by J C Gilbert
“It was my pleasure, Keeper. Now, you will forgive me, I wish to return to my lady as soon as may be.”
“Mason, may ask you a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Would you mind checking in on Elaine now and then? I know that it wouldn’t be easy for you, but she really has changed. Can you do that for me?”
Mason looked awkward. “Well, I suppose. Tabitha will keep her comfortable, you know. That’s just her way.”
“OK, but if she wants to send me a message, or needs to talk to me, will you let me know?”
Mason nodded solemnly. “Well, farewell, Keeper.”
“Goodbye, Sir Mason,” I said.
Soon I was alone in the deserted goblin camp. I felt a sense of incompleteness from the journey. I don’t know what I expected, but it did not feel right to leave Elaine in that situation. What could I do? She went there with open eyes.
I found the portal just as we had left it inside the largest of the tents. I passed through into The Library’s basement level and found myself in the dank chamber. The door was locked just as we had left it. I opened it up and pushed my way through, replacing the lock again behind me.
The Librarian was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that at least I had gotten away with helping Elaine without her finding out.
I found my copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on a shelf that was otherwise occupied by architectural manuals. I’d never been into an architectural manual and wondered what kind of world was inside. Presumably a well-built one. I opened up my book and started reading and was soon falling through the pages. I landed in a crouch on my bedroom floor.
Immediately I realized that something was wrong.
I looked up to see that I wasn’t alone. Jonny was standing at the door, eyes wide at what he had just seen.
“Jonny, I-”
He stepped into my bedroom, closing the door behind him.
“You are going to have to tell me how you did that,” he said, “but first, we have more urgent matters to attend to.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I just stood there and stared at my little brother like a deer in the headlights. “Jonny, I-”
“Mom is missing, and something is going down at the museum. Your friend Darcy has been around a few times looking for you. I told him I’d take you to him when you turned up.”
“What do you mean Mom is missing? Where’s Dad?”
“I managed to convince him that Mom was on a work trip and that she had been telling him about it for weeks. Fortunately for us, our father is aware that he doesn’t listen to his wife all that closely.”
This was my little brother, the one that drew faces with his food at dinner time and worried about the sparrows in the winter. Something had come over him, and my experiences with The Library left me fearing for the worst.
“You don’t seem quite yourself,” I said.
Jonny smiled at me, gravely. “I know, but we can talk about that later. Darcy is hauled up at the post office downtown. He was convinced that you would be able to help with the situation. Before you materialized out of thin air in your bedroom, I had some serious doubts about that. It seems that we have both been keeping our secrets.”
“OK,” I said cautiously. “So I am meeting Darcy downtown. What day is it today?”
“Saturday,” said Jonny flatly.
“Good. I’ll see if Lilly can pick me up.”
Jonny smirked. “Don’t get me wrong, Lilly is great, but she is just a little bit unreliable, don’t you think? I can drive.”
“You are not driving anywhere, little brother. You are nine. Start acting like it. You are creeping me out,” I said.
“Sorry,” said Jonny earnestly.
I text Lilly, and she immediately called. “Thank goodness you are back, where have you been? Daniel has been playing Minecraft with the museum grounds. I think he has gone mad.”
“Daniel is playing Minecraft? What are you talking about?”
“I’ll come get you now.”
“She is on her way,” I said to Jonny. “Now, tell me what happened to Mom.”
Jonny led me downstairs and toward the kitchen table where Mom’s papers were still stacked up high. “Hi Dad, bye Dad,” said Jonny as we passed him watching a sports on the TV. His tone had effortlessly returned to nine-year-old Jonny. I wondered how long he had been making the switch.
“Look at these,” he said, lowering his voice and lifting up one of the documents for me to see.
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking at, but it seemed to me that Mom had been copying something, some kind of foreign writing.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Elvish,” said Jonny.
“Mom has been learning Elvish?”
“No, I don’t think she knew what she was doing. I’m sure that to her this all just looked like your everyday museum bureaucracy. These were her first attempts, I think. I realized too late that she was making copies. I don’t know how many there are, or what they say, but I think they are connected with what is happening downtown.”
“Minecraft?”
“Someone has done a deal, as they say, and is now power-drunk. When I was down there last, he seemed to be building something on the museum grounds.”
“Minecraft.”
A few rapid honks of Lilly’s car horn announced her arrival. “Thanks, Jonny. I’ll let you know how things go.”
“You are not going down there without me.”
“I am. You need to stay safe.” With that, I darted for the door, leaving Jonny standing by the kitchen table.
“Where have you been, young lady?” demanded Lilly as I climbed into her car. She was wearing the smart glasses she got from the Lower Vault.
“Lost in a book,” I said, a moment of guilt washing over me again for leaving Elaine with her sister like that. “What did I miss?”
“Only the apocalypse. Kinda. Well, the local equivalent. I’m sort of failing at making this seem dramatic, aren’t I?”
