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 01
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Reckless 10
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Written and illustrated by 15

CORNELIA 16
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FUNKE 18
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e A story found and told by f 21
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Cornelia Funke and Lionel Wigram
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Translated by Oliver Latsch S24
N25

Little, Brown and Company

New York Boston

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01
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Text copyright © 2010 by Cornelia Funke and Lionel Wigram
05 Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Cornelia Funke
English translation copyright © 2010 by Cornelia Funke and Lionel Wigram
06 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part
07 of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of
the publisher.
08
Little, Brown and Company
09
Hachette Book Group
10 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.lb-kids.com
11
Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
12 The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

13 First Edition: September 2010

14 The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons,
living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
15 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

16 Funke, Cornelia.
Reckless / Cornelia Funke ; translated by Oliver Latsch. — 1st ed.
17 p. cm.
Summary: Jacob and Will Reckless have looked out for each other ever since their father
18 disappeared, but when Jacob discovers a magical mirror that transports him to a warring
world populated by witches, fairies, and dwarfs, he keeps it to himself until Will follows him
19 one day, with dire consequences.
ISBN 978-0-316-05609-0
20 [1. Fantasy. 2. Brothers—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. Magic—
Fiction.] I. Latsch, Oliver. II. Title.
21 PZ7.F96624Re 2010
[Fic]—dc22 2010006877
22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

23 RRD-C

24S Book design by Alison Impey

25N Printed in the United States of America

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 01
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For Lionel , who found the door to this story and who 05
so often knew more about it than I did, friend and finder of
ideas, indispensable on either side of the mirror. 06
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And for Oliver, who again and again tailored English 09
clothes for this story so that the Englishman and the German
could tell it together. 10
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 01
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Reckless 13
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 01
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1. Once upon a Time 13
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The night breathed through the apartment like 15
a dark animal. The ticking of a clock. The groan 16
of a floorboard as he slipped out of his room. 17
All was drowned by its silence. But Jacob loved 18
the night. He felt it on his skin like a promise. 19
Like a cloak woven from freedom and danger. 20
Outside the stars were paled by the glaring 21
lights of the city, and the large apartment was 22
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01 stale with his mother’s sorrow. She did not wake as
02 Jacob stole into her room, even when he carefully
03 opened the drawer of her nightstand. The key lay
04 right next to the pills that let her sleep. Its cool metal
05 nestled in his hand as he stepped back out into the
06 dark corridor.
07 There was still a light burning in his brother’s
08 room—Will was afraid of the dark—and Jacob made
09 sure he was fast asleep before unlocking the door to
10 their father’s study. Their mother had not entered
11 there since his disappearance, but for Jacob this was
12 not the first time he had snuck into the empty room
13 to search for the answers she did not want to give.
14 It still looked as if John Reckless had last sat in his desk
15 chair less than an hour ago, instead of more than a year.
16 The sweater he had worn so often hung over the chair,
17 and a used tea bag was desiccating on a plate next to his
18 calendar, which still showed the weeks of a passed year.
19 Come back! Jacob wrote it with his finger on the
20 fogged-up window, on the dusty desk, and on the
21 glass panels of the cabinet that still held the old pis-
22 tols his father had collected. But the room remained
23 silent—and empty. He was twelve and no longer had
24S a father. Jacob kicked at the drawers he had searched
25N in vain for so many nights. In a silent rage, he yanked

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 the books and magazines from the shelves, tore down 01
the model airplanes that hung above the desk, ashamed 02
at how proud he had once been when his father had 03
allowed him to paint one with red varnish. 04
Come back! He wanted to scream it through the 05
streets that cut their gleaming paths through the city 06
blocks seven stories below, scream it at the thousand 07
windows that punched squares of light into the night. 08
The sheet of paper slipped out of a book on air- 09
plane propulsion. Jacob only picked it up because he 10
thought he recognized his father’s handwriting on it, 11
though he quickly realized his error. Symbols and 12
equations, a sketch of a peacock, a sun, two moons. 13
None of it made any sense. Except for the one sen- 14
tence he spotted on the reverse side: 15
THE MIRROR WILL OPEN ONLY FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE 16
HIMSELF. 17
Jacob turned around—and his glance was met by 18
his own reflection. 19
The mirror. He still remembered very well the day 20
his father had mounted it on the wall. It hung between 21
the shelves like a shimmering eye, a glassy abyss that 22
cast back a warped reflection of everything John 23
Reckless had left behind: his desk, the old pistols, his S24
books—and his elder son. N25

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01 The glass was so uneven one could barely recog-
02 nize one’s own reflection, and it was darker than other
03 mirrors, but the rose tendrils winding across the silver
04 frame looked so real they seemed ready to wilt at any
05 moment.
06 THE MIRROR WILL OPEN ONLY FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE

