by Anna James
We don’t really know why different people’s abilities kick in at different times; it often happens at about your age as you start to really develop your own individual relationship with books and find your favourites. There also seems to be a correlation with times of change or upset; we think it might be that while you’re occupied with other things it gives the magic inside you a chance to spill out. And, once magic has revealed itself, it’s very hard to ignore. Bookwandering is naturally in you, Tilly. Don’t worry about getting it right or wrong. The important thing is that you know it’s possible, because you’ve done it with Alice and Anne, so just focus on the story, and read the line … And remember to keep hold of the book.’
‘What happens if I can’t get back? I read the last line and nothing happens? What if I lose the book? Are you sure I should be doing this?’
‘None of that will occur but I can pull you out, if need be. That copy of the book is tethered to the Underlibrary, but it’s also been registered as a training book so its borders are more flexible and I can come and get you. There are lots of systems the library has in place to allow us to find and help wanderers, but believe me, it won’t come to that. Now, break a leg, as they say in the theatre.’
Tilly nodded and took a deep breath. She tried to cut off everything going on around her and simply read. It took her a fraction of a second to read the simple sentence, but instantly that smoky, sweet smell started to billow around her and the walls of reality began to fold down on themselves. Instead of a fully realised world, all she could see was white. It was like standing in a room full of dense white fog; there were no sounds, or smells, just white.
Tilly started to panic and realised that she had no idea how to contact Seb if something went wrong, but at that moment a silky red setter seemed to come from nowhere and bounded past her. She turned as the dog passed and saw that the toyshop from the book had sprung up behind her. It had turquoise walls with big windows framed in yellow. The windows were stuffed full of all kinds of old-fashioned-looking toys: dolls in frothy, lacy dresses, plastic cars, teddy bears and even a rocking horse. The only thing to do seemed to be to follow the dog in through the open door. Inside, a woman in a purple shirt was behind the till, talking to a boy in an orange jumper holding a huge digger toy. A blonde girl in a pink turtleneck was pointing at a doll in a glass case, and the dog was snuffling at a toy dog in the corner.
‘Hello?’ Tilly said tentatively as she went in.
Both children looked up at her, but the dog kept sniffing the toy dog.
‘Here is Peter,’ the girl said, pointing at the boy.
‘Here is Jane,’ the boy replied, pointing at the girl.
‘Nice to meet you. I’m Tilly,’ she said, giving an awkward half-wave.
‘I like Peter,’ Jane said.
‘I like Jane,’ Peter said.
‘Great,’ Tilly said. ‘How come there’s nothing outside the toyshop?’ she asked.
‘Here is a toyshop,’ said Peter.
‘I like the toyshop,’ said Jane.
‘Sure, me too,’ said Tilly. ‘It’s a nice toyshop. Is that your dog?’
‘Peter likes the dog,’ said Jane.
‘Jane likes the dog,’ said Peter.
‘Okay then,’ Tilly said. ‘I guess we all like the dog.’
The woman behind the counter didn’t say anything.
‘Well, this is creepy,’ Tilly said under her breath. ‘Am I allowed to leave yet?’ She flicked the book to the last page and read, ‘Here is Peter in the tree. Peter has the ball.’ There was a horrible moment when nothing appeared to happen before the toyshop dissolved around her and was replaced by the solid, book-lined walls of the library.
Seb gave her a big thumbs up, and Oskar looked amazed.
‘You were only gone for, like, seconds!’ he said.
‘Time works differently in books,’ Seb explained. ‘You know how in books swathes of time just get missed out? A new chapter starts “the next day” or even “the next week” and you don’t really know what’s happened before then? Or the time it takes to describe something is even longer than how long it would actually take?’ Oskar and Tilly nodded. ‘You’ll be away from the real world for roughly how long it would take you to read the passage, even if it feels longer when you’re inside, but it can be unpredictable, I’m afraid.’
Seb pushed the other book towards Oskar.
