Chapter 24 The Hidden Library

Chapter 24 The Hidden Library
Luna POV

All ran away as the animals rushed into the plaza. But I held the chain steady. I grabbed the hands of the people who were beside me and did not give them.

We must get somewhere high up, said Elena. She was running with me dragging me to the house of Kieran.

"No," I said. "We need to stand our ground. When we race we demonstrate to those animals that we are afraid. We demonstrate to the immortals, they turned out to be correct in thinking that humans and werewolves cannot collaborate.

This is madness, Luna, this is madness, said Kieran. He was far in his wolf shape where he was guarding people against the animals. "We're going to die."

"Then we die together," I said. I sounded braver than I felt. Fighting something that we believe in.

However, even before I could do anything, Thomas came in my path. He was aglow with eternal strength. He was handsome and fearful as he would appear.

There is something I haven't told you, Thomas said. There is a reason why your grandmother did not want to tell you, she was scared. The creatures that you see are not ordinary creatures. They're people. Tortured and magically transformed people have become weapons.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

They were not created by the immortals, as Thomas said. "They transformed them. Brothers, humans and werewolves captured centuries ago. Hundreds of them. The immortals shaped their brains and their physical bodies in a way that nobody could recognize. The victims are those animals, Luna. They're not enemies."

I had a glance at the animals attacking Pine Ridge people. Some of them consisted of wolves. Others were entirely human. Others were combinations which I could not classify at all. And to the extent that what Thomas had told them was true, they were not the ones to blame what they were doing. They were being controlled.

"How do we free them?" I demanded.

Thomas said they took them up to the Hidden Library. It is the place where the immortals store their most powerful knowledge. The location of the store, of the spells that retain their creatures in bondage. Provided we can dissipate those spells we can liberate the creatures. and liberated animals imperial will revolt against their masters.

"Where is this library?" Kieran asked.

Thomas called her Beneath Pine Ridge. It is underneath the Pine Ridge it has been. The immortals buried it here many centuries ago, inasmuch as they believed that Pine Ridge was not going to be important. It never occurred to them that there would be a mixture of humans and werewolves at this specific location.

Elena appeared beside us. She grabbed my hand. I know where the entrance is, she said. "I've known for a hundred years. I was never braver than to enter.

"Show us," I said.

We ran through the chaos. There were humans and werewolves within our surroundings who fought with the transformed creatures. It was savage and bloody and despondent. People were dying. But they were themselves guarding one other. They were struggling together at insurmountable odds.

Elena took us to the oldest area of Pine Ridge. To the foundations of the buildings that were thousands of years old. She put her hand upon a stone wall and the wall opened.

Inside was a tunnel. and outside the tunnel was light.

The Underground library was enormous. It was hewn and hewn out of the mountain itself. The walls were lined up with books on the floor up to the ceiling. They were no ordinary books. They were brimmed with light and power and of things I could not understand.

This was a stone platform in the middle of the library. On that platform there was a book that was blazing with light so bright that it was painful to look at.

"The Book of Bonds," Thomas said. He approached it attentively as though it would blow up. Here all the immortal spells are written. Every transformation. Every binding. In defeating this book, we eliminate all the immortal spells that are presently active.

"Then destroy it," I said.

Thomas wanted to reach upon it, but he was unable. This was like water through his hand in the book. He tried again. Same result.

"I can't," Thomas said. He looked devastated. Immortal magic can not be destroyed by immortality. It contradicts the laws that have united reality.

"But I can," The Architect said. He had tracked us down to the library. The running had made him gasp, yet he was a resolved man. "I was once immortal. I know the laws. But I chose to become human. I chose to live as a mortal. That sets me free of the eternal laws.

The Architect went up to the platform. He picked up the Book of Bonds. There was no response at all. At which the book started to shine even more. The hands of the Architect started trembling.

"It's burning," he said. But he didn't let go. It's melting in the very core of it, as I break the immortal laws by a mortal hand. But I can do this. I can end this."

The book exploded.

The blast did not injure us, but a shock of sheer force was discharged. That force moved over the earth, and through the town, and over all the places where the immortal spells were being done in confining the creatures.

We felt it. All the people of Pine Ridge were feeling it. The animals paused fighting for a moment. The immortals stood motionless for a moment.

Then the animals started to evolve. Their twisted theories began to relax. Their slaves began to be liberated. They gazed blindly and in dismay at what they had had to do.

"What's happening?" one of the released animals inquired. She was in a way a wolf, but now she was getting more human. More whole.

"You're being freed," I said. I touched her, and grabbed her hand. "You're free now. You're not weapons anymore. You're people again."

The animals gazed at one another. Hundreds of them. Everyone is gradually growing to be themselves. Everyone came to know that they had been exploited by the immortals over the centuries.

And there they turned against their masters.

The immortals tried to run. But they were hunted by the liberated animals. The fight had been terminated in seconds. The people had tortured seven immortals who were defeated by them over a thousand years.

But at the centre of the plaza The Architect fainted. The Book of Bonds had cost him everything in being torn in mortal hands. His body was aging rapidly. Years after years were hurting to keep pace with him at the same time.

I held him as he fell. "Thank you," I said. Thanks, you have decided to be better.

At last I know, The Architect said. His voice was weak. Power is nothing without purpose. I had centuries to lose before I struck mine.

He died there in the plaza. Humans. Mortal. Finally at peace.

Elena was crying. Thomas was holding her. The liberated creatures stood about us bewildered and confused and free.

And I felt it, somewhere in the darkness. Another presence. Smaller than the immortals. But somehow more dangerous.

"Luna," Margaret said. She stood at one end of the plaza, yet with her she was not alone. There was someone with her. Somebody that resembled me to the letter.

This is my daughter, said Margaret. Her voice was dissimilar and chilly. "She's been waiting for you. And she is so angry there you did her mother.