Thank you to my readers for being so patient, and I apologise for the gap of months between updates...
2 – Ashes
"All right," said Rachel, pacing back and forth over the rock, "let me get this straight. You saw this man link out in the middle of Atrus' flaming study, so instead of doing something logical like picking up the book so that it didn't burn so that we could all go through after him later, you bent down and linked after him?"
Jordan stared at the cloudless sky of J'nanin for a few seconds, his lips moving soundlessly, then looked at Rachel. "Yep, that about covers it."
Rachel swore under her breath. Maddy also swore, just not under her breath.
Jordan got to his feet. "Hey, look on the bright side."
Rachel folded her arms. "And what might that be?"
Jordan paused. "Can I have some time to think about that, please?"
"Do you know why I'm not married?"
Atrus dropped a large pile of burnt books onto his observatory table, then glanced up at Brittany, who had just emerged from the elevator.
"Because you're not brilliant with child care?" guessed Atrus.
"That's basically it," sighed Brittany, attempting to calm Jane down unsuccessfully. "I've helped Rachel before, but still... Jane's been poking me for half an hour now."
"She's probably just hungry," replied Atrus, going back to sorting the books. This was just like the Myst fires all over again, except Sirrus and Achenar hadn't started the fires this time. "Might be a good idea to feed her."
"Feed her?" Brittany leant herself carefully against the railing on the staircase. "Feed her what?"
"Jordan says Rachel usually breastfeeds her," replied Atrus vaguely, his mind now totally on the pile of books.
"The things I do for Rachel..." muttered Brittany darkly under her breath as she turned back to the elevator.
The J'nanin night was incredibly clear, but also incredibly cold, and Rachel, Jordan and Maddy, wrapped in Jordan's coat, huddled together in the small room under the tower. They had spent the day wandering the island to little avail. The main features of the island were four strange tusk-like objects stretching a good fifty, sixty feet up into the air. One of them was at the exact centre of the island and bore the tower in which the man with the crazy hair had locked himself at the top, and a small greenhouse-like room at the bottom. The other three tusks each had a single door set into the side of them, but this did not help in the slightest – one door was too high up to reach, one was locked and there was a large rock in front of the third. This was, they had decided, probably one of Atrus' Ages – after surveying the rest of the island and finding a series of light reflectors, some controls that moved a catwalk up and down and a large plant able to amplify noises, they came to the conclusion that they needed to employ these bizarre artefacts in order to open the tusks. First, however, it was decided that they had to get into the tower above this room.
As the three of them talked about their next course of action, Saavedro paced around the tower room in a circle, tapping the cover of the Releeshahn book as he moved. Each time round, as he passed the elevator shaft, he looked in the window, but still there was nothing.
Saavedro turned away from the elevator shaft and walked over to the pit in the centre of the room. He gripped the railing with his free hand and peered down at the cage containing the book linking him with Narayan. It was tempting to go there now. But once he went there, he couldn't get back here. Not that he wanted to ever set foot on J'nanin again; twenty years here was more than enough. But he'd worked too hard on this plan to have it all fall apart just because Atrus didn't know where to find him.
By midnight nobody was asleep. Saavedro continued to pace the upstairs tower, occasionally pausing to glance down the elevator shaft. Downstairs, the three companions still huddled together to avoid the cold, but none of them slept. Rachel rolled over to face Jordan.
"Jordan."
Jordan rolled over to face Rachel.
"Yes, love?"
"What are we going to do?"
"The same thing we did on Myst, and the same thing we did on Riven... we're going to battle our way out using our wits."
Rachel sat up. "I'm worried about Jane."
Jordan also sat up. "Worried about her? She's on Tomahna, which in itself is a lot safer than here, and she's with Brittany, Atrus and Catherine. She's safer on Tomahna with them than here with us."
"I suppose..."
Jordan paused briefly, then put his arm around Rachel's shoulders. She smiled, and they kissed. Maddy looked away pointedly.
{Brittany's journal, 18-7}
This really gives me a better appreciation of what Rachel goes through on a day-to-day basis. I hope the others get back soon. I would take Jane home, but I really don't feel that I should leave Atrus and Catherine with all this mess to clean up by themselves. We're having enough trouble as it is. Atrus said he would usually have asked the new D'ni to lend some hands, but he can't – that's part of the problem.
