Allina followed Ms. Coleman all the way across town and to a great hill. Ms. Coleman walked with surprising speed, hurrying up the hill. She paused at the top so that Allina could catch up to her.
Allina looked around, perplexed. The library was so small in the distance, it was as if she could crush it between her thumb and forefinger. Questions formed in her mouth that she didn't speak. Instead, she turned and looked beyond: she and Ms. Coleman stood before a great wood.
Ms. Coleman beckoned her, and they both began down the hill. The two stopped at the bottom.
"Are we going into the woods, Ms. Coleman?" Allina asked. She bit her lip.
Ms. Coleman simply shook her head and turned her back on the great wood. She faced the hill and murmured something under her breath.
Allina gasped, for before her was a door that hadn't been there before, and two windows on either side of it. Perhaps I just didn't see it, thought Allina, but that couldn't be: there was no doubt about it. The door had appeared out of thin air.
Ms. Coleman walked toward the door and pulled it open. Inside was a neat, pretty room with a stone floor and a low ceiling. There was a table with chairs to the left, a rug in the center, and a small kitchen to the right. At the far back of the room were two doorways covered with curtains.
"That, little Allina," said Ms. Coleman, "was basic magic. It's easy to shroud and then uncover things."
Allina reached out to touch the door. It was real. She stepped inside, gazing around the room. An odor hung in the air of burning paper and old, dry stone. "You're a witch," said Allina. She started toward the doors at the back of the room, but an odd sense of foreboding held her back.
"Yes," answered Ms. Coleman, quite simply. "Wait here."
Allina sat down at the table and watched Ms. Coleman walk past one curtain at the back of the room. The more she looked, the stranger the things in the room seemed. The ceiling was made of packed earth. Bird's nests were wedged into holes in the walls. There was much more light in the room than there should have been, given the small windows.
"Dear girl, this may be a bit much to understand." Ms. Coleman emerged from the back room. She held a large wooden chest in her hands. "Look."
Allina took the chest and put it on the table. It was covered in intricate carvings. No matter how much she tried, it refused to open.
Ms. Coleman pulled a rose's thorn from between her lips. She touched the chest's keyhole with her left little finger and placed the thorn inside. After no less than six seconds, the chest opened by itself.
Inside were a wand and two small journals bound with rabbit skin. The wand was made of white stone; black scales grew over the handle.
Just as Ms. Coleman took out the wand, someone knocked at the door.
"Should I get it?" Allina asked, not yet registering Ms. Coleman's shock.
"No, no, no. Go hide. And take the chest." Ms. Coleman turned toward the door. "Should've hidden the door again. Stupid!" she said, to herself instead of to Allina.
Allina ran to the back room, ignoring the foreboding. She passed through the curtain and flung herself into the nearest closet. She dropped the chest on the floor and curled into a ball, aware that something was very wrong but not knowing what.
YOU ARE READING
The Library
FantasyA young girl meets a favorite guest every Saturday at the library. She discovers an old book, and begins to wonder if the guest is who she says she is.
