ALL NOVEL Chapter Fifty: Hidden Doorways
Inside the doorway, I smiled at the the various plants, stopping to grin at the cat tree I’d gotten for the Cat. I was pretty sure he loved it, and I’d caught him a few times napping inside the box near the top. I refreshed the catnip once, but I didn’t want to get the cat addicted to the stuff. It seemed to help him sleep, and the day after he was more relaxed and friendly. The plants closest to the cat tree seemed to grow bigger, faster, but that could just be my perception. Their leaves were a brighter green and reached toward the box, as if it was a light source.
The small oak tree had one new leaf growing on it. It was still small and untwisting. I hoped the new leaf was a good sign for the little tree.
A doorway on the balcony caught my eyes leading to the left. This was the first time I’d seen it. That whole stretch of wall was normally empty. It led to the balcony over the register area, which was where my bedroom was, then eventually to the stairs. Doors didn’t appear on that wall. The runner down the hall was the same one as always, that hadn’t changed.
It had to be where Betty was leading me. I crept to the entrance and glanced inside, but the room was dark, like a haze filled the doorway so people couldn’t peek. As soon as I stepped inside, the room brightened, but the haze still stretched across the doorway behind me. While I couldn’t look out, no one could see me inside. Then again, this doorway didn’t normally exist. Hopefully, if the cat found me, he wouldn’t mind.
Giant bookshelves lined the walls rising several feet above my head. A library ladder rested on a rail that encircled the entire room. On the far wall sat a giant stone fireplace with a small fire burning inside. The fire looked comically small compared to the stone it sat in. Over the wooden mantle, attached to the wall, was a large shield. I could see there was some kind of symbol on it, but couldn’t tell what it was from here. The room wasn’t dark, as lanterns sat next to the fireplace, and some light drifted down from above, though I couldn’t see any source. There weren’t any windows in the room. It almost felt like a cavern, yet the wooden floor almost gleamed despite the scratches and wear indicating this room was well used. I couldn’t even guess who was using it, though.
In the center of the room stood a large wooden table. A golden book glowed at one end and I took a step away from it. I knew that book; it was the one the cat could read, filled with magic. His concern over it hurting me had been very real, and I moved around the table in the opposite way. It lay open, and its pages fluttered up and down. Light drifted up from the pages, as if the book was begging me to read it.
“No…” I muttered to myself, shaking my head. Whatever Betty wanted me to see was in here, but I wouldn’t ignore the cat’s warning about the book. Today was not the day to ignore the cat.
Books covered the shelves, mostly put away properly, spine straight and even on the shelf, but in a few areas stacks of books took over. It made me smile, and I ran a finger along one shelf. Most didn’t have titles on the spines, and the ones that did weren’t in English. I caught something glittering out of the corner of my eye and found myself drawn to the shield over the fireplace.
Slowly, I walked around the table, keeping away from the book at the far end, to get a better view of the shield. “Betty, what am I looking for?”
Again, it almost looked like a golden outline surrounded the shield, and I nodded.
That was the target.
Once in front of it, I could see what was carved on the wooden surface. Heat from the small fire flowed from the fireplace, and sweat started forming on my brow. The shield was beautiful. Whoever had carved it knew what they were doing, and I wished I could get closer. The edges of the shield were covered in fine vines, and in the center was a giant oak leaf. The edges of the leaf were lifted, as if someone had set one in the center and turned it to wood.
Other figures stood in the shield's background, but from here I couldn’t see what they were. I stepped forward again and my foot hit something soft. Glancing down, I spotted a cat bed. Or, what I assumed was a cat bed. A pile of blankets lay on the edge of the stone surrounding the fireplace.
“This is his room, the cat’s…” Other doors branched off, but all of them were shut. “I should leave.”
The room felt warm, and loved, but also lonely. Golden light teased at the edge of my sight, but I turned away from the book. I trusted the cat, and he said the book was dangerous. I pulled myself away from my perch in front of the fireplace and glanced at the large table. In the center was a mirror laying flat, reflecting the wooden ceiling. It reminded me of the mirror the cat had used to show the one who had brought Indigo to the shop.
“Who are you watching?” I asked aloud.
Behind me the shield glowed again, and I glanced over my shoulder at it, confused. “The shield represents someone. Now I just gotta figure out who.”
More importantly, why whomever it was mattered to the cat. There wasn’t anything else on the table that drew my attention, nothing else that I wanted to look at, so I slowly made my way back to the only open door in the room. Two other doors were closed, tucked away within bookcases, but shut. One was a bright green, while the other a sky blue. Yet, I didn’t go snooping. I paused at the doorway I’d entered through, glancing back over the room. Something nagged at the edge of my attention. Finally, it dawned on me. This room felt like it didn’t belong in the shop, like it had come from somewhere else. Part of it was the floors, they didn’t match the rest of the store. The other was how it smelled. Almost like the wooden shelves were still alive. Even with the fire burning in the fireplace, it didn’t smell like smoke, instead it smelled like I was walking around outside.
It was curious. Where did this room come from? The shop had wanted me to see the shield. Now I had research to do, and a riddle to solve. What did the shop want help with? And more importantly, how did it involve me and the cat?