The Secret Library: Desert of Ash, page 16
He raised his eyebrows as if to say, ‘am I?’
“Things are going down, little brother,” I said.
“I know,” he said. “Time is acting all wonky. But don’t worry, it will all turn out in the end.”
“You seem confident,” I said. “See into the future, can you?”
Jonny cocked his head. “Something like that.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“A lamp,” I said, looking at the object the wizard just handed me. We were about to jump back to The Library.
“My lamp,” said Mr. O’Connor, snatching it back.
“It’s OK,” I said, “I don’t want your lamp.”
“That is because you don’t know that it is a very special lamp. It can contain within it a vast store of power.”
“Like a battery?” I asked.
“Like a bomb,” said James. “And it has been just sitting in my shop gathering dust.”
“Your shop?” asked Mr. O’Connor.
“I run it, don’t I? You have to admit, you have been gone for quite some time.”
“I admit nothing,” said the wizard.
I sighed. “Well, we might find some use for it.”
The lamp itself was an old ship’s lantern. I had seen it many times before and remembered seeing it when I was little. It was circumstances such as this that made me wonder just how magic remained so hidden my whole life.
With a silent farewell to the only sane place left in the multiverse, I took out Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and began to read.
We landed with a splash as a current of water threatened to drag us off toward the ash wastes.
“My shoes!” cried Mr. O’Connor.
My ears were oppressed with a deafening, thunderous dolor. I searched about for its origin, almost falling to my knees when I saw it.
From where the Aeorankin wasps had broken in, a great torrent of water was plummeting. Even before I saw the titan, I knew in my heart of hearts that these were the seas of Baast.
“What on earth?” spat James. “Where is it all coming from-” he stopped talking when he saw the titan.
As fast as we could manage, we waded through the rising flood toward the oasis’ central hub. Here, Lilly, the Librarian, and Darcy were organizing the refugees toward higher ground. The Librarian was in fits, half panicked by the oncoming monstrosity, and half devastated that people were climbing on her books and using her shelves as rafts.
Darcy pounded towards me as we approached, water cascading all around him. “She found me,” he said desperately. “I don’t know how, but she found me.”
“The titan?”
“She is the same one that - that I couldn’t defeat. She killed me, Alex. I don’t know what to do.” The titan did indeed look like the one we encountered in Baast. Its skin was sickly white, like other Aeorankin. Its hands were crablike and crushing. It moved on tentacle legs that whipped forward, crushing shelves and scattering all. It stared with emotionless golden eyes from beneath its massive helm-like head. This was Havsand. She had been imprisoned in Baast for millennia, but now was free. It was the actions of Vicious and Rend that lead to her release. If I understood correctly, this was not the only titan out there in the multiverse. We were in real danger.
“Where is Mary?”
“I don’t know,” said Darcy. He was speaking rapidly and was difficult to hear over the noise. “She fought with the monster when it first fell through, but she was defeated and - and I don’t know where she is. She may still be alive, but if she is unconscious, she will surely drown.”
“Even Mary?” I said, distraught. She was by far the most capable of us all, most likely to be able to take on this, the largest Aeorankin we had encountered.
“We have to go back,” said James desperately. “Get your book out. We can escape!”
“We can’t go back there,” I said. “If The Library is taken by Aeoran, that’s the end of everything.”
“Alex,” said Darcy. “There is nothing we can do. I fear the time of order is over. The time of chaos will soon reign.”
“I won’t believe that!” I yelled.
“At last my time has come,” said the old wizard. He spoke so quietly that I wasn’t certain what he said.
Slowly, I turned to face him. “What do you mean?”
Mr. O’Connor looked at me with clouded eyes, his face a tapestry of wrinkles. He was old. Unlike Elaine, he had been unable to stop the decay of his body. And now?
“My time has come,” he repeated, putting one hand on my shoulder and patting it gently.
All around, the sounds of the great flood roared. There was a series of crashes as the Havsand started ripping into the shelves that made up the oasis.
I looked down at the lantern and back up. “You knew,” I said.
“When you get to my age, things come to you all out of order, you know.”
“What’s going on?” asked James, fright in his eyes.
“It is time for me to say goodbye, my boy. I am glad that I was able to meet you at last.”
“No,” said James in disbelief.
“Look after the shop for me. Theres a good chap.”
“No, there has to be someone else,” protested James.
“And Fis owes me money,” continued the old wizard. “Don’t let him forget about that.” He looked over toward the Librarian and nodded.
The Librarian happened to look up at that moment and happened to see the look in the wizard’s eyes. She practically went white. Dropping what she was doing, she bounded into the flood and waded to our location.
“In another life, perhaps,” said Mr. O’Connor to himself. “I must go before she tries to stop me.”
My vision blurred, and my limbs were numb. “You can’t,” I said, lips trembling.
“No one else can,” said the wizard. “No one else has the power. The Librarian, maybe, but you will need her.”
“We need you!” I blubbered.
“For this, my friend, you do.”
“No,” squeaked James, exhausted, defeated.
