Pages and Co 3: Tilly and the Map of Stories

by Anna James

  ‘Did you feel that as well, Sister?’ he said, his hand on his heart. ‘I feel … cold inside all of a sudden. And such pain. Such pain.’

  ‘I feel as though I’ve just learned a horribly sad piece of news,’ Decima said, trying to pull herself together.

  And then, to everyone’s amazement, Melville started to cry. Clearly mortified about showing weakness in front of the others, he scrubbed at his cheeks with his shirtsleeve.

  ‘I’m just very tired,’ he said. ‘Running the Underlibrary is a huge task, and no one understands. I just feel suddenly … empty.’

  ‘It’s that man,’ Decima said, pointing at Will. ‘You’ve done something to us.’

  ‘I did not lay a hand on you, madam,’ Will said. ‘Not this time.’

  ‘Well, whatever it is, it can be easily fixed with another dose of book magic,’ Decima said, grabbing another book at random from the box that Horatio had brought and hitting the buttons to control the machine.

  But, once another book had been destroyed, the effect was even worse, and this time Decima burst into tears.

  ‘You’ve brought us defective books!’ she shouted at Horatio. ‘What are these things? Are they even Source Editions?’ She pulled another book out of the box and looked at it.

  ‘Oh …’ She stopped, tears still running down her cheeks. ‘It’s … it’s The Fox and the Moon.’

  ‘Why … why do I know that title?’ Melville said, tears still escaping. ‘Have we bookwandered there?’

  ‘We used to read it together when we were children,’ Decima said. ‘But Mother threw it away when she said that we’d got too old for stories. I’d forgotten all about it. We used to act it out, do you remember? I’d make you be the moon so I could be the fox.’

  ‘What was the other book?’ Melville said slowly. ‘The one we just pulped?’

  ‘There’s no way of knowing,’ Decima said, her voice growing icy as she stood up straight again. ‘And it doesn’t matter. I see what you’re doing.’ She turned and glared at Tilly. ‘I don’t know how you’ve done this, but it won’t work.’

  ‘How I’ve done what?’ Tilly said, as confused as the Underwoods were.

  ‘You’ve weaselled your way into some record, and found the books we read as children, and you’re going to trick us into destroying them to prove some stupid point,’ she said.

  ‘I have no idea how I would even know what books you’d read as kids!’ Tilly said. ‘It’s just a coincidence! But now you can see how awful what you’re doing is!’

  ‘I don’t believe you, child,’ said Melville. ‘Three books that had that impact on us – you must have been behind it.’

  ‘I swear I wasn’t!’ Tilly said. ‘I would never destroy two Source Editions just to make a point! Who would do something like that! Oh …’ She stopped and turned to look at Horatio. Tilly thought for a second that he’d winked at her, but it was impossible to tell in the gloom. Melville and Decima followed her glance, but by that point Horatio was studiously focused on his notebook.

  ‘Did I miss something?’ he said, looking up innocently at them all staring at him. Melville and Decima were becoming more and more unsettled by the second.

  ‘Regardless of how this has happened,’ Bea said, ‘Melville, Decima, surely you can now see why we care so much about convincing you to change your plan? Every time you destroy a Source, there’s someone, somewhere who will feel what you’ve just felt. Is it worth it?’

  ‘For the greater good, yes,’ Decima said, but she sounded unsure.

  ‘We’ll get over it,’ Melville said. ‘And so can everyone else. Our cause is more important than a brief moment of heartache.’

  ‘It’s not a cause!’ Tilly said, losing patience. ‘You just want power! Can you just stop being so selfish for one moment!’

  ‘That’s enough,’ Decima said. ‘You’ve distracted us with your schemes for long enough. Seb, take them upstairs and escort all of our guests to somewhere secure – yes, including Mr Bolt and the other boy. After we’ve inspected their delivery further, I think we need to sit down and have a chat. Make sure they are in separate rooms as well. We’ll have some guards sent down to meet you at the door back up to the main atrium. Got it?’

  Seb nodded, unable to do anything else without blowing his cover.

