Defender of the Crown by Paul J Bennett

Author:Paul J Bennett [Bennett, Paul J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul J Bennett

Eighteen

Return to the Tower

Fall 964 MC

* * *

Aldus Hearn pulled another volume from the bookshelf. "This looks interesting," he muttered.

"What does?" asked Albreda.

"Notes from Andronicus, in his own hand from what I can tell."

Albreda stepped closer, bringing the lantern to bear. "It's a large library, Aldus, far larger than the one in Wincaster. I'm sure there are lots of books in his hand."

"This looks a little different," he said, flipping through the pages, "and it mentions quite a few dates."

"Interesting to historians, but we're looking for clues as to Revi's condition."

"Still," said Hearn, "I'll put this aside. I have a feeling it's important, it must be the scholar in me."

"This would be easier if there were some sort of system to the organization of the books."

"You mean like at the Library of Kendros?"

"Yes," she agreed, "at least there you could find what you were looking for."

"Only if we understood their system," he said. "Perhaps this tower has its own way of categorizing books?"

"The tower has no such thing. It is people that organized them, not a building."

"You know what I mean," he grumbled.

Albreda looked up. "That's it!"

"What is?" he asked.

"There is a system, I should have seen it sooner."

"There is?"

"Yes," she said, closing the book in his hands. "Look at the cover of this volume."

Hearn looked down, examining the leather binding. "I don't see anything of interest."

"It looks new," she said, "or at least reasonably so."

"I still don't understand what bearing that has on how it's organized."

"Don't you see? Every book on this shelf is in a similar state. I'm willing to bet that the books are organized by date."

"That's a rather silly way to arrange things," said Hearn.

"Not necessarily. It depends on the purpose of this library."

"I don't follow," he complained.

"What is the primary purpose of a library?" Albreda asked.

"That's obvious," said Hearn, "to store books."

"Yes, but to what purpose?"

"For future reference, of course."

"What if that's not true. What if this library represents history?"

Hearn looked around the room, taking in the sheer volume of books. "That's a lot of history. That being the case, wouldn't there be multiple books for the same time period?"

"Likely there is," she said, "and so there is another sub-category within each grouping."

"I see what you're getting at," said Hearn. "Each shelf might represent a decade, let's say. And within each shelf, books might cover different topics."

"Precisely."

"But how does that help us?"

"I'm not sure it does," said Albreda, "since we don't know when the fissure was discovered."

"I do," announced Hearn.

"You do?"

"Of course, at least in relation to the construction of the tower," he said. "I can manipulate stone using magic, remember?"

"Then how old is it?"

"The cavern below predates this tower, of that I am sure."

"Then we need to find the oldest books in the library," said Albreda. "They will, I'm sure, have some reference to it."

"You think it of interest to whoever built this place?"

"Of course," she said, "don't you? After all, what's the likelihood that the tower just happened to be built here?"

"A good point," he said, placing his book back on the shelf.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.