by Anna James
‘No, no.’ Grandad was flustered and frustrated. ‘The Underlibrary is not from a book. This normal corridor is where all the “flippy magic” – as you so casually put it, Matilda – comes from. Perhaps you’d better follow me.’
Grandad set off down the corridor and Tilly and Oskar followed. Tilly was so focused on keeping up with Grandad that it wasn’t until Oskar nudged her and pointed to one of the doors they were passing that she realised some of the signs were a little out of the ordinary. In between ‘Accounts’ and ‘HR’ they passed ‘The Map Room’, ‘Classifications’ and ‘Character Registry’, and all the signs were prefaced by a string of numbers and dots. It didn’t look much like either the calm, modern British Library upstairs or the cosy, friendly public library down the road from Pages & Co.
Eventually the corridor ended in a set of wooden double doors with twisty, carved handles.
‘Let’s try this again,’ Grandad said, and pushed them open.
‘That’s more like it,’ Oskar said as he stepped into a room that was exactly what you might hope a secret, magical library would look like. The ceiling was painted deep turquoise and billowed high above them, cradled by ornate wooden arches. The floor was also wooden and the sound of their tapping heels echoed around them, mixed in with hushed conversations and the whispering of pages being turned. They had entered through a door that was set into one of the narrow ends of the rectangular hall. The wall that faced them was painted cream and hung with wooden panels covered in gold writing above double doors that mirrored the ones they had just come through. Between the two sets of doors five floors of long aisles lined with shelves and shelves of books opened out into the main atrium. Each aisle ended with an ornate metal grille. The central atrium was empty of furniture apart from a large, circular desk in the very middle, which was looped round a huge wooden box made up of hundreds of tiny drawers with gold handles. Carved into the front of the desk were the words
‘LEGERE EST PEREGRINARI’.
‘What does that mean?’ Tilly said, pointing.
‘It’s Latin,’ Grandad explained. ‘It doesn’t have an easy English translation, but the verb peregrinor means to travel about, to roam or to wander, so it essentially means “to read is to wander”. It’s the motto of the Underlibrary.’
The hall was full of people wearing navy blue cardigans with a gold trim. There were people carrying books and files, groups of them talking in small huddles and Tilly glimpsed even more on the floors that stretched away from the hall, writing at long wooden desks. There was a cluster of librarians nearby, sorting and loading piles of books into an elaborate paternoster, like a giant dumb waiter system. But, instead of the plain metal boxes Tilly had seen being used to deliver food in restaurants, this was a large, intricate selection of wooden caskets hung together on coppery chains being hauled up and down and sideways, and being sent off to different floors of the library as they watched. Every few seconds the sound of peaceful chatter was interrupted by a thump as a man at the main desk stamped a book and threw it into a chute behind him.
‘Okay, enough gawping for now; you’ll have a chance to see more of it at some point, I promise. Let’s go and find the Librarian,’ Grandad said, gently poking Tilly in the back to get her moving. Oskar followed, his mouth still open in wonder. They walked over to the desk in the middle and the young man who looked up as they approached wore an easy smile on his face until he saw Grandad.
‘Oh! Mr … P-Pages,’ he stuttered. ‘I don’t think we were expecting you?’
‘No, I doubt you were,’ Grandad said, studiously avoiding Tilly’s gaze. ‘Is Amelia around?’
‘I don’t know, sir. She’ll probably be in her office. Shall I get someone to take you up?’
‘I know the way,’ Grandad said, smiling gently at the man who was now nervously straightening his glasses.
‘Oh yes, of course you do,’ he said sheepishly. ‘Can I let anyone else know you’re here, sir?’
‘That won’t be necessary, thank you,’ Grandad said quickly. ‘Let’s go, kids.’ He ushered them past the desk, where several of the people were now openly staring at them, and towards the doors at the opposite end of the hall. As they left the main atrium Tilly looked back over her shoulder to see that every single cardiganed person in the room had stopped in their tracks and was watching them leave.
‘Grandad, why is everyone staring?’ Tilly asked tentatively.
‘Don’t be silly, darling – they’re just excited by visitors. This way, come on.’
