'Ah, I've never seen so many damn books!' Maram murmured to me. 'Not even in the Great Library.'
We moved through two more of the twelve loggias on this tier. Then we came out upon a section of shelves, all of whose books bore the same title. Abrasax pulled one of them off its shelf, and he traced his finger along the golden characters etched into its blue cover. Then he said to us a single word: 'Skaadarak.'
'Do you mean, the Skardarak?' Master Juwain said to him, carefully pronouncing the name of the great doom at the end of time when the universe would fall into a final dark age.
'Perhaps,' Abrasax said. 'You see, we have been able to translate the book's title, but its contents remain unknown to us.'
He opened the book and flipped through its hundreds of fine crystal pages. They remained as blank as sheets of ice.
'But can't you just unlock it?' Maram called out.
'We cannot. We have tried, and we shall continue to try, but we have been able to discover keys for only a fraction of the vedastei.'
He went on to tell us that the Brothers had discovered word keys for perhaps three thousand of the vedastei, and most of these were located on the higher tiers.
'All these books,' he said as his hand swept along the shelf, 'are a mystery to us.'
He looked out over the stone railing down into the glowing pit that made up the rest of the library. 'The books below this level remain unread, and all are vedastei, going down to the one hundred and twenty-first level.'
'And below that?' Master Juwain asked.
'Below that, there are no books.'
'But you said that there were two hundred and eighty-four levels?'
'There are, indeed. And most of their shelves stand empty.'
'But why? Did the library's makers hope to acquire so many more books?'
'We don't know,' Abrasax said. Then he held up his precious vedastei. 'Just as we don't know what lies within this book.'
Master Juwain nodded his head at this, and said, 'If the vedastei were truly written in the Elder Ages and brought to Ea, then how is it you believe that one of them might tell of some danger of the Acadian forest of our time?'
Master Yasul, the Brotherhood's greatest remembrancer, answered for Abrasax, saying, 'It may be that some of the vedastei were not actually written. With a few of the books that we have managed to open, we've had the experience of the text changing upon different readings, according to different knowledge that we were seeking and different questions that we held in our minds. Indeed, it might be more accurate to say that we don't read the vedastei as much as they read us.'
He went on to say that the vedastei might somehow transmit the Akashic Records, which was a sort of memory of all that had ever occurred in the universe.
'Ah, there are certain things that should never be recorded,' Maram said as he eyed the book that Abrasax held in his hand. 'And never read by another, if you know what I mean.'
Abrasax smiled at Maram. 'You needn't fear that anyone will learn of your exploits in this book - unless it is your valor in facing the unknown.'
Abrasax put it back on its shelf, then turned to Estrella, who stood with Daj near the railing as they looked out into the library. He said to her, 'We have reason to believe that one of these books entitled, Skaadarak, contains the knowledge we seek. Would you be willing to try to locate it for us?'
Estrella looked at the book-stuffed shelves opposite the railing, and she made a motion with her fingers and cocked her head. And Daj translated for her, saying to us: 'Estrella would like to know how many of these Skaadarak books there are?'
'Nearly three hundred,' Abrasax told us. Then he showed us the place where the first of the books in question was shelved, and he moved along the tier a dozen feet and tapped his finger against the spine of the last of the books, gleaming a dark red on one of the middle shelves.
Estrella smiled as she nodded her head. Then she began walking slowly in front of the shelves of books. What she was looking for she could not say, and we could not guess, for the covers of the books were all etched with the same fine script. At last, she came to a halt. Her eyes beamed brightly as gazed at the line of books just above her head. Then her hand darted out to grasp one of the vedastei there. Abrasax helped her pull it off the shelf. Its cover, carved with brilliant red glyphs, shone as black as obsidian.
'A seard, indeed,' Master Matai said, bowing his head to her.
Master Storr, however, looked at Estrella doubtfully, as if she might have picked this book at random with the hope that no one would ever know the difference.
