Lenora and the glider were plunging toward the floor of the Flight section. She was trying desperately to recall anything she knew about flying gliders, which was nothing. The floor was approaching at a rate she felt would certainly pulverize her and the glider both if she didn’t come up with something, fast.
Then she remembered. She had never flown a glider, but she had played flight games. And to fly up, you had to pull back on the control stick, which was right in front of her. She grabbed it and pulled back as hard as she could.
The force with which the glider suddenly shot upward shoved Lenora back into her seat twice as hard as the tubes ever had. Her relief lasted only for a moment, for the glider began to fly ever more slowly. Stalling, thought Lenora. Thinking about the games again, she pushed the stick forward, and the glider leveled out.
Directly at a wall. Lenora yanked the stick to one side, and the glider turned, missing the wall by inches. Soon Lenora had figured out how to fly the glider in slow circles, never hitting the walls but always, always flying lower and lower. This glider had no engine and Lenora had no idea how to land, and even if she did, she didn’t think she had room to do it. Sooner or later, she was going to crash.
People were starting to gather on all the different levels, watching her. One of them, Lenora saw, was the elderly woman who had been looking for Plato’s Republic, and as the glider went by, Lenora whipped it out of her pocket and flung it at the woman, who caught it out of the air with a “Thank you!”
Now all these people started screaming instructions from different levels of the Flight section as she whizzed by, lower and lower. Not helpful! Lenora thought. She was trying to concentrate, and—
She saw it. A window. A large, open window, surely meant for things to fly through. She aimed right for it. Whatever was out there had to be better than what was in here, for in here she was about a minute away from a crash landing, and whatever happened, she did not want to take the chance of hurting a patron in the crash.
Out that window she went.
She gasped, all thoughts of her predicament driven momentarily out of her head.
She was hundreds, if not thousands, of feet above a massive number of huge earthen flat-topped mounds, all around for miles and miles. They all had one or more buildings on top of them, sometimes one big one, sometimes several small ones. A few of the largest mounds had even more smaller mounds on top of them, with more buildings on top of those. It was a huge, very strange city like nothing she’d ever seen before, not even the metropolis of the ants, and as she looked at a long, straight, well-kept boulevard near the largest mound of all, she began to get an idea. Perhaps, just perhaps, if she was very careful and very lucky, she could …
And then something else entirely had her complete attention. In the far, far distance, beyond many towers, and buildings new and old, and thousands of other structures intertwined with tubes and bridges and causeways that made up the Library, was the very tallest tower of them all. And at the very top, it was burning.
Soon enough we will eat you and that giantess and everything else, and burn this Library to the ground just like we did the others.
The Library was burning. Or was it? Lenora had a strange unease about this fire, the same unease she felt when one of the Forces was around, but this time it was pouring over her thousands of times more strongly.
“Pull back on the stick to fly up!” yelled a voice. Lenora whipped her head around. To her shock, she saw Haruto piloting a hang glider that was coming alongside her. Whereas he looked perfectly comfortable piloting that craft, Lucy, who was strapped in right beside him, did not, judging from her screaming and her white-knuckled death grip on Haruto’s arm as her long scarf whipped against her face and she stared wide-eyed in utter terror at the city of mounds far below.
“And move the stick back and forth to steer,” Haruto yelled over the wind.
“I know,” shouted Lenora, slightly annoyed. How did he think she’d managed to pilot this thing out here? “I just need help landing!”
Lucy stopped screaming. “F-fly up h-higher and I’ll j-jump down and help Lenora,” Lucy cried out, rather bravely, Lenora thought, as she sounded like that was absolutely the last thing in the world she wanted to do.
“NO!” shouted Lenora and Haruto at the same time.
Lenora continued, to Haruto, “Land on that boulevard down there and I’ll follow you in!”
Haruto looked down at the long, straight boulevard and nodded. He turned his glider and made a wide pass over the city, descending slowly all the while, Lenora doing her best to follow. The longer this went on, the better she was getting, and she was just starting to think she might want to fly around a bit more when she realized they had passed over the entire city. Haruto made a wide turn, Lenora following. Now they were headed straight for the boulevard. As they came back over the city, Lenora saw a giant arch with a sign that said CAHOKIA. Haruto flew lower and lower, until he landed right on his feet with a few running steps. For her part, Lucy proved that platform shoes and hang gliders do not mix, as she immediately stumbled over them and fell. Lenora touched down beside them and her glider rolled to a slightly bumpy stop. Feeling disappointed that the ride was over, she walked over to the others.
Lucy was picking herself up and dusting herself off like nothing had happened. “I’m fine! Good landing! That was fun!”
“Really?” replied Lenora. “Do you always scream in terror when you’re having fun?”
“I was screaming in fun,” cried Lucy, jumping up and down. “I want to go again! Can I get my own hang glider, pleeease?”
Then Lucy and Haruto both noticed the burning tower. “Is the Library on fire?” Lucy asked anxiously, forgetting all about the glider.
Lenora shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Look, there’s no smoke coming from the flames, and it’s not spreading. I think there’s something in there. Something bad. It feels like it has to do with the Forces of Darkness.”
And then Lucy was screaming again, and Lenora and Haruto whirled around to find a giant monster emerging from a hole in the ground.