Dark Tide Rising (Book 1 of The Bright Eyes Trilogy)

by J. M. Rojas

CHAPTER 13: THE LIBRARY

  Beneath the oasis, the Silversong descended into the dark infinity of the wide tunnel, which burrowed deep into the earth. The stone pillars that had parted the body of water and sand floor above them had used some sort of gravitational force—much like Will's bracelet. They had now retracted back into the sides of the tunnel, resealing the oasis and hiding any signs of the Lemurians' passage.

  “It was rebuilt by the Lore Keepers,” Mathias said to Jack. “The Great Underway is a network of underground tunnels for our sky-ships to travel between The Library in Alexandria and other locations we hold. They were originally constructed by the Osirian Empire thousands and thousands of years ago, but are now forgotten by her people's descendants.”

  “I'm sure the Sun-King of Osiria—if he was alive today—would not be too pleased to know that Lemurians are now using his tunnels and living under one of his cities,” Cloak laughed in his whispery voice.

  “Fate carves strange paths,” Mathias replied.

  The Silversong descended to the bottom of the tunnel, which connected to a vast, dome shaped chamber. More tunnels broke away from the chamber; and when Jack looked carefully he could see that its walls were made of black marble and etched in silver and gold, detailing symbols of what appeared to be a great star map. The gold and silver planets and stars glowed brightly in the darkness of the chamber, but the source of the reflected light could not be seen. Above the numerous tunnel entrances were Osirian words explaining where they led.

  Before Jack could ask which way they were going, Will turned the ship around to face towards a tunnel that had a symbol of three open eyes whose lashes were sun rays.

  “Jack,” Will said, indicating to the symbol with a nod, “that is the Osirian symbol of knowledge. It is a marker that tells us this is the way to the Library.”

  “Where do the other passages lead?” Jack asked, his hand squeezing Laya's tight in excitement.

  “Many places,” Mathias answered, “and many dead ends. Some of those tunnels have yet to be restored. Our second largest colony resides in the White City of Zerzura, which lays buried deep under a mountain range to the east. There is also Seron, another city that we are currently rebuilding. It is half devoured by an underground chasm. And Iram far to the north, whose silent halls are untouched, but guarded by terrible booby traps.

  “These Osirian cities were swallowed up by the earth and sea during the Fall. Buried this deep under the desert sands has kept them safe from excavation and plunder. New Osiria are more concerned with their own progress and wars to even know of my people's comings and goings.”

  “But for how long,” Cloak asked rhetorically.

  Jack wondered that too.

  The Silversong flew deeper into the Underway.

  The ship's invisibility was disabled to save power, and it was now using the white glow from its hull to illuminate the journey through the darkness. It was the same ethereal light generated from the Lemurians' eyes, and Jack derived from this and the skull-cap that Will used that the ship worked solely on psychic energy. This led him to wonder if the ship ran on its pilot's psychic energy or some archaic engine or battery.

  “What were the barrels in the hangar for then?” Jack spoke his thoughts aloud.

  “What?” Layla asked, snapping out of her own reverie of the past events.

  “If the Silversong is powered by psychic energy, why were there barrels in dad's hangar?”

  “Oh, the barrels. Um, they're just full of diamonds from the ocean floor. They are used for building sky-ship engines and weapon systems. The diamonds can channel and amplify psychic energy.”

  “Just diamonds?” Jack shouted in surprise.

  “Yeah, nothing special,” Layla half-laughed in confusion at Jack's sudden excitement. “You sound like you've never seen that many diamonds before?”

  Jack was about to give a lengthy explanation as to why a barrel full of diamonds is a big thing; but stopped, shook his head and said, “Never mind.”

  The tunnel finally ended at a great wall of stone, which was marked with the symbol of knowledge: the Three Eyes. It was the gate to The Library.

  A moment of hushed silence followed. Then Mathias' eyes ignited into white fire and the giant Atlantean reached out with his mind and began a telepathic conversation with someone beyond the wall. Jack could only pick up a few words, such as “...friends...” and “...son of Toram...” and assumed that Mathias was relaying their find to whoever controlled the gate.

