The White Oak Read Online Free PDF

anything and aren’t interesting enough for my father to let them into the City.”
    As we walk, the flames avoid us, wary of Minotaur’s sting. “What do you mean, he doesn’t let them in? Is he some kind of king?
    Minotaur turns and smiles at me. “Yes,” he says, swelling up with pride. “My father is a king, and he set the rules for admission to the City.” He looks at the sphere, the black sun in the distance. Then he frowns and his persona turns dark. “It was perfect until the Judges interfered, but we are going put it back the way it was meant to be,” he whispers.
    I’m about to ask what he’s talking about when I catch the look on his face. He’s borrowed this persona from a heist movie. The scene he replays in the sterile air of Asphodel is the one in which the thief tells the interrogator more than he should. Watching him look around nervously, I realize that he believes he’s said more than he should, and it makes me wonder how much control he has over the personas he projects. It’s almost as if he has feelings, or some simulation of feelings.
    We walk together silently until we reach the edge of Asphodel. The plain ends at the banks of another river. This one is black as tar and gives off an acrid stench that makes my eyes water. From the riverbank, I can see the City better. It is an enormous sphere half submerged in the oily water, turning slowly on its axis. Space and perspective behave strangely down here. When Minotaur first pointed out the City to me, it appeared no bigger than a rising sun; now I’m only a few miles closer, but it consumes the horizon. I can’t see its top or sides. It’s as large as the earth itself—made of iron and floating in thick ooze.
    “This is the river Tartarus,” Minotaur says. “It’s deeper than an ocean and home to foul monsters, so many that we don’t bother to name them. My father deepened this river and changed its chemistry so that it could support the rotation of the sphere. Without Tartarus, the friction would melt the City. When you get inside you’ll see, it’s a glorious place, a sphere inside a sphere at the core of the world. My father cooled the red magma at the center of the earth and used its iron ores to build the City. The rest of it was pushed out to the red desert—a forbidden place.” Minotaur stops short and looks around warily. His image sputters and his face looks contrite, and something else—as though he was expecting some kind of punishment for letting his bragging go too far.
    After a long pause I ask, “How do we get across? And how do I get inside?” Looking carefully at the sphere, I don’t see a single window or door—it’s smooth as polished stone.
    “The ferry is the only way across,” Minotaur says, pointing downriver. I see them in the distance—a pier, a boat, and a long line of people waiting to board. “You won’t be allowed to cross without the proper fare,” Minotaur adds. “It’s a gold coin. You have to be dead to get one, but I know someone who can help us,” he says. “Follow me.”



Destroying My Book of Life
    “This way,” Minotaur says as he glides through the air. I do my best to keep up with him, running away from the ferry, along Tartarus’s mucky riverbank. If you can call it a river; it’s as stagnant as a swamp and as vast as an ocean. I can’t see the other side of it, but I don’t have time to stop and look. I have to sprint to keep up with Minotaur, which is difficult on feet covered with the cuts I got while running on the sharp gravel to escape the other river. The noxious tar stings my injured feet, and would be doing a lot worse if the sterile Asphodel dust weren’t protecting them a little. I’m hungry, thirsty, my feet are killing me, and I need to rest, but I force myself to keep going.
    Ahead, a pale object rises tall and thin against the dusky sky. It creates a sliver of brightness that looks like a door cracked open. As we get closer, I realize that it’s a