Pagewalker

by H. Duke

  “Yep.”

  April thought hard. “I think I remember a door like this being in one of the storage rooms. I thought it was an electrical panel. Can we use it to get upstairs?”

  Randall looked doubtful. “There’s no saying how old it is,” he said. “And they were never meant to transport people.”

  “It’s our only chance,” April said.

  Randall groaned, then nodded. “Okay. But I go first to make sure it’s strong enough.”

  April shook her head. “I’m half your size. I should go first. If it seems okay, then you can come up.”

  Randall looked unconvinced, but he knew she was right. “Okay. But I don’t like it.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Randall snorted. “It seems like you’re growing into your role as head honcho.” He bent down in front of Rex, who was sitting at his feet. “Hey, buddy,” he said, ruffling the dog’s fur. “This is where you have to stay. I’ll see you soon.” He hugged the dog, then stood up. “Stay.”

  Rex cocked his head at Randall. April had no doubt the dog would follow orders.

  Randall turned to April. “Ready?”

  “Yeah.” She checked her cell phone. Fifteen minutes to nine. How had time gone by so fast? “We better hurry,” she said. “The gate will open soon.”

  She climbed into the shaft. The small platform wobbled as she got her balance, but it held.

  “You alright?” Randall asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Here—you have to pull yourself up,” Randall handed her the rope. It felt old in her hands, but still sturdy. She hoped the same could be said for the cord’s entire length. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

  “Okay,” April said. She began to pull. The pulley system made it easier, but her arms were burning by the time she reached the next door. There was still a lot of darkness above her head, so she figured it let out into the second floor. She stopped to rest, and Randall called up to her.

  “Everything okay?” He spoke softly, but the acoustics of the shaft made it sound like he was sitting on the platform next to her.

  “Yeah. Just stopped to catch my breath.” She began pulling herself up again, and soon she was next to the little door in the third floor. She noticed a small hook in the wall of the shaft and knotted the cable around it.

  Carefully, she listened to the other side of the door. There was no noise, and no light seeped around the wooden frame. She hoped that meant the room was empty.

  She pushed open the door. Instead of one of the storage rooms, she realized she was in the vault. Randall needed to get up there ASAP so that they could get somewhere else and hide.

  She stuck her head back inside the shaft. “Randall! Can you hear me?” she hissed, hoping she was speaking loudly enough.

  “Yeah. Did you get out of the shaft?”

  “Yeah—but we’re in the vault, which lets out into the Werner Room. We have to be careful.”

  She lowered the dumb waiter back down, and then Randall started to pull himself up. Her anxiety mounted as she waited. It had seemed sturdy enough when she was pulling herself up, but Randall was heavier than she was... She’d feel a lot better when he was safe in the room with her.

  When he was about halfway up, the bells from the grandfather clock began to toll.

  “Oh, no,” she said.

  Dorian.

  Chapter 9

  April’s mind was made up before the clock even struck its third chime.

  “Randall—I’m going to go help Dorian. You get up here and then get hidden.”

  “April, wait—it’s too dangerous!”

  The clock rang for the fourth time. Gong.

  April rushed out into the Werner Room. Gong.

  Thaddeus and all his men were standing facing the east wall. None of them seemed aware that April was there. The ringing from the clock must have covered up all the noise she was undoubtedly making.

  She had to time it just right.

  Gong.

  Gong.

  Gong.

  She was about to scream, to cause a diversion, but then the crack began to open. Dorian stood on the other side. His face was distorted by the veil, but April recognized the halo of curls. He held something in his hand—a lit torch.

  “Do not make any sudden movements,” he said as soon as the crack was wide enough. “I have hidden glass globes of kerosene throughout this room. If I drop this torch, the entire place will go up in flames in a matter of seconds.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Thaddeus growled. “You’ll die, too.”

  Dorian fixed him with a hard stare. “That’s a sacrifice I am ready to make. You and I both know the gate will remain intact.”

  “You don’t have the guts,” Thaddeus growled.

  Just then, April felt an arm grab her around her shoulders, securing her arms to her sides. “Hey!” she hissed. She looked up. One of the men was holding onto her.

  “Hey, Thad,” he yelled. “We have a guest.”

  He dragged her over to where Thaddeus stood. His jaw hardened when he saw her. “Ms. Walker,” he said. “I wondered if you would be joining us. How did you manage to get past my guards?”

  She didn’t answer. If they figured out that she’d come up through the dumb waiter, it would put Randall in danger.

  “A spell, no doubt. How quickly those with weak character fall to the wiles of magic.”

  “April!” Dorian said. “What are you doing here?”

  Thaddeus looked between them. “If you torch the building, she dies,” he said. “What will it be?”

  Thaddeus waited several minutes, sizing Dorian up, then nodded to the man standing nearest the gate. The man walked towards Dorian and reached for the torch. For one tense second, it looked as though Dorian might still drop it, but the man finally pulled the torch from his hands. Dorian hung his head.

  “Sir, permission to shoot this… thing,” the soldier growled, shooting daggers at Dorian with his eyes. Dorian returned the man’s ice-cold stare.

