Longfang (13 page)

Fang landed with delicate precision in front of the great marble steps leading up to the gigantic main doors. Firestorm touched down with equal finesse alongside him. Both dragons folded their
wings back and dipped down on their forelegs to allow the two girls to dismount.

Sliding down to the ground, Kira stepped smartly away from Fang and leapt up the first two enormous marble steps where she met Nolita. The blonde girl looked nervous, though it was not clear if
this was due to the proximity of the dragons, or the imposing nature of the building in front of them.

‘This way, Nolita,’ Kira said in a low voice, trying to sound confident. ‘Let’s get this over with. I can’t say I care much for the smell around here.’

She led the way up the remaining five steps to the threshold to the open doors. Towering pillars on either side of the doorway made for a most impressive entranceway. The twin open doors into
the Grand Library were at least six times a man’s height. They were carved from thick pieces of solid hardwood that had been so cleverly joined that they appeared to have been cut from a
single, impossibly large tree.

Distracted by the sheer scale of the entranceway, Kira did not notice the man standing inside the doors until he spoke.

‘Hello, dragonriders. I am Kalen. Welcome to the Grand Library. What can I do for you today?’

The man was a picture of wisdom: clean-shaven, pale and wrinkled with age, but with bright blue eyes that danced with intelligence. His full crop of silver hair was trimmed neatly around his
ears and neck. His pale cream scholar’s robe was clean and cinched at the waist by a belt of purple. What drew Kira’s eyes most, however, was the way that the man’s head jutted
forwards from his shoulders. It took a moment for her to realise that the man’s spine was deformed. It looked almost as if his neck were broken, as his head tipped forwards at a strange
angle, forcing him to look up at them through the tops of his eyes.

She stammered as she tried to respond with suitable poise.

‘Hello, Kalen. I am Kira and this is Nolita,’ she said. ‘We’re here seeking the answer to a riddle. I wonder if you can help us.’

‘A riddle!’ he said, sounding both surprised and delighted. ‘A riddle whose solution escapes the wisdom of dragons must be a riddle indeed! I shall be honoured to help you.
Come inside and tell me about it. I confess, I’m most intrigued.’

‘Are you sure?’ Kira asked, uncertain. How could she be sure he was the right person to ask for help? ‘I wouldn’t want to distract you from your work.’

‘Not at all, Kira. I only take a turn in the doorway to allow me some space to think. It’s always a pleasure to help dragonriders.’

‘From what I sense of his mind, he is genuinely interested in helping us, Kira,’
Fang told her, feeling her indecision through the bond.
‘I think you can trust him.
Firestorm and I are going to leave the courtyard and go down to the sea. We want to take the opportunity to bathe in the cool water. We will return for you in a couple of hours, or if we feel any
night dragons approaching.’

‘That’s fine, Fang,’
she replied.
‘We’ll see you later. Hopefully we’ll have more of an idea of where we’re going by then.’

Kalen gave a hand signal, and two young men in robes tied with yellow belts came running across from the colonnade to their right. The men leapt up the marble steps, keeping a good distance from
the dragons. Fang and Firestorm launched into the sky and all the scholars who had hidden under the covered walkways were quick to step out to watch the two great creatures climb away.

Kira smiled at their reaction. It was clearly not an everyday occurrence for dragons to visit. The old scholar gave a brief set of instructions to the two juniors in a quiet voice and then
gestured for Kira and Nolita to follow him inside.

‘Excuse me, Kalen . . . sir,’ Nolita stammered as they crossed the threshold. ‘Is there somewhere I could wash my hands?’

‘Yes, of course!’ Kalen said, looking particularly pleased. ‘It’s wonderful to see that you observe such customs. We normally require everyone to wash their hands before
entering the Grand Library. Some of the books are priceless. It would be a disaster to have them ruined with dirty finger marks. I was going to waive protocol in your case, as you’ve clearly
been wearing gloves, but I would feel much more comfortable if you washed your hands before entering. Through that door over there you will find basins with clean water and plenty of soap. The
water boys change the basins twice every hour. The last change was completed just moments before you arrived.’

Kira knew that Nolita’s request to wash had nothing to do with the books, but Kalen did not need to know that. He had pointed to an ordinary-sized side door set in the wall of the foyer.
The girls went through it and found lines of bowls filled with clean water. A small block of soap rested in a dish next to each bowl.

Kira picked a bowl and gave her hands a cursory wash before drying them on a piece of soft dry cloth hanging on a wall hook just above the bowl. Nolita took considerably more time, scrubbing
fiercely at the skin and cleaning thoroughly between her fingers and under her nails.

‘Is it getting any easier?’ Kira asked her as she waited. ‘Do you feel as if you’re coming to terms with being a rider yet?’

Nolita did not look up.

‘No,’ she said bluntly. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. I thought the feelings of fear would reduce, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that
happening yet. I still find it as difficult to climb onto Fire’s back as I did in the day dragon enclave. I am coping . . . just, but I don’t think the fear will ever go
away.’

‘I sort of assumed—’ Kira started.

