The Last Garden

by J C Gilbert

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  THE SECRET LIBRARY: The Last Garden

  Copyright © 2019 Jonathan Gilbert

  All rights reserved.

  Published by Tardigrade House 2019

  Auckland, New Zealand

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

  Cover Design by saraoliverdesign.com

  Woman in Black Dress© faestock/Shutterstock.com

  The Secret Library: The Last Garden

  J. C. Gilbert

  Book 4

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  CHAPTER ONE

  I took in my surroundings. I had never before seen so much green in all of my life, and this was not the green of the wild places. I had seen many wild places since coming in possession of the portal to The Library at the center of the universe. This was the green of a well-tended garden, and it went on and on for miles and miles, as far as my eyes could see.

  I turned over the book in my hand. There was no writing on the front or the back or the spine, and I knew that if I opened it up and tried to read its contents, then I would be sent back to The Library with no more information than I currently had. There was nothing to say where I was or why I was here. All that I had to guide me were the words that stuck in my mind, the words that took me to this place.

  Hello Alex, I have been waiting for you.

  I tucked the book into my side bag and started to walk. It was late afternoon and the season seemed to be late spring or early summer. The air was heavy and carried with it the soft perfume of dozens of different flowers.

  I walked on a path made of gravel and stone slabs. Someone had tended to this path recently it seemed, as no weeds grew among the stones. But there didn’t seem to be anyone around to do the work. The whole place reminded me of the idea of a garden, more so than an ordinary garden might.

  In the distance, I could make out a high hedge beyond which all the world was hidden. Supposing that if there was anyone here, then they must be passed that point, I headed in that direction. I don’t know if it was the place, the afternoon walk, or the perfumes on the breeze, but I felt like I was in some kind of dream, like any moment I might be roused and find myself in my bed.

  Maybe that’s what this was? Maybe I had stumbled into a dream? My mind wandering to The Library that I spent so much of my waking life in? If that were the case, then it was the most realistic dream I had ever had.

  I wandered on. There were trees in the garden; tall pines and grand oaks. Again I marveled at the way they seemed to be the idea of an oak or pine more than an actual oak or pine. They were so symmetrical and so much more larger-than-life than any ordinary trees. I kept to my path and headed toward the high hedge, resisting the urge to approach a particularly gnarled and mangled tree which stirred my curiosity in that way that broken things always did.

  At length, I reached the high hedge and walked through the arch. To my surprise, the world did not open up on the other side as I had expected, but instead, the path continued with the high hedge rising up on either side.

  “Is this a maze?” I asked myself. Soon I discovered that that was precisely what it was. I reached a fork in the road where two paths, identical as far as I could tell, marched off in either direction. I was about to turn back to see if I could find another way around this maze, when I caught the hint of a song on the air. I did not recognize the tune or the words but was overcome by an intense sense of nostalgia. It was as if the song rightfully belonged to a place in my distant past.

  Though the path led either left or right, the song seemed to be coming from straight ahead. I shrugged. “If there is no indication either way, then I don’t suppose that it matters which direction I go,” I said to myself.

  After hesitating for a moment, I chose to go left on the principle that I always tended to go right when I had no preference either way and in this place, I shouldn’t be so quick to be predictable. I know that doesn’t make sense, and I’m satisfied with that. I followed the path this way and that, doing my best to choose the direction which most seemed to lead me toward the lilting song.

  At times I thought I had lost the song as the singer ended one verse and began another, or when the wind changed direction ever so slightly, or when all my senses were overcome with the sounds of bees and birds. My legs began to grow tired, and when I came to a part of the maze where it opened up into a small garden, I was relieved to see a bench where I could sit for a while.

  Though I was lost, I was perfectly content. Of all the places I had ever visited in all the multiverse, this was the place that I most felt peace. I laughed at myself as I realized that part of me didn’t mind if I wandered in this maze forever. It was an absurd thought, but it was as true as many other thoughts that I have had.

  I had not been resting long when some rustling noise drew my notice. As I was half dosing in my seat, I did not at first pay much attention. But then my thoughts wandered to the fact that I had not seen anything at all in the garden that could make as much noise as that rustle. Though there were many birds, there were none of them that were large enough.