“My brother was acting very strange,” I said as we pulled out onto the road.
“His mom just went missing, and he is probably pretty confused about what has been happening on the news.”
“Daniel?”
“Yeah. You think you know a guy…”
“How bad is it?”
“No one has died, yet, but it has gotten close a few times. The police have cordoned off an area of downtown, but they have no idea what they are dealing with.”
“And Darcy?”
“He is loving it,” said Lilly.
“Loving it?”
“Well, you know how he is. He gets to be all serious and issue commands. He keeps telling me to go home and stay safe, though, which is kind of annoying.”
“But he wanted me to go down there as soon as possible?”
“I guess he just likes me better,” said Lilly.
I could tell something was up as soon as we crossed into the CBD. Everything seemed out of place. The few people we did pass moved with urgency. They were either moving away from the museum like sensible people or toward it armed with camera bags and tripods.
We came to a police cordon, and Lilly parked up. “This is as close as we can get without forcing our way through.”
We were about fifteen minutes walk from the museum grounds. The museum itself was situated on a hill, half of which was well-kept lawn and garden, the rest was forested over. There were many streets and pathways leading to the museum, and the police could not block all of them. I soon found myself at the post office just outside the museum grounds. A large iron gate separated the city from the semi-wild park. Though the trees were tall, I could clearly see the fortress being built within. The museum itself was dwarfed by the structure that now partially surrounded it. It seemed that the builder was making some attempt at integrating the museum into their overall design. The structure was built on a general theme of spires and battlements, li
ke a wartime Disney castle.
A thought occurred to me, and I snorted. “Architecture,” I said.
“Yes, it is hilarious,” said Lilly.
In front of the iron gates, several cars had been overturned to form a sort of a barricade. It was strange seeing all this mess in a place that was so familiar to me. I didn’t like it. I needed home to be a place of normality for me to properly handle the madness within the books. The sight before me was unsettling in a way that not many things could be. And somewhere among all this mess was my mom.
Darcy emerged from the post office, talking urgently into his mobile. He saw me, nodded, and then continued his conversation. In a moment he had pocketed his phone.
“Good of you to come,” said Darcy. “The situation is as follows: Daniel seems to have come into some power and has seized control of the museum and its staff. Around midnight last night, he began constructing that thing you see before you. Police were called, and there was a brief firefight resulting in two fatalities. Chatter on the coms suggested that the suspect ‘threw darkness’ at the officers and that this darkness engulfed them. Unable to control or understand the situation, they have cordoned off this part of town and have ordered the evacuation of all nearby buildings. They have had some success with this, but many people have chosen instead to use their vantage point to get a better view. Myself and a few others have been trying to maintain up to date information on what is going on in there so that when we do strike we know what we are up against.”
“All news, all the time,” added Lilly.
“And you are sure that it’s Daniel?” I asked.
Darcy nodded. “I spoke to him briefly.” Darcy shot Lilly a glance, “when I was able to get close. He didn’t seem to understand the magnitude of the situation and said that he just wanted to be left to build his new kingdom.”
“Minecraft,” said Lilly.
“Can you stop it with that? It wasn’t funny the first time,” snapped Darcy.
Lilly was silent for a moment. “Minecraft,” she said again.
“Darcy,” I said, “he has my mom.”
“I know,” he said with a nod.
There were the sounds of commotion coming from above. I looked up at the buildings around me to see dozens of apartment buildings with their windows open and people hanging out for the view. They all seemed to have noticed something. I glanced back to the gathering fortress. In the distance, I could see a figure hovering above the grounds, dark against the gray clouds. They had their arms spread wide and seemed to be rising higher and higher. I sensed a gathering force around him.
“Guys,” I said, “he is doing something.”
And then a bright light issued from the figure. It careered through the sky over our position and toward the taller buildings of the city. It struck the tallest with a deafening crack more terrible than thunder.
“There are thousands of people in that building,” said Lilly.
“What has he done?” I asked under my breath.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There were gasps and cries from the apartments above us as the central skyscraper smoked from the point of impact and began to collapse.
“Something must have changed,” said Darcy. “I didn’t know Daniel was capable of something like this. There were people in there. My god.”
“Then we have to do something and do it quickly,” I said.
Darcy shook his head. “What is there to be done? He is powerful, Alex. I have never before seen power like his. It is like he has tapped into the raw code of reality and is just reshaping it to his will. If we knew where he got the power, then things may be different, but I have never seen anything like it.”
I pulled out a crumpled sheet of Mom’s writing from my bag and handed it to Darcy. “Does this look familiar?” I asked. “I think it is Elvish.”
“Yes, I think you are right. Do you know what it says?” he asked.
“No idea.”
“Where did you get this?”
“My mom had it. This is her writing. I think she was making copies of something.”
“That would explain why he has kept the museum staff hostage. He used them to get this power. But Alex, I have never heard of any elven realm with the power to do anything like this. Elves can usually only stay in this world for a short time before they start to fade.”
