Glenn Cooper - Library of the Dead

In the distance he saw Primus sitting in the dirt of the guest vegetable garden, a barren, harvested plot beside the Hospicium. The boy was alone, which was not unusual since his mother was inattentive. He had not seen him for a while and was now curious enough to spy on him.

The boy was nearly the age of Octavus when Josephus first took him in, and the resemblance was uncanny. The same reddish hair, the same bloodless complexion, the same frail body.

When Josephus was thirty paces away he stopped in his tracks and felt his heart race and his head swim. If he had not taken to using a walking staff he might have stumbled. The boy had a stick and was holding it in his hand. Then, before Josephus's eyes, he began using it to scrape the dirt in large swirling motions.

He was writing, Josephus was certain of it.

Josephus struggled to get through None prayers. After the congregation dispersed, he tapped three people on the shoulder and pulled them to a corner of the nave. There, he huddled with Paulinus, Magdalena, and Jose, who had been included in his inner circle ever since the young monk discovered the rape. Josephus had never regretted his decision to open up to the Iberian, who was calm and wise and discreet to a fault. And the abbot, the prioress, and the astronomer, who all were growing old, appreciated Jose's strength and vigor.

"The boy has begun to write," Josephus whispered. Even at a whisper, his voice echoed in the cavernous nave. They crossed themselves. "Jose, bring the boy to Octavus's chamber."

They sat the boy on the floor next to his father. Octavus took no notice of him nor any of the others who had invaded his sanctum. Magdalena had shunned Octavus since the atrocity, and even with the passage of time she recoiled at his sight. She no longer allowed her girls to tend him-those tasks were now delegated to young male novices. She kept as far away from his writing table as she could, half worried he might spring up and violate her too.

Jose placed a large sheet of vellum before Primus and surrounded it with a semicircle of candles.

"Give him a dipped quill," Paulinus rasped.

Jose dangled a quill in front of the boy as one might tempt a cat to pounce upon a feather. A drop of ink fell and splashed the page.

The boy suddenly reached out, grabbed the quill with his tiny right fist and put the tip onto the page.

He moved his hand in circles. The quill loudly scraped the parchment.

The letters were large and clumsy but clear enough to decipher.

V-a-a-s-c-o

"Vaasco," Paulinus said when the last letter was written.

S-u-a-r-i-z

"Vaasco Suariz," Jose intoned. "Portuguese nombre. "

Then numbers also sprang childlike from the juvenile hand.

8 6 800 Mors

"The eighth day of Junius, 800," Paulinus said.

Josephus said, "Please, Jose, check Octavus's current page. What year is he recording?"

Jose stood over Octavus's shoulder and studied the page. "His last entry is the seventh day of Junius, 800!"

"Dear Jesus!" Josephus exclaimed. "The two of them are connected as one!"

The four ministers tried to read each other in the dancing candlelight.

"I know what you are thinking," Magdalena said, "and I cannot abide by it."

"How can you know, Prioress, when I myself do not," Josephus answered.

"Search your soul, Josephus," she said skeptically. "I am certain you know your own mind."

Paulinus threw up his hands. "You are both talking in riddles. Can an old man not expect to know of what you are speaking?"

Josephus rose slowly to avoid wooziness. "Come, let us leave the boy with Octavus for a short while. No harm will come of him. I would have my three friends join me upstairs where we might have a prayerful discussion."

It was warmer and more comfortable than in the damp cellar. Josephus had them sit at copy desks, Josephus facing Magdalena, Paulinus facing Jose.

He recounted the night of Octavus's birth and each remarkable milestone in the youth's history. To be sure, they all knew these details, but Josephus had never before laid out an oral history and they were sure he had a purpose for doing so now. He then turned to the briefer though no less remarkable history of Primus, including the events that had just transpired.

"Can any of us doubt," Josephus asked, "that we have a sacred obligation to preserve and sustain this divine work? For reasons which we may never know, God has entrusted us, His servants at Vectis Abbey, to be the keepers of these miraculous texts. He has endowed this youth, Octavus, born in miraculous circumstances, with the power-nay, the imperative-to chronicle the entry and passage of all the souls entering and departing from this Earth. Man's destiny is thus laid bare. The texts are a testament to the power and omniscience of the Creator, and we are humbled by the love and care He has for His children." A tear formed and started to slide down his face. "Octavus is but one special though surely mortal being. I have wondered, and so have you, how the enormity of his task might be perpetuated. We now have our answer."

He paused and noted their solemn nods.

"I am dying."

"No!" Jose protested, showing the concern a son might have for a father.

"Yes, it is true. I am quite sure that none of you are too shocked. You have only to look at me to know that I am gravely ill."

Paulinus reached out to touch his wrist and Magdalena wrung her hands.

"And Paulinus, will you not acknowledge that you have seen the name Josephus of Vectis entered in one of the books?"

Paulinus answered through parched lips, "I have."

"And you know my date certain?"

"I do."

"It is soon?"

"It is."

"It is not tomorrow, I trust," he jested.

"It is not."

"Excellent," he said, lightly tapping his fingertips together. "It is my duty to prepare for the future, not only for the abbey, but for Octavus and the Library. So here, tonight, I declare that I will send for the bishop and beseech him, upon my passing, to elevate Sister Magdalena to Abbess of Vectis and Brother Jose to prior. Brother Paulinus, dear friend, you will continue to serve them as you have done so faithfully for me."

Magdalena bowed her head deeply to hide the thin smile she could scarcely suppress. Paulinus and Jose were mute with grief.

"And I have one further declaration," Josephus continued. "Tonight we are forming a new order within Vectis, a secret and holy order for the protection and preservation of the Library. We four are the founding members, which will henceforth be known as the Order of the Names. Let us pray."

He led them in deep prayer, and when he was done they rose as one.

Josephus touched Magdalena on her bony shoulder. "When Vespers is complete, we will do what must be done. Will you do this willingly?"

The old woman hesitated and silently prayed to the Holy Mother. Josephus was waiting for her response. "I will," she said.

After Vespers, Josephus retired to his room to meditate. He knew what was transpiring but did not wish to witness the events personally. His resolve was strong but he remained at the core a kind, gentle soul with no stomach for this kind of business.

He knew that as he bowed his head in prayer, Magdalena and Jose were leading Mary from the Hospicium down the dark path to the Scriptorium. He knew she would be softly weeping. He knew the weeping would turn to loud sobbing when they pulled her by the hand down the stairs into the cellar. And he knew the sobs would turn to screams when Paulinus opened the door to Octavus's chamber and Jose bodily forced her through the threshold then latched the door behind her.

R eggie Saunders was having a roll in the hay, as he called it, with Laurel Barnes, the buxom wife of Wing Commander Julian Barnes, in the middle of the wing commander's four-poster bed. He was enjoying himself a great deal. It was a grand country house with a grand master bedroom, a nice little fire to take the chill off, and an appreciative Mrs. Barnes, who had grown accustomed to faring for herself during her husband's war hiatus.