Chapter 13: Brave New World

Books.

More books than Haru had ever seen.

More books than she could ever hope to read in a lifetime – although that wouldn't stop her trying.

Her feet stumbled to a halt beneath the doorway, and Baron had to gently prompt her inside before she could block the entrance.

"Books…" she said numbly.

"It would be a very poor library if it didn't have any," Baron chuckled. He started down the nearest shelves, eyeing the labels across the top. Haru eventually regained use of her limbs and started after him.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the street outside, the library carried a strange sort of silence with it. There were people, but they murmured, sound absorbing into the books and softening. And, as Baron led her deeper into the building, she saw she had only just scratched the surface of the library's contents.

"I never imagined there would be this many books in the world," she whispered.

Baron looked back to her, and there was something akin to… pity in his eyes? "This is just one library, Haru," he said. "In one city. There are hundreds more books, in people's homes, in the shops, in the palace library… and that's in this city alone. In the kingdom, in the world…" He trailed off and turned abruptly, twisting down a corridor of bookcases until he came to what he was looking for.

He pulled a stupendously large book off its shelf.

"You're meant to read that?" Haru asked, sceptically. "What is that, a book for giants?"

Baron grinned and hauled the tome onto a nearby table. "It's not for reading – not in the usual sense, anyway," he said. "It's for looking." And he pulled the book open to reveal a full-cover spread of…

Of what?

Haru leant in, trying to make sense of the coloured masses and squiggly lines. Cursive writing marked out features, with repeating patterns scattered.

"It's a map, Chicky," Muta supplied. "Shows you how to get places."

Baron glanced down to Muta. "I thought I told you to stay outside."

"And I ain't letting ya out of my sight. I still don't trust ya."

"That makes two of us then," Toto said, landing on Baron's shoulder.

Baron gave both animals a look of despair. "This is a library. Animals aren't allowed inside," he whispered furiously.

"Oh, so now you care about rules?" Muta scoffed.

A hand gently tugged at Baron's sleeve before he could think of a retort, and his attention was brought back to Haru and the atlas. "This isn't a map," she said weakly. "Where's…? Where's home? Where are we? I don't recognise any of this."

Baron skimmed over the page and pointed to a small area surrounded by blue. "Well, that's Corona, our kingdom, and we…" He pointed to a star centring it, "are here, in the capital city."

Haru was silent for a long moment. "And the rest?"

"That's the rest of the world, Chicky."

"Chair."

"Pardon?"

Haru motioned. "I need to sit. Chair."

Baron grabbed a seat from another table over and quickly passed it over to Haru. She collapsed down into it not a moment later.

"Are… you okay?" Baron asked.

For answer, Haru stared at the page before her, hands cradled before her mouth like she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to form words if she tried. Eventually, she slowly pointed to a green patch, not far from Corona. "What's there?"

"That's Cedar Forest. There's meant to be spirits there, so Corona mostly stays out of it."

She pointed to a grey symbol almost lost amongst the green.

"Irontown," Baron supplied. "Practically a fortress, or so I've heard."

"And here?"

"The country of Ingary. Apparently has a lot of magic, including walking castles."

"Here?"

"Kingsbury. Possibly on the brink of war with Ingary." Baron paused, and then – in a flurry of movement before Haru could ask another – grabbed several more heavy tomes off the shelves. He thudded them down onto the desk and opened them up onto more brightly-coloured pages – but this time with recognisable images, not maps. He flipped through and Haru saw picture after picture of worlds she hadn't even imagined. Of giant white wolves, and deer with the face of an almost-human, and tiny stone figures nestled in the crook of trees. Of underground forests built with moss and fungi, glowing the low light. A town swathed in ash and smoke, huddled between lake and sloping forest. Stone houses built into a rising cliff face, rock doves caught in mid-flight.

"These all…" she began tentatively. Her fingers brushed the pages with an almost reverent air, as if they might open gateways into their images. "These all exist?" She looked to Baron with wide eyes. "These are all real?"

He chuckled lightly. "All of these and more."

"It's…" She shook her head and didn't continue.

"I know you never left your tower before now, but… there were books there," Baron said. "Did you never read anything about this?"

