by Jill Cooper
Ella pulled her hand away. “What do you know? You think you can come here and judge my life?”
“I wasn’t judging you. I wouldn’t.”
“No?” Ella snorted. “It wasn’t always like this, you know. I had a mum. A family. We tried to cross the ridge past the dragon, the place you left! My family wanted what you just walked away from. Civilization.”
“What happened?” I asked with a serious sense of dread creeping along in my belly.
“That dragon happened. She killed my sister. Ate my parents. I was lucky to get back here at all.”
I didn’t speak because the horror of what she had gone through was too much. “I’m sorry,” Sebastian said for the both of us. “We don’t mean to upset you or the life you’re trying to establish for yourself here.”
Ella simmered down at Sebastian’s sincere words, but I couldn’t accept she would settle for this living here. “What happens when you run out of food? Or if you get sick? I know you’re scared…”
She turned to me, and her eyes expanded. “I’m not scared of anything. I’m happy here if it means I don’t have to talk to people. Clearly, I’m not very good at it.” Ella stomped off, and I chased after her. Sebastian grabbed for me, but I shook him off.
“You are. It’s in the words you say and the way in which you say them. There’s no shame in fear. I’d be scared, too, if I were you.”
“You didn’t look afraid when you were nose to nose with the dragon. Might’ve looked a bit stupid but not afraid.”
“I thought I was getting through to her.”
“Her?” Ella snorted. “She’s a beast. Why do you always refer to it as if she’s a girl like us?”
Truth was, I didn’t know. It just seemed like the right thing to say, as if something deep inside of me understood the dragon’s true nature. I gazed down to gather my thoughts, and to my left something on the shelving unit caught my eye. It twinkled like a jewel, and I bent down, looking over the silver canisters and old, dingy boots.
“It’s just old crap. What the hell is she doing?”
I pulled the canisters to the side and bent down low to catch sight of what was really inside. A hole had been carved out in the brick, and something slid inside, something someone had once tried to hide.
“Tarnish, what is it?” Sebastian’s voice was serious, and at least I could count on his belief in me, even if he didn’t agree with what I was doing.
“I don’t know yet.” I reached inside and grabbed the spine of something metal and cold. Pulling it out, my eyes widened at the sight of the largest book I had ever seen with thick leather covers. So heavy, I had to grip it with two hands as I balanced it on my knee. It wasn’t just a book, it was a giant binder.
Ella gasped! “A book? Get rid of it! Burn it before they see!” She charged for me, but Sebastian held his arms out.
“They won’t see, Ella,” his voice droned on with a soft compassion. “I know you think they’re all powerful…”
“They are! Ravengers know all and see all. If they see us with this book, they’ll come for us.”
Sebastian might’ve been dealing with Ella, but I had the best gift I had ever received. I flipped through the pages and realized it wasn’t a book, at least not in the traditional sense. There were colored photos long dulled and gray, the edges turned to yellow and the people were dressed most strange, posing in large groups with metal beasts between them with four tires. They didn’t dress like we did, and they held signs.
‘Education reform is the only answer’
‘Books are not the enemy’
‘Children are forgetting how to read’
My finger traced the words on the opposite page, and it hit me. These were newspaper clippings from right before the time the ministers came into power. “This place used to be called New York,” I said over my shoulder with excitement. “We’re in New York.”
Sebastian bent down beside me. The historian in him couldn’t help himself. “A written account?”
I nodded with so much adrenaline pumping through me, I could only hear the pounding of my own heart. The room, Sebastian and Ella, drowned away as if I were trapped at the bottom of the ocean.
“What happened to Old York?” Ella asked, wide-eyed with fear. “Did the ravengers get it?”
I didn’t know what happened to Old York any more than she did, but I was transfixed by the words on the page. “Department of Education dissolved as schools closed their doors. The newly appointed ministers,” the words took my breath away, and I had to take a minute to center myself before moving on, “expressed doubts about the future of education and literature in our society. Those who have fought back have been arrested as books and art are being confiscated. A search on a home by home basis…” My voice trailed off as my finger fell off the page and I glanced at Sebastian.
“This was the very beginning,” I said with a rush of excitement. I felt the urge right in my very blood. “The very beginning of the end of times.”
“What else does it say?” His voice jumped high with excitement.
“What is she doing?” Ella said with deep suspicion. “You can make sense of those funny shapes and symbols?”
“It’s complicated,” Sebastian answered for me when I wasn’t sure what to say that wouldn’t send Ella into a tailspin. “In a sense, you’re correct.”
“That ain’t reading, is it?” Ella’s eyes narrowed as she tiptoed closer, as if her movements might trigger some sort of hunter alarm system.
I flipped the page of the book without giving anything away, but the picture on the next page stole my breath and punched me back. The glorious city I had seen on the previous pages was gone. Now it was only a jumble of stone and huge craters in the ground. Dark tarps covered the sidewalk as if bodies were hidden beneath them.