  ‘Good,’ said Melville. ‘It’s time you all understood who’s in charge.’

  illy let herself be swept along by Seb’s guiding arm as he ushered them back into the main hall, taking care to shut the door behind him. They retraced their steps along the edge of the room, Tilly’s mind busy with worries about getting too far from Will, and leaving him in the hands of the Underwoods, even if it had been his idea to take that risk.

  ‘Did you know?’ she said quietly to Horatio as they walked past rows and rows of shadowy bookshelves.

  ‘Know what?’ he said.

  ‘That those books meant something to the Underwoods?’

  ‘How could I possibly have known that?’ he said, looking straight ahead. ‘It would take someone of unusual skill to have learned such things, wouldn’t it? Or access to a very particular archive of information.’

  ‘But you didn’t even know about the Underwoods until … Oh.’ Tilly paused, realising he hadn’t been telling them even half of what he knew. ‘I suppose you must have.’

  ‘A word of wisdom,’ Horatio said. ‘Never underestimate what I know. Or who I know. My business runs as much on information as it does on imagination.’

  ‘But you were helping the Underwoods by bringing them books,’ Tilly said, confused.

  ‘If you’re looking for a hero, I suggest you keep looking,’ Horatio said. ‘I was doing a job I’d been hired to do. Generally, I’m inclined to let people get on with whatever they want to do, but when people start meddling with my business, and members of my staff go missing, well then, I can’t quite turn a blind eye.’

  ‘Your staff?’ asked Tilly.

  ‘Madeleine,’ Milo supplied. ‘Our chef. You know how she vanished? Well, we never found her and so my unc— And so Horatio thinks her Source has been destroyed.’

  ‘So she’s just … gone? Forever?’

  ‘Yes,’ Horatio said shortly, and Tilly couldn’t tell if he was angry, or upset, or both.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

  ‘Honestly, I think Source Editions cause more problems than they’re worth, if destroying them makes such trouble,’ Oskar said. ‘Whose idea even were they – in the first place?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Seb said. ‘It’s a very old practice.’

  ‘And they’re there to protect stories,’ Bea said automatically.

  ‘But they’re not doing a very good job!’ Oskar retorted. ‘Stories are being destroyed forever and the Underwoods are using the power of the Sources for their own devices! The exact opposite of what’s supposed to happen! They’re stealing all the book magic!’

  ‘True story magic, and imagination, will last longer than the Sources those two have access to,’ Horatio said. ‘But you’re right that they are using a concerning amount, considering the impact it’s having.’

  ‘But, Milo, I thought you said story magic could never run out,’ Tilly said.

  ‘I think I said that there’s enough to go around if it’s shared fairly,’ Milo said. ‘That’s not the same thing.’

  ‘If it’s shared fairly …’ Tilly repeated, her steps slowing to a halt as she thought. They were nearly back at the door, and she needed time to think through an idea that was tickling at the edge of her thoughts. ‘I wonder if … You can’t make a new Source Edition – that’s right, isn’t it, Mum?’

  ‘As far as I know,’ Bea agreed.

  ‘That’s correct,’ Horatio said. ‘If one is lost and still in existence, then it’s impossible and, of course, if it’s destroyed, all traces of the story will disappear so there’s nothing to make into a new one.’

  ‘And if they’re lost and unbound like the Shakespeare Sources you have –’ T
illy paused to raise an eyebrow at Horatio – ‘then everyone can still bookwander in them?’

  ‘Sure,’ Oskar said, trying to follow her logic. ‘But we can’t just lose all the Source Editions – where would we put them?! There’s thousands of them in here.’

  ‘So, what if there were no Source Editions in the first place?’ Tilly said quietly.

  ‘You can’t just unmake a Source Edition,’ Bea pointed out.

  ‘Why not?’ Tilly said. ‘How are they made in the first place?’

  ‘They just start out as regular books,’ Seb said. ‘But they’re stamped with book magic and become part of the Source Library. But you won’t get the librarians to agree to stop that process.’

  ‘They’re too fond of being in charge,’ Horatio chimed in, earning a glare from Seb.