‘Well you assumed wrong,’ Nolita interrupted. She looked up at Kira with the fire of anger in her eyes. ‘It’s not getting any easier. If anything it’s getting more
difficult. At the moment I cope because I have to – because there is a purpose behind what we’re doing. But succeed or fail, this quest will be over in a few weeks and what then? You,
Elian and Pell will go your own ways. I will be left with Fire – alone. Just the thought of that scares me more than anything I’ve ever known.’

‘But Fire will never hurt you,’ Kira said gently. ‘You know that, don’t you?’

‘Understanding it, and making my heart and mind believe it are very different things,’ Nolita sighed. ‘I
know
it doesn’t make any sense. I
don’t know
why I’m still so afraid, but I
am.
There doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.’

Kira placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. ‘We’ll work something out, Nolita. You’ll see.’

The words were well meant, but Kira realised how hollow they must sound. Nolita was right. The quest would end soon, one way or another. At the moment she could not imagine life after searching
for the dusk orb. This was her part in the quest and it required focus. Danger had dogged their steps throughout. Nolita had completed her part. It was no wonder she was starting to look ahead and
worry.

The girls rejoined Kalen and he led them deep into the Grand Library building. The short hallway ended with another set of impressive doors. These were a third of the size of the outer doors,
but again had clearly been crafted with great skill. Kalen opened the right-hand door and waved the girls through ahead of him.

Kira gasped with wonder as she stepped into the vast room beyond. Her mind instantly flashed back to the Chamber of the Sun Steps at the enclave of the day dragons, and how she had felt as she
entered that enormous cavern. If anything, this room was even more awe-inspiring than the volcanic cave because it was the work of human hands.

The circular walls of the vast space had five levels of balcony walkways running around its circumference, with sets of steps zigzagging up through the levels. What made the room dizzying,
however, was not its size, but the incredible number of books that lined its walls. Every inch of space on the huge circular walls was shelved and each shelf was full of books.

The central area of the chamber was given to more bookcases. It looked like a maze. The huge, imposing bookcases interlocked in a complex geometric pattern to make maximum use of the
ground-level floor space.

‘Impressive, isn’t it?’ Kalen said in a low voice. ‘There are four more rooms like this, but they are smaller. This is the central chamber.’

‘I didn’t know there were this many books in the world,’ Nolita whispered.

Kira glanced across at her wide-eyed companion and then at Kalen. Nolita had echoed Kira’s thoughts word for word. The man smiled.

‘The problem with having such a wonderful library,’ he said in a conspiratorial whisper, ‘is that to be anyone in this city, you need to have written a book that is deemed
worthy of a place in it.’

‘So have you written a book that can be found here?’ Kira asked.

Kalen’s smile stretched wider still. ‘Yes indeed – nine volumes now, with another that is currently being read by the Council of Librarians.’

‘Nine books! That’s amazing. I couldn’t think of enough words to fill one book, let alone nine.’

‘Writing is not so different from speaking, really,’ Kalen said, trying to sound modest and not quite succeeding. ‘Everyone knows enough words to fill a book. There are some
who discover new things that add to the pool of human understanding. Others write of life experiences, or stories that encapsulate lessons designed to help people live better lives. It is
developing the discipline to sit and string the words together in a way that brings something fresh and beneficial to literature that takes practice.’

‘I can relate to what you’re saying,’ Kira admitted. ‘Learning to be a hunter is similar. Everyone knows the basics: you go into the wild, you kill animals and you bring
them back home for the table. It sounds easy, but to be any good at it takes years of practice.’

‘An interesting analogy,’ Kalen said thoughtfully. ‘I’ve never heard anyone relate writing a book to hunting before. But now come, tell me your riddle and we’ll see
if I can help you find an answer.’

Chapter Twelve

‘There is something about this rhyme that’s niggling at me,’ Jack muttered. He scratched at his right ear, his forehead lined with wrinkles as he narrowed his
eyes and concentrated. He stared at the words of the Oracle’s poem. He had written them out on the back of his map so he would not forget them. The words made no sense.

‘Does any of it make sense?’ Elian asked, intrigued by Jack’s reaction to the Oracle’s riddling words. ‘Given that we’ve now discovered the
meanings of the verses that relate to the first two orbs, I expected to decipher the last two more easily, but they remain a mystery.’

‘Sense? No,’ Jack answered, shaking his head. ‘But there’s something about the poem . . . something that tells me I can answer the riddles. Perhaps I am linked to your
quest after all. It’s like looking at a crossword. Some days you can look at the cryptic clues and the answers jump out at you. Other days it doesn’t matter how hard you look, the
answers won’t come, yet they are no more difficult. I’m having one of those frustrating days when the answers won’t come, but I know they will. I
know
they will.’

Elian had no idea what a crossword was, but he got the sense of what Jack was saying. It was as he had suspected from the beginning. This man held the key to their quest. He could solve the
final riddles. Even if he did not do it overnight, he could do it eventually.

With the answers to the riddles, the quest would become far easier. Once they knew where to look, it would be about tackling the challenges that waited at each orb’s location. What test
awaited him? he wondered. Just thinking about the question sent a shiver down his spine. Both Nolita and Pell had faced terrible trials to obtain their orbs. What would getting his orb involve?