Рахма Крамбо - Guardian Cats And The Lost Books Of Alexandria

Cicero walked over to sit beside him. In a tone heavy with regret, Cicero spoke. “Of all the stories, I have not told you the one I really should have. But it didn’t seem possible that this mad man would find me again. So far from home.”

Marco knew this was not the time to ask questions and was grateful that Cicero seemed anxious to explain.

“I am old and I fear I must pass my duties on to you while you are still a novice.” As usual, Cicero’s explanations raised more questions than answers. What do you mean? he wanted to ask. Who is this man and why is he such a strange color?

Cicero was talking, but Marco was being drawn in by the man’s chanting of words in a strange language.

Cicero scolded him. “Marco! Do not listen to his dark words. They will affect you in a bad way. It can take a great deal of force—to resist the darkness. Menacing words have their own power, whispering promises and pretending to be your friend. Remember when I was telling you about the power of an idea?”

With effort, Marco turned his head away from the man’s hypnotic presence towards Cicero. “Humans are their caretakers, but some ideas are born in a bad place, an unbalanced mind. Once implanted, they can fester and feed off old wounds. This dark creature before us—the Professor—has fed and nurtured a bad idea, untamed by the counsel of wiser men, and so it has become a monster.”

The Professor walked in a circle around the room, turning within his own shadow as he went, and followed by another one. He continued his incantations in an unctuous manner, like a man obsessed with his own importance.

“He is no longer even its caretaker but he has become its slave. The Book of Motion in the hands of such a madman! We must do everything necessary to prevent these two forces from coming together. The Book of Motion does not recognize the intentions of its possessor.”

The Professor extended one arm, tilting his head slightly, aligning his good eye to his pointed finger, as though looking through the site of a rifle. He turned in a 360-degree circle, his finger leaving a raven-colored trail, so that when he completed the turn, he was encircled by a dark ring.

When Cicero shivered, Marco shivered automatically. He tried to crouch closer to the floor in a futile attempt to avoid the wave of cold, dead air that filled the room.

But there was no avoiding the creature the Professor summoned with the final words of his incantation. “From your world into this world… Enter! Come now and make your presence known!”

Chapter 57: In the abode where demons linger

In a place where the Seen and Unseen worlds merge, in the abode where demons linger, preparing for invasions, a black dog-like creature with glowing yellow eyes surfaced into the library.

His foul odor curled Cicero’s nose.

“Welcome, Bodis,” Professor Chin said.

“Where am I?” snarled the dog.

“In the library of a hidden treasure.”

“What do I care for pirates’ booty?” the dog snapped.

“This treasure is worth more than gold—a Book that will give me power over men’s minds.”

“A useful book for a change. But what do you need me for?”

“You see this cat,” he said, pointing to Cicero. “He guards the treasure and refuses to give me the key.”

The dog whipped his fire-tail around, radiating sparks. “You want me to make him talk?”

“I think you could persuade him.”

Cicero’s first instinct was to back up, but there was nowhere to go and he had nothing to lose. He spoke to the Professor, “Your command of the dark creatures is impressive. But why bring them back now? They’ve been behind the wall for eons. You must know how dangerous they are in this world. Even to their commander.”

“They make useful companions,” said the Professor.

Cicero hissed, “Your intentions are the vilest of any human. There is nothing in this world that would compel me to let you even get close to the Book!”

The Professor turned slightly in the direction of the hell hound and swept his arm in a wide arc toward Cicero. The dog obeyed and charged. Cicero leaped straight up, scrambling to keep his hold on the bookshelves. But the hound was in close pursuit, climbing the shelves in a clumsy but relentless chase, singeing Cicero with fire blasts from his tail and spewing saliva over books tumbling to the floor in his wake.

Chapter 58: Hideous beast

Marco vaulted up and over the velvet chair onto the hound’s back and dug his claws into the animal’s hideous body.

The beast continued to scale the bookshelves lathered by the hunt and his bloodthirsty nature. When all three creatures were at the top, Cicero escaped in a flying leap to the floor, barely avoiding the dog's dagger-like fangs.

Marco was still gripped on the back of the demon animal as the dog inelegantly climbed down from the shelves. Cicero was struggling to get up from his fall, but by the time Marco was on the ground, Cicero had hobbled up to the low shelf under the window and climbed to the sill. He seemed to be waiting for the dog to notice him, and then he jumped out the window. What in the world was he doing?

When the dog leaped through the opening after Cicero, Marco had no intention of letting go, and so he sailed through the air on the dog’s back. All three of them crashed in a heap on the ground, with Cicero on the bottom. When the beast of a dog arose, the old Guardian lay motionless on the ground, his head and neck twisted, his fur smoldering.

At first Marco couldn’t understand what had happened to Cicero, and then a ferocious cry pierced the air. It took a minute to realize the sound he heard came from him.

The hound twisted his head back, seeming to realize for the first time something was fastened onto him. Marco knew he was doomed, but if he let go, he felt the dog would eat him alive.

The hound flung himself into a frenzy trying to dislodge him, but Marco was latched on, his head laid flat against the thick roll of fur and skin on the dog’s neck. His eyes were closed tight and he tried not to breathe in the dog’s stench.

Somehow in the middle of this madness, he thought he saw Cicero, looking alive. He was speaking to him, but Marco couldn’t understand what he was saying. The dog was throwing himself against the magnolia tree, smashing Marco’s back against the trunk.

“The words, Marco!” said Cicero’s apparition.

The dog started to spin in circles.

Marco tried to hear what his mentor was saying.

“Remember the words!”

The words! He couldn’t imagine the words could help him now. He only remembered what a disaster it had been the last and only time he tried saying them. But he had no other options. “Faw…” he began, and with the utterance of that sound, he noticed a change, but it wasn’t for the better.

The hound was rolling in the dirt, frantically trying to dislodge him.

“Fawta…lani,” he continued haltingly.

The dog’s fangs clamped on to his hind leg and Marco clawed his way farther up so he was practically on top of the dog’s head.

“Nee!” The last word exploded from within him and he suddenly found himself airborne, still clinging to the hell hound. The ascent was swift and the pair twisted and swung violently in midair.

Marco lost his grip and fell. He landed on all fours and looked up to see what had happened to the dog. He had been snatched up by an enormous bird, something like an eagle, but with a body like a lion. The hell hound hung loosely in the talons of this strange flying creature. Marco sat motionless until both bird and dog disappeared in the sky, leaving him wondering if what just happened was a dream. When he returned to Cicero’s lifeless body, however, he knew it was no dream.