The Library at Mount Char Part 41

He cracked it open and peeked inside. "It looks medieval. Like one of those, whaddya call them, a book of hours?"

"That one's at least twenty thousand years old. And if the Inquisition caught you with it they would have started heating up the thumbscrews."

"Really?" Very curious now, he stopped at the next tall pile of books and used it as a pedestal for the book. He cracked it open at a random spot. The pages were thick vellum, crammed with neatly inked pictograms arranged in vertical rows like cuneiform, or maybe hieroglyphics. He couldn't read the writing or even guess what language it might be in. A couple of pages later he found a two-page ill.u.s.tration-pale ink, inlaid with gold leaf, hand-drawn and faded with age. It had a weird aesthetic, part technical diagram-neatly ruled planes, measured angles, squiggles that were probably equations-and part battle scene. Interspersed with the lines and parallelograms, an army of long-necked toothy things were clawing their way out of a hole in the sky. The forest below was littered with their corpses. A few survivors-they looked a little like giraffes-cowered before a man in black robes.

The hair on the back of Steve's neck got all p.r.i.c.kly. Her Father's work.

Beside him, Naga rumbled. She was hunched over, peering into the shadows between the shelves.

Following her gaze, Steve thought he saw a hint of motion, out there in the dark. He patted Naga's neck, as much to rea.s.sure himself as to calm her. Her muscles were tense, quivery.

He glanced down the jade corridor. Carolyn hadn't stopped. Now she was half a football field away, the black ball bobbing behind her on its shoelace. "Carolyn?"

She didn't answer.

"Carolyn?" He left the book on the pile and jogged to catch up with her, wiping the fingers that had touched it on his s.h.i.+rt. He caught up with her faster than he would have thought possible. It occurred to him that the jade floor might be helping him along somehow, like one of those slidewalks at an airport. "I think I saw something move back there," he said, panting a little.

"Hmm? Oh. Yeah, you probably did. We have housekeepers. Remember the guy with the lawn mower? Like him. They take care of the menial stuff-dusting and shelving and the like. They try to stay out of sight when real people are around."

"Well, that's creepy as f.u.c.k. And what was up with that pict-" He broke off. "Daaaayum." They had come farther than he would have thought possible. Now the DNA spiral was just ahead of them. From here he could see that it was actually a staircase, however enormous. It hung in midair, thousands of feet tall but unsupported, leading to a vast cloud of light overhead. "What is that?"

Carolyn pointed at the cloud. "It's the universe. The normal one, I mean. The one you grew up in."

"Like a planetarium, or-"

"No. It's the real deal. The original."

"That's imposs..." He trailed off, then sighed. "How? How could a thing like that be?"

"Do you know the word 'superset'?"

"Yes. I don't know. Maybe. Not really." He rubbed his temples. "It sounds vaguely familiar."

She patted his shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up too much. It's a lot to take in, especially at first. It was the same way for me."

"Good of you to say."

"The Library is a separate universe, a superset of the one you grew up in. There's a little bit of overlap, but not much."

"A separate universe?"

"Yeah. There are some very dangerous, uh, people, who would do anything at all to get their hands on Father's work. He tried earthly fortresses-towers, keeps, some very advanced defense mechanisms. But anything that can be locked can be unlocked. The stakes are enormous, and there were some close calls. Eventually, he created this place."

"But..." He looked up at the cloud of lights overhead. "I mean...the universe is, like, big? Right?"

"Yes and no. Size is notional. It has to do with the structure of s.p.a.ce. The door we came through was a gateway, but it's also sort of a transition function. You wouldn't be wrong to say that going through the transition makes you bigger."

"I feel the same size."

"Well...you also wouldn't really be right to say it either. It's sort of mathy."

Steve rolled his eyes or, perhaps, looked to the heavens for strength. "I don't think she's being deliberately obtuse. And the words sound like English..."

