The next day, Rosa and Luke went to the library and met Setilla. She had already prepared books for them to see, but there were fewer than they had expected. Records of that era were scarce. All she had found were two books on the Faceless Age, one on Delphinad’s history, one on ancient magic, and a collection of ancient legends.
Luke, a devoted library user, had already read three of them. In effect, that left only two books to investigate. He and Rosa took one each and spent the morning reading. Then they went into the rear garden to share what they had learned. The library building cast a cool shadow over the garden, where chairs stood here and there, many occupied by people taking naps.
Rosa spoke.
“Sing seems to have been a very large kingdom during the Faceless Age. Apparently it received tribute from the surrounding countries too. Then it suddenly vanished.”
“That’s not all. Sing, or whatever it was, had some very strange customs. Though I don’t know how much of it to believe.”
Sing was the name of the ancient kingdom, but also a word for the flesh of someone offered in sacrifice. In the language of that time, it meant a sacred being. They said the king of Sing was born anew each year by taking the body of the person chosen as a sacrifice. Whether that was literal, or meant merely eating the victim’s flesh or offering it to a god, was unclear. Nor was it certain that their year was the same length as a year now.
In any case, Sing’s king could live almost indefinitely that way. Strangely, however, most of its kings eventually became sick of it and fled to live among their people. From that, it seemed a king’s life had not been so enjoyable after all.
They found and copied every passage mentioning trees. The most important was a tree said to stand on Sing’s highest hill. Accounts of it contradicted each other. Some said it was a fruit tree, others that it was dried up, and one source said it was already an ancient dead tree. What was certain was that it was immense and revered. Many people were said to have gone to it to make wishes, or to offer their lives. They said it drank the blood of the dead and grew ever larger.
Rosa asked,
“Where would that hill be? Can you think of anywhere? I still don’t know the geography here very well.”
“Hmm. After three thousand years, would the landscape be the same? In any case, the highest place in Delphinad now is the hill behind the Grand Theater. It’s been cut down considerably to build houses, which is why it’s so low now, but apparently it used to be a mountain surrounding Delphinad.”
“If they’ve cut it all away, we won’t be able to look for traces of the tree.”
“Rosa, I’ll say it again. Three thousand years have passed.”
While they were absorbed in thought, a strangely dressed man appeared on one side of the garden. Their eyes were drawn to him of their own accord. It was impossible not to look.
He wore a mask over his head. No, mask was too grand a word. To be precise, he had pulled a paper bag over it. The eyeholes were so hastily made and so small that he could not see around him properly, and he staggered this way and that like a drunk. The possibility that he really was drunk could not be ruled out.
Rosa spoke.
“What’s with that man?”
“He’s coming this way.”
Luke answered, then sprang up and stood before her chair. He might not be the Shadowhawk, but he thought himself capable of protecting a young lady from a drunkard. Then he remembered the young lady was Rosa.
“Oh, right.”
Rosa rose slowly too. The masked, or rather bagged, man approached and spoke in an unnaturally high, shrill voice.
“Are you Lucius Quinto? Someone sent me to give you a message.”
Apparently he was deliberately making his voice thin to disguise it, but the awkwardness made it exceedingly comical. Rosa gave a little laugh. For some reason, Luke nodded solemnly.
“I am. Speak.”
“A man called Huan will bring down the Grand Theater.”
Rosa’s eyes widened. Huan? The goateed man who had kidnapped Nana?
“I see. When?”
Luke too seemed a little taken aback, but did not change his manner. The bag answered.
“Three days ago, or after, or three days from now.”
“That’s a rather vague date. Why bring it down?”
“Because they hate the citizens of Delphinad! And because the general is ready! They hate the Shadowhawk, the poet is a nuisance, and this is the best way to bury them all at once! That’s the whole message. I’ll be going.”
The bag turned swiftly away. Luke called after him.
“But how did you find that out?”
“The early bird gets the information.”
“Oh, really? By any chance, wasn’t the man who asked you to deliver the message Delphinad’s greatest fiddle player?”
“N-no, absolutely not.”