  The guarded conversation did not last long, before the stone wall began to rumble up into the ceiling, revealing a great cavern beyond. Soft, gold lights from within The Library leaked into the tunnel and washed over the Silversong.

  “We are finally home,” Mathias said.

  The Library was the remnants of the original Royal Library of Alexandria, which Julius Caesar had allegedly burnt down by accident when destroying his own ships. However, Jack had been told by Mathias that some of the librarians had managed to save the ancient books—most of which had survived the Fall—and re-established the library beneath the city in the ruins of an old Osirian city that they had uncovered. This small group was called the Historian Brotherhood, and they spent decades secretly restoring the library bit by bit while slowly adding to it.

  When the Lemurians came to Egypt from Europe—where they had lived for many years in the ruins of Avalon upon their arrival—they first settled in the deserts near Alexandria. It was in the mountains that they were visited by the waning numbers of the brotherhood, who entrusted the Library to them before disappearing from the world forever, never to return.

  The combined effort of the original Historian Brotherhood and the Lore Keepers in building the new Library and restoring the city around it was a grand sight to behold. It was built within a massive, square cavern that rivaled the girth of Alexandria itself. The Lemurians dwelt in square Osirian buildings made from gold patterned, black marble, which were divided into blocks like a modern city. Each building fitted neatly against its neighbours like puzzle blocks, forming precise geometry that echoed the design of the pyramids.

  Spiralling around Greek-style marble columns that held up the cavern roof were stairs that connected to a network of walkways and far-spanning bridges hundreds and hundreds of feet above the city. The bridges and columns were also covered in gloam vines—relatives of the sunbark trees and grown from seeds rescued by the Lemurians—that entwined themselves in spidery webs and glowed brightly in the dark, filling the Library with a golden hue much like the sky of a sunrise.

  Four wide roads divided the city into quadrants, which started at the Library's center and ended in the four corners of the cavern, connecting to four landing fields that housed the sky-ships restored by the Lemurians. In the center of the city the roads converged into a roundabout, surrounding a park of glowing sunbark trees. This sanctuary was called the Sun Garden and it was a place of meditation and worship to the Old Gods.

  Built against the far northern cavern wall and connected by a fifth road from the park, stood the original library: a semi-circular building with a half-domed roof, which was surrounded by eight towering statues of long dead heroes from the ancient times. They had been scavenged from the Egyptian deserts and the oceans beyond and were weathered and missing body parts, making their identities a mystery. Guardians of Knowledge they were called, or the Fathers of Osiria, for their true names had long since been forgotten. They were the last of old world's mighty architectural sculptures to survive the Fall.

  The original Library was called the Chamber of Lore and it housed the city's greatest treasure: thousands of books, scrolls, parchments, and tomes in various languages and from various times, stretching as far back as the Three Empires. These works were displayed on sixty-foot tall, dark-stained, wooden bookshelves that lined the walls of a part of the chamber called the Inner Sanctum. Beyond that room was the Hall of Lords and within it was a great stair case called The Rise, which was carved into the rear cavern w
all and rose to the surface of the Egyptian city of Alexandria. The Rise, originally built by the Historian Brotherhood, was regularly used by the Keepers and Lore-kin to journey to-and-fro between their secret city and their daily business with the modern world. Above the entrance of The Rise—two stone doors some twenty-feet tall—was the High Seat of Atlantis. The marble thrown sat upon a ledge above the door and was accessible by two flights of stairs on either side. This was where the leader of the Lore-Keepers sat. Many years ago it had been Thomas' chair; now it bore the weight and troubles of the wise Oreus Isaleph.

  Oreus' lordship of the Library was fair and just, and his mind was attuned to trade, diplomacy and the Arts, which allowed the beauty of Lemuria to once again flourish in the hidden city. Unfortunately, unlike his predecessor, Oreus lacked the military experience and strength needed to keep the fear of Kaelan and his rebels out of the hearts of his people.