"Think of the Library as the wrapper a Big Mac comes in."

"OK. What's the Big Mac?"

"The universe. The other one."

"That's somewhat helpful," Steve said. "Thank you. As long as you're feeling comprehensible, here's another one: What are we going to do up there?"

"I need to hang David." She jiggled the shoelace, and he bobbed, weightless. The black ball had grown as they walked. Now only the bottom half of one foot was still visible, the shoelace tied to his hairy toe.

"Hang him?"

"Yeah. Plus I left some food in a cooler. And there are lawn chairs, and a barbecue grill. I thought we could have a picnic! Do you like picnics?"

"Um...sure. Picnics are nice, I guess."

She flashed him a smile and, to his astonishment, giggled a little. Then she started up the stairs. "Food!"

Steve looked up, daunted. Even setting aside both his fear of heights and the fact that the stairs hovered unsupported in thin air, the towering spiral was easily the tallest man-made thing he'd ever seen-three thousand feet, minimum. Probably more. No railing, either. The disk at the top looked small enough to hide behind his thumbnail. "You really want to walk all the way up this?"

"Yeah. It's not as bad as it looks." And indeed, in just a few seconds she'd somehow traveled upward fifty feet or more.

"No elevator?"

"No. Father thought they were ugly. I could fly you up, if you like."

He considered this. "I'll pa.s.s. Thanks, though."

"Oh, come on! It's good exercise." She bounced on tiptoes a couple of times, flexing her calf muscles. "Keep you fit! And there's steaks!"

Still he hesitated.

Carolyn said something in lion-speak, possibly about lunch. Naga started up the stairs without so much as a glance back.

"Traitor!" Steve called.

"There's also beer," Carolyn said.

"Beer?"

"Beer."

"Yeah," Steve said with a sigh. "OK."

II.

It was still a bit of a climb, about the equivalent of five normal flights of stairs, but nothing like the pack-some-sammiches-and-we'll-make-a-weekend-of-it alpine ordeal he had envisioned when looking up from the base. Steve mentioned his thought about airport slidewalks. Carolyn said, "Sort of," then explained-if that was the word-that the jade surfaces changed the way distance worked. Steve said, "Oh." A few steps later he looked down to see that they were over a thousand feet up. Numb now, his only real reaction was to be grateful that there wasn't much of a breeze. Just as his calf muscles were starting to burn, they emerged at the top of the tower.

It was capped by a sort of observation platform, also jade, about a foot thick and about as wide as a football field. Steve was susceptible to vertigo in tall buildings, but this was more like being in an airliner. For some reason, that wasn't as bad. Anyway, it felt rock-solid underfoot. Over in one corner he saw a barbecue grill and half a dozen lawn chairs. His stomach rumbled.

Then he noticed something else.

Nearer the geometric center of the disk the cloud of lights hung low, close enough to reach up and touch. Under that point he saw a small brown lump on the floor. He took a couple of steps toward it, squinting. Carolyn didn't follow-she was looking up at the lights.

"Hey, who's this?" The lump was a young woman-barely more than a child, really-sleeping on the floor, curled in the fetal position. "Another one of your sisters?"

"What?" Carolyn frowned. "No. There shouldn't be anyone here. Move away, Steve." Her tone was chilly again, the way it had been in the car. "That's got to be Mithraganhi."

"Who?"

"Mithraganhi. One of Father's anointed, from the third age. n.o.bununga's sister, I think. She was the sun, until a couple of hours ago."

"The sun?"

"Yeah. Remember when it got dark out, a couple of hours ago? I changed her back."

"Uh...if you say so. What's she doing up here?"

"I don't know. She should have died up there." Carolyn walked around Steve, heading toward the girl. "She must have climbed down somehow."

"From where?"

