by Terry Brooks
She entered the hole in the wall without incident, paused only momentarily for a quick look about to reassure herself that she wasn’t missing anything, and then continued through to the other side. She moved more cautiously after she did, taking slower, more careful steps, listening for sounds, searching for movement.
She found both much more quickly than she anticipated. The hazy gloom cleared and she found herself in what appeared to be a tunnel that quickly turned into a winding stairway descending into the earth. She kept going only because she hadn’t found anything yet and had made up her mind she wasn’t going back until she did. She went down the stairs, hugging the wall to one side, her steps more cautious still. Strange glowing rocks embedded in the walls at regular intervals illuminated the darkness enough that she could see to make her way. The mist followed her down, a clinging presence that felt damp and cold against her skin. She ignored it as best she could, concentrating on the task at hand, putting one foot in front of the other, reminding herself that she wasn’t completely helpless here, that she had magic of her own to protect herself even if Dirk should abandon her. Not that she had any reason to think he would, of course. Although he had abandoned her before for all intents and purposes after she was inside Libiris, so maybe she shouldn’t be so sure about what might happen here.
Stop being so paranoid, she scolded herself. There’s nothing to be frightened of!
But several hundred feet farther down the stairway, she changed her mind.
The stairs leveled out onto a sort of shelf before continuing on down, and the wall opened up at this point in a kind of window to reveal a cavernous chamber below. She crouched down, peered over the wall’s edge, and was instantly reminded of the Stacks in Libiris. Perhaps this was because she was suddenly looking at row upon row of shelving, most of it filled with books. For a moment, she had the sensation that somehow she had returned to Libiris, although a different Libiris than she had left, a rather surreal one. Throg Monkeys were everywhere, carrying books to and fro, arranging and stacking and organizing.
Amid the little monsters were black-cloaked figures carrying tablets on which they were writing, presumably making lists of those books. In one shadowy corner, tightly clustered and hunched over a massive red, leather-bound book, a trio of the black-cloaked figures chanted the same words over and over again. Even from as far away as she was, she could tell that neither the list makers nor the chanters were human. Their hands and wrists were blackened and withered and clawed and gnarled, and once or twice she caught a quick glimpse of their faces, which were of the same terrible aspect, with eyes that glittered like embers.
At the periphery of all this activity were creatures that resembled monstrous wolves, huge muscular beasts that prowled back and forth along the edges of the workers like guard dogs. Their muzzles were drawn back to reveal rows of sharpened teeth.
Overhead, circling through the misty gloom above the shelving and the workers, things that resembled huge raptors flew in great sweeps, an endless and unchanging patrol.
What in the world was going on?
She watched it all for long minutes, crouched down on the rock shelf, pressed close against one edge of the opening so that she would not be seen. Perhaps with Dirk warding her, she couldn’t be seen, but she wasn’t about to take that chance.
The intricacies of the scene below slowly began to take shape. Books were being cataloged and placed on shelves in some sort of order by the Throg Monkeys and the list makers. Here and there, some of the list makers were actually reading some of the books and writing things down. All the while, the wolves and the flying creatures—whatever they were—kept watch against intrusions.
Intrusions from whom?
While she was puzzling it through, she sensed movement behind her. She turned, but before she could find a place to conceal herself a Throg Monkey was coming down the stairs, descending from Libiris and the Stacks. Its arms were loaded with books, but even as burdened as it was there was no way it could miss seeing her. She pressed against the wall, prepared to fight, already planning her attack and flight back up the way she had come. But the creature passed right by her, not once glancing in her direction. She held her breath until it was out of sight, and then exhaled sharply. Dirk’s shielding magic was working!
She stayed where she was, waiting for another of the Throg Monkeys to pass. Eventually, one did. But this time instead of trying to conceal herself, she kept her attention focused on the books that the creature was carrying. There were three of them, and two of the titles were clearly legible on the spines.
Principles of Ancient Magic: A Court Wizard’s Critical Overview, read the first, and Fables and Fairy Tales Revisited, read the second.
Books of magic! They were stealing books of magic! That was what Crabbit and Pinch had been talking about when they had argued over hauling something back and forth!
She turned back to the opening in the rock wall to study with fresh eyes the scene unfolding below. Who was doing the stealing? Why bother when all you needed to do was to go into Libiris and read them?
She decided she needed to take a closer look at what lay below her. She eased her way across the open shelf, praying that no one could see her, gained the stairs on the far side, and started down. She crept forward around a bend until she could see that the stairs continued on down past the room below in a long winding spiral that eventually disappeared entirely into a mix of mist and blackness.
Her mind spun. What could be down there? What sort of creatures could live underground in such conditions?
It came to her all at once—not just the answer to that question, but the answers to all of the others, the whole convoluted truth, everything she had come to find out and everything that Edgewood Dirk had wanted her to realize.
She turned away and climbed back up the stairs as fast as she could manage. She needed to find Dirk and let him know. And then she needed to find Thom and figure out how to stop it!