  “Arai!” Oreus shouted merrily to the group of Lemurians as they disembarked from the Silversong. “Arai, sah'est!” The grey-haired man's arms were out stretched in welcome, and his bright, blue eyes glittered brightly in the darkness of the field where the ship had landed. Upon his head rested a reef of silverfire-leaves—from another tree native to the old world—that symbolised the mantle of his office.

  Six guards of the City Watch, armed with glaives, hovered about him—their faces hidden by metal visors that bore a single horizontal slit for their eyes. When they saw Mathias they saluted him, acknowledging their general. He had chosen them from amongst his most loyal soldiers to guard Oreus with their lives.

  A large, flat metallic disc hovered stationary above the field behind the guards. It was a skyjammer, and in its center hummed a diamond filled with psychic energy—its engine.

  As Oreus and his men approached them, Jack noticed they were very tall people indeed—like Mathias—and this made him feel quite small.

  “Arai,” Mathias said back to the man in Atlantean. He then turned to Jack and said, “This is Oreus, the High Librarian of the Lore-Keepers. The Lord of the Hidden City. He also knew your father very well.”

  “Perhaps he will be a friend of mine too,” Jack said with a hopeful smile. Mathias simply nodded.

  Breaking away from his personal guard, Oreus hastened to Mathias and embraced him heartily. He looked physically and mentally weary; but appeared to draw strength from the stoic general.

  “I came as soon as I heard of your arrival,” Oreus said in a voice that carried a tone of relief. “Your timing could not have been any better.”

  “Why? What has happened?” Mathias asked, pulling away and staring at him intensely.

  The guards caught up and fanned out around the company, keeping their eyes to the darkness around the landing field.

  “Nothing, nothing to concern yourself at this moment, dear friend,” Oreus replied quickly, then turned to the others to divert the conversation away from Mathias' question. “Now here is a face I haven't seen in many, many years.”

  Jack found Oreus' attention fall on him and the man's blue eyes lost their weariness and glowed even brighter. He ambled over to the teenager, knelt down and embraced him. Jack found a comforting warmth emanate from the High Librarian, which reminded him of his mother. “Hello, Jack.”

  “Hello, Orus... Oreus!”

  Layla and Will snickered. Mathias frowned. Cloak rolled his eyes.

  The man with rust-grey hair laughed. Up close, his sharp, refined facial features were quite handsome for his age, which Jack assumed was around the late forties or fifties. Charisma seeped from his infectious smile and every word he spoke. “You probably don't remember me. I was once a good friend of your father's. I saw you a long time ago when you were only just a baby.

  “Mathias here, myself and Thomas were a right pack of trouble-makers before the wars, before the Fall. Did he tell you the time when all three of us competed in a tug-o-war with some Osirian soldiers and ended up face down in the mud?”

  Mathias dropped his guard and concealed a grin at Oreus' tale and the memories it brought back.

  “Or when Thomas won the sky-ship Arena at the Great Games?”

  “No sir,” Jack answered, smiling in intrigue and excitement. He was unfamiliar with the history his father shared with the Lord of the Keepers.

  “Well,” Oreus said impishly, moving his eyes from Jack's to Mathias', “perhaps we will have to leave those tales for an appropriate time after dinner. After you have all rested.”

  “That would be great,” Jack replied. “I would love to hear them.”

  Oreus winked at Jack, then turned to Layla and Will and said, “Will, Layla, would you be kind as to help me up.”

  The two rushed over to Oreus and let him link his arms with theirs and slowly lifted him to his feet. He then began to lead them the way he had come, across the field towards the skyjammer. “My heart is pleased to see you have all returned safely.”

  Mathias followed the three with his eyes, then turned to Jack. “Be on your guard, Jack. Oreus is an ally who we can trust; however, there are spies in the Library who report to Kaelan. Every wall has eyes and ears.”

  Jack nodded.

  Mathias, Jack and the ever silent and watchful Cloak trailed along after Oreus who was singing an old Atlantean song that sailors use to sing to tame the waters along the shores of Atlantis.

  The skyjammer, which managed to fit the companions, Oreus and the guards on it, traveled along the north-eastern road away from the landing field and its shadowy forms of sky-ships towards the city. The diamond that levitated in its center glowed white in reaction to a silver circlet worn by one of Oreus' guards—he was steering the skyjammer with his thoughts.

