The Forbidden Library

by David Alastair Hayden

  Chapter 27

  Hundreds of knee-high, almost humanlike creatures with knobby wooden bodies, stunted heads, stumpy legs, and spindly arms rushed toward them. The creatures scurried along the walls, the ceiling, and the floor.

  Turesobei jumped into the saddle behind Zaiporo. “Take the reigns.”

  “Do you know what they are?” Zaiporo asked.

  “Not sure,” Turesobei replied. “Narbenu?”

  “No clue,” the goronku responded.

  “Maybe we should talk to them,” Turesobei said as they backed their mounts away. “Some spirit creatures are friendly.”

  “Nothing in our world is friendly,” Narbenu said.

  The creatures began chanting in clicking, rasping voices. “Knob knob knob. We the knob, they the bad. Get them, get them. Bring them in.”

  The knobs launched toward them.

  “Ride!” Iniru shouted.

  The group spun their sonoke around and rode toward the open canyon. Lu Bei soared above them. Turesobei turned around in the saddle so he could face the knobs. With adequate fire kenja available, Turesobei cast the spell of the curtain of flame and held it in his mind, ready to release it should they need it. While he’d never been good with the flame curtain and this would be a weak and brief one, causing the knobs to pause even for a few moments could save their lives. But he didn’t think it would be necessary. The sonoke outpaced their pursuers easily.

  “Master!” Lu Bei cried. “Look out!”

  Something struck Turesobei in the head and landed on the back of his shoulders. Something solid, heavy, and grasping. He tumbled off the mount and struck the icy cavern floor. The spell vanished from his mind along with the breath from his lungs. A knob clutched at his throat. Dozens closed in on him. Lu Bei zapped the knob on Turesobei’s back. The creature’s grip loosened and Turesobei slung it off him, turned, and ran toward his companions.

  Knobs poured from a hole in the top of the cavern, falling onto Turesobei’s companions. Shoma, Kurine, and the hounds were on the ground fighting off knobs, trying to get back to their mounts. Narbenu elbowed one off his mount, speared at another, then fell as two landed on top of him. Kemsu struck one with his spear. The point glanced off the knob’s body. Two knobs grabbed Kemsu by the leg and pulled him from the mount. Iniru vaulted off her mount and landed beside Enashoma.

  A knob slammed into the small of Turesobei’s back and knocked him down. He squirmed free only to be tackled around the waist by a second one. Motekeru jumped down from his mount and plowed toward Turesobei, swatting the creatures aside.

  “Motekeru!” Turesobei yelled. “Protect Shoma!”

  A knob wrapped his arms around Zaiporo’s neck, choking him, but Lu Bei zapped it in the face and it dropped off, clicking and chattering. With a knob clutching her leg, Kurine limped back to her mount and drew an iron war hammer from her saddle. She spun around and smacked the knob in the head. A sharp crack like wood splintering resounded. The knob fell dead.

  Turesobei shoved free of one, but others leaped in, clawing and hitting him. Lu Bei landed on his shoulders, shooting sparks to ward them away. Though no more fell from the ceiling, the mass that had first pursued them closed in. Turesobei was surrounded and too far away from his companions. Catching a moment’s break, Turesobei quick-cast the spell of prodigious leaping, spending far more internal kenja than it normally called for to make it work immediately. He leapt over a dozen knobs and landed between Kurine and Kemsu.

  Nearby Iniru dodged, spun, kicked, and jabbed with her spear. Narbenu shattered his spear against a knob and drew his mace, swinging it back and forth in wide arcs to keep the creatures at bay. Motekeru clawed the head off a knob and shattered the chest of another with a kick. The hounds zipped around Enashoma, biting at the knobs. There wasn’t much they could do to them, but getting in the way helped. The knob bodies were solid and heavy, almost as hard as petrified wood.

  “Regroup!” Iniru shouted. “To me!”

  Slowly they all backed up together, forming a circle. Why was Iniru gathering them here? Why not with the mounts? Turesobei swatted a knob away and noticed the sonoke. Attacked by the knobs and without their riders, the sonoke turned wild. Spitting and hissing, the sonoke thrashed with their tails and butted knobs with their horns.

