Chapter 8: Stop Poking It

…

They took a few minutes to find a staircase. What they eventually discovered was a narrow space at one end of the library, the far end from where they had seen the black spot below. Blocks high enough to bust a careless knee served as stairs. Headspace was not much of a consideration, either, but it was one of a few times that Link could actually gloat about his short stature.

He could, but Link was not in the mood. Two years ago, Link had never been able to anticipate what kind of trouble he would find as he had spent three months traveling about the surface and the sky. But, after that first month, he had begun to identify when he had been about to walk into a bad situation. With a minor margin for error; after all, he had not expected the governor of Castle Island to start shooting at him. Nevertheless, his overall impression of this island had changed from a simple dismissal of mild paranoia to a minor admonition concerning appearances to a full array of warning flags. He wanted to believe that he was ready for anything.

He had to admit that he was not ready for this situation.

As Link stepped off the final stair, he paused as his eyes examined the dark area from the other side. Even with all the spots of light, it was like opening a door to a windowless room. Illumination tried to reach into the darkness, but it simply stopped just out of reach. Link could hardly make out the features of the wall beyond the dark. The marbles of light crawling along the walls seemed as if they just disappeared behind the bookshelves framing the darkness.

He clenched his fists. "Irleen," he asked in a business-like tone, "can you… see any life… in that?"

Irleen was stunned at the sight, and her answer was a little delayed. "I-I can't tell," she answered, her voice hollow. "It's… it's like the darkness is blocking me."

Line dropped to the floor next to Link. "Oh, man…" he said. "I think I had a nightmare like this once."

"Me, too," Irleen said. "But there was a senior librarian with a whip waiting to beat knowledge into my head. I hated that woman."

Line glanced at her as she fluttered near Link's left ear. "You've got issues."

"I wish we'd brought lanterns with us, like Leynne suggested," Link said. Then he got an idea and reached around his back. "Irleen, how flammable is this library?"

"Link, it isn't a good idea," Irleen replied. "If the fire gets out of control, the smoke'll kill us before the library burns down on top of us."

Link immediately took his hand away from his flare gun. "Never mind." He looked left and spotted books sitting in a shelf grown from the surface of a nearby table. "Here's another idea."

"Wait a minute," Irleen said as she and Line followed Link to the table. "You're not just gonna throw a book into it, are you?" Link pulled a book from the table and flipped through its contents. "You can't do that, Link! What if the one you chose happens to be the one I need to change back?"

Link showed her the cover. "Is it?"

Irleen hovered closer to read the cover. "'Annej'. Oh. I've seen her work."

"So… no?"

"No, this one, you can chuck."

"Is it that bad?" Line asked as they approached the dark area.

"Flat characters, convoluted storyline, unrealistic familial developments… and some pretty crappy spelling," Irleen replied. "And I happen to like horses. I've never seen one before, but I like them."

"What's that gotta do with it?"

"Her main character likes to boot them in the legs." Link looked over his shoulder to exchange looks and a shrug with Line.

Link dared to go as far as the middle of the floor and then about five paces more. It still put him at a decent, safe distance from the dark area. He hoped. Even after moving this close, though, he still could not make out any of the features beyond the darkness.

So Link turned his shoulders and flung the book with a side-throw at the darkness. This caused the book to flop open mid-flight as it spun. It fell short of the darkness with a disappointing thump.

Line stepped up beside Link and cast the book a disappointed look. "What was that?" Line asked.

"It opened up," Link defended.

"Where did you learn how to throw a book?" Line asked.

"Fine." Link pointed at the book. "You go pick it up and throw it."

Line glanced between Link and the darkness for a moment. "Are you kidding? I'm not going near that." Instead, Line turned and walked to a nearby table. There, he found a small set of scrolls piled into a pyramid and took the scroll on the top.

He returned to Link's side and showed the scroll to Irleen. "Eugh…" she groaned. "Chuck it."

"More Annej?" Link asked.

"An excerpt," she replied. "I hope whatever idiot that copied it broke both hands afterwards."

"No love for Annej," Line said with a fake sigh. He lofted the scroll to catch it in a better grip. Then he overhanded the scroll as hard as he could.

Thp. The scroll hit something soft enough that it sprang backwards slightly before clattering to the floor. For a brief moment, no one spoke while eyes waited to see if the scroll would survive.

Line then finally asked, "Did I… hit something?"

"I… I think you did," Link replied. He looked up at Irleen. "Something… soft?"

"I can't imagine why anything like that would be here," Irleen said. She watched as the boys slowly stepped forward. Then she quickly moved to hover over their heads. "Whatever it is, it's blocking our access to the technoworks."

The boys stopped as far as the book. "Think it's something the last guys here left behind?" Line asked as he picked the book up.

"I don't know," Irleen said. "It would help if we could see what it was."

"Okay," Link said as he looked around. "Irleen, do you see anything around here that might indicate you and Cale need to be on this floor?"

"So far, not really."

"That settles it then," Link said. "Line, pass along to the crew that no one needs to come down here. We don't know what this is, but there's no need to bother it."

"What about the technoworks?" Irleen asked.

"We'll have to find another entrance. If worst comes to worst, we might see if Biluf can open another hole for us."

