The chubby being shook its head at me. I took a good look around. The shelves of books behind me weren't the only ones. In fact, they seemed to stretch away down the aisle in which we were standing, almost to infinity. Once I tamped down my temper enough to listen, I heard dozens of unseen beings breathing and the rustle of pages turning, scholars sitting in unseen carrels bent over their books. We were in a library. I turned to Tananda and Calypsa.
"Of all the..."
"Shh!"
I scowled at the librarian, but lowered my voice. "Of all the sneaky tricks!"
"It's just what I told you," Kelsa said, for once moderating her shrill tones. "You will find Payge here among his fellow books!"
"That isn't what you said," I reminded her.
"Oh, it was something like that. What does it matter? He is here. All you have to do is catch him. I have foreseen it!"
"You foresee a lot of things," I commented. The bookworm behind me shushed me once more. "All right," I breathed. "I'll whisper!"
He nodded, then inched off, I supposed, to harass another visitor.
"Where, exactly, is he?" I asked Kelsa. "No, don't talk. Show me."
The Crystal Ball fogged up, then cleared. In its depths I saw another rank of bookshelves, identical to the ones that were around us.
"That does not help," Calypsa whispered. "They all look alike."
"Not completely," Tananda whispered back. "Look! He's standing under a sign that says "Fe-Fi." Maybe he likes being near his initials."
I grinned. "Well, let's go and Fo-Fum this Froome. I'm tired of playing catch up all across the dimensions. We'll split up and surround him." I glanced up. The local species, who resembled big bookworms, didn't just travel the floor of the aisles. I saw them clinging to the sides of shelves, even the ceiling, as they perused a row of covers.
"Can you climb up there, too?" I asked Tananda.
"Piece of cake," she said. With a supple movement, she clambered up the nearest tier, and vanished over the top.
"Then, you jump him from above. I'll go around to the right. Calypsa, you take the left." I leaned down and stuck a forefinger in Buirnie's face. "One peep out of you, and I'll use you for a U-bend under my bathroom sink, holes or no holes. Savvy?"
"Oh, very well," he said. "I will be pianissimo piano."
"No kind of piano. Not a note of music until we're out in the street. I'm not taking any chances on getting thrown out of here. Let's move.
"I can put everyone in the library to sleep," Asti suggested, as I tiptoed past "Do-Du." "I've got a wonderful soporific gas that will drop every breathing being in its tracks."
"No, thanks," I said. "I don't want anything like that circulating while Tananda's on the ceiling. If we can get close enough, you can zap him. Just try and keep me out of the fallout, all right?"
"Aahz, I have millennia of experience at this!"
"Give me a lucky beginner over an experienced veteran every time," I said.
There's something about a library that always makes me want to go to sleep. Not only is there the gentle sound of shushing in the air, but the air itself seems to be as still as glass. With sun pouring through the windows, the building was comfortably warm, and the scent of old books just acts like a sedative on my system. I felt like slapping myself in the face to keep awake.
I got some annoyed glances and a few surprised ones as I plowed my way toward the F's. They didn't show any nervousness about Pervects, which I believe to be a sign of intelligence. We usually only attack when provoked. Or offended. Or hungry.
My keen hearing informed me that Tananda was doing her best to keep Kelsa quiet as she clambered over the tops of the stacks. Ersatz was giving Calypsa whispers of advice as she took the right flank around Froome, through the G's and H's.
I edged along cautiously, watching out for that first glimpse of black fur. I had never gotten a good look at our quarry in either of the two dimensions through which we had just chased him, but the odds of another Pikinise being here in the public library on Tomburg were between slim and none.
The readers and browsers around me inhaled and exhaled softly, with the exception of one older bookworm in
the corner, who was panting. I grinned at him as I went by. He was reading a racy novel with his eyes bugged out on stalks. Once I had tuned him out, I started to become aware of one more respiration apparatus in operation. This one was wheezing, not in lust, but in fear. That had to be our boy. I tiptoed faster.
I slipped around the next bank of books. There he was! Like his tiler friend back home, he had an inverted triangle for a face covered with black hair, but he was dressed in a long brown robe, belted around the middle, and a pair of boots far more suited to hanging around in bars than hiking. His back was pressed hard against the shelves as he looked left and right. Over his left shoulder he had a huge satchel, just the kind of bag suitable for hauling around a precious tome made of solid gold. I eased back before he saw me.
In the shadows I considered my options. I had no means of disguising myself as a local. If I came around the corner at him, he would just run off in the other direction. I couldn't hear Ersatz, so Calypsa wasn't in place yet. I looked overhead for Tananda. Depending on the traffic on top of the shelves, it could take her a moment or so to get here.
I had a bright idea. I slid into the aisle behind him and made my way to the opposite side of the bank of shelves. If I plunged forward at just the right moment, I could grab him from behind and hang onto him until the cavalry finally made it up the hill. I peered through at the back of his head, crouched, and prepared to spring.
"May I help you?" a pleasant voice asked me. A female bookworm sidled up beside me.
"Quiet!" Asti commanded. "He is attempting an ambush."
"Thanks for nothing!" I said. The sound of our voices had alerted Froome. I caught a glimpse of terrified eyes just before he dashed away to the right. I shoved the helpful aide to one side and set out in pursuit. "What did you say that for?"
"Well, we didn't need her help, did we?" Asti asked, just as annoyed with me. "She might have alerted him as to our presence!"
"So you did it for me? Thanks a heap."
"Shh!" hissed several of the bookworms clinging to the walls. I stepped up my pace.
In the silence, the Pikinise's footsteps were perfectly audible. He turned and turned again, hoping to throw me off his trail, but that was pretty well unlikely.
A shape whisked overhead like a squirrel leaping from tree to tree as I crossed an aisle. Tananda gave me a wink and gestured to the left. I went right. We had to corner Froome before he got out the door.
Suddenly, the footsteps stopped. I halted in the middle of a long corridor filled with dusty, brown books each three inches thick on one side, and windows on the other. A glance told me that we were on the second floor above the street. Tananda went overhead again, and the footsteps doubled back. I spun and went in pursuit.
I raced into the nearest intersection. A small party of bookworms stood in the center, holding a book the size of a bed. Froome came charging out of the corridor just opposite me. His eyes went huge, and he dashed to the left. I had to dive over the open book to follow.
"Aaggh!" Asti protested, as I bounded to my feet. "Watch the judo rolls, will you?"
"Unless you've got a flying potion, I've got to go with regular locomotion, babe," I said.
"I'll make one, I'll make one," she said. "Just stop jostling me!"
The head start Froome had gotten helped him to lose me, but not Tanda. I whistled, and a shrill blast came back to me, from about five rows over. I jogged in that direction, dodging in between browsers and students. Tananda whistled again. The sound was closer. I looked up.
"Where'd he go?" I asked.
"Shhh!" the readers chorused.
At that moment, a black-and-brown blur zipped past us through the nearest cross row. We looked at each other, then rushed after him. Where was Calypsa?