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“We need backup in the library,” she shouted into her walkie-talkie.
Jag grabbed Dicky’s shoulders and heaved, putting the guard between him and Vigga. Meanwhile, Moe dragged a limp Ram toward Elliot and me.
“Can we go now, please?” Elliot said.
Beverly whimpered in agreement.
I wished we could, but I still hadn’t found the portal. It might not even exist.
Vigga stepped around the edge of the shelf and fired her taser. I raised a leather-bound volume like a shield, catching the electric barbs in its cover and hurling it back at the guard.
It slammed into her face, and red sprouted from her nose.
“Do you need help?” Moe called to her.
“Damn it, she’s trying to stun us,” I snapped. “Help Jag.” He grappled with Dicky, both grabbing at each other’s shoulders and kicking each other’s shins.
“Oh, he doesn’t like it when I do that,” Moe said.
“Joel, get over here,” Vigga shouted. Apparently, the third guard was even more cowardly than the rest of them.
Elliot thumped a book onto an empty shelf. “We checked all the books in this section. There’s nothing here.”
“I know! I know!”
I chewed my fingernail. If there was a portal in the prison, where the hell would it be? I glanced from the empty shelves to Jag throwing a punch at Vigga, and to Beverly as she huddled next to the box of newly donated books.
Volos had already dug through those and would have snitched had he found anything. I turned to the next shelf in desperation but a memory struck me. He had been searching for puzzle books. Maybe he hadn’t bothered to look at anything else.
Something thumped onto the floor with a grunt, and I whirled to see Dicky standing over Jag. The guard aimed his taser.
Elliot made a scared little sound and then started flinging books. “Sorry, books,” he said.
Dicky flinched as he was pelted with a hardcover. Jag rolled away and climbed to his feet with a groan.
Moe jumped up from where he was comforting Ram and grabbed a paperback, throwing it hard. It hit Dicky square in the forehead.
“Ha! Being a pitcher paid off.”
How many jobs had this guy had? No time to think about it now. While they distracted the guards, I crouched by the box of donated books. A donation would be a way to smuggle something into a prison.
As I started flipping through books, my hands shook with worry. Ram was wrong about the portal, and we were all about to be locked in the hole. As I dropped a hardcover on the floor next to me, Beverly inched forward to munch on its corner.
I tossed another dead-end book aside. “There’s nothing fucking here. You were wrong, Ram, and you better not use this against me.” Or Juniper.
Elliot, Jag, Moe, and Dicky were shouting, and the library echoed with thuds of books and probably fists. The library door banged open, and boots pounded on the floor as more guards raced in.
I didn’t know what to do. I had nothing else I could do, so I tipped the box over, spilling out the last few books. One had a battered cover stamped with Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform. I frowned as I picked it up. Very, very few people could read the ancient Mesopotamian alphabet. But those old languages made for powerful spells, so I had learned some of them. Enough to read the title of this book.
Watership Down.
Sort of. The translation into Sumero-Akkadian was rough, but I was sure it was the sad rabbit book.Watership Downwas Ram’s favorite. He used to read it over and over, back on our gang’s secret island hideout. Now, here it was translated into an ancient language and smuggled into prison. Ram and I might be the only ones in this building who could read it.
I opened it.
On the inside cover, a circle swirled like a disturbed puddle reflecting a rainbow. My breath caught in my throat. Fucking Ram was right. Somehow, someone had gotten a portal past the ward.
And they had been trying to get it to him.
