The Untold Prophecy (The Last Library Book 1)

by Jill Cooper

  “May I?”

  With a nod I slid Alice in Wonderland off the top and handed it to him. His hands shook as he opened the book. The leather squeaked, and the pages flipped open, one at a time with his chunky thumb skimming along.

  “That one is about a girl named Alice. She slips down a rabbit’s hole chasing a rabbit carrying a pocket watch.”

  “Absolutely preposterous!” Markus said with a smile, tears shining brightly in his eyes. “I love it. What else happens?”

  “There’s a mad hatter and a talking caterpillar. Alice is very taken aback by it all.”

  “As she should be.” Markus chuckled. “I’ve never seen lettering or pictures like these. What a treasure you have brought us. What a treasure you are, Tarnish Rose.”

  It was hard to accept his compliment knowing I’d saved the books but hadn’t saved George. I gazed down at the other books in my hand before putting them back into the messenger bag. “The books stay with me. I won’t part with them. It’s hard to explain and I mean no disrespect.”

  Markus nodded as he handed me back the book. “Tonight, you will read to us? The children, especially, would love it.”

  “I’m sure the children would,” I said with a smirk. “And I will. I’d be honored, too, but you must know, sometimes when I read…”

  “Sometimes when you read?”

  I nodded and felt a swelling of pride and love in my heart. “Sometimes when I read, magic happens.”

  Markus’s face lit up as if he had seen the magic himself. “And that leads us to everything I must tell you. Everything you must know before you venture out past this museum. Tarnish, you’re going to go on a grand journey,” Markus whispered, “you’re going to save the world.”

  ****

  Markus led me down a twisting staircase made of white marble. Once, the stairs might’ve gleamed but over time they had weathered gray, stained black with soot. “The world changed but it was slow. People chose security over freedom and when the Dark Lord Creighton rose to power, people didn’t recognize his evil. Back then, he looked like a man, any of them or any one of us.” Markus glanced at me, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  “With him, he brought the ministers to govern—and unfortunately corrupt—offering people a way out of the hole they’d dug for themselves. The first thing to go was the pursuit of happiness and in replacement, protection from a war-torn world. Work was all that mattered and once that was tackled, entertainment was a distraction. Art, sculpture, got in the way of real work. People were working so hard, I doubt they even noticed it at the time, except for an unlucky few.”

  We jumped onto the bottom step and I gazed into a small and dusty room. “Sounds horrible,” I said, and the truth of that statement banged like a drum in my chest.

  Markus nodded. “Those who spoke out were sent to the gallows. Fear was wielded, and free thinkers retreated to the shadows, hiding. Biding their time. Meanwhile the followers who’d thought the ministers had brought us prosperity, went on to wage war on knowledge. Schools were structured for only the elite, books were burned, and slowly, over time, the ability to read was lost. Creativity, imagination, were discouraged and penalized heavily. Usually it brought death.”

  I followed him as he continued to walk into the center of the room. “Even the color of your eyes could get you killed if the ministers were in a foul mood.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  Markus stopped in front of a weathered table. On it was a white cloth wrapped around a triangular shaped object. “It is my role as historian. Passed down through my family from generation to generation. As I will pass it down to my son. And he will pass it down to his. Here, we persist against tyranny. We fought the ministers and the hunters and held out as long as we could. Far as they’re concerned now, none of us survived.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “But the hunters, they saw us…”

  Markus nodded. “They suspect we’re out here, but they can’t pinpoint our location. This museum is special. It was chosen as the last stronghold against them for a reason. I don’t know what makes it special. I just know it is, sure as you’re standing in front of me.”

  I licked my lips and waited for him to continue, my heartbeat racing.

  Markus tapped the triangular object wrapped on the table. “The written word, knowledge, it can destroy the hunters, but it will take someone who has the ability to read. The ability to do magic as she does so.”

  “I can’t…I can’t destroy the hunters. I can’t do magic.”

  “Uhh,” Markus waved his finger at me, “but you already said that you could, didn’t you?” He laughed. “You can’t control it, but you wield it. With time, I hope, you’ll learn. You’re the last of the curators. The last specially gifted person who has the power to stand against the hunters, and tonight when you read to us, you’ll give us all hope. We’ve lived a long time without hope, Tarnish.”

  I could see it in his eyes that it was true. “How? How can I do anything that you’re talking about?”

  He unwrapped the cloth on the table. In it was a blue shard remnant, rounded at the top like a section of a globe, a piece of something bigger. What that object could be, I hadn’t the faintest clue. It was jagged around the edges, like a broken piece of glass.

  “What is it?”

  “A remnant. A lost piece of music trapped in a bygone age. It’s rumored to help you unlock the last resting place of the lost library.”

  “The lost library?”

  Markus nodded. “Hidden away in a cavern somewhere, with the largest stockpile of books you’ll ever find. They were protected by the last few librarians before they were murdered. They masked the entrance, never told anyone where it was, and it’ll be your job to find it. You find those books, we find a way to destroy the hunters—and the ministers along with them. With them gone, we’ll plunge the Dark Lord Creighton back into the hole he came from.”

