Page 25

All of a sudden, Alex had a very bad feeling as she recalled the cloaked man’s words. ‘When you reach the end…’

With a gulp, she looked between the two floating platforms and then lifted her eyes up to the horizon. Having moved barely a foot, the scenery hadn’t changed; there was still no sign of land.

“You havegotto be kidding me,” she said, understanding the full extent of her task—or perhaps not, since she had no idea how far she would have to travel.

Raising her voice, she cried, “Hey, Mr. Mystery Man! You can’t be serious about this?”

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

With nothing for it, Alex sighed loudly and wobbled her way across to her original platform. When the second rock circled around in front of her again, she wobbled her way onto it once more, resigned to continue the tedious balancing act until the cloaked figure decided he was done messing with her and was ready to accept her as his student.

Eight

Step. Balance. Step. Balance. Step. Balance.

It was all Alex could do to keep moving across the lake at a snail’s pace as the hours crawled by. Having skipped lunch to visit her parents and Draekora, Alex was both starving and exhausted. Not to mention, with continued use and a distinct lack of medication, her wounded leg was absolutely killing her.

Added to everything else, Alex was still damp and miserably cold from her earlier submersion, but she pressed on, balancing from rock to rock to rock as she made her way across the unending lake.

The bad news was that despite how much time passed and how far she estimated she’d travelled, there was still no land in sight.

The good news was that she’d had a lot of time to consider what the cloaked figure had said, and once again he’d tried to trip her up with his words. For the third task, he’d never said she couldn’t spill the water—just that she couldn’t drink it, and that the glass had to be full when she reached the end. Upon realising that, Alex had promptly tipped the liquid out and secured the glass inside her jacket, intending to scoop up some lake water when she arrived at her destination. The move had freed both her arms and enabled her to balance easier—and therefore, move at a faster pace.

When she hit what she presumed to be the five-hour mark, Alex knew something wasn’t right. Given the temperature of the water, it must still be winter wherever she was, so the sun should have long since started setting. And yet, it remained high in the sky as if it were still noon.

If she hadn’t already tested her theory, Alex would have been convinced that she was inside the Library, because nothing about her situation made sense. Who was the man who kept appearing and disappearing at will? How was he able to refill the glass as if by magic? Where did the lake come from, and where did it end? How were the floating stones circling into new positions? Why did it appear as if time wasn’t moving?

All of those questions could easily—if unorthodoxly—be answered if Alex was indeed still somewhere inside the Library. But if that were true, then why wasn’t she able to call forth a door to spirit herself to freedom?

Step. Balance. Step. Balance. Step. Balance.

On and on and on Alex walked, pausing to rest more frequently as the hours continued to pass. When it reached the stage where she was certain it should have been well into nighttime, she became convinced that she must be inside the Library. She certainly hoped that was the case and time was frozen in the outside world, since she had told her friends she would be back for dinner, and the last thing she needed was for them to carry out their promise to begin searching for her.

Step. Balance. Step. Balance. Step. Balance.

Step… Wobble.

Wobble.

Woooobbblllleee.

When Alex lost her footing and nearly plunged back into the icy water, she knew she couldn’t continue any further. Her stomach was cramping from hunger. Her throat was parched with thirst. The muscles in her good leg were burning from the strain of balancing her weight. The stabbing pains in her injured leg, which was again bleeding freely from constant use, were becoming more than she could bear. She was shivering from the cold, but also feverish from the effort of her journey.

She had, without a doubt, reached the end of what she could manage.

Alex’s mind and body stilled as she repeated her last conscious thought and then replayed the cloaked man’s instructions.

‘When you reach the end, the glass must be as full as when you started.’

All along, Alex had presumed the floating rocks were leading her somewhere tangible—likeland. But what if the instructions weren’t about reaching the end of the lake, but rather, reaching the end ofherself?

Barely able to keep her feet under her any longer, Alex withdrew the glass and, body screaming in protest, kneeled down on the shaking platform to fill it with water.

She didn’t have to rise again before the scenery around her abruptly transformed, with her now empty-handed and crouching on a plush rug in front of a burning fireplace.

Whimpering with relief, Alex stretched out her aching limbs until she was collapsed flat along the rug, soaking up the heat and allowing her muscles to relax for the first time in what felt like decades.

“I am reluctantly impressed.”