Sharyn followed with the others. Within a few steps, she saw her friend was correct. A waist-high iron barricade blocked the way. It was easy to miss, blending into the dark rock. As they got nearer, the run of the fence proved to be as circular as the surrounding walls. Like the arena of an equestrian training center.
“Careful,” Duncan warned, spotting the danger first.
They slowed as they neared the barricade. Beyond it, there was no floor. The fence protected an open well that dropped straight into the earth. Once at the barrier, they spread out along it and cast their lights down.
Gasps followed—in recognition, in shock.
Below them, tier after tier of levels fell away, disappearing into the darkness, stretching beyond the reach of their lights. The floors were connected by a pair of staircases, which spiraled down in tandem, forming a pattern reminiscent of a DNA’s double helix. Maybe this was purposeful, maybe happenstance. But it was a minor mystery compared to the grander one below.
Shelves, sculpted from stone, crowded each level and were packed with books. Other partitions had holes drilled into them, housing hundreds of curled scrolls. Elsewhere and everywhere, artifacts filled niches and cubbies: the yellowed skulls of long-dead animals, tall standing stones carved with writing, arcane tools of brass, rows of bottles holding unknown reagents. The sheer breadth of it all—the wealth, the history, the arc of humanity on display—strained the eyes to take it all in.
And what they viewed was only the barest edges of these uppermost levels.
Archie finally broke out a glow stick, snapped it brighter, and tossed it down the shaft. Its emerald shine tumbled down the well, falling and falling—then winking out.
“It’s like there’s no bottom,” Naomi murmured.
“What are we looking at?” Tag asked. “Is this Saint-Germain’s lost library?”
“No.” She remembered Laurent’s description of the man’s journeys around the world. “It’s not justhislibrary. But the archive ofallhis savants. The sum total of their knowledge, stored and preserved for humanity.”
She turned to the others and pointed down. “Here is true immortality. The permanence of ink on paper. The magic that can carry your thoughts, your lessons, your tales, your hopes, your dreams... far into the future. To share with others, so they can carry it on.”
“You may be right,” Duncan said.
Naomi offered a counterpoint. “It’s not just that.”
Sharyn turned to her.
“This is the Temple ofWater,” Naomi reminded her.
Sharyn immediately understood. Her eyes grew huge, while her vision narrowed with shock. She turned and pointed her light down into this cryptic well of lost knowledge.
She’s right. It’s not only that . . .
Sharyn breathed harder, trying to force the words out, to name what this place truly was. “It... It’s the Fourth Adage.”
Naomi nodded, looking both scared and exulted. “To lead us eventually to the Temple ofAir.”
“Aristotle’s fourth element,” Duncan mumbled.
Archie pointed his flashlight up, toward the heavens, as if searching for that temple now. Instead, he discovered thegoldhidden in this cave.
Across the roof, engraved deep into the stone, gilded letters curved around the open space.
Tag squinted. “What does it say?”
To answer that, the group circled outward and danced their beams across this message from the library’s builders.
Tag read aloud the passage closest to him. “Studium Discere Crescere.”
Naomi shouted on her side. “Cum Paratus Es.”
Duncan finished with the last word, yelling it like a call to arms. “Veniemus!”
Sharyn knew some Latin, but another in their group was far more fluent.
Archie pointed to each orator, starting with Tag, and translated, “Study, Learn, Grow.” Then he swung to Naomi. “When you are ready.” Finally, he shoved an arm toward his best friend. “We will come!”
