Excerpt: Ertiva [Working title] - Part Two

She stood up on the other side of the pile of stones and brushed some of the dirt off her clothes, looking around the room. She found herself in a small chamber with a high ceiling. There was more rubble scattered about the room, but far more interesting was the sight that was revealed in the lights that had been placed at intervals along the wall. Along each of the three walls was a long, low shelf, laden with what seemed to Amarrah's eyes to be rectangular boxes, stacked on their ends. Then there were the lights themselves - she couldn't imagine why they were there or who had put them there. They glowed gently, casting a warm light over the small room. Amarrah approached the nearest shelf, now consumed with curiosity. She crouched down to examine the contents of the shelf, and noticed that all of the box things appeared to have lettering on their sides. She leaned closer to read what they said, but battled to make out the faded lettering. She pulled out a large one so as to see it better, and was astounded to find it filled with paper, the outer layer not so much a box as a covering for the sheaves of paper within.

"A book!" she said without thinking, and the sound of her own voice in the musty silence almost made her jump. She had heard of books before. For the most part, they had been mentioned simply as an old-fashioned means of communicating information, although apparently they had often been filled with dangerous lies under the name of "fiction". Less publicly, she had heard people talk of "stories". She had even once overheard a woman describe books as "magical", although the object she now held in her hands didn't look particularly magical. Of course, Amarrah had only the vaguest idea of what "magic" actually was, although she was sure it had something to do with sparkly things, or perhaps explosions.

She ran her thumb over the spine of the thick book, and was surprised to find that there was no dust on it. A thrill ran through her as she looked around the room, as if she expected to see someone there. She squinted at the lettering. "The Lord of the Rings," she read out loud, and turned the book over in her hands. It felt strange to be touching a book. A real book! Nervous now, she opened it to a random page and began to read.

She did not see the eyes that watched her from behind the shelf.