Abrasax lifted back the cover to show us its clear, empty pages. And Master Juwain asked him, 'But if you don't possess the key, how will you ever open it?'
'A seard,' Abrasax said, smiling at Estrella, 'might be able to find more than just things. We have elucidated, over the centuries, hundreds of keys to these books, and many are related to another or are even nearly identical.'
He drew in a long breath, and then recited:
To gain the gelstei's mastery,
To free the perfect memory
From Heaven's ageless library,
The perfect word will prove the key.
'Estrella - can you tell us if any of these words are close to the ones we seek?'
But Estrella just shook her head as she stared at the book. 'But what of this rhyme, then? Listen:
The Master Reader sought the key
To Heaven's unbound folio;
A million words he spoke, then he
Said, 'Open' - and it was so.
Estrella held out her hands helplessly as she again shook her head. And Maram groaned, 'This could take all day!'
So it went for the many other keys that Abrasax wished to test as he recited to her verse after verse. She seemed to warm to only a couple of them. Although it did not take Abrasax quite all day to run through his list of rhymes, it took long enough. We stood there for what seemed hours packed together on a ribbon of stone between the tier's shelved books and the railing that kept us from plunging down nearly half a mile to the library's lowest level. Our legs grew crampy, and we shifted our weight from foot to foot even as Abrasax's deep voice spilled out into the immense cavern.
'But this is impossible!' Maram finally called out to Abrasax. 'We might as well set monkeys to scribbling on paper in that room of yours upstairs in the hope that one of them will eventually chance upon the right rhyme.'
'Nothing is impossible, Sar Maram,' Abrasax said. 'Estrella has indicated that two or three of the rhymes might lead to the key to this book. We've had less to go on with other keys and other books. There are references to be checked, permutations of words to be made. In time -'
'But how much time do we have?' Maram said. 'Aren't we supposed to set out tomorrow? I, for one, want to get this mad quest over with as soon as we can, if we truly must go off questing again. Can't you just tell us what kind of danger we must avoid in Acadu without giving a complete account of it?'
Abrasax sighed as he traded looks with Master Virang and Master Matai. He said, 'I suppose I'll have to.'
He drew in a long breath as he pressed his finger against the scarlet characters graven into the book's cover. And then he told us, 'I believe that Skaadarak is the root word of two others: the Skardarak, when all will grow dark forever. And a place of darkness in Acadu that the people there call the Skadarak.'
In the quiet of the library's endless stacks of books, this word seemed to hang in the still, musty air. We all waited for Abrasax to say more. Then Maram finally called out, 'But what is the Skadarak, then?'
'It is,' Abrasax said, 'a blackness of the earth's aura so abysmally black that light cannot escape it. There is a dark thing there, like a hole through the world's soul. It blackens the very earth.'
'A thing?' Maram cried out. 'What kind of thing?'
Abrasax looked at the book in his hand, and then at Master Storr. He said, 'Unfortunately, we don't really know. We have only stories and our reading of the
earth's aura. Those whom we have sent into Acadu to shed light on this mystery have not returned.'
'Oh, excellent!' Maram said. 'I suppose this dark mystery of yours swallowed them up as with the Black Bog?'
'I believe,' Abrasax said, 'that what lies near the heart of Acadu is worse than the Black Bog. You see, it calls to people.'
'Oh, excellent, excellent!'
Master Juwain thought about this, then asked, 'But what could have caused the Skadarak? An opening to one of the Dark Worlds? Some sort of gelstei?'
'I know of no gelstei,' Master Storr said, 'that has such power.'
'But what of the black?' Master Juwain asked, looking at Kane.
And Master Storr said, 'I've never heard of a black gelstei that can call to people as the Skadarak is said to do.'
Liljana, ever the most practical of our company, said to Abrasax, 'If you know where this place is, then surely we can avoid it. If it calls to us, then we won't listen.'
