Lord of the Libraries (38 page)

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Authors: Mel Odom

Tags: #Fantasy, #S&S

BOOK: Lord of the Libraries
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“What happens if I don’t bring
The Book of Time
back to you?” Juhg asked.
The mantis regarded him coldly, and for the first time Juhg felt threatened by the being. “That,” it stated clearly, “is not something you want to do.”
“You showed me a piece of my future.”
“I already regret that,” the mantis replied.
Regret?
How could the mantis
regret
anything? Especially if it was supposed to know everything that had, was, and will happen?
“It’s time for you to go,” the mantis said.
“I’m not done yet,” Juhg said. “I have questions I want answered.”
The mantis pointed into the nearest pool. “Your friends are in danger. Do you really wish to waste time?”
Drawn by the mantis’s words, Juhg looked at the pool. He saw himself reaching into the cavity that held the brown gemstones that had been given to the Molten Forge Mountains. The “ghosts” fought with his companions, attacking them savagely. The Slither fought as well, though still not at full strength after Craugh’s attacks. The creature had squared off with Cobner, who was giving as good as he was taking.
“They will perish without you,” the mantis said. “They can’t hope to defeat the Slither or the dwarven memories.”
“I don’t know how to defeat them,” Juhg said. He felt his hold on the In-Betweenness slipping, felt himself being carried away.
“The answer,” the mantis said, “lies in the past.”
Blackness filled Juhg’s vision and he was swept away by it.
 
