Lex laughed? loud enough to be sure she would hear. The enchantress glared up at him, her sapphire eyes icy cold with anger.
‘Get a haircut!’ Lex called down to her, grinning. ‘That’s my advice.’
Lorella opened her mouth to hiss something back at him but, before she could do so, a grey man appeared on the platform above her. At the exact same moment, an identical man materialised before Lex. Presumably, a third one appeared before Jeremiah, too, wherever on the tree he happened to be.
On first glance, the grey man appeared human but, on the second, it was quite clear that he was not. He was a bit too tall and a bit too thin. Everything about him was grey: his hair, his eyebrows, his eyes. The fine suit he wore was grey and so were his shoes? right down to the laces. Everything about him was immaculate? his tie was completely straight and his hair was combed back so neatly it looked like he’d used a ruler to do it. His skin was pale, his cheekbones were unusually high and there was a cool, superior expression on his face.
‘Oh my Gods!’ Lex said in mock horror. ‘You’re a lawyer, aren’t you?’
‘We are the Librarians.’ The two grey men spoke the same words at the exact same moment. ‘We are bound to protect the forbidden knowledge in this tree and to ensure that it never falls into the hands of the lowly and the ignorant. Do not test our resolve. We would sooner burn this tree to the ground than let you remove a single book from its branches.’
‘We’re not here to remove a book,’ Lex said. ‘We’re here to put a page back. You don’t object to that, surely?’
‘Trespassers on this tree will not be tolerated, whatever the pretence,’ the Librarian said. ‘Leave now or remain at your own peril.’
‘Listen-’ Lex began.
But, at that moment, the Librarians disappeared. Lex was rather annoyed about that. He’d hoped that they would try to waylay them physically. He was confident that he would have been able to give his own Librarian the slip, but Lorella surely would have had more difficulty, clinging as she was, halfway up a rope-ladder.
‘That,’ Jesse said, eyes narrowed, ‘was too easy.’
‘Yes, it was,’ Lex replied. ‘I suppose they’ll be sending things after us now.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘Beats me. They’ll definitely be nasty things, though, so keep an eye out, all right?’
‘Yeah.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The first thing that alerted them to the fact that something was happening was the groaning creak of metal hinges. The sound seemed to be coming from all over the tree. A few minutes later, Lex began to have a horrible suspicion as to what exactly that sound might have been when he caught, out of the corner of his eye, a flurry of feathers.
‘They’ve stopped singing,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘The birds,’ Lex replied. ‘They’re not singing anymore. When did they stop?’ They looked at each other. ‘I think they’ve been let out of their cages,’ Lex said.
It was impossible to know exactly how many birds were on the tree, but Lex had counted seven already and they had only explored a small proportion. They were big things and no doubt had sharp claws and beaks. If a few of them ganged up together, they would probably be able to peck a person to death if they wanted to.
Lex strained his eyes in the half-light. The little lanterns dotted about the tree were hung on long chains from the platforms above. They gave out enough light to illuminate the walkways but not enough to pierce the darkness beyond. But sometimes there was the occasional draught of air? like something large had just swooped by somewhere close. Or there was a rustle of feathers or a blur of movement detectable only out of the corner of the eye.
‘Let’s just keep moving,’ Lex said.
They made it to the next level? about three quarters of the way up the tree? before one of the vulture birds flew through the branches and landed with an inelegant thump on the walkway right in front of them. Lex and Jesse stopped and stared as it picked itself up, shook itself and gave a dismal squawk before turning its baleful gaze on them. It really was an ugly beast. Its green, blue and orange feathers were rumpled and its wrinkly head was bald but for a few wisps of white hair that stuck out at angles. Its beak curved down, giving it an almost comically morose expression, and its eyes were a bloodshot grey.
‘That’s gotta be the ugliest darn bird I ever saw,’ Jesse said softly.
Lex had to agree with him. But it did not seem particularly aggressive. It was just sitting there in a hunched up sort of way on the path ahead.
‘I suppose it’ll probably tear our throats out as soon as we try to walk past it,’ Lex remarked.
‘Ain’t got the right kind of beak for that,’ Jesse said.
‘Well, get your pistol out, anyway. You can’t be too careful.’
Lex tried shooing the bird away but that didn’t work. It just sat there blinking at him miserably.
‘Blasted thing!’ Lex said irritably. ‘I suppose we could try walking around it.’
This was not an attractive prospect for two reasons. Firstly, they were by now extremely high up in the tree and so creeping along at the edge of the walkway was not something either of them felt like doing. Secondly, if the bird were to attack them whilst they were trying to walk past it, it wouldn’t even need to tear their throats out, for it would almost certainly knock them off the walkway to plunge to their deaths. But they had to get past the bird somehow.
‘Just shoot at it,’ Lex said to Jesse.
‘But it’s not tried to attack us!’ the cowboy protested.
‘I don’t care. If it’s too stupid to move then we’ll just have to move it ourselves.’
‘Why don’t you try shoving it first?’ Jesse suggested. ‘Before getting all trigger happy.’
‘ Shove it?’ Lex repeated, horrified. ‘I’m not shoving it! It’ll probably take my eyes out!’
Jesse sighed. ‘Here,’ he said, passing Lex the pistol. ‘I’ll try. Me and the animals almost always get along.’
‘Yeah, until one of them rips your face off!’ Lex said.
But Jesse wasn’t listening. He was walking slowly closer to the bird. Finally, he stopped, reached out an arm and gave it a hearty shove. Lex stood back, aiming the pistol and fully expecting the bird to whip around and take Jesse’s hand off. But instead it just sat there. Jesse pushed it again, a little harder this time. But it just hunched there refusing to be budged.
‘I reckon we can just walk past it,’ Jesse said. ‘It ain’t gonna attack us.’
Lex had to admit it looked like the cowboy was right. He walked over slowly and had just reached Jesse’s side when the bird let out a sudden hacking cough that made them both jump. It followed this up with a dry retching sound before throwing up two books along with a couple of pellets that had little bones sticking out of them. Then, and only then, did it fly away.
Lex and Jesse stared at the two books on the ground. They were not wet or slimy or covered in stomach juices, as you might expect them to be when they’d just been thrown up by a large bird. In fact, they were dry and pristine and looked brand new. Both had landed face up and both had extremely startling titles. One was called, The Life and Death of Lex Trent. The other was called, The Life and Death of Jesse Layton.
They stared in amazement. Lex’s book was bound in blue leather, Jesse’s in green. Lex’s book was noticeably the larger of the two. Jesse reached a hand out towards his book but Lex grabbed his wrist.
‘Don’t touch it!’ he said sharply.
‘Why not?’
‘I have a bad feeling about those books. You’ve heard about the Library of Souls, haven’t you?’