07 HIMSELF.

08 Jacob closed his eyes.

09 He turned back to the mirror.
10 Felt behind the frame for some kind of lock or
11 latch.
12 Nothing.
13 Only his reflection was looking him straight in the
14 eye.
15 It took quite a while before Jacob understood.
16 His hand was barely large enough to cover the dis-
17 torted reflection of his face. But the cool glass clung
18 to his fingers as if it had been waiting for them, and
19 suddenly the room he saw in the mirror was no lon-
20 ger his father’s study.
21 Jacob turned around.
22 Moonlight fell through two narrow windows onto
23 gray walls, and his naked feet stood on wooden floor-
24S boards covered with acorn shells and the gnawed
25N bones of birds. The room was bigger than his father’s

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 study, and above him cobwebs hung like veils from 01
the rafters of a roof. 02
Where was he? He stepped toward one of the win- 03
dows, the moonlight painting patterns on his skin. 04
The bloody feathers of a bird stuck to the rough 05
ledge, and far below he saw scorched walls and black 06
hills with a few lost lights glimmering in the distance. 07
He was in a tower. Gone were the sea of houses, the 08
bright streets—everything he knew was gone. And 09
high among the stars were two moons, the smaller 10
one as red as a rusty coin. 11
Jacob looked back at the mirror, and in it he saw 12
the fear on his face. But fear was an emotion he had 13
grown to like. It lured him to dark places, through 14
forbidden doors, and away from himself, and even 15
the yearning for his father could be drowned in it. 16
There was no door in the gray walls, just a trapdoor 17
in the floor. When Jacob opened it, he saw the remains 18
of a burnt staircase melting into the darkness below, 19
and for a moment he thought he spotted a tiny figure 20
climbing up the stones. But a sudden rasp made him 21
wheel around. 22
Cobwebs fell down on him as something jumped 23
onto his neck with a hoarse growl. It sounded like an S24
animal, but the contorted face flashing its teeth at his N25

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01 throat looked as pale and wrinkled as an old man’s. It
02 was much smaller than Jacob, and as spindly as an
03 insect. Its clothes seemed to be made of cobwebs, its
04 white hair hung down to its hips, and when Jacob
05 grabbed for its thin neck, the creature sank its yellow
06 teeth deep into his hand. Screaming, he punched the
07 attacker off his shoulder and stumbled toward the
08 mirror. The spidery creature got to its feet again, lick-
09 ing his blood from its lips, but before it could reach
10 him Jacob was already pressing his hand on the reflec-
11 tion of his scared face. Immediately, the scrawny figure
12 disappeared, together with the gray walls, and ­be­­hind
13 him Jacob could once again see his father’s desk.
14 “Jacob?”
15 His brother’s voice barely registered over the beat-
16 ing of his heart. Jacob gasped for air and backed away
17 from the mirror.
18 “Jake? Are you in there?”
19 He pulled his sleeve over his mauled hand and qui-
20 etly opened the door.
21 Will’s eyes were wide with fear. He’d had another
22 bad dream. Little brother. Will always followed him
23 like a puppy, and Jacob protected him in the school-
24S yard and in the park. Sometimes he even man-
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 aged to forgive Will that their mother loved him 01
more. 02
“Mom says we shouldn’t go in there.” 03
“Since when do I do what Mom says? If you tell on 04
me, I won’t take you to the park ever again.” 05
Jacob thought he could feel the glass of the mirror 06
like ice on the back of his neck. Will peered past him, 07
but he quickly lowered his head as Jacob pulled the 08
door shut behind them. Will. Careful where Jacob 09
was rash, tender where he was short-tempered, and 10
calm where he was restless. Jacob took his hand. Will 11
noticed the blood on his fingers and gave him a quiz- 12
zical look, but Jacob just quietly pushed him into his 13
room. 14
What the mirror had shown him was his. His 15
alone. 16
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 01
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2. Twelve Years Later 13
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The sun already stood low over the burnt walls 15
of the ruin, but Will was still asleep, exhausted 16
from the pain that had been shaking him for 17
days. 18
One mistake, Jacob, after all those years of 19
­caution. 20
He got up and covered Will with his coat. 21
All the years in which Jacob had a whole world 22
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01 to himself. All the years during which that strange
02 world had become home. By the time Jacob was fif-
03 teen, he had already snuck behind the mirror for weeks
04 at a time. When he was sixteen, he no longer even
05 counted the months, and still he had kept his secret.
06 Until the one time when he had been in too much of
07 a rush. Stop it, Jacob! It can’t be changed.
08 The wounds on his brother’s throat had healed well,
09 but the stone was already showing on his left forearm.
10 The pale green veins were spreading toward his hand,
11 shimmering in Will’s skin like polished marble.
12 Just one mistake.
13 Jacob leaned against one of the sooty columns and
14 looked up toward the tower that housed the mirror.
15 He had never gone through it without first making
16 sure Will and his mother were asleep. But since she had
17 died there had just been one more empty room on the
18 other side, and he had been keen to press his hand
19 against the dark glass again and get away. Far away.
20 Impatience, Jacob. Say it as it is. After all, it’s one of
21 your most prominent character traits.
22 He could still see Will’s face appear behind him in
23 the mirror, distorted by the dark glass. “Where are you
24S going, Jacob?” A late flight to Boston, a trip to Europe;
25N there had been so many excuses over the years. Jacob

