Read Enchanted Ivy for Free Online Page B
Authors: Sarah Beth Durst
Tags: United States, Fiction, General, People & Places, Action & Adventure, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Magic, Fantasy & Magic, Performing Arts, Education, Adventure and Adventurers, School & Education, Adventure stories, Multigenerational, Body; Mind & Spirit, Dance, Locks and Keys, Magick Studies, Universities and colleges, College stories, Higher, Princeton (N.J.), Princeton University
how--
Clang, screech!
Across the aisle, a second bookshelf shuddered, then
44
shifted. Lily backed away as the crank whirred faster. Jolting sideways, the bookshelf slammed against the next shelf. Books rocked, and then the library fell silent again.
Okay, she thought, this is seriously creepy. Maybe she should return to the nice, sunny lobby and ask the librarians at the information desk where to find the 920s. She liked that idea. Lily headed for the elevator.
Metal shrieked, and a bookshelf shot across the center aisle to block her path. Several books tumbled off the shelf and landed at her feet. Her heart hammered in her rib cage. "This isn't funny," she called. "You can stop now!"
She didn't hear anyone. Maybe it was a malfunction. Or it could be part of some automatic air-out-the-books maintenance routine, the library's version of an automatic sprinkler system. Not that she'd ever heard of such a thing, but there had to be a nice, logical explanation for why the shelves were suddenly acting possessed.
Lily speed-walked down a row. As she reached the end, the bookshelf sprang back and slammed against the brick wall. She ran back to the center aisle. All around her, dozens of bookshelves lurched forward and sideways. Metal crashed and shrieked. Books tumbled to the floor. She screamed as a set of shelves crashed together in front of her.
"Help!" she yelled. "Someone, anyone, help!"
She zigzagged through a moving maze. As shelves slid, she plunged through gaps. Aisles and rows slammed shut behind her.
45
Up ahead, Lily saw an old card-catalog cabinet. Hip height, it was an island in a storm. Lily raced toward it, ducking her head as books sailed off the flying shelves. The bookshelves zoomed around her faster and faster. Reaching the cabinet, she scrambled on top. A shelf smashed into the brick wall on one side of her, and then a second shelf crashed into the wall on the opposite side. A third shelf sailed directly toward her. Lily screamed and threw her hands in front of her face--
The shelf halted inches from her fingertips.
Everything fell silent again. All the bookshelves were still. Crouched on top of the cabinet, Lily listened, but all she heard was her own breathing, fast and loud.
She had to get out of here. Now. Before it started again.
Sliding off her perch into the narrow space between the cabinet and a bookshelf, Lily yanked books off the lowest shelf. She could clear a shelf, crawl through, and then run for the elevators. She'd emptied half the bottom shelf before she noticed the call numbers on the spines of the books: 921.
"Bastards," she said out loud.
Lily clapped her lips shut before she said anything worse. The Old Boys could be listening. She bet they were watching her right now through video cameras, chortling to one another as they sipped port in their leather chairs. They'd succeeded in scaring their newest candidate with mere bookshelves.
What sort of college admissions test involved terrifying
46
the applicant half to death? Lily took a deep breath and told herself to focus. She could tell them what she thought of their practical joke after she had her automatic-acceptance guarantee. For now, she had to find that book.
Lily ran her fingers over the book spines. 921.45 Bre, 921.45 Div, 921.45 Lin, 921.45 Zar ... She didn't see a 921.45 Wil. She stood up and checked the other shelves.
A few book titles caught her eye: Rituals and Music of the Northern Ogre Clan, On the Behavior of Brownies, Goblin Genealogy. She plucked a book at random off the shelf and flipped through it. Mermaids, a Life Cycle of. It mimicked a research book, complete with charts and graphs and footnotes. It even had drawings of mermaid skeletons and diagrams of mermaid respiratory systems. Someone had put a lot of work into this parody. Replacing it, she selected another book. This one, Chimeras of Today , was the same: hundreds of pages of detailed "research." She returned it to the shelf and noticed that
Clang, screech!
Across the aisle, a second bookshelf shuddered, then
44
shifted. Lily backed away as the crank whirred faster. Jolting sideways, the bookshelf slammed against the next shelf. Books rocked, and then the library fell silent again.
Okay, she thought, this is seriously creepy. Maybe she should return to the nice, sunny lobby and ask the librarians at the information desk where to find the 920s. She liked that idea. Lily headed for the elevator.
Metal shrieked, and a bookshelf shot across the center aisle to block her path. Several books tumbled off the shelf and landed at her feet. Her heart hammered in her rib cage. "This isn't funny," she called. "You can stop now!"
She didn't hear anyone. Maybe it was a malfunction. Or it could be part of some automatic air-out-the-books maintenance routine, the library's version of an automatic sprinkler system. Not that she'd ever heard of such a thing, but there had to be a nice, logical explanation for why the shelves were suddenly acting possessed.
Lily speed-walked down a row. As she reached the end, the bookshelf sprang back and slammed against the brick wall. She ran back to the center aisle. All around her, dozens of bookshelves lurched forward and sideways. Metal crashed and shrieked. Books tumbled to the floor. She screamed as a set of shelves crashed together in front of her.
"Help!" she yelled. "Someone, anyone, help!"
She zigzagged through a moving maze. As shelves slid, she plunged through gaps. Aisles and rows slammed shut behind her.
45
Up ahead, Lily saw an old card-catalog cabinet. Hip height, it was an island in a storm. Lily raced toward it, ducking her head as books sailed off the flying shelves. The bookshelves zoomed around her faster and faster. Reaching the cabinet, she scrambled on top. A shelf smashed into the brick wall on one side of her, and then a second shelf crashed into the wall on the opposite side. A third shelf sailed directly toward her. Lily screamed and threw her hands in front of her face--
The shelf halted inches from her fingertips.
Everything fell silent again. All the bookshelves were still. Crouched on top of the cabinet, Lily listened, but all she heard was her own breathing, fast and loud.
She had to get out of here. Now. Before it started again.
Sliding off her perch into the narrow space between the cabinet and a bookshelf, Lily yanked books off the lowest shelf. She could clear a shelf, crawl through, and then run for the elevators. She'd emptied half the bottom shelf before she noticed the call numbers on the spines of the books: 921.
"Bastards," she said out loud.
Lily clapped her lips shut before she said anything worse. The Old Boys could be listening. She bet they were watching her right now through video cameras, chortling to one another as they sipped port in their leather chairs. They'd succeeded in scaring their newest candidate with mere bookshelves.
What sort of college admissions test involved terrifying
46
the applicant half to death? Lily took a deep breath and told herself to focus. She could tell them what she thought of their practical joke after she had her automatic-acceptance guarantee. For now, she had to find that book.
Lily ran her fingers over the book spines. 921.45 Bre, 921.45 Div, 921.45 Lin, 921.45 Zar ... She didn't see a 921.45 Wil. She stood up and checked the other shelves.
A few book titles caught her eye: Rituals and Music of the Northern Ogre Clan, On the Behavior of Brownies, Goblin Genealogy. She plucked a book at random off the shelf and flipped through it. Mermaids, a Life Cycle of. It mimicked a research book, complete with charts and graphs and footnotes. It even had drawings of mermaid skeletons and diagrams of mermaid respiratory systems. Someone had put a lot of work into this parody. Replacing it, she selected another book. This one, Chimeras of Today , was the same: hundreds of pages of detailed "research." She returned it to the shelf and noticed that
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