  The knobs, hundreds of them, closed in. While no one was seriously hurt yet since the knobs were tougher than they were vicious, they couldn’t keep this up. Motekeru was the only one who could injure them reliably.

  “We’ve got to break free,” Iniru said.

  Turesobei backed into the center of the circle. “Shield me so I can cast a spell!”

  Kurine winked at him. “Whatever you need, lover.” She turned and cracked a knob in the head with the war hammer, shattering its jaw. Iniru flicked her eyes angrily at Turesobei and then, appreciatively, at Kurine before resuming the fight.

  Turesobei again quick-cast the spell of the curtain of flame, aiming it at the center of the knob mass. It was a tiring spell, one of the newer ones he’d learned after returning from Wakaro. He hoped fire would frighten kagi beasts made of wood.

  A sheet of flame no thicker than a rope strand but a dozen paces in length and height erupted amidst the knobs. With a force of will that caused him to cry out and buckle at the knees, Turesobei threw the flame curtain over on its side, as if casting it across the ground like a blanket.

  The knobs touched by the flames screamed and flailed and ran wildly about, their limbs and heads singed and smoking, but not on fire. Not the effect Turesobei had hoped for. The rest of the knobs didn’t panic. Instead they entered a maddened frenzy and charged with such abandoned that the faster knobs leapt and crawled over the slower ones.

  The flames flickered out. Turesobei cast the spell of compelling obedience. “Stop fighting!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the cavern, filled with power and deeper than normal resonance. “Stop fighting and leave us be!”

  Unfazed by the spell, the knobs crashed against them like waves against rocks on the coast. For each one they knocked away, two more took its place.

  A knob leapt over Enashoma and crashed into Turesobei. He chucked it over his shoulder and cast the spell of banishing lesser entities which was used to send demons back into the netherworld. He had used it with some success against the kagi that had ambushed them on their way to the Monolith of Sooku.

  The spell went off. The knobs nearest them paused and staggered back momentarily, but dozens more rushed through and over them.

  He staggered. “Too many … of them … nothing I can do …”

  One of the hounds, Rig, yelped desperately. Two knobs had captured it and were running away with it. Ohma charged after her companion but was likewise taken and carried off.

  A knob tackled Zaiporo and as he went down, a second elbowed him in the jaw. Zaiporo fell limp.

  “Zai!” Enashoma shouted. “Are you —”

  Blood sprayed into the air as a knob leapt feet first into Enashoma and smacked her in the face. She slumped. Lu Bei zoomed in firing sparks so they couldn’t capture her. Turesobei stepped toward her, but a leaping knob crashed into him. By the time he fought it off, five knobs had drug Kurine to the ground and Kemsu was staggering, swinging wildly, with a knot swelling on his forehead. Before Iniru could step in to help, the knobs took Kemsu down. Narbenu fell a moment later. Kurine and Iniru fought, back-to-back, desperately. Motekeru began to sag under the weight of the knobs that were piling onto him. A blow brought Iniru to her knees. No longer shielded by his companions, Turesobei faced the onslaught of knobs..

  It was over. They couldn’t win.

  But the knobs weren’t killing anyone, just disabling, and they had carried the hounds away … Turesobei held his hands up.

  “Wait! We surrender!” He fell to his knees. “We surrender. We won’t fight anymore.”

  The knobs paused, peering at him with their sparkling emerald eyes, their tongues clicking maliciously. A huge knob, as big as Motekeru, wade
d forward.

  He spoke with a voice like the groan of an old oak in a storm wind. “Wise it is. Most very wise.” His lips parted in a smile showing teeth of amber. “You can’t get away from my brothers. We are many, too many for you.”

  Motekeru stopped fighting and Iniru set down her spear. Turesobei crawled over to Enashoma. She held a hand to her nose, blood was gushing out, tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s broken, I think. Zai?”

  “I’m okay,” he responded in a slur of words. “Just … a bit … wonky is … all.”

  “Kurine?” Turesobei asked. “Iniru?”

  “I’ll be okay,” Kurine replied.

  “Just hacked off,” Iniru responded.

  “I’m going to be hurting tomorrow,” Kemsu said, “if I’m still alive.”

  “Me, too, lad,” Narbenu added.

  “Get your mounts and follow me,” the big knob commanded.

