The Library’s Teeth

Rishi held out his hand. “Ready to follow me into the mind of a mad wizard?”

Maeril regarded the iron-bound door beyond him. “You are assuming we are not already inside one.”

“No one has screamed yet.”

Something scraped faintly in the room below. One of their bound prisoners shifting against the cord, perhaps.

She put her hand in his. “Give it time.”

He let the warmth of her fingers steady him.

Maeril squeezed once and released him. Her spider climbed to the lintel while Rishi took up his staff.

He opened the door.

A landing ran along the curved wall beyond the threshold. Its unguarded edge overlooked a circular library twenty feet below. A spiral stair descended from one end; at the other, an iron-bound chest stood against the wall. No upward flight was visible.

Rishi leaned far enough to look down. Shelves lined the lower room. There was no doorway among them. “Where does this join the other tower?”

“Grim pointed us through this door.” She looked over his shoulder at the shelves. “If someone left a drawing of the place, I would like to see it before we go any higher.”

They followed the visible stair down. The spider kept ahead of them along the wall.

The library smelled of old paper and damp stone. Continual flames supplied light but no heat. Beside the foot of the stair stood a marble Dragonchess table, its unfinished game filmed with dust. A dented suit of armor faced it from a stand near the shelves. There was just room to walk between the armor and the table.

Four gargoyles crouched in high alcoves above the books.

Maeril paused beside the board. “Someone left before the interesting part.”

“Who was winning?”

“Ask me after I have decided which side I prefer.”

Rishi went past the armor to the nearest shelf. Maeril remained by the stair, her staff planted beside her good foot, and murmured over her free hand. Her gaze moved slowly around the room.

“Did you find a way through?” Rishi asked.

“Nothing that will tell us which way to go. Try the books.”

The titles nearest him had faded almost to nothing. He drew out a plain cloth-bound volume.

Stone grated above his head.

Two gargoyles unfolded from the alcoves over the shelf. The other two remained fixed in their crouches. Rishi dropped the book and raised his staff as the first creature fell toward him. He turned its claws past his shoulder, then ducked behind the armor stand.

The second gargoyle struck the breastplate. Metal crashed between the shelves and the table, trapping one of its feet beneath the fallen stand.

Rishi backed into the narrow way beside the table. The first creature followed, reaching over the marble with one claw while the other swept at his chest. He caught the forearm across his staff and turned it outward. A stone wing struck the board, scattering ivory pieces.

From beside the stair, Maeril thrust her hand toward its face. Its head jerked sideways. Rishi stepped into the opening and drove the capped end of his staff beneath its jaw. A crack ran from its throat into its chest. He reversed the shaft against the wing joint before the claws could close on him.

The second creature tore its foot free of the armor. Rishi retreated two steps along the table toward the stair, drawing the cracked gargoyle after him. Behind him, Maeril climbed one step and raised her hand again.

The unhurt gargoyle tried to pass its companion. Their wings struck each other in the narrow space.

Let them crowd each other, Rishi told himself.

A claw caught his sleeve. Rishi pulled the cloth free and checked the cracked creature’s arm with his staff. His other hand struck the fracture in its chest. Dark force sank beneath his palm. The stone gave, and the creature broke at his feet.

Its companion spread its wings to leap over the wreckage. Maeril’s fingers closed. The gargoyle’s head snapped back, and one wing folded before the other could lift it clear.

Rishi stepped aside along the table. The creature crashed against its edge, claws scraping marble. He struck beneath its ribs with the steel-capped end of his staff, then brought the other end down on its bent neck. Stone shattered across the board.

Fragments ticked across the floor. Rishi spat out a grain of stone and looked up. The remaining carvings had not moved.

Maeril stepped down and picked up an ivory dragon beside her boot. “A damaged set and an interrupted game. This tower has no respect for culture.”

“You attacked one of them.”

“To protect the books.”

Rishi retrieved the volume he had dropped. Its worn cover had pulled loose, exposing a finer binding beneath. He handed it to Maeril.

She opened it, turned two pages, and stopped. Her thumb lingered beside a diagram crowded with small, precise writing.

“A way through?” Rishi asked.

“A spellbook. Hidden under this miserable cover.” She turned another page, then shut it with visible reluctance. “We are taking this. I shall admire it somewhere less hostile.”

A shallow drawer beneath the table held a removable case for the Dragonchess pieces. She fitted the fallen dragon into its velvet slot and gathered the pieces within reach.

“For Erik?” Rishi asked.

“For me. Erik may apply for supervised access.”

She packed the case beside the spellbook. Rishi checked the curve of the wall behind the shelves once more, then led the way back up the spiral stair.

On the landing, Maeril stopped beside the chest. “Should we open this?”

“We’ve lost enough time already.”

“Right, probably just a mimic anyway.”

She passed it. Rishi kept close to the wall, as Grim had told them, and swept the end of his staff low across the empty space beyond the chest. It struck a hard edge a few inches above the landing.

Maeril uncorked her waterskin. A thin fan of droplets struck the air ahead of them and broke along level edges. Water beaded on three narrow treads, then dripped from their outer corners into the library below. The steps curved upward against the wall toward a dark opening overhead.

Rishi pressed his staff onto the first tread, testing it before he put his weight there. Stone held beneath his sandal. He kept his left palm against the wall and found the next step with the staff’s tip. “Keep close to the wall. The outer edge narrows.”

Maeril set her own staff on the wet tread behind him. “I had no intention of admiring the view.”

He climbed slowly enough to hear each tap of her staff before moving again. At a tight bend, he looked back. Maeril brought both feet onto a tread before asking her bad leg to carry her higher. The spider ran ahead over the stone beside them.

The wet edges fell away below. Rishi felt for each new step in dry, empty air until his staff struck the lip of the opening.

Smoke drifted across his hand. Above it, several voices kept the same low, insistent rhythm.