Abrasax nodded his hoary head and told her, 'North of Varkeva near the Ea River it lies, or so we believe. We also believe that each of you has the power not to listen. And that, in the end, is the heart of our battle with the Red Dragon and the Dark One bound on Damoom.'
He let out a long sigh as he turned to Master Juwain. 'You, Master Healer, over the years have most counseled turning a deaf ear to Morjin's words. And why? Because it is you who most wants to hear them.'
Master Juwain rubbed at his bald head a moment before saying, 'Yes, I'm afraid you are right, Grandfather. I've always thought that the Red Dragon, as with any man, would intimate what he really knows in what he says or writes. The secret knowledge that he must possess, you see.'
'That which you speak of is a dark knowledge,' Abrasax told him.
'And how could it be otherwise, for how can we truly understand the light without the knowing of the dark?'
'I think you've always been too curious about this dark.'
'Yes, you are right. It is my vice.'
'Promise me, then, that you will continue to fight against it.'
'Very well, Grandfather.'
Abrasax smiled at him, and said, 'All of you, as you approach the Skadarak, will grow more vulnerable. Especially through your gelstei.'
He turned to look at Atara. 'You, Princess, must be careful of what you see in your crystal if you really must look. Morjin will try to build a perfect world and show it to you. And trap you within it. Thus has he seduced kings and even wise men.'
Atara stood up straight and stiffly, and a coldness came over her as she gripped her scryer's sphere and said, 'The Lord of Lies gave up the power to seduce me when he took my eyes. But I shall take your counsel to heart, Grandfather.'
Abrasax sighed again, and then addressed Liljana and Kane, and each of us, in turn, warning of the ways that Morjin might strike at us through our crystals and our weaknesses to twist us to his will as he had so many others. Then he patted the black book that Estrella had found on its shelf, and he told us, 'I will take this back to my chambers and meditate upon it. Perhaps I will find the key that will open it, and be able to tell you more.'
I said nothing as I looked at Abrasax and promised myself that whatever the Skadarak truly was, and wherever it lay, I must lead my companions away from it at all costs.
'Go now,' Abrasax said to us. 'Go and sit outside in the cherry orchard or walk in the sun, as you will. Enjoy this day in peace.'
And so we did. We all left the library as we had come. Abrasax retired with his book to his chambers, and the other Masters left us alone to go about their business. That afternoon, my companions and I wandered the grounds of the school making our goodbyes with those of the Brothers whom we had come to know. They gave us gifts: jars of apple butter and rare teas and spices for our food, and other such things to sustain us on our journey. We went to bed early that evening and awoke just before dawn on the twenty-third of Ashte. The sky was a clear and luminous blue that promised fine weather for travel.
Abrasax and the rest of the Seven gathered in the yard outside the stables to see us off. As the cocks crowed and new season's insects let loose a noise of buzzing and clicks, the Grandmaster apologized to us for being unable to unlock the book that told of the Skadarak.
'I remained awake all night,' he told us, 'but some of the books have taken months or even years to open - those that we have been able to open.'
'It's all right, Grandfather,' I said. 'Surely the Skadarak can't be any worse than Argattha, and we survived that.'
I regretted my words almost the moment that I spoke them. I felt Atara stiffen inside as I awaiting a mortal blow. Although she had truly survived Argattha, even as I had said, something within her had died.
"Try to remember,' Master Virang said to me, 'that the Skadarak will only be one of the dangers you face, and perhaps not the worst. It is a long way to the end of your quest, and you must armor yourself against the Lord of Illusions' assaults.'
'We would have a better chance,' Master Juwain said to Master Virang and then Abrasax, 'if you would come with us to Hesperu. Will you reconsider your decision?'
It seemed almost silly to think of these seven old men setting out on a perilous journey through Ea's wilds. But then I recalled how easily Abrasax had lifted Maram off the ground and Master Virang's ease at climbing steep hills, and I thought that it would be the essence of wisdom for any or all of them to accompany us.
