[Galaxy Of Fear] - 04(5)

He peeked inside, but the entranceway was dark. Using his hands, Zak felt his way down a narrow hall that opened up into empty space. Zak took a few more steps before he heard a click as automatic glow rods activated, flooding the room with light.

He was surrounded by a dozen gruesome trolls with hunched backs, hair that seemed to explode out of their heads in spikes, and twisted faces.

“Agh!” he shouted in surprise.

“Agh!” a dozen hunchbacks shouted at the same time.

Zak turned to run, and the hunchbacks turned with him. As he lunged back into the safety of the hallway, the hunchbacks vanished without a sound.

Zak stopped running. This place was becoming stranger by the minute. Curious, he turned and stuck his head back into the lighted room.

A dozen gruesome trolls also poked their heads out through a dozen doors. When Zak raised an eyebrow, so did they. When he scratched his head in confusion, they did, too.

“Hall of Reflection,” he said. “I get it.”

Zak stepped boldly into the room and stared at the trolls-which were actually twelve images of him. He was surrounded by twelve mirrors that took his reflection and warped it into something almost unrecognizable. He laughed out loud, and his reflected image suddenly became even more ridiculous. One of its eyes bulged as large as a port hole, while the other shrank to a tiny, wrinkled pit in his face.

“It’s an improvement,” Tash said wryly. She and Deevee had followed him into the Hall of Reflection and were standing at the edge of the hallway. “I especially like your hair.”

“Very funny,” Zak replied. “Let’s see what it does to you.”

Tash stepped into the room, and the gruesome trolls were instantly joined by twelve gnarled crones. Tash’s long, braided blond hair looked like a tentacle writhing out of the back of her head, and her eyes shrank back into her brow as her chin swelled up and out.

“This is the most amazing funhouse mirror I’ve ever seen,” she said. When she spoke, her reflections’ enormous jaws flapped wildly.

“I’m programmed to imitate human functions, but I’m not sure I comprehend this sort of humor,” Deevee confessed. “These trick mirrors intentionally distort one’s image. And that is funny?”

Zak rolled his eyes. “Let’s see if there’s more.”

They searched the mirrored room until they found a door-hidden behind one of the twelve reflections. Stepping through it, Tash and Zak entered a mirror maze. Pieces of their reflections were everywhere sometimes only their feet were visible, and sometimes only their heads. Sometimes the reflections were true, and sometimes the Fun World mirrors twisted their images into shapes that were stretched, squeezed, crushed, or swollen to galactic proportions. Zak even found a set of mirrors that transformed him into an alien. In one mirror, his face stretched out into a snout and his ears drooped down. Even his skin changed color, until he looked like a pudgy Ortolan.

“This is excellent!” he called out to Tash, who was walking in the other direction.

In the next mirror, his entire face folded in on itself and his skin swelled into the tough, leathery hide of a somewhat Zak like Kitonak.

Zak stepped up to the next mirror in the hallway. This image was human and very handsome-but taller than he was, with smooth dark skin, a carefully trimmed mustache, and a dashing smile.

Now this is more like it, Zak thought. He struck a swashbuckler’s pose.

But instead of imitating the pose, the reflection reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder.





CHAPTER 4


“Help!” Zak cried as the hand clutched at his shirt.

“Relax,” said a smooth, confident voice. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

The image stepped forward, and Zak realized with relief that he hadn’t been looking at another reflection. He’d been looking at a living, breathing human being.

“You nearly made me jump into hyperspace,” he said, trying to calm his pounding heart.

The man flashed a roguish smile. His age was hard to guess. He might have been twenty or forty. He had the casual confidence of a traveler who’d been everywhere and done everything, but also the sly look of a young scoundrel with his sharp eyes on a new opportunity for riches.

“Sorry about that,” the man said in a slow drawl. “You almost ran into me.”

“Zak! Are you all right?” Tash yelled. A dozen reflections of his sister appeared before the real Tash finally turned the corner, with Deevee close behind her. Tash stopped when she saw her brother talking to a stranger. “Oh. Hello.”

“And hello to you,” the man said. He took Tash’s hand gently in his. “I was just about to introduce myself to your friend… Zak, is it? My name is Lando Calrissian. A pleasure.”