The vaulted halls of the library seemed to stretch on forever: the brick lined tunnels appearing to shrink to dark circles somewhere in the distance. As Beddow stepped off the staircase from the surface, he was surprised by the silence.
"It's so quiet," he said. "Not even an echo." His words were absorbed by the air, vanishing without trace.
Kyrios nodded. "It's the books. They're everywhere."
Beddow looked around him. Everywhere in the brickwork were shelves and niches, each one filled with books. The books closest to him had bindings of faded leather and dull gilt; their pages were brown, ragged and covered in dust. Beddow reached out to touch one of the ancient volumes, but Kyrios reached out to stop him.
"Please. Don't," the librarian said. "They are fragile."
Beddow pulled his hand back. "Of course. But if you can't look in them, how do you know what are in the books?" His gesture took in the length of the tunnel ahead of him.
"We do not," Kyrios replied. "It is enough that we keep their secrets. After all, if we knew what was in the library, then it would hold no secrets."
Beddow started to walk down the tunnel. His footsteps sounded flat in the peculiar acoustics of the chamber. "How long has the library been here?"
"We don't know. It's another one of the secrets. We have our suspicions, though. There are some fragments of bone that have been scratched on - markings from before the dawn of recorded time."
"And you still take in secrets and keep them?"
"Of course. But we have moved with the times. We accept all kinds of secrets - even electronic files. They are suitably encrypted to preserve their contents."
"Of course."
The two walked down the dimly-lit tunnel for a few dozen metres, Beddow pausing to look at the shelves that lined it. He stopped by a tall, worm-eaten wooden crate. "What's in this?" he asked. "More secrets?"
"In a manner of speaking," Kyrios replied. "It is a coffin. All those who enter the library vaults are eventually interred within them. They lose all identity, becoming yet another secret stored here." The librarian gave Beddow a thin-lipped smile. "We take our task seriously."
Beddow stared at the coffin. The stairs back to the surface now felt a long way away.
