***
It took us another hour or so and about three-dozen dark corridors to find the library again. By that time, dawn was not far off, and I was starting to feel seriously tired. When Jane pulled open the doors at the back end of the library, my first thought was to curl up on a dusty chaise lounge and go to sleep.
Instead of making just such a suggestion, I said, “Now what?” It sounded wearier than I would have liked.
“We search,” Jane said. “Whoever was here found what they were looking for,” she said.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
“Because they stopped looking,” Gil said. He pointed at the second floor, lit by the light of the moon. A few cases were untouched, books neatly arranged and in perfect condition. “Those escaped intact,” he said.
“Was there a method to the search?” I asked. “I mean, did they start somewhere?”
“We’re at the rear entrance now,” Jane said. “But given the layout of the compound, I would expect that the search would have begun at the front. Our recent wanderings through the patient wings confirm for me that it’s easier to approach the library from the front.” She pointed in the general direction of the house’s main foyer.
We followed her and her small flashlight. At the library’s main entrance, we picked a wall and followed the breadcrumbs of book carnage around the entire first floor. Each case looked wrecked. Without needing to confer, all three of us climbed a set of spiral stairs and began the same process on the second floor. We stopped at the first clean bookcase we found.
“Okay, now what?” I asked.
Jane approached the last bookshelf that had been rifled clean and ran a hand over the books that remained on the shelf. The collection of tomes was old and scarred, most so worn and faded that the words etched into the covers were no longer legible. Every book moved when she touched it, responding correctly to her pressure. Nothing was a lever or knob disguised as a book. Everything seemed pretty kosher.
“You want to take a look at it?” she asked.
I did. I went slower than Jane did, lifting most books up, opening them, flipping through them. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, really, I was just hoping something would jump out at me. Nothing did. The titles seemed pretty innocuous, most involving antiquated therapies and psychological theories, most in reasonably good shape save for a dog-eared page here or there. Nothing had any notes that I saw. Names either. That shred of insidious evidence was nowhere to be found. They just seemed like old books.
When I was finished going over the books on the shelf, I grabbed the wooden fixture itself, giving it a few good pulls and pushes. It didn’t budge. As far as I could tell, the wall the shelf rested on was solid as a rock.
“Nothing,” I said finally. “Maybe we should keep looking? Maybe they didn’t go through the books in order?”
“They did,” Jane said stubbornly. “It’s what I would do. Anything worth doing is worth doing thoroughly. She rifled half-heartedly through a few of the books piled on the floor before shaking her head with a sigh. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “Why would they stop here?”
“Because they found what they wanted and took it, of course. But I have an idea,” Gil said. “Step back and hold onto your butts. Oh, and kids, don’t try this at home.”
“Boss, I thought you said–”
Gil looked at me and smiled. “I remember. This is a scary place to tap into any kind of otherworld power, but if we’re stuck, we’re stuck. I mean, we’re trying not to use magic here, but I can’t let too much caution be the thing that completely stops me. That just ain’t my style.”
He rolled up his sleeves and closed his eyes, the broad and bushy mustache on his top lip taking on an air of seriousness (how that’s possible, I don’t know, but he managed). He stretched his arms straight out in front of him and gave them a shake like a superstitious pitcher prior to taking the mound. With a deep breath, he began.
It started simply (as most strange things do). Gil flattened his two hands and put them together like a praying altar boy before he began rubbing them together. Beneath his mustache, his lips were moving, senselessly at first, but soon words started to form. No words I recognized, mind you, but words nonetheless.
The grains of light began falling from between his hands like snow, radiating a soft white glow as they drifted towards the floor. At my side, Jane took a step back, her hand rising to her mouth. Yep, this was definitely not her comfort zone.
With my limited understanding of otherworld forces–in this case, magic–I wasn’t 100% sure what Gil was doing, but I understood enough to know that he was building energy in order to do something. What he was going to do, I had no clue, but I knew he was going slowly because using magic in a place as structurally and supernaturally tenuous as Callowleigh was dangerous enough to begin with. Nothing wrong with going slow.
