It was eerily beautiful. Rachel gazed at it, spellbound.
“I have…no idea.”
“The being who accosted me in my dreams had wings much like this,” stated Nastasia. Her perfect brow creased. “But they were more like eagle’s wings. Not peacock feathers.”
“Azrael had wings of smoke, too,” Rachel said, “but they did not look like these.”
“Let’s see the rest of it.” Siggy stepped closer to the wing, dragging Joy and Valerie along. “What were they attached to?”
“I…don’t know. I didn’t see it. Hold on.” Rachel reviewed her memory to see if it had caught any more glimpses of the unexpected wings, but she found nothing. “Sorry. Whatever those wings are attached to…it was never in front of me.”
“Creepy!” sang Valerie, drawing out both syllables.
Sigfried frowned at the smoky wing. He thrust his head forward, sticking it into the wing and shaking it back and forth. The dream stuff dispersed, the pearl and coal gray smoke drifting away. The moment he straightened up, it sprang back to the way Rachel remembered it.
“Reminds me of that thing that threw me out of the tower. It was made of smoke.” His expression grew more serious. “Or maybe it just hadn’t finished forming. Is that what things look like when you summon them? We’ll have to ask a thaumaturge. Dread’s a thaumaturge. Let’s ask him. I’d love to see him summon something big. Could he summon Godzilla? It would be wicked to watch it stomp on the school. But, anyway, that demon thing that threw me out of the tower was bad news. We’ve got to stop them from summoning that thing again.”
“At any cost!” Rachel and Sigfried spoke together.
Their eyes met and they nodded at each other.
“It was…” Rachel shivered. “There was something truly horrid about it. Oh, do you know what Gaius and I discovered?” The dreamland shifted to the school library. Gaius sat at a table covered with books. “That being, whose name we’ve been told not to say,” She imagined the word MOLOCH written on a piece of paper on the table. It appeared. She grinned, pleased. “It is the same being as Kronos…Saturn. So the feast day that the other demon mentioned is probably Saturnalia.” She filled them in on everything that she and Gaius had discovered.
“That gives us a little over two months. I’ll tell my dad, in case the mundane police can help,” said Valerie. She picked up one of the books on the table and flipped through it. The pages were blank or covered with random squiggly letters. “So this is not a real library.”
Rachel grinned and pointed at one of the tomes on the table that read Roget’s Calendar of Feast Days. “Try that one.”
“It will be like that.” Zoë lounged against one of the stacks. “You can’t read in dreamland. Not dream books, I mean.”
Valerie opened the large volume and flipped through it. “Hey! I can read it! Everything is here.” She read aloud, “‘Lupercalia – February 15: sacred to Lupercus and Faunus. Cakes made by the Vestal Virgins from corn of the previous year are offered to the gods along with goats and one dog. Two teams of young men dress in goat skins and run around whipping onlookers with februa, goatskin strips, that purify those struck. Women hoping to produce male heirs attempt to be struck by the Wolf’s Strap.’ Oh, that’s ridiculous!” Valerie giggled, but she stopped when she saw the serious faces of the Wise-born.
“How are you doing that?” Zoë flipped rapidly through the book, stopping at first one page and then another. “I can read this! I’ve never read any dream book before! Not the same words more than once, anyway.”
“I’ve seen every page.” Rachel shrugged. “I remember it.”
“That’s…scary, Griffin.” Zoë blinked.
“But back to the matter of any cost,” the princess frowned stubbornly. “Sigfried, if you are to be my knight, we must be clear on this issue.”
“But it doesn’t—” Sigfried began hotly.
Zoë cut him off. “You two argue on your own time, okay? Not while I have to stand by holding your hand…literally.” She paused and then chuckled. “Griffin, I can’t believe you didn’t know what a rocket ship was.”
“I know what a rocket ship is,” Rachel defended herself. “I just did not know that a star ship was a rocket ship. In my defense, we have lots of flying ships in the World of the Wise. The Starkadders came to school in one.”
