Chapter 4:02 Scriptorium

"Silence is golden." a sign on the table says.

Every wall filled with books, scrolls, tablets, codices, archives. Dusty and untouched. Ladders reach up the bookshelves that go up to the sky.

Every section is perfectly organized, categorized, alphabetized and numerized. The Master of Books is very proud of his izing. He's at his desk, head on the table, snoring.

He's notorious for stealing the voices of children who speak to loudly and keeps their voices in jars in a box he stores under his desk.

Mr. Bear looks in the box. He grabs a jar, opens it and inhales the voice. "Helloooo," squeals a high pitch voice.

Eek! That one won't do. He breathes it back in. The Master of Books stirs.

Maise flips through a book about scary creatures: hydras and werewolves, cereberes and minotaurs. She stops at a page about the Silly Goose (the most dangerous creature in the land). Someone stole his golden egg now he's angry and attacks everyone.

Oliver and Theo quietly scan the shelves.

"This one." Oliver whispers.

They open it up to a map.

"Ada was cool." Theo says.

Oliver laughs. "You have a crush on her."

"No I don't!"

"Whatever. Check it out—"

At the top of the map is a mountain range and on the tallest mountain is the Crystal Castle. Out of the mountain flows the River of Tears with a small island in the center before it forks and the legs run all the way to the sea in the south. Banbury Cross and the Lupine Forest sit between the two legs of the river. The western leg is the Dry River. The Chasm of Bones at the split has prevented water from running down, turning it into quicksand. There's desert lands to the west: the Where Desert, the Here Desert and the There Desert. To the east is the Plains of Beauty, the Springs of Tranquility and the Valley of Wonderful Goodness.

Oliver draws on the map: "We are here." Then a path to the Crystal Castle with a line that zigzags and looptiloops all over the western side of the map.

"We don't have enough time to do all that!" Theo says. "We have to get home! Why don't we just make a bee line for it?"

"Don't talk to me about bee lines," Oliver says. "I know about bee lines and the way to get there is to swim through the Dry River, trek past the deserted deserts to the Platooning Cave. That way we avoid the Plains of Beauty, the Springs of Tranquility and the Valley of Wonderful Goodness. Trust me— you do NOT want to go there. We go the safe route. If the Queen's knights find us they'll have us forgotten."

Behind the desk, Mr. Bear drops a jar and it shatters. A child's voice screams out and it startles the Master of Books awake.

"For Pete's sake." Oliver says as he rips the page out of the book. "Let's go."

He stuffs the large parchment map into his little backpack.