MISDIRECTION
Mistaya made her way back up the stairs to the opening in the library wall, twice encountering Throg Monkeys on their way down with more books. Each time she pressed herself against the rough stone of the passage wall, terrified of discovery, and each time they passed by without slowing. She kept thinking that sooner or later someone had to see her, as clearly visible as she appeared to herself. But Edgewood Dirk’s fairy magic was protecting her, and she remained undiscovered.
She found the Prism Cat sitting pretty much right where she had left him, not too far inside the Stacks. He was washing himself as she came up to him, and when she tried to tell him what she had discovered he quickly held up one paw to silence her while he finished his bath.
“Now then,” he said, once he was satisfied that he was clean. “What have you learned?”
She knelt down next to him, keeping her voice at a whisper, just in case. “Well, this is what I think is happening. The Throg Monkeys are stealing books of magic out of Libiris and taking them down through a tunnel to a cavern chamber. The chamber is a part of Abaddon, and the thieves are Abaddon’s demons. Some of the demons are counting and cataloging the stolen books, and some are reading from them and chanting, working some sort of spell to keep the wall leading into Libiris open. There are flying things and wolves keeping watch while the demons work so that no one interferes. I don’t know what their arrangement is with His Eminence and Pinch, but it has something to do with letting the demons out of the underground. I heard Craswell and Pinch talking about it earlier, although I didn’t know then what it meant.”
She took a deep breath. “I understand now what you were saying earlier. Taking those books from Libiris is just like leaving Sterling Silver without a King. Like you said—stealing her heart. She can’t function when the thing she has been given to do is taken away. She’s supposed to care for her books, but now many of them are being stolen and she can’t stop it, so she’s in pain and calling for help. Isn’t that right?”
Edgewood Dirk cock
ed an ear. “Be sensible. I’m a cat; what would I know?”
She frowned, ignoring him. “But why are they doing all this? Not the demons, but His Eminence and Pinch. What do they want?”
The cat yawned, bored. “Reason it through.”
“All right.” She glared at him. “Father locked the demons away years ago when he first came to Landover. The demons had united under the leadership of the Iron Mark and broken out of Abaddon. They were able to escape because the restraints that imprisoned them had weakened. Landover had been too long without a King for the wards to hold, and so the demons got out and were challenging Father for the throne.”
She hesitated. “So they’re trying to do the same thing now. Only this time they’re using the books of magic they’re stealing out of Libiris. The books are providing them with spells they can use to break free, and the chanters are calling up some of those spells so that …”
She stopped herself. “But why would His Eminence and Pinch help them? I don’t see what they have to gain by letting the demons get loose.”
The cat blinked. “I’m sure I don’t, either. But you can be certain there is something in it for them and it’s not anything Ben Holiday would be happy about. In any case, that isn’t your problem to solve. Your problem is staring you in the face. What are you going to do about the theft of the books?”
“What am I going to do? What about you? You’re the one who brought me here and showed me all this. You have to help!”
“I have been helping, in case you haven’t noticed.” Dirk’s reply bordered on insolence. “What else have I been doing but helping. Given the fact that fairy creatures like myself are not able to go down into Abaddon, I have done a great deal. I brought you here, and I showed you the problem. I shielded you from discovery. Now that you know the situation, it is up to you to correct it.”
She stared in dismay. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“You might start by asking yourself what needs doing.”
“All right. That’s easy. The books need to be taken back so that the spells can’t be chanted and the damage to the library walls can be healed and the demons shut away again. Libiris is organic, like Sterling Silver. She can heal herself if her purpose is restored. You said so.”
“Then you had better get busy and return those books, hadn’t you?” The cat regarded her with luminous eyes. “How are you going to do that, by the way?”
It was a good question. She couldn’t very well carry all those books back again, even if she could find a way to do so without being discovered. It would take days, maybe weeks. She could ask Thom to help, but even the two of them wouldn’t be enough.
“I can use magic,” she announced after a moment.
“Can you?” asked the cat.
She ignored him. “Maybe I can shrink the books to the size of pebbles, put them in a sack, and carry them out all at once. Then I can enlarge them when they’re back in the Stacks and put them back where they belong.”
“An excellent idea,” Dirk announced. “Except for one small problem. You can’t use magic on those books because they are protected by magic of their own and will resist your efforts if you try to change them in any way.”
She gave him a look. “How do you know this?”
He didn’t exactly shrug, but almost. “Cats know these things because cats pay attention. Also, fairy creatures know that certain rules apply in all situations. That books of magic are unalterable is one of those rules. You’ll have to find another way.”
Of course, I will, she thought irritably. She thought about it some more. Maybe she needed to talk this over with Thom. But if she did that, she would have to tell him how she’d found all this out, and that would require telling him who and what she was. She couldn’t explain why, but this seemed like a bad idea. It would almost certainly change the nature of their relationship, and she didn’t want that to happen. Besides, what could Thom do that would make a difference in things?
