gazing in shock as the front of the room burst into flames.
“I’m going for the door,” Brophy shouted. He pulled his tweed jacket over his head and burst past Dirk. Disappearing through the black smoke, he reached the door and grabbed its iron handle. He pushed and pulled at it without effect. Realizing it must be locked, he pounded and yelled for help, but the door was four inches thick.
Smoke inhalation began to make him dizzy, and he staggered backward. A strong arm grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the back of the room. He collapsed on the table as Dirk let go of him to pat out the places where his own clothes were smoldering. Smoke began to fill the air.
Summer coughed as she grabbed Dirk’s arm. “We’re trapped. What do we do?”
Dirk pointed at the ceiling.
The roar of the fire made it difficult to hear, yet there was no mistaking his peculiar words.
“Make like a bale of hay.”
44
Wisps of black curled off the stone roof, but with the building tucked away at the rear of the grounds, no one at the friary seemed to notice. Inside, the smoke was as thick as fog, acrid and burning to the lungs.
Dirk and Summer dragged Brophy to the very back of the building and set him on the floor.
Brophy coughed and waved them away. “Leave me be and save yourselves.”
“Stay down on the ground with him to avoid the smoke,” Dirk yelled to Summer.
He flipped over a table to provide a modest heat shield, then stepped to a sliding shelf ladder. The bookshelves were ten feet high, the arched ceiling rose another five. He scrambled up the ladder and pulled himself onto the top side shelf.
With the smoke collecting at the top of the room, Dirk could barely see. Hunching over, he felt his way along the wall-mounted shelves. The smoke swirling toward the roof inflamed his eyes and made it near impossible to see. With the air growing hotter, it was like standing downwind from a barbecue.
The heat rose in waves that took away his breath. He stumbled down the line of shelves, then dropped to his knees when he almost stepped off the last bookshelf.
The front wall and doorway were another four feet beyond and beneath him. But his focus was up, not down.
The large, rusty pulley above the doorway hung from the ceiling’s center beam. Just beyond it, he strained through the smoke to see what he prayed was still there.
It was. A short pair of plank doors in the front wall had allowed additional access and ventilation to the granary’s upper floor. Now Dirk hoped they would still open. It wasn’t grain he wanted to offload.
He backed up, took a quick step forward, and leaped off the shelf. With his long arms he stretched for the pulley, easily grasping it with both hands. The pulley was hot, the fire below even hotter. Dirk swung his legs back and forth, building momentum. He raised his feet as he swung forward and kicked the small doors. His feet bounced off, the doors just rattling. He swung and kicked again on the next forward swing. The result was the same.
It was too late to question the wisdom of his actions. If the doors didn’t open, he would plunge into the fire. His arms began to ache as he swung again and again, mashing his feet against the doors. The heat and smoke were intense, and he could barely see or breathe, as he swung once more, throwing all of his weight forward.
And then the doors gave way. Not with a crack or a splinter, but with a loud bang, nearly flying off their hinges.
Dirk felt a cool gust as he rebounded. He swung forward once more and let go of the pulley. When his legs and torso slid over the doorframe, he caught himself with his arms. He clutched the lower sill, let his body dangle down the front of the building, then let go.
He landed on the balls of his feet and rolled across the ground to break the fall. Friar Thomas’s assistant came running up.
“What’s happened?” Robert stared at Dirk.
Dirk’s face was black and his clothes were smoking. He rushed to the library door. It had been locked from the outside, and the key was now gone.
“The key!” he shouted. “Do you have another?”
Robert gave him a blank look and shrugged.
“Go get help!” Dirk yelled, then took off at a sprint. He looked around, spotting