Page 55 of The Book That Wouldn't Burn

“Isn’t this place here so we can read what we want?” The assistant paused. “That is perhaps the biggest question I have ever been asked.” He handed her the book and she quickly stashed it with the black volume that had remained in her book-pocket. “However large the answer may be, I will return the other one.”

“Why do I hurt?”

“You fell.”

“You didn’t catch me?”

“I brought you to the centre. At the centre of each chamber is an area that nourishes and that, as a secondary effect, will reverse recent damage.”

Livira rubbed at her arms. She wondered quite how much damage she had sustained. All she remembered after she began to fall was a crunching sound. Had that been her? She touched her face where she’d crashed into the ladder as she escaped the others. It no longer hurt.

“My bird? Where is he? Could this place mend him?”

But the assistant was already walking away.

“Hey!” Livira gave chase on strengthening legs. “How do I get out of here?”

The assistant paused and pointed. “The east door will take you to a chamber with external access. Follow the wall to the right when you pass through, and it will bring you to the exit.”

“Arpix said you assistants never helped.”

“Perhaps this Arpix does not know what helping looks like?” The assistant carried on his way, which wasn’t in the direction he’d pointed. “We have much to do.”

“Wait!” Livira called after him. “I saw an assistant who looked hurt. She was all grey and she wouldn’t move, and she had a hole, a dent, here.” She touched her temple. “You should help her.”

The assistant turned, gazing at her with white eyes. “You asked if the library were here so that you could read. It was, as I said, a big question. Some would answer that the library is here in order that an old war can be fought again and again until the end of time. I thank you for your concern. I have much to do.” And he walked away.

Livira continued to shout questions until the assistant was out of sight, and for a while after that. She could have followed him, but she needed to get back. She clutched Reflections on Solitude to her and began to run in the direction the assistant had indicated. Lord Algar couldn’t be allowed to take this away from her. She had too many questions that needed answers, and the thought of the quiet satisfaction he would take in her eviction ran like acid through her veins.

Keeping to the line the assistant had indicated proved difficult with the aisles running at whatever angle they chose. When she’d had no particular destination in mind it had been less annoying. She ran on, constantly diverted, increasingly sure she’d lost hold of the direction she’d been sent in. This belief was proven incorrect when, probably more by luck than judgement, she broke into the clearing in front of the corridor.

The metal man was where Livira had left him, standing eternal guard. Livira’s renewed energy was flagging again, and although seeing a familiar face cheered her up, the featherless skeleton of his wings reminded her that she’d left the Raven for dead without even a goodbye. After a moment to recover her breath, Livira went to stand in front of the frozen guide. She resisted hugging him and instead offered a dignified bow. “I found it!” She held her book aloft and hurried past. When the white door behind him began to dissolve beneath her touch she almost cried with relief. Before it was properly gone, she was through into the final chamber where, still some miles off, the exit lay.

—

The closer Livira got to the exit the more she worried about the time. She could have been gone for three days, five, who knew? She certainly needed sleep and food, lots of both. To fail out in the far reaches of a distant chamber was one thing, but to fail with the book in hand, within shouting distance of the exit, would be too much to bear. The idea of handing victory to Lord Algar fed new energy into her legs.

Having reached the first chamber again, she had a path to follow, marked both in memory and on the floor with strategically placed books. With a grim determination Livira ran on.

From the next ladder she scaled she could see the wall looming ahead and make out the white dot that was the final door. Soon she could even pick out the line of the staircase that led up to it. Her legs were already leaden and the idea of climbing that flight of overly large steps made her groan.

Memory brought her stumbling and panting into the aisle that she’d leapt into from the shelf tops. “Arpix? Carlotte?”

Lacking a reply, she reversed course to find a route to the clear space around the base of the stairs. A short while later she broke from the aisles, casting wildly around for signs of the others. She hurried to the start of the index aisle. Nothing. No sign of the mess they’d made. Arpix would have tidied up conscientiously even knowing they’d failed.

Livira started up the stairs, pressing with both hands on her lead knee to try and lever herself up them when her thigh muscles began to fail. The others might be just ahead of her. They might be crossing the cavern as she heaved herself up the stairs with maddening slowness. A laugh burst from her: hysterical tiredness. She’d never imagined the professional librarian needed to be such an athlete.

Finally, she reached the top and collapsed against the door which immediately melted away, offering no support. The next she knew she was being helped to her feet by two library guards.

“Did they come through yet? Have you seen them? My friends?” Livira tried not to let exhaustion slur her words into an unintelligible mumble.

“We came on duty an hour ago.” The larger of the two men set Livira on her feet, hands to either side as if checking he’d balanced her correctly. “Haven’t seen anyone in or out.”

“Hells.” Livira started out across the cavern and found herself limping though she’d no memory of hurting her leg. “If they come out after me tell them I was here.”

“If who comes out?” the other man called at her back. But Livira was too tired to explain. They’d sort it out. Besides, they were ahead of her, she was sure of it. At least an hour ahead.

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