  It sounded like too much. I felt so overwhelmed, I became weak in the knees. “I don’t know if I can do all that. What you’re asking me—.”

  “I’m not asking. I’m telling. This is your job. This is what you were tasked to do. Find the library. Destroy those who control us. And color, beauty and magic will return to our world. Everyone is counting on you, Tarnish.”

  “And you think that’s okay?” My eyes widened as I realized what he was saying. “I’m just a girl. I can’t do what you’re talking about! I can’t destroy anything. I couldn’t even save George! I’m not a savior or a magical being. I’m scared out of my mind!”

  I slammed my hand down on the table and the blue remnant jolted; nearly jumped straight off the table. When it did so, it hummed.

  Actual music came from it and it was unlike any sound I had ever heard before. It pulled my attention with its melody as the hum continued in a sequence, a beat with rhythm but yet it never changed.

  “Music,” Markus whispered. “It never did that before; it’s doing it because of you. The vibration from you has awoken the shard.”

  “That’s impossible,” I whispered, but I knew it wasn’t. I had seen it, witnessed it, and it was beautiful.

  “No, child. Nothing is impossible if you believe. The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘do you believe’?”

  I was afraid to believe, to accept the truth, but the broken sphere glass called to me. It was impossible to resist it’s call and I reached for it. My finger brushed against it gently and the hum grew louder. I pressed my skin against it and the hum intensified to singing, and within a moment, a rainbow prism glowed from inside the remnant.

  “You still believe you’re not the girl we’re looking for?”

  I wrapped the remnant up in its cloth to protect it. It felt as if it belonged to me. “What did you say I have to do with this remnant?”

  Markus smiled. “There are three. This one will lead you to the next, and so forth and so on. When you place them together, they should fuse and reveal the location to the lost library to you
, and only you. You’re it’s caretaker, just as I am of this place.”

  It sounded fantastical but seeing as I was holding a humming, glowing remnant of glass, it was hard to argue. “I can’t go on this journey alone. I’m going to need help. A guide.”

  “I know just the man to help you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Tarnish

  We stood in a circle in the main foyer. People gathered around tightly as a fire raged in the stone fireplace against the wall. Their eyes were wide and swept over me. To say I was uncomfortable would be putting it mildly. I stood on display and everyone stared at me as though they expected me to do something. I felt so vulnerable, I itched out of my skin.

  Markus waved his hand in my direction. “This is Tarnish Rose, the one I’ve been telling you about.” He gestured to me and I nodded at the group. When a few people got a glimpse of my shining green eyes, they gasped. A little boy in the front row covered his mouth.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” a lady in the back whispered and those around her nodded.

  “That color. Her eyes…oh heaven.”

  They talked about me like I was a savior, but was I? Only time would tell.

  “I’ve given her the remnant our people have protected for a century and she’s accepted her quest.” Markus paused and gave everyone the chance to absorb what he said. He gestured to me. “Are you ready, Tarnish, to leave your old life behind?”

  “I am.” I said the words strongly but was there truth behind them? I reached into my messenger bag and between the books pulled out the tag that identified me as a merchant’s daughter. It was the only thing I had on me linking me to my old life. I gazed at it and then at the fire; to protect the people I loved, I had to destroy it.

  Markus nodded. “You must cease being Abby Taylor for the good of your town and your family. It’s the only way.”

  I stood close enough to the fire to feel it’s heat lick at my skin as I tossed in my merchant’s pass and my contacts. I watched the paper singe on contact. Automatically, I let go of the breath I had been holding, and a weight of who I was lifted from my shoulders. My family would be safe. Rottenwood, too, I hoped, would avoid retribution for my sacrifice, but it hurt. Oh, by the workmen, how it hurt to watch it burn away.

  “We’ll stand ready as we always have,” Markus said to the crowd. “Tomorrow, she’ll set out on her quest with a guide.” Markus lifted his hand and a man stepped forward.

  My insides cramped, and I felt a rush of anxiety. “You?”

  Sebastian offered me a small smile. “Father thought you would learn to accept my help, with time.”

  Father? I gazed between Sebastian and Markus—there was a striking resemblance in their noses and the shape of their eyes. “You support what your son did?”

  “He told me. And it’s unfortunate for your friend. The loss of life is never something that sits well with any man, Tarnish, but you had to get here. You had to be protected. You’re the last curator. will answer to. Without you, hope dies.”

  Hope dies. What a statement that was, and the weight that slammed on my shoulders felt like a giant boulder.

  “The mission is what is important. If you rather have someone else…” Sebastian said.

  “No,” I said curtly, but could barely force myself to look at Sebastian. “It’s fine. We’ll go, just as you have suggested.” With all eyes on me, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone with an argument.

  “Very well. For now, we will break. The girls will show you around, so you can get familiar with the layout of our lovely museum, and we’ll have dinner,” Markus grinned, “ an epic feast for all.”

  Everyone let out an enthusiastic cheer and the kids in the front row began to bounce up and down with excitement.