'I'm sorry,' Abrasax told us, looking out into the valley, 'but our place is here.'
Then his eyes grew mysterious and deep as he tried to explain: 'Just as the body has higher chakras and realms of being, so does the earth. It is in these realms, above all others, that we must battle the Red Dragon's evil - and we can only do this from a place of great power, where the earth's fires burn the brightest.'
Master Juwain bowed his head in acceptance of this, and Abrasax took his hand and said, 'Just be sure to keep your fires burning, and we shall look forward to your return with the one who burns the most brightly of all.'
He smiled then, and clasped each of our ands in turn and kissed our brows, even Kane's. And then he told us, 'Farewell, and may you walk in the light of the One.'
I climbed on top of Altaru, whose coat was like a black sheen in the early morning light. He drove his hoof into the earth impatiently. My friends mounted their horses, too; our remounts and packhorses, heavily laden with supplies, were strung out behind us. A young student had also brought out a couple of nags from the stable. Master Storr and one of his adepts, a Brother Lorand, would be accompanying us so that they might show us the way out of the valley.
Our slow ride toward the mountains took only a few hours, and we savored each of them, drinking in the warmth of the sun and the sweetly scented air. Flowers grew in sprays of pink and purple along our way. From somewhere in the woods around us, a lark piped out its high, tinkling song. Never in my life, I thought, had a day seemed so lovely and bright. Kane rode his big brown horse beside me, fairly beaming out his fierce will to triumph against any odds. And yet I was keenly aware that our high spirits could not last. Whenever the shadow of such doubts fell across my heart, all of Kane's assurances of victory, as well as my own fierce hopes, seemed utterly in vain, the foolish longings of desperate men who refused to admit defeat.
We made our way back to the tunnel as we had come, winding back and forth up a steep slope. The horses' hooves kicked at loose rocks and sent them rattling down the road. Just outside the tunnel's entrance, where an arch of precisely cut stone invited us inward and onward, we paused to take a drink of water and eat
some currants.
'Ah, here we are again at another entranceway,' Maram said, squinting at the sun in the east. 'But it's well past dawn, isn't it?'
Master Storr's fair skin was flushed from our ride, and he ran his fingers back through his wispy hair. He smiled at Maram and said, 'The sun at dawn at the ides of Ashte is only one of the things that animates the tunnel's gelstei. There is the light of the Seven
Sisters, conjuncting the moon. And there is this.'
He removed from his pocket a crystal about as long as his finger. It was opaque, with a reddish patina that reminded me of rust.
'What is it?' Maram asked. 'One of your secret gelstei?'
'It's a key,' Master Storr told him. 'And yes, it is a gelstei.'
He pointed it toward the tunnel, and we watched as the dark circle before us filled with a milky white light. I felt a pulsing, as from deep inside the tunnel's rock - and along my veins as my heart began beating more quickly.
'Well, why don't we go inside?' Master Storr said. 'The way in is easy enough.'
'Ah, I don't like this,' Maram said. 'I don't like this at all. We can find our way in easily enough, it's true. It's finding the way out that worries me.'
Master Storr handed the crystal to Brother Lorand, a reedy young man with a long, narrow head and a serious look stamped into his face. And Master Storr instructed him, 'Hold your concentration as I've taught you. We wouldn't want to leave Brother Maram behind.'
His rather pitiless smile, showing his small, yellowed teeth, did nothing to reassure Maram, or the rest of us. But Master Storr was not a cruel man - only a cautious, difficult and guarded one. As we set forth into the tunnel, he explained to us certain of its secrets that he had so far withheld: 'There are seventeen such tunnels throughout this part of the White Mountains, as far as we've been able to determine. The Grandmaster thinks it most likely that the Aymaniri built them. But Master Yasul and I are more inclined to believe that they are a Work of the Elder Ages, like the library. All that we have really divined of them is that they connect to other tunnels through other mountains.'
'But connect how?' Maram asked. 'And how can that be possible?'
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