Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Author:Garth Nix [Garth Nix]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781338052107
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2017-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Anya woke between clean sheets, under an eiderdown, with her head half on a plump goose-feather pillow. There was a heavy weight on her legs, but it shifted as she struggled to get up. She heard and felt the familiar happy thump of Ardent’s tail upon the bed as he moved off her feet.

“About time you woke up,” he said. “Everyone else is at breakfast already.”

“But you waited,” said Anya sleepily, giving him a hug.

“I did have a first breakfast,” admitted Ardent, licking Anya’s face. His breath smelled slightly of bacon. “With the apprentices. Second breakfast is with the Wizard and the dwarves.”

“Oh!” said Anya, waking up properly. She let go of Ardent and looked around. Her broad and comfortable bed was in a niche on the second level of a very large room that was open in the middle like a courtyard. Galleries ran around all four sides … and every gallery was lined floor to ceiling with books!

Anya jumped out of bed and ran to the cast-iron railing to look up and down and across. There were four galleries above her, and above them a roof made of many octagonal glass panes set in an iron framework, allowing a considerable amount of diffuse sunlight to shine down. From the brightness and angle of the sunlight, she could tell the morning was already well advanced.

“Books,” said Anya in a rather dazed little voice. This was the biggest library she had ever seen. It must contain thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of books. She turned back towards her bed and looked at the closest shelves, those on either side of the sleeping alcove. There were small bronze plates set into the rich reddish-brown walnut shelves, identifying the subject or category of the books thereon. Anya crept closer, as if the bookshelves might vanish, and leaned in to read one of the plates.

“ ‘Magic. Theory. General. Pre-Deluge.’ ”

She looked along the spines of the books. Most had titles there: type embossed, sewn, or stamped into their linen, calf, or metal cases. They all looked very interesting.

“ ‘The Source of Magic: An Enquiry,’ ” read Anya aloud, touching that book, and then the next, “ ‘The Various Practices of Magic,’ ” and a third, “ ‘Magic: My Thoughts and Analysis.’ ”

“We should go to breakfast,” said Ardent anxiously.

“Yes,” said Anya absently. She was looking at other shelves. They were labeled Alchemical Treatises: Old and Alchemical Treatises: Older and Alchemical Treatises: Ancient. Moving across, an entire bookcase had only one identifying plaque: Novels. With Magic. Worth Reading.

Anya was just reaching for one interesting-looking novel entitled As I Flew out One Morning when a slight whining noise behind her arrested that movement. She turned around to find Ardent holding a shirt very carefully in his mouth.

“Breakfast right now?” asked Anya, recalled to the present. Ardent nodded.

Anya took the shirt. It was a new one, of fine linen, with the sleeves already tied on with gold ribbons. On the end of the bed, there were more new clothes, all in her size.

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