it found its way here when it was rooted in the bedrock of the island on which it had been built?
The glow stick that Thom held went out, and they were left in blackness. The sucking force continued to pull at them for a long time after that, but finally it eased into a soft breathing and then ceased altogether. Mistaya and Thom lay together, listening to the silence, waiting for something more. Mistaya kept her face pressed to the floor, but the warmth she had felt earlier was fading away.
But there was nothing she could do to make it stay, and seconds later it was gone.
She sat up again cautiously, placing her back against the shelving unit that had served as an anchor, the darkness deep and unbroken all around. The warmth she had felt in the floor and the pulsing of the life that had created it had both disappeared.
Mistaya could not understand. What had just happened?
“I think we should quit for tonight,” Thom said softly, a disembodied voice in the black.
“I suppose so,” she agreed. She was silent a moment, and then she said, “Thom, did you feel anything in the floor?”
She could hear him sitting up next to her. “Like what?”
“A pulsing, a warmth?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I was busy trying to hold on to the shelving so we wouldn’t be sucked down into that tunnel. Did you feel all that? The pulsing and the warmth?”
She wasn’t sure what to say now. “I might have been mistaken,” she answered. “I was pretty scared.”
He laughed quietly. “So was I. It wasn’t any easier this time, even knowing what to expect. But I won’t give up if you won’t.”
She reached out and squeezed his arm. “You know I won’t give up. Thanks for sticking with me.”
They rose and began groping their way back down the aisle, using the edges of the shelves to guide them, careful to keep together in the deep gloom. They didn’t speak of what had happened, knowing it was better to wait until later. Mistaya wondered how much time had passed. If magic had obscured distance and light, it could have obscured time, as well. It could have obscured everything they had experienced. Nothing might have been what they thought it was.
Yet she couldn’t dismiss the strong feeling of recognition that had flooded through her. She wasn’t mistaken about that, but she didn’t know what it meant. Was she sensing the presence of her home? Had Sterling Silver reached out to her somehow? Was it a warning that something was wrong at home? Or perhaps it wasn’t the castle at all. Perhaps it was Libiris she was feeling. But if so, why did it feel like it was alive?
Those questions, in turn, made her wonder anew about the voice. Exactly who was it that was calling?
They had almost reached the front of the Stacks and Mistaya was thinking of how good it was going to feel to sleep when a hunched figure appeared abruptly in their path, and a familiar wizened face lifted into the pale wash of the moonlight.
“Out for a little nighttime walk, are we?” asked Rufus Pinch with a visible sneer.
“We were just …,” Mistaya began.
“Just looking for …,” Thom picked up.
Pinch held up both hands. “Doing what you were expressly forbidden to do. That’s what you were doing! Well, now you’re going to have to pay the price for your disobedience, aren’t you? His Eminence will know how to deal with you!”
Mistaya felt her heart sink. She had ruined everything.
“Off to your rooms!” Pinch ordered, making shooing motions with his hands. “Don’t even think of trying to do anything else. Lock yourselves in and remain there until sunrise. Then report to His Eminence first thing. Now go! Get!”
Obediently, Mistaya and Thom headed out of the Stacks. Mistaya was miserable. She would be sent home for certain. In all likelihood, Thom would be punished in some equally unpleasant way. And it was all because of her.
“Don’t worry,” Thom declared cheerfully as they parted for the night.
