“I am not denying you those books,” the librarian said hastily. “I’m simply explaining why they’re not on the open shelves. Just tell me which one you want and I’ll call it up for you. Policant’s Philosophy, you said?”
Ruskin nodded, the bones in his beard plaits rattling on the desk. “And The Red Book of Costamaret,” he added, thinking he might as well make this distraction worthwhile.
“Very well.” Disapprovingly the librarian activated an obscure spell.
Ruskin, watching keenly, saw that the spell was something very advanced, that he would never be able to operate himself. There were codes and signatures in it, and arcane unbindings. Regretfully he gave up the idea of sneaking in here at night and having a good rummage through the secrets of the University. He watched the air quiver between the librarian’s hands, and the quiver become a pulsing. Eventually two large leather books slid out of nowhere onto the wooden surface in front of his face. They smelled divine to Ruskin, of dust and old gloves. “Thank you,” he rumbled. He sneaked a look toward the Inventory. The others had by no means finished there. Elda was just dashing off with three more cards skewered to her right front talons. He raised his list. “And Cyclina on Tropism, Tangential Magic, Paraphysics Applied, Thought Theorem, Dysfunctions of Reality, Universa Qualitava, and, er, The Manifold of Changes,” he read in a long, throaty grumble.
“All of them?” the librarian exclaimed.
“Every single one, please,” Ruskin husked. “And if you have any others on
the same lines—”
“Your student limit is nine books,” the librarian snapped, and began making gestures again.
By the time the steep pile of books arrived—Tangential Magic was enormous, and some of the rest almost as mighty—the others were making their way to the librarian’s desk, each with a pile of slimmer volumes, to have them checked out. The librarian eyed the advancing forty-five books and said, “I shall have to report this to your tutor.”
They tried not to exchange uneasy looks. Eyes front, Claudia asked, “Why is that?”
“Because it’s not normal,” said the librarian.
“Oh, no, of course it isn’t,” Olga said resourcefully. “Corkoran wondered if you’d worry, but he wants us to get into the habit of consulting more than just one book at once.”
She did not need to nudge Elda for Elda to chime in with “He’s such a lovely tutor. Even his ideas are interesting.”
Elda was so obviously sincere that the librarian shrugged, grumbled, “Oh, very well,” and stamped all fifty-four books, with some sighing but no more threats.
They hurried with their volumes to Elda’s concert hall, Ruskin almost invisible under his. Once there they spread the books out on the floor and got to work examining them for usefulness. Lukin was particularly good at this. He could pick up a book, flip through it, and know at once what was in it. Felim did nothing much but sit quivering in a ring of books, as if the books themselves gave him protection. Ruskin was even less useful. He settled himself cross-legged on Elda’s bed with The Red Book of Costamaret open across his knees and turned its pages greedily. He would keep interrupting everyone by reading out things like “To become a wizard, it is needful to think deeper than other men on all things, possible and impossible.”
“Very true. Now shut up,” said Olga. “This one looks very helpful. It’s got lots of diagrams.”
“Put it on this pile then,” said Lukin.
Eventually they had three piles of books. One, a small pile of three, turned out to be almost entirely about raising demons, which they all agreed was not helpful. “My dad raised one once when he was a student,” Elda told them, “and he couldn’t get it to leave. It could be a worse menace than an assassin.”
The other two piles were what Lukin called the offensive and the defensive parts of the campaign, six books on spells of personal protection and thirty-six on magical alarms, traps, deadfalls, and trip spells. Claudia knelt between the two piles with her wet-looking curls disordered and her face smudged with dust. “We’ve got roughly three hours until supper,” she said. “I reckon we should get all the protections around him first and then do as many traps as we’ve got time for. How do we start, Lukin?”
“Behold,” boomed Ruskin as Lukin took up the top book from the small pile. “Behold the paths to the realms beyond. They are all around you and myriad.”
By this time everyone was ignoring Ruskin. “Nearly all of them start with the subject inside a pentagram,” Lukin said, doing his rapid page flipping. “Some of them have pentagrams chalked on the subject’s forehead, feet, and hands, too.”
“We’ll do them all,” said Claudia. “Take your shoes off, Felim.”
“What color pentagrams?” Elda asked, swooping on Felim with a box of chalks.
Lukin turned pages furiously, with Olga leaning over his shoulder. “It varies,” Lukin said. “Green, blue, black, red. Here’s one says purple.”
“Do one of each color, Elda,” Claudia instructed.
“Candles,” said Lukin. “That’s constant, too.” While Olga got up and raced off to the nearest lab for a supply of candles and Elda busily chalked a purple five-sided star on Felim’s forehead, Lukin leafed through all three books again and added, “None of them says what color the pentagram around the subject should be—just that it must be drawn on the floor.”
“The floor’s all covered with carpet,” Elda objected, drawing a green star on the sole of Felim’s right foot. “Keep still, Felim.”
“You’re tickling!” Felim said.
“Use the top of his foot instead,” Claudia suggested. “Can’t one draw on a carpet with chalk?”
“Yes, but I like my carpet,” said Elda.