‘Okay, your turn. Do you feel comfortable having a go? Obviously we’re not quite so sure how your bookwandering is going to manifest, but I feel happy enough that you have the core ability required because of your adventures in Avonlea, and, as I said to Tilly, this is a training book and I can come and—’
But Seb’s reassurances were interrupted by a stern-looking librarian with a sharp goatee, and wearing a black cardigan edged with silver, emerging from the stairs. He looked at Tilly and Oskar with barely masked curiosity.
‘Sorry to interrupt, Sebastian, but could you come and assist with something that’s arisen downstairs? A new bookwanderer has got into a situation in Peter Pan and we’re hoping it’s a simple administrative error you can unpick more efficiently than us.’
Seb tutted, but got to his feet.
‘It can’t wait?’
‘Ideally not,’ the librarian said. ‘He seems to have lost a lost boy.’
Seb sighed and turned to Tilly and Oskar. ‘You two need to stay here, do you understand me? Do not move. I will return soon or I’ll find your grandad and he’ll come and retrieve you.’ He turned and looked at them over the top of his glasses. ‘Stay. Here.’
Oskar and Tilly nodded as Seb followed the other librarian downstairs. They watched him over the banister as he joined a couple of librarians whose cardigans were also black and edged with silver. They were all walking briskly towards the circular main desk on the ground floor. The first one to reach it swung open a door in the side of the wooden chest of drawers and disappeared inside.
‘They’re really into their fancy cardigans here, huh?’ Oskar said. ‘What are we supposed to do while we wait? Should we go and find your grandad?’
‘Seb told us to stay here. If they need Amelia to help with whatever’s going on, then I’m sure he’ll come and find us.’
‘I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to bookwander,’ Oskar said. ‘No offence, but I think they should have started with me because they know you can do it, but I still don’t know if I can do it without you.’
‘Seb will be back soon and you’ll get to have a go. That book wasn’t fun like visiting Avonlea anyway. It was weird and kind of dull. Where would you most like to go once we’re allowed?’ she asked.
‘Hogwarts! Obvious choice,’ Oskar said. ‘I want to go to the Yule Ball, or maybe watch the dragon task from the Triwizard Tournament. Or meet Luna.’
‘But what if you ran into Voldemort? Or Umbridge?’ Tilly said. ‘And I don’t think we’d be able to do magic – we’d be Muggles.’
‘Well, what about Middle-earth?’ Oskar suggested.
‘Way too dangerous,’ Tilly said. ‘Orcs, trolls, giant spiders …’ She checked the various monstrosities off on her fingers.
‘Fine, fine,’ Oskar said. ‘Okay, how about Oxford in Northern Lights?’
‘I wouldn’t want to run into the child snatchers,’ Tilly said.
‘Ugh, why are books so dangerous?’ Oskar said.
‘I guess a book about a nice safe place where nothing happens would be kind of boring and no one would read it,’ Tilly said as Oskar wandered down the stretches of shelves, looking at the spines.
‘A little bit of danger is okay, though, surely?’ he said, holding up a book to show Tilly.
‘Treasure Island? Are you sure? Isn’t that all about pirates and, I don’t know, death and betrayal and stuff?’
Oskar scrunched his nose up. ‘Kind of. There are definitely pirates, but most of them are pretty friendly from what I remember. It was a while ago I listened to the audiobook. We’ll just make
sure we read a bit where there’s nothing dangerous happening.’ He started flicking through the pages as Tilly tried to ignore the slightly sick feeling in her stomach.
‘Oskar, I’m not sure this is—’
But she was cut off as Oskar cracked the spine, grabbed her hand and started to read.
hen I had done breakfasting the squire gave me a note addressed to John Silver, at the sign of the Spy-glass, and told me I should easily find the place by following the line of the docks and keeping a bright lookout for a little tavern with a large brass telescope for a sign. I set off, overjoyed at this opportunity to see more of the ships and seamen, and picked my way among a great crowd of people and carts and bales, for the dock was now at its busiest, until I found the tavern in question.’
The comforting smell of paper, ink and wood turned sweet and marshmallowy before transitioning into the much more pungent stink of fish, sweat and the sea. Tilly wrinkled her nose as the Underlibrary dissolved around them and was replaced by a bustling, smelly dock.
