The Missing Link (12 page)

"But, of course he doesn't scare you?" Lilly said, almost like a challenge.

"I never said that." Amanda clasped her hands together and stared at them for a time. "I
wouldn't be much of a leaper if I couldn't even talk to you guys, but it's hard. People are becoming
more rigid. You know...the virus. And like I said, I'm not the only one. My friends would love to get
to know you."

"So long as it isn't in public."

"Take it easy, Lil," Zack said.

"Why haven't we seen her at any of Professor Seafeather's gatherings. Aren't they
considered respectable?"

Amanda looked uncomfortable. "You weren't here before. You don't know what it was
like. Leapers got blamed for everything. A lot of them left. My parents are both leapers, but they still
protected me from becoming one of 'Feather's Flakes.' They said it would make life easier in case
my dive wasn't successful."

"Isn't being seen with us, just as bad?" Lilly said.

Zack screwed up his face at his sister. "You're such a grouch today."

"No, she's right. It's just... I've realized that being a leaper is more important to me than
worrying about what others think. More important than being a 'flake'."

Carole stood up and handed the completed questionnaire back to Amanda. "We'd best
be going, if we want to catch the archives before they close."

"I'd still like to help," Amanda said.

"Great," Zack said. "The more the merrier."

Carole pushed through the ornate set of double doors at the archives. They opened into
a cavernous auditorium. Ringing the stadium-sized space, and rising floor upon floor towards a
domed ceiling, were thousands upon thousands of book-lined shelves.

"Look at the size of this place," Zack said. "We'll be here all night."

"Oh come on!" Lilly snapped as she pushed past him. "Just ask the librarian."

A pinch-faced woman was seated behind an enormous desk to the side of the doors, just
within the hall. "Yes?" she said in a frosty tone when Carole stepped in front of her.

"We'd like to research some archives," Carole said.

She stared owlishly. "For what reason?"

"History class. Professor Melamine."

"I see. Epoch?"

"The time of the Fire."

"There's not a lot from that period. Exactly what is it that you're looking for?"

"Anything on the fire itself."

The librarian flipped through her files. "Here, if anywhere. Follow me." She went to a
wall containing banks of colored records and thumbed through various groupings before selecting
and studying one group. "Hmm. Section forty-three."

"We don't often get undergraduates in here." She looked pointedly at Zack, Lilly and
Amanda. "...of any sort. Take the central stairway behind the fountain." She indicated a gigantic
crystal sphere spinning in a shallow pool of water in the center of the hall. "Three levels down,
corridor C, section 43. No staff are on duty in the sub-levels so you'll be on your own. I'll likely have
left by the time you've finished, but since the material's all reference, you can't check it out. If you
need assistance, evening staff can be found on the upper levels."

Unlike the main floor, the sublevels were cramped and dingy. On the way down, Zack
stepped off the spiral stairway, slipped, and made a wild grab for the railing to keep from falling.
"You think they could clean once in a while," he said, wiping the dust caked floor with his foot.

Eventually they reached the third level down. "There's corridor C." Lilly pointed to one
of the passageways fanning out from the stairway. She led the way.

Halfway down the narrow corridor was a small reading alcove with a table and chairs.
Lilly scanned the nearby shelves and closed in on those opposite the table. "Forty-three." Amanda
slid a ladder over and climbed it to search the highest stacks. Zack squatted in the dust, taking those
closest to the floor.

Carole waited until Amanda was thumbing through the books before she stood back,
unfocused her eyes and scanned the area with her subtle sight. There wasn't much to see, except a
hint of red in the area where Lilly was already searching. She noticed a similar reddish pulse farther
down the corridor.

"Back in a sec," she said, and continued on to where the passageway ended in a second
circular alcove. Here the shelves were stacked with parchment, scrolls and a single oversized book.
Like the rest of the passageway, everything was covered in dust. She relaxed her vision. A weak red
aura glowed faintly around the book.