“What a great idea,” Siggy cried enthusiastically. “A star-faring clipper ship! Maybe that’s how the Metaplutonians get about! Can we use magic to outfit one to be space-worthy? We could be Metaplutonian-raiding pirates! I want a coat like Captain Harlock’s!”
“I saw it!” Valerie said enthusiastically. “The Transylvanian flying ship. When it came by to pick up some of the royal family the second week of school.” Valerie paused. “What I don’t understand is: Why does the World of the Wise avoid modern things…movies, cars, toasters, rocket ships? I understand why the Unwary,” she rolled her eyes, “don’t use magic. We don’t have any. I mean, even if we knew about magic, most Unwary are unable to use magic. But, why keep the children of the Wise from using technology? Why live like mechanical Unwary?”
“No reason,” Zoë snorted. “A lot of the American Wise use both. Look at my family.”
Joy spoke up. “Oh, I know! Because people who grow up using both aren’t as good sorcerers as those raised only in the World of the Wise.”
“Thanks a lot, O’Keefe,” quipped Zoë.
“But…it’s true,” Joy objected. “I didn’t make this up, Zoë. My father told me. When people grow up believing that technology solves their problems, they tend to make poor sorcerers. Their magic is not as potent.”
Zoë glared at her.
“No, Really!”
Valerie smirked “You gotta give it to her, Zoë. She’s much better at magic than you or I.”
“True,” Zoë shrugged. “But then nearly everyone is a better sorceress than I am. I suck.”
“But what about Mr. Smith?” asked the princess. “He was raised among the Unwary, and he’s one of the best natural sorcerers that Roanoke has ever seen.”
“Sigfried is an enigma wrapped in a mystery,” quipped Valerie.
“That’s me,” Sigfried shot back, “an egg-McMuffin wrapped in tortilla.”
Rachel said slowly, “I think that actually makes sense…what Joy’s father told her.”
“How?” Zoë stuck her free fist on her hip.
“It’s like what the Raven told us,” Rachel struggled to make her thought clear. “He said that the laws of nature changed slowly, as people’s subconscious ideas of the world changed—that’s how he fits in the powers of the new people, as Azrael and his cabal brought them here. He said that that if people found out too much too quickly, the Walls that protect the world would fail, and the world would be destroyed.
“So…if the laws of nature can change, and if they are affected by what people believe, what would happen if everyone in the World of the Wise started subconsciously believing in the laws of physics as the mundane world teaches them? Could magic stop working?”
The others thought about this.
“What makes magic and technology not work together?” asked Valerie. “Is it because people can’t believe in both at once? And, if so, why can’t they?”
Rachel shook her head. “I don’t know. But I do know that O.I. is working on this very question. They are trying to learn to combine the two. That’s what Gaius is interested in doing.”
“If they could, that would be wicked awesome!” Sigfried crowed. “I want to be first in line for a rocket-powered flying broom. Or maybe a magical bazooka!”
“You and blowing things up!” Joy rolled her eyes.
“But it would explain why people raised in the World of the Wise would be better sorcerers,” said Rachel, “And Joy is correct. I’ve heard that, too.”
“So have I.” The princess nodded primly.
“Great,” Zoë scowled. “Television ruined my magical potential.”
“Sorry
about that,” Rachel said sadly.
Zoë shrugged. “Television is good for a few things. At least I know what a starship is.” She suddenly snorted. “And I have things to be grateful for. For instance, I’m not dating a ewe.”
There was a momentary pause.
“Ram!” objected Rachel hotly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Valerie joined in, her eyes crinkling with wicked amusement. “Salome described the duel to me in great detail. I even wrote a piece on it for the Roanoke Glass. She didn’t mention anything about horns.”
“I didn’t see horns, either,” giggled Joy.
Rachel, who was quite familiar with sheep, as many of the Gryphon Park tenant-farmers kept flocks, steadfastly refused to recall Gaius in sheep form. She was pretty sure she would be able to tell a ewe from a ram at a glance, even without horns, and she resolved to take a stand for her boyfriend’s masculinity, regardless of what the real facts of the matter might have revealed.