“This is my hour. Be strong, my boy.” With that, he turned towards the titan, holding the lamp aloft.
“You can’t just let him go,” cried James.
I just stood there, dumb, numb, and utterly overcome.
“Now you, monster!” bellowed Mr. O’Connor as he started to glow with a gold-white light. It seemed to be coming from within him. “Let me show you what Merlin the wizard does with villains!”
The light was engulfing him now, the lamp glowing to match Mr. O’Connor’s rapidly fading body.
“No!” cried the Librarian, bounding past us.
But she never made it to him.
Mr. O’Connor slowly started to rise into the air, floating closer and closer to the titan. Havsand looked at him with alien eyes, fearless and menacing. Mr. O’Connor settled in front of the creature’s helm for a moment.
Havsand’s eyes clouded with fear.
“Take this, you scoundrel,” said the old man.
Then Mr. O’Connor burst into a spray of light, pure and white.
The light was so powerful that it flattened shelves and hung in the air for a moment after.
I fell to my knees, water gushing over me, grief overcoming me.
I knew in my heart that the old wizard was dead.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I am eleven years old and I am reading a book. It is a Saturday, and Mom and Dad have taken me on their weekend errands. I am sitting in an old antiques shop in the chair that looks like a throne. There is a sign that says, ‘don’t sit on the furniture,’ and I know that it is only a matter of time before I will be made to get off.
The old man that runs the store sees me. My blood runs cold and my face goes red. I know that I am about to get in big trouble, deep trouble, but I am too scared to move.
Instead of yelling and growling like so many other grownups do, this old man simply smiles at me and winks. I am puzzled for a moment. Then I realize what is happening. He leads my parents off to the other side of the store, leaving me to read in peace. I smile at the back of his head and return to my book.
***
“Grandfather!” yelled James, pressing through the flood toward the fallen titan.
The Librarian let out a long hollow wail in a hopeless attempt to reach across the vast expanse between the living and the dead. It was gut wrenching.
Darcy held Lilly close, his expression unreadable as she ugly-cried into his stony chest.
“Stupid old fool,” said Mary through gritted teeth, affected despite herself. I hadn’t even noticed her land atop a nearby library shelf.
I could hardly think or feel. My whole body felt numb beneath the water. The flood was getting higher now and was splashing up to my chest. I didn’t care. In that moment, I just wanted to be washed away into the depths of The Library. I wanted to forget and be forgotten.
Through tear soaked eyes, I saw the library spirits emerge all around us. For a moment, I thought that perhaps one tragedy would follow another and they would carry off another victim while we were distracted with grief.
“Get away,” I heard James shout.
Pulling myself to my feet, I tried to stay the tears for just one moment. “Get away from there,” I called, choking on my own voice.
“Alex, don’t,” said Darcy, his voice as hollow as the night and as thin as paper.
I ignored the golem, wending my way through the bookshelves and the alcoves. The books on the lower shelves were being carried off in the current. Distantly, I wondered what would happen to a book if it became waterlogged and soaked through. Would the world drown too?
I rounded another shelf and was confronted by the hideous sight of the fallen titan. There was nothing left of the creature’s helm-like head, and its sickly white body had been torn to pieces. The spirits all seemed to be entering the remains, passing right through the skin. I saw James, head drooped, standing before the titan.
“James,” I said weakly. “James, I’m so sorry.”
James didn’t say anything. He wasn’t facing me, but I could tell by the way his back heaved that tears were consuming him.
The titan began to move.
I took a quick step back, then exhaled. The movement was only the library spirits. They were carrying off the remains of the monster into the ashen wastes. Their purpose remained hidden to me.
“James,” I said again.
This time the boy heard me. Turning slowly, he looked at me with puffy red eyes, charred with grief. After a moment, he bowed his head once more and waded through the water toward me. It was then that I saw that he was carrying a book. The title was obscured, but I knew that book. It was Complete Ornithology. It was Mr. O’Connor’s book.
***
We all stood silently before the Heart of The Library. It was distorted and cracked, flaming now and then from the dent where the Aeorankin wasp detonated. There was nothing to do, nothing to say. The Library was breached, the Heart wrecked, and now a dear friend was lost. We wordlessly shared our grief, each trying to comprehend the loss in our own way. For me, it was futile. This was not a loss that I could understand. Mr. O’Connor had been there from the beginning. I thought he would always be there. But the old wizard was gone. He gave his everything he had to save everything there is.
And it wasn’t over.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
There was a scream. It came from somewhere among the drenched shelves.
James and Lilly seemed to not notice, but Darcy looked up. His passive face analyzing the situation.
“Not even a moment,” muttered Mary.
“Oh no,” said Darcy hopelessly.
It was then that I managed to rally myself enough to look.
What I saw made my heart sink and my stomach churn. There were creatures coming down the flow of water, Aeorankin soldiers with sickly white skin and their terrible weapons. They seemed like miniature forms of Havsand, with their fixed helms and crablike hands. They slithered about on paled tentacles.
