Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 Idiot. Moron. Fool. Amy stared at the door, at the absence of light where Ian Kabra had been standing. It had all been one big joke. He had wrapped her around his fingers and then yanked her inside out. How could it have happened? How could anyone do that? Tears made rivulets down her cheeks and fell to the ground, tapping lightly like the flap of moth wings. Behind her, Alistair and Dan were ignoring her, discussing strategies, trying to figure out how to

第十六章白痴。笨蛋。傻瓜。 艾米盯着门口，看着伊恩·卡布拉站着的地方没有灯光。 这一切都是一个大玩笑。 他把她缠在自己的手指上，然后把她的内脏拉了出来。 怎么会发生这种事呢？ 怎么会有人这么做呢？泪水顺着她的脸颊淌下来，落在地上，像飞蛾拍打翅膀一样轻轻地拍打着。 在她身后，阿利斯泰尔和丹无视她，讨论对策，想办法

escape. How to prevent themselves from dying. Too late, Amy thought. She already knew what that felt like. Slowly, their voices filtered into her brain. "I am going to search for another exit," Alistair was saying. "Amy, you and Dan look for any weakness in the rock wall. If bats live here, there must be some source of air, some kind of hole." Amy nodded numbly. As Alistair's footsteps receded, Dan squatted next to her. "Hey. I want to strangle him, too." "It was my fault," she said. "I-I believed him. I played right into his trap…." Dan helped her to her feet and swung the light around, examining every square inch of the wall. The place was pitch-dark, and after a few minutes, Amy already felt like she was growing short of breath. Alistair's voice echoed toward them from the distance. "No other exits. I just checked the whole W. It goes on much longer than I'd thought. We are totally sealed."

逃跑。如何防止自己死亡。 太迟了，艾米想。她已经知道那是什么感觉了。 慢慢地，他们的声音进入了她的大脑。 “我要找另一个出口，”阿利斯泰尔说。 "艾米，你和丹去找岩石墙上的弱点。 如果蝙蝠住在这里，那这里一定有空气来源，某种洞。” 艾米麻木地点了点头。当阿利斯泰尔的脚步声退去时，丹蹲在她身边。 “嘿。我也想掐死他。” “这是我的错，”她说。 “我相信了他。我正好中了他的圈套....” 丹扶她站起来，把灯转了一圈，检查着每一平方英寸的墙壁。 这个地方漆黑一片，几分钟后，艾米已经感到呼吸急促。 远处传来阿利斯泰尔的声音。 “没有其他出口。我只是检查了整个W。 比我想象的要长得多。 我们完全封闭了。”

A tomb, Amy thought. He buried us alive. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "I am so sorry, my darling niece," Alistair said gently. "Had I seen you were falling for the boy, I would have done something. It passed over my head, and it should not have." Amy sighed. "How could I have let him trick me? How could I think that anyone would actually feel…" The words got stuck in the back of her parched mouth. "I know this will not make anything better," Alistair said, "but you must believe me when I say I know how it feels to be betrayed." Amy glanced up into Alistair's barely discernible face. "Really?" Alistair looked as if he were going to say something, then changed his mind. "Think only of this, Amy: Your parents loved you. It was in their eyes, even when you weren't around. You must think of them, and they will be there for you." "Did you— know them?" Amy asked. "AGGH! Gross!" Dan shouted from another

一座坟墓，艾米想。他把我们活埋了。 她感到有一只手搭在她的肩膀上。 “我很抱歉，我亲爱的侄女，”阿利斯泰尔温柔地说。 “如果我看到你爱上了那个男孩，我会做点什么。 它越过了我的头顶，这是不应该的。” 艾米叹了口气。“我怎么能让他骗我呢？” 我怎么能想到有人会真的觉得……”这句话哽在了她干裂的嘴角。 “我知道这不会让事情好转，”阿利斯泰尔说，“但你必须相信我，我知道被背叛的感觉。” 艾米抬头看了一眼阿利斯泰尔那张几乎看不清的脸。 “真的吗?”阿利斯泰尔似乎想说点什么，但又改变了主意。 “想想这一点，艾米：你的父母爱你。 即使你不在他们身边，他们的眼神也是如此。 你一定要想他们，他们就会在你身边。” “你——认识他们吗？”艾米问。 “AGGH !总!”丹从另一个地方喊道

part of the cave. "I think I stepped on a bat! Can you guys continue the conversation at a later time— if there is one? If we don't all die and become a banquet for bats?" Alistair raced away, leaving Amy with a mouthful of questions. "Dan, you must never, ever give in," Alistair said encouragingly. "A problem is merely a solution waiting to be found. We will make it out of here— and I predict we will beat the Kabras to Lake Tash—" "Dude, we're not going to Lake Tash," Dan said. "I made that up." Now Alistair was staring at him. "But— the anagram—" Amy said. Dan sighed, shining his lantern on the sheet where he'd unscrambled the words. "I saw the real answer right away, but I didn't trust them. I threw something out to test them. The real answer is, like, a no-brainer—" He began scribbling another word on the sheet, but Amy was looking past him, at the odd reflections of lantern light in the mirror.