“The sky opened up,” my voice shook as I read the words and the emotion welled in my chest, “and creatures unlike anything we’ve ever seen descended upon the world all at once. Communications with the allies are gone. The internet was wiped out as electrical surges struck data centers and networks across the country. The ministers call them hunters, and they are systematically bringing an end to the golden age of human evolution.”
Sebastian had a hand over his mouth, and his eyes were dark and scared. We all heard rumblings of how the hunters killed, destroyed, and took control of the world, but to hear about it… to see the destruction with our own eyes…
“I saw a little girl struck in a ballerina costume, and we were reminded that art, music, and dance were the next things added to the forbidden list, but we must fight back. Rebels are holed up in museums, galleries, and theaters to protest the new government, and with God’s help, we will resist…”
I wiped a tear from my eye and flipped the page, but the images of destruction were too much to go on. My eyes quickly read a few sentences here or there. “Loss of life great… color vanishing from the world… great scholars losing their ability to write or read a simple sentence.”
The news and images shook me, but it did much more. It turned my resolve into stone. The hunters and ministers were pure evil and needed to be stopped. People had forgotten what had happened because we had never been told and we needed to be free.
I had to rid the world of them, even if I had to take them out one at a time, but I first had to figure out how.
Closing the book, my hand pressed against the cover, I glanced up at Ella. The look of fear in her eyes mirrored what I felt myself, but she backed up toward the stairs. “Spend the night here if you want. It’s growing late, and the ravengers will soon start circling, looking for non-believers.”
“Ella,” I said simply and sat back on my heels, “please, stay with us.”
She shook her head, and her complexion turned white as a sheet. “Whoever you are, whatever it is you can do, I’ll be free of you by morning. Do you understand?” Ella raced up the stairs, her feet clobbering loudly as she went.
I stared after her wi
th a hefty sigh, and Sebastian gave me a smile. “Not everyone is ready to hear what you’re about to tell them, like the prophets of old. You represent freedom, but for people who have never been free, it’s scary. They think if they just behave, the ravengers will leave them alone.”
So much like what my parents believed about the ministers. Now I was beginning to realize what a falsity it was. The ministers led us into a false sense of comfort. “Tell that to them.” I tapped the book. “They wiped almost everyone out.”
“I dreamt of a song once. I never told anyone.” Sebastian sat down beside me and crossed his legs. “New York, New York. I didn’t think I’d ever actually be here. I never thought it was a real place.”
“Why do you think you dreamt it?”
Sebastian shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it was a memory passed down through my ancestors. I might never know.”
“Do you really think it’s possible? To remember what they remember?” I stroked the top of the book as if it were a loved one, something special.
It was special, so special.
“I don’t know. Part of me wishes so, while the other part fears it.” Sebastian lay his hand on top of the book beside mine, and I think he felt how special it was, just like I did.
“We’ll hide it. Keep this book safe. If we manage to pass through here again, we can save it. The people of Rottenwood, Beantown, and all the others need to hear what this book has to say.”
Sebastian nodded. “Good thinking, Tarnish. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re starting to think like a leader.”
We got to work rolling out the sleeping bags. I set mine up by the bookcase, and Sebastian set his beside me, but not too close. He pulled his dagger from his robe and hid it beneath the flimsy pillow beneath his head. “Tomorrow will be a long day. We'll start to use the crystal remnant to find the next piece of the puzzle.”
I folded my hands on my chest and gazed at him in the dark, barely able to make out his hairline, but I could see the outline of his eyes as he slowly blinked them closed. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who was tired. With my mind swirling, I stared at the ceiling and thought about what was coming. How could I use the remnant? I had activated it a few times, but I had no idea how.
It did it on its own as if it were a sentient being, or my subconsciousness had awoken it.
Sighing, I rolled over onto my side and yawned. Everything bothering me would be tomorrow’s problem. For now, the only thing I wanted to do was sleep, and slowly I started to drift away. The calling screech of the ravengers searching for something they could not see, shrieking in the distance.
And I feared it was me.
I shivered without meaning to, nestling down deeper into my sleeping bag, as if that alone would keep me safe from their prying eyes.
Chapter Eight
Tarnish Rose
I awoke earlier than Sebastian and sat with my back against the wall. With the Wizard of Oz on my lap, I stroked the cover. I really wanted to read some more of it but was apprehensive. The last time I read, the words came to life so strong, it brought the hunters. What if it happened again? I might not be so lucky as to get away, and it might be Sebastian who was taken, kidnapped, or killed this time.
Just like George had sacrificed himself for me. Sure, he wasn’t dead, but where was he now?
Biting my lip, the grief of his loss swelled inside of me again. I tried to stave it off by tracing my finger across the symbols on the book, going in that circular motion lulled me almost into a trance. The mediation was so deep, I thought I heard chimes ring of music unlike anything I heard before, a beautiful whistle with a hum of metal.
Sebastian moaned, his head rolling to the side. Could he have heard it, too?
When I returned my attention to the book, the cover glowed where my finger was still pressed on it. I didn’t even need to read them anymore? What was happening to me? Maybe it was as Markus had said… magic.
My magic.