Nevertheless.
“If I brought Thom down here to help me, could you … ?”
“Haven’t we had this discussion?” Dirk barely gave her a glance. “Shielding you is hard enough. I am not without my limits.”
She wasn’t sure that she believed that, but she didn’t care to challenge him on it. Anyway, the possibility of bringing Thom into the mix was gone. She would have to do this by herself. She thought about it anew. She couldn’t use magic to change the books. Could she use it in some way to move them?
“What if I made the books lighter?” she asked Dirk. “You know, took away all that weight so that I could …”
“You are not paying attention,” he interrupted rather irritably, enunciating each word carefully. “You cannot use magic. Not any kind of magic in any way. Not on these books. Am I being clear enough?”
She wanted to smack him. She forced herself to think of something else. Okay, she couldn’t use magic on the books—she got it. She paused suddenly in her thinking. But even if she couldn’t use magic on those books, maybe she could use it on some of the others.
And on the book thieves.
“Are the Throg Monkeys demons?” she asked Edgewood Dirk.
“They are not. They are a species of troll, brought down out of the Melchor Mountains. Why do you ask?”
She ignored him. “His Eminence brought them here?”
“He did.”
“Are there a lot of them?”
“Dozens.”
“And they answer strictly to him?”
“They do. What is it that you are thinking of doing?”
“Patience. Can I use magic on other books in the Stacks—ones that aren’t books of magic?”
“Yes, yes. What are you up to?”
“How long can you keep me from being seen while I’m down here? Can you do it all the rest of tonight?”
The cat was watching her closely now. “I can shield you for as long as you like, if it doesn’t involve you trying to carry out books for endless days. You’re not going to suggest that, are you?”
“I’m not,” she agreed. “I’m going to suggest something else.”
And she told him what that something was.
She positioned herself just back from the hole in the library wall in the shadow of the Stacks where she could work her magic without risking a direct encounter with the Throg Monkeys. They came by regularly, sometimes in twos and threes, but mostly alone, carrying one or two books toward the hole to take down into Abaddon. They seemed absorbed in their work, eyes fixed on the way forward and wicked little faces set in a permanent grimace. They all looked pretty much the same, so she couldn’t be sure at first which ones she had spoken to already and which ones she hadn’t. In the end, she just kept speaking to them all, not trying to make a distinction, but just trying to make sure she didn’t miss anyone.
They didn’t know she was there. All they saw was the looming figure of His Eminence deep in the shadows, his voice a dark, booming whisper in the silence.
“Stop where you are! What are you doing? You are going in the wrong direction! The books are supposed to come out of Abaddon and back into the Stacks! Turn around and take that book back where you found it. Then go down the steps and bring out the rest! Replace each one you remove with a book from the shelving section directly across the aisle from me—there, behind you. Look for the ones with the words magic and conjuring and sorcery in the titles. Spread the books you carry out of the tunnel all over the shelving units of the Stacks so that they aren’t all in one place. Hide them, if you can. Work day and night until the task is finished. Do not speak of this to anyone, especially the demons! Do not let the demons find out what you are doing! Distract them so that they do not see. Do what I say! Do it now!”
This pronouncement was accompanied by a small spell that induced a feeling of confusion and a desire to make up for it by doing exactly what was being asked. She allowed each recipient of her spell a glimpse of His Eminence’s face, wreathed in displeasure a
nd impatience, a further inducement to act swiftly. Each Throg Monkey left hurriedly to carry out her instructions.
It was child’s play, really—one of the easiest spells she had learned in her time studying with Questor, a spell that was effective in part because those affected were almost always on the verge of confusion and uncertainty to start with and were quite prepared to believe that they were doing something wrong. She didn’t know anything about Throg Monkeys, but she had a feeling that His Eminence would value obedience over independent thought in a situation like this. Or, to put it another way, matter over mind.
The books she was sending down into the tunnel as replacements for the real books of magic were farming volumes with the titles altered. Unless a close inspection was conducted, no one would know they weren’t what they appeared to be. By the time the truth was discovered, she hoped to have all the real books of magic back on the shelves of Libiris. It was the old sleight-of-hand trick, and there was no reason to think it wouldn’t work here.
She stayed at it for most of the night. She quit finally when she no longer saw any of the Throg Monkeys emerging from Abaddon without carrying books. She had reversed the flow of traffic, which was the best she could do for now. It would all work out as long as the demons didn’t catch on. She would come again tomorrow night to see how matters were progressing.
Leaving Edgewood Dirk at her bedroom doorway, having extracted his rather indifferent promise to meet her again at midnight next, she tumbled into bed.
She woke late and unrested, having barely managed two hours of sleep. She stumbled down to breakfast, skipping her morning bath entirely since this was her first day of work in the stables anyway and she didn’t see the point. Rumpled and disgruntled, she sat down heavily across from Thom.
“I hope you won’t be offended,” he said after a few moments of complete silence, “but you look terrible. Are you all right?”