THE FOUR RACES. The Autumn-The Spring.

THE FOUR RACES

Chapter 1

The storm that day in The Autumn wasparticularly violent.

Water cascaded from the sky in large,cold drops, whilst the wind whipped up piles of dried leaves,flinging them through the air and around the pedestrians. Arais ranalong the pavement towards the Great Library, clumsily dodging amyriad of people and puddles, with her precious leather briefcasetucked under her raincoat for protection. The grey stone buildinglooming in front of her was the grandest in the whole country, itsepic size a clear indication of their importance of books to the GreyRace.

When she finally found solace from theweather in the Great Library, the sound of the heavy wooden doorclosing behind her, was drowned out by a parting clap of thunderchasing her into the building, but Arais had paid the price for herjourney, she was soaked to the skin. Depositing her overcoat and hatin the cloakroom she checked to see if her precious cargo, thebriefcase, had survived the awful weather. She was alarmed to seethat the water had saturated one corner of the briefcase, which wasnow a darker colour than the rest of it.

"Damn" she thought panicking thatthe water had got to the precious papers within.

Opening the heavy, plain glass door sheentered the main hall and immediately a cosy warmth enveloped her. She stood still in the entrance. Despite the fact that this was adaily pilgrimage, she always paused, almost involuntarily, to admirethe architecture of the huge library.

The main reading room was so large thatit was impossible to see into every corner. The room was filled withtables, most of which were made of a dark, heavy, ancient wood butthey were all different: every table was adorned with a carving of adifferent plant or animal native to The Autumn. Every leg, of everytable, bore a different image, expertly and painstakingly carved bypeople whose names are long forgotten. There were several two leggedtables interspersed between the larger ones and these were usuallyused specifically for the drawing or consulting of maps.

A wide, central aisle divided the roominto two. This was the best viewpoint to appreciate the goldenparquet flooring, made from the bonsai wood, as the sunlighthighlighted its golden veins, making them sparkle. Along the lengthof the walls, stone fireplaces had been built at fifty metreintervals and they were lavishly decorated with sculptures ofmajestic men and beautiful women. The fireplaces were all flickeringwith flame, which explained the warmth of the room, and it feltespecially warm and welcoming in comparison the wind and rain thatshe'd just left behind.

The hall was also lined with hugearched windows, one located high above each of the fireplaces throughwhich you could see the flashes of lightening as the storm, unabated,continued outside. The rest of the wall was covered in tallbookcases, crammed full of books, with wall ladders running betweeneach chimney. The ladders reached all the way to the top floor,where there was a wrought iron balustrade in the form of a giantclimbing plant which formed the perimeter of the gallery and fromwhere you could cast your gaze over the whole of the reading room. Afurther second floor was reached by two spiral staircases, one eitherside of the entrance door, with black, granite steps and handrailsresembling the branches of trees.

Several rooms were located here, behinddoors upon which were engraved symbols depicting the use of the room. There was the Librarian's Room, the Auditorium, the Museum ofAncient Books, the Rare Books Room, the Restoration Room, and theIllustration Room. At the end of the corridor, behind the grandestdoor of all, which stretched all the way to the ceiling and whichwas covered in gold and engraved with a hotchpotch of astronomical,biological and geographical symbols, was Grey City's' biggestsecret. No one knew what was behind that magnificent door, althougheveryone had a theory and throughout living memory there had beenendless conversations discussing those theories. Some peopletheorised that it was a chemist lab, where they were turning paperinto gold while others thought it was the final resting place of theold and long dead, librarians, who had been embalmed, entombed, andplaced there like statues in a macabre museum.