I hesitated. Down the hallway, the last of the dark footprints burned away, leaving only the yellowish set. I looked down at them, frowning to myself.
I’m missing something, I thought.
Grandpa Smedry had explained about the Tracker’s Lenses. He’d said… that the footprints would remain longer for people that I knew well. I glanced back down the way we had come. My own footprints, glowing a weak white, showed no signs of fading. Bastille and Sing’s sets, however, were already beginning to disappear.
That yellow set of footprints, I realized, turning back toward the ways the Dark Oculator had gone. They must belong to someone I know…
That was too big a mystery for me to ignore.
I reached into my pocket, pulling out the small hourglass Grandpa Smedry had given me. “Look, Bastille,” I said, holding it up before her. “We only have a half hour until this place gets filled with Librarians back from patrolling. If that happens, we’ll get caught, and those sands will fall permanently into Librarian hands. We don’t have time to go poking around, looking in random doors. This place is way too big. There’s only one way to find what we need.”
“The Dark Oculator might not even have the sands with him,” Bastille said.
“Perhaps,” I said. “But he might know where to find them – or he might lead us to them. We at least have to try to follow him. It’s our best lead.”
Bastille nodded reluctantly. “Don’t try to fight him, though.”
“I won’t,” I said. “Don’t worry – it’ll be all right.”
And if you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you… on the moon.
To my credit, I didn’t really want to face down a Dark Oculator. I was half hoping that Bastille would talk me out of the decision. Usually when I tried to do reckless things, there had been adults around to stop me. But things were different now. By some act of fortune – perhaps even more strange than the appearance of talking dinosaurs and evil Librarians – I was in charge. And people listened to me. I was realizing that if I chose poorly, I would not only get myself into trouble but I might end up getting Bastille and Sing hurt as well.
It was a sobering thought. My life was changing, and so my view of myself had to change as well. You might think I was turning into a hero – however, the truth is that I was just setting myself up for an even greater fall.
“We’ll stay out of sight,” I said. “Eavesdrop and hope the Dark Oculator mentions where the sands are. Our goal is not to fight him. At the first sign of trouble – or, in Sing’s case, tripping – we’ll back out. All right?”
Bastille and Sing nodded. Then I turned. The yellowish footprints were still there. A little more cautious, I followed them down the hallway. We passed a couple more archways, set with solid wooden doors, but the footprints didn’t lead into any of them. The hallway led deeper and deeper into the library.
Why build a library that looks like a castle inside? I thought, passing an ornate lantern bracket shaped like a cantaloupe. The lantern atop it burned a large flame, and – despite the tense situation – something occurred to me.
“Fire,” I said as we walked.
“What?” Bastille asked.
“You can’t tell me that those lanterns are more ‘advanced’ than electric lights.”
“You’re still worried about that?”
I shrugged as we paused at an intersection, and Bastille peeked around it, then waved the all clear.
“They just don’t seem very practical to me,” I whispered as we started again. “You can turn electric lights on and off with a switch.”
You can do that with these too,” Bastille said. “Except without the switch.”
I frowned. “Uh… okay.”
“Besides,” Bastille whispered. “You can light things on fire with these lamps. Can you do that with electric ones?”
“Well, not most of them,” I said, pointing as the footprints turned down a side corridor. “But that’s sort of the idea. Open flames like that can burn things down.”
I couldn’t see because of the sunglasses, but I had the distinct impression that Bastille was rolling her eyes at me. “They only burn things if you want them to, Smedry.”
“How does that work?” I whispered, frowning.
“Look, do we have time for this?” Bastille asked.
“Actually, no,” I said. “Look up there.”