The trio were in another long corridor lined with wooden doors, although this time they were not named but numbered. Grandad counted under his breath until he reached number forty-two, then stopped abruptly. This time Tilly and Oskar did plough into the back of him.
‘Here we are,’ he said and knocked sharply on the door. It opened to reveal a woman with very straight, long, black hair whose eyes widened at the sight of Grandad before her face broke into a broad and sincere smile.
‘Archie Pages. It’s been a while. Come in,’ she said, standing back to let them enter. They walked into a large, cosy but decidedly normal office, not that dissimilar to the head teacher’s office at school. A crumpled cardigan was hanging off the back of a chair behind a desk piled high with books and papers, and a very new-looking computer.
‘Amelia, this is Oskar Roux, a friend, and Matilda Pages, my granddaughter.’
An expression that Tilly couldn’t quite read swept across Amelia’s face before she smiled and held out her hand to them. A large gold key on a chain round her neck swung as she leaned towards them.
‘Welcome to the British Underlibrary. I’m Amelia Whisper, Librarian. Pleased to meet you.’
Amelia gestured towards a collection of worn but comfortable-looking armchairs clustered in the corner of the office. She shrugged her cardigan on as they sat down, and Tilly noticed that there was an ornate key embroidered in gold thread on the breast of the cardigan alongside the same Latin words they’d seen in the main hall.
‘You’ll see that not much has changed, Archie,’ she said. ‘Cup of tea, anyone?’
Tilly nodded a yes please. ‘You’ve been here before, Grandad?’ she asked.
Amelia laughed. ‘Well, of course he’s been here before. The Librarian can hardly work from home.’
‘But you’re the Librarian,’ Oskar said, confused.
‘Right, I’m the Librarian now. But it used to be Tilly’s grandad …’ She faltered. ‘You didn’t know?’
‘No, Amelia, they didn’t know. After everything that happened, Elsie and I decided it was for the best to start afresh – for Tilly’s benefit,’ Grandad said.
Several emotions flickered across Amelia’s face. ‘Well, I suppose that’s your decision, Archie,’ she said in the end.
Oskar and Tilly exchanged a confused look.
‘Can I just ask—?’ Tilly started, but Grandad and Amelia kept talking.
‘I need to sit down with you at some point and talk about Enoch too,’ Grandad was saying.
‘Who’s Enoch?’ Oskar whispered to Tilly.
‘I think he’s Mr Chalk,’ Tilly said.
‘Would you mind not whispering while we’re talking?’ Grandad said much more sharply than usual.
‘But we don’t know anything!’ Tilly said, stung by Grandad’s tone. ‘You keep mentioning all these secrets and things and people, and I have no idea what is going on, and you just suddenly bring us to this hidden, magical underground library and expect us to be quiet and nod along and drink tea and YOU HAVEN’T EXPLAINED ANYTHING.’
Oskar scuffed his heels together awkwardly and Amelia became very focused on her cup of tea.
Grandad looked at Tilly as though his heart had just cracked open.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘This can wait, Amelia. Matilda, Oskar – I suppose we should start at the beginning.’
ookwandering is the ability to travel inside books and only a few readers can do it; you could say we can read
a bit harder than most people. Something tips us over from visiting the books purely inside our imagination to being physically transported there. We still don’t know precisely how it happens, and why bookwandering magic affects some people and not others. We think any reader probably has the potential to do it, but perhaps predictably there are very high numbers of booksellers or librarians, as bookwanderers almost always have a very special or particular relationship with books and reading. It’s this intense relationship that first starts pulling characters out of books, and why your first bookwander is normally into a book you have an affinity with – which is why it’s more unusual to find out that you were also able to travel into Anne of Green Gables, Oskar, even though you have never read it. Pulling characters out of their stories into the real world is actually more of a side effect, but it is almost always the way that we first realise someone has bookwandering abilities. And, as far as we can tell, bookwandering always takes place in a bookshop or library.’
‘So I pulled Anne and Alice out of their books without trying to?’ Tilly asked.
‘How come I haven’t done that too?’ Oskar said at the same time.
