Chapter 42
SOMEWHERE IN the recumbent solitudes, the motionless but teeming millions of books, lost in two dozen turns right, three dozen turns left, down aisles, through corridors, toward dead ends, locked doors, half-empty shelves, somewhere in the literary soot of Dickens's London, or Dostoevsky's Moscow or the steppes beyond, somewhere in the vellumed dust of atlas or Geographic, sneezes pent but set like traps, the boys crouched, stood, lay sweating a cool and constant brine.
Somewhere hidden, Jim thought: He's coming!
Somewhere hidden, Will thought: He's near!
"Boys ...?"
Mr. Dark came carrying his panoply of friends, his jewel-case assortment of calligraphical reptiles which lay sunning themselves at midnight on his flesh. With him strode the stitch-inked Tyrannosaurus rex, which lent to his haunches a machined and ancient wellspring mineral-oil glide. As the thunder lizard strode, all glass-bead pomp, so strode Mr. Dark, armored with vile lightning scribbles of carnivores and sheep blasted by that thunder and arun before storms of juggernaut flesh. It was the pterodactyl kite and scythe which raised his arms almost to fly the marbled vaults. And with the inked and stencilled flashburnt shapes of pistoned or bladed doom came his usual crowd of hangers-on, spectators gripped to each limb, seated on shoulder blades, peering from his jungled chest, hung upside down in microscopic millions in his armpit vaults screaming bat-screams for encounters, ready for the hunt and if need be the kill. Like a black tidal wave upon a bleak shore, a dark tumult infilled with phosphorescent beauties and badly spoiled dreams, Mr. Dark sounded and hissed his feet, his legs, his body, his sharp face forward.
"Boys ...?"
Immensely patient, that soft voice, ever the warmest friend to chilly creatures burrowed away, nested amongst dry books; so he scuttered, crept, scurried, stalked, tip-toed, wafted, stood immensely still among the primates, the Egyptian monuments to bestial gods, brushed black histories of dead Africa, stayed awhile in Asia, then sauntered on to newer lands.
"Boys, I know you hear me! The sign reads: SILENCE! So, I'll whisper: one of you still wants what we offer. Eh? Eh?"
Jim, thought Will.
Me, thought Jim. No! oh, no! not still! not me!
"Come out." Mr. Dark purred the air through his teeth. "I guarantee rewards! Whoever turns himself in wins it all!
Bangity-bang!
My heart! thought Jim.
Is that me? thought Will, or Jim!!?
"I hear you." Mr. Dark's lips quivered. "Closer now. Will? Jim? Isn't it Jim who's the smart one? Come along, boy ...!"
No! thought Will.
I don't know anything! thought Jim, wildly.
"Jim, yes ..." Mr. Dark wheeled in a new direction. "Jim, show me where your friend is." Softly. "We'll shut him up, give you the ride that would have been his if he'd used his head. Right, Jim?" A dove voice, cooing. "Closer. I hear your heart jump!"
Stop! thought Will to his chest.
Stop! Jim clenched his breath. Stop!!
"I wonder ... are you in this alcove ...?"
Mr. Dark let the peculiar gravity of a certain group of stacks tug him forward.
"You here, Jim ...? Or ... over behind ...?"
He shoved a trolley of books mindlessly off on rubber rollers to bump through the night. A long way off, it crashed and spilled its contents to the floor like so many dead black ravens.
"Smart hide-and-seekers, both," said Mr. Dark. "But someone's smarter. Did you hear the carousel calliope tonight? Did you know, someone dear to you was down to the carousel? Will? Willy? William. William Halloway. Where's your mother tonight?"
Silence.
"She was out riding the night wind, Willy-William. Around. We put her on. Around. We left her on. Around. You hear, Willy? Around, a year, another year, another, around, around!"
Dad! thought Will. Where are you!
In the far room, Charles Halloway, seated, his heart pounding, heard and thought, He won't find them, I won't move unless he does, he can't find them, they won't listen! they won't believe! he'll go away!