by Jeff Tidball
Lucy Jennings examined herself in the mirror in her room. A few weeks ago, when she'd left home in New York to spend the summer with family friends, the Tremaines, she'd packed this moderately scandalous dress in the hopes that an event just like the high-society ** she was invited to would find its way onto her social calendar.
She adjusted a lock of hair and smiled at her reflection. At least one interesting thing was going to happen in Arkham this summer.
* * *
Lucy and her friend Sally Tremaine were met at the door to the Garfield mansion by a squadron of servants. One collected their invitations, another their wraps. They passed through the archway into the grand ballroom, where the ** was already in full swing.
A dapper young man broke away from the crowd as they passed through the doorway. "Miss Jennings, I'm delighted you could come." He took her hand in both of his own and rested a kiss on her knuckles. Lucy's cheeks dimpled.
"This is my friend Sally Tremaine," Lucy said. "This is Mr. Dart," Lucy informed Sally.
"Councilman Dart?" Sally asked, impressed.
"I'm charmed to know you," Dart said.
Dart took Lucy's arm and led them into the whirlwind of high society that made up the guest list.
Although Jeb Garfield, aged scion of the great family, was nowhere to be seen, there was more than one knot of old money present, sharing cigars and drinking cognac from leaded glasses that tinkled against their ornate rings, a chorus of privilege and money.
Lucy's ears heard tantalizing fragments of gossip as Dart led her around the room.
"...is just his type, don't you think...?"
"...for the distinguished professor to visit next week..."
"...won't be able to afford it without our help, of course..."
Lucy wasn't sure what to think of the pair of Middle-Eastern guests in their strange garb, or the African man in a tuxedo who praised Lucy's radiance through an obsequious interpreter.
A doctor from Vermont recognized Lucy's family name; her father ran a successful chain of drug stores. Her family was new money, but money nonetheless.
After an interval that could have been five minutes as easily as an hour - Lucy's head spun with all the introductions Dart had made - Lucy and Sally found themselves at the edge of the room, Dart having been accosted by a pair of older men from the Arkham city council with some business to discuss.
Lucy led her friend out of the ballroom in search of fresh air. They passed the open door to a library. Lucy poked her head inside and saw that its volumes rose three stories inside a massive room open to a dome high above. It had rolling ladders, brown leather chairs, and the smell of pipe-smoke. Lucy, who'd always been a bibliophile, thought it magnificent.
"Lucy!" hissed Sally.
Lucy shushed her friend and stepped inside.
"Lucy, we haven't been invited!"
"Go back then," said Lucy, unwilling to turn over more than a fragment of her attention to her timid friend.
She ran her hand along the spines of old, gilded volumes, skimming the titles as she went, sensing the breadth of the collection.
Histories, legends, studies of myth...
She thought she could hear whispered discussions among learned men, but when she looked, no one was there. She looked back, but Sally had gone.
Folklore, astronomy, ancient religions...
It seemed like it had grown darker since she'd entered. A trick of the light in the stacks, she felt sure.
Witchcraft, pagan rites, ritual magic...
Lucy took down a volume entitled The Esoteric Commandments of the Order of the Silver Key, which bore a key-shaped glyph on its cover.
She blew dust off the tome, opened its cover, and...
* * *
Lucy woke with a start, still wearing the dress she'd worn last night, morning sunlight streaming through the windows of her room at the Tremaines' estate. She hadn't the faintest idea how she'd arrived back in her room.
She blinked. A distant exchange of conversation breezed past the corners of her mind, her own voice and Mr. Dart's:
"A library can be a very dangerous place," Dart said with a twinkle.
"I've been told knowledge is the most valuable of a11 currencies," Lucy responded.
"Knowledge is a two-edged sword," Dart replied flatly. "Certain things can't be unlearned."
Lucy suddenly sat up straight - Sally.
She raced downstairs and found her friend drinking tea and laughing gaily at some antic on the newspaper's page of entertainments.
Sally ignored Lucy's state of dress and the state of her hair. "I had so much fun last night, dear," she enthused. "The dancing, the music...it was all so wonderful. And that Mr. Dart," added Sally with a wink. "Thank you again for bringing me along."
Lucy wrinkled her brow. There hadn't been any dancing, nor music.
What had happened?
