“What is happen?” Tink asked, standing on her tiptoes to see better.
“Um…” Mike looked at the bookshelf. “Nothing.” He took the book back out, studying the symbols on the shelf. The symbols went up to the top of the wooden shelves, and Mike realized what had happened. After sliding the book in place on the shelf underneath the symbol, he was relieved to see the symbols light up with arcane energy, swirling blue light that radiated outward. It washed across Mike’s body, making his chest tingle and causing the hairs across his body to stand up.
The bookshelf, however, remained unchanged.
“Damn, I thought that something had…” Mike turned around to face Tink only to see that his home was no longer behind him. He and Tink stood in a small alcove of towering stacks of books, easily four stories high. Beams of light flowed in through gigantic skylights, illuminating the stacks. Before them was a large desk in front of a giant globe that rotated slowly in place.
“Whoa,” Tink said, her eyes wide.
“Are we still in the house?” Mike asked, looking out the window. His front yard was gone, replaced by a sea of blue sky and mountain-sized clouds as far as he could see in any direction.
“We find Library!” Tink hollered, pulling out the map. “We find map home, maybe find more maps!” She ran toward the giant metal sphere in the middle of the lobby, a globe for a planet that was definitely not Earth. Mike gave the thing a wide berth—nothing was holding it up, and images of running away from the thing, Indiana Jones–style, gave him chills.
“Tink, wait up!” Mike called, watching her step onto a small platform with a podium on it. Tink ran her hands over a small silver ball at the lip of the podium, and the platform lifted into the air as if by magic, coasting upward about thirty feet before stopping at a gap in the railing of the upper level. Mike heard Tink holler, and she stepped off the platform and into the stacks, disappearing from view.
“Damn it,” Mike muttered, approaching an identical podium nearby. Standing on it firmly, he grabbed onto the side with one hand and touched the metal sphere at its base with the other. Expecting to lurch upward, he felt ghost hands grab him around his legs and back, holding him in place as the podium moved. Mike discovered that rubbing his hand upward on the sphere caused it to fly, while left and right moved it along the long rows of books. He landed his platform next to Tink’s and stepped into the stacks.
Looking into the Library made him dizzy. From here, he could see that the giant stacks of books went for hundreds of feet in any particular direction, the outer walls of the Library curving at odd angles. He clutched the nearby wooden railing, then took a few steps back so that he was away from the edge. Heights had never bothered him much before, but the strange asymmetry of the place made him very uneasy.
“Tink?” He wandered the shelves, listening carefully for any trace of the goblin. Every ten feet, there was a break in the stacks, and symbols were carved into the marble walls. He paused to inspect one, realizing it was similar to the ones that had been carved into the wooden shelves that had transported him here. Expecting to loop around, he was dismayed to turn a corner and discover that what he had thought was a giant pillar curved around and kept going.
“Tink!” He hated this place. It was huge, far too quiet, and seemed to change itself when he wasn’t looking. Taking a glance over the edge, he realized he was now somehow nearly nine levels up instead of three, the cold marble below suddenly threatening. If he fell, would he break apart on impact, or would he bounce first, leaving a man-sized jelly stain on the clean floor?
Mike smacked his cheeks and shook his head. What the fuck was his problem?
Walking further, he heard the soft, mumbling tones of a goblin muttering to herself. Relieved, he walked faster, expecting to see Tink pulling one of the many books off the shelves. Instead, the mumbling disappeared. Puzzled, Mike turned around. How could she just disappear?
He heard her again, back from where he had come. He walked toward her voice, moving more carefully this time. He had missed it before, a gap between the shelves that had no true edges, a hidden passageway in plain sight.
He put out his hands, convinced he was going to smash his face into the stone, as the Library disappeared behind him and the walls curved. They doubled back, taking him into a different space. This part of the Library was completely different from the rest. He was inside of a warm, comfortable room with tall leather chairs and a roaring fireplace. When he looked back, it was impossible to see the outer Library—the curved walls blocked off the view from the outside.
“There you are,” Mike said. Tink was on the floor, legs splayed and tail twitching, her face buried in a large book. Beside her was a stack of maps and other assorted books. The map of the Labyrinth as well as Tink’s backpack were set on a table next to them.
Tink ignored him, her cheeks flushed. Mike assumed she was sitting too close to the fire, but he soon realized that wasn’t the case. Her mouth was slightly open, her wide eyes fixed on the page. When Mike touched her leg, she yelped, dropping the book on her lap.
“What are you reading?” Mike asked.
“Tink find dirty book,” the goblin whispered. Picking it up, she opened the pages and turned it around. In stunning detail was an image of a werewolf, his monstrous member dangling between his legs as he jerked his load into the hungry mouths of a pair of
