Bad Apple (The Warner Grimoire) (21 page)

The two boys rounded the corner and set off after Penny. She was already several aisles ahead of them, slipping around tall book stacks and the odd cart here and there, all of them overloaded with yet more papers and books.

“This way is quicker,” she said, “stepping behind a large potted plant. “I know all the secret passages through the Archives. This one will take us straight up to the sixth floor.” She reached out to a small shelf and tipped a tiny black book forward. A moment later the panel of the wall swung outward, revealing a passageway behind it.

“Just like in the movies,” Simon said.

“A what?” Penny asked.

“A movie,” Simon repeated. “Don’t you have...”

“Illusion of light and sound,” Luke said. “The non-Folk make them. I’ve seen a few.”

“Oh?” Penny tilted her head again. “What are they like?”

“Nothing beats the real thing,” Luke said, flashing a coy smile at Penny. “Maybe sometime I can show you.”

At these words an angry, jealous feeling wove its way up into Simon’s stomach, but he kept quiet. Even in the darkness of the library Simon could see Penny’s cheeks flush. She must have realized it too, for she turned away from both of them quickly, stepping into the passageway. “Follow me,” she said before disappearing around a corner.

Luke glanced at Simon, who was scowling. “You jealous, Stray?” He stepped aside. “Go right ahead then. After you.” Luke started away from the hidden doorway, towards the door they had first used to enter the library.

“Where are you going?” Simon hissed.

“To the stairs,” Luke said, irritated. “That was the plan.”

“We can’t just leave her in there.”

“Sure we can. You heard her. She loves it in there. Let’s go.” He started towards the door but stopped short. Two silvery eyes stared out at him from just before the door.

“Fine,” he said, after a moment of staring at the eyes. “We’ll follow her.” The kitten sat motionless in front of the door, then finally tilted its head and made a noise half meow and half trill.

“Okay!” Luke hissed. “Fine! Stop looking at me like that.” Luke turned around and headed back to the passageway. “You happy now, you little furball?” In response, the kitten trotted over to the passageway, tail pointing straight up in the air, and walked between Luke’s legs and into the darkness after Penny.

“I hate cats,” Luke said. “We’ll ditch both of them once we get upstairs. After you.”

The passageway had no light and no windows. Stepping over the threshold Simon bumped into many stacks, knocking some papers over and sending several books tumbling to the floor with a loud thundering thud.

“Careful!” Penny whispered. “These took me ages to sort out.”

“Sorry,” Simon mumbled. The shapes of the hallway started to come into sharp focus, the large bulky shape next to him coalescing into a large table, and the walls of the passageway revealing themselves to be looming towers of books, so tightly stacked against one another there wasn’t so much as a crack between any two of them. Simon was almost certain that if he were to pull a book at random that the wall of books would not budge even an inch, but the combined forces would hold every last book in place.

“Here,” Penny said at the top of a flight of stairs. The wall was made out of several stacks of books all shoved together, and she pushed on one exact spot. A door made out of books swung obediently inward. “Sixth floor.”

“Lead the way,” Luke mumbled, eyeing Malkin, who stayed glued to his side.

Simon did not think it possible, but the sixth floor was creepier than the third--dust coated everything beyond the passageway, and spiderwebs dangled high overhead as he stepped out of the wall and into the hall. His nose began to run from the mold.

Simon wiped his hand on his sleeve. “Did you hear something?”

“Probably some of the books,” Penny said, stepping out of the passage. “There’s a few old moaning tomes up here. The silencing ward on some have worn off. Jo’s supposed to redo them on the coming Eve tomorrow night, so the magic lasts longer.”

Simon strained his ears. The noise had faded, but that did not put him at ease. The three of them moved along quietly for several minutes, passing by several rows of shelves, each of them seemingly built of rotting wood too weak and frail to hold a single book, let alone hundreds. The smell of mold and decay hung in the air, and it made Simon’s nose burn. Dread began to bubble inside him.

“Why would anybody want to move an entire section up here?” Luke said. “There’s dust up here older than Salem.”

“New collection came in,” Penny said. “We move things all the time. Dad takes care of the top levels, usually me and my sisters watch the ground floor and a few special sections, but I have been helping him up here some this week.”

“Yeah?” Luke said. “Well, your father needs to work on his housekeeping skills. This place is a tomb.”

“We’re in the older section,” Penny said defensively. “We haven’t gotten back here yet.”

Luke shook his head. “Well, then why did you bring us this way?”

Penny stood in an archway. It too was made of books. She looked back at the boys. “What’s wrong with this way?”

“It’s fine,” Simon said, looking around. His eyes scoured around every shelf, peeked through every crack in the books, looking for a way away from their unexpected guide. “If it’s too late we can always come back later,” he said.

Penny led them down a long, narrow aisle. The shelves here held not only books, but several other items, from withered bat wings to what looked like burnt bones, each one seated far from the edge of the shelf, and each with a tiny tag. Several of the items were held under glass, with thick carpets of dust surrounding them. The moaning was louder here.

Penny stopped abruptly and placed her hand on the shelf. “Tell me what you took.”

Simon’s tongue went dry. “I--”

“Not you,” she said, staring at Luke. “Him, and don’t think your half-truths will fool me.”

“Now wait just a moment here sister,” Luke said. “Is that why you brought us up here? To question us?”

“More than books up here,” she said. A few of the objects on the shelf started to rattle under their glass domes. “My offer still stands. Leave what you took on the shelf and you can go.” She smiled an empty smile, and her emerald eyes locked on Simon. “Just leave it,” she repeated. “Please.”

