Dave Walker - City of Sound and Light

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2020 by Dave Walker

Cover design by Kelley York, Sleepy Fox Studio

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN (paperback): 9781087870182

Dave Walker Books

www.davewalkerbooks.com

dave@davewalkerbooks.com

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I always expected a Restricted Area would be a little more restricted.

Why did you say that? Tera whispered. She glowered at the crystalline spark twittering about the open door. The spark was Rayna, her other half and frequent pain her neck. Everyone was born with one, and they could all talk to each other. That meant anyone in the world could hear what it had just said. Anyone who bothered to listen to her, that is, which was hardly anyone. Wouldnt hurt it to shut up sometimes, though. She never had been able to control it like she should. Discretion was not one of her strengths.

Still, Rayna wasnt wrong. On the doorframe was a slip of paper with the words RESTRICTED ACCESS, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION ONLY written in bold letters and signed by Sergey-Watts, Master of the Mission State Library, her father.

For all his talk about Openness and Freedom, her father valued Propriety above everything. Freedom cant survive being abused and all that. The biggest impropriety, of course, was not doing as he said. Such a hypocrite.

Father will be furious.

Its only a library, Rayna said. Weve seen everything here. What could they possibly have thats so secret?

Just be quiet for once, Tera hushed it. Her spark was a walnut-sized crystal with many clean edges, like a multifaceted jewel. Everyone said this signified Teras intelligence and refinement, though no one was ever able to produce any further evidence. A faint light erupted from its translucent surface, casting a yellow tint on the white of the paper and a dim shadow on the edges. Floating of its own lightness and moving of its own will, it was like a personal fairy forever by her ear. It was that piece of her mind which existed outside her bodyand beyond her influence.

Whatever it is, we have a right to know. He doesnt own the place. We can go wherever we want.

Her spark was technically correct. The entire Mission State Library, like the rest of the city, was public, and though there were many places most people never went, there was nowhere they were forbidden to go. Private space was the kind of thing only found in the heights of the Capitol or someones innermost chamber. Even her father didnt snoop around her room at home. So whatever right she may have to go, and however much she may hate the secrecy, she shouldnt enter a private place without his consent. In the words of the old Masters, Courtesy is giving to others what you would not allow for yourself. Not to mention that shed be the one to suffer her fathers retribution.

Do you want to find out or not? Rayna chirped.

Of course. A quick peek wouldnt kill anyone. With that note, her father might as well be inviting her to check it out.

Not that she expected to find anything unusual. As a child she had explored every hallway and office and chamber. She was familiar with all the back passages only the cleaning staff used and the hard-to-find staircases no one did. Shed ridden up the cargo lift on more than one occasion, each time receiving a sharp lecture about safety and propriety from her father. The novelty of those childhood adventures had long since faded. Nothing new had happened in years.

Entering once more into the Maritime Administration Records section, a long line of racks stuffed with piles of book and papers identical to those in every other section of the Library, revealed the same boring place she knew.

No signs of activity among the other aisles of the floor, either. Down the well in the center of the tower, the stenographers worked at their desks, row upon row, their sparks flickering constantly as they received information from distant governors or ambassadors or administrators or other great persons whose sayings and information were worthy of record. All their heads were down, and the whole library was covered in that dull, familiar calmness of murmuring voices and clattering typewriters and rustling papers.

Satisfied? Tera was more disappointed than she wanted to admit. Maybe her father had planned something for later, a meeting with foreign scholars he didnt want interrupted or maintenance to the roof. But shed never heard of him trying to close down a whole floor. Or maybe he had put the note there to teach her a lesson, knowing shed be unable to resist. If so, he wouldnt miss the chance to admonish her. Or maybe she was being paranoid.

We should get home.

Rayna hovered in front of her eyes. Yellow light pulsed from within it, humming with energy. Only one thing could get her spark so excited.

How many? she asked.

Twelve so far. Responses from other sparks, people who had heard Raynas message. Tera didnt have many friends, much less a wide following, but twelve was a good number. Secrets always attracted attention. As lame and ordinary as it may have been to her, the Library was a mystery to most, a place they used but never went. Who knew what might be hiding in the lofty towers and sunken innards where all the worlds information was processed for public consumption? Pages upon pages of commercial shipping manifests, mostly, as Tera saw on the shelves beside her, but no one listened when she tried to tell them that.

Whats the reaction?

Curiosity, amazement, alarm. A warning.

All for nothing, but they didnt need to know that. She might as well enjoy the attention while it lasted.

Any word from Kieran-Nash? A boy she knew from Tors, another city far to the east.

Not yet. I can contact him.

She shook her head. Strange. He must have been studying. Father?

Nothing.

Two bells, one deep, one high, chimed in sequence from the great clock atop the highest tower of the library. What time is it?

Raynas light quivered in a new pattern, conversing with the Clockkeepers Bureau in the observatory on Mount Kel. Seventeen thirty-two, it answered a moment later. The library bells were running behind. There is one other place we could look.