She pointed up. Steve followed her finger, then froze. He hadn't noticed at first, but this close, the points of light in the cloud overhead weren't really points anymore. He saw now that each of them was itself a tiny swirling spiral, almost but not quite frozen. Galaxies? He reached up to touch one and- "Poru sinh Ablakha?" The girl's voice was high, childlike. She was awake now, propped up on her elbows. She was a platinum blonde and pretty, if a trifle smudged. Her eyes were a shade of gray he'd only ever seen on battles.h.i.+ps.

Carolyn squatted down next to her, smiling. "You'll be with him soon." She stroked the child's forehead with the back of her right hand. Her left moved to the small of her back and emerged with the obsidian knife.

What the h.e.l.l? "Carolyn, no!"

Carolyn stabbed the girl in the neck, just once, then bounced backward, getting a surprising amount of air. She came down in a three-point stance, knife at the ready, her eyes fixed on the girl.

All three of them froze for a moment. We're the murder exhibit at a wax museum, Steve thought, horrified to the point of giggles. Blood squirted from the child's neck in a finger-thick stream-once, then again. It landed on the jade with a splas.h.i.+ng sound. Another squirt. A puddle began to collect.

The girl touched her hand to her neck. Her fingers came away red. She showed them to Carolyn. "Moru panh? Moru panh ka seiter?"

Carolyn smiled the way a gargoyle might. "Chah seh Ablakha."

The girl slumped. Another squirt of arterial spray, weaker this time.

"Jesus!" Steve screamed. "Carolyn, what did you do?" He ran for the girl, thinking, perhaps, to hold his hand over the wound, stanch the bleeding somehow. But his course took him near Carolyn. Somehow, pa.s.sing her, he tripped. He hit the jade floor hard.

"It's all right, Steve."

His front tooth was rough now, newly chipped. He tasted blood. "All right? It's not all right! That kid is just a kid, Carolyn. What did she ever do to you?" He felt Naga near him, muscular and violent.

Carolyn spoke without emotion. "She's sixty thousand years old, and she's loyal to Father."

"So. f.u.c.king. What?" He wasn't quite screaming.

Carolyn blinked. "You have no idea what the stakes are, Steve. You don't understand about Father, how dangerous this is."

"She's just a kid, Carolyn!" Steve scrabbled to his feet and went to the girl. She clutched at his sweatpants with one b.l.o.o.d.y hand, pleading in a language he didn't know. Her lips were blue.

Steve lifted her hand away, inspected the wound. Her carotid artery gaped open, a lipless mouth. "Hold still," he said. "I'll-"

Carolyn put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't. It'll be over in a minute." She didn't threaten him with the knife.

"Can I...would you mind if I just held her hand?" Naga paced between him and Carolyn, guarding him.

"No," Carolyn said. "Too dangerous."

Steve hesitated for a second, then took the girl's hand anyway. He could hear Carolyn's teeth gritting, but she didn't move to stop him. Mithraganhi's hand was small, birdlike in his palm. She looked at him with her gray eyes, pleading.

"I don't know what to do," Steve said to her. "I'm so sorry."

"Moru panh?" she said again. Her voice was fading.

"What's she saying?"

"It means 'Why are you doing this?'" Carolyn said.

"I'm so sorry." Steve reached out to her cheek, but she flinched away from his touch. Her eyelids drooped.

Then she was gone.

"There," Carolyn said. "That's done."

Steve shut the girl's eyes, then looked at his hands. They were red. He showed them to Carolyn. "Yeah. I guess so."

Seeing the look on his face, she seemed to return to herself a little bit. Her face fell. "You don't understand," she said again.

"You got that right." He was thinking, However handy she might be with that knife, I'm a lot bigger than she is. He was thinking, We're not that far from the edge.

Carolyn's expression darkened. Her hand drifted to the small of her back. "Don't."

"Don't what?" His tone was pleasant.

"Just don't. OK? I won't kill you, but I'll hurt you if I have to. I don't want to-I really don't want to-but I will." Then, pleading, "Steve...let me explain."