Call of Kuyr

by J C Gilbert

  "People just need to look with their eyes," said Dad with the sigh of a long-suffering man.

  Mum looked up from her iPhone, frowned, and then returned to her very important farm game.

  On the news were scenes from the mall in Albany. This was not far from where we lived, and my attention was immediately piqued.

  "Investigations are underway, but five hours after the incident, we are still no closer to understanding what actually happened here. I'm Carol Hardwater, Three News."

  "What happened?" I asked, wondering if this is what Darcy was referring to.

  "It was just a small tornado," said Dad, "and they are making this big fuss."

  "A tornado? In Albany? I thought it was too hilly?"

  "Cyclone, then. Whatever. The point is, it was just weather."

  "O...K..."

  "People see animals in the clouds all the time. It's nonsense what they are saying."

  "What are they saying?"

  "I don't know. Something about," he paused for a moment, trying to find the words, "I don't know. Whatever happened to common sense?"

  The newscast was ended now, and the TV had turned to reruns of that crime scene drama. You know the one. With the crimes and the investigations. There is only one, right?

  With my faith newly bolstered in the power of the internet, I returned to my room and opened up my laptop.

  My phone rang again.

  "Did you see it?" asked Darcy on the other end.

  "Something happened in Albany? I missed the first half."

  "Just search up Albany on Google. You should see it."

  In a short space, I was watching an unsteady video of what initially did seem to be a cyclone or a tornado or something. But as I watched, the clouds began to change and shift. Then I noticed the shape.

  "A rhinoceros?"

  "Yeap."

  I watched as lightning crackled over the surface of its cloudy skin, its eyes alight and furious. Bits of the mall were flying through the air, and people all around were running or standing and watching. Just in front of the person filming the video was an old man who was sipping on his coffee and watching the scene as if it were a movie. People are strange.

  "What does this mean?" I asked.

  "I have absolutely no idea," said Darcy, "but it doesn't seem good, does it. It's like I said, Alex. Our world was just as impacted by the storm in the Library as any other world. I know that every world needs the Library's help, I get that, but this is our world, and I rather like it. I have not spent all these years working my arse off to see it torn apart by, by-"

  "Clouds?"

  "What?"

  "Never mind."

  "I need you to take me to The Library when I get back. I need to know what we are dealing with."

  "Get back?"

  "I'm out of town," he said. It sounded like it was through gritted teeth. "I should never have left." No matter what happened in this world, or any other world, Darcy seemed to find a way of blaming himself for things.

  "OK, sure," I said. I had started scrolling through the comments on the video. It was amazing how many people insisted that what they were looking at was just a trick of the light. As unbelievable as it was, the videos had clearly captured the stampeding of a giant rhino made of storms. I guess some people see with their beliefs and not their eyes.

  "K, bye," said Darcy, and hung up.

  ***

  I must have spent another hour rewatching all the available videos. The rhino was frankly terrifying. Its eyes were especially striking. It was like that burst of white light which came with lightning had been concentrated into two unreal spheres.

  But it didn't matter how many times I watched it, I was no closer to understanding what it was that I was looking at. All the latest news reports stated that things had calmed down in Albany and that the weather was returning to what was expected of spring in the region. I decided against going to see the Librarian about it. After all, I needed the rest and was starting to think that things were feeling harder than they needed to be because of a lack of sleep.

  I pulled myself away from my laptop and climbed into bed. Sleep took me almost instantly.

  There was a thud.

  I sat up, confused. I fumbled for my phone to look at the time. It was still only 4 am. I quickly deed some sleep math to discover that I had once more been cheated out of my full eight hours.

  There was another thud, and I looked about. It seemed to be coming from my window. Reluctantly, I extracted myself from my bliss of blankets and pulled aside the curtain.

  I almost fell over backward with surprise. It was Darcy brooding at my window.

  "What are you doing here?" I whispered. Then remembering that he couldn't possibly hear me through the window, I unhooked the latch and opened it up.

  "Sorry," he said as he climbed in. The chill morning air bit at my joints.

  "What are you doing here?" I repeated. I was starting to get used to the fact that I was conscious and that this was not going to be an ordinary morning.

  "Sorry, I was going to wait but," he hesitated, "but I'm worried. Can you take me to The Library?"

  "Its four in the morning, Darcy," I said, as if reasserting the time might make the sleep come back.

  He gave me a look as if to say 'aren't we already past that?'

  "Fine," I said. Just give me a second to dress.

  He nodded sternly. Then remembering himself, he turned to face the wall.

  Soon Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was open, and I was reading the first line. Once we had landed in The Library, I heard the blissful sound of a kettle boiling, and then a soft click. The Library always knew when tea was needed. It was one of its most important functions.

  "I don't have time for tea," said Darcy, as I looked about for where The Library had set breakfast.

  "That's great," I said, still in a half whisper, "you can reflect on that while I have mine."

  "Alex," he said levelly. He had this annoying tendency to say things to people as if they were commands.

  "Darcy," I said in the same tone.