With that shout, the man in the bag hurried to escape, struck his head against a tree, then staggered off at a run. Luke muttered,
“If he hates paying for drinks that much, he shouldn’t promise to. But what’s all this? He seems to have overheard something somewhere. Oh, he’s a friend of mine. A little eccentric, but he doesn’t go around lying.”
Rosa repeated the message.
“Bring down the Grand Theater? Huan?”
“Ah… He isn’t a liar, but his accuracy leaves something to be desired. Who is Huan, anyway?”
“He’s one of the general’s men. The one who kidnapped Nana before and locked her up at the general’s manor. So it would be fair to assume he’s on Sing’s side. Then Sing…”
“Bring down the Grand Theater? Then that means…”
“Could it be the tree?”
Having reached that thought, the two hurried back into the library and began searching even through the books Luke had already read. They tried to find some clue to where the tree had stood, but it was not easy. They did find a map titled Sing in Its Golden Age. Yet to anyone who understood the layout of a city, it was more absurd than they had expected. The tree in the picture was so enormous it could cast a shadow over the entire city. In other words, the royal palace was drawn far too small.
They closed the book, wondering how seriously to take the words of a bag-wearing fiddle player. Then Setilla came back.
“There isn’t much material, is there? This isn’t about that period, but…”
What she had brought was a library annal. And rather than several hundred years old, it was only forty-two years old. The library compiled an annal every year, more for recordkeeping than for reading. It briefly recorded everything that happened in the library, day by day. Turning its pages, Setilla spoke.
“When I heard you talking about a tree-shaped shadow earlier, I remembered something I read a long time ago and brought it. Reading annals is a hobby of mine.”
Annals were inevitably dull, filled with so many useless details that an ordinary person could hardly bear to read them. But to librarians with their astonishing memories, they seemed to be a sort of pastime. Soon Setilla opened a particular page.
“Here it is. Have a read.”
Month of Seeds, the third month. Day of the Snipe, the eighteenth.
8:00. Open the main doors and begin admissions. Today, too, the hall of knowledge shall enrich the minds of citizens and visitors. All is by the grace of Her Majesty the Queen.
9:00. Apprehend three members of the Ribewid attempting unlawful entry. Impose a ban.
10:00. Riran Nautes gives his first public lecture in the botanical garden. One hundred and thirty attend.
11:00. Nothing to report.
12:00. Roderik Modoel of North Mere applies to open a lecture series on transactions in houses and land. Begin examination of the application.
13:00. Nothing to report.
14:00. Master Alph Sidin of the Sidin School fails to appear for his lecture without notice. Begin investigation.
15:00. Discover that Alph Sidin entered the library yesterday and did not leave. An internal search begins under Librarian Neidin’s direction.
16:00. Find Alph Sidin’s staff between the botanical garden and the rear garden. Marks imbued with magical power remain in the garden’s soil. Begin investigation. The marks measure three paces across and five paces long and resemble a black tree.
17:00. Investigation continues.
18:00. Nothing to report.
19:00. Nothing to report.
20:00. Close the library. Kersnion, god of knowledge, protect this library.
Rosa and Luke hurried to turn the next page, but there was nothing about what had happened to Alph Sidin. Setilla spoke.
“They never found his body. He disappeared.”
Rosa asked,
“Wasn’t Sidin a mage? Didn’t they investigate in Ayanad?”
“No. Sidin was a geographer. He had nothing to do with magic.”
“But it said a school…”
Setilla smiled.
“Ah, yes. Schools don’t necessarily teach magic. Of course, it was a very small one. He had only seven disciples.”
“Wouldn’t it be difficult to run a school with so few disciples?”
“I suppose it would. The master would have to contribute some of his own money.”
“Then that must have been right… Do you know anything about Sidin’s family?”
Setilla tilted her head.
“I’m afraid not. I wasn’t a librarian at the time.”
Luke suddenly asked,
“Are the names of his disciples still recorded?”
“Oh, you’ll find more in the registration papers. It may have been over forty years ago, but those don’t disappear.”
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