there would be something about it that would make it stand out to him, otherwise he’d run the risk of going right past it. As it turned out, this fear was completely unfounded for, as they got nearer to the island, a huge, massive, monstrous dark shape began to form before them.
From the water, Lex strained his eyes through the darkness, hardly able to believe what he thought he was seeing. But, as they approached, there was no denying it: the library tree was so gigantic that it covered the entire island. It was bigger than any building Lex had ever seen in the Lands Above. The roots? which were two or three feet thick in places? were clamped tight around the edge of the island, clinging to it like poison ivy, and trailing down into the sea. There was no shore to speak of because it had been taken over so completely by roots. Lex had no idea how big the tree actually was but it must have been at least two hundred feet high.
They had barely pulled up to the island before Lex was leaping over the side, soaking his feet up to the ankles but hardly noticing as he climbed the tree roots up to the land. As soon as his feet touched ground, the island lit up. Or, rather, the tree did. There were hundreds of little lanterns hung about its branches and they all came on as one. At the exact same moment, the silence was broken by a strange, soft warbling sound that seemed to be coming from all around them.
In the soft glow of light, they could see the tree much better. At first, Lex thought it must be dead, but then he realised it was just black, from the tip of its roots to the end of its leaves.
The humongous trunk, some distance away, looked like it was made up of several trunks that were twisted and knotted together. Branches spread out from the centre in all directions. Wooden walkways were lashed to them with thick coils of rope; rope ladders led from one level to the next and rope bridges ran between branches. There was a complete network of paths, bridges and ladders all around the tree.
And everywhere were books. There were shelves attached to some branches and carved into others. Periodically, giant roots thrust down to the ground from the branches like pillars and these all seemed to have been hollowed out and filled with books, too. There were only leaves at the very top of the tree and these were black.
The tree loomed over them like a grim, sinister guardian. Something about it seemed alive despite the fact that it was completely still. The breeze didn’t even rustle the leaves at the top? they just stayed motionless, like they’d been glued there.
‘Well, bless me if that ain’t the strangest darn tree I ever saw,’ Jesse said. ‘Looks like it oughta have a pack of vultures peckin’ at it.’
It did look dead, or burnt, or something. But there was a rich, damp, earthy smell in the air that spoke very much of living plants and there didn’t appear to be any vegetation around except for the tree. The ground was covered in roots and crisp black leaves.
In amongst all the black bark were the occasional splashes of colour. Several large birdcages hung from the branches and in these Lex could glimpse colourful feathers. There seemed to be some sort of songbird in them and they were all warbling away. It was not an unpleasant noise? even if it was unlike normal birdsong? but Lex was sure that the birds were probably some kind of alarm system. Their singing was no doubt alerting someone? or something? to the fact that they were there.
‘Come on,’ Lex said, starting forwards.
The others were probably only a minute behind them and they could not afford to waste time. They needed to find some way on to the tree. This, as it turned out, was fairly easy, for the nearest pillar-like root stretching down to the ground had a rope-ladder attached to it.
Lex clambered over the roots that were raised up out of the ground to get to the ladder. He shot up it and stepped on to the wooden platform. It felt sturdy and strong, and took his weight without so much as a creak. Whilst Jesse climbed up after him, Lex rummaged about in his bag until he found what he was looking for. By the time the cowboy was standing beside him on the platform, Lex had a large pair of cutting shears in his hands.
‘Here,’ he said, passing them to Jesse. ‘Cut the rope ladder whilst I have a look at this page.’
‘Cut the ladder?’ Jesse replied with a frown. ‘Do you reckon we should?’
‘I don’t want the others following us up this way,’ Lex said. ‘It will slow them down a bit to have to look for their own way on to the tree. Do it quickly; they’ll be here any minute.’