When he spread his hands apart and raised them, the glow coming from his hands was brighter, and even standing behind him, I could feel heat radiating off of his body. Jane took another step back as Gil took a step forward, extending the palms of his hands towards the bookshelf. Almost immediately, the books began reacting. Certain volumes began shaking, wobbling back and forth and vibrating slowly. A few books fell off the shelf harmlessly, others rose slightly off the shelves, vibrations strengthening like they were hooked to an electric current.
One volume rocketed off the shelf, shooting straight away from the wall like it had been fired from a gun, zipping over Gil’s shoulder fast enough to make his hair sway in the breeze. A second book followed. Then a third. Gil’s hands were beginning to shake from exertion. He clenched his jaw and gasped.
“Boss,” I said.
He shook his head, eyes still closed. Another book flew off the shelf. Another.
“Boss,” I said again.
“Wait,” he said, his voice labored.
A crack ran through one of the shelves and the wood groaned as if a great weight had been laid upon it. A second shelf cracked as the first gave way completely and fell off the case.
“Something’s wrong,” he said through clenched teeth.
A book on the shelf opened slowly, pages flipping, before coming to a rest on a cross-section of the Earth. The book opened wider and wider before the spine cracked and split. Pages fluttered free before a fire burst to life in the center of the book, soon engulfing it. In a moment, the fire was gone, leaving nothing but a blackened husk on the shelf.
As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Gil collapsed to the floor, the heat and light gone from his hands. I grabbed him before he totally fell to the floor. He was drenched in sweat and short of breath. I turned him and eased his back against the bookshelf. After a moment, he laughed.
“That was... bracing,” he said. “Ouch.” He raised his hands, palm up, and showed them to me. The skin was a burnished red and hot to the touch. It was as if he’d been burned.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
He nodded, taking a deep breath. “I’m not so good at that,” he said after a long pause. “With a little training, I’m sure you’ll be able to do that, no sweat. Me on the other hand? I’m too old to do that shit.” He barked a laugh. “Especially when it’s a bust.”
“What do you mean?”
“The book is gone.”
“Which book? The Ddraig Goch?”
He shook his head. “In this case, the book that gets us deeper into this mansion.”
“What do you mean? Deeper?”
Gil and I turned. Jane was standing a good twenty feet away, head peaking out from behind a book case.
“Is that you, Jane?” Gil asked, smiling. “I forgot to bring my binoculars.”
She stepped out from behind the bookshelf and straightened her black shirt self-consciously. “Yes, of course it’s me. I’ve just... I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“It’s all right,” Gil said. “You can come out.”
“Did you say it was
all for nothing?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yep.”
“So it didn’t work?”
“No, it didn’t work. I guess after Fehr found the book he was looking for, he used it to open some kind of doorway, in this room or somewhere else in Callowleigh. Unfortunately, he took the book with him. See, I did something like a Reveal Spell, and in addition to this whole place apparently being warded, I got one hell of a kickback from the books that are still here, and–”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Jane said, her voice bearing no regret at all, “Nothing you’re saying makes any sense to me, but what about that?” She pointed over the balustrade and down toward the lower level.
“What about what?” Gil asked.
“That,” she said again.
Gil turned to me. “Can you take a peek, big man? I’m a little pooped. I’m gonna just sit here and sweat for a minute.”
I stood and took a step to the railing. Jane’s finger was locked on a spot on the far wall. It was a case against one of Callowleigh’s main structural walls left over from the original house, and the bookcases that stood against it had opened like a pair of French doors. A dark greenish glow emanated from within. Draped in the glow was a steep and narrow staircase that led down into darkness.
“So after all that someone just opens it for us? An invitation to the basement,” I said. “But from who?”
“From whom,” Jane said absently.
With a groan, Gil rose and stood at my side. “That’s no moon,” he said. “It’s a space station.” He turned to me with a wink. “Get it?”