought was that the giant would try to crush them with his feet. However, the monstrous legs just twitched back and forth a bit, nothing more. The giant’s feet never even left the ground.

“What—,” Jack started to say, then lost all semblance of coherence as May tackled him, squeezing the air out of his lungs.

“I was so
scared
, you idiot!” she screamed as she hugged him. “What were you thinking, dropping off the broomstick like that!” She pulled away and stared at him angrily, despite the huge grin on her face. “Then you went and got
eaten
! What’s
that
about?!”

Jack, meanwhile, moved from surprised thankfulness to confused wonder. “I … huh?” he asked intelligently.

“Come on!” May said, yanking on his arm hard enough to spin Jack around. “You have to meet someone!”

As Jack came to a stop, he shook his head to clear it.
What
had just happened? He had no clue what was going on, though for some reason, he had a big grin on his face too. He allowed himself a moment to celebrate being uneaten, then put on a serious face to follow the princess.

He found her standing midway between the giant’s feet, talking quickly to the most irritatingly handsome boy Jack had ever seen. The boy looked to be a bit older than Jack, maybe fifteen, and was wearing extremely rich clothing, obvious even from a distance. His sparkling white tunic looked unnaturally clean, and his pants, a deep golden color, seemed almost weighed down by the quality of the fabric. A deep purple cape fell from his shoulders, and every piece of clothing was trimmed in gold, much like the boy’s head, where a gold circlet hid between long, dark locks of brown hair.