The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (surface ebook reader .TXT) 📕

on the spine.  He stared down at it, his brow furrowed.  "What the hell is all of this?" he whispered.  "Alex, I...I don't get it."

The books rattled on their shelves, out in the main room.  Daniel jumped - and glanced back, still cradling the massive text.

It'd been only minutes since he entered, but he'd almost forgotten where it was he stood.  "Shit," he mumbled, and lifted his feet.  They pulled free of the slop coating the ground with a wet, sucking sound.  His slippers...well, he'd need new ones, after this.  Daniel sighed, rubbing at his forehead.  Okay.  He'd just take the book with him back to that reading desk, and-

When he turned away, though, something rattled - a narrow, delicate chain, binding the tome to the shelf.  "No?" he said.  "I can't take it with me?"

He stared, but the chain didn't budge or loosen or fade away into dust.  Alexandria was being firm, then.  He made a face, slotting the book back onto the shelf.  "Fine," he mumbled.  "I'll come back later."  As interested as he was, the room was a little too horrifying for him to justify staying there on a whim - and in the grand scheme of things he should be reading in that moment of time, the book titled basics still seemed more relevant.  Every step he took came a little quicker than the one before, carrying him around the half-dried puddles of blood and out of the chamber.

Daniel slowed at last, clinging to the back of the desk's chair.  He leaned on it hard, fighting to compose himself.  "That's messed up, Alex," he whispered, unable to tear his eyes off the smooth, unmarked surface of the desk.  "Are they...those are people. And they’re are killing each other, aren't they?"

He'd been told as much.  It wasn't a surprise.  He gripped the chair more tightly, trying to calm himself enough to sit down and start working.  Trying, and failing.

Pushing off hard, Daniel stalked away, lifting his hands to tear at his hair.  Maybe this was all a mistake.  Maybe he was an idiot for opening the door and coming down here.  If he didn't know it was here, then maybe it couldn't hurt him.

Casting a glance back to the blood-soaked room, he sighed.  If he didn't know about them, he'd be blinded - and now, face to face with this, he knew how bad it could get.  He needed to get to work, rather than just scaring himself.

But...His eyes drifted to the side, to where a second archway lay, formed out of the stone.  The pale blue-green glow from within soothed his eyes, wiping away a bit of the ache and the terror.  Just...Just for a while.  Just another minute.  Leaving the desk and chair behind, he strode toward the new passage.

No voice screamed at him to slow.  No warning bells went off in his head.  He couldn't shake the nervousness that swept through him, though, leaning out around the edge as though a monster was going to leap out at any moment.

His eyes widened.  Daniel's fingers fell away from the stoneworked wall - and he walked in, hardly seeming to notice the threshold passing him by.

The room was no bigger than the chamber of horrors on the far side of the  desk.  It wasn't big and sprawling, didn't go on and on.  He was quite sure of that - and yet, his eyes kept insisting the walls went on forever, the ceiling towered over him.

Somehow, everything else seemed to pale before the teardrop-shaped well that lay before him, lined with elegant marble blocks that stood a fist high over the ground.  It had been filled with liquid - something like water, but shining with its own clean, pure light.  Daniel froze, one foot raised over the ground.

"Okay," he whispered, his voice strained.  His eyes traced out the narrow rivers that flowed away from the well through channels no wider than a nail, weaving out complicated shapes through the stone floor and then vanishing deeper into Alexandria.  "Not...just the well, then.  That's...weird."  He chuckled, repositioning his feet.  "It's kind of like..."

Veins.  The thought screamed loud and clear in his mind, even as his mouth clamped shut.  The tiny rivers of blue were like arteries carrying Alexandria's lifeblood away from here.  His eyes lifted to the far side of the room, right to the narrowest point of the teardrop-shaped well.

Something stood there - a figure.  A statue.  A woman with hair down to her waist, one foot braced on either side of the teardrop's point and carved with enough detail he thought she might spring to life at any minute.  She cradled one hand loosely before her, the fingers spread wide.  That same glistening, glowing liquid pooled from what looked like a scar across her palm, pouring between those fingers to drip down into the well.

Daniel crept forward, leaning out over the edge.  He squinted, peering down into the depths.  It stretched down farther, farther...he wobbled, straining, and-

Shit.  He yanked himself back with a gasp.  The world swayed around him.  "Well," he whispered, licking suddenly-dry lips.  "Uh. Okay.  So you have a bottomless well of...of magic water down here.  That's...a thing."

The water splashing down into the well tinkled, like wind chimes, like laughter.  Daniel lifted his head, grinning at the statue.  She seemed stern enough, with a mane of hair that must've taken years to carve half-hiding her face, but he knew Alex's good moods when he spotted them.  He chuckled.  Somehow, it made sense.  Referring to Alexandria in the feminine had always felt right.

"This is beautiful," he said, low and soft.  The words echoed around the grotto.  His eyes stayed glued to that statue.  "You're beautiful.  Thank you for...for showing this to me.  I'm sorry I pushed you."

Placing each foot carefully, he backed out of the chamber, keeping his gaze on the fountain for as long as he could.  He grasped the corner of the archway as it appeared around him, lingering a moment longer.

And then