But you are the only one who can find a way back. If we are to do this together, you must face your fear, your past, and possibly, your father.
Khollo nodded slowly. He thought of Sermas and Hern, his other friends at the West Bank. Smiths and cooks, stable hands and soldiers. And Janis and Ondus. The villagers he had gotten to know while expanding the base. They would be preparing to plant crops on the plains north of the West Bank now, if the fortress still stood. He thought of the desperate pleas he had read from Ishkabur, the countless reports of bloodshed and death. And if he returned, maybe he could end it all.
“We start tomorrow,” Khollo decided firmly. “We’ll seek out the library in the morning, and I’ll start looking for a way to get back to the mainland.”
Good, Kanin said, sounding pleased as he shifted position and shuffled his wings with a slight rustle of translucent membrane. Now I understand.
Khollo grinned. “Me too,” he said quietly. “Me too.”
Chapter 28
The next morning dawn never came. When Khollo woke at what he guessed was a few hours after dawn, the sky was dark with menacing gray clouds.
“Back at the West Bank, that would be a blizzard,” Khollo told Kanin as they stood at the entrance to their hold. “Not sure what it is on the island.”
Rain, Kanin guessed. Lots of rain.
Khollo sighed. “Well, we’d better find the library quick. Don’t want to be caught in the air when that hits.”
Kanin extended a foreleg and Khollo climbed quickly up to his place between two spines. He had hardly settled himself when Kanin launched himself from the ledge and winged his way westward, flying low and fast.
“Ezraan said the library was west of the hall,” Khollo reminded Kanin. “Assuming it’s covered in trees and vines like everything else, it’ll probably look like a large and rather blocky hill.”
There is the courtyard where we dug it up, Kanin said as they flew over the patch of bare stone. Hall can’t be too far away now.
But the library eluded them. They circled the valley many times, searching and searching for the library. Finally, Khollo decided they had done all they could from the air.
“Land,” he told Kanin. “We’ll search on foot. That’s how we found the hall after all.”
Kanin snorted. Why walk when you have wings to fly? he grumbled. But he did as Khollo asked.
Once Kanin had landed, Khollo began a thorough search of the jungle from the ground level. There were no obvious pillars or porches or walls that he could see, no wall of green rising straight up to the sky. Nor could he discern cave-like openings between ferns, or doors standing amid vine covered trees. He and Kanin began quartering the western side of the valley, on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. They did find a beautiful area full of waterfalls and cliffs and rippling streams. Small holes were apparent in the cliff faces, but these were not anywhere near large enough to be entrances to a library.
Khollo climbed slowly up to the top of the cliffs. “It’s got to be around here somewhere,” he muttered, walking between two massive trees. “If only my father had been a little more specific when he said the library was to the west. How far west? North or South of west? He said it was five stories so we’re looking for – whoa!”
Khollo lurched, flailing his arms as his right foot slipped into empty space. Kanin bounded forward and wrapped his tail around Khollo, hauling him back from the precipice. Khollo waited until his heart rate had steadied, then looked down into the hole he had nearly fallen into.
At his feet was a wide flight of stairs, curving gracefully underground, relatively free of debris and growth. Khollo frowned, looked around, then realized why he had been unable to find the library at first.
“The library itself is underground,” Khollo realized. “And these here,” he added, touching the thick trees he had just passed between. “They’re columns.” He looked around the jungle again, recognizing more columns and a roofline covering a large U-shaped area. “This must have been some kind of covered plaza or courtyard above the library,” he mused. “But why put the library underground?”
It was built for humans, Kanin reminded him. Does your species like underground spaces?
“Not especially,” Khollo muttered. “Some humans actually rather despise the underground.” He frowned, peering into the gloom below. “I suppose I’ll need a light if I’m to go exploring down there.”
Kanin moved away from the staircase, towards the center of the U-shaped building they had discovered. Perhaps not, he replied. Look at what I have found.
Khollo joined the dragon in the center of what might have once been a courtyard. His boots scuffed on stone underneath the leaves and detritus of centuries. He stepped up beside Kanin and found himself looking through a thin layer of vines and ferns into a deep well, as wide as Kanin was long.
“Just as well I didn’t discover the library falling down this hole,” Khollo muttered. “Clear it off, Kanin.”
Kanin opened his jaws and breathed a gentle stream of fire over the green brush. The greenery charred and turned to ash, before floating away on the light wind, revealing a hollow stone circle, the edges slightly above the level of the surrounding ground. Below, Khollo could make out beautifully crafted balconies and balustrades ringing the central well in four or five levels. A short distance away from the railings, he could see bookshelves standing proudly in row upon row.
“A lighting system,” Khollo observed. “This is how they illuminated the library.”
At least, part of it,