“You know elves?” asked Lilly.
“I have had a few run-ins over the years. I will see if I can contact King Polonius. This city is within his borders, and he may be able to shed some light on the situation.”
“Hey,” said Carl, joining our circle. He had a crossbow and looked very uncomfortable. “I’ve come to help.”
Darcy looked him up and down. “No, you stay out of this.”
“Daniel is my friend,” said Carl. “I told you he was getting mixed up in something,” he looked at me with sorrow in his eyes.
“Sorry, I had to go away for a while,” I said, wishing that I had at least passed on his message to Darcy.
Darcy looked at me as I spoke and then glanced back down to the writing.
“I say we just hit him with all we’ve got if you know what I mean,” said Lilly with a wink.
Darcy looked suddenly self-conscious, presumably thinking that Lilly was implying that she knew about his secret. I couldn’t help but sigh. Here to my left was Lilly who had the power of flight as well as all of what the Rose of the Raven could do, and on my right I had Darcy who had been altered during his travels through the multiverse to the point that I was fairly sure that he was the most powerful person I knew, besides Vicious of course. But neither Lilly nor Darcy wanted each other to know their secrets. It was stupid.
“I think Lilly is right,” I said. “As much as I dislike the idea of a fight, we have to at least try. I don’t know how many people were in that building, but we cannot let that happen again.”
“Oh shoot,” said Lilly, looking toward the iron gates. “Legit question for rural Americans - how do I kill the 30-50 feral squirrels?”
I followed her gaze and saw what she saw. A crowd had gathered on the museum side of the gate, and they were not human. They were all of them furry and dressed in armor that looked like it had been made from tree bark. They each must have been around three feet tall and were armed with little short swords which were, unfortunately, not made of tree bark. Their eye sockets were dark and empty and seemed to stare straight at us. Great bushy tails rose up behind them, swaying gentle left and right. They were, as far as I could tell, squirrels. Giant undead squirrels.
“What has he done to them?” I asked.
“Whatever he has done, he has made sure they are armed. The only question now is whether they were armed to go on the attack or the defense.”
Just then, one of the squirrels stepped forward and tore the lock off of the iron gate. It inched open with a squeak. All the street was silent but for that solitary sound.
“This does not spark joy,” said Lilly.
All at once, the squirrel soldiers stormed forward. They spilled out of the park like a wave. My heart was beating fast as I waited for them to reach us. Carl was sweating profusely now, and it looked like he was about to pass out. I pictured a flame sword in my hand, and soon it curved between my fingers, the fire dancing along its edge this way and that. I didn’t want to use it, but I also didn’t want to die.
Lilly’s expression was stern, and I noticed that the purple pendant around her neck had started to glow. Darcy drew his sword from his scabbard, and I watched as the yellow mist of his ring twirled around the sword. With that weapon, he was able to cut through any void magic that was present.
“Keep yourselves safe,” said Darcy. “Don’t take any risks.”
“That goes for you too, hero,” said Lilly.
As we watched the squirrels approach, it soon became apparent that they were not heading for us at all. We had all assumed that Daniel had realized that we were here an
d had sent these things out to stop us, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. The soldiers started to storm the apartment buildings around us. There were screams from up above as the people inside saw what was going on.
“Shoot,” said Darcy, rushing the line of undead squirrels as they approached the nearest building. He jumped into the line, crashing into one of the soldiers and sending it sprawling across the ground. He rose up his sword and delivered a fatal blow to the strange creature. I cringed to see the attack. The squirrel didn’t cry out or show any sign of fear and passed without any indication that it had ever been alive. The rest of the soldiers continued their march into the buildings, apparently unconcerned with the presence of Darcy and the rest of us.
Lilly jumped right into the thick of it, sending blasts of purple magic this way and that. With pleasure, I noticed the puzzlement on Darcy’s face when he saw what was happening. I looked back and saw that Carl was still standing where we had been when the gate first opened. He had frozen and was holding his crossbow limply. I watched in horror as one of the squirrel soldiers attacked the boy, knocking him to the ground.
“Carl!” I yelled and ran towards him.
But I was not fast enough. Another squirrel soldier had arrived, and they were now carrying him back towards the park. I reformed the flame sword into a fireball and hurled it at one of the squirrel’s backs. Its wooden armor caught flame, but the soldier continued on, unfazed.
“Alex!” called Lilly. I spun around to see that she was being carried off by four of the squirrel soldiers, each holding tight an arm or a leg. This time I used library magic to jump forward and tackled one of the soldiers to the ground. This freed Lilly long enough for her to cast her magic on the others, freeing herself.
“There are too many of them,” said Lilly.
“They are a distraction,” I said. “Where is Darcy?”
“He has run into the building. It seems like these things are trying to capture people. Alex, why would Daniel be doing that?”
“I don’t know, but if he’s got my mom, then he must have some use for humans.”