Chapter 29

One circle in the middle of the door at the height of his chest glowed blue. Neither of the other two men saw anything of the sort. With a nod from both, Danel pressed his palm into the glowing circle and waited. He felt a warmth emerge from within the door. A small gong sounded somewhere overhead, and the door raised itself silently, high enough for them to pass easily through the doorway.

“The stone is different,” Rahim commented.

“Basalt,” Janner said. “I was told basalt is the most ancient rock one can find. Where there is basalt, there was a volcano that belched it out of its caldera as lava. Some say all the ground under our feet is basalt if one digs down far enough.”

“Basalt is the rock of creation,” Rahim ruminated. “I have not seen this stone anywhere else in the Library of Ibados. We are someplace different than anywhere else in the building.”

“What qualities does basalt have that Ibados, Blessed is his name, would choose the stone for down here but not above?” Danel realized they were about to descend another wide staircase made of the same basalt stone. He glanced at the rail post and its cap, blinking in surprise. The entire rail glowed. Bustami’s stone at his breast warmed and the entire staircase glowed blue to his eyes. “This is interesting.”

“What?”

“All of this basalt glows with the power of the gods,” Danel said. “There is power embedded in this stone unlike any other material I’ve seen in the Library of Ibados.”

Rahim touched the stone wall with his fingers and shrugged. “I am already convinced that we are stepping into the true foundation of the Library of Ibados. I cannot prove it, but all the evidence points to only one conclusion.”

“Then we’re near our goal,” Janner said. “I’ve confronted mystery from the bottom of a wine cup, stared death in the face, and purified my body. If you ask me, I’ve taken all the steps to prepare for battle against an unknown enemy. Let’s forgo any more dallying and continue onward to the heart of the matter.”

“For a man of arms, he speaks well,” Danel said. “These stairs continue downward without a landing. The walls are plain, and I see no monsters or divine guardians blocking our way. Onward, indeed.”

Fifty-eight steps later they reached a plain door, overly large with a simple latch. “No more games,” Rahim said.

They pushed through the door, stepping into an anteroom made of stone. On both sides were benches and next to the benches were shelves where one would lay a bag or a pair of shoes. The doorway on the other side was a mass of green foliage.

The men shrugged off their packs, taking the opportunity to stretch their muscles and work the knots out of their backs and shoulders. Janner took his pike and probed the vines that covered the next doorway. As Danel watched Janner poke and swing his weapon, he began to hear insects and then chirping birds. He had to remind himself that he was near the bottom of a huge pile of rock. Looking up at the ceiling of the overhang, he saw the nearly transparent press of a guild seal in the corner and its presence took him aback momentarily.

“All these vines are just in the way,” Janner concluded. “We can shove them aside and continue.”

“Except for the fact it sounds and looks like a jungle out there,” Danel said with a hint of exasperation. “We’re in the bottom of a hole. What is this?”

“Another miracle of the gods,” Rahim answered. “Nothing more and nothing less. I’m sure this place has a purpose just like all the other rooms we have seen.”

“Whose purpose we still cannot grasp,” Janner added. “Well, Librarian?”

Without another word, Danel pressed his way through the hanging vines. The bright light from above hurt his eyes as he held his spread hand in front of his face to shield himself. He sought out the sun that must surely be above and found only a ubiquitous glare across the whole of the sky. Closing his eyes, he listened intently. There were bird calls and rustlings of leaf litter nearby. A deep breath of heady scents caused him to sneeze.

“A miracle to be sure,” Rahim said. “How can such a place exist and yet be entirely unknown to the rest of the Library of Ibados?”

Janner held his pike forward as he scanned the treetops. “Because this jungle forest is not for the rest of people of the Library of Ibados, my mystic comrade. We’re the interlopers, the invaders, here. I’ve heard of wild places like this, but I’ve never traveled far enough to encounter them.”

“Yes,” Danel said. “The Tyrannean Empire writes widely about taking their ships past the equator to these lands, which are rich in resources. They write of great beasts with ivory tusks, fanged cats with remarkable coats, minerals, hard woods, and even slaves. Their missives speak of strange fruits and delicious grains found nowhere else. They also mention fierce warrior tribes and cannibals.”

“Cannibals, phsst,” Rahim countered. “If these inhabitants here degenerated into cannibalism, then we’ll only find ruins. Besides, they didn’t eat Bustami.”

“He was a Librarian,” Danel said. “Spoiled, tough as shoe leather and saturated with suet, meat.”

“If you boil any meat long enough, it becomes edible if tasteless,” Janner said, receiving a sharp look from Danel. “Just saying.”

“Find us a path, Janner,” Danel ordered. “I don’t see walls or a ceiling to guide us.”

“What the hell was that?” Rahim pointed at the canopy.

“What did it look like?”

“Small hairy head, hairy arms, and a tail,” Rahim said. “Small.”

“By the gods, do you see that bird with the plumage?” Danel said, pointing in another direction. Where he was pointing, the bird flew across the landscape in front of them, disappearing into the laden canopy to their left. Danel looked back and witnessed other birds emerge on nearby branches. Twittering and launching themselves back into the interior. A tree with great weeping fronds shook violently as a hairy creature leapt onto its trunk high up. There was a crack and a brown roundish blob detached itself from just under the fronds and fell to the ground. They all heard the thunk when the object hit the ground. When Danel remembered to look for the creature on the tree trunk, it was gone.

A rustling nearby made Danel jump, but he could see anything. “I think we are in an arboretum like the Garden of the Gods upstairs, only more so. Never have I witnessed such a sight of wildness, of fauna and flora, as if an entire chunk of land was scooped up and planted where we stand.”

“To what purpose, Librarian? Surely, such a grand display has a purpose?”

“Food, sustenance, well being?” Danel replied. “Whoever partakes of these lands must find solace and comfort here. I, for one, find it strange and alien. However, if this is a piece of the land of the Talurie, then we have a fix from whence they came.”