Chapter 18

“You look a little worn this morning, Danel,” Rahim said as they checked their kits before leaving. “Did you not sleep last night? The dreams come?”

“No, no issue with nightmares,” Danel said. “I can’t talk about it, not really. Sometimes we get reminders that we are not as good or as complete as we thought we were. I had one of those kinds of nights.” He whipped the cord around the button on the back of his pack, closing it tight.

“Oh, you got slapped down, didja?”

“Heh, last night was more thoroughgoing than a mere slap down, Rahim. I’d say it was a full-on massacre. Piecing back together my person may take a few days,” Danel admitted. “Still, we have today to focus on and I’m more than ready after wandering aimlessly last time.”

“That’s the spirit, Librarian,” Rahim said. “‘No pain, no gain’ is what the musclemen say, and I’ll apply that truism to all sorts of stuff. Embrace the pain.”

“Says the man who can shift stones twice his height and width without breaking a sweat,” Danel said. “Sunder is impatient to begin.”

“Hold back a minute.” Rahim requested. He rested both of his hands on his pack and stood behind it, as if partially hiding. “Who’s this new woman? Need I worry?”

“No worry whatsoever,” Danel said with a skewed certainty he did not want to discuss. “Priestess Bahya can hold her own. She is formidable, and I believe that her goddess guides her steps. She may need the mundane safety lessons we all need, but she adds to our skill sets, not detracts.”

“Good to know, Librarian. Let’s not keep Sunder waiting.”

An hour later they were standing at the foot of the stairs in the basement. This time Danel knew the path to the columbarium and there was nothing to surprise him. He stood in the room as Sunder checked Bahya’s pack and gear. Walking over to the sealed niches, Danel began reading the names. The names were clear, but none of them were familiar to him.

“Let’s go,” Sunder called out. “We head to the Builders of the Façade collection and from there, we hope to have a better clue of where to go.” They tromped down the southern corridor to the collection as they did before, except this time the priestess was directly behind Danel. The mechanisms worked the same way as before and their entrance to the barred room was swift.

“Wait,” Danel told Bahya “What you see and experience here is for your superiors at your Temple. I ask that you do not share with your delegation here.”

She nodded before pushing past him into the room. She gasped with both her hands across her mouth. “O Dear Goddess,” she called out.

She turned a pointed an accusatory finger at Danel. “You KNEW.”

“Yes, he knew,” Sunder said, stepping in front of her. “We all knew, and we were instructed to remain silent so that your confirmation would be entirely valid. This is your goddess, is it not?”

“Yes, dressed in different clothes and sitting elsewhere, but this is her likeness.”

Sunder smiled. “Good. Now, Rahim, roll the statue for the priestess.”

She looked at Danel with confusion. He held up a hand as if asking her to hold her questions. She turned back to watch the statue lift and move backward. Danel came up beside her and told her to take the supplicant’s position on her knees before the goddess’s outstretched hand.

She knelt before her goddess. When she lifted her head from the floor and looked into the eyes of the statue, she cried out in astonishment and then fainted. All rushed to her side but Danel, who stood back. He surveyed the scene with detachment, refusing to let his sympathy engage.

“What happened,” Sunder asked Danel. “She fainted dead away.”

“The goddess has spoken to her,” Danel said. “As we speculated, this room is not merely a repository, but a temple to the goddess Raua. The builders probably knew her by another name, but it’s the same deity. Now we confirm what the Chief Priestess Pachout didn’t know: Bahya is the chosen oracle of the goddess.”

“Why didn’t the goddess speak with you?” Sunder asked, watching Malchus wave a vial of smelling salts under her nose.

“I am an agent of the god Yudi at this point, Sunder. I don’t worship the goddess as Bahya does. An agent is not an oracle and beyond that, I don’t know what it means.”

“She spoke to me,” Bahya declared as she struggled to sit up. “She spoke to me and said.” She stopped herself and tried again. “She spoke to me and said.” Bahya looked at Danel and held up her arm to him. “The goddess forgives your ignorance, for your ancestors forgot her generations ago. She promises you a reward if you fulfill the geas.”

“Geas?” Tsum exclaimed. “By all that is good and holy, this Librarian is going to get us killed. What kind of geas binds a Librarian in the Library of Ibados? I didn’t sign up for a pilgrimage or a crusade.”

The cadre began mumbling among themselves.

Bahya struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on Ebba for support. Laying a hand on Tsum’s head, she declared, “The task is holy, and the cause is just. The charge of the gods is neither good nor evil, but the paean of life and a prayer for the future. If the Library of Ibados is to endure, we must see this geas to its end.”

“What does that mean?” Malchus called out.

“It means we leave here and take the first hallway on the right, the one you said we should ignore on the way to this room,” Bahya said. “Our new path begins there.”

“You sure can pick them,” Rahim muttered to Danel out of the side of his mouth.

“I think I’m in love,” Tsum said to anyone who would listen.

“Don’t confuse the goddess with the oracle,” Danel cautioned him. He leaned in and whispered, “Don’t make the same mistake I did.” Sunder clapped both of them on the shoulder, urging them to get moving without adding to the conversation.

When they all stood in the narrow corridor partway back before the ignored hallway, they held a short conference. There was no light in the passage they were about to take, and it was only wide enough for a single file. Someone had the lantern and someone else had the sealed jar of oil. Sunder had the sparker today. “Less chance of things going ‘boom,’” Rahim explained. “I hate when things go boom.”

Ebba led the way again, but this time Bahya was behind her, guiding her with her oracle. The hallway was long. For a while, they walked with shuffling feet as they carefully wended their way on the new path.

“Ho, staircase,” Ebba called out. By the time everyone had crowded onto the stairwell landing, the space had become crowded. Danel was looking the other way, back down the hallway from which they had come, when someone jostled the lantern and the light went out. The immediate area was plunged into darkness.

“Nobody move,” Sunder called out. “Everyone, balance on your two feet and put your arms at your sides. Good. Using your right hand, remove your pack from your back and put it on top of your feet. No one bends down yet. Stay still.”

Danel heard everyone breathing in the silence of the small room. He looked back towards the hallway and saw a strange sight. One of the small cut stones at the very end of the run, abutting the lintel had an aura of a medium bright blue about it. He cleared his throat, “Excuse me, could everyone turn towards my voice and tell me if they see anything from the hallway we just left?”