Fifty-eight

The book flared to life with a flash of bright green light as I peeled back the scarf and grasped the book in my naked hand. The classroom on this side of the mirror was suddenly swarming with crawlies. Skella clapped her hands once and said a word in Elvish I didn’t recognize, but a flash of clean, white light exploded from her, shredding a dozen or more shadow creatures that had materialized around us.

Jimmy and I drew steel while Bub backed against the wall, hissing.

“What the hell were those things?” Jimmy asked, glancing around.

I looked up, making sure there was nothing about to drop on top of us, and pushed a desk aside.

“Some form of eater?” I asked, glancing at Skella.

“Shades,” she said, shaking her head. “Lost souls who are drawn to places of power. Something has been going on here, drawing them to this place.”

“Residual from Katie’s accident?” I asked, walking across to the door to the hallway.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Skella said, drawing a small pouch from her belt and pinching out a bit of shiny dust. “Here,” she said, stepping to Bub. “Unun sent me with this.” She sprinkled a bit onto the top of Bub’s head, and a light flowed over him like a golden cocoon.

“It tickles,” he said, tittering.

Skella smiled and turned to Jimmy. “Could you squat down?” she asked.

Jimmy looked at me once, but did as she asked.

Once we were all adequately bathed in golden light, she put the pouch away and dusted off her hands.

“Why didn’t we do that on the other side?” Jimmy asked.

“It doesn’t exist on the other side,” she said, looking at him like he was an idiot child. “This is magic.”

“What does it do?” I asked, trying to keep a straight face.

Skella looked at me and shrugged. “All I know is that it helps keep you safe when travelling here. Unun wouldn’t talk about all it does. Only that it allows us to see each other and helps mask our emotions as we wander the shadow lands. There are things here that feed off your baser feelings.”

Eaters, crawlies, ghosts, shades, and on and on. “Is there anything here that doesn’t want to eat us?”

Skella shrugged again. “There’s a reason Gletts and I avoided this place.”

Right. Awesome. And Katie had been lost here for going on two months.

We moved to the hallway door, watching for surprises. The hallway was quiet and longer in both directions than they were in the normal world.

“This is strange,” Bub said, cocking his head from one side to the other.

“Emotional distortion,” Skella said.

“Maybe you should write a book,” Jimmy said, facing down one length of the hall, while I faced the other.

Doors lined the hall, but they were dark. To the right in our world there were a couple more classrooms, then an exit out to the playground. To the left was the main body of the school as well as several wings off for more classrooms. The school was like a giant failed Tetris game, with hallways going off at intervals leaving courtyards interspersed throughout. Some of these were roofed, with skylights. Those near the perimeter of the building were open to the outside, like the courtyard outside Katie’s classroom.

Old classroom, I guess. This year was lost to her. I wondered if she’d ever come back here to teach. Made my chest hurt. She’d be devastated.

On the north side of the structure were the central offices and cafeteria. In the heart of the complex was a huge, sprawling library.

Twice we were attacked by shades as we opened classroom doors, but they were easily dispatched. Skella said they’d just reform later so we shouldn’t dawdle.

While Katie’s classroom had been fully rendered, there were other areas that were shadowy or almost non-existent. Places where people rarely gathered. Places of strong emotion—good or bad—were solid as our world.

Several times we paused as Jimmy picked up a hint that Katie had been there. There was a distinct difference from the memories of her etched into this place. The teachers’ lounge had a strong impression of her. The cafeteria had her mark as well, but it was so faint, only Jimmy had picked it up.

“More like the memory of a feeling, you know?” he said.

I wondered if it was the love or the blood. The fact I couldn’t sense that she’d been in a couple of places stung a bit, but they were blood related and knew each other longer.

“There’s a hub ahead,” Skella said after we’d explored the northern half of the school. “Near the middle.”

“That’ll be the library,” I said.

We slowed our approach. There were two large doors ahead, each ornately carved with the figures of dragons.

Bub stepped forward and touched the door on the left. The dragon there flexed his great wings and turned his head toward us.

“Careful,” Jimmy said, taking a step forward.

“Guardians,” Skella said. “They wouldn’t let any of the riffraff inside there, but it could be dangerous,” Skella said. “Place like that has a lot of portals, lots of places to get lost.”

“Why?” Bub asked, moving to the second door and looking up at the female dragon carved there. She lowered her head to be level with Bub and a puff of steam rose from her nostrils.

“Let me,” Skella said. She opened her pack and took out a flaming torch.

“Nice,” I said. “That burning the whole time it was in your pack?”

“More magic.” Bub said, leaning forward and examining the dragon on the door in front of him.

“Of course,” Skella said, smiling. “Unun gave me a few items. Seems maybe she’d done some exploring in her youth. She’s a sly one, very secretive.”

Skella stepped forward and bowed.

“We would like to pass,” she said, smiling.

The male dragon turned away, saying nothing. His door did not move.

Skella turned to face the female. “And you, majestic one?”

She lifted her scaled head and shook it sideways.

“That’s a no,” Bub said.

“You try,” I suggested, squatting down next to him. “You are kin, are you not?”

Bub looked at me, tilting his head from one side to the other, thinking.

“Kith, not kin,” he said. “But I believe you hold the key here.” He pointed to the book.

I patted him on the shoulder and stood, holding the book high. The light pulsed when I held it near the door, and the dragon blinked at me twice before stepping back.

The door swung open revealing a chamber crisscrossed with glowing ribbons of light.

Let the book guide you, a voice said inside my head.

I stepped forward, pausing to look back and make sure the others followed. Bub grabbed the back of my chain shirt. I smiled at that. He had a look of sheer amazement on his little round face. It was cute how expressive he could be with all those scales.

Skella came next, followed by Jimmy. Once we were all inside, the door closed with a quiet click, and the room lit up like a discotheque.

“It’s the books,” Jimmy said, stepping up next to me.

We stood on a marble staircase going down to a grand cathedral of shelved books. The place was a palace.

“This is the dreaming place,” Skella said. “Where minds are opened and worlds created.”

We descended the marble staircase and crept across the thickly carpeted chamber. In the distance we could hear children laughing.

“Echos,” Skella said, urging us forward.

Bub paused at one point, falling behind. The lights were dazzling.

I walked back and put my hand on his shoulder. “Come on, big guy.”

“I thought I heard Jai Li,” he said, looking around.

“She’s at home,” I promised him. “Julie, Mary, and Edith are watching her.”

He looked at me, blinking for a moment and nodded. “There is much here to explore. I think I could become lost here.”

I took his hand. “Come on, I won’t let you get lost.”

We made our way after that with no interruptions.

“How do we know Katie isn’t here?” Bub asked as we climbed the stairs on the other side of the expansive hall.

“She’s not,” Jimmy said, pointing to his left arm.

I looked at him as he turned halfway to show us. The teddy bear he’d strapped to his arm was reaching toward the door to the rest of the school.

“Well, that seems clear enough,” I said. I led them to the huge doors and pushed the metal bar that opened them. Just like the doors in the rest of the school. The Sideways was a funny place.

Once the doors closed behind us, we saw immediately a glow coming from down one hall.

Bub pulled away from me, scrambling down the hall. “She is here,” he said, looking back with a grin. “Can you not feel her?”

“Bub, wait,” Skella called, reaching out with one hand.

But it was too late. Shots rang out from one of the side passages. Three bullets smashed into Bub, and he fell back, a bloody ragdoll.

“No!” I shouted, running forward. This could not be happening. Not here. Not the soldiers.