The Library of Forgotten Books (17 page)
Read The Library of Forgotten Books Online
Authors: Rjurik Davidson
A calmness came upon me, and a strength, and I found myself mouthing words of unknown origin, that came to me as if from the universes themselves, words I had never heard, had never spoken, but somehow had invoked, words that described the deep structure of things, their essence not their appearance. I pushed back at Amacus, and yelled, “No!”
He flew back like a ball from a catapult and struck a wall with a sickening crash—in which plane of existence I cannot say—and he fell to the ground. On his feet in an unnatural blur, he came at me again, but I held my hand upwards and said in that same language, “Stay.” He struck an invisible wall and I held him there.
Amacus looked at me with horror and amazement. “It is not Ister who is latent,” he said to me. “It is you. It was not he who wove that world into his books, but you who projected yourself into them.”
I stood there, straight now, powerful and angry. Turning, I stepped back from the Other Side, into my own world, where Ister stood ashen-faced. He handed me the pendant but I pushed it back to him. “I don’t need it.”
In the background came the wail of a creature far away, and a terrible gurgling and sobbing. Amacus sprawled now on the floor, his body shrouded in darkness, sections occasionally manifesting into our world. “Don’t leave me alone.”
“I’m sorry,” I said to him, and there was nothing else to say. And so, taking Ister’s books, we left the crying creature behind with his own poems. We opened the double doors and left the reading room. As we passed along the long straight corridor, dry and sandy, the sound of Amacus faded into the distance. Before long we came to a door—the door that would open to wherever we wanted to go. I looked at Ister and he looked at me.
“Do we dare?” he asked.
I looked at it, wondering if we had the courage to walk through. Beyond it lay the long process of finding our freedom, and ourselves.
THE LIBRARY OF FORGOTTEN BOOKS
PS SHOWCASE#8
Copyright © 2010 Rjurik Davidson
The rights of Rjurik Davidson to be identified as Author of this Work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Originally published in printed book form by PS Publishing Ltd. in July 2010. This electronic version published in July 2011 by PS by arrangement with the authors. All rights reserved by the authors.
FIRST EBOOK EDITION
ISBN 978-1-848632-29-5
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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