Chapter 27

“It’s the Talurie,” Rahim exclaimed. “It’s got to be.” The man continued to stare at the skeleton with a singular focus. “This room is about them.”

“What is he blabbering about?” Janner asked. “Are you telling me this freak is a real thing?”

“I don’t think it’s a work of grotesque art,” Danel said, leaning close to examine the bones. “The bones look just as weathered and aged as the other two panels. You could be right, Janner; this could be a terrible mutation. I’m told that generations of incest can cause such monstrosities. On the other hand, the myth of the Talurie is awfully convenient. If the bones didn’t bother me already, seeing this form in the rock would be enough to send me careening with fright back from where we came.”

“Who the hell are the Talurie?” Janner insisted.

“There is a storybook upstairs of a people who were cursed by their god who had gone mad,” Rahim said. “The story was written by someone named Bustami?”

Janner started. “The Librarian we found?”

Rahim shrugged and Danel held up his hands, refusing to answer.

“Librarians are useless,” Janner groused. “When real questions are asked, they never have the answers. Go read a book, they say. That thing on the wall is creepy as hell.”

“It walks upright,” Rahim said. “The spine is human; only the limbs are odd.”

“The skull looks like it was squeezed in a vise and left there for a year,” Janner said. “If the gods are real and that thing was human, then we are looking at a cursed person. The gods are real and that is a curse.”

Danel looked at the man with his hands on his hips, “Well, that was completely unexpected. I thought you were the cool and detached one of the bunch.”

Janner snorted. “I’m not trained to study, Librarian, I’m trained to analyze and formulate a response in real time. I don’t start bar fights; I finish them, and I finish them quickly and definitively. Here is the evidence and here is my response.”

“Fair enough,” Danel said. “What are we supposed to do in this room and where is the exit?”

Both other men shook their heads, indicating they had no clue. Danel scanned the room, the pillars and the walls, looking for the blue tells that had led to the previous solutions. He placed his hand across Bustami’s jewel as he walked through the room, hoping that the jewel would give him an indication of where he was supposed to look.

They wandered the room for hours, pulling bones and sticking their fingers in eye sockets. They rested, chewing on bread and drinking sips of watered-down wine. Danel kept looking around, seeking some clue to the puzzle.

“We’re not going to sleep in this room, are we?” Janner asked. “This room troubles me.”

“No, I don’t think any of us would get a decent night’s sleep in this mausoleum,” Danel said. “The weight of their bones sends a chill deep into my soul. I wish nothing more than to return to the surface, find a wife and produce children with the hope that I would never need to return to this room.”

“Perhaps your sentiment is the point the room seeks to make,” Rahim said. “Life is a precious gift from the gods. Cherish it while you have it. Even so, I have no wish to remain here longer than necessary.”

Danel stood up and stretched. “Either we sleep in the stairwell, or we retreat upstairs to Soldatorme. I’m open to suggestions.”

“I suggest we leave,” Rahim said. “I see nothing to gain here now. Surely, some sleep will bring clarity to our search.”

They gathered their packs and hoisted them on their shoulders. Danel could not bear to stare at the walls any longer, staring at the floor as he made his way back to the entrance. He stepped into the stairwell and stopped abruptly. Rahim crashed into him from behind. Danel would have gone down if not for the great paw that grabbed his shirt at the collar.

“Look,” Danel demanded. “Do your eyes see what I see?”

“A staircase going down,” Rahim said. “It was not there before.”

“What triggered it?” Janner asked as he pulled up alongside the other two. “What bone opened the stairway?”

Rahim grunted. “The key may not have been a bone or a skull or a hidden switch somewhere. The key could simply be paying homage to the dead. Respect for the dead is a sacred task demanded by the gods. How many stories do we have of great warriors who were denied glory after life for desecrating the bodies of their enemies?” He grunted again. “Now we know that the Library of Ibados is filled with cemeteries of dead people.”

“As long as they don’t come back to life and chase us down the hallways, I’m fine with this new knowledge,” Danel said. “How we fit this find into the Master catalog is a whole other kettle of fish.”

“Librarians,” Janner muttered. “I suggest we head down and establish a camp to rest instead of wasting more time here yakking.”

The rail caps were glowing blue when Danel examined them. Touching the rail cap, he felt warmth but no tingle. With a wave of his hand, silently gesturing his fellows to follow, he walked down the stairs, taking the mid-landing without hesitating and continuing downward as the next doorway came into view.

The hallway was rough cut but wide. The direction was an immediate left turn that took them down a short hallway to another opening on the right. Taking a deep breath before taking the last turn, Danel stepped into the room and moved to the side, allowing Rahim and Janner to enter as well.

They were standing in the back left corner of the room. To their right slightly forward was an oval water fountain with a block of unadorned stone rising up behind it and leaning over the basin. Water poured from a simple hole carved into the protruding stone over the basin. There were no sculptures or designs on the fountain. A bench ringed the fountain.

Overhead was a shallow dome, ringed in the ever-present light found everywhere in the Library of Ibados. The effect was clear soft light that reached every corner of the room. Four slender pillars stood in each corner, pretending to hold up the dome. At the other end of the room was a small, raised platform, large enough for a few people to stand. The floor was fitted stone, smooth under the feet.

Danel gazed at the fountain and followed the invisible line from the end of the fountain to the raised platform at the other end. “We’re in a prayer room,” he announced.

“Where are the statues to the gods and the icons to the saints?” Rahim responded. “Shouldn’t some presence of the gods be in a prayer room?”

Danel bit his lip and walked towards the center of the room. “No, not if more than one pantheon is worshiped at the same time. No imagery means no one is offended by the representations of gods that are not their own. This room offers a simple symmetry of sacred geometry, water for ablutions before prayer, and a place for the leader of the rites to lead the prayer. No one people can claim ownership and no one god of a pantheon can take possession of the space as their own. This room is meant to fulfill the human need to pray to their gods.”