Alex Bell - Fighting with fire

Eventually, by a patient process of trial and error and after several false starts, they finally found themselves back in the library. And there the Swann started to smoke. The smoke stopped if they moved into any of the other rooms leading off from the library, but started again the instant they went back.

‘So it’s in here somewhere then, right?’ Jesse said. Lex did not like the eager way he’d said it.

‘That, or there’s a secret room here somewhere,’ Lex replied.

Lex suspected the latter. A library was, after all, a classic place in which to conceal a secret room. The problem, though, was that, as far as Lex knew, secret doors were usually opened in libraries by pulling out the right book, or combination of books. It was a little hard to work out which ones to move when every single volume here was exactly the same.

Whilst Jesse wandered around tapping on walls like a fool, Lex stood and looked at the bookcases. There were thirteen of them in total. They were tall, heavy, wooden things? identical but for the fact that the thirteenth one over in the corner had some sort of wooden carving perched on top. It was so small that it was barely noticeable, and Lex couldn’t even tell what it was from the floor. He strongly suspected, but went up the ladder, anyway, to check. The little carving was, as he had thought, a fox. Sitting on its haunches and complete with little waistcoat, it calmly surveyed the library below.

Plantagenet shall guard the sword in a fond embrace…

Lex fiddled about with it a bit but it didn’t seem possible to move it in any way.

‘What have you found up there?’ Jesse called from below.

Lex ignored him. Each bookcase had twenty-six shelves. Lex went down the ladder until he was at the thirteenth. Then he counted along until he was at the thirteenth book. To all outward appearances, it was exactly the same as all the rest? but it was the thirteenth book on the thirteenth shelf of the thirteenth bookcase, being watched over by a little wooden Plantagenet…

Lex pulled the book out. At first, absolutely nothing happened. He was just about to sulk because his idea hadn’t worked when, suddenly, with a creak and a groan, the entire bookcase began to swing forwards. Lex shot down the ladder before he could get squashed and stared in delight at the now-revealed doorway that had previously been hidden behind the bookcase. He snatched up the tongs and the black Swann and rushed straight into the secret room before Jesse.

The light coming in from the library illuminated the place enough for them to see what it was, despite the fact that it was covered in a three-inch coating of dust and a thick matting of spider webs. It was a parlour. A tea parlour, from the looks of things. Decorated in what had once, possibly, been pink and cream, it was a smallish room, with one table in the centre. A huge glass chandelier hung from the ceiling, adorned with pink and blue glass flowers. Despite the coating of dust, it was clear how beautiful it had once been.

The table was covered with a tablecloth and several lace doilies, still laid out with tea for two. There was an exquisite silver teapot along with a matching milk jug and sugar bowl. Two delicate bone-china cups and saucers were set before the two chairs facing each other on opposite sides of the table. And in the middle was a plate set with miniature cakes that the years had turned rock hard. Apart from the dust, it was almost like the table had been set yesterday. As if Nathaniel East was going to stroll into the room at any moment to take tea with his imaginary fox.

And there, hung above the fireplace, was the sword. It was everything Lex had expected it to be? large, bejewelled and magnificent? one blade blue, the other red. Unlike a normal sword, this one’s handle was not at the end, but in the middle, with the two blades stretching out from it in opposite directions. Lex and Jesse spotted it at the same time and moved forwards as one.

But, as soon as Lex took his first step, the black Swann became so hot that it burst? quite literally? into flames. Lex almost jumped out of his skin, and instinctively whipped back his arm. The flaming Swann flew out of the tongs and went up towards the ceiling where it smashed into the chandelier. Dust and dead bugs rained down on Lex as the Swann fell back down to the carpet. When it landed, it was smoking but no longer on fire. Lex looked up and met Jesse’s gaze.

‘Well, now,’ the cowboy said with a grin. ‘Weren’t that a lucky thing that you weren’t holdin’ it just then? It woulda taken your hand off.’

‘Yeah, well,’ Lex said, dusting dead bugs off his clothes and trying to sound casual. ‘I’m always lucky.’

Unfortunately for Lex, he spoke just a little bit too soon on that occasion. The sentence was barely out of his mouth before there was a creaking and a groaning from overhead. The next moment, the cord holding the chandelier snapped. Doubtless, it was a combination of age and being hit with a flaming Swann but, suddenly, the chandelier was falling down right to the spot where Lex stood.

He dived for cover. And almost got out of the way in time. Almost. But not quite. One twisted glass arm struck him across the side of his head, the glass shattering with the force of the blow. The rest of the chandelier smashed directly on top of the tea table, raising a great cloud of dust and causing the table to collapse beneath it.

Lex reeled away from it all, his head whirling. He sneezed once from all the dust. Then blood started running into his right eye from the gash on his head. He was vaguely aware that this was not one of those ‘get back up and brush yourself off’ sort of injuries? which infuriated him seeing as he had finally, finally, managed to find the sword. It was right there and all he had to do was reach out and take it…

But it was no good. There was nothing Lex could do to prevent the wrecked parlour fading from his vision as everything went silent and black, and he crumpled to the floor in a dusty, bleeding heap.

When Lex woke up, the room was different. There was no dust for a start. No cobwebs, either. The panelled walls were splendid in pink and cream; the glass chandelier was resplendent and unbroken, garlanded with dozens of perfect, translucent flowers that speckled the entire room with pink and blue light. The Sword of Life hung above the white marble fireplace looking all the more impressive for the fact that it was no longer covered in the dust and grime of a hundred years.

The table in the centre was also restored. The white cloth and lace doilies were spotless and the silver tea service gleamed. Set daintily on a round plate in the middle were some of the prettiest cakes that Lex had ever seen.

But the thing that really caught Lex’s attention was that there was a giant fox, dressed in a smart waistcoat, sitting in one of the chairs at the table? cup and saucer in hand, drinking tea and watching Lex with intelligent brown eyes.

‘Good day to you,’ the fox said cheerfully when he saw Lex looking at him. He had a warm, mellow voice, and spoke with a refined accent. ‘So kind of you to join me for tea. My name is Plantagenet. Do draw up a chair.’

Staring like his eyes were about to pop out of his head, Lex slowly got to his feet. Only then did he realise that he was no longer the same himself. He’d been wearing cowboy clothes that were covered in dust and blood before. Now he seemed to be wearing the clothes of a gentleman? dark trousers and a waistcoat, not unlike the one the fox was wearing. He could also feel how neatly brushed his hair was.

‘What is this?’ he demanded.

Plantagenet looked at him. ‘What is what, dear boy?’