Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror Read online

  Jennifer Finney Boylan

  Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror

  FOR ZACH AND SEAN

  Sons of the house of Frankenstein

  Contents

  I. The Tower of Aberrations

  1. A Hole in the Ice

  2. Castle Grisleigh

  3. A Coffin of One’s Own

  4. La Chupakabra and the Jellyhead

  5. Little Dirty Birdies’ Feet

  6. Nightfall

  7. Jonny Frankenstein and the Werebear

  8. The DSM-XIII

  9. A Date with Destynee

  10. The Monsters’ Bash

  II. The Tower of Science

  11. Poetry Bad

  12. Catch and Release

  13. Quimby Rising

  14. Within the Clock

  15. The Black Mirror

  III. The Pinnacle of Virtues

  16. The Naming of Violet Humperdink

  17. A Beam of Blue Light

  18. On the Sea of Dragons

  19. The Hidden City

  20. Solace

  21. The Crystal Music

  22. The Gonster

  23. Floating

  IV. The Tower of Souls

  24. Mortia’s Defection

  25. At the Sign of the Pointing Fingers

  26. From the Hall of Wriggling Creatures

  27. A Sad Boy with No Mouth

  28. The Bear on the Moon

  29. What the Mockingbird Said

  30. The Battle of Grisleigh Quad

  31. The Final Exam

  32. The Entangling Sails

  33. The Zombie Jamboree

  About the Author

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  I

  THE TOWER OF ABERRATIONS

  1

  A HOLE IN THE ICE

  Falcon Quinn struggled through the blinding snowstorm, carrying his tuba. It was the first day of spring in Cold River, Maine. Megan Crofton, her flute tucked under one arm, was already standing at the bus stop when Falcon arrived at the crest of the frozen hill. Gray flakes of soft snow gathered in her long black hair.

  “Hey, Megan,” said Falcon. “Happy spring.”

  Megan said nothing. Instead she just gazed sadly toward the graveyard across the street.

  Good morning, Falcon, he thought.

  As boneyards go, the Cold River Cemetery was tiny—not much more, really, than a clearing in the forest of white pines and birches. Among the fallen were Megan’s twin sisters, Dahlia and Maeve. A statue of a white-robed angel stood above the Crofton girls’ headstones, its face cast downward. The angel’s head was covered in snow.

  From behind them came a grinding sound, and Falcon looked back in dismay to observe his tuba case sliding down the hill that he had just ascended. Swearing quietly, Falcon half ran, half slid after the runaway, which was now gaining speed as it skittered back down the frozen drive. Falcon could see that unless he caught up with it soon, the tuba was going to slide straight out onto the ice of Carrabec Pond, the lake on whose banks he lived with his grandmother in a beat-up trailer.

  Halfway down the hill, Falcon slipped, and his rear end came down hard on the icy drive. Incredibly, this did not slow him down. In seconds Falcon slid past the trailer and glided out onto the ice of Carrabec Pond, right to the point where the tuba had stopped, and then on past it. He came to stop about fifteen feet beyond his instrument.

  Today, Falcon thought, is not going to be a good day.

  He looked around at the falling snow; at the white, frosted hills of Cold River; at the small trailers and houses that dotted the shores of Carrabec Pond. Smoke from woodstoves puffed from the chimneys. Anywhere else in the world, today might have been a snow day, and school called off. But this, Falcon thought sadly, was not anywhere else. It was Cold River, a town that his grandmother had once described by saying, Well, this place isn’t the end of the world, but you can see it from here.

  Falcon stood and checked his watch; the bus was supposed to come in less than three minutes. He took a step toward his tuba. Then he heard a sharp crack.

  He looked down, where a large fault line moved from under his feet toward the spot where the tuba had come to rest. Falcon took another step and heard a second crack, louder than the first.

  “Uh-oh,” he said.