  ‘But that’s the regular book magic, right?’ Tilly said. ‘The black stuff that comes when stories are broken or hurt – what we’ve always been told is the only way to get book magic. But what about what you use, Horatio?’

  She turned to Bea. ‘Mum, when we were travelling through the layers of Story, and when we were on Horatio’s train, the Quip – book magic isn’t supposed to be like this! That black sticky stuff is what you get when it’s stolen – the real book magic is so beautiful. It’s glittering and airy and free.’

  ‘It’s like levelled-up book magic,’ Oskar said. ‘It’s made of imagination and ideas – it’s not to do with the paper and ink and stuff – that’s what books are made of, not what stories are made of.’

  ‘Do the Underwoods know about this?’ Bea asked Seb and Horatio.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Seb. ‘You heard them – they couldn’t get their printing press to make books that had much magic in them at all.’

  ‘For all of their grandstanding, they don’t truly understand what makes stories work,’ Horatio said.

  ‘And surely they’d be using it already if they did,’ Seb pointed out. ‘They wouldn’t have to destroy Sources to get it, which comes with risks they wouldn’t take if they didn’t have to.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Oskar said, eyes alight with the prospect of A Plan.

  ‘Okay, so if it’s the stolen book magic that’s taken from broken stories that makes Source Editions,’ Tilly said slowly, ‘is there perhaps a reason to hope that pure story magic might change them back again? I mean, turn them back into normal books and stop them being Source Editions? If the Underwoods can’t access the magic that they’re getting from the Sources, then they’re stuck, right? The other Underlibraries won’t let them just waltz in and destroy their Sources. Even someone like Jacob Johnson wouldn’t give them free rein when he understood what was happening, surely?’

  Horatio looked begrudgingly impressed.

  ‘I’ve … I’ve never thought of that,’ he admitted. ‘But the logic is there up to a point, although it’s untested as far as I know.’

  ‘But is it safe?’ Bea asked. ‘Can we be sure it would work? Might it not have the same effect? What would happen if all the copies of all the stories disappeared?’

  ‘But we’re not removing the book magic,’ Tilly said. ‘We’re removing the stamps and the limits. All books have real book magic in them already – we couldn’t get rid of that if we tried, unless we completely destroyed them like the Underwoods are doing.’

  ‘But how?’ Oskar asked. ‘How could we possibly get hold of enough book magic to do that? You’ve seen how many Source Editions there are downstairs. There’s no way to spread it through all the books quickly enough.’

  ‘We need more magic, you’re right,’ Tilly said, trying to get her brain to speed up. ‘Horatio, how would we do that? How do those wooden ball things work?’

  ‘Wood soaks up imagination particularly well,’ Horatio said as if everyone should know that. ‘It’s why we make books out of paper.’

  ‘You two travelled through the paper forest, didn’t you?’ Milo said. ‘That place is made from your own imagination.’

  ‘I’m not quite sure I’m following your logic, Tilly,’ Seb said nervously. ‘You think that if you put in this pure story magic – that you say is different from the book magic we usually use – a book will cease to be a Source Edition?’

  ‘I don’t know if it’ll work,’ Tilly said. ‘But yep, that’s kind of what I was thinking. It’s like the reverse of how you make a Source, right?’

  ‘Well, I think it’s worth a go,’ Oskar said. ‘If the Underwoods don’t have any Sources, they don’t have any fuel. Not to mention that no one’s actually managed to explain to me why we need Sources particularly convincingly.’

  ‘They protect a book’s very existence,’ Seb said. ‘They keep the original edition safe from people bookwandering in and altering details – it’s why they’re kept down here.’

  ‘But that doesn’t actually answer the question, does it?’ Bea pointed out. ‘Now that I think about it. Because, if there are no Sources, then there’s no way to change the books – each book would be its own master.’

  ‘But … but …’ Seb stuttered, clearly flummoxed at the principle that his whole job was built on being yanked out from under him. ‘But there must be a reason for them. They can’t just be … unnecessary.’

  ‘You’ve always got to think about who is making the rules,’ Horatio said. ‘And who for. People with power often want to control things, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do something. In fact, that’s rarely the best way to do it.’

