Despite the Scarecrow’s weight, the shelf did not topple over, but that didn’t mean Sabrina and Daphne were safe. The Scarecrow kept tossing down the books he didn’t need. The tumbling volumes were encyclopedias, and the children darted around like they were trapped in a whack-a-mole game.
“Here it is,” the Scarecrow cried, just before he fell off the shelf and landed in a heap on the floor. Without missing a beat, the librarian sprang to his feet and opened the book. Inside were pictures of flags from all over the world. He flipped through the pages until he found a flag that looked just like the one the girls had seen hanging from the Hotel Cipriani’s banister. “Is that it?”
Daphne and Sabrina nodded.
“That’s the flag of a city called Venice,” the Scarecrow said, quite proud of his discovery. “It’s a lovely place built on one hundred seventeen islands connected by one hundred fifty canals. In Venice, you don’t hail a cab, you hail a boat called a gondola, because many of the roads are actually waterways. The population is roughly two hundred and fifty thousand people. The average annual rainfall is thirty-four inches. The major industry is tourism, and the region’s biggest exports are textiles, clothing, glass, paper, motor vehicles, chemicals, minerals, and nonferrous metals.”
Sabrina prepared for Daphne to ask for the definition of nonferrous; she herself had no idea what it meant. But much to Sabrina’s surprise, the little girl took a pocket dictionary from her purse and looked up the word on her own.
“Nonferrous is a metal containing little or no iron,” she announced.
Sabrina grabbed the dictionary. “What’s this?”
“What does it look like?” Daphne said, rolling her eyes.
Sabrina could feel her face tighten up. How dare Daphne roll her eyes at her!
“Now, how about that hotel?” the Scarecrow asked, interrupting the argument.
“It’s called Hotel Cipriani,” Daphne said, since Sabrina was still too angry to talk.
“Sounds like that language they speak over there,” Scarecrow said. “What’s it called? You know, the language they speak in Italy?”
“Uh . . . Italian?” Daphne asked.
“Bingo!” Scarecrow raced back through the library to where travel books for places all around the world were kept. Soon the girls were caught in another hailstorm of books. Copies of Fodor’s Guide to Oz, Frommer’s Lilliput, Lonely Planet’s Narnia, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Neverland flew at them. After some very close calls, Scarecrow snatched a book off a shelf and held it triumphantly above his head. “Here it is!” In his excitement, he lost his balance and nearly fell off the bookcase. He managed to hold on with one hand, but he struggled to regain his footing.
“Oh, yeah, that’s a secondhand brain, for sure,” Puck said, flying down to the girls’ level. “Oz was such a prankster.”
“Have you forgotten that Oz tried to kill us?” Sabrina said.
“You can be a homicidal madman and hilarious at the same time, you know,” Puck said—right before the bookcase tipped over and came crashing down, burying him in a mountain of books.
“Boy, am I accident prone today,” the librarian said.
“The books! They’re touching me,” Puck groaned. “They’re all over me!”
“We’ll get this off you in no time,” the Scarecrow said. Working together, he and the girls lifted the heavy shelf off Puck. When he got to his feet, Sabrina noticed he had blotchy red marks on his arms and legs, and his face had swollen to the size of a pumpkin.
“I’m allergic!” he cried as he scratched his arms and legs furiously. He reached for the wooden sword he kept at his waist. Sabrina was sure Puck was going to attack the clumsy scarecrow, but instead, he used his weapon to scratch the areas of his back that he couldn’t reach. “Whoever had your brain before you was evil!” Puck muttered.
Scarecrow frowned, but then he spotted a book on the floor and his burlap face lit up. “Hey! Here’s the book.” He grabbed a large volume off the floor, then opened it and flipped through the pages. “This is a travel guide to Italian hotels. Travel books don’t get checked out much. There aren’t too many vacationers from Ferryport Landing. Oh, here it is—the Hotel Cipriani. It has a five-star rating—very swanky.”
“Is there an address for the hotel?” Sabrina asked, remembering her uncle’s specific request.
“Absolutely! The listing says it’s at Giudecca 10 in Venice,” Scarecrow said. “They put the building number after the street name in a lot of European countries. Is there anything else you need to know?”
“I’m not sure we’d survive any more of your help,” Daphne grumbled. “Thanks a lot.”
“No thanks is necessary!” Scarecrow said, ignoring Daphne’s comment. “Learning something new is thanks enough. Though I could use a hand reshelving some of these books.”
The Scarecrow strolled away, leaving the shelf and the books where they fell. Puck fired insults at him as the librarian walked away. “I know Oz. He’s a liar. I wouldn’t be surprised if your brain wasn’t made out of an old sock and some butterscotch pudding! I’m talking to you, Mr. Genius. You should call Oz and get the receipt for your brain. I’m sure the warranty has expired.”
“We tried to warn you,” Daphne said as she picked up a travel guide to Camelot and put it back on a shelf.
“We tried to warn you,” Puck mocked as he scratched furiously. “Oh, I can smell the books on my skin!”
Though Puck refused, Sabrina and Daphne decided to help the Scarecrow with the mess he made. After an hour they were regretting their decision.
“Books are heavy,” Daphne grumbled as she reshelved a series of increasingly thick novels about a boy who went to a school for wizards.
“I know. Can’t they write these things smaller?” Sabrina said.
“Excuse me,” a voice said from behind them. Sabrina hadn’t heard anyone approach and nearly screamed when she turned around. Standing before her was the strangest-looking man she had ever seen. He wore an expensive-looking white suit and his fingers were adorned with silver and ruby rings. On his wrist was a diamond-studded watch and in his ears were small silver hoop earrings. But what really made him stand out was his hair. His long curly beard and bushy eyebrows were an unnatural shade of blue.
“Do you work here?” he asked.
Sabrina shook her head, speechless.
“No, we’re just helping out the librarian,” Daphne said. The little girl stammered a bit, obviously disturbed by the man as well.
The man with the blue hair frowned and looked about. “That fool will be no help. I don’t suppose you can point me to the law books?”
Sabrina shrugged. “Sorry.”
“I’ll find them myself,” the man huffed and walked farther into the library.
Sabrina looked after him. There was something troubling about this stranger. She felt as if there was evil rather than blood pumping through his veins. His hair and glaring eyes seemed inhuman, like he was the devil made flesh.
“Do you know who that was? That’s Bluebeard,” Puck said as he pulled the girls behind a shelf. “He’s got to be the most villainous Everafter in this town.”
“I thought you were the most villainous Everafter in this town,” Sabrina said.
“Besides me,” Puck said as he peered around the corner. “He’s a recluse. I hear he has a mansion up on Mount Taurus, but no one has seen him in years. I heard Charming told him to stay out of town. I guess now that there’s a new mayor, he’s doing what he wants.”