The bunker in Miła Street belonged to Shmuel Asher and the Chompe gang. The mafia boss was a lot thinner than he had been a year ago, and there was a scar across his face, no doubt from his time in prison, but he had been able to buy himself out one more time. With the rest of his money, he and his friends had built this immense bunker. There were wells for water, electricity, a perfect kitchen, stylish sofas, and even glass cabinets. An elegant parlor hidden beneath the city.
Crime paid. Not just for German industrialists.
Asher came up to me, having recognized me at once, and asked immediately, “Have you seen Ruth?”
Should I let him know that she had coughed ashes, that she had been raped by “the doll” in Treblinka, and that she had sung Lulay, lulay, little one, half-crazed?
“She loved you,” I told him.
That was all Asher needed to know. He closed his eyes for a moment. He had loved her, too.
When he opened them again, he went up to our leaders, including Mordechai who had joined us here, and welcomed all the fighters and civilians.
“We will fight and die together,” the mafioso promised. “We are all Jews, after all.”
That was something the Germans hadn’t bargained for when they devised their plans of destruction. They had turned people who had never cared so much about their Jewishness into proud fighting Jews!
Our group was assigned a chamber with the name of Auschwitz, along with a few civilians. Asher had given all the rooms names of concentration camps: Treblinka, Sobibor, Mauthausen …
Auschwitz had belonged to a man called Izak, who had lived there by himself with his family until now. He was a little man who reminded me of a weasel, and he wasn’t one bit pleased that his boss had opened the bunker for all of us. He had been expecting to die in relative comfort, at least. But there was nothing he could do about it.
We let him and his wife keep their bed. Amos and I sat against a wall. He fell asleep quickly, but kept twitching in his sleep nervously. No wonder, after he’d seen Esther die today.
Daniel and little Rebecca were lying opposite. I felt jealous when I looked at them. Not because Rebecca was curled up beside Daniel or anything like that. But because Daniel still had his little sister with him.
In the world of the 777 islands, the Longear had landed on Mirror Island. Surprisingly, the island wasn’t made of mirrors, it was rocky. In fact it was really just a gigantic mountain that reached up to the sky.
“Up there, above the clouds must be where the Palace of Mirrors is,” Hannah said. “That’s where we have to go.”
“Well, that’s bloody brilliant, isn’t it?” the werewolf growled. “I’m no mountain lion, am I?”
“Which is a shame,” Captain Carrot sighed.
“Why?”
“Because you’d be a lot nicer to look at.”
“I love you, too, ugly butt-face,” the werewolf just growled.
I was nervous, too. I was terrified of the Mirror King. And I feared that Hannah would be killed in battle, which would mean that I would lose her forever.
“We’ve got this far,” Hannah said cheerily. “We’re sure to manage the rest.” She strapped a bag, containing the three magic mirrors, to her back and started to climb the mountain.
“Sure,” the Captain sighed.
“Hmm,” grumbled the werewolf, and both put on thick caps. The captain had trouble stowing his ears underneath his one.
It was great to see Hannah again. I had said goodbye to her, but I was still alive after all, and so she was, too.
I felt a small ray of hope. What did she just say? We’ve got this far, we’re bound to manage the rest! Perhaps, just perhaps that applied to life outside the 777 islands, too.