  The six of them stared at each other, each taking in what they’d realised with varying levels of enthusiasm.

  ‘Well, let’s test it then!’ Tilly said, fizzing with adrenalin. ‘We’re surrounded by Source Editions to try it out on in here! We can go and change something tiny and see if it stays when we leave the book.’

  ‘That way we’ll know if it’s safe to do that to the other books,’ Bea nodded.

  ‘One small problem,’ Seb pointed out. ‘We’re surrounded by bound Source Editions.’

  ‘Don’t you know how to unbind them?’ Oskar asked. ‘You’re a librarian after all.’

  ‘Well, yes, in theory, I suppose,’ Seb said nervously. ‘Pass me one over. I have a bad feeling about this, I must say.’

  Tilly grabbed a book from a nearby shelf. ‘Here we go. We can test it on … Oh, okay. Well, this is a Sherlock Holmes book.’

  There was a pause. Then Seb held out his hand to take the book.

  ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’

  ‘Well, it’s a classic,’ said Oskar. ‘So we could ruin something that generations of people have loved.’

  ‘That was a rhetorical question,’ said Seb, with a glare at Oskar. ‘But nevertheless here we go.’

  eb opened up the Sherlock Holmes novel. On the title page there was a stamp in black that showed the British Underlibrary logo. It was an open book, like at the American Underlibrary, but with a key at its centre. Text underneath the logo read ‘Designated Source Edition. Do Not Wander’. Seb turned the page to where the story started, and across the first word there was a smear of black book magic.

  Seb tutted. ‘Whoever did this did it with very little care,’ he said. ‘The Underwoods have had their underlings down here doing their dirty work and clearly not much attention has been paid. They’ve made a right pig’s ear of it. Goodness knows who’s slipping in and out of these books – there’s enough gaps left. But hopefully that makes it easier to unbind.’

  ‘How do you do it?’ Oskar asked, fascinated.

  ‘You let the story know that you want to read it,’ said Seb.

  ‘Sorry, what?’ Horatio said.

  ‘It’s really not a complicated process, sir,’ Seb said. ‘The main barrier to unbinding these books is that they’re being protected by lock and key – and fear. Books always want to be read.’

  He laid a gentle hand on the cover of the book, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Taking his hand away, for a fraction of a second
there was the outline of his handprint in shining gold, which faded away immediately.

  ‘It’s story magic,’ Tilly said. ‘You’ve had it all along.’

  ‘All readers do,’ Milo said. ‘You just have to know how to use it.’

  Seb opened the book again and, as they watched, the crude, sticky magic faded away and, even though there was no breeze deep underground, a ripple flickered through the pages, almost as if the book itself was breathing a sigh of relief.

  ‘Just … a few thousand more to go …’ Oskar said, looking around.

  ‘First, we need to test whether this works,’ Tilly said. ‘Now the book is unbound, we need to see if we can make it truly free – and all the copies of it, wherever they are in the world. Are you ready?’

  The others nodded and Tilly, feeling slightly self-conscious, held the book tightly between her hands. ‘Do I just …?’ She was about to ask how she should do it, but of course it was her plan, and no one had the answer. So she closed her eyes and thought of Pages & Co., and Anne, and Alice, and Oskar, and her family, and everything she had seen and learned since she first discovered she was a bookwanderer. She felt her fingers start to spark with glittering book magic, but it quickly fizzled out like a damp sparkler.

  ‘I don’t think that was enough,’ she said, disappointed. ‘It is a Source Edition, I suppose – it probably needs more welly. Maybe we should all do it at the same time?’

  So all six of them took hold of the narrow book. Tilly couldn’t know what each of them was thinking about, what stories meant to them, but within seconds the air around the book was sparkling with magic and the book was glowing as they channelled pure imagination into the Source Edition.

  ‘How do we know it’s worked?’ Milo said.

  Seb opened the book and let out a low whistle. He held it out so everyone could see, and before their eyes the ‘DO NOT WANDER’ stamp faded into the paper and disappeared.

  ‘But how can we tell if the story is still protected?’ Oskar said. ‘That we haven’t broken … well, everything?’