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“Then follow me.”
And the acolyte led them out of the incubation chamber and deeper into the Shrine.
THIRTY-FIVE
SKY
“This is the Chamber wherein resides The Book Which Writes Itself,” Neen’ya said in a hushed voice.
“What’s with the door?” Torin muttered.
Sky had been wondering that herself. In every other chamber, there had been a set of large double doors made of stone. But the door on this room was different—it reminded her of a vault door at one of the Money Houses—round and thick and made of metal.
“Oh, we keep the chamber hermetically sealed to protect the Book,” Neen’ya explained. “It’s very ancient, you see—too much air flow or exposure to sunlight would degrade it.”
“Does it really write itself?” Sky asked curiously.
Neen’ya’s forked tongue flickered in amusement.
“Come and see for yourself,” she said. Stepping up to the massive round door, she punched a code into the keypad on its front. After a moment there was a hiss of escaping air and the round door swung outward.
Inside was a simple, circular chamber with stone floors and nothing but a pedestal about as high as Sky’s waist in its center. On it was an incredibly thick book, open to somewhere in the middle.
“Come in and look but do not touch,” Neen’ya cautioned them.
They walked into the round room, which was lit with a lot of pulsing glow globes which ringed the ceiling but cast no direct light onto the sacred volume.
Sky stepped up to the pedestal, being careful not to touch anything. The pages of the immense volume were blank and appeared to be yellowed with age.
“I don’t see any writing,” she remarked, looking at Neen’ya.
“The book is not always active,” the acolyte told her. “Though it’s said that if it is in a good humor, it will sometimes answer questions. Go on—ask it something.”
“Where can we find the killer we’re looking for?” Torin asked, before Sky could say anything.
Sky shot him a slightly annoyed glance—she’d been going to ask something similar—and he shrugged.
“Sorry—just popped out.”
It didn’t seem like the book was going to answer them anyway and Sky was about to turn away when a little breeze ruffled the book’s pages with a sound like dry leaves.
“Look—it’s happening!” Neen’ya sounded excited.
Sky looked at the yellowed pages again and saw that script was appearing—flowing over the right-hand page as though an invisible hand holding an invisible pen was writing.
“That which you seek does not appear in the form that you seek it,” Torin read, looking over her shoulder. “What in the Seven Hells does that mean?”
Neen’ya shrugged. “The book doesn’t always answer in the way you think it will.”
“But we didn’t ask it anything about what the killer looks like—we already know that,” Torin objected.
“It seems to be saying he might not look like the description that Mistress Mirabella gave us,” Sky said, frowning.
“What does he look like, then?” Torin leaned over her shoulder again and addressed the book directly. “What does the killer look like?”
The book was silent for a moment and then there was the flutter of pages again, like dry leaves crackling. The previous script disappeared and then new words began to flow over its yellow pages.
“You will be pierced,” Sky read aloud, frowning. “You will endure both pleasure and pain. The experience will change you.”
“What?” Torin frowned and shook his head. “That has nothing at all to do with what I just asked it. I think it’s broken.”
“Not at all—sometimes the book doesn’t answer the question you asked,” Neen’ya said. “Instead, it answers the question you really wanted to ask but were too afraid to speak aloud.”
“Is it speaking to Torin then, since he was the one who asked the question?” Sky asked.
The acolyte nodded.
“I would say so, since it answers the one who asks of it. Wait…” She cocked her head to one side. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Then Sky heard it too. A voice was speaking outside the chamber.
“Third group. Calling the third group,” it said. “Please come to the Sacred Chamber for your sexual sacrifice to the Mother of All Serpents.”
“Fuck,” Torin growled. “That’s us.”
“You’d better go,” Neen’ya said. “Do you know your way back?”
“We can manage,” Sky said shortly. “Thank you for the tour.”
“Maybe I’ll see you later. In fact, why don’t we meet back here after you finish honoring the Great Serpent Mother?” the acolyte said. “I can show you a few more things in the Shrine if you like.”
“Thank you, we’ll see you later then.” Sky nodded politely and then turned to Torin. “We’d better go. Are you ready, Giant?”
There was a grim look on the big Kindred’s face and it wasn’t hard to guess that he was thinking about the words they had read in The Book Which Writes Itself. But he only nodded.
“Let’s go get this done,” he rumbled.
“You’re sure you’re all right with it?” Sky asked. “If you’d rather just skip our, uh, appointment—”