  Once they passed the border and entered the city proper, Jack saw clusters of soldiers patrolling the road they traveled. They were grim-faced and armed with glaives and other Atlantean weapons. The Library was a city under marshal law.

  Mathias suddenly said to Oreus, “Tell me what is going on. We are amongst friends; these people will be traveling back in time with me to find the Crown of Dreams. Jack, as you know, will be our guide. There are no secrets between us. Even your guards are loyal to me. What has got you scared?”

  Oreus answered at first by protesting about discretion and that such matters were better left for meetings in secret chambers, however Mathias hard stare and intimidating height won the battle of wills—if it could be called that. Oreus attempts to subdue Mathias' demands were futile. The seasoned warrior knew the leader of the Lemurians was a peacekeeper at heart who disdained conflict.

  The High Librarian accepted defeat and said in a low voice, “The rebels have made several attacks on the Underway. They have made attacks against the Gate—explosives mostly—and some of their spies infiltrated the Library itself, though many months ago. I survived their assassination attempts, but at the loss of many good men.”

  Mathias brows furrowed in anger, and he said through gritted teeth, “Kaelan's treachery has gone too far.”

  “Do not worry, my friend,” Oreus said resting a hand on the riled-up general's shoulder. “I have fared worse. The assassins were captured and imprisoned. Our people are resilient and can survive anything. Rykar has kept things under control—”

  “Your son?”

  Oreus nodded slowly. “You were gone for quite some time, Aramathaeus. Rykar has the loyalty and respect of most of the soldiers; so I left the city's defences to him.”

  “What of Essios? I left him to govern the army when I was gone—”

  “Essios was killed in a patrol scuffle with rebels at Zerzura.”

  Mathias did not reply. His anger evaporated from his face. His thoughts and emotions were submerged once again into the depth of his mysterious shell. Before that shell closed however, Jack sensed a brief moment sadness from him.

  “Lieutenant Essios will not be forgotten,” Mathias said solemnly. “As for Rykar, he is hot-headed and young. I would have chosen someone else.”

  “I know, I kno
w, but I also left his brother and sister to watch over him.” The weight of his rebuttal seemed as light as Oreus tone of voice.

  “He was never good at taking orders,” Mathias replied. Oreus did not answer, but his face showed agreeance.

  It wasnʼt long before the skyjammer arrived and stopped at the outskirts of the Chamber of Lore, where stood the Fathers of Osiria and their silent countenance. A path of mosaic stone etched in Osirian script led up to its front doors.

  “Who are they?” Jack asked Mathias as he stepped off the hovering disc, his eyes glued on the towering statues, half expecting them to move.

  “Heroes who once protected this land,” the general answered. “Their names are lost in the sands of time.

  “However,” he whispered to Jack when he was close to him and the others were out of earshot. “I suspect one of them was an old friend of mine. A friend who once wished for immortality. Ironically, a wish granted in stone.”

  Jack followed Mathias' glance towards one of the statues that bore a crowned sun symbol upon its bare chest. The statue's arms were raised above its head and its hands were clasped together. A half-worn face seemed to stare at him, sending a shiver down his spine.

  When the companions had come to the end of the path, they quickly ascended the great flight of marble steps. At the top, the doors to the Chamber of Lore flew open and several Atlantean guards rushed out, with their glaives unslung. A clamour of shouts echoed within the lobby of the building behind them, issued forth like a large force of wind.

  “Oreus! The prisoner has been caught!”

  The captain of the guards then saw Mathias in the company of the High Librarian, and he and his men dropped to their knees. “My lord!” he cried bowing his head. “You have returned!”

  “Stand to your feet, man!” Mathias growled, hauling the captain up with one arm. “Which prisoner?”

  “The prisoner from the battle at Zerzura!” one of the other soldiers answered fearfully. “The one who claims to be a djinn!”

  “This cannot be!” Oreus exclaimed. He brushed the guards aside and strode into the Chamber of Lore.

  “A djinn?” Mathias said, just as surprised. “One of the Forbidden? Impossible!”