洞穴的一部分。“我想我踩到蝙蝠了！”你们能不能以后再继续聊——如果有的话？ 如果我们不全都死掉，变成蝙蝠的宴会呢？”阿利斯泰尔跑开了，留给艾米一大堆问题。 “丹，你绝对不能屈服，”阿利斯泰尔鼓励他说。 “问题只是一个有待发现的解决方案。” 我们会逃出去的——我估计我们会抢在卡布拉家族前面，赶到塔什湖——”“老兄，我们不去塔什湖。”丹说。 “那是我编的。”现在阿利斯泰尔正盯着他。 “可是——那个字谜——”艾米说。 丹叹了口气，用灯笼照着他整理过的那张纸。 “我马上就看到了真正的答案，但我不相信他们。 我扔了些东西来测试他们。 真正的答案，就像，不需要动脑的——”他开始在纸上写另一个字，但艾米正越过他，看着镜子里奇怪的灯笼光的反射。

"Wait!" she blurted out. "The mirror—who ever heard of a triangular mirror?" "Uh, a triangular mirror designer?" Dan said. "Or an alchemist!" Amy said. "Think, Dan. Alchemy is all about symbols. The planets, the elements, everything had its own funny shape!" "So what was the triangle?" Dan asked. Amy tried to picture the image on the page. "Air? Gold?" "Wait… wait… I can see it…" Dan said. "Water! That's it. Wait. No. With the point down, it represents water… but with the point up, it's fire!" Dan swung the lantern back in the direction of the mirror now, raising it high above his head. Just above the mirror, beyond his reach, Amy noticed several greasy-looking, stringy objects. Her stomach turned. They looked like rat tails. "Are they… alive?" Suddenly, Dan glanced toward the ground. He crouched now, scraping something with his fingers. "Charcoal," he said. "It must be leaking from above."

“等等！”她脱口而出。“镜子——谁听说过三角形的镜子？”“呃，一个三角镜设计师？”丹说。 “或者是个炼金术士！”艾米说。 “想,丹。炼金术是关于符号的。 行星、元素，每样东西都有自己奇特的形状！”“那么三角形是什么呢？”丹问道。 艾米试着把那张纸上的图像描绘出来。 “空气?黄金?”“等等……等等……我看到了……”丹说。 “水!就是这样。等待。否。 尖朝下代表水，尖朝上代表火！”丹把灯笼朝镜子的方向甩了甩，把它举过头顶。 就在镜子上方，在他够不着的地方，艾米注意到几个看上去油腻腻的丝状物体。 她的胃一阵翻腾。它们看起来像老鼠的尾巴。 “他们……还活着吗？”突然，丹朝地面瞥了一眼。 他现在蹲下来，用手指刮着什么东西。 “木炭，”他说。“一定是从上面漏出来的。”

Alistair looked up. "What's up there?" Choking back nausea, Amy forced herself to follow his glance. To her relief, the hanging tails were way too long to be what she thought they were. They seemed to be just strings, leading into a big crack in the rock. And she became aware of a very particular smell. "Oh, my god…" she said. "Guys, what do you smell right now?" "Bat turds," Dan said. "Rotten eggs," Alistair volunteered. "And that rotten-egg smell," Amy said, "is caused by—?" "Chickens?" Dan said. "Sulphur!" Amy said. Dan smiled. "Oh, right— I learned that in chem lab last year! I snuck this test tube into Mandy Ripkin's lunch box? With this, like, really loose cork? So when she opened it—" "Charcoal… sulphur," Amy said, wracking her brain for something she'd read in science class. "They go together with some other ingredient to

阿利斯泰尔抬起头来。“上面有什么？”艾美强忍着恶心，强迫自己顺着他的目光看下去。 让她松了一口气的是，悬挂的尾巴太长了，不像她想象的那样。 它们似乎只是弦，通向岩石的一个大裂缝。 她闻到了一种特别的味道。 “哦，我的天啊……”她说。“伙计们，你们现在闻到什么了？”“蝙蝠的粪便，”丹说。 “臭鸡蛋，”阿利斯泰尔自告奋勇。 “那臭鸡蛋的味道，”艾美说，“是由——引起的？”“鸡?”丹说。 “硫磺!”艾米说。丹笑了。 “哦，对了——我去年在化学实验室学的！”我把试管偷偷塞进曼迪·里普金的饭盒里？ 这个软木塞很松吗？ 所以当她打开它的时候——”“木炭……硫磺，”艾米说，她绞尽脑汁地想她在科学课上读过的东西。 “它们和其他一些成分一起