It might have meant nothing but still... Carole pulled the book from the shelf and
dropped it on the table, grimacing at the rank cloud of dust that billowed into the air. She opened
the hard, ratty cover and read the faded title:
Proceedings and Minutes of Special Council meeting
8888873
. Boring stuff.

She glanced over the table of contents anyway. One entry midway down caught her eye.
She went back and reread it slowly.
Order of business with respect to Malcour Udiken, suspected
arsonist responsible for the destruction of The Hall of Records. Pp. 219.

Carole tried to turn the page, but the paper was so rotten that it crumbled beneath her
fingers. The next page also disintegrated. How strange.

She returned to the shelves and pulled out a piece of parchment. It held together. She
rolled it into a tube and unrolled it again. The sheet didn't even crack. She studied the parchment
more closely and saw that it was covered with a shiny coating.

Carole examined a paper fragment from the book. Definitely no coating. So now what?
How could she find the page she wanted without destroying it in the process?

She looked at the parchment still in her hand. It was thin enough. Maybe it'd be strong
enough. Carefully, she slid the parchment between two pages of the book and lifted. The upper page
fell apart at the binding. She tried again, sliding the parchment all the way in, but not opening the
book as far. This time the pages remained intact.

Carole repeated this process until she located page 219. There was only one entry.

Motion: That as Malcour Udiken, suspected member of
heretical group, Sanctum, suspected arsonist responsible for destruction of Hall of
Records and majority of the Hub community, has not been seen since the time of the
fire, and is now believed to have either died in the fire or escaped to an unknown
dimension, proceedings against said Udiken shall be stayed until such a time, if any,
as he returns to the Hub or is apprehended. Motion carried.

She closed the book and returned it to its place on the shelf.

Zack looked up as she returned to where he and the two girls were searching through a
great pile of books, scrolls and parchments. "Penny for your thoughts."

"What've you got?" She indicated the scroll he'd been studying.

Unrolling it, Zack showed her a drawing of a community ringing a solitary mountain. "I
can't make out the writing."

"Neither can I. Amanda?"

Amanda slid down the ladder and came over to the table. She studied the drawing.
"Ancient text," she finally said. "Can learn dead languages in graduate school if you like. Not much
point to it, though."

"Found something," Lilly said, holding up a parchment. "Apparently the community was
originally built around the base of the Celestial Nexus. The fire started at the Hall of Records and
spread in both directions until most everything burnt up."

"That agrees with this scroll," Zack said. "The buildings are really close together, except
for some housing and... Hey is that the school? See, the same place as now and it has two
towers."

"Which one was the Hall of Records?" Carole said.

"I'm guessing this one." Zack pointed to a pyramidal structure that seemed to be
partially carved from the mountain. "It's the largest of the bunch and looks kinda libraryish."

"So, assuming the Celestial Nexus hasn't changed much since then, would you agree the
steep part here..." Carole pointed to a spot on the mountain directly overtop the Hall of Records.
"...is the same cliff face that now has a railing across it?"

"That's it, all right," Amanda said. "On the eastern face of the mountain. The railing cuts
across the rents in the rock where the rainbow tails nest."

"Rainbow tails?" Zack said.

"The birds that fly at sunset. You must've seen them."

"I thought they were funny looking bats."

"Are their feathers really rainbow colored?" Carole said.

"Dull gray, though they're supposed to reflect the light of the setting sun when they fly
over the mountain. I've never seen it myself, though."

"And they nest on the Celestial Nexus?"

"Just that one section, as far as I know."

Carole considered. "So if the hall was below that cliff, it should be easy to find."

"Why are you looking for it?" Amanda said.

"She's into historical sites," Zack said quickly. "Picked it up while living on the
Monobrain realm."

"Oh. Not into ancient stuff myself."

"Here's something else," Lilly said, still studying her parchment. "Apparently there was
fire damage to some of the connectors, but it doesn't say which ones. Hmm, that's all."

Carole yawned. "I guess we should call it a day. I'm supposed to be home early,
anyway."

They refiled the documents and headed for the main floor. "Thanks for your help,
Amanda," Carole said, once they were standing on the front steps, outside the library.