Oskar grinned. ‘See, nothing more dangerous than—’ But at that moment a gruff-looking man covered in tattoos elbowed him in the side.
‘Out of the way, lad!’ he bellowed, barely giving either of them a second look.
‘We need to find Jim,’ Oskar said. ‘The boy in the story. He should be around here somewhere.’ As he spoke a skinny boy brushed past them.
He was clutching a tightly rolled parchment and was staring up at the buildings, looking for something. His eye caught on a swinging wooden sign decorated with a gilt telescope and he set off towards it at a jog. Tilly and Oskar followed. The tavern looked like a film set; the big room had low wooden ceilings and was clouded with tobacco smoke.
‘I can’t believe how bad the past smells,’ Oskar said, breathing through his mouth. The room became quiet and groups of sailors looked up from their rum to stare at the boy, who must be Jim, Tilly thought, as he made his way towards the bar. Jim hesitated but kept walking and the noise resumed around him before a door behind the bar swung open and a man emerged.
There was barely anything remaining of his left leg, and a carved wooden peg extended from just under his hip to the floor, matched by a wooden crutch under his shoulder. He was over six feet tall with a smiling, handsome face that was hard to look away from. Jim swallowed and walked up to him.
‘Mr Silver, sir?’ he said, and held out the rolled-up parchment.
‘Yes, my lad,’ he replied. ‘Such is my name, to be sure. And who may you be?’ He read the note and then looked more intently at Jim. ‘Oh! I see. You are our new cabin boy; pleased I am to see you.’ He shook Jim’s hand firmly. The boy’s face was pale, but his back straight.
‘What do we do now?’ Tilly whispered to Oskar. ‘You’ve seen enough, right?’
‘Not even close,’ Oskar said. ‘I want to see the ship. Let’s stick around and try to follow them.’
‘I wonder what would happen if we skipped ahead?’ Tilly said. ‘Try reading a later bit – can we jump forward, do you think? I don’t fancy hanging around in here for hours.’
Oskar pulled the book from inside his jacket and passed it to Tilly.
‘You look – I won’t find the bit quickly enough; I can’t skim-read like you can,’ he said.
‘But …’
‘Seriously, you do it.’
Tilly looked down the list of chapter titles.
‘Okay, “Chapter Ten: The Voyage” – sound about right?’ She took Oskar’s arm and started to read. The air around them fizzed and fuzzed, but instead of finding themselves back outside on the dock they were standing deep in the creaking innards of the ship itself, in a lavishly decorated room with a huge desk at its centre covered by a large parchment map. The room was lined with bookshelves with pile upon pile of rolled-up maps tucked in between the spines.
‘Uh, Tilly, I just wanted to see the ship from outside, you know,’ Oskar said. ‘I don’t want to worry you, but we probably shouldn’t stay here too long in case anyone sees us.’
‘I know, I know,’ Tilly said, flustered. ‘I don’t know anything about this book – I thought this bit was describing them getting things ready to go on board. I should never have wandered into something I’ve not read; this was an incredibly bad idea.’
‘It’s fine,’ Oskar said. ‘We can go any time we want, remember? We just have to read the end of the book, like Seb said, and we’ll go straight back to the Underlibrary. Pass it here.’ But as Oskar reached out to take the book from Tilly the wooden stairs in the corner of the room creaked and one black leather boot and one wooden peg appeared, followed by the man wearing them: Long John Silver.
‘What have we here then?’ he said, coming towards them, as Tilly held the book behind her back. ‘Two stowaways? I’m not sure you’ll like where we’re headed, laddies.’ He peered closer at Tilly. ‘A laddy and a lassy stowaway, are we? It’s fiendish bad luck to have a woman on board, so the legends go – and in the captain’s quarters as well?’
‘Actually, sir,’ Oskar said, ‘we’ve sort of ended up here by accident, so, if you don’t mind, we’ll just get back off the boat.’
Silver tipped his head back and laughed, revealing a few missing teeth. ‘Now how, might I ask, did you end up in our esteemed captain’s private rooms accidentally?’ He lurched closer. ‘Who asked you to hide away in here?’
