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Offering no further answers, he had pulled out a stumpy little cane and led them—at a hobbling pace—to yet another set of stone stairs which spiralled downwards once again. They had opened at the bottom to a massive room, packed full of cascading books.

After showing Alex how to use the touch-screen technology to navigate the library’s maze-like layout, the librarian had started to walk away, but Jordan had stopped him, claiming he hadn’t told Alex about the full extent of the library.

The librarian had looked at Jordan with narrowed eyes for a moment before he’d murmured, “I suppose she of all people should know.” He’d then caught Alex’s confused gaze and explained, “Legend claims that the library spans over many levels, that it goes deeper than you could possibly fathom, and that each level holds more information than you could ever imagine.”

Alex had glanced back at the staircase which had led them into to the cavern-like library room, then she had turned to look at Jordan and the librarian quizzically. “But the staircase ends here. It doesn’t go any further.”

The librarian’s owlish eyes had remained locked on hers, but he’d only shrugged dismissively. “Like I said, it’s only a legend.”

Jordan’s response had been to roll his eyes and say, “You don’t always use a staircase to get to the lower levels. I’ll show you some time.”

And that was all either of them had said on the matter.

Since that day, Alex had frequented the library a number of times each week for study purposes, but she’d yet to venture any further than the main book level. That was all about to change with Jordan’s promise of visiting the Archives.

Because the Archives, Alex knew, weren’t on the main level.

Fourteen

Alex had to wait untilclasses finished the next afternoon before she could visit the Archives. Unfortunately, she and her friends hadn’t been very discreet about their plans, and Mel and Connor had overheard them talking at lunch. The cousins had invited themselves along, claiming they knew a short-cut—whatever that meant.

When they finally entered the library, Alex wished she’d found a way to dissuade Mel and Connor from joining them, since they hadn’t stopped squabbling with each other and she was starting to get a headache.

“Hurry up, would you!”

“I can’t move any faster than this!”

“Then you shouldn’t have come!”

“Ha! Like you would even know where to go without me!”

“What are you talking about? I found this place first!”

“No you didn’t! I showed you how to get in!”

Alex sighed and rubbed her temples when they stopped for the fifth time.

“You guys need to keep your voices down if you don’t want to get us caught,” Jordan said. Despite his cautious words, he was leaning haphazardly against a bookshelf, not caring that he was disobeying rules himself by eating a pastry he’d managed to sneak past the librarian’s keen gaze.

“What’s the problem anyway?” Bear asked, stealing the pastry from Jordan and tearing off half of it, handing the rest back. He graciously divided his own portion to share with Alex who smiled at him in gratitude.

As she chewed on the apple and custard goodness, she was able to tune out the incessant arguing that started up again with Bear’s question. But it only took a few bites before the pastry was all gone and she was once again aware of the bickering.

“If you hadn’t forgotten how to—”

“Me! It was you who said that you’d—”

“Don’t blame me for this! I’m the one who—”

They were wasting too much time and drawing too much attention. Alex still wanted to get back to the food court for a quick dinner once they were done, so she decided to intervene.

“Enough!” she said, in a not-so-quiet library voice. She immediately lowered her tone, realising that a few students had stopped what they were doing to stare at them. “Remind me again why we’re all here?”

Mel blinked at her. “To visit the Archives. Remember?”

Alex felt the remainder of her patience begin to dissolve. “Not why we’rehere, but why we’reallhere. I only need one person to show me how to get down there.”

The others all looked at each other before turning to eye the pastry Jordan was still eating. Like clockwork, every one of their stomachs growled as they realised they could bail on Alex and go eat a proper dinner.