Authors: Andy Holland
"John, what on earth are you doing here at this hour?" Janet asked in surprise, pulling her gown around her to keep warm. "Have you any idea of what time it is?"
John shook his head. "I know it's late, but it's an emergency. Is Lord Robert in?"
"Of course not; he's not in Furnace at the moment. What's wrong?"
"There was an intruder at the library, and I followed them right out of the city. He stole something from the library and gave it to a man he met near the city boundary."
Janet frowned. "Why would anyone steal from the library? That doesn't make sense, John. Are you sure about this?"
John nodded. "That's not the worst thing. The man he gave it to, he had blue hair. I think he was a Blue Dragon!"
Janet's eyes widened. "A Blue Dragon? In Furnace? That can't be, John. How would he get here?"
John shook his head. "He was in a tunnel; I think it goes through the volcano to the other side. Look, please, who can I speak to? We need to raise the alarm!"
Janet frowned. "I don't know, John, perhaps Lady Jane can help, but I don't like to disturb her so late—"
"Please!" John urged. "I wasn't mistaken. This is important; please go and wake her."
Janet paused to think for a moment. "Well, if it was anyone else, I'd say no, but I expect she'll see you. Wait here, I'll go and wake her."
John waited outside the doorway, looking at the moonlit front garden. Crystal's house was impressive but looked a little eerie at night. A few minutes later, Lady Jane appeared, looking tired but alert.
"John? Janet told me that you wanted to see me; that it's some sort of emergency. What has happened?"
John repeated his story to Crystal's mother, describing in more detail where he had followed them. Lady Jane's jaw dropped when he mentioned the man's hair.
"Blue hair? Are you sure, John? Could it have been just the moonlight?"
John shook his head. "I'm certain. I'm also certain that had I not ran as fast as I did, they'd have run me through with that sword and hidden me in that tunnel. Whatever they stole, it's worth killing for."
Lady Jane nodded. "Alright, John, leave it with me. Janet, wake Edward, and tell him to go to the nearest guard post; tell them that we need their immediate assistance. Hurry now!"
John sat down on a chair in the entrance hall while Lady Jane and her guard proceeded to raise the alarm, and within twenty minutes, six members of the city guard arrived at the house.
"So, young man," the captain began. "Can you tell us your whole story, from the beginning?"
John repeated his story for the third time as the captain took notes, nodding while wearing an unreadable expression as John gave him all of the details he could recall. He didn't react at all when John described the man in the tunnel or when he mentioned the sword.
"Now, John, could you tell us what was taken from the library?"
John shook his head. "Not yet, but I could probably work it out if I went back. I know what room he was in, and it's quite dusty, so it'll be easy to see what has been moved."
More nods as the captain jotted this down. "What about the location of the tunnel? Where was that?"
"I think I know, sir," one of the guards said, speaking up. "From his description I think it's not far from where I live. Work on those tunnels began hundreds of years ago, and they were intended to be used to bring in pigs from the east, but they were never finished and abandoned when the markets moved nearer the lake."
"Can you get under the volcanoes there?" the Captain asked. "Surely the tunnels have been blocked off."
The guard shrugged. "There are signs saying that it isn't safe, and that it could collapse if you enter, so no one goes in. I suppose they might lead through to the other side."
The captain rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'd like you to show us the route this man took, John. Can you show us the way?"
John nodded. "Of course, sir. I can lead you there now if you like."
One of the guards shook his head impatiently. "Captain, surely they'll have moved on by now—if they were there at all. Do you seriously believe that it could be a Blue? I mean, the boy told us he'd been working for four hours without a break. He could have imagined it. Is it worth investigating? Why are we wasting our time on this?"
The Captain glared at him, subtly gesturing to Lady Jane, who was starting to look angry. "I assure you, Lady Jane, my man is not serious. We always investigate matters such as this, and would never question the reliability of someone you've spoken of so highly. Come along now, master John; show us the way."
John led the guards all the way through the park and the wood till he reached the tunnel entrance. "Here," he said. "This is where I saw them. As soon as I saw him draw a sword I ran."
"As would anyone," the Captain sympathised. "But are you sure it was a sword? I mean, they are very rare and few people own one. I've only seen them in the City Museum."
John nodded. "It was a sword. He drew it and held it above his head. That's when I saw what colour his hair was."
The Captain looked down into the tunnel entrance, which was pitch black, and lowered his lamp in to examine it. There were a series of steps that led down a few metres into the hole, which then sloped gently down into the ground. "It's very dark, young man," he observed. "How could you have seen his hair? Were they carrying lamps?"
John shook his head. "The moon has moved, sir, but earlier it was shining directly into the tunnel. He moved into the light when he gave the other man the sword."
One of the guards climbed down into the hole and studied the ground. "Someone has been here, sir, and recently. There are two sets of footprints here. It looks like one of them came out of the tunnel and then back in again."
The Captain nodded. "Well, your story seems to hold up so far, but there's no sign of these men now. They must have had at least a three hour head start on us by now, so if they have gone into this tunnel, they may already be out on the other side. I can't see any value in risking my men going into the tunnel tonight. Let's go and see what has been taken from this library of yours."
"It's not my library, sir," John replied. "It's the military library, sir, and there is plenty there that could be valuable to a thief."
"Of course, young man. Lead the way."
John woke the Keeper when they returned, and explained the whole situation to him. He was amazed but what John said, but consented to join them exploring the room that John led them to. It was very tidy in the room, albeit quite dusty, and at a first glance, it looked unlikely that anyone had been in there recently.