  "Fine," he spat, "I'll have a freaking tea."

  "Sounds like you need it," said the Librarian. She was walking towards us, knuckles to the ground. No matter how many times I saw the Librarian, I never got used to just how large she was, nor how pronounced her biceps were.

  "Good, we need to talk to you," said Darcy.

  "I think we are all going to need a lot of tea before this day is through," said The Librarian, gravely. She seemed even more fretful than usual.

  The Librarian handed me a book. "I don't know what to do, Alex. Its started happening. I never thought it would, but it has."

  "What has?" asked Darcy.

  "The worlds are destabilizing. Look," she held up a book. It was seared with scorch marks, like many of the tainted books, but this one was especially bad.

  I took up the book and examined it. It was so scarred that I couldn't read the cover.

  "Things are not going so well in our world either -" started Darcy.

  "When you say destabilizing, what do you mean?" I asked.

  The Librarian smushed her face with one enormous hand. "I don't rightly know, lass. It's never happened before. One thing is for sure, though. People are dying, Alex. Soon, the world in that book will be gone, and I don't even know if we can do anything to stop it.

  A jolt of urgency scored through me. I opened the book to read.

  "What are you doing?" demanded Darcy.

  "We have to do something," I said.

  "Like get destroyed alongside the world? I don't think that's a good idea."

  "I'm not interested, Darcy," I spat, and started reading.

  The days are growing shorter now, and I sense my time is near...

  "Please be careful," I heard the Librarian say as I fell into the pages.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The sky was dark. I was standing on the top of a tall building at the corner of a city block. The rest of the
city was in ruins. Darcy must have grabbed my shoulder as I fell because he was now standing next to me. A bitter wind swept about us.

  "Come on!" said Darcy, pulling me towards a door leading inside.

  It was darker still inside the building. Everything seemed to have been abandoned, though not without some commotion. We swiftly made our way down the apartment building's stairs and into the main lobby. The whole time I was terrified that sooner or later we would come upon a dead body. I couldn't take that. The windows leading out to the street were all smashed in.

  "What could have done this?" I asked, half to myself.

  "A stampede of rhinos, perhaps?"

  "You don't know that."

  Darcy shrugged.

  There was a shout out on the street. Darcy and I exchanged looks and moved towards the window.

  There were gunshots as a group of armed men chased down another swiftly moving man in a long gray trench coat. He ducked behind some rubble, fired a few shots, and then ran on. Once the men had passed, we stepped out of the building. Darcy pulled me back.

  There, right where I was going to step, was what I could only describe as a tear in the universe. Beyond it there seemed to be, I'm not even sure, stars maybe? It was like there was a gap in reality.

  "Too close," I said.

  "This place is falling apart, Alex, we need to go," said Darcy.

  Just then an old man stepped out of the rubble and came towards us. He raised a weathered finger and pointed to us, scowling with the most horrible scowl. "You did this!" he said, seemingly to Darcy, "you have destroyed my home, my family! Murderers. This is genocide, this is worse than genocide."

  "No," I said.

  "Go back to where you came from!" said the man.

  "There he is!" called a voice. The armed men had come back. They fired a shot.

  "Come on," said Darcy. We darted inside, avoiding the gap in reality. It widened again.

  Thunder clapped, and my gaze was pulled upward. Another crack was being torn into reality, but this one much much more substantial. It seemed to be spread across the whole sky.

  "This is not good," said Darcy.

  I was frozen, watching.

  "Alex, we have to go!" he shouted.

  From the deep black depths of whatever was beyond, I saw something move and spiral. I couldn't quite tell what it was, but it seemed massive and white. Then it became apparent that what I was looking at was a gigantic snake. It was impossibly large and seemed to be floating through the air as if it were just water. Its skin was pearly white, and as it glided down into this world, it became slightly translucent.

  "It's back!" yelled one of the men. The three of them trained their weapons on the thing and fired. Lazer fire rocketed towards the manifestation but went right through it.

  "Its come for me!" said the old man. He dropped to his knees and spread his arms wide. The snake did seem to be moving towards the old man, spiraling and shifting, opening its massive jaws to strike.

  The three men lowered their weapons and took a step back. "This place is done," said one of them. He took a device from his coat pocket, pressed a few keys, and then pointed it a few feet off the ground. A beam of light flared forth from the device, and another rift opened up. "Go, go, go!" said the man as the other two jumped into the rift.

  The snake was almost on the old man now.

  "Alex!" yelled Darcy over the wind.

  With his comrades gone, the last man jumped through the rift. It closed behind him with a pop. At that moment the snake collided with the old man. It seemed to pass through him as if it were not really there and disappeared into the street. It emerged from the ruined street and curled away down a shadowy ally. There were more screams in the distance.

  The old man had vanished.

  CHAPTER TEN

  With the snake gone, I regained awareness of myself. I pulled out the charred book and darted inside after Darcy. He was not pleased with me at all. Things like that were what got you killed.

