Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria

by Rahma Krambo

  Marco had only seen trolls in books before. The misshapen creature, looking like something cursed, ignored everything around him while he squatted on a children’s table, picking things off his hairless body.

  What seemed like an empty dead room now started filling up with small hairy beasts and dozens of gremlins. They appeared out of nowhere and roamed the library like rival gangs, sweeping books off the shelves, sending some whizzing across the room like missiles.

  The wart-covered troll seemed oblivious to the riot, scooting across the floor until he reached the lion and began to sniff at him. Marco growled, warning him to keep his distance. The troll broke into a fit of damp sneezes and ran from the room, but not without leaving behind a putrid smell.

  Not far from where the troll disappeared, a Queen emerged. She wore a dress of dazzling white underneath her red cape, and her crown sparkled so brightly it made Marco blink.

  The Queen stepped over the dead bodies of the characters. The gremlins and warty things slunk off as she shooed them off with a black and gold scepter.

  “Disgusting creatures, aren’t they?” She aimed the scepter at Marco. “Where are your manners, beast? Don’t you know you should bow to the Queen?”

  Marco kept his chin firmly up. “You may be the Queen, but I am the King of Beasts.”

  “You are still an animal. This is my realm, and I rule here now.”

  “But it’s dead! Will you bring the library back to life?”

  “Bring the library back for what? A bunch of smelly kids and old men? Libraries, you know, coddle to the lowest common denominator of humanity, and books are a waste of good paper.”

  “You don’t like humans? Or books?” asked Marco, his eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”

  “Empty buildings are my specialty,” the Queen breathed, looking fondly at the desolation around her.

  “But it wasn’t empty until…” How could he reverse the black magic? The Professor had destroyed the library and now this awful creature was challenging him for property rights.

  “The Professor did me a huge favor,” said the Queen.

  None of this made sense to Marco. What was she planning to do?

  “And I should thank you for relieving me of the nasty job of getting rid of him. But I won’t.”

  She spoke to something unseen, and a gremlin appeared on the table. He tried to grab the Book but was thrown backwards as the Professor had been, and he high-tailed it back into some dark corner, licking his wounds.

  The Queen invited another presence, but nothing as tame as a gremlin. It was some kind of apparition that Marco could only tell was there by following the dark stain it left as it swept over the room. The library was under the control of this mad Queen, and her long robe trailed over the remains of the characters as she tracked the phantom.

  A crack in the ceiling split open and the chandelier fell, shattering onto the floor. The Queen watched the phantom spreading its curse and laughed. Alaniah let out a high pitched squeal and curled herself into a cocoon on a top shelf. Lily scrambled to find a hiding place where she could still watch what was happening and Marco, the lion-hearted, began circling the perimeter of the room.

  When the phantom appeared to be finished, the Queen turned from the scene as if her job here were done and passed by the mirror. She stopped to admire herself, straightening her crown and smoothing her dress. When she smiled, Marco saw the image in the mirror was not a Queen, but an old hag with black teeth and clouded eyes.

  The Queen looked at Marco. She gave a command to a brown lizard that was part of the mirror frame, and it dropped to the floor and scurried towards him, shooting flames with his tongue.

  Marco roared, and the lizard burst into flames.

  “What fun!” said the Queen. “But I see that was too easy for you, Beast.” She waved her wand, and pieces of ceiling drifted down over everything. She called out to the fallen characters still scattered on the floor and they rose and moved towards her in a trance. “What lovely creatures!” she cried out, as they performed a stiff, cardboard-like bow to the Queen. “Come and pay your respects!”

  They each took turns walking up to her and she laid her scepter on their shoulders as though knighting them. Then she cackled some welcoming speech to her soulless slaves.

  Sparks emanated from along the edges of The Book of Motion and the dark festivities were interrupted. In her celebratory moment, the Queen seemed to have forgotten about the Book, which was now hovering above the table, vibrating with light.

  “This will not do!” screeched the Queen, as her robe slipped a bit. She ordered one of her minions to fetch the Book and Marco leaped over library tables to reach it at the same time as the dead character. If it weren’t for the hat, he wouldn’t have recognized who it was. D’Artagnan!

  Marco’s shock and confusion caused him to hesitate, and the soulless d’Artagnan grabbed the book. Marco tore after him.

  The creature dodged tables and chairs, but Marco, now forty times larger than his former self, toppled the furniture in pursuit, which slowed him down considerably.

  The Musketeer ran up the stairs and Marco almost had him, until he crawled into a narrow place in the stacks. D’Artagnan, who was not the real d’Artagnan Marco knew, clutched the Book and stared at Marco with dead eyes.

