‘That’s just a myth,’ Jesse replied, but he didn’t sound at all sure.
There was a legend that told of a library belonging to the Gods where every person’s entire life was recorded in a book. The books wrote themselves, long before the person was born. And, when the time came for a new baby to arrive, the Gods would pick the person whose turn it was to live by choosing souls from the books. If the two books lying before them really were from the Library of Souls, then Lex’s book would contain within its pages everything he had done and would ever do. It would detail his achievements and his failures. It would state how he would die and when.
Lex shuddered. ‘Even if they are real, I don’t want to know what’s in my future. Life wouldn’t be fun anymore then.’
‘I reckon you’re right about that,’ Jesse replied. ‘Let’s just leave ’em be.’
They edged past the books like they were mines that might go off. Lex was glad to leave them behind. People were not supposed to ever see their own books. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t natural. And Lex had the strong feeling that they shouldn’t even so much as touch the front cover with their fingertips.
‘One thing I don’t get, though,’ Jesse said. ‘If they really were our life books then how come mine was so much shorter than yours?’
‘Because your life is more boring, probably. After all, the typical entry is probably something like, “Jesse Layton woke up, ate some beans, chewed some tobacco, drank some beer, went to sleep.” It doesn’t take up much space to write.’
‘Maybe it’s that,’ the cowboy agreed mildly. ‘Or maybe it’s because I’m going to kick the old bucket at a younger age than you.’
Lex stopped suddenly on the walkway. It was true that Jesse’s book had been shorter than Lex’s, but it had still been a large book in its own right. Perhaps the reason for the difference in length had been because Lex was going to have more life, not that Jesse was going to have less. After all, wasn’t that what he was after when he went to Dry Gulch? Wasn’t that why he’d enlisted Jesse’s help in learning how to be a cowboy: to find the legendary Sword of Life? That book must have been confirmation that he was going to succeed!
For a dangerous moment, Lex felt the almost irresistible urge to go straight back to the book and read about where his future self would find the sword. If he could find out the hiding place in advance, it would save him a lot of time and trouble once he reached Dry Gulch. But then he shook himself. He couldn’t afford to go back. Not now. Not when they were almost at the top of the tree and winning the final round was within his grasp. Besides which, he still had the strong instinctive feeling that reading from the book would not be a good idea.
So they carried on. They were at a height of about one hundred and fifty feet, and getting near the top. The trunk had thinned as they got higher so that the area they could walk in seemed to be getting smaller and there was less room for books.
Lex had been keeping an eye on Lorella, who had stayed behind them due to the fact that she couldn’t climb quickly. She was on a platform directly below them when one of the vulture birds thumped down in front of her and noisily threw up two books at her feet. One was a large blue one called, The Life and Death of Lorella; the other was a tiny silver one Lex assumed must belong to the sprite, but it was too far away for him to read the title. The bird flapped off with a squawk. Lorella peered at the book for a moment before snatching it from the ground. Lex stilled as the enchantress flipped open the front cover and flicked through to the last page. No sooner had she started to read than a vicious wind seemed to pour from the open pages of the book, whipping about her, tugging at her dress and hair. She barely had time to get a horrified expression on to her face before she was sucked? entirely? into the book, leaving behind not so much as a single blue hair. The book fell to the walkway with a thump. Lex saw the sprite fluttering about it agitatedly for a moment before she dropped to the floor and heaved at the front cover with both arms to lift it. Then she rifled manically through all the pages, as if expecting to find the enchantress pressed between them like a flower. But there was nothing. Lorella was gone.
‘Well, I guess that explains what happens if you try to read from your own book,’ Lex said. ‘I told you it wouldn’t be pretty. I wonder if Jeremiah fell for it.’
His question was answered almost at once when he spotted Jeremiah across the tree on a distant branch. They were on about the same level, which rather upset Lex as he’d hoped he was still ahead. Tess was nowhere in sight. Either she’d got sucked into her book, too, or Jeremiah had left her at the base of the tree. Lex suspected the latter since, if Tess wasn’t around to slow him down, that would explain how the nobleman had managed to climb the tree so fast.
They were almost at the top now. And the height was horrible even before the walkways started to shrink. Lex assumed it was the Librarians’ doing, as they’d failed to capture all the players with the books the vulture birds threw up. The wooden planks groaned and creaked as they shrank beneath the players’ feet. With no railings to hold on to, Lex and Jesse were forced to steady themselves against the bookshelves attached to the branches. Jeremiah had noticed them now, too, and the three of them raced desperately to the top level. The rope-ladders had turned into mere ropes by this time but that didn’t hinder Lex too badly for he had become adept at climbing up and down ropes as a result of his cat-burglar exploits as the Shadowman and the Wizard. He left Jesse on the level below and started to climb. He was much lighter than Jeremiah and so had less weight to pull. Although the two of them grabbed ropes at the same time, Lex reached the top platform first.
It was shrinking fast, which was unfortunate seeing as he was now at the very top of the tree? high enough that he would have been able to see the ocean all around them had it not been dark. There were three large bookcases up there, filled with books that had all been written by Erasmus Grey. Lex ran his eyes over the spines in frantic search of the right book, very aware that Jeremiah could be only moments behind him and that the platform on which he stood was shrinking.
To complicate matters even further, he could smell the distinctive scent of burning wood. When the walkways began to shrink, some of the lanterns that had been hung from them had fallen off, smashing on the branches and setting the wood alight instantly. The Librarians had not been bluffing when they’d said they would burn the tree to the ground. The Gods were supposed to keep the island lost but, should someone ever find their way on to it somehow and get too close to the forbidden books, the vulture-birds were the only means the Librarians had of protecting it. If intruders were not sucked into the book then the only thing left to do was to destroy the tree, hence the fact that lanterns were hung everywhere and? although the players didn’t know it yet? the library tree’s bark was the most flammable in the world. Just one little spark and it would burst into flames.
Before Lex could find the correct book, Jeremiah appeared on the platform beside him. Lex could have ignored him and carried on looking for the book but that would be to leave winning up to chance? a simple matter of whichever of them happened to spot the book first. And Lex never left winning up to chance. He spun on his heel, put a horrified expression on to his face and shouted, ‘Watch out for that flying tree-snake!’
Jeremiah glared at him. ‘You really think I’m dumb enough to fall for that? There aren’t any flying tree-snakes here!’
‘None except for the one in my pocket,’ Lex replied.
Jeremiah opened his mouth but, before he could say anything, Lex reached into his pocket, drew out the plastic toy rattlesnake he’d put there just for that purpose and threw it at Jeremiah’s head. Perhaps if it had been anything other than a snake the plan wouldn’t have worked. But as Jeremiah had that unfortunate phobia he instinctively jerked back, arms raised over his head to protect himself? and fell right off the edge of the platform.