‘I know you’re going to have an awful lot of questions about this, but most of those questions will be covered in your induction session with one of the librarians, and I expect they’ll be able to do it in a way that’s more manageable, and enjoyable, than my fact-dumping. Actually – do you think we can squeeze one in today, Amelia?’
Amelia gave a small nod and went over to her desk and made a quiet phone call.
‘They will be able to teach you how to control your bookwandering,’ Grandad went on. ‘The Underlibrary exists to protect readers, and our stories, and we have important rules in place to help do this. As I’m sure you can imagine, some books are far safer than others to explore, and we’ve had some pretty close calls in the past when people have pulled through all sorts of unsavoury characters when their abilities awoke. Remind me to tell you about Gary and the orc one day.
‘Now, as Amelia mentioned, I used to be the Librarian. I retired just after you were born, Tilly, as your grandma and I decided that with your mum not being around and us both getting older we would stay put at Pages & Co., especially as we didn’t know whether you’d turn out to be a bookwanderer.’
Amelia had now finished her phone call and was tapping her fingernails quietly but insistently on her desk. When Grandad paused she broke in.
‘Archie. Do you think that—’
Grandad stopped her immediately and received a sharply raised eyebrow in response. ‘I realise that there is more to this story, but I think it best to let Tilly and Oskar get used to the basics first, don’t you agree?’ Grandad said, nodding his thanks.
‘I want to hear the whole story,’ Tilly said instantly.
‘This is just the basics?’ Oskar said under his breath, shaking his head.
‘I think you have more than enough to wrap your head around for now, Tilly. And, Amelia, if at all possible, I would appreciate you letting the other librarians know that we’re just going to let the Underlibrary and the idea of bookwandering sink in a bit with Tilly and Oskar before we go into any more details. There’s nothing for you to worry about, sweetheart,’ he added to Tilly.
‘She wasn’t worried until you said that,’ Oskar interjected, earning a hard stare from Grandad.
‘Could my mum bookwander?’ Tilly asked quietly.
‘She could, yes, love,’ Grandad answered.
Tilly couldn’t tell if the cracks in her heart were getting a little wider, or healing ever so slightly.
‘You’re so much like her, Matilda. I don’t want to make you feel like Harry Potter, but you really do have her eyes,’ Amelia said, and Oskar struggled to suppress a giggle.
‘You knew her?’ Tilly said.
‘Why, yes, we actually went to university together. She would have so loved to hear about your first bookwander. Anyway, there will be time to reminisce soon enough. Let’s go and find the Reference Librarian to get you two registered,’ she said, giving both Oskar and Tilly an encouraging nod.
They went back out into the long corridor and walked a few metres down to a door where the number was covered by a handwritten sign in spidery letters that read ‘By Appointment Only’.
‘Ignore that,’ Amelia said. ‘Much as he hates it, I am still his boss and definitely do not need an appointment to see him.’ She pushed the door open at the same time as knocking and the others followed her into a room that was almost identical in shape and size to hers, but much more sparsely furnished and with walls covered with metal filing cabinets and shelves full of huge, uniformly sized books.
‘I do not tolerate people opening my door without knock— Ah, good afternoon, Ms Whisper. I see you have guests,’ an icy voice said.
‘You,’ breathed Tilly as Enoch Chalk turned round to face them.
randad nodded curtly at Chalk, who swept a handkerchief covered in what looked like soot into the top drawer of his desk and shut it firmly.
‘Good to see you still in your old office, Enoch,’ Grandad said in a polite but chilly voice.
Chalk’s face contorted into a twisted version of a smile. ‘Why, yes, Archibald. Still here, still Reference Librarian, as you well know. I like it very much here – less politics, fewer opportunities for things to go awry. You know how it is. As you can see Amelia is doing an admirable job.’
Amelia coughed. ‘Well, as heart-warming as this reunion is, we’re here on official business. Enoch, we need to get Matilda and Oskar registered as bookwanderers.’
‘Of course,’ he said, going to pull out one of the huge volumes on his shelves.
