The Dragon in the Library

by Louie Stowell

With a start, Kit woke up. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep. She felt dazed and fuzzy around the edges. And she wasn’t in the same garden that she’d fallen asleep in.

  Her heart was thumping. What if she got stuck here? What had Faith said about spending too long in one place? She couldn’t think. Her mind felt like mud. What was the spell? The spell to get back to the library.

  “House”? Is that what Faith said? No, it wasn’t quite “house” … but it sounded like it. And how had she moved her hands when she did the spell?

  Now it came to it, Kit didn’t feel entirely confident that she remembered. But she had to try. She said the spell and waved her hands, like Faith had done.

  A bit like Faith had done anyway.

  “HOUZZ!” she cried.

  Nothing happened.

  “HAUS?”

  There was a rustling sound from in between the trees. Something was coming.

  Kit backed up a few paces, across the smooth green lawn.

  Something was coming through the trees. Something on stompy feet. Something large.

  The rustling became a crashing. Then a huge creature lurched out from between the trees.

  No, it wasn’t a creature. It was a house. A house on legs. Giant chicken legs, in fact.

  The house was coming straight for her. Kit began to run, but she tripped. The house was almost on her.

  “Stop right there!” came a voice. “BAD house! You’re not meant to be here!”

  The house on legs stopped still. Kit looked up from the ground to see Faith standing there, pointing at the house. Her eyes glinted with fury.

  The house made a whimpering sound and its chicken legs sagged at the knees.

  “This isn’t even your section. Go back to fairytales, immediately!” Faith criss-crossed the air with both hands. “Reverso!”

  The house disappeared with a loud POP!

  Faith turned to Kit with an expression that was only slightly less stern than the one she’d turned on the house. “Now. Let’s get you back. And then we can have a talk,” said Faith. “Hus!”

  Ah, that was what the spell was, thought Kit.

  They were back in the library, in the scruffy back office. Faith was glaring at Kit. Josh and Alita were staring at her accusingly.

  “You’ve been gone AGES! I can’t believe you sneaked into the book without us!” said Josh.

  “He means he can’t believe you sneaked into the book when you’re supposed to be shelving,” corrected Alita.

  “You didn’t tell me NOT to go into the book though,” said Kit.

  “I didn’t think I had to,” said Faith. “I also didn’t tell you not to juggle with piranhas. And, you’ll notice, I didn’t think it was necessary to warn you not to jump off a mountain without a parachute. I had you down as someone who could work out things like that for yourself.”

  “Sorry,” said Kit.

  Faith shrugged. “Well. You were nearly trampled by Baba Yaga’s house, so hopefully I won’t have to tell you not to do it again.”

  “Baba Who?” Kit’s heart was still racing. She reminded herself she was safe in the library now. Her head was starting to clear. She took a deep breath of dusty, reassuring air.

  “Baba Yaga is a fairytale witch who has a house on chicken legs,” said Josh. He gave a sniff. “Everyone knows that.”

  “Do you have to be such a know-it-all?” asked Kit.

  “I’m not a know-it-all,” objected Josh. “I just know it all. There’s a difference.”

  Faith was looking at her curiously. “How DID you manage to summon the house?”

  Kit shrugged, feeling embarrassed. She knew she shouldn’t have done it. She didn’t even really know how she’d done it. “I … thought I did the spell you did to leave the book last time.”

  “You clearly didn’t. Or you wouldn’t have been chased by a house on chicken legs that belongs in a fairytale,” said Faith.

  Kit couldn’t meet Faith’s gaze. “I … suppose I did it wrong?”

  “And then some,” said Faith. She snorted. “Doing spells inside a portal book, when you don’t know what you’re doing, is VERY dangerous. I suppose I have to punish you now, so you know not to do something so stupid and dangerous again. I can’t say I’ve ever had to deal with a misbehaving child wizard before, so I don’t know how hard to be on you.” She tilted her head and looked Kit up and down, weighing her up.

  “You could punish me by making me do really hard spells! Some fireballs, maybe? I’d really hate that!” suggested Kit.