"It was fun. See ya."

Zack watched Amanda skip away until Lilly slapped his arm. "Ow! What was that
for?"

"You don't find it strange the way she attached herself to us all afternoon? No one gives
us the time of day for months and suddenly we've got a new best friend."

"She's doing research and needs our help, and she's against Hotspot, for crying out loud.
That alone should count for something."

"I don't trust her. How do we know she's not a spy?"

"We don't," Carole said. "Just be careful what you say around her."

"She's talking to you, Zack."

"I never said a thing."

"You told her about the archives, and you couldn't keep your eyes off her all
afternoon."

"I also saved Carole's butt back there."

"If you'd kept your mouth shut in the first--"

"Hey," Carole interrupted. "I just realized, the herd's living where the ruins should be. I'll
get Runt to check it out for us."

"That's a plan," Zack agreed.

The air was thick with delicious aromas. Carole's mouth started to water. She had to
hand it to her parents; everything else aside, they were exceptionally good cooks.

She closed the front door, tiptoed down the hall and peeked into the dining room. Black
china had been laid out overtop a white lace tablecloth, and two candles flickered at opposite ends
of the table. That wasn't good. Candles were never lit until after the guests had arrived.

She darted for the stairs, only to find her way blocked by the approach of her mother
and Professor Snively Hotspot. Judith Sylphwood was the picture of stiff elegance. Her hair had
been pulled into a tight bun from which not a single strand escaped. Her burgundy gown clung to
her statuesque figure like a second skin, with the hem dusting the floor as she walked arm-in-arm
with the professor.

Hotspot's appearance was a direct contrast. Greasy hair tangled with mangy beard, to
spill onto his chest and shoulders like an unkempt shrub. The one remaining button on his dinner
jacket strained against the pressure of his belly, like a dam struggling to hold back a flood.

Mrs. Sylphwood shot Carole a cool, disapproving look.

"Ah, here she is at last," Professor Hotspot wheezed, while attempting a bow. "Our most
famous multitasker, heroine of the Hub, protector of porcines and messiah of the monobrains."

Carole wondered how long it had taken him to think up that line.

"Well?" her mother said.

"Good afternoon, professor. I understand you've prepared quite the show for us."

"The duties of office." He sighed theatrically. "Fame is a wicked taskmaster, young
Sylphwood. She requires her subjects to constantly struggle for loftier heights. You would do well to
consider your own precarious position on her slopes."

"I'm not interested in fame."

"No?" Professor Hotspot seemed genuinely surprised. "Perhaps that's true, though it's
obvious she's taken quite a fancy to you, which in its own way is just as perilous."

Knowing he was waiting to pounce on whatever she said, Carole merely shrugged.

"Might I inquire as to how you came to possess those unsightly bruises?" He waved his
fingers annoyingly close to her eyes. "Certainly not a new fad, though I admit with today's youth it is
sometimes hard to tell."

Mrs. Sylphwood sniffed. "She had an accident."

"Nasty and recent by the looks of it. But it was my understanding that you were on a
field trip with Professor Philamount over the rest days. So how is it you've returned to us with eyes
so battered and blue?"

He glanced at her mother. "If this is what happens while on excursion with a seasoned
guide, imagine the carnage once our youth are again set free to leap unsupervised."

"I tripped. It had nothing to do with dimensional travel."

"It has everything has to do with dimensional travel. A point I shall most definitely be
making at the assembly."

"You're finished your speech then, Snively?" Mrs. Sylphwood said.

"Not quite." He smiled disarmingly. "A few finishing touches, but enough about me.
Tonight is your show, Judith. An enjoyable evening with old friends and your most wonderful
cooking. But..." He looked around and then at Carole. "Where is our four-footed familiar? Is he not
to join us, tonight? I thought the two of you were inseparable."

"Runt has other plans."

"Pity. I would have appreciated his input."

Anything he had to say to or about the pigs would be bad news. Carole tried to sound
bored. "Oh? On what?"