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 was just as creative a liar as his father had been. But 01
this time his hand had already pressed against the cool 02
glass—and Will had, of course, followed his example. 03
Little brother. 04
“He already smells like them.” Fox appeared out of 05
the shadows cast by the crumbled walls. Her fur was 06
as red as if autumn itself had lent her its colors, except 07
where the trap had streaked the hind leg with pale 08
scars. It had been five years since Jacob had freed her, 09
and the vixen had not left his side since. She guarded 10
his sleep, warned him of dangers that his dull human 11
senses could not detect, and she gave advice that was 12
best followed. 13
One mistake. 14
Jacob stepped through the arched doorway in 15
which the scorched remnants of the castle’s main 16
door were still hanging on the warped hinges. On the 17
steps in front, a Heinzel was collecting acorns from 18
the cracked stones. He quickly scampered off as 19
Jacob’s shadow fell on him. Red eyes above a pointy 20
nose, pants and shirt sewn from stolen human clothes. 21
The ruin was swarming with them. 22
“Send him back! That’s what we came here for, isn’t 23
it?” The impatience in Fox’s voice was hard to miss. S24
But Jacob shook his head. “Bringing him here was N25

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01 a mistake. There’s nothing on the other side that can
02 help him.”
03 Jacob had told Fox about the world he came from,
04 but she never really wanted to hear about it. What she
05 knew was enough: that it was the place to which he
06 disappeared far too often, only to bring back memo-
07 ries that followed him like shadows.
08 “And? What do you think will happen to him here?”
09 Fox did not say it, but Jacob knew what she was
10 thinking. In her world, fathers killed their own sons
11 as soon as they discovered the stone in their skin.
12 He looked down toward the foot of the castle hill,
13 where the red roofs were fading into the twilight. The
14 first lights were coming on in Schwanstein. From a
15 distance, the town looked like one of the pictures
16 printed on gingerbread tins, but over the past years,
17 railway tracks had begun to cut through the hills
18 beyond, and gray smoke rose from the smokestacks
19 of factories into the evening sky. The world behind
20 the mirror wanted to grow up. However, the petrified
21 flesh growing in his brother had not been sown by
22 mechanical looms or any of the other modern achieve-
23 ments but by the old magic that still dwelled in its
24S hills and forests.
25N A Gold-Raven landed next to Will on the cracked

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 tiles. Jacob shooed it away before it could croak one 01
of its sinister spells into his brother’s ear. 02
Will groaned in his sleep. The human skin did not 03
yield to the stone without a fight. Jacob felt the pain 04
as his own. Only his love for his brother had made him 05
return to the other world, even though he’d done so 06
less and less frequently over the years. His mother had 07
threatened him with social services, she had cried, but 08
she had never suspected where he vanished to. Will, 09
however, had always wrapped his arms around Jacob, 10
eagerly asking what he had brought for him. The shoes 11
of a Heinzel, the cap of a Thumbling, a button made 12
of elven glass, a piece of scaly Waterman skin—Will 13
had hoarded Jacob’s gifts under his mattress, and soon 14
he began to regard the stories Jacob told him as fairy 15
tales his brother inven­ted only for him. 16
Now he knew how true they had all been. 17
Jacob pulled the coat over his brother’s disfigured 18
arm. The two moons were already in the sky. 19
“Keep an eye on him, Fox.” He rose to his feet. 20
“I’ll be back soon.” 21
“And where are you going? Jacob!” The vixen 22
jumped into his path. “Nobody can help him.” 23
“We’ll see.” He pushed her aside. “Don’t let Will S24
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01 She looked after him as he walked down the steps.
02 The only footprints on the mossy steps were his own.
03 No human ventured up here. The ruin was thought
04 to be cursed, and Jacob had heard dozens of stories
05 about its demise, but after all these years he still didn’t
06 know who had left the mirror in its tower, just as he
07 had never found out where his father had van-
08 ished to.
09 A Thumbling jumped at his collar. Jacob managed
10 to grab him before he could steal the medallion he
11 was wearing around his neck. On any other day, Jacob
12 would have followed the little thief at once. Thumblings
13 could hoard considerable treasures in the hollow trees
14 where they built their nests. But he had already lost
15 too much time.
16 One mistake, Jacob.
17 He would make it right again. But Fox’s words fol-
18 lowed him as he climbed down the steep hill.
19 Nobody can help him.
20 If she was right, soon he would no longer have a
21 brother. Neither in this world nor in the other.
22 One mistake.
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