  “You can’t do anything to an apparition,” yelled the Queen from below. “They are under my control.”

  It was utterly unreal that Marco was faced with attacking d’Artagnan. He stared at the dead gray shell of his hero for a moment. Then he realized that the real d’Artagnan would advise him of nothing less than to go full speed ahead to defend what he’d been given to protect.

  Marco smashed his way into the stacks, roaring and knocking apart shelves, which toppled more shelves until all had fallen like giant dominoes. Even the zombie-like d’Artagnan seemed to fear him and he let the Book fall as he made his escape.

  Chapter 64: A life of their own

  Marco returned to the ground floor and bore down on the Queen, roaring and bellowing the words Cicero had given him. “Fa-taw-la-nee!”

  As soon as they were out of his mouth the Queen froze, exuding icy calmness. “I’ve heard rumors about cats guarding the Book, but I do not understand how such a filthy beast can guard something so powerful?”

  “I am no rumor,” Marco shot back. “I could destroy you in a flash if I chose to.”

  “Not so easy as you think. I know what you really are,” she said, flinging her next words at him like a curse. “You. Are. Nothing!”

  Marco answered with a growl.

  The Queen kept her distance, pulling her cloak closely around her. “We are the same, you and I. You are not the king of beasts any more than I am Queen. No matter. My followers see me as I desire them to.”

  Marco roared more ferociously this time, causing the Queen to back off, but only a bit.

  “You don’t scare me. You are just a scrawny housecat!”

  “And you? You are a murderer!”

  “A murderer?” The hag-queen laughed as she swept her arm in an arc around the room. “I wasn’t the one who killed them, but who cares? They didn’t deserve their own stories. They were imposters. Not much different than us, don’t you think?” Her face contorted in something that was supposed to be a smile. Through blackened teeth, she declared, “And they’re all mine now.”

  Marco growled low, thinking of poor d’Artagnan, whose life was now at the mercy of this demon queen. “Why would they want to follow you?”

  “They have no will of their own now.” She called out to a boy wearing faded green leotards and a fringed tunic. “What is your name?”

  “Peter. Peter Pan.”

  “Well, Peter, start cleaning up this mess!”

  The young boy set about listlessly picking up books off the floor.

  “But why destroy the library?” demanded Marco. “Even a hag-queen, such as you, has a story to tell. You could be as famous as Frankenstein or…” He thoug
ht there must be a better comparison. “…the Wicked Witch of the West!”

  “Ha! I care nothing for silly stories.” She looked toward the boy. “Get back to work, Peter!” she ordered the gray boy. He'd stopped cleaning and was reading one of the books.

  “What are you going to do with them? They are practically dead!” Marco tried frantically to reason with her.

  The Queen waved her wand at them. “I don’t know what you mean. I’ve brought them back to life!”

  “They have no life of their own.”

  “But I’m giving them new life. Come,” she said in an overly pleasant manner to a young girl. “What’s your name?”

  “Ummm… I can’t remember,” said the girl. She looked a lot like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

  “No matter, we will find a new name that suits you,” said the Queen. She wrapped her robed arm around the girl and drew her close, like they were old friends.

  “See, I can be nice when I want to,” she said pointedly to Marco.

  Marco growled.

  The Queen aimed her scepter at him. “This is my place now. Get out!”

  Marco roared louder, but the Queen didn’t flinch. “The library is mine! My castle. With the help of my new companions, I can slip into the human’s world with no more sound than the moon falling behind a mountain.”

  The Queen pushed the girl aside and paced the room. “They will not know me, but I will be the one who invades their peaceful dreams.” She gazed upwardly as though envisioning the future. “They will not know, but I will be the one who steals their happiness.” She stepped up on a chair and laughed. “I will send an army of nightmares to bring them to their knees.”

  She stood on the table as if that would stake her claim to the realm and looked down upon the wreckage of the library. Marco wondered how it was possible she could see without seeing.

  “Fear,” she announced triumphantly, “is my greatest weapon!”

  The Book of Motion made a strange sound and light leaked out through its pages. The Queen glowered at it. “Get rid of that thing,” she ordered Marco.

  “You will have to destroy me first,” said Marco. “And you can’t do that, because I am not afraid of you.”

  “You’re in my way, Beast!” she yelled. She turned to a zombie-gorilla and ordered, “Destroy him!”

  The words now came from a deeper place. As the zombies moved to do the Queen’s bidding, Marco began to say the words, “Fa-taw-la-nee…”

  The Queen drew her scepter.

  “…rah-ma-la-nee!” he roared, and the Queen threw daggers from her eyes. She lowered herself to the floor and approached him.

  Marco stood stolid as a mountain.