  Faith let out a loud laugh. “I’m a wise and cunning wizard. What part of that makes you think I’ll punish you by making you do exactly what you want?”

  Kit blushed. “Er … I thought wizards were kind of…” She made a wibbly-wobbly gesture by her head to demonstrate being off with the fairies.

  “Listen,” said Faith. “I don’t live in a tower in the middle of a forest. I live in a flat above the library. Not all wizards have long white beards and no clue about the real world, you know.”

  Unfortunately for Faith, just at that moment an old man with a white beard walked past muttering to himself. “Pixies … must remember to feed the pixies…”

  The children looked at Faith. Faith rolled her eyes.

  “OK, but we’re not all like him,” said Faith. “That’s Greg, the Assistant Librarian. He’s mostly retired but he still comes in to help out from time to time.” She nodded over towards the children’s section of the library. “Come on. I’ll think of a suitable punishment later. It’s time for Storytime.” She pointed to Kit. “You can do the reading.”

  “Oh,” said Kit, with terror in her heart. “I—”

  “I think you’ve found the right punishment,” said Alita. “Kit hates reading out loud.”

  “Especially in front of people,” added Josh. “Wow. Those kids look very impatient.” He pointed. A knot of small children were sitting on the floor in a corner of the children’s section, looking restless and eager.”

  Reading out loud was truly Kit’s nightmare. Worse than being attacked by spiders (that was just tickly) and worse than finding out your lunch had mould on it (you can always eat round mould). Worse than swimming with sharks when you have a cut on your foot and a sign round your neck saying “Tastes just like seal!”

  “You mean I have to read … to all those children?” asked Kit. Her eyes were wide. “So … many of them. All … looking at me?”

  Faith put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Alita, would you like to pick a story for Kit to read?”

  Alita scuttled off excitedly and returned with a book about a princess riding on a unicorn into battle against goblins. She handed it to Kit.

  Kit opened it, glancing fearfully at the pages. At least there were plenty of pictures and not too many long words.

  “Are unicorns real?” she heard Alita ask.

  Faith nodded. “Yes. But whatever you do, don’t try to ride one. That never ends well. Grumpy creatures. Very pointy horns.”

  Faith strode to Kit’s side and beamed at the audience of waiting children, pushing her braids behind her shoulders with a flourish.

  “Hello, children! This is Kit. She’s going to read the story today. And she’s going to do ALL the voices.”

  The children beamed back at her.

  Kit’s stomach sank. Reading out loud was hard enough without having to work out what a unicorn’s voice was supposed to sound like.

  “Remember, children, no clapping at the end. This is a library.” Faith put her finger to her lips. All the children copied her.

  Kit hoped they wouldn’t riot when they realised how terrible she was at reading.

  The next fifteen minutes were horrible. Torture. Humiliation. A nightmare.

  Kit stumbled over words. The children looked bored. One of them kept calling out to complain she was doing the voices wrong. At one point Josh started to walk up to the front to take over, until Alita sat on him. “You’ve got to let her try!” Kit he
ard Alita hiss, which only made her stumble more.

  But eventually the torture was over. The children didn’t clap. And not because they were being good, quiet, obedient library-goers.

  “That was terrible,” groaned Kit. She handed the book back to Faith.

  Faith refused it. “You know how to shelve it, Kit. And that wasn’t terrible. You just need practice. No one starts off good at everything. You get good by doing.”

  “I’ve never got good at anything,” said Kit.

  “Have you TRIED at anything?” asked Faith.

  Kit didn’t have a reply to that, so she changed the subject.

  “What shall I do now?” she asked. She was getting hungry and tired. This was supposed to be the school holidays and she was supposed to be a wizard, but she’d spent the whole day shelving books and reading to children. Well, OK, she’d spent at least an hour doing those things. But she already felt like she’d run a marathon wearing metal boots while doing hard sums in her head.

  Faith took one look at her face and said, “I think it’s time for a break. Lemonade? Perhaps some ginger cake?”