  The mounts were still hissing, but they weren’t thrashing now that the knobs had backed away. Narbenu approached them with soothing words and they calmed down enough that they could grab the reins. Knobs had lined up between the mounts and the entrance. There would be no sudden attempt to mount up and break through.

  “What do you want with us?” Turesobei asked.

  “It is not us who want,” the big knob replied. “It is Master who wants.”

  Hundreds of the knobs surrounded them and escorted them deeper into the cave.

  “Oak and leaf, root and knob,” the creatures chanted. “Knob knob, cavern clan. Outsiders for the master. Outsiders feed the tree. Knob knob, cavern clan.”

  This was bad. If only he’d had a full supply of spell strips. And Sumada. Especially Sumada. Slicing through dozens of them might have struck fear into them. He was going to have to call on the Storm Dragon. The only question was whether to do it now or wait.

  Iniru tapped him on the shoulder and shook her head. He got the message and nodded in response. He’d wait, maybe there’d be some other way out of this.

  The knobs led them deeper and deeper into the canyon. “Oak and leaf, root and knob. Knob. Knob.”

  Chapter 28

  The cave narrowed until they were crammed shoulder-to-hip with the chanting knobs, while the ceiling lowered to the point where Motekeru had to hunch over. But then abruptly the passage opened into an enormous, brightly-lit cavern. Turesobei stopped to gaze in wonder at the sight before him. A pool of water lay in the center of the cavern. A brilliant golden light shone out from the pool, emanating from a glowing orb like a miniature sun that sat at the pool’s bottom. Hanging from the ceiling above the pool, upside down, was a giant oak tree with sprawling branches that stretched all the way out to brush the pebbles along the pool’s shore. Roots as thick as a sonoke threaded the cavern roof, anchoring the oak.

  The knobs shoved Turesobei forward. A wave of vertigo briefly washed over him. Suddenly he was walking through the sky, upside down, the miniature sun in the pool above him, the tree on the ceiling below. Kurine stumbled and Kemsu grabbed her arm to support her, but he was lurching as well.

  Enashoma muttered, “I’m going to be sick.”

  Zaiporo fell to his knees and vomited. Iniru closed her eyes and swayed. Narbenu fell. Lu Bei did barrel rolls as he flew. Motekeru stomped on as if nothing had changed.

  Swaying, Turesobei cast the relatively simple spell of dream breaking and the illusion ceased. Their perception of everything returned to normal. They were walking across the cavern floor. The tree was hanging up above, the pool below it. The knobs didn’t seem to care that he’d cast the spell. Perhaps they hadn’t even noticed.

  “What — What was that?” Kurine said.

  “An illusion. I dispelled it.”

  “And the big tree … the yellow sun in the water?” Enashoma asked.

  “Those are real,” Turesobei said.

  “I’ve never seen a tree like that before,” Kurine said. “It’s amazing.”

  “We have trees like that everywhere in our world,” Turesobei said, “though few are as magnificent as this one.”

  The knobs herded them into a section marked by knee-high boundary stones near the shore on the far side of the cavern. The amber hounds were waiting there already. They rushed up to Turesobei and he patted their heads to comfort them.

  The big knob walked in front of them and fell to his knees at the shore.

  “Great Master, we have brought fresh sacrifices. Many of them. Some of them … they are unique.”

  Leaves rustled. Branches bounced and creaked.

  A figure stepped out and walked along a limb all the way to the edge, his step so light that the increasingly small branch bounced only lightly. He stepped onto the tip of the branch that brushed the shore, and even this delicate section held him up. The figure’s tall but thin build suggested a baojendari man. His features were refined. He had long brown hair and tanned skin. An emerald kavaru stone embedded in his forehead matched his eyes and his pale green robes.

  “Breaking my illusion was not polite,” he said in a whispery voice like wind through spring leaves.

  “You are not a Kaiaru,” Turesobei replied with certainty, though how he could know so surely and so quickly, he had no idea.

  “And why,” the being asked, strolling toward them, “do you not think that I am not a Kaiaru? For I certainly am.”

  Visions flashed through Turesobei’s mind. “You have the form of the Kaiaru Ysashu who disappeared four millennia ago. His kavaru was lost. You are not he.”

  “Master?” Lu Bei asked. “How do … How do you know that?”