  I opened the book, and we feel through space and time and back to the quiet of The Library. When we landed, I collapsed to the ground, trying to comprehend what I had just seen. The book in my hands was crackling now. A small spark of electricity stung my wrist. I cast the book aside and screamed in pain.

  "Librarian!" called Darcy. There was the sound of the thudding of a gorilla at full speed.

  "What is it, what happened?"

  White hot pain coursed through the place where the lightning landed. I could hear my cries of agony as if from some distance.

  "The book, I think. I think that world is gone," said Darcy, "she was shocked by the book as we left."

  "Shocked?" asked the Librarian, worry plastered over her face.

  "It was like the lightening of the storm."

  "Let me see," said the Librarian, taking my arm. I withdrew my hand from the source of the pain. There was a black mark which forked about like lightning.

  "Is it alright? Is she going to be OK?" asked Darcy.

  The last thing I remember before I passed out was the look of sorrow on the Librarian's eyes.

  ***

  When I came to we were still in The Library. I was lying back on a couch by the fireplace. The Librarian was reading something in an oversized armchair. Darcy was pacing backward and forwards.

  I groaned.

  As one, they rushed to my side. The pain was still there, but it was duller. "The book?"

  "It's gone," said Darcy, "don't worry."

  "Is everything OK?" I asked.

  "I'm afraid that we have lost a world, dear Keeper."

  "All those people..."

  "Yes. All gone. Oh, and it's worse than that Alex, the other books are starting to degrade at a faster rate. I know you are not well, but you need to know. I have been reading ahead in The Book of Martin, and there is talk about a prophecy and the end times.

  "The end times?" asked Darcy.

  "Yes, never a good sign when they start talking about the end times. It is said that a winged god will emerge to bring balance."

  "And that ends the world?" asked Darcy.

  "Well, I really think balance is a relative thing. When the universe is dead, and all atoms cease to dance, there will be balance then too."

  "Winged?" I asked, my voice weak

  "Apparently, though that could mean anything really."

  "No, I think we may have seen him yesterday. There was this man with a gun and enormous black wings."

  "And they weren't for show?" asked the Librarian.

  "If they were, then they were very convincing. The man could fly."

  "This is all very interesting," interrupted Darcy, "but we have problems of our own. A beast of huge proportions appeared within walking distance of where your Keeper and her family reside. We need to act now."

  "What about the snake?" I asked.

  "Snake?" the Librarian raised one eyebrow and looked at Darcy.

  "I didn't want to alarm her," said Darcy defensively.

  "We saw it eat a world. Darcy. I think that's kind of important!"

  "We don't know that!"

  "Oh no," said the Librarian, "what you describe is Aeoran, the World Snake. I'll need to do some more reading. In the meantime, you must prioritize The Book of Martin."

  "OK," I said, nodding.

  "I don't believe this," spat Darcy.

  "I told you before, your world will hold up to much more chaotic stress than most others. It is not our priority," said the Librarian.

  "It is my priority," said Darcy. He seemed to come to a decision. "Well if you are unwilling or unable to help then I will do it myself."

  "Lilly and I -"

  "You will be fine," said Darcy. "But I do need information. I need permissions to research in the Upper Vault."

  "How do you know about that?" said the Librarian steadily.

  "People know things," said Darcy.

  "Well, they shouldn't!" said the Librarian.

  "What is he talking about?" I a
sked.

  "The Upper Vault, my dear. Its where I do my reading. It holds... particular books."

  "And I need in," said Darcy.

  "This is very unorthodox. It does not do well to allow people free reign over library secrets."

  "What about Mr. O'Connor?" I asked.

  "From the antiques store?" asked Darcy

  "An excellent point, Alex. Where is he these days? Because I sure haven't seen him."

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "He wandered off, didn't he? This library is huge Alex. Huge. It only takes one miss step or change in The Library's layout, and you will never be seen again."

  "I used to go to his store all the time with my dad and sister," said Darcy.

  "I've never had any trouble."

  "You are the Keeper, Miss Reed. Of course, you haven't had trouble."

  "Are you saying he knows about The Library?" asked Darcy.

  We both turned to Darcy and said "yes!" in unison.

  "I always hated him," said Darcy.

  "If I can't find out what's going on in my world, then Darcy needs that access, Librarian."

  "It's very unorthodox," said the Librarian, stroking her chin.

  "You already said that," I said.

  "Alright. But you need to work on solving The Book of Martin. I was reading ahead in The Seas of Baast. You will be needed there before long."

  "Can I just think of one book at a time, please?" I was getting frustrated.

  "There is talk of strange things moving in the shadows," said the Librarian.

  "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

  "I don't know. Check the shadows?" asked the Librarian, exasperated.

  "Right now, I'm going to get back to my room. I'm going to have a shower, and I'm going to go to school!" I shouted.

  There was silence for a moment but for the ticking clock. I wondered vaguely when it was that I started shouting at people.

  "I guess this is goodbye," said Darcy.

  "Why?" I asked.

  "I mean, I'll head to the Upper Vault," he said.