“Of course, not,” she exclaimed indignantly. “People don’t leave horns on rams. They cut them short.”
“Face it, Griffin,” drawled Zoë, “you’re dating a ewe.”
“You mean an eeeew!” Joy burst into giggles.
Rachel sighed.
There was the noise of a chair being pushed back. The dream image of Gaius stood up from where he had been sitting at the table. Valerie squawked, jumping back, and Joy screamed. Sigfried pulled Valerie closer.
“I think it’s nonsense,” Dream Gaius said with a casual gesture of his hand. “The science and magic issue, I mean. Not whether I was a boy-sheep or a girl-sheep. Though I am grateful that my girlfriend stands up for me so loyally.” He flashed Rachel a wide grin. “Science is the study of how things work. We will figure out how this magic stuff works, too.”
“Where did he come from?” Nastasia sniffed, dismayed. “I thought we distinctly agreed that he was not to be invited.”
Rachel looked up at the Gaius before her, comparing him with the Gaius in her memory. He was definitely about two and a half inches taller. His grin was also wider, more relaxed.
“This is Dream Gaius. He’s a figment of my dreaming imagination, according to Zoë.” Rachel gestured toward Valerie. “Dream Gaius, meet my friends. Friends, Dream Gaius.”
“How do you do?” Dream Gaius gave her another huge grin. He extended his hand.
“Pleased to meet you.” Valerie let go of Sigfried and shook his outstretched hand. With an inarticulate scream, she fell through the library floor and out of dreamland.
Chapter Fifteen:
The Library of All Worlds
“Whoops!” murmured Zoë, looking down. “She hit her head on the table. There’s blood.”
Siggy bent his legs, bracing for impact. Then, he let go of Joy. He, too, fell through the floor, vanishing.
“I wish people would stop forgetting not to let go. Ah well, we’d better go back and help.” Zoë waved with her free hand. “Ciao, Griffin.”
The others tromped off into the mist, leaving Rachel alone in the dream library with Dream Gaius. He smiled down at her.
“Looks like it’s just us.”
“We should make the most of that,” Rachel replied, eyes sparkling with mischief.
He looked so cute. He was her dream boyfriend, right? Impulsively, she stepped forward much more boldly that she would have in the waking world and lifted her face to be kissed.
“Well! Can’t say no to that!” Dream Gaius’s grin widened.
Stepping forward with a huge smile, he spread his arms and encompassed her in a sweeping embrace. He leaned down and kissed her—a real kiss.
Rachel panicked.
This was not the way her gentlemanly, chivalrous boyfriend acted!
With a squeak of fear, she ducked out of his arms and stood a few feet away, her arms wrapped defensively around her body.
“Be gone, sweet figment. Frighten not my little one,” said a familiar voice that rang like the sound of bells.
Rachel spun around. “Illondria!”
The elf-woman towered over Rachel. She stood seven feet tall, more glamorous and voluptuous than any mortal. Her skin had the luminous gray of beech bark. Her eyes, warm as polished wood, had starshine where mortals had pupils. Her features were upswept, high cheek bones, slanted eyes. Her brows and her long flowing hair were fern-green.
The Elf knelt down and opened her arms. Rachel ran forward and squeezed her tightly, resting her head on the tall elf woman’s motherly shoulder. The Elf hugged her in return.
The tall woman leaned back and touched Rachel’s head fondly, her fingers brushing over the spot where the Rune of Memory was hidden beneath Rachel’s hair.
“You have so much resting on your shoulders, little one. But fear not. I see wonderful things ahead for you.”
“What sort of things?” Rachel asked curiously.
The Elf stood and glanced around the dream facsimile of the school library. “I am not surprised to find you here. I see you, years from now, in a place of great knowledge. A library such as no other that has ever existed. And happy, with these things far behind you. Do not falter, I think your victory is assured. Though achieving it will be great work.”
“A library such as no other that has ever existed?” breathed Rachel.
The elf woman smiled down at her fondly. “The Library of All Worlds.”
Rachel repeated the name silently.
It was so wonderful that she almost feared to speak it aloud. Her imagination ignited with visions of faraway places and vast halls of learning.