Dawn broke over J'nanin earlier than Jordan, Rachel and Maddy expected, but within minutes they were on their feet, spurred on by the few hours of sleep they had managed to grab, and they started to examine the room that they had spent the night in.
One of the first things they noticed was that on top of a rickety looking hammock (which they had discounted last night because it didn't look hugely strong) was a small hand-made journal with not many pieces of paper in it. Jordan, as he flicked it open and paged through it, realised it must have been written by the man who stole the Releeshahn book. His talk of revenge on Atrus, Sirrus and Achenar was quite brutal. Nevertheless, Jordan realised that there must be more to the journal than this; it had just been removed by this man – Saavedro, Jordan read. He dropped the journal into his satchel.
Whilst Jordan picked up all the pieces of paper that had gone everywhere when he stupidly dropped the journal into his satchel, Rachel and Maddy had wandered over to a large cylindrical capsule in the corner of the room. Considering it was standing in the middle of what appeared to be railings leading up into the roof, they made a fairly good guess that this was their way up to the tower, and they relayed this to Jordan. He agreed, and the three of them crowded into the fairly spacious elevator. Maddy flicked the large switch on the wall outside.
The door slid closed with a smooth thud, almost taking Rachel's finger off. Then something very strange happened. The cage-like device that ringed the elevator began to rotate slowly around the elevator. When it had turned about half a circle, it stopped, then snapped rapidly back into place. Having done this, the elevator itself now began to rise. After ten seconds or so, it stopped with a slight jerk.
Rachel, who was closest to the door, looked through the small round window. Through it she could see the cliff outside, where the man Saavedro had entered the tower from outside.
"I think we might be around the wrong way," she muttered. Jordan, who was closest to the window on the other side, peered through the window into the tower.
Saavedro was in mid-pace around the round room at the top of the tower when he glanced over at the elevator shaft across the room and saw a face through the window. He smiled... it was about time.
"Atrus? Is that you? Come to rescue your book so soon?" (Not soon enough, he said to himself. But I must make him suffer for it.) "Not yet, old friend... not yet."
Jordan watched Saavedro as he walked around to a small dish-like device attached to the railing, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from a pocket of the ragged tunic he was wearing, flattened it out and placed it on the dish. The dish lit up, the bottom part lowered itself down with a hum, flipped over and locked with the ground before flipping back up. A large cage promptly came spinning up out of the hole in the centre of the room. Inside the cage was a small pedestal, and sitting on this was what Jordan realised could only be a linking book.
After a brief whispered discussion, ending in the discovery that the door of the elevator now opened onto the outer tower door (which they still couldn't see how to unlock), Maddy reached through the hole in the elevator wall again and pressed a small green button, sending the elevator back down to the room at the bottom of the tower.
Burnt.
Burnt.
Burnt.
A few pages intact, but mostly burnt.
Burnt.
Burnt.
Potentially salvageable, but still pretty burnt.
Burnt.
Burnt.
Atrus continued to sort through the piles of books that he, Catherine and Brittany carried up into his observatory. Almost every book was burnt beyond repair. Originally, he had started with three stacks of sorted books on his desk – Burnt, Potentially Salvageable and Intact – but after the Burnt stack fell over he decided to turn it into a big pile on the floor. So far he had six books that were potentially salvageable, and only one intact – which, ironically, was for Myst.
Burnt.
He made a mental note to thank the Books Grand Master on Releeshahn for suggesting he keep his important Descriptive books somewhere safe, then remembered that it could be a while before he saw the Books Grand Master again.
Burnt.
Burnt.
The elevator door opened behind him. He didn't look up.
Burnt.
"Atrus?"
Burnt.
"Yes, Catherine?"
Catherine walked over to Atrus and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Come and have something to eat. The books aren't going to get any more burnt."
"I haven't been here very long, my love." Burnt.
"You've been here five hours, Atrus," Catherine replied gently. Atrus finally jerked his head up and looked at the clock on the wall.
"Oh." He paused for a moment longer, then stood up. "Well, I suppose I should have something to eat. As you say, the books won't get any more burnt..."