"My mother didn't exactly encourage me to learn about the world," Haru said. She suddenly wasn't making eye contact with Baron. "After all, what use is there in learning about a world I'll never get to actually see? I think she thought it would be cruel."

Baron paused, his hands lingering on the next page on Ingarian magic. "Maybe," he concluded softly, "but I guess that makes me lucky." When Haru looked to him, questioningly, he smiled. "I get to be the one to show you the world."

ooOoo

There was a commotion as they left the library, and Haru almost backpedalled into the building on instinct. She would have done too, if Baron hadn't caught her shoulder and steadied her.

"Easy, there," he soothed. "This is just the next stage of the festival."

"What is?"

Baron gave an amused sigh. "The dancing."

And Haru took another look at the hubbub spreading out across the plaza. It looked like chaos to her; all excited babble and off-key notes and fumbling to find places. It was hard to imagine any of it falling into anything resembling dancing.

"This is dancing?" she asked.

"Well, it will be in a bit." Baron threw her a strange look. "Please tell me you know how to dance."

"Of course I do," she replied, a tad indignantly. "Just never like… never with so many people." Never so loud. Never so contagiously joyful. The discordant music began to fit together as the musicians finished tuning their instruments, and suddenly the crowds were grabbing hands and forming circles across the plaza.

"Right, right," Baron said. "Never left the tower before now, of course."

She eyed him. "Do you know this dance?"

"I learnt it a long while back, but I haven't had much use for dancing for… well, not recently, let's put it that way. It's not a difficult dance though – there's a single set of dance moves that repeat over and over, getting faster with every round until either the musicians or the dancers give way." He grinned, and then spotted the expression filtering across Haru's face. "What?"

"You don't dance anymore?"

"Thieves don't get invited to parties."

The pity clouding Haru's face shifted to something he belatedly recognised as stubborn determination. "Well you're invited to this party," she said, and grabbed his hand.

"Wait, no – keeping a low profile, remember?" he protested as he was hauled forward. "I can't just – oh, okay–" Suddenly he found himself slotted beside Haru in an opening as the townsfolk split apart for them. He smiled fleetingly at the woman to his left and then leant over to Haru on his right. "If I get arrested while dancing," he whispered, "you legally have to come bail me out."

"That's fine," she whispered back. "I'll just sell off the crown and retire rich."

All around her, the rest of the circle spun and clapped twice. Haru jumped and only just managed the final clap.

Baron grinned as he scooped her hand back into his and prompted them both inwards with the rest of the dancers, arms and hands rising as shoulders bumped and feet threatened to tangle with their neighbours. There was a collective whoop of laughter and the chaotic intimacy was lost as they backpedalled into their original loose circle.

"Maybe you should spend less time plotting how to spend my hard-earned treasure, and more time dancing," Baron teased.

"Hard-earned?" Haru echoed with a laugh. "You didn't earn it."

"Do you think they just leave treasure just lying around?" Baron returned. "Anything valuable is always locked or hidden away, and it takes talent for someone to liberate it." He winked. "You're looking at a professional."

Haru laughed, and anything she was going to say was snatched away as Baron's left neighbour looped his elbow and swung him onto the other side. He glanced back and saw Haru had been similarly claimed and was gamely swinging from elbow to elbow, anti-clockwise like all the other ladies.

He could only spare a grin as they passed on the opposite side of the circle, arms lacing for but a moment before the music dictated they carry on.

Around and around until they were back where they started and, even in the slower verse, it was still no stroll in the park to get back before the music began another round. Quicker again.

Both were out of breath as they returned.

"Okay," Haru wheezed, her face flushed but her eyes bright, "so how are you planning on spending your hard-earned treasure?" She stepped forward, stepped back, but didn't break the eye contact. "Maybe on a refresher dancing lesson?"

"I think I'm good on that front."

This time it was Haru who remembered to spin, and Baron who forgot. Her plaited hair flared out around her before swaying back into place along her back, and she grinned at him as she clapped. "Are you sure about that?"

"I learnt ballroom dancing, not this uncoordinated shuffle."

"You're only calling it that because you keep missing the moves."

"You keep distracting me."