  Curiosity stole me, and I got to my feet and walked towards the source of the rustling. This garden within the maze had a square layout with a pathway that tracked around its edge. Half hedges lined the inside corners of the garden, behind which were many flowers of different kinds. The rustling was coming from one of these corner hedges.

  As I moved closer, the rustling stopped. Realizing that I might
have startled whatever creature it was, I stopped too.

  “Hello there,” I said softly. You never know which creatures can talk when you are wondering the strange places of The Library’s collected works.

  There was no answer.

  I took another step forward and quite suddenly a shape darted out from under the hedge and scarpered for another hedge. It was moving so fast that I only had time to catch a glimpse of it, but I couldn’t doubt what I saw. My heart skipped a beat in my chest, and my mouth was dry.

  “Hank?” I asked. I shook my head, it was definitely a hedgehog, and a hedgehog of unusual size, but I had never seen a hedgehog move so fast, and I just got this funny feeling, this feeling of importance, you know?

  I was at a loss as to what to do. I didn’t want to frighten the poor creature or force it to meet me if it didn’t want to.

  “Sorry to disturb you,” I said. “You do your thing, Hank. I’m going to keep wandering through this maze and see where that singing is coming from.” I started again along the path.

  The sun was sinking now, and the light was changing. There was a soft chill in the air, and the birdsong grew so loud that it threatened to completely drown out that mysterious tune that was pulling me on. The sweet scent of the flowers grew even more intense as the light failed. After a time, I rested beside a river that ran under a willow tree, and watched the edges of the willow’s branches dance in the current. The river flowed out from under one of the great hedges, crossed the garden, and then flowed underneath another. There was a small bridge which allowed for crossing the stream and continuing the maze.

  I took out the lilac book from my bag and held it, wondering if it was time I went back to The Library. After all, I didn’t know if this place was up wind or down wind, or in some other sort of orientation which the Librarian had forgotten to tell me about. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally spend years in this mystical little book.

  My stomach churned at this thought.

  But there was something about this place which gave me the idea that I wasn’t just downwind, I was very downwind.

  “Five more minutes,” I said to myself. I smiled, realizing that I sounded just like my mom when I said it. After I crossed over the bridge and through into the next area, I was immediately pleased with my decision to go on. Just down the path, the maze opened up again into another garden. This garden was filled with tumbling overgrowth. Everything was vine and thorn, and I was almost overwhelmed with the intoxicating scent of jasmine. This had always been my favorite flower ever since I first picked a sprig of jasmine in the fairy forest when I was only five or six.

  On the far side of the garden, there was a tall archway which was itself utterly overgrown with the flowering vine. I was not close, but I could see through the archway that someone was there. They were pacing backward and forward before a grove of pear trees. I got the sudden urge to leave, to open up my book, to read the first line, to disappear back to the safety of The Library.

  It could be anyone in there. But it wasn’t just anyone that I was afraid of seeing. I felt myself moving forward, taking a step, then taking another. Soon I was right up against the arch with my hand resting gently against the leaves. I gazed, eyes transfixed upon the person pacing before the pear grove.

  I would recognize her anywhere.

  She stopped pacing and stopped her song. Looking up, she met my gaze. “Alex? Is it really you?” asked Elaine.

  CHAPTER TWO

  There could be no doubt. The girl standing before me was Elaine, the same Elaine that I had seen in my dreams, the same Elaine that I’d seen in my nightmares. I turned to go.

  “Alex, wait! Hear me out,” cried Elaine following after.

  My heart was racing fast in my chest. I was not afraid of this Elaine, at least I was not afraid that she would hurt me physically. I don’t know why, but that fear was not in me. But I did want to escape from that place. It was the idea of talking to Elaine which terrified me. I stepped fast away, rushing through the overgrown garden, and passing through to the place with the river and the willow tree. I paused when I reached the crest of the bridge and turned. Elaine was not far behind me.

  “Alex, I don’t know what you might think of me. But please, I’m sorry. I know that there is nothing that I can do to make amends for everything.”

  “Why are you acting like this?” I asked. “Last time I saw you, you were literally clawing at me, screaming at me.”

  “That wasn’t me!” said Elaine. “No, that’s not right either.”

  “You’re not making any sense right now, and I really think I should go. I know about the Ular sect and about your plans to create something big and destructive. Can you deny that?”

  “Yes. No. It’s complicated. That thing you saw that looks like me? Well, it was me, but only a part of me.”