  Falcon started to run. He could hear the ice breaking behind him. He knew that if he looked over his shoulder he would see the open water, a jagged hole in the ice for each of the places where his foot had been. But he didn’t have time to look back. All he could do was rush onward, grabbing the handle of his tuba case as he ran. Spreading fault lines shot out in every direction, and the surface of the pond below him began to buckle and warp. Falcon leaped onto the bank just as a large section of the ice gave way completely.

  He dropped the tuba and doubled over on the bank. Falcon could hear the falling snow ticking off of his shoulders, could feel the crystals gathering in his hair and slowly melting. He felt his heart pounding, the blood pulsing in his ears. From behind him came the soft sound of cold water rippling within the newly opened surface of Carrabec Pond.

  Falcon picked up his instrument and began to trudge once more up the hill toward Megan, and the bus stop, and the forthcoming day of seventh grade at Cold River Middle School.

  Falcon Quinn was a thirteen-year-old boy, slightly smaller than average, with curly, blond hair; a mischievous smile; and eyes of two shockingly different colors—the left one black as a shadow, the right one the blue of a Maine sky in summer. Occasionally the black one ached, as it did at the moment when Falcon arrived back at the crest of the hill, lugging his clumsy, heavy tuba with one hand. Megan Crofton was still standing there, her breath coming out in clouds.

  “DUDE!” said a loud, blasting voice. The giant face of Max Parsons filled Falcon’s view. Max lived next door to the graveyard, and even though he was a seventh grader like Falcon and Megan, Max was almost six feet tall and weighed nearly two hundred and fifty pounds. He shaved too.

  “YOU’RE OUTTA CONTROL!” shouted Max joyfully. “That was the most EXCELLENT THING I have EVER SEEN!” He threw back his head. “Whoo-hooo! It’s like the freakin’ ICE CAPADES, dude!” He laughed and laughed. Then Max slapped Falcon on the shoulder in celebration.

  “Glad you’re entertained, Max,” said Falcon.

  “Oh, come on. Dude. Don’t be like that. You have to admit. It’s hilarious. You’re, like, one super slippy-dippy, you know, Frosty the Excellent Snowman.” He looked concerned for a second. “You are all right, aren’t you, man? You’re okay?”

  “I think so,” said Falcon.

  “Okay then,” said Max. He looked over at Megan. “Hey, Crofton! Was that excellent or what?”

  Megan just sighed.

  “Oh, come on,” said Max. “You have to admit. That was incredible. He’s, like, some kind of superhero with these, like, superpenguin powers. Like, he was working in some lab, and he got bitten by this radioactive penguin. Or, you know, whatever.”

  Megan looked down the street, as if the school bus was approaching, which it wasn’t.

  “Hey, Crofton—what’s your superpower?” He stepped closer to her. “If you had one, I mean.”

  She cast a quick glance at the huge boy, then looked away.

  “Max,” said Falcon. “Can you lay off her, maybe?”

  “Lay off her? I’m just making conversation! Trying to keep things entertaining. Hey, we’re stuck here in the freezing snow; it’s so wrong to try to make the time pass faster?”

  “I think she wants to be left alone,” said Falcon.

  “Okay, okay, fine,” said Max. �
�I’m just saying. I want people to be happy. I’m trying to keep the party going.”

  Megan turned to him, her eyes full of hate.

  “Come on,” said Max. “Cheer up.”

  “She doesn’t want to be cheered up,” said Falcon, wondering how he had gotten the role of Megan’s interpreter, since he didn’t know what she was thinking either.

  Megan turned her back on the boys.

  Max shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “Your funeral.” Then, realizing that this might not be a good thing to say to someone who was standing across the street from the graves of her own sisters, he blushed. “I mean,” Max stammered, “whatever.” He cleared his throat. “Hey. It’s band day! I got my triangle! You want me to play some triangle for you? I’ve been practicing!”