  “Ma-fa-la-nee!” he proclaimed, and the Queen unsheathed her scepter, revealing a glowing red sword.

  She aimed it towards Marco as he completed the words. “Moon-too-laaaah!” The Queen’s sword touched the top of his head, and a surge of pain shot through him.

  The Queen brayed like a donkey. Then the dark power went into reverse. Like a giant wave crashing and rolling back onto itself, the Queen’s evil power ran backwards through her sword, through her arm and into her body. Her arm withered and her sword clattered to the floor. In slow motion, her body shriveled into a dry carcass, leaving nothing but her crown and robe in a rumpled heap on the floor.

  The characters she hadn’t turned to zombies were huddled together, ridiculously trying to protect themselves behind a child-sized table. A young girl in a pink tutu began to cry. A clown asked to borrow the woman’s fur coat, and then wrapped it around the girl.

  Free of her spell, Marco’s roar filled the room, terrifying zombies, characters and even Lily. He went to the table where he’d left the Book. He knew what to do. He drew in his breath and blew across the book, cleaning it of any remnants of death and devastation.

  Alaniah reappeared, hovering over the Book, wings spread out in full glory. Marco opened the Book and the light blinded everyone.

  And the sound… it was painful to his ears, but gradually waves of light and sound receded like the tide going out.

  From the mystical world of The Book of Motion, the light had done its job. From a book that was more than words, the light overwhelmed the darkness, herding all the demons into their miserable domains and locking the door of their wretched cages.

  The library was restored. The first rays of sunlight heightened the colors. A fresh bouquet of yellow tulips appeared on the librarian’s desk, the deep reds and browns of old leather, gold and vermillion of a Chinese print. The books were shelved and their characters tucked safely inside. Order reigned.

  Then from the stacks, far away at first, the sound of hoofbeats rang through the air. A man on horseback burst from between a set of book shelves and charged across the main floor, miraculously missing tables and chairs. Marco recognized him by his black hat and long white feather.

  A light flick of the reins and D’Artagnan’s horse slowed to a gentle walk. The Musketeer jumped from his horse and surveyed the library. Then he came over to Marco, whisked off his hat and bowed deeply to the lion.

  “Thanks to you Marco, we will live to tell our story another day. I wish you well.” D’Artagnan jumped back on his horse. “Godspeed!” he yelled, then galloped back into the stacks.

  Chapter 65: Captain of the ship

  Marco surveyed the library from the balcony, the captain of his ship. He loved how window light streamed across tightly-packed rows of books in the late afternoon. There was something appealing as well in the stability of shelved books as the backdrop for the disorder of human activity.

  The library had been busier these last few months—ever since rumors of ghosts. At certain times one could hear what sounded like a man talking to himself from underneath the basement-less building. The possibility of encountering a real live ghost attracted young curiosity seekers and they stayed to browse the stacks.

  The only report that touched on what had happened came from a trio of teenagers. They swore they'd heard a lion roaring inside the library that night, but everyone laughed at them and none of the other rumors came close to the truth.

  He went back to his chambers to check on Lily. The librarians had made a special place for her and their five kittens. Marco figured they wouldn’t be contained in the box much longer, and he jumped inside to give a quick wash to a calico, the only one who would sit still.

  “I’ll be back later,” he told Lily. “There’s a meeting of the Dead Cats Society tonight.”

  “What story will you give them, Marco? Will you tell them about turning into a lion?”

  “A Guardian never tells his own story, Lily. Tonight Cicero will become part of the legend.”

  Marco went downstairs and threaded his way through the library, a sort of cat walkabout he liked to take. It was the busiest time of the day. Librarians pushed squeaky book carts. Students, clustered in groups, studied and talked, their conversations punctuated with soft laughter. An old man rattled his newspaper and two silent young boys hunched over a chess board.

  He picked his way around backpacks feeling that there was someone he must meet. A familiar voice drew him to a reading corner. Lucy was a regular visitor since her parents had moved in with her grandmother.

  She was sitting next to a boy slouched in a chair, both of them lost in their books. When Lucy noticed him, she murmured some greeting and the boy reached one long arm down to scratch his head, his eyes never leaving his book.

  The meeting could wait. He nuzzled himself into an impossibly small space and laid his head on the boy’s leg. Marco purred. The book was The Three Musketeers. D’Artagnan was alive and well.

  ###

  About the author

  Rahma Krambo is Marketing Director for a family owned solar company in Northern CA. She is active in the local arts and literary community as a member of an SCBWI writers group, board member of the Yuba Sutter Arts Council and board member of Friends of the Packard Library.

  http://www
.guardiancats.com

  http://www.rahmakrambo.com