‘No one, I promise!’ Tilly said. ‘We didn’t realise these were the captain’s rooms; we were just … we were just exploring because Oskar likes boats and, if you’d just let us off again, that would be great, thank you.’
Silver stepped back. ‘Why, of course, milady, as you asked so politely. Allow me to take whatever you are holding there, to aid you on your way.’ Smiling, he offered an arm to Tilly and took the copy of Treasure Island in his other hand. ‘Let me accompany you to the deck.’
Oskar eyed the book but shrugged at Tilly and followed them, unsure what other options they had. The ship rocked in the water as they made their way upstairs.
‘Not got your sea legs yet, I see.’ Silver laughed as the boat rocked on the waves beneath them and Tilly wobbled against him. ‘Now, here we are. Just up there and you two can be off and back to your, what was it you said? Oh yes, your boat exploring.’ He smiled crookedly and bent into a sweeping bow. Tilly and Oskar clambered past him up the final steps to the deck to see the ocean stitched to the horizon, with no land in sight.
illy and Oskar looked at each other in horror as Silver laughed again.
‘Now, milady,’ he said, bowing sarcastically in front of Tilly, ‘why don’t you tell your old friend John exactly why you’re aboard the Hispaniola, and why we found you rattling around in our noble Captain Smollett’s rooms.’ He examined the book in his hand. ‘And why might you be borrowing this tome from his private bookshelves?’
He started when he saw the title of the book. ‘Treasure Island! An interesting book for you to have selected – what do you know of the isle of treasure? And I wonder what our captain knows of it to have this here book among his collection?’
Tilly and Oskar stayed silent. Neither of them had a clue how they might talk their way out of this.
‘Not feeling talkative? Let me give you a little time to think while I consult with some of my associates about what to do with you. Might not be any need to involve the captain quite yet.’ He took each of them by the shoulder in a firm but painless grip and manoeuvred them back down the steps. But instead of turning towards the captain’s quarters he took them down another level into what was obviously the ship’s kitchen.
‘Welcome to my galley,’ Silver said. ‘I’m just going to ask you to wait here for a moment. But I’m a kind host, you’ll see.’ He tossed them an apple each before he led them into a cupboard stacked with casks and locked the door behind them, taking the book with him.
Tilly took some deep breaths to try to calm down.
‘What on earth are we going to do now?’ she said to Oskar. ‘What happens if h
e reads the book and sees his own name in there? He doesn’t know he’s not real. Oh my goodness, it was such a bad idea to come here, Oskar. This is why you should always follow the rules.’
Oskar crunched his apple loudly and Tilly looked at him, exasperated.
‘No need to get hungry, is there?’ he said.
‘Okay, just give me a minute to think,’ Tilly said. They both stood with their backs against the rough wood wall, Oskar crunching and Tilly pressing her fingers to her temples in concentration.
‘Okay. Okay. We just need to get the book back. That’s all. If we can get the book, we can read ourselves out straight away. So we just have to grab it as soon as we see it.’
‘I don’t think that will go down very well,’ Oskar said. ‘He doesn’t seem like a man who likes having his stuff grabbed, you know?’
‘But if we read ourselves out immediately it doesn’t matter if we make him cross. We just need to do it as quickly as possible. So, when he comes back—’
‘Then what?’ Silver said, opening the cupboard door.
‘We were just hoping we could have our book back, Mr Silver,’ Tilly said as politely as she could.
‘I’m afraid that’s not an option quite at this moment, my darlin’. Indeed, my friends are of the opinion that if you two aren’t more forthcoming with some answers, then we’ll have to enact a little sea justice. You understand it’s not your old friend John’s preferred manner of doing things, but sometimes it’s important to uphold the illusion of democracy; we don’t want a mutiny on our hands now, do we? Not over a book. In fact, as the captain has just retired for his afternoon brandy I’m going to take you upstairs to meet with some of them to see if you can satisfy their curiosity. If you’ll follow me … And there’s no point running off – very few satisfactory places to hide in for long on a ship.’ Silver smiled.