  “I know what superpower I want,” said Megan. Falcon and Max looked over at her. Her soft, black hair flapped around her face in the bitter wind.

  “What?” said Falcon.

  “Hey,” said Max, surprised. “She said something!”

  “I know what superpower I want.”

  “Hey,” said Max. “It happened again!”

  “What superpower do you want, Megan?” Falcon asked.

  “What I want,” she said, “is the power to make everything go away.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

  For a long moment the boys stood there in silence.

  “You mean,” Max said. “Like—a death ray, or something?”

  “No,” said Megan.

  In the distance, from the bottom of the hill, they heard the sound of a groaning engine. The school bus was approaching at last.

  “When you say ‘everything,’” said Max, “you mean, like—everything?”

  Now they could see the yellow bus cutting through the falling snow. The yellow blinking lights began to flash.

  “Everything,” said Megan.

  “That’s messed up,” said Max.

  “You shouldn’t hate everything,” said Falcon.

  Megan wasn’t looking at the boys. She was staring once more at the graveyard across the street.

  “Why not?” said Megan.

  “Because,” said Max. “It’s a great, big world! Full of—stuff!” He spread his arms wide. “We’re alive!” he shouted.

  “I wish we weren’t,” said Megan.

  There was a low moan from the cemetery. Falcon looked at the old stones. It’s nothing, he told himself. The wind. Snow fell off the angel guarding the Crofton girls’ tomb.

  “Megan,” said Falcon, “do you want to—talk?”

  The school bus stopped in front of them, the lights now flashing red. The door opened, and an old, crumpled man grimaced at them. He was not their usual driver. The three seventh graders assembled themselves into a line: Megan first, then Falcon, and Max last.

  Just before she stepped onto the bus, Megan turned to Falcon. “No,” she said. “I don’t want to talk. Not with you. Not with him. Not with anyone. Ever.”

  There was a fury in Megan’s eyes that scared Falcon. He took one last look over his shoulder and saw the holes down on the surface of the frozen pond, the thick smoke of woodstoves in the air. He knew that back in the trailer, his grandmother would be having her first drink of the day right about now.

  Falcon wanted to say, It’s okay, Megan. You’re not the only person who hurts.

  Instead he just nodded as she turned her back and climbed up the stairs onto school bus 13.

  2

  CASTLE GRISLEIGH

  “Morning!” said Max to the driver. “I hope you’re having an excellent day!”

  “No talking,” growled the man. “Sit.”

  “Oh-kaaay,” said Max, taking his seat.

  Falcon, Megan, and Max were at the very beginning of the bus route, which meant that they were always the first students on board in the morning and the last ones to be dropped off at night. Even though they could, technically, sit anywhere, the three of them always sat in the same places—Megan up front, Max in the back, Falcon in the middle.

  Falcon got settled and looked out the window. As the bus began to move, he caught a glimpse of someone in the cemetery, next to the Crofton girls’ graves. A man in a snow-flecked cloak was standing there, his face covered by a hood.

  The man raised a long, thin arm and pointed at Falcon as if he recognized him, as if Falcon was someone he’d been waiting for.

  “Yaahh!” shouted Falcon.

  “Hey, quit that,” said Max, from the back of the bus. “You’re messin’ with my beauty sleep.”

  “Look out the window. In the graveyard. Someone’s there.”

  But the bus had pulled away now, and the graveyard was behind them.

  “What did you see?” said Megan. “Falcon?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing, maybe.”

  Megan looked out the window at the falling snow. “Yeah,” she said. “Nothing.”

  Falcon felt his left eye—the black one—begin to ache, as if it had somehow been burned by the thing that it had seen.