“Look,” Luke said. “I’m telling you, we haven’t stolen anything. We’re still in the library, right? We can’t steal something if we ain’t left with it, you know what I mean? So why don’t you go polish your cauldron and leave us--”

“No!” Penny’s voice cracked. “I keep everything the way it’s supposed to be. You’re messing it up. This is not how we keep things. I have to keep everything the way she left it!”

“Geez,” Luke said. “Who died and left you in charge?”

Penny lowered her eyes, suddenly interested in the floor. She withdrew her hand from the shelf and turned away. Malkin swept between their feet and across the floor to Penny. Simon swore her eyes had begun to water.

“Okay,” Simon said finally. “We’ll leave it.”

“Simon!” Luke hissed. Behind them, the sound of the moaning grew louder.

Simon dropped the backpack to the floor. “It’s only a book,” he said.

“You just don’t get it.” Luke snagged the bag from the floor. “Books are power.
Real power
. Strawberry over there knows what I’m talking about,” he said, looking at Penny, whose back was still turned to them. “Hey,” he said. “Are you okay?”

Penny’s shoulders dropped slightly. “Yeah,” she said at last, barely louder than a whisper.

Luke stared at the ceiling, exasperated. “Okay, fine,” he said. “We’ll not take anything. Just cut it out with the moaning routine. You’re not fooling anyone.

Penny turned around, her eyes puffy and red. “Moaning?”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “I know you’re riling them up. Ain’t no good though. You ain’t scaring me.”

A loud, windy howl tore across the floor of the library. Penny’s mouth dropped.

Her reaction frightened Simon. He stepped closer to her. “Penny, what is it?”

Her eyes locked with Simon’s again, all the color rapidly draining away from her face. “That’s not the books.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE ATTACK

Simon froze. Behind him, Luke stared towards the sound of the moaning. “Maggey,” he whispered, and the tiny spark lit up from his shoulder and shot down the aisle. The fairy’s departure excited Malkin, who bounded off after her into the darkness.

Simon watched the pair disappear down the hall. “What is it?”

Penny dropped to her knees, jamming her palms against the floor. A moment later she jerked back up, upset and shaking. “Hellhounds,” she said weakly.

Luke muttered a curse. “Well, this is just bats,” he said. “We can’t do this. Hounds move too quickly. We’ll never make it out of here.”

Simon looked down the hall. “We run,” he said. “We’ll run back to the passageway, be gone before they find us.”

“For all we know that’s how they came up here,” Luke said. “That could take us right to them.”

“Penny?” Simon said. “Is there a way to check?”

“No,” she said. “I--I can’t. I can talk to the Archive, see what she sees, but--I just can’t. Their minds are too scrambled.” She wrapped herself in her arms. “Too dark. Too cold.” She looked into Simon’s eyes. “Please don’t ask me to do that.”

“Shh,” Luke whispered. “Listen.”

“What?” Simon and Penny said together.

Luke’s face was wrought with worry. “It’s stopped.”

Luke was right--silence had fallen over the floor of the library, until the only noise was their frightened breathing. Simon’s heartbeat jammed in his head. They drew closer, the moment stretching into what felt like hours, days, weeks. It was like a dream. Together they waited for a hint, any movement at all, to clue them into where the danger was lurking.

There was swift movement at the end of the hall. Suddenly there was a tiny black kitten at the end of the aisle, her tiny legs pumping furiously, running towards them at full speed. A moment later a large, hideous, dog-like beast appeared, eyes blazing green, and huge ivory jaws snapping viciously. Malkin ran at full speed but there was no denying the beast was quickly closing in.

“No!” Penny screamed. She thrust her hands into the nearest shelf, knocking several books out of their place, and even rattling several of the more disturbing items still under glass containers. Penny whispered quietly to herself, and a wave of books flowed off the shelves, cascading down, a tidal wave of books tumbling over the beast. Malkin scrambled under the falling books, nimbly avoiding several large volumes, each striking the floor with a loud thud. The beast was not so lucky--loud howls of pain filled the air as the books fell on the beast like boulders.

The glass containers on the shelve exploded, sending glass flying in all directions. Simon dropped to the floor and shielded his eyes while glass rained down on him. When he opened his eyes, the burnt bones he had seen earlier lay in a pile before him, and slowly they began to move, shaking and sliding, climbing on top of one another, the bones pushing one another upward. The macabre spectacle continued until a fully assembled skeleton stood in front of Simon, and suddenly its sockets burst to life with orange and yellow fire.

Malkin dashed between the skeleton’s legs and leapt into Penny’s arms. The skeleton watched the kitten and began to move after it until its fiery eyes met with Penny’s. Her eyes flung wide and glowed a brilliant, blazing blue, and for a moment Simon thought she might collapse, but she regained her composure, and she stared deep into the sockets of fire. After a moment the skeleton’s sockets eyes blazed with blue flame, then it turned away from them and marched towards the huge pile of books, which had begun to shift as the large beast struggled to free itself. The skeleton stood its ground, a sentinel to block the beast’s path.

“Let’s go!” Simon shouted. Penny bolted past them, carrying Malkin, who quaked in her arms. The burning skeleton continued to guard them as they sprinted back the way they had come.

They ran back towards the passageway, Penny tracing her fingers along the bookshelves as she ran. Behind them, wave after wave of books erupted from the shelves, sending huge clouds of dust flying into the air. Somewhere behind them, the beast howled, its cry sending shivers through Simon. He continued to run until his legs burned, but he did not dare stop until they reached the passageway door.

“Hurry up,” Penny said, still clutching Malkin. “Into the passage.”

“I’ll go first,” Simon said.

“Wait!” Luke hissed. “Wait!”

Simon almost tripped over the threshold into the passage. “What is it?”

“Something here ain’t right,” Luke said.