So Jesse started work on the ladder whilst Lex examined the page Thaddeus had given the players. It was a copy of a handwritten title sheet from a book entitled: Black Magic For The Darkling Hour. The author was one Erasmus Grey. Lex gaped at the page in astonishment. He knew who Erasmus Grey was. Everyone did. He’d been a black mage long ago? one of the most famous and powerful mages of them all.
People thought the enchanters were powerful now but, really, they were just a pale shadow of the sorcerers and the black mages who had been before them. After all, the enchanters relied mostly on props? their hats and their staffs? to store their magic and to help them wield it. Without those things, what would an enchanter be but a cantankerous old git in a silly robe? In addition, the enchanters tended to keep themselves to themselves. They were very possessive and generally a mean old bunch, but they were not ambitious. They didn’t possess delusions of grandeur or pressing needs to take over the world or impose evil dominion over everyone. Sorcerers and black mages, on the other hand, had been another matter entirely. They were all about evil plans and dark magic and wicked deeds. They didn’t need props for their magic? a wave of their hand was all it took. They’d killed each other off in the end so that only the comparatively mild enchanters remained. And now Lex was holding a page to a book that Erasmus Grey himself had written! No doubt it was full of black secrets and old powers and lost spells!
Lex tore his eyes from the page and looked at the nearest row of books, lined up on a huge wooden shelf that was attached to a branch at shoulder height. They were dusty old things that looked like they might fall apart as soon as you touched them. Most of them were bound in leather but Lex noticed a couple that appeared to be bound in wood. Every single volume seemed to have the word ‘forbidden’ or ‘dangerous’ or ‘secret’ in its title. There were about twenty books on the shelf beside Lex. Similar-sized shelves stretched down the entire length of the long branch, supported by root pillars below. There must have been two hundred books at least along the branch they stood upon. There was probably the same number on each of the other branches on this level. And, above them, the branches stretched up so high into the sky that they couldn’t see the top through the walkways and foliage.
‘There must be thousands of forbidden books here!’ Lex exclaimed in almost a whisper.
A familiar, powerful surge of greed rushed through him and it was all he could do not to open his bag and start stuffing books into it. Lex knew that knowledge was power? especially knowledge he had that no one else did. The Gods didn’t want people reading these books, which only made Lex want to read them all the more. His fingers itched to grab the nearest book, open the cover and start devouring it.
But he had a round to win and pinching books would only slow him down. He couldn’t afford to be slowed down? not this time. Not when it was so important that he win spectacularly in order to teach Jeremiah East a lesson he wouldn’t forget in a hurry. Lex would have given up all the forbidden books in the entire world to beat that insufferable snob. Once he found the correct book, returned the page and won the round, then maybe there would be time to steal a book or two on the way back.
In the meantime, wandering about the tree blindly wasn’t going to work. There were simply too many books to hope to just stumble across the right one by chance. Lex was lucky, but even he wasn’t that lucky. And he certainly wasn’t prepared to rely only on luck when winning this round was so important.
‘Let’s get to the main trunk,’ he said, feeling that the best place to start would be the centre.
As he spoke, the other players and their companions came into view. Lex was pleased to see that they both looked miffed already. To make them even more miffed, he pointed at the rope-ladder on the ground and said, ‘You’d better hope there’s another way up!’
They looked up and glared at him.
‘You’d better hope so, too, if you ever want to get down from there!’ Jeremiah snapped.
Lex shrugged? exaggeratedly to make sure he’d see it. ‘What do I care, so long as I win the round?’
Then he turned on his heel and set off down the walkway towards the trunk, leaving Lorella and Jeremiah to find their own way on to the tree. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Jesse to point out any more rope ladders he saw so that they could cut those down, too, but then he decided against it. They would waste too much time that way. Lex was happy with a bit of sneaky sabotage only so long as it was convenient and didn’t take too long.
They went on along the walkway? carefully, as there were no railings to speak of? and soon found themselves at the huge trunk. The walkway went all the way around it, branching off in seven different directions. It was like a giant cart wheel with the trunk being the centre and the branches being spokes. As soon as they reached
