Black Jade

us?'

Estrella looked at the book-stuffed shelves opposite the railing, and she made a motion with her fingers and cocked her head. And Daj translated for her, saying to us: 'Estrella would like to know how many of these Skaadarak books there are?'

'Nearly three hundred,' Abrasax told us. Then he showed us the place where the first of the books in question was shelved, and he moved along the tier a dozen feet and tapped his finger against the spine of the last of the books, gleaming a dark red on one of the middle shelves.

Estrella smiled as she nodded her head. Then she began walking slowly in front of the shelves of books. What she was looking for she could not say, and we could not guess, for the covers of the books were all etched with the same fine script. At last, she came to a halt. Her eyes beamed brightly as gazed at the line of books just above her head. Then her hand darted out to grasp one of the vedastei there. Abrasax helped her pull it off the shelf. Its cover, carved with brilliant red glyphs, shone as black as obsidian.

'A seard, indeed,' Master Matai said, bowing his head to her.

Master Storr, however, looked at Estrella doubtfully, as if she might have picked this book at random with the hope that no one would ever know the difference.

Abrasax lifted back the cover to show us its clear, empty pages. And Master Juwain asked him, 'But if you don't possess the key, how will you ever open it?'

'A seard,' Abrasax said, smiling at Estrella, 'might be able to find more than just things. We have elucidated, over the centuries, hundreds of keys to these books, and many are related to another or are even nearly identical.'

He drew in a long breath, and then recited:

To gain the gelstei's mastery,

To free the perfect memory

From Heaven's ageless library,

The perfect word will prove the key.

'Estrella — can you tell us if any of these words are close to the ones we seek?'

But Estrella just shook her head as she stared at the book. 'But what of this rhyme, then? Listen:

The Master Reader sought the key

To Heaven's unbound folio;

A million words he spoke, then he

Said, 'Open' — and it was so.

Estrella held out her hands helplessly as she again shook her head. And Maram groaned, 'This could take all day!'

So it went for the many other keys that Abrasax wished to test as he recited to her verse after verse. She seemed to warm to only a couple of them. Although it did not take Abrasax quite all day to run through his list of rhymes, it took long enough. We stood there for what seemed hours packed together on a ribbon of stone between the tier's shelved books and the railing that kept us from plunging down nearly half a mile to the library's lowest level. Our legs grew crampy, and we shifted our weight from foot to foot even as Abrasax's deep voice spilled out into the immense cavern.

'But this is impossible!' Maram finally called out to Abrasax. 'We might as well set monkeys to scribbling on paper in that room of yours upstairs in the hope that one of them will eventually chance upon the right rhyme.'

'Nothing is impossible, Sar Maram,' Abrasax said. 'Estrella has indicated that two or three of the rhymes might lead to the key to this book. We've had less to go on with other keys and other books. There are references to be checked, permutations of words to be made. In time — '

'But how much time do we have?' Maram said. 'Aren't we supposed to set out tomorrow? I, for one, want to get this mad quest over with as soon as we can, if we truly must go off questing again. Can't you just tell us what kind of danger we must avoid in Acadu without giving a complete account of it?'

Abrasax sighed as he traded looks with Master Virang and Master Matai. He said, 'I suppose I'll have to.'

He drew in a long breath as he pressed his finger against the scarlet characters graven into the book's cover. And then he told us, 'I believe that Skaadarak is the root word of two others: the Skardarak, when all will grow dark forever. And a place of darkness in Acadu that the people there call the Skadarak.'

In the quiet of the library's endless stacks of books, this word seemed to hang in the still, musty air. We all waited for Abrasax to say more. Then Maram finally called out, 'But what is the Skadarak, then?'

'It is,' Abrasax said, 'a blackness of the earth's aura so abysmally black that light cannot escape it. There is a dark thing there, like a hole through the world's soul. It blackens the very earth.'

'A thing?' Maram cried out. 'What kind of thing?'

Abrasax looked at the book in his hand, and then at Master Storr. He said, 'Unfortunately, we don't really know. We have only stories and our reading of the earth's aura. Those whom we have sent into Acadu to shed light on this mystery have not returned.'

'Oh, excellent!' Maram said. 'I suppose this dark mystery of yours swallowed them up as with the Black Bog?'

'I believe,' Abrasax said, 'that what lies near the heart of Acadu is worse than the Black Bog. You see, it calls to people.'

'Oh, excellent, excellent!'

Master Juwain thought about this, then asked, 'But what could have caused the Skadarak? An opening to one of the Dark Worlds? Some sort of gelstei?'

'I know of no gelstei,' Master Storr said, 'that has such power.'

'But what of the black?' Master Juwain asked, looking at Kane.

And Master Storr said, 'I've never heard of a black gelstei that can call to people as the Skadarak is said to do.'

Liljana, ever the most practical of our company, said to Abrasax, 'If you know where this place is, then surely we can avoid it. If it calls to us, then we won't listen.'

Abrasax nodded his hoary head and told her, 'North of Varkeva near the Ea River it lies, or so we believe. We also believe that each of you has the power not to listen. And that, in the end, is the heart of our battle with the Red Dragon and the Dark One bound on Damoom.'

He let out a long sigh as he turned to Master Juwain. 'You, Master Healer, over the years have most counseled turning a deaf ear to Morjin's words. And why? Because it is you who most wants to hear them.'

Master Juwain rubbed at his bald head a moment before saying, 'Yes, I'm afraid you are right, Grandfather. I've always thought that the Red Dragon, as with any man, would intimate what he really knows in what he says or writes. The secret knowledge that he must possess, you see.'

'That which you speak of is a dark knowledge,' Abrasax told him.

'And how could it be otherwise, for how can we truly understand the light without the knowing of the dark?'

'I think you've always been too curious about this dark.'

'Yes, you are right. It is my vice.'

'Promise me, then, that you will continue to fight against it.'

'Very well, Grandfather.'

Abrasax smiled at him, and said, 'All of you, as you approach the Skadarak, will grow more vulnerable. Especially through your gelstei.'

He turned to look at Atara. 'You, Princess, must be careful of what you see in your crystal if you really must look. Morjin will try to build a perfect world and show it to you. And trap you within it. Thus has he seduced kings