And there were thousands of them.
There was a thud and the whole library shook, as another titan landed at the foot pouring water. It was followed by another, then another. The three titans looked little like each other, but were all built on the same scale as the one that Mr. O’Connor had just dispatched. One was lithe and lizard-like, with several arms and massive dragon-like wings. Another was built more like a minotaur, with two heads and a massive purple gem embedded in its chest. The last was robed and hooded, pale glowing blue eyes looking out from tattered white garments. It was the last of these that unsettled me the most, though I was not sure why.
Following the titans came what looked like a giant whale. It floated out of the seas of Baast and into The Library, moving as if the air was water. It was a vicious-looking thing, its mouth unlike that of a whale’s. Whether this too was a titan, I couldn’t tell. It circled the air above us, casting a shadow on our already grief shaded company.
Three titans, maybe four, where I could not defeat one. How could we possibly get passed this?
“We must defend the others,” said Darcy, breaking away from our group.
The thought was absurd, but I was in no state to question the idea. I was in no state to think. Without hope, I turned to follow after him, Lilly by my side.
Wading through the water, we found the refugees on a sort of an island they had constructed from knocked over book shelves. Books were strewn everywhere, discarded as mere objects. As we clambered up toward the last refuge, I happened to glance back at the Librarian. She was at the foot of the pile of shelves, gazing about at the books, her eyes empty, her mouth parted in horror.
“Come on!” I yelled.
She didn’t seem to hear me.
I clambered back down to the gorilla, took her by the hand, and pulled her toward the others. She looked at me with unseeing eyes, but did not resist my efforts. Soon we were all gathered together.
This was our last place of resistance.
With battle in her eyes, Mary drew her sword. She seemed absurdly small in the face of the massive hoard of monsters descending on our position.
The spirits were all gathered around us, watching expectantly, waiting, perhaps, for the end of all things.
“I-I don’t know what to do,” said Darcy, finally reaching the end of his sanity.
This was the end of my time. I had failed as Keeper, failed spectacularly.
“I love you all,” I said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
My eyes fixed on a point somewhere before the approaching monsters. My mind was gone, lost in terror, lost in despair.
Then I noticed that I was looking at something. It was a small point of light, hovering exactly where my eyes rested. The light seemed to descend toward the ground, falling in slow motion. I watched it absently, taking an interest in the trivial in this moment of overwhelm.
Then the light seemed to stop. It hovered for a moment a few feet above the rushing water.
I frowned.
Then the light exploded. I shaded my eyes as the brilliant light washed over us, dominating everything, turning shadows into nothing. It seemed like the light would never fade, but fade it did. As soon as it had, I peered out expectantly, waiting for the next terror to descend on us.
What I saw was a portal, the most massive I had ever seen. Arching lighting curled across its surface, some of it impossibly black, some of it that same bright white that had flashed only moments ago.
The portal was about half the size of the approaching titans. The Titans themselves had stopped walking now, apparently waiting for something.
Was Aeoran himself about to curl through?
“Oh no,” I said.
Then a witch stepped out. Her hair black and falling, her dress of tumbling lace, her bearing of power, of control.
It was Elaine.
She looked at me. Even from this distance, I knew she was looking at me. She smiled a sly smile.
And then the others poured through. Speeders, battle mechs, the monstrous machines that were likely piloted by children gathered from Baast, Lionkin, Wildermen, and soldiers from the dozens of other worlds that made up Rend’s foundation.
The hope that had kindled in my chest began to fail. That was not Elaine, that was Vicious.
“Is that who I think it is?” asked Darcy.
“I’m afraid so,” I said.
“Is she working with Aeoran now?” asked Lilly.
Mary was smiling. “No, the Lionkin speeders are engaging the enemy line. The witch has come to fight for The Library. Now, this is going to be a battle!”
The death god took flight, sword swinging, with a glee that I could not share.
“Darcy,” I said. “She will try to take control here.”
The golem was silent.
“Darcy!”
“Perhaps that is not the worst ending,” he said.
“How could you say that?” I asked.
“I remember what you said of Tabatha’s opinion. We may not be able to save everyone, but we can do our best for those who survive.”
I turned from him, casting my eyes back on the battle that was unfolding. He was right. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. Existence didn’t have to end. It would never be the same, but it didn’t have to end.
Vicious was in the air now, flying on unfelt currents, casting spell after spell at the titans, confusing them, dominating them. She had more power than I could possibly have imagined. In all the time I had known Elaine, she had never seemed able to bend reality like this witch could.
If Vicious had been this powerful all along, then we had been grossly underestimating her.
There was a crash as the lizard-like titan collapsed to the ground, wings curling about. Aeorankin soldiers and Rend warriors scattered.
Somehow, Mary had once more turned the skies dark and was once more playing to her strength in dispatching anyone that got in her way. She then seemed to notice something that made her stop mid-flight. With all speed, she flew towards Vicious who, upon seeing what Mary had seen, started swiftly in the direction of The Library’s heart.