"Look here, sir," one of the guards pointed out. "Look at the dust on this shelf here. Someone has taken something."
"Why yes, well spotted. What was on this shelf?"
"Documents relating to plans for the defensive structures in each of the cities," John replied. "I haven't touched them for a long time."
"Nor I," the Keeper replied. "They were presented to the council several months ago."
"Are any missing?"
John shrugged. "It's difficult to say. There were multiple copies which were made for each of the Council members, and some of them kept their copies. We don't keep records of how many of these there are."
The Captain nodded. "Is there anything else that may be missing?"
John looked around. "Here. These books are not lined up. I like to keep everything tidy, and I arrange the books so they're all the same distance from the front of the shelf. Something has been pulled out of this shelf. See? These two books are not in line with the others. Something must have been between these two books."
"They did that carefully," one of the other officers noted. "They hardly disturbed the dust at all."
"They're just weapon designs," the Keeper replied. "Specifications for building the crossbows that are fitted into all of the towers in every city. It's not something that is particularly confidential, and every man, woman and child over the age of sixteen will have seen those crossbows. I can't see any reason anyone would want to steal that book."
"And yet it has gone," the Captain noted. "Anything else?"
John shook his head. "I'd have to audit the whole room to find out for sure," he replied. "We have a list of all of the books that are in here, although if there are multiple copies we don't record how many, so even then I might not know what's missing. I think in the future we need to record numbers of each document as well, sir."
"Yes, yes," the Keeper replied impatiently. "You've suggested that before, John, and it would be a lot of work, and I still can't see what benefit it would bring. This is hardly something that is likely to happen again."
"Do your research," the Captain told them, "and then let us know what else has gone missing. Thank you for your time; we will be in touch shortly. We'll be investigating those tunnels in the morning, John. Goodnight, both of you."
John and the Keeper showed the guards out and then locked the library doors. "How do you think he got in?" John asked.
"Oh, I don't know, and I can't think why he wanted to in the first place," the Keeper replied, looking tired and a little irritated. "It's very late John. You'll need to be up in a couple of hours for school. I suggest you try and get some sleep, and we can discuss it in the morning."
John thought he would struggle to sleep after all of the excitement, but found that as soon as he lay down he fell into unconsciousness. When he awoke, it was late in the morning, and he jumped out of bed and ran down into the library, realising that he was already very late for school.
"Calm down, John," the Keeper told him as he caught him running for the door. "I've already sent a note telling the Headmaster that you won't be in this morning. We have more important things to worry about than school. I've had a change of mind regarding last night's break in, and decided that we need to treat it quite seriously. I've called an emergency meeting of the Council, which will convene this evening provided the council members get here in time. I'll need you to help me write a detailed report for them. Your school will just have to do without you for the day. Come along, eat your breakfast first, then we can begin work."
"What about the captain's report, sir?" John asked. "Wouldn't that be enough for the council? Shouldn't we at least wait for that?"
The Keeper shook his head. "They won't be able to tell us anything other than to confirm that the tunnel does lead through to the other side of the volcano. Everything else he could put in his report he would have learnt from you. Before you start our own report, audit that room. See what else is missing then we'll write the report for the council."
John set about working on the audit straight after breakfast, and it took him the whole day to go through every item in the room and prepare the report for the Keeper. John wondered if he would be invited to the Council meeting, but when the time came for the Keeper to leave, he merely thanked him for the report and left. It was nearly dark when he left, but John decided there would be just enough time to fly over to Daisy's…
"Thank you for that report," Lord Jeremy said coldly after the Keeper finished his presentation. "Most illuminating. May I ask why you felt it necessary to drag us all here to hear that?"
The Keeper looked surprised. "Because of the Blue Dragon, of course. Seeing one so near to the capital—"
"
If
he saw it," Prince Henry interrupted. "This is just a boy we are talking about, is it not? He has already demonstrated that he has quite an active imagination with that nonsense he presented on the Greens."
"Which we've agreed is solid enough for us to investigate further," Lord Lance pointed out. "The boy's mind seems sound to me. The question I'd ask is whether he saw what he thought he saw. He'd been working for hours and by his own words he only saw what he thought saw by moonlight. He could easily have been mistaken."
"I'm grateful to the boy, of course," Lord Robert added, "but I agree with Lord Lance. Seeing a Blue Dragon so close to the Capital seems very unlikely. I suspect that he was mistaken."
"That does leave the question of who broke into the library, and why," Lord Daniel added. "All that was taken were some maps, building blueprints, and documents on crossbow designs for the defensive towers. Those documents were available to anyone on the council and the weapon design is old and of little interest to anyone in the Kingdom."
"You aren't seriously suggesting that the boy is right, are you?" Prince Henry sneered. "He's clearly making the whole thing up. He's enjoyed being the centre of attention and craves it again."
Lord Daniel regarded the prince with loathing. "His story was consistent, and the boy does not seem the type to crave attention or to make things up. I admit, he could have been mistaken about the man's hair, but everything else? No, something suspicious has happened here, and I would like to get to the bottom of it."
"Fine," Prince Henry replied. "Give it to military intelligence. See if they can do something useful for a change. I see no reason to waste any more of our time on this. Anyone object? Right, let's close this meeting. Good evening, my lords. I have an appointment at the theatre." With that, the prince got up, glared briefly at the Keeper and left the room.