  “Your evil twin?” I asked, noticing only after the words escaped my lips that my tone was mocking.

  “No, I’m still the evil twin. When I stepped into The Library’s Heart, into the void of creation, I was angry and hurt. It has always been a struggle for me to do the right thing. You have no idea how much I have wished, prayed that I could just be a good person. You take it for granted, Alex. Your motives are always pure. I envy that.”

  “People always have a choice,” I said.

  “Yes, that’s true, and sometimes a choice is distorted, clouded, messed up. I get confused, I get a rush. When I am angry, I am no longer weak, I no longer feel sad, I no longer feel alone. There is just me, anger, and power. It’s addictive.”

  “So what? This is a good day?”

  Elaine shook her head. “When I stepped into the void of creation, I stepped out into a realm so incomprehensible that I won’t even try to describe it. It was a place where my thoughts were real. I could see them passing in front of me, swirling around me. They taunted me, tormented me, every horrible thing that anyone ever said to me, I was now saying those things to myself.

  “Then something happened. I spent many, many years trying to figure out exactly what that was. I think I simply shut down. I decided that I would just delete the darkness from me; push it out of me. And out of me, she stepped. She looked at me with that smile which I had used so often on so many others, that smile of triumph. She cast me into this place and disappeared off into the multiverse.”

  “You split into two?”

  “Not exactly. We are still connected. That part of me is still a part of me. But it has taken control of everything, and I’m stuck here. From this place, the last garden, I have watched as Vicious has sacked and burned and destroyed. She has torn whole realities asunder, letting their essence bleed into the darkness of nothingness. It has taken all of my strength to prevent countless worlds from succumbing and falling into chaos. I do what I can, but as Vicious has grown stronger, I have remained the same.”

  “You’ve been using your powers to stop the chaos?”

  “Yes, but there’s only so much I can do from here. Unlike Vicious, I have no ability to go from world to world. I think she did that at first with the pure strength of her malice. But she has since then found or created technologies or magic to do the job for her. From time to time, I get glimpses of her plans, echoes of her dreams or thoughts, but these phantoms are haunting, and I do my best to put them from a mind.”

  “You called me here? I felt the pull of the book.”

  “That was not me, Alex. If I knew how to get your attention, I would have done so centuries ago.”

  “You have been here for centuries?”

  “Yes, though it has not been so long to you, I think. I have tried to help you, tried to contact you when I could. But it is hard to divide my attention between focusing on the chaotic worlds and tracking your movements. But now it seems I am coming to the edge of my ability to make any meaningful difference. Vicious is just too strong. If I don’t do something different, then The Library will break, along with all of the stories and all the
souls. I can’t let that happen. This is my fault, and I must fix this.”

  “It sounds like you are doing your best,” I said, still unsure about whether or not to trust this apparition.

  “There is one more thing I can do, but I will need your help.”

  “Yeah? Somehow I thought that this was where you were going.”

  “My sister, the previous Keeper, I have been unable to restore her to her human form. The distance is just too vast between us. I know my sister, I know her strength, she may not have the same power as Vicious, but she has as strong a heart as anyone I know, and if we are to defeat the sorceress then we’re going to need her help.”

  “What do you need me to do?”

  “I know it’s a big ask, but I’m going to need you to trust me. I need you to take me into The Library and take me back to my own world. I need to return to Avonheim.”

  My jaw grew tight, and I looked away and back down towards the willow tree. It was creeping up on twilight now, and faint stars were beginning their long march across the sky.

  “It sounds like your heart is in the right place,” I said, “but there is absolutely no way I can allow you back into The Library. I am sorry.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  I sat for a time with the lilac book in my lap. I felt that I had been unfair to Elaine. But what was I supposed to do? Last time I saw her, she tried to kill me, my friends, and hundreds of other people. Even if what Elaine said was true and she was separated from her dark side, from Vicious, how could I be sure that in helping Elaine I wouldn’t inadvertently be helping Vicious?

  But still, regret weighed heavy on me. I tapped the book on my leg, wondering what to do next. If I did allow her into The Library and something went wrong, then what would the Librarian say? What about Darcy and Lilly? I would be putting everyone in danger. If I tried to do this alone, and keep her request and location a secret, there would be no one by my side to help me if something went wrong. I could be lost, and the whole multiverse could come to a screeching and terrible close.