“That’s what I want to do,” she vowed. “To create the Library of All Worlds!”
“If you wish to, you shall.”
Rachel was quiet for a bit, caught by the wonder of it. She and Illondria sat close together for a bit. Towering palaces grown from trees atop trees rose around them. Roses bloomed everywhere, their fragrance heady and sweet.
In the way of dreams, Rachel realized that much time had passed. She sighed audibly. “I think they forgot to wake me up.”
The Elf looked down, as if peering through the library floor. “Yes. Your body is in a house inside a bag in the dean’s office. Dean Moth is berating the Romanov princess for having departed from the school grounds.”
“We fell out of dreamland,” Rachel said sorrowfully. “I’m not sure how to not do that.”
The lovely elf-lady tilted her head to the side and tapped her cheek thoughtfully with her long, tapered finger. “Maybe I can help. Perhaps, I…”
Rachel awoke on a bed inside the princess’s purse house.
“Wake up, sleepy-head,” Joy leaned over her, shaking her arm. “The assistant dean wants to see us.”
• • •
“I can’t believe we got saddled with detention every Saturday for a month and a half!” Joy moaned as the group who had spent the previous night in Transylvania tromped out of the assistant dean’s office, out of Roanoke Hall, and over the bridge that spanned the reflecting lake. After standing so nervously while the ordinarily cool and witty Mr. Gideon lectured them at length—his fingers tapping rhythmically against the high collar of the turtleneck sweater he wore under his robes, his handsome, dark face fearsome in his disapproval—it was nice to move again. Rachel felt chagrined but relieved that it had not been worse.
“I’m just glad they didn’t take my sandals.” Zoë ran a hand over her head, changing her hair to a vibrant, electric blue. “I hid them just in case. Gave them to Seth and told him not to tell me where they were. I was going to pretend I couldn’t find them, but…Mr. Gideon never even brought them up.”
“Told you,” said Joy smugly.
Thunder shook the heavens, echoing from Stony Tor to the north. The answer from the tor seemed even louder than the original. It seemed to Rachel that the ground shook.
The fog still lay thick across the campus, but the rain had reduced to a drizzle. The large umbrellas still hung above the walkways. The soft glow of will-o-wisps shone out f
rom beneath each brim, eerily beautiful as they illuminated the mist. The umbrellas were ten feet wide and black, except for one hovering over the path that led from the Commons to Marlowe Hall, which was silver. Rachel wondered how that one had come to be there.
“I am surprised that the punishment was not more severe.” Nastasia glided along in her lavender sou’wester with its matching galoshes and wide-brimmed rain hat. Her familiar walked in step with her. “Though, perhaps, not something as strange as Father’s punishment. We once had a theft problem in the palace. Finally, Father caught someone red-handed. He had the man covered in peanut butter, rolled in bird food, and sentenced to stand in the garden with his arms spread like a scarecrow until the birds had eaten him clean. Or the opposite of a scare crow. Beckon crow? Come hither crow? Either way, it was a ridiculous punishment, if truth be told. After that, however, not a single object went missing, even though that man was not the only culprit. I guess the risk of being made a mockery and spending an afternoon as a feeding trough for birds is more to be feared than time in jail.”
“It’s because they’re embarrassed,” said Xandra, walking beside the rest of them, her hood nearly covering her nose. “The school, I mean, not your father’s servants. Three students got snatched yesterday, on campus grounds. And not just any students: a royal princess, the daughter of an Agent of the Wisecraft, and the most famous boy in the World of the Wise. Roanoke’s supposed to be safe. But this year: first Dr. Mordeau, then the airplane and this? They don’t want the kidnapping getting out, so they aren’t going to make a big deal about this either.”
Walking beside her, kicking the freshly fallen leaves into the air and watching them float back to the ground through the drizzly mist, Rachel thought that it was a very good thing for her future career as a student that nobody but she and Gaius knew that only two of those students had been kidnapped. The third one had left school grounds of her own volition.
Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland (The Books of Unexpected Enlightenment Book 3) Page 19