With a snap, I pulled my finger from the cover. The music still played, and it wasn’t coming from the book or even me, instead it was coming from my bag.
I lifted the leather strap gently, peering inside at the shard. It was singing a beautiful song. One I couldn’t resist. I pulled the partial sphere shard out and unwrapped the cloth around it. It pulsed with a gentle light as it sang its song.
Did I make it do that somehow? Was it trying to tell me something?
I placed my finger on the shard, afraid to touch it but unable to resist. I bit my lip and noticed there was soft blue lines in the glass I hadn’t seen before. The glass lit up blue and shot a stream of light against my face, projecting an image before my eyes.
I gasped, unable to draw a breath, and my mind was drawn quickly into the remnant sphere. I traveled through what felt like time and space until a giant library pieced itself together around me. First, it was the desks and some chairs. Then, a counter where behind it a clock ticked backwards instead of forward.
All around, bookcases were everywhere and filled with leather bound books in a multitude of colors. The rows went on as far as the eye could see, and it was a sight I almost couldn’t fathom, and the smell… the smell was like magic to my senses.
This was it, this was the place I was looking for. This was the last library.
The First Curator
I tore through the library and took off my cloak. Behind me, two librarians edged the giant slab of a door shut, and I continued through the giant structure, down the marble staircase, and into the main chamber. There, the high vaulted ceilings glimmered with artwork in vibrant primary colors. Artists on giant scaffolding lay on their backs, recreating the paintings that had already been lost in the great war.
Monet, Van Goh, and more contemporary artists like Allan, depicting dragons and lore being driven out from our culture. It was hard to keep my eyes on it as I hurried along the marble floors. Behind the front desk were stacks of books, and the wisest of all the historians, Theodore Hatcher, worked to secure all our secrets onto parchment.
As I leaned over, I studied the map he was drawing with the special quill I had brought him on my previous journey. He huffed a deep breath, blowing up his bushy eyebrows in an almost comedic way.
“When we called you the last curator, we didn’t mean for you to take it quite so literally.”
I cocked my head at him. “I know I was late, but I had a legion of hunters on my tail. My horse almost couldn’t keep us ahead of the pack.” I took a deep breath. “There’s more hunters every day. Soon, they’ll drag all the humans left underground. Something’s got to give, Theo.”
He shuddered at the nickname I had bestowed upon him. “We’re doing the best we can. This place must be safeguarded. It’s the only answer.” He motioned for me to follow him past the chamber through a pair of doors on the far side of the room.
I followed him into the space occupied with desks and chairs. In the back, on a seemingly glowing pedestal, was a golden staff with a circular top. In the center was a blue sphere casting out a hue of color as if it were the depths of the ocean.
“It’s beautiful,” I said softly as I approached it. The sphere crystalized inside like growing snowflakes as I grew closer. The staff seemed to be humming the closer I got. “It plays music. How curious.”
“I heard nothing, but I’m not surprised. It was forged for you by the power of creation and the written word. Take it.”
I hesitated at first, feeling the staff’s great power. Theodore gave me a little nudge, and my hand wrapped around the staff before I realized what was happening. The gold warmed my hand, and the humming grew louder. As I gazed into the crystal, I saw my reflection. My long brown hair was now salted nearly white, and my piercing blue eyes hadn’t dimmed at all. I was older than I was when the hunters descended on our lands.
Wrinkles took their place on my face, and I remembered a time before all this.
When I was a mere child, there were movies and plays, books and television. H
ow had we let our freedom just slip on by?
I opened my mouth to speak, and the sphere shined a blue light onto my face. My memory flashed with images from the last sixty years. The towns I had been to, the people I had liberated. Street signs I had read before the written word was outlawed. The slavery camps filled with those who resisted, worked to the bone until they succumbed to death. The books I had rescued to help build this place.
I gasped and felt weak as I stumbled back. “What just happened to me?”
“A memory stone. Think of it as a data chip from before the world ended. Your memories and thoughts stored on it will help those who come after us. We won’t win this war, Magenta, but someone else will. When the time is right, when the hunters and the lawmakers begin to lose their grasp.”
I caressed the top of the staff and investigated the crack now running through the sphere. It was split in three places, almost like a giant pie. “Who?”
“An ancestor of yours. The line of curators won’t die with you, but they’ll have to be strong to face what is coming. They can’t do it alone. Hide these remnants. Let them guide your hand. They’ll need to find them. If your descendants are strong enough to piece them together, they’ll find the location of this library. And they might send the hunters back to the hell from which they came.”
“Maybe I’ll take the staff and face off against the hunters.” I’d love to see what they thought of that.
“You could, but you wouldn’t succeed, curator. They’re too strong for us, too organized. If you lose the gem and the staff to them, there will be no future or second chances. Humans will be reduced to ash.”
Theodore’s answer dulled my spirit, but there was little I could do other than heed his words. I gripped the staff hard and spun it to my side. “Where do I start?”
“Where all good things are hidden. We hide it in plain sight. Start with the old enslavery camps.”
Chapter Nine
