First of all, they had to go up three stairs to get into it. This was a huge barn of a building, not just a room, with floor-to-ceiling shelves packed very closely together. There were ladders at intervals along the shelves—it was pretty obvious you would need those ladders to reach the upper shelves. On these shelves were identical wooden boxes. Shelf upon shelf, row upon row . . . with only a single table with several chairs around it at the door end of the room. He would have thought such a huge room would be freezing cold, but they had some way to heat it that he couldn’t see. Then it occurred to him—the place must be heated the same way that Bear’s indoor herbarium was heated, from beneath the floor. The place had a stuffy feel to it, as if the air wasn’t moving at all. It was also very dry, and the air was scented with the smell of old paper, but oddly, not of dust. In fact, he couldn’t see any dust at all. The lighting was fairly good, too—there were narrow windows up near the roof all the way around, with glass in them.

“Oh, my,” Lena said faintly as she went up to the nearest shelf. “It’s a lot . . . bigger . . . than I thought it would be. The Bardic Archives aren’t much bigger than the library. Well,” she said, her voice sounding muffled as she moved behind the shelves, “At least they dust regularly.”

Mags followed her. She peered at the end of the box, then at the box next to it, and the one down from it, and perked up. “All right, this isn’t as bad as it looks. These are all nicely organized. I was afraid they were just stuck in here, any which way.”

“I should hope they are well-organized, Trainee. The Guard prides itself on organization.”

Mags could almost hear the unspoken addition. Unlike some other groups I could mention. . . .

From the back of the room, another old, but erect, man in a blue Guard uniform came walking toward them. He was balding, expressionless, and as impersonal as a lump of stone. “I am the Archivist. I assume since you are here, you have permission, so how can I help you find what you are looking for?”

This time, despite shields, Mags did hear the unspoken addition. I can’t have you running about pulling things down and never putting them back in order, or where they belong. Or worse, putting them back wherever you find room.