"Yeah, that'll do a lot for the landscape," Line joked as they turned around.

Irleen took a moment to think while the boys walked back to the stairs. Then she caught up with them as she said, "If there's a river somewhere on the surface, there should be another place near there to get under the island."

"Sounds good," Line said as he tossed the book onto a nearby table. "Sounds like a job for the ship."

"Line, I think I'll have you take care of that," Link said.

Line mounted the first step. Then he stopped and turned to look at Link. "Wait, have me take care of what?" he asked.

"Take the ship into the air overhead and look for water," Link explained. "You'll only need a couple of deckhands and a helmsman. Dubbl can supervise."

"Yeah, but she hates me."

"All the Gelto hate you, Line," Irleen replied as she fluttered over his head.

"Borrow someone from the engine room if you have to," Link continued, "but it would be easier if you were up there doing it."

"Why can't you do it?" Line whined as he started up the "stairs" again.

"I wanna be here on the island in case we find the technoworks," Link said. "The sooner we can get access to them, the sooner we can change the Sky Line and get us home faster."

"Yeah, but you need me on the Symphony to help you find them?"

"That, and so you can go be a slacker as much as you want." Line stopped and looked under his arm at a grinning Link. "Or would you rather be walking around all day with Leynne kicking your ass along?" Irleen started giggling.

"I'm sorry, is the word 'sucker' written on me somewhere?" Line asked Irleen.

"In bright, green letters on your forehead," Irleen replied.

"I'm serious," Link said, still grinning. "Both of us have been walking around all morning. And your whining is getting on my nerves." Line stuck his tongue out in response. "But, if you could take the Symphony overhead and find us a river somewhere, it would help a lot."

"And… you're gonna let me command?" Line asked.

"Under Dubbl's supervision," Link pointed out.

"Whatever," Line said.

"Dubbl will relieve you as soon as you're back at the port. I trust you to be able to not only find a river, but to be able to direct us to it."

"You said it before: Leynne's got the tools, but I got the senses."

The conversation died between them as they climbed back to the second floor, mostly because Line was running out of breath just two floors up. Link had a little more stamina than that, having had a bit of training with Layna in the past two years. Granted, he could not disappear at will, but it allowed him to last longer during the day. Running a ship full of quirky airmen made that a necessity, as there never seemed to be a time of the day when someone was not getting into trouble.

Layna joined them at the doorway to the outside, and they left the library after letting Line catch his breath. Instead of walking all the way back to the first hole, they used the debris from the fallen building to climb out of the new hole and took a couple of side streets to find the main road they had been using. The only way to tell which one was the main road was to find Leynne's group.

"Captain! Oveh heh!"

Leynne had spotted them stepping onto the main road first, standing closer toward the center of the island than expected. Link and Line hustled toward him as Biluf, Dubbl, Flower, and Lwamm stepped out of a nearby building.

Line was the one to ask the obvious question, "You found an open one?"

"As fah as you'h concehned, yes," Leynne replied.

"What about as far as I'm concerned?" Link asked, sporting a half-grin.

"Lwamm had the key, Captain," Leynne told him.

Link nodded. "No doubt hidden well by her fist."

"Actually, she had it in her shoe, Captain," Flower spoke up, unable to suppress the grin on his face.

"What did she open the dooh to?" Leynne asked.

Flower pointed a thumb over his shoulder as he spoke. "Looks like a small metal-working shop. Bunch of little knick-knacks on the ground floor, tools and work tables in between…" He paused to give a rather worrying sigh. "… and there's a furnace on the top floor.

"It looks like it's been used lately."

The crew traded looks with each other, although Biluf and Lwamm met more with confusion than astonishment until Dubbl translated for them. "Ah you cehtain?" Leynne asked.

Flower nodded. "I used a poker to rake through the coals a bit. There're still hot ones in the furnace."

"So there are still people here," Irleen said in a low voice. She slowly turned to look around at the nearby buildings. "But where are they?"

"Indeed," Leynne said. "And why has no one responded to Biluf's explosion? We can only assume at this point, so let's assume that they might not look kindly onto ouh shenanigans." Flower snorted and quickly clapped a hand over his mouth. "We should be ready to leave if something weh to come up."

"And I'd like to work on that," Link said. "Leynne, I want Biluf and Lwamm to return to the ship with Line. They'll take the Island Symphony over the island and see if they can find a river or source of water."

Leynne nodded. "I believe I undehstand youh reasoning," he said, "but I would like to point out that most of the commanding staff is heh. Pehhaps it would be best if I weh to retuhn to the ship foh this task."

Link took a moment to consider Leynne's words. Then he nodded. "Okay, Leynne, you and Line head back to the ship. We'll continue searching for supplies around here."

"Link," Line said, nudging Link with an elbow.

Link gave an annoyed look before adding, "One other thing. I want Line to handle command for this task. I'd like you to just supervise."

"Aaaah," Leynne droned with an understanding nod. "Cashing in on youh bets, gentlemen?"

"Oh, shit," Line muttered. "I completely forgot about that bet."

"So did I," Link admitted. "I just want you to go away."

"Very well," Leynne said with a nod. "Shall we, Line?"

"You got it, Lieutenant," Line replied.