The Last Dragon Chronicles: Fire World: Fire World Read Online Free PDF Page A

worlds in our heads with words, David. Those words are all here, in thesebooks, in these rooms. The words movedthe book. This building is   alive   .”

    7

    “Hmph, well everything is   alive , child.”
    Rosa and David turned to see a tall and
    slightly frail old man, putting a book onto a shelf on the far side of the room. He was dressed in very simple clothing: loose baggy trousers, a shirt with the cuffs rolled back, and a waistcoat that had a thread or two undone at the button holes. His hair, what there was of it, rose in faint grey wisps around his ears. Liverishcoloured spots could be seen on his scalp. He seemed kindly enough, though the overlarge, black-rimmed spex he wore added a note of austerity to his face. And one of his teeth was chipped.
    “This is Mr Henry,” Rosa said to

    David.
    “Mmm,” went Mr Henry, and continued with his lecture. “Nothing in the universe is ever still, you see. But some things appear more still than others. Everything has auma, from a humble splint of wood to the raindrops falling past that window. Auma is life. And life is never static. It
    changes and evolves. It   grows . You must
    be David?”
    “Yes,” said the boy.
    “Welcome to the librarium. Rosa has shown you how to get around?”
    “Not really. Can someone tell me where the bathroom is, please?”
    Mr Henry extended a hand in the direction of the room next door. “Through there, perhaps?”
    David aimed a worried look at Rosa. “I

    came in that way. I didn’t see a toilet.”
    “Okay, I cheated a bit,” she blushed. “You’re allowed to use your fain to sense your way around. You have to tune your auma to the building to do it. If you want a bathroom, for instance, you put the thought out and the librarium will guide you through the quickest route to one. I’ve found nine so far, but I think they move around. Go on,” she nudged him sideways, “before you wet your pants. Oh, and find something a bit more interesting to wear. You look a bit… retro, if you know what I
    mean?”
    “All right, that’s quite enough teasing,” said Mr Henry. He brushed a little dust off David’s shoulder. “Join us in my study when you’re done.”
    “Your study? Where is that?”

    Rosa tapped her head.
    Think it. Right.
    “Runcey will go with you, till you’reused to it,” she said.
    David looked at the perky littlefirebird. It spread its wings and flutteredto a shelf by the door.
    “And be polite,” Rosa said, following Mr Henry out of the room. “The librariumdoesn’t like it if you’re disrespectful.”
    David rested his hand on the nearest
    row of books.   Bathroom , he thought, adding   please   into the mix. He let his
    auma  dissolve  into  the  books   and
    immediately felt the slightest of tugs, as if the molecules in the skin of his chest had
    been magnetised to those in the air in front of him. The librarium had recognised his request and responded. He strode forward

    through the door Mr Henry had pointed to and felt Runcey’s soft claws alight on his shoulder. Confident he wasn’t going to need the bird’s guidance, he marched through two more doors, up a flight of stairs, down a dark and tilting corridor and stepped into – a broom cupboard.
    Rrrh!   went Runcey. The creature landed on an upturned bucket, shaking its head in a gesture of despair. It spread its wings in a kind of meditative arc.
    “You’re telling me to think more clearly?”
    Runcey did not seem to understand this. But in a further attempt to be helpful, he rummaged through several books (even here, amongst the brooms, they had found a ledge or two) flipping them open and tossing them aside until he found one with

    an illustration. He showed this to David and circled a wing over it.
    “You want me to make a picture? In my head?”
    Rrrh!   went the bird.
    David smiled. He understood nowwhere he’d gone wrong. He’d been sloppyin his intent.