Read Online In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz - Free Book Online Page A

am King Aitheantas. And these are the giants of the Cave of Heroes.” Then he pointed his huge sausage fingers at each one and named them. Jack didn’t catch many of the names. The guard was called Meas. There was an enormously fat one called Brod, whose stomach tumbled out over his belt in giggling lobes. And there was a skinny, young-looking one with big front teeth, whom King Aitheantas called Bucky. Bucky smiled at Jack. Jack returned the smile.
    “Now,” bellowed King Aitheantas, “you wonder what giants such as we might want with such a pygmy as thee?”
    In fact, Jack had not wondered. But Jill said, “Yes.”
    The king announced, “We do not judge courage by size, do we?”
    “No!” bellowed the giants. Jack grinned. Bucky flashed him a thumbs-up.
    ----
    Yes, “thumbs-up” existed Once upon a time. Nowadays it means, “Good job,” or, “You’re okay with me.” Back then, it generally meant, “My friends aren’t going to kill you.”
    “But we must know,” continued King Aitheantas, “if you are brave. You must pass harrowing tests if we are to let you join the band.”
    Jack said, “I will pass them.”
    “What happens if he doesn’t?” Jill demanded.
    King Aitheantas raised his eyebrows at Meas, the guard. Meas bellowed imperiously, “He dies. And so do you. The secrets of the band shall not be revealed to the world!”
    Inside Jill’s blanket, the frog fainted.
    “First test, boulder throwing!” bellowed King Aitheantas.
    “Huzzah!” bellowed the rest of the giants.
    Meas left the hall to get the boulders.
    The giants stood up from the great table and came and crowded around Jack, greeting him warmly. They shook his hand and slapped him on the back and welcomed him to the band.
    “He’s not a member yet!” Aitheantas reminded them.
    “A formality! A formality!” one of them bellowed with a smile, pounding Jack on the back until he fell over.
    The giants’ hair was long and tangled, and some wore beards or great mustaches, while others were clean shaven. All had big rough noses and lips, and small, squinty eyes. They blinked a lot, as if their eyesight were poor.
    Brod, the fat one, shouted, “Show us a muscle!” Jack obliged and Brod laughed and slapped him on the back, knocking him over again. Bucky took on a conspiratorial whisper and told Jack a joke and they both laughed, even though Jack didn’t get the joke at all. Bucky shot Jack a grin and pointed at him with his finger. Jack grinned and pointed right back.
    Soon, all the giants were grinning at him. “Oh, you’ll be fine!” they bellowed. “Fine! Quite an impressive pygmy after all!”
    And, all of a sudden, Jack didn’t feel so much like a pygmy anymore. He felt, in fact, like he had always hoped to feel among Marie and the boys, and never had.
    He turned and flashed a smile at Jill.
    But little Jill had her arms crossed and was watching the scene from under furrowed brows. Jack thought he could see the frog, hiding under the blanket, trembling.
    Then all the giants moved off to one side, and Jack saw that Meas had placed three boulders in the center of the hall. Not just any boulders. Enormous boulders. Humongous boulders. Boulders roughly the size of Jack’s house, sitting there in the middle of the great hall. Jack’s eyes bulged from his head.
    “Not so bad, eh?” bellowed Bucky.
    Jack glanced at Jill. She shook her head as if to say, “I told you.”
    A giant with thick, muscular arms walked up to the first boulder, bent at the knees, wedged his huge, meaty hands under the great stone, and heaved. The boulder leaped into the air, rose thirty feet above the giant’s head, and then fell back to the floor with a deafening crash.
    The giants roared in approval.
    Another giant walked up to the second boulder. He wedged his great thick hands beneath the boulder, bent his knees, and heaved. The boulder shot forty feet into the air and then slammed back to the floor, shaking the entire hall.
    The giants