‘It’s a terrible idea,’ I said. ‘I don’t know why, though.’
‘Because there’s not likely to be anything of use there!’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘They’re too clever for that. If anything, they have a secret base somewhere in the city. That’s where we’d need to infiltrate, but we don’t have time to find it! Somebody tell me that I should just go speak to the kings again.’
‘Uh,’ Sing said, ‘didn’t I just do that?’
‘I need to hear it again, Sing.’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘I’m old and stubborn!’
‘Then, really, you should speak to the kings.’
‘Spoilsport,’ Grandpa Smedry muttered under his breath.
I sat back, thinking. Grandpa Smedry was right – there probably was a secret Librarian lair in the city. My bet was that we’d find it somewhere near where my mother vanished when I was trailing her.
‘What are the Royal Archives?’ I asked.
‘They’re not a library,’ Folsom said quickly.
‘Yes, the sign said that,’ I replied. ‘But if they aren’t a library, what are they?’ (I mean, telling me what something isn’t really wasn’t all that useful. I could put out a blorgadet and hang a sign on it that said ‘Most certainly not a hippopotamus’ and it wouldn’t help. I’d also be lying, since ‘blorgadet’ is actually Mokian for hippopotamus.)
Grandpa Smedry turned toward me. ‘The Royal Archives—’
‘Not a library,’ Sing added.
‘—are a repository for the kingdom’s most important texts and scrolls.’
‘That, uh, sounds an awful lot like a library,’ I said.
‘But it’s not,’ Folsom said. ‘Didn’t you hear?’
‘Right . . .’ I said. ‘Well, a repository for books—’
‘Which is in no way a library,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘—sounds like exactly the sort of place the Librarians would be interested in.’ I frowned in thought. ‘Are there books in the Forgotten Language in there?’
‘I’d guess some,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘Never been in there myself.’
‘You haven’t?’ I asked, shocked.
‘Too much like a library,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘Even if it isn’t one.’
You Hushlanders may be confused by statements like this. After all, Grandpa Smedry, Sing, and Folsom have all been presented as very literate fellows. They’re academics – quite knowledgeable about what they do. How, then, have they avoided libraries and reading?
The answer is that they haven’t avoided reading. They love books. However, to them, books are a little like teenage boys: Whenever they start congregating, they make trouble.
‘The Royal Archives,’ I said, then quickly added, ‘and I know it’s not a library. Whatever it is, that’s where my mother was going. I’m sure of it. She has the Translator’s Lenses; she’s trying to find something in there. Something important.’
‘Alcatraz, the place is very well guarded,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘I doubt even Shasta would be able to sneak in unseen.’
‘I still think we should visit,’ I said. ‘We can look and see if there’s anything suspicious going on.’
‘All right,’ Grandpa Smedry said. ‘You take Bastille and Sing and go. I’ll compose a stirring speech to give at the final proceedings this evening! Maybe if I’m lucky, someone will try to assassinate me during the speech. That would make it at least ten times more dramatic!’
‘Grandpa,’ I said.
‘Yes?’
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Thank you! All right, let’s get moving! We have an entire continent to save!’