Tilly looked at Grandad in a panic. ‘He works here?’ she whispered, but Grandad was entirely focused on watching Chalk.
Tilly steeled herself. ‘Why are you here?’ she croaked.
Everyone turned to look at her.
‘What did you say, girl?’ Chalk said.
Tilly swallowed and thought of the look of righteous indignation when Anne had cracked the slate over Gilbert’s head. Be brave …
‘I said, “Why are you here?”’ she repeated, her voice more even this time.
‘Where else would I be?’ Chalk replied. ‘This is my office.’
‘But wherever I’ve been in the last few days, you’ve been there too! Are you following me?’ Tilly said, a little more fiercely again.
At this Amelia started. ‘When have you met Matilda before, Enoch? This is the first time Archie has brought her here.’
Tilly jumped in before Chalk could reply. ‘We’ve met three times before! The first time when he came to visit Grandad in the shop and then twice inside books. He was in both of the books I visited.’
Everyone stopped looking at Tilly and turned their head towards Chalk.
‘You stamped Tilly?’ Amelia said quietly.
‘A mere routine check, I assure you,’ Chalk said. ‘It was such a pleasant surprise to learn of her existence when I popped in to Pages & Co., and she clearly has bookwandering in her blood, so I thought no harm in a quick trace stamp to see if she’d encountered any characters yet.’
‘That’s very … dutiful of you,’ Amelia said.
‘You know my research interests lie in the earliest signs of bookwandering and the abilities of our younger wanderers,’ Chalk said, still calm. ‘With such potent genes as Matilda here has it seemed a waste not to monitor how her abilities were developing.’
‘It seems a slightly irregular use of stamping,’ Amelia said, tilting her head. ‘We’ll come back to this, Enoch.’
‘What’s stamping?’ Tilly asked.
‘It’s something a Senior Librarian can use to access a book they do not physically have possession of,’ Amelia said. ‘But it’s not something you need to worry about.’
‘And why did you visit Pages & Co. in the first place, Enoch?’ Amelia turned her focus back to Chalk.
‘I had a query I thought Archibald might be b
est placed to help with, but I’m afraid he was not.’
‘I really think, considering the circumstances, that you should have let me know in advance of your visit to Archie,’ Amelia said.
‘I would remind you that, while you may be the Librarian, I am not required to have visits to bookshops approved in advance,’ he said coldly.
Amelia frowned and cleared her throat. ‘We will talk about this more in private, Enoch, but now it’s time to register Tilly and Oskar.’
Chalk nodded his head a fraction and beckoned Tilly over and gestured to the ledger.
‘Name?’
‘Matilda Rose Pages.’
‘Age at first bookwander?’
‘Eleven.’
‘Home bookshop?’
‘Pages & Co., I suppose?’ Tilly looked questioningly at Grandad who nodded.
‘Owner of said bookshop?’
‘Archibald and Elisabeth Pages.’
‘You’re done. And the boy next.’
Amelia nodded encouragingly at Oskar.
‘Name?’ Chalk said.
‘Oskar Lucas Roux.’
‘Age at first bookwander?’
‘Eleven.’
‘Home bookshop?’
‘Pages & Co. as well, I guess?’ Oskar said, unsure.
‘I think so too,’ Amelia said, and Grandad nodded.
‘Owner of said bookshop?’
‘You literally just wrote it down for Tilly,’ Oskar said.
Chalk waited.
‘Archibald and Elisabeth Pages,’ Oskar said.
Chalk finished writing the details down, recapped his fountain pen, precisely replaced it in a groove on his desk and closed the ledger. The others watched as he brushed the already completely clean front cover, stood up and ceremoniously slid it back on to the shelf. Tilly was sure she caught Amelia rolling her eyes.
‘Are all these books full of bookwanderers?’ Tilly asked. ‘Why do you keep all these records?’
‘Yes, they are,’ Amelia replied. ‘The Underlibrary has been operating for a very long time and we believe people have had the ability to bookwander since books were first invented. More importantly, we keep records so we can keep track. We can’t have unmonitored readers wandering around important texts, and we can’t have characters straying out of their assigned pages without our knowledge.