 
The sound of ringing steel filled Juhg’s ears, and the sound was intensified by the cavern where the battle was taking place. He ignored the sounds and concentrated on the brown gemstones, feeling their weight settle into his hand. Then he closed his hand over them and drew them out of the cavity.
Turning, covered in sweat, Juhg glanced back at his companions. Raisho, Cobner, and Jassamyn fought with naked steel, but their blows did nothing to the mysterious dwarven “ghosts” except knock them backward.
Cobner swung his battle-axe, knocking two “ghosts” from in front of him while he went after the Slither again.
Juhg stayed back, remembering what the mantis said about the answer being in the past. He looked down at the gemstones and felt the power within them. The gemstones had been given to the dwarves because they held so tightly to the past. Just as Cobner had made himself a promise to carry the cornerstone back out of the volcano when they departed.
If we depart,
Juhg thought.
But the stones also had power to peer into the past. The mantis had told him that. But what good would that do? How could that help him now when his friends were under attack by foes they could not kill?
Abruptly, the Slither broke past Cobner, slipping under the swing of the big battle-axe and shoving the dwarven warrior to the side. A trio of dwarven “ghosts” immediately swarmed Cobner and bore him to the ground.
Uninterrupted, the Slither crossed the distance between itself and Juhg. “Give me the gemstones!” it cried. “They belong to Lord Kharrion!”
Juhg tried to turn and run, but the creature was too fast for him, launching itself at him and knocking him to the ground. He almost dropped the gemstones as the impact against the cavern’s stone floor drove the air from his lungs. Stubbornly, too afraid of what would happen if he let go, he tightened his fist around the gemstones.
“Give them to me!” The Slither tried to pry Juhg’s hand open.
Why wasn’t the creature in Skull Canal? The question floated up into Juhg’s consciousness over his screaming fear to survive. If Lord Kharrion had made it the guardian of
The Book of Time,
why hadn’t it been there?
The Slither fought with Juhg. Its body shifted and changed, like wine slopping up against the sides of a wineskin, as if it might pour out of itself at any moment.
Was distance the problem? Juhg wondered. Then why make a guardian that couldn’t be in all places at the same time? Or was there more than one guardian?
Putting a hand up under Juhg’s chin, the creature tried to lever his head back and snap his neck.
Despite the pain and how helpless he felt, Juhg held on. The Grandmagister had mentioned only one guardian of
The Book of Time
but had offered no explanation as to how the creature was supposed to get back and forth. The mantis had mentioned only one guardian. So why this place?
The answer lies in the past,
the mantis said.
“The past,” Juhg said out loud, his voice straining as he tried to keep his neck from breaking under the Slither’s cruel ministrations.
“What?” the creature asked, fixing him with its baleful yellow gaze.
Juhg felt for the power of the gemstones, found it, and pulled it to him.
Suddenly he and the Slither stood on a mountainside bearing a shiny coat of permafrost because they were so high up. The creature halted its struggles and stared around at the mountain. Its misshapen face took on an animalistic look of fear.
“What have you done?” the Slither demanded.
Juhg didn’t know. He was just grateful to be alive and his neck in one piece.
Dazed, the Slither released its hold on him and stood.
The cold mountain air washed over Juhg and made his teeth chatter. His clothing was still sweat-soaked from being down inside the buried volcano. He shivered and drew in a breath of air, discovering that there didn’t seem to be enough of it to breathe even though his lungs filled. He scooted away from the Slither and stood on shaking legs.
“Do you know this place?” Juhg asked.
The Slither still didn’t look at him, gazing out in sheer wonder at the beautiful orange mountain coated with the white permafrost. Below the mountain was a lush valley with a stream flowing through it. From where they stood, Juhg could see caves farther down the mountains. Dwarves—men, women, and children—labored in gardens and at stonecutting. Several ox-drawn wagons were being loaded with cut stone. Out on the stream, other dwarves loaded stones onto small river craft.
“This,” the Slither said in a quiet voice, “is my home.”
“You lived here?” Juhg was surprised. He had believed the Slither to be a thing, a construct Lord Kharrion had created.
“Yes. I had a wife and children, but they were killed during battles with other dwarven clans. I alone survived.” Black tears ran down the Slither’s face. “I wanted revenge against our enemies. I wanted to see them broken and driven screaming in fear before me. Lord Kharrion came among us and offered me that chance for vengeance.”
“How?”
Turning, the Slither pointed at the gemstones in Juhg’s hand. “By becoming the guardian for
The Book of Time.
He changed me into this, made me powerful and strong.”
“You were a dwarf?”
The Slither dropped its arm and nodded. “Yes. When I fought in battles against those who tried to take
The Book of Time,
I killed many of my clan’s enemies. I was grateful to take my vengeance piecemeal.”
“But
The Book of Time
was spread out,” Juhg said. “Pieces of it were in four different cities.”
“I know that. I was here when Lord Kharrion used the Molten Forge foundry to break
The Book of Time
into four parts. It was intricate work. He labored for months, and he performed his task with a dwarf’s skill and cunning and patience.”
“Did Lord Kharrion make three other guardians to guard the other sections of the book?”
“No,” the Slither said. “I was the only one. He gave me the power to flow along through
The Book of Time.
I knew when his enemies—and mine—got too close to a section of
The Book of Time.
I just had to wish for it and I was there.”
“At any one of the four cities?”
“Yes.”
“And if two cities were under attack at one time?”
“I could become two,” the Slither said. “Or four, if that was what was needed. The power was mine.”
“Can you go to the other sections of the book now?” For a moment, Juhg thought he had gone too far.
The creature glared at him. “No. Until I sensed you so nearby, I didn’t know if the other sections still existed.”
“They do,” Juhg said.
“I can’t feel them. Only the two that you now possess.” The oozing face took on an anthracite appearance. “And I mean to have them back for Lord Kharrion as I promised him I would do when he promised me my chance at vengeance.”
Juhg’s mind raced. Why couldn’t the Slither feel the other sections of
The Book of Time?
That had to be important.
“Wait,” Juhg said, backing up across the slippery permafrost.
“No. Tell me how you brought me here. I haven’t been able to find this place … for a very long time.”
“You haven’t been able to find it?” Juhg shook his head. “This place doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You lie!” The creature sprang forward and seized Juhg around the throat, lifting him clear of the ground. “I see this place before me!”
“We’re not here,” Juhg rasped. “This isn’t real.” At least, he didn’t think it was real. Unless they’d traveled back in time, which the mantis had told him was impossible unless
The Book of Time
was made whole again. Craugh’s own testimony led him to believe that as well.
In an eyeblink, they were back in the underground volcano cavern.
Startled, the Slither snarled. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Juhg said.
His companions still fought for their lives, all of them battered and bloody.
Suddenly, Juhg understood why the Slither still believed Lord Kharrion to be alive, and why all the dwarven “ghosts” wore clothing that stretched across generations. “You’re dead,” he told the Slither.
“How can I be dead?” the Slither demanded. “I’m holding you by your throat. One squeeze, halfer, and it’s you who are dead.”
“You’re a memory,” Juhg gasped. “Just a memory inadvertently kept alive by this section of
The Book of Time.”
That had to be the answer. It was the only one he could come up with, the only idea that fit all the existing circumstances.
The gemstones pulsed in Juhg’s hand.
Suddenly, the cavern faded away and they were once more standing outside on the mountain. Juhg glanced around for the others, wondering if he had returned to the cavern. But he hadn’t. He still stood on the mountain. Without warning, the mountain shook beneath them. Almost immediately
afterward, the volcano broke free from its prison of earth and spewed high into the sky, filling the air with soot and ash and burning lava stone.
In the next few minutes, the horrendous thunder of the volcano exploding washed away every other sound. The Slither screamed at Juhg and looked like he was tightening his grip around his neck. But Juhg already felt the strength of the creature’s grip fading.
Cracks opened up in the mountain as well as the surrounding land. Dwarves ran for cover but there was no safe harbor in the lands that had been theirs for generations. Sheets of flame fell from the sky. Smoke and ash poisoned the air and filled lungs, causing suffocation if the victims weren’t burned to death outright. The stream that had provided drinking water as well as a resource for their forges had become a boiling death. Chasms opened in the valley and swallowed down dwarves, animals, and equipment in fiery gulps.
“I … I remember,” the Slither mouthed, and Juhg read his muzzle instead of hearing him because the rolling thunder continued. “Old Ones preserve me!”
The ground fell away from the Slither, and he fell with it. Juhg fell as well, rushing down into the yawning mouth of the volcano. He screamed, but he didn’t even hear himself. He flailed his arms and legs, dodging huge boulders that fell with him.
Below, the Slither changed from the creature’s form to that of a dwarf. He seemed almost at peace as he dropped into the bubbling molten lava.
Juhg closed his eyes, not wanting to see the end coming, knowing that somehow the mantis was wrong or had lied, because there was no way he was going to visit the In-Betweenness again.
 
 
Juhg felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Scribbler,” Raisho asked in a quiet voice. “Juhg. Are ye all right?”
Gasping for air, still feeling the heat of the volcano all around him, Juhg opened his eyes. He was on the stone floor of the cavern, not falling into the open mouth of a raging volcano. He held the brown gemstones tightly in his fist.
Slowly, Juhg looked around. The cavern was empty except for his companions.
“They’re gone,” Jassamyn said. She looked worse for the wear. Blood stained her face. “Do you know why?”
With Raisho’s help, Juhg rose to his feet. His knees still trembled and he had trouble believing he was still alive.

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