Chapter 9 No Way Back
CHAPTER NINE
NO WAY BACK
ADELINE
A force slams into me as I pass through the door, but I clench my jaw and push against it. Then I’m through. The entrance into the library is dim and my steps echo.
It seems to be a hole cut into the mountain. A tunnel. As I make my slow way inside, I don’t know what to expect except… shelves? It’s a library, right? However, it’s hard to gauge what is behind a door opening into solid rock.
I imagine a huge cavern with niches carved into its walls, filled with ancient books, covered in spiderwebs and bat shit.
A dim cavern. The darkness isn’t pleasant. If only there was some light to see by…
This is, in fact, my first time inside a mountain. I come from the plains. Our hills are soft, rounded and rolling. The few caves are either used by shepherds or closed off on the Queen’s orders because they house ancient temples.
As I move deeper, I hear rustling and wonder if there are bats. Or rats. Or snakes. Didn’t Naida tell me stories about caves full of snakes? Also, I think I hear water dripping in the distance, echoing faintly.
I walk further down the passage, and suddenly light hits my eyes, blinding me for a moment. Shading my gaze, I stop and wait for my sight to adjust, and then…
Then I find an entire world has opened up before me, right below my feet, bathed in a golden radiance.
“Oh Gods.” I feel my eyes go round in my face. “That’s…”
“Enormous?” Olm supplies. “Obscene? Insane? Come, take me out of the bag. I want to see.”
Without a word, my hands shaking, I unsling the satchel from my back and lower it to the ground. I take the book out, not even caring to argue.
“My word,” Olm says. “Obscene was right.”
We’re standing on a ledge, a platform that seems to jut over the void, and below… below is a city.
Sedrig had said the library is a whole world, but I thought he was making this up. I mean, is it an illusion? Am I seeing things that aren’t there? Streets, squares, houses, trees, stables, gardens, it’s all there. A palace sits at the center of the city.
And beyond…
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I whisper.
“You mean the world beyond the city?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s magic,” he says. “Told you.”
“Like a mirage?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“What, then?” I breathe. “Is it real?”
Beyond the city spread green meadows and brown hills as far as the eye can see, and on the other side, blue lakes shimmer and mountains rise, capped with snow. The horizon is smudgy, and I can’t tell where this world inside a cavern ends. It just looks… endless.
“It’s like books,” Olm says, a strange wistfulness in his voice. “They are thin and flat but they open deep into other dimensions.”
“Magical books, you mean?”
“All books.”
He’s right. Maybe. I’m too stunned for coherent thought. This isn’t a cave or a library, at least not in any sense I’m used to. Instead of shelves filled with books, there is an entire kingdom in here.
So where am I supposed to take Olm’s book? Who would know what I need to do? Who would—
“You solved the riddle,” Olm interrupts my thoughts. “Entered the Areon. Now what?”
“Sleeping Gods. Of course.” I almost slap my forehead. Use your head. You know who you need to find, who has all the answers. “I must ask the librarian.”
Finding him hadn’t seemed so daunting before I knew how large the library is.
Naida once took me with her to visit the royal library at the palace.
Now I know how privileged I am to have been raised by a famed storyteller and former head librarian.
In retrospect, the trip to the palace should have clued me in.
Everyone treated us with deference, valets opening doors for us and servants bowing.
As for the library, it was a fantastical place, spread over two levels, with rolling ladders of wrought iron, shelves of oak, and a cranky librarian who looked after the books as if they were her babies.
But this… this place is extraordinary and I haven’t absorbed its enormity yet.
I rub my eyes, walking back from the ledge. “Where will I find him? I need to climb down to the city, somehow, and find its center. A library within the library, perhaps? He may have his seat there.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to try, I suppose,” Olm says.
“See any way down?”
“Not really.” He pauses. “To be honest, I’d rather you placed me back in the satchel if you’re thinking of scaling those rocks. I wouldn’t like to witness my own death.”
“There you go again with the negativity. Not to mention, you’re not alive, Olm.”
“That’s relative.”
I swallow a sigh, glancing around. “I see a tunnel. Maybe there is a staircase leading down.”
“What are you waiting for, then? Unless you changed your mind and have a sudden burning desire to take me to the royal palace?”
“Dream on.” I turn toward the tunnel, a dark opening in the cavern wall. “This is where you will stay.”
“Nasty. One way or another, I’ll find out why you are immune to my power, girl.”
“I’m not a girl. I’m a woman, and you’re just a book.”
“When it comes to magic, there’s no such thing as just a book,” he whines but I ignore him. The fine hairs at the back of my neck prickle. Something is nagging at me, something…
Entrances. In myths and legends, entrances to enchanted places are always guarded.
We entered the Areon way too easily. Sure, there was a riddle to solve, but is that enough?
The passages between worlds are often guarded by beasts and immortal priests who make sure few pass—except for the dead, or the brave and mad, and the Areon seems to be such a liminal place.
“What are you doing?” Olm demands when I look around and hesitate. “What’s wrong?”
A howl echoes. It seems to emanate from the tunnel I was about to enter. It wraps all around us, burrowing inside my head and making my ears ring.
“What was that?” I whisper, glancing around wildly, looking for a place to hide but there’s only rock and darkness. “Shit…”
“Monsters are contained inside the library sanctum,” Olm says, “why would there be any loose in—?”
“Shh. Quiet.” I let out a controlled breath. “Maybe it left, whatever it is.”
But the howl comes again, this time closer, louder, and with a curse, I run back the direction I’ve come, toward the entrance of the library.
I knew it had been too easy.
“But there is a warrior librarian,” Olm is chattering inside my head, “a guardian who is supposed to keep the monsters in check. This is the one place in the world where magical books are controlled, why would he—?”
“Oh, damn!” I skid to a stop. The door is closed, effectively trapping us inside the library. I shove it, bang my fists on it. It doesn’t even tremble or produce any echo. It’s rock, smooth and without any handle. Without any indication that it was ever open.
Not good. This isn’t good at all, and—
A low growl from behind freezes the blood in my veins. Slowly, I turn around, pressing my back to the sealed door, feeling as if I’m moving through thick syrup.
Across from me stands a gigantic, white lioness, her wicked teeth bared.
Good Gods. I’ve only ever seen such a creature in drawings. I thought they were extinct, I thought—
She leaps at me, a great arc up in the air, and screaming, I drop to my knees and throw up my hands to cover my head.
This is it, this is my end. At least I’ve seen the Library of Areon…
“Ardruna!” a grave voice shouts. “Sit.”