  “Both, please!” said Josh.

  “Can we go and see Dogon?” asked Alita.

  “Of course. I think he’s been pining for you,” said Faith. “He’s started shedding scales from his chest – though that might be because he’s due for a moulting.”

  Alita’s eyes widened. “Wow! Like a snake? Let’s go and see him now before we miss it!”

  Faith smiled. “Of course. Come on, children.”

  “HELLO?” yelled a man’s voice. “SERVICE?”

  Kit jumped. In the library, everything was hushed and calm. But this man sounded as if he was shouting to be heard over the noise of a herd of elephants having a disco on a motorway.

  Kit turned to see a middle-aged man standing near the library desk, wearing a close-fitting suit and a bright-red tie with a diamond-stud tiepin. His black shoes were so highly polished, the sun seemed to glint off them.

  The man had a very pink face, a bushy moustache and a pile of dry, brown hair on his head that looked like a bird’s nest made out of wire wool. It looked like hair a robot might weave out of scratchy metal, if it had never seen real human hair but once read a book about it, in the dark.

  As Kit and the others approached the desk, the man scowled at them.

  “Took you long enough!” he spat. His puffy face was very, very pink, as though someone had mixed stomach medicine with candyfloss. The moustache sitting on his upper lip looked like a caterpillar crossed with a bath mat. Or possibly a caterpillar FIGHTING a bath mat. It twitched as he spoke.

  “How can I help you?” asked Faith in a low, quiet voice.

  “I’m Hadrian Salt!” he boomed. “I’m the CEO and president of Hadrian Salt Enterprises. You might have seen my building? It’s the largest and the most incredible building in town. Made entirely out of glass and gold.”

  “That’s nice,” said Faith. “Can I help you find a book?”

  Salt gave a snorting laugh, like a pig with a blocked nose. “A BOOK? Me? Oh no. Definitely not. I’m here for your signature.”

  “But she’s not famous,” said Josh.

  Salt threw back his head and laughed again. “Not that kind of signature, you silly child,” he said.

  “Don’t call Josh a silly child,” said Kit. “He’s read every book in the school library!”

  “I have!” said Josh.

  “Only weaklings read books themselves,” sniffed Salt. “I pay people to read FOR me.” He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and held them out to Faith. “I need your signature on this contract to acknowledge that I will be taking possession of this building. I’m buying the library. It’s all agreed with the council, but apparently I need your signature as a formality.” He shook the paper at her. “Sign here!” He grunted and shoved the pen at Faith again. “Sign! I haven’t got all day!”

  Faith didn’t take the pen. “What are you talking about? The library’s not for sale. I’m not signing anything. I think you should leave. You’re talking too loudly.” She gestured at the QUIET sign. “This is a library.”

  “Not for long,” brayed Salt. He gestured round at the books. “When Hadrian Salt Enterprises takes over, we’ll soon get rid of all this and replace it with something wonderful. A shopping centre, perhaps. Who needs libraries these days? We have the Internet!”

  “We need libraries,” said Alita.

  “And I hate shopping,” said Kit.

  “And anyway,” said Faith, “as I said, the library is not for sale. Please put away your pen.”

  “OH, REALLY?” said Salt. “That’s how you want to play it, do you? Well, I’m sure I can find a way around getting your signature. Details, details…”

  He glowered, his pink face turning gradually redder with fury. His moustache seemed to bristle.

  He wasn’t the only one getting angry. Kit wasn’t sure, but she thought Faith was starting to glow a little. Purple sparks crackled around her eyes.

  Salt didn’t seem to notice, or at least he didn’t care. He sniffed. “You’re just delaying what will happen anyway, you know?”

  The sparks around Faith’s eyes flashed more brightly.

  Salt started to back away.

  “Well. I’m an important businessman. I have important businessman things to do. I can’t waste my day chatting with children and librarians. But you haven’t heard the last of me. This quiet library… soon it will ROAR with the sound of commerce.”

  He backed away further. And faster. And soon he was scuttling out of the library doors.

