Adventure of Young Dave. 4

Young Dave. crosses the stone threshold, and the forest drops away. The Brooklyn Central Library rises around him, all mahogany aisles and floating, green-glimmering books. The floor trembles with that deep, steady thump from somewhere ahead.

Rosemary stares at the lobby, breath caught. She points toward the nearest corridor, where the shelves seem to shift like a living maze. "The stacks are moving," she says. "That means the hag trail could still be here."

Yama plants himself between Young Dave. and the dark corridor, sword hand ready. Stella peers upward at the pulsing books, tambourine hugged to her side, her hair pooling across the marble like spilled gold.

From the far end of the lobby, a tall reading arch swings open by itself, revealing a ribbon of red light between the shelves. Rosemary goes pale, then steadies.

Rosemary moves first, slipping past the arch and into the red-lit aisle. Young Dave follows at once, sword low, boots hushed on the marble as the library seems to breathe around them.

The nearest shelves glide sideways with a soft, wooden groan, but the path ahead stays open for the moment. A painted sign swings above them, then settles pointing deeper into the stacks.

She reaches a narrow alcove and pulls free a crumpled catalog slip wedged behind a book. Red light washes over the paper, and a hand-drawn mark catches Young Dave.'s eye.

Behind them, the corridor they came through shifts shut with a slow, deliberate scrape. Yama turns sharply, planting himself between the closing stacks and the others, while the red-lit way ahead bends again.