  Outside, the blizzard seemed to be growing worse. They passed a power line that had snapped. An electrical wire lay buzzing and sparking in the street. Falcon thought, not for the first time, what it must be like to live someplace where the first day of spring meant flowers and sunshine and robins instead of this endless winter. He thought about his mother, Vega, down in Florida. After Falcon’s father died, she had slipped into such a deep depression that she gave up her son to her husband’s mother, tired old Gamm, and moved to Key West. He hardly had any memories of Vega at all; about the only thing he associated with his mother was one day lying underneath the piano as his mother played it. Whether this had actually happened, however—or whether Falcon had just imagined it—was impossible to say. As for his father, he was an even vaguer memory. All Falcon could remember was the day his dad had fallen through the ice of Carrabec Pond, the way the ambulance’s red beacons had reflected off of the cold white snow.

  The second stop on the bus was usually the Grogan house, but today the driver sailed right past the Grogans’ driveway, and Joey wasn’t standing there. A long time ago Joey and Falcon had been friends, but that was before Joey became a metalhead. By seventh grade it seemed as if everyone at Cold River Middle School had teamed up with their own little group—the emos and the goths, the athletes and the geeks—and none of them wanted to be friends with anyone outside their own faction. Sometimes Falcon felt like the only person in the world without a label.

  He envied these other kids sometimes, these people who seemed to have already decided exactly where they fit into the world. But he pitied them too. There was something sad about defining yourself according to a single word. It diminished people, made them into something less than they might be in a world of larger possibilities.

  The bus moved faster, the storm swirling all around them now. The windshield wipers slapped back and forth. Falcon wasn’t sure how the driver could see anything in the whirling cloud of ice and snow.

  The train tracks for the Bangor and Aroostook freight line ran across the road about a half mile past the Grogans’, but instead of slowing down and stopping at the crossing, the driver just bounced across the tracks like they were all late for something. They didn’t slow down at the Moss house, either, where Jane and Peter Moss were usually waiting, with their clarinet and alto saxophone in beat-up cases. It was hard to see the end of the driveway through the snow, but Falcon could see just enough to know that Jane and Peter weren’t standing there either. The bus sped even faster, screaming through the storm.

  “Hey,” said Max, from the back row. “Dude.”

  The crumpled driver said nothing.

  Max called out to the driver, a little louder now. “Hey. What’s the story?”

  It was virtually impossible to see anything out the front window now. They were in a total whiteout. The bus began to vibrate and rattle.

  The driver turned very slowly and looked at Max and Falcon with a strange, amused expression. For a second th
e bones in his skull seemed to flicker beneath his skin. “Say good-bye now,” he said, as the bus shook even more violently.

  Megan inhaled sharply.

  “Dude, come on,” said Max, making his way up to the front of the bus. “You quit it. Stop trying to scare us.”

  He reached for the man’s shoulder, but his fingers went right through.

  Max pulled his finger out and looked at it. Then he looked at Falcon. Max poked the driver with his finger again, and watched as his finger vanished into his back, as if the bus driver was a kind of thick cloud.

  “Hey,” said Max. “Hey!”

  Max stuck his fingers into the man again, and then his whole arm. He waved his hand through him. Then the driver made a sound like water rushing over stones in the woods, and rose like an evaporating mist.

  A moment later there was no sign of him at all.

  Megan moved next to Falcon and yelled. “Falcon, do something!”

  Falcon had just enough time to think Me? before a pair of gates emerged out of the storm and swung open. They were made of black wrought iron, with spikes at the top. The bus hurtled through them and they slammed closed.

  And then the bus stopped.

  “Oh,” said Megan. She was clutching Falcon’s upper arm. It took her a moment to realize she still had hold of him. Then she let go.

  Sunshine slanted through the windows of the bus. Birds sang.

  Max and Falcon and Megan looked up.

  They were in a large, green park. It appeared to be a summer day outside; the weather was decidedly tropical. In front of the bus was a tall building, like a castle, with five crooked towers. It had a kind of rotting porch out front with some wicker chairs on it. There were several nasty-looking wings with high windows covered by decaying shutters. On the highest tower was an enormous clock. It had three hands, one of which was going backward.