  “I just …” Turesobei shrugged. “I just do.”

  The being from the oak scowled. “I do not like you at all, boy. And you are wrong. I am Kaiaru.”

  “No, what you are,” Turesobei said, “is an eidakami-ga, one who has lived many centuries and acquired enormous power. These knobs are your children.”

  The ga sneered. “You are not easily deceived, are you?”

  “Not when it comes to this. I am descended from a Kaiaru. I carry the stone of one. And, unlike you, I have bonded with the stone and know how to use it. Why do you pretend to be a Kaiaru?”

  The eidakami-ga shrugged. “I like the form.”

  “How did you come across the kavaru?”

  “I found it.”

  Turesobei smirked. “I’m sure you did.”

  “May we go, please?” Enashoma begged. “My brother doesn’t mean to insult you.”

  A smile spread across the eidakami-ga’s face. “Of course your brother intends to insult me. His kind would naturally take offense toward a pretender.”

  “My kind?” Turesobei said.

  “Is it your turn now to pretend you are something else? What is your name, Kaiaru?”

  “I am not a Kaiaru. I’m merely descended from one. My name is Chonda Turesobei.”

  The eidakami-ga waved a hand flippantly. “This stone does not remember anything anymore, so I will take your word for it, Kaiaru.”

  Turesobei sighed. “I’m not Kaiaru.”

  “Then how did you know that I wasn’t? You even know whose stone this is.”

  “Look,” Turesobei snapped, growing frustrated. “Are you going to let us go?”

  “Hardly.” He grinned malevolently. “You have not asked my name … It is Satsupan.” He cast his eyes up and down Motekeru. “I like this one. The work is intricate, mostly wood.” He made a half-bow to Motekeru. “You, sir, I shall not harm. You may go if you like.”

  “What I shall do,” Motekeru said, “is rip you limb from limb.”

  “Oh, do please tell me you intended the pun,” said Satsupan. He frowned at Lu Bei. “What is your power, winged one?”

  “My power is to blast my master’s enemies,” Lu Bei spat.

  “Well, your posturing does not impress me. If you could not beat my knobs, you cannot defeat me. This is not your complete form. Show me.”

  “Humor him,” Turesobei said to Lu Bei. The fetch turned into
a book and fell into Turesobei’s hands. Then he returned to fetch form.

  “Brilliant! Simply marvelous.” Satsupan sighed with delight. “You, too, may go if you wish. I mean you no harm.”

  “I must stay near Master always. I am his fetch.

  “Pity.” Satsupan examined the others. “You three,” he said, pointing to Kurine, Narbenu, and Kemsu, “are boring.” He spent an extra moment looking at Iniru. “You’re too much like them, and I remember your kind well enough. Boring.” He pointed at Enashoma and Zaiporo. “It has been many ages since I’ve seen baojendari and zaboko as well. But again, boring. Especially zaboko. So many, so long.”

  “How long have you been here, in this place?” Turesobei asked.

  “I have been here since before this was the Ancient Cold and Deep. When it was a larger, more prosperous land. Before it was split off from the normal world.”

  “Split off?” Turesobei said.

  “Indeed. I have no clue who did it or why, but a portion of Okoro was copied and split off and tossed into … whatever this truly is. In the Ancient Cold and Deep time passes, but the world does not evolve. It does not change. And it is an old world this Kaiwen. You’ve seen the red sun, dying, casting the world in eternal winter.”

  Satsupan bent down and strummed his fingers through the water, sending bright ripples through the room. “All my brethren died, only those trees that could grow along the hot springs survived. But I had something special. A taiotsu.”

  Turesobei craned his neck to peer down into the water. “A sun-stone.”

  “A fragment of the sun in its brighter days, fallen from the heavens, as with lumps of white or black ore from the moons, but so rare, so incredibly rare that you’d think white ore was nothing more than copper. The taiotsu gives me warmth eternal. The knobs brought it down into the cavern and then, to survive, I reversed my growth. And believe me, that was not easy. But nutrients … I have drained the soil these many years. I require nutrients and my knobs cannot go far into the world because they cannot easily endure the cold beyond the caverns. So when something comes along … Something of physical worth. Well, it must be sacrificed that I may continue. That means all of you, naturally, except the machine and the book.”