  “Tonight,” Markus added with a flair for showmanship, “Tarnish Rose will read to us. She’ll read!”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Tarnish Rose

  The museum had a series of caverns made out of the rock. There was scaffolding that supported it on multiple levels. Each level serving a different purpose or housing a group of people and I was shocked to see even a few trolls working behind the scenes. It reminded me of being in Imagination and I thought back to the train ride, to everything that had happened with George.

  Penny, a woman with a kind face and demeanor, led me through the individual caverns to show me her classroom and where her students would sit for lessons. “These symbols are what we learn to express ideas and time. It’s not nearly as impressive as what you do, but we do the best we can.”

  “It’s lovely, really. I was taught similar symbols.” I traced the writing on the wall, remembering home and the lessons Momma had taught me about simple math, selling and stocking supplies. Outside of being taught your profession and how to behave in society, there was no reason to learn.

  “Don’t judge Sebastian too harshly. I know how he gets.” Her eyebrows rose. “He has a lot of pressure put on him by Markus. He won’t say so, not in so many words, but he has a lot to live up to. He’s always known he’d be the one to find you.”

  “How?”

  Penny shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because he wanted to be the one. Delusions of grandeur, as they say.”

  “Thanks, Penny.” I stepped forward, ready to move on, but saw something in her eyes. “You care for him?”

  “More than he knows. Please, don’t tell him. That’s all he needs to know.” She laughed and turned the corner, ready to show me the next level.

  Level after level we went, and I was impressed with the people I met, how hard they worked. There was Bethany, who braided one side of my hair. Lilth, who decided what I was wearing wasn’t fitting. She gave me armor with a leather bodice, armbands and belts.

  It fit snug and I tightened them, wearing my robe on top as I continued off for dinner. Tomlin gave me a golden staff for fending off scavengers and ravengers alike. It felt surreal that this was now my life.

  At the banquet hall, I was floored to see how many people gathered. We feasted while young children played at our feet before they were rushed off to eat as well. Sebastian and I were paired at a table and we had polite, if not strained, conversation.

  “Now, you’re dressed for the part. You’re a force to be reckoned with, Tarnish Rose.”

  I drank from my goblet, unsure of what to say to him as the banquet simmered down. The crowd quieted down as Markus took the floor.

  He whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone, please…Thank you for coming tonight, to take time out of your chores and your duty, to welcome Tarnish Rose.” He gestured to me and I rose up to say hello, a smile on my face.

  People clapped and a few hooted, much to my horror. I blushed profusely and kept my head down, trying not to be ungrateful. I wasn’t, but I was no hero or celebrity. I had done nothing worthy of applause.

  “She is going to treat us now to a sampling of her gift. She’s going to read to us. Please welcome, Tarnish, to the floor.”

  All eyes were on me as I pushed my chair back and it squeaked oh so loudly. Their gazes followed me as I walked to the center of the room, my footsteps echoing. Markus shook my hand. “Nice new threads. Lilth, I’m guessing?”

  I nodded as I pulled out my book from my satchel and swallowed hard. It made no sense to be so nervous, I knew I could read. It wasn’t something that was questioned, but I never had such a large, attentive audience before.

  I flipped open to the first chapter. “This story is one of my favorites and it’s called Alice in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. I chose it because right now, I feel like Alice.” Someone in the crowd laughed politely, a gentle little noise, and all the faces in the crowd were filled with wonder.

  As I read the first line, the great sense of joy that filled me passed into the crowd.

  “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting on the bank by her sister, and of having nothing to do.”

  The kids in the front gasped and smiled at ea
ch other and then back at me. As I read, word after word, paragraph after paragraph, everything around me vanished as though I was pulled into the book itself. I saw the great fields and the beautiful Alice in her blue dress, charging through the grass, chasing after the hopping white bunny.

  It wasn’t until Sebastian grabbed my arm that I was pulled back from the book. When had he gotten there? Surely I would’ve noticed if anyone in the dining hall had moved. The surroundings of the museum built slowly like blocks around me. The field grew further away until it was nothing more than words on a page, but that page glowed gold and the words swayed back and forth, as if a boat on the ocean.

  “Why is it doing that?” I gasped.

  “It’s not doing that, Tarnish,” Markus said. “It’s you and your magic.”

  I couldn’t dispute what he said, but the words on the page had never shimmered like that before. My finger swept across the words and they began to rearrange on the page. My eyes widened as the glow grew so hot. It hurt to look, but I couldn’t turn my eyes away.

  “What does it say?” Sebastian whispered.

  “The ravengers are coming.” A shiver raced up my spine as I slammed the book shut, but the glow streaked between the closed pages and up the high ceiling where the rope still hung.

  The shriek from the ravengers up above proved that the words in the book hadn’t been lying. I glanced up, but couldn’t see anything yet. Around me, people rushed to their feet, gathered their children, and began to prepare for retreat.

  These people had hid here for decades. Why now was it that the ravengers had found them? It was me, it had to be. I’d put their lives and everything they held dear, at risk.

  Sebastian grabbed my arm and the force with which he did it jarred me back into reality. “We need to move.”

  “But…these people.” I lunged forward to help, but Markus blocked my way.