  “No!” April yelled.

  “While I admire your fervor,” Thaddeus said, “he must be back, alive, in his universe when the portal closes in the morning, or the fabric in his universe and ours will begin to break down. We cannot risk it. We will secure him for the time being.”

  He turned to April. “And it appears we have a weakness of his. Lock them up.”

  She and Dorian were brought to Mae’s office and locked inside. The man opened the blinds on the window facing the Werner Room. “So we can keep an eye on you,” he said, then closed the door and locked it.

  As soon as the man’s back was facing them, Dorian turned to April. “What are you doing here?” he hissed, his blue eyes flashing.

  “I came to help,” she said, her voice small.

  “Help? Don’t you think you’ve helped enough? You’re the one who started this. None of this would have happened if you had just talked to me.”

  April felt the old anger rekindle in her stomach. “How about if you told me the truth? If you hadn’t tried to manipulate me and lie to me?”

  “I was just—” Dorian stopped, then looked away. “You’re right. I cannot put all of this on your shoulders.” He turned back to her. “Honestly, what were you expecting when you came here? You have relinquished all your power as Pagewalker. What could you possibly do?”

  “I… I didn’t really have a plan. I just knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.”

  “Well, that’s very valiant. But that doesn’t change the fact that your actions were rash.”

  She crossed her arms. “And your great plan was to burn the library to the ground?”

  Dorian sighed. “I admit it was a last resort. But it was the best thing I could think of, knowing that they might be here when I walked through the gate. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing!”

  “There has to be something we can do.”

  Dorian sat in one of the chairs. “If you have any ideas, I’m all
ears.”

  They watched through the windows. The men were examining the gate. What if they searched the vault?

  “Damn it,” April said, rubbing her temple. “Randall.”

  “What about him?” Dorian asked.

  “He’s here. He helped me get in.” She explained about the dumb waiter. “They’ll find him soon. Unless he had the good sense to get out.” She shook her head. From what little she knew of Randall, he wouldn’t leave her behind like that.

  “He’ll have to fend for himself,” Dorian said. “Of the three of us, I like his odds a little better than ours.” He glanced at the guard standing outside their window. He was turned with his back facing them. He mostly listened to what Thaddeus was saying, but every so often he glanced back to check on them.

  “Act natural,” Dorian said. “Is there anything in this office that can help us? Anything that can be used as a weapon?”

  April shook her head. “Unless we can overpower them with a couple of dull pencils, no.”

  “Think! There has to be something.”

  April glanced backwards, watching their guard out of the corner of her eye. The room was filled with nothing but books, notepads, and loose paper. Unless they planned on taking everyone down with papercuts, they were screwed. Damn it!

  Her eyes fell on the thick leather-bound book sitting on top of one of the piles. One Thousand and One Nights. She must have forgotten to put it back.

  “That’s it!” April said, too loudly. The guard looked back at them.

  “No talking,” he said, then turned back around.

  After a few moments, Dorian whispered, “What are you talking about? And for the love of God, keep your voice down.”

  “One Thousand and One Nights,” She breathed, trying keep her voice as low as possible. “The genie can help us.”

  “You mean the one you freed? I hate to disappoint you, but even if we could open the gate—which we can’t, because mine is still open—and you managed to get through it—unlikely, seeing as there are twenty men with firearms blocking your path—why would he help us?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” she said. “He owes me a favor. The first thing we need to do is close the book.”

  “How? It’s out there, and we’re in here.”

  “Randall. Randall could do it. He could also cause a distraction while I make a break for it. We just need to get in contact with him somehow.”

  “Again I ask, how?” Dorian asked. “It’s not like we can call him.”

  “Cell phone…” April looked back at her desk. “I left the walkie talkie on my desk. Andre said it wasn’t safe to carry it because of the gas leak. There’s a walkie talkie docked in—"

  “The vault,” Dorian said, nodding. “I’ve seen it. It’s worth a shot.”

  April watched the guard. He seemed to look back at them every few minutes or so.

  “I’ll wait until after the next time he looks at us,” she said. “Then I’m going to go back and grab it.”

  Dorian nodded. “Be careful.”

  It seemed to take the guard forever to glance back at them. Just when she was thinking about going for it anyway, he looked back, meeting her eyes. “What are you looking at?” he growled at her through the glass, and she looked away. She felt his gaze on her face for several more seconds, then Dorian hissed, “He’s looking away. Go!”

  She rose from her chair, trying her best to be quiet. She moved behind her desk. Where was it?

  “What’s taking so long?” Dorian hissed.

  “They must have searched my office when they first came in,” she said. That must be why they were okay with locking them in here. They knew there were no weapons. Good thing One Thousand and One Nights blended in with Mae’s stacks of musty tomes.

  “Did they take the walkie talkie?”

  “I don’t know.” She began moving things around. It felt like she’d checked everywhere…

  She moved aside her folder of study materials and there it was. “Got it,” she said, and practically jumped back in her seat. A few seconds later, the guard glanced back at them. She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t notice that things on the desk had been moved.