Haru laughed, her head tilting back with unbridled humour, and she took his hand again as they converged on the circle's centre. "Really? I'm distracting? Are you insulting me?"

"Oh, I've seen you wield a cane," he replied. "I wouldn't dare insult you."

"Not within reach, anyway."

"Naturally."

They scooted back and found themselves swept back up in the swinging circle once more, the move less of a dance and more of a gallop to return to their original places before the next round started up.

"You still haven't told me what you intend to do with all your riches," Haru called as they reunited.

"Oh, I don't know." Step forward. Step back. "I'm thinking private island." His hand twitched in hers, as if resisting the temptation to grandly gesture the extravagance of his plan. "Somewhere warm and sunny, where I can retire tanned and unarrested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money."

"Really?" Haru spun, so Baron couldn't see her face, but she didn't sound wholly impressed. "That's your big plan?"

"You have any better ideas?"

"I don't know. It's just, it sounds an awful lot like settling down to a quiet life to me," Haru hummed. "Staying in one place and running a house, like some sort of pleb. I thought you said that wasn't for you."

"Hang on–"

Anything else he had to say was stolen away as another circuit was mandated.

"For your information–" he sputtered as he passed Haru on the halfway point, "–I have no plans of running a house," he finished as he was reunited. "I plan on living off the land and my vast wealth."

"Sounds great. Send me a postcard when you get there."

"I'll send you a postcard and a coconut. How does that sound?"

Haru faked a gasp. "You'll spend your precious gold on sending me a coconut? I'm honoured."

"Of course I would." He winked. "Second-class stamp, naturally. Or maybe I'll just not bother with a stamp at all and you can pay for the postage when it arrives at your end."

She flicked his arm. "I thought you said you were a gentleman thief."

"A miserly gentleman thief," he amended. "Also, that's not an approved dance move."

"Neither is stomping on your foot, so consider me gracious I went with an alternative." She grinned and looped away from him, once again coming to the end of another verse.

Their dancing was automatic now, enough turns of the song practiced for the brain to relegate it to the backburner, but the next round brought a harsh uptick of rhythm. They didn't so much swing from partner to partner as propel themselves forward with every passing dancer. There wasn't even enough time for a quip as they passed the halfway point, sparing no more than conspiring grins.

"Haru–" Baron began.

"Can't talk!" she gasped as she fumbled the one step forward, one step back move. "Concentrating!" She whirled wildly, barely able to catch her balance in time for the clapping. There was a fresh vein of laughter bubbling up now from the plaza; uncontrolled, contagious, and mildly-hysterical as people began to miss steps and catch their neighbours instead. The melody that dictated they converged into the circle's centre rose up, prompting a mad dash into the middle that was a far cry from the original leisurely skipping that had begun the song, and chaos began to break out.

Peals of laughter rang out as someone on the opposite side of the circle tripped and was only saved from the cobbled street by their neighbours pulled them back up. Toes were stepped on. Elbows clacked. Shoulders knocked. And then they were on to the circling. People forwent swinging now, and Haru found herself reaching from stranger's hand to stranger's hand, passing Baron briefly, and then leaping from one unknown dancer to the next again. Round and round, faster and faster, until she was reaching for Baron's hand–

She stumbled and the cobbled plaza reared up before her. And then a wrist snagged hers and she was pulled close into a familiar jacket just as the music collapsed in a triumphant final flourish.

She was breathing fast. So was Baron. She could hear his heart hammering in the sudden silence of the music's absence and her own heart raced alongside it. She raised her gaze to his, and the teasing response floundered on her tongue as she met his eyes.

At this proximity, they shone like emeralds. The sinking spring sunshine caught on them and they were like gems. Like sunlight through leaves. Like–

Applause rose up from the dancers and onlookers alike, and Haru jolted.

Baron did too. He blinked rapidly, as if his thoughts had also been far away, coming back into focus just as the cry of "The boats! To the boats!" rose up from the crowds, and they both sharply broke the close contact.

Haru automatically ran a hand through her hair, the nervous action accompanied by a disorientated scan of the plaza as people began to purposefully file away. She glanced back to Baron with a self-conscious grin. "Now what?" she asked.

"Now we reach the reason you came," he said, and guided her against the current of the crowd.