  “What a horrible little man,” said Faith. The crackling light around her eyes began to fade but she still looked furious.

  “Can he do that?” asked Alita. “Buy the library?”

  Faith didn’t reply. She was looking gloomy. Her eyes had stopped sparkling completely now.

  “Children, I think you’ll have to come back tomorrow. I have … a lot to think about.”

  “What should we do?” asked Kit.

  But Faith had turned on her heel and stalked off towards the back of the library, heading for the stacks.

  “Well, she’s grumpy today,” said Josh. “She never even gave us lemonade. Or cake!”

  “She’s worried about the library,” said Alita. “Honestly, for a genius you can be quite dense, Josh.”

  Kit had a thought. “If that man buys the library and gets rid of all the books, does that mean I won’t have to do any more shelving?”

  Alita and Josh glared at her.

  “I’m not saying I think it would be GOOD if he bought the library and knocked it down, just … trying to look for an upside?”

  Alita and Josh turned round and started to walk away.

  “Wait for me!” said Kit. “I was just kidding. I love the books really! Even the ones with unicorns and long words! I promise I don’t want all the books to be taken away. Mostly…”

  The next morning Faith looked awful, Kit thought. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes were narrowed. Her usually bright, deep-brown skin had a greyish tinge, and there were dark circles beneath her eyes. She looked like someone who’d been up all night.

  Kit wanted to ask if she was OK but she didn’t want to sound rude. So as they walked through the stacks, past the book trees, she asked, “What shall we do?”

  “We could do a protest,” suggested Alita. “They did that for the other local library.”

  “But didn’t that close?” said Kit.

  “We could do it better,” said Josh.

  “Isn’t there something more we could do?” asked Kit. She was hoping maybe Faith could turn Salt into a frog.

  “What about the Wizards’ Council?” asked Josh. “Are they going to help?”

  Faith made an apologetic face. “No, they’re not. It’s not technically a magical threat, they said, so it’s not their business. They’ll just keep an eye on things to make sure they don’t get out of hand.”

&nb
sp; “But … but … don’t they care about all their magical books? And –” Kit gestured around at the book trees – “all this?”

  “They do. It’s just … complicated.”

  “It’s complicated”, Kit thought, is what grown-ups always say when they don’t want to do something.

  “The thing is,” Faith went on, “from their point of view, it’s not something they should meddle in. For now, it’s just an ordinary man, building a shopping centre. A very stupid, very annoying man. But still, he’s not an evil wizard, so it’s against the rules for them to fight him.”

  “Oh,” said Kit, swallowing.

  “They said if they got involved with every non-magical threat, they’d end up secretly running the whole world. And when wizards try to run the world, that never ends well,” said Faith.

  “Oooh, when did they try to run the world?” asked Josh, getting out his notebook.

  Faith gave him a look. “Wizard history lesson later, Josh. I’m a little tired.”

  Once they were settled into armchairs with glasses of ice-cold lemonade, Faith seemed to relax.

  “Can’t we tell Salt the truth?” suggested Kit. “That we’re wizards, and this is where we keep the magic books, and that we need the library?”

  Kit wanted to add, “Because I haven’t even trained properly yet, so it can’t all be over before it’s begun,” but that sounded too selfish.

  Faith was already shaking her head. “Magic is secret. I swore an oath.”

  “But there must be something we can do?” said Kit.

  Faith pinched the bridge of her nose. “I think it’s best if I deal with this. It’s all very complicated and delicate.”

  And I’m a great clumsy elephant who’ll only ruin it all, thought Kit gloomily.

  “Can we organise a protest at least?” she asked.

  “With banners,” added Josh. “I can write really straight letters!”

  “I can get all my family to help,” said Alita. “My mum knows EVERYONE around here. She could help spread the word.”

  Faith thought about this. “Of course, that’s fine. Just don’t try to talk to Salt. Leave that to me.” She gave a very strained smile. “Why don’t I teach you your first spell, Kit? Starting tomorrow. It will help you make your banners.”