  He turned back around and she let out a breath. She turned the volume down—normally they were all set loud enough that she could hear Andre walk around with it from clear across the Werner Room. She held down the green button.

  “Randall?” she hissed into it, hoping it was loud enough for him to hear. She didn’t dare speak louder. “Are you there?”

  There were several seconds of agonizing silence, then the static blared. “April? Where are you? Are you okay?”

  “They got me,” she said. “I’m in my office. Dorian too.”

  “Hello,” Dorian whispered.

  The guard turned around to check on them again. She hoped he hadn’t seen her curve her fingers to hide the walkie talkie, her palm pressed over the speaker to mute the sound as much as possible. He turned away again.

  “We need your help,” she said. “We have a plan, but we need you to do something. We need you to find Dorian’s book and close it so that we can open a different gate.”

  “Another one?” Randall said. “What good will that do?”

  “This one has an old friend,” April said. “Kind of. I think I can convince him to help us if I can get through. That’s not all, though. We need you to create a distraction so that I can get to the gate.”

  “It might be better to do it before you open the book,” Dorian said. “Otherwise they’ll see the gate change and be on alert.”

  Randall breathed out. “First the tiger, now this. Well, I can’t say hanging out with you is boring.” He laughed, then became serious. “Just promise me one thing—if anything happens to me, you’ll take care of Rex. I don’t want him going to a shelter.”

  “I promise,” April said, not bothering to add that if he didn’t make it there was a large chance she wouldn’t either. “But let’s have the main plan be to survive, okay?”

  “Amen to that. I have an idea.”

  “What?”

  “I won’t get into the logistics of it, but if it works, we’ll have to find a different way down than the dumb waiter.”

  “Okay,” she said. “There’s a good chance that not all of them are going to investigate the distraction. I think I can take out a few, as long as they aren’t expecting me to know Krav Maga. Dorian, can I count on you for backup?”

  Dorian nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Just one question, before we forget,” Randall said. “Where is this book hidden at?”

  April looked at Dorian expectantly. A look of foreboding crossed his face. Keeping the book hidden was the only thing that ensured he’d be able to keep entering the library at night.

  He spoke. “There’s a loose floorboard near the gate. It’s under the table closest to the wall.”

  “Got it.”

  “Okay.” April said to the walkie talkie, throwing Dorian a grateful look. “How will we know when your distraction is working?”

  “You’ll hear it. Are we ready?”

  “Wait.” Dorian reached back and grabbed the matches April had used to scare away the tiger two nights ago. He turned back. “I wasn’t lying about the kerosene globes. If your plan fails…”

  He trailed off, and she nodded. “Okay, Randall. We’re ready.”

  “Great. Here goes nothing.”

  With that, the static cut out.

  She glanced at Dorian. He looked back at her. “Good luck,” he said, and then his eyes fell down to her lips, his head tilting slightly to the side. For one moment, all thought of the collectors and the gate was gone.

  Then a giant metallic clang emanated from the direction of the vault—the dumb waiter hitting the bottom of its shaft.

  She jumped to her feet, Dorian doing the same. She reached back and grabbed One Thousand and One Nights.

  Outside, most of the goons were running back towards the vault. A few stayed
behind, including their guard, though he took a few steps away from his post to watch the commotion.

  She and Dorian burst out of the office. The guard turned back around to face them, his mouth dropping open. She didn’t give him time to react—she swung One Thousand and One Nights into the side of his head. He crumpled to the ground, moaning.

  “Sorry,” she said, raising the book above her head. She brought the book down on his temple, and he fell still.

  “Did you just use a book to knock someone out?” Dorian asked.

  “Do you want to beat these guys or not? He’ll be fine.”

  “I wasn’t worried about him!”

  The humming of the gate increased, and they looked up to see that the gate to Dorian’s world was closing.

  “Randall did it,” April said. “I’m up.”

  It seemed to take forever for the gate to close. The moment the edges of the crack connected, she moved to open One Thousand and One Nights…

  “Freeze!” One of the men emerged from behind a book shelf, his gun trained on her. The man spoke to Dorian. “Move and she dies.”

  “What would Thaddeus think about that?” Dorian said.

  “Thaddeus isn’t here. Put the book down nice and slow.”

  She started to do as he said. From the other side of the library, she heard Randall yelling. They must have found him as well. She lay the book down on the nearest table and then put her hands in the air.

  She looked at Dorian. He held a match in one hand, the box in the other.

  “Now, walk over here slowl—”

  Before he could finish, a snarling, sandy-colored blur flew through the air at him. Rex latched onto the arm of the man holding the gun. With a yelp, he dropped the gun to the floor.

  “Grab it!” April said.

  Dorian moved forward and picked it up, then used the end to knock the man in the head. He crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. Rex jumped off the man’s chest and sprinted towards the sound of Randall’s voice.

  Dorian turned to her. “Go. Now!”

  They could hear men from across the library running towards them. April pulled the book open at the bookmark. As soon as the pages opened, the gate began humming and hissing.

  The crack opened with a noise like the sound barrier breaking. The sides pulled apart, first wide enough to admit her flattened hand, then her arm.