Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria

Chapter 11: The sound of the scribes

The gurgling, watery sounds were pleasant enough, but Marco was reluctant to open his eyes again. However, he couldn’t resist a quick peek. There was a winged horse, frozen, but looking as though it were about to take flight. Marco supposed it wouldn’t hurt to open his other eye. He was sitting on a stone wall surrounding a large pool of water. The winged horse was in the middle of the pool, and all around him sprays of sparkling water rose and fell. The sun shone as if it were a normal spring day.

Cicero sat on the wall next to him, licking his fur.

“Are we dead?" asked Marco.

“The first trip is the hardest. I told you not to open your eyes, but it’s hard not to. Don’t worry. It gets easier.” Cicero was washing his tail. “It always takes me a while to recover.”

The first trip? What was he talking about? And how could Cicero be so casual? Marco had enough. It was time for answers. “What did you do to me?” he demanded. “Are you trying to get me killed?”

Cicero continued grooming, and Marco thought he was avoiding the question because it might be true. What had he gotten himself into?

Cicero completed putting his fur in order and then they were both gazing at the winged horse who was reared back, his front legs pawing at the air. “Time traveling is always risky, and this trip is especially difficult,” he began. “We had to come a long way to get back to the fourth century. Over sixteen centuries.”

Marco had no clue what he was talking about.

“It’s a bit challenging for your first trip, but it couldn’t be helped. Then, of course, we had to move through space as well. When you add both aspects together like that… Well, you see, if we were simply traveling into another dimension, we could have used a portal. Those are easy, but one never knows where they’ll end up. Portals are no good when you have to pinpoint an event.”

Marco wondered how he was going to find his way home. He got up on all fours and almost fell into the pool.

“Give yourself time to adjust,” said Cicero. “You’ll be fine.”

Marco sat back down. He surrendered for the moment and took to licking the fountain’s mist from his fur while Cicero droned on in the background.

“There’s no way to explain time travel. Even if you’ve read about folding space, wormholes, black and white holes, you’d have no better idea of what to expect. I’ve been studying for years and I still don’t understand how it all works.”

Marco thought a wormhole should be for worms, not cats. As for traveling, until now his longest journey had been to the town library. When he looked at Cicero, there was two of him. Clearly, things were not becoming clearer.

“You mean to tell me you don’t understand how we got here?” asked Marco.

“I’m beginning to. But I wouldn’t travel without a guide. We’d probably end up getting sucked into a black hole or stuck forever in some time warp, never to return.”

This was hardly reassuring. “Then how did we get here?”

“I’m terribly sorry. You haven’t met our guide yet, have you? Alaniah. She seems to have fluttered off somewhere. Visiting friends, most likely.”

Marco looked around, beyond the fountain and his puzzling companion. There were flower gardens and more fountains. There were orange and lemon trees with benches under them. There were plenty of humans, all in strange dress. Most were reading. Maybe not so bad, he thought. “What is this place?”

“Ah, a question with an easy answer. Welcome to the Library of Alexandria.”

“A library? It looks more like a park.”

“Your vision is limited, Marco. Look further,” said Cicero.

Marco stretched his neck. Buildings surrounded the gardens, enormous structures even from a distance.

“Which one is the library?” he asked, dazzled by the immensity.

“All of them. Every one is filled with books and scrolls, paintings and art.”

“All of them?” he asked, wishing he didn’t sound so daft.

“Come on, let’s try out our legs.” Cicero jumped down from the ledge and Marco followed, wobbly as a newborn kitten.

“Better to walk it off,” Cicero said as he set off on the wide pathway.

They meandered through gardens, people watching. Some sat on benches, others sprawled on the grass. Some were reading and others sat at tables littered with books and tea cups, men animated by lively discussions.

Cicero explained as they walked. “This library was designed to be the greatest center of learning ever built, to be more than simply a building that stores books, but a place where humans would discuss the ideas in them. What a grand idea come to life!”

They passed a small gathering of people debating whether the earth was flat.

“They say there are over a half million books in dozens of languages here,” Cicero continued.

Out of every people-cluster Marco passed, he heard snippets of spirited conversation about heaven and earth and various names—Copernicus, Hypatia, Ptolemy and Plato.

There were cats too. They sat on laps or under benches, but none of them paid any attention to them. After this leisurely stroll, Marco’s legs felt sturdier and they had reached one of the buildings he’d seen from a distance. The massive stairway was as wide as the building. The doors were almost as tall and Marco craned his neck to see the writing above one of them. He had only read, “The place of the cure of the soul… ” when the doors swung open and a group of young men burst through, their arms full of scrolls.

“Now’s our chance! Hurry!” commanded Cicero. He swiftly scooted between a tangle of legs and disappeared into the building. Marco was too busy gawking, and the doors closed with a thud. Alone on the covered portico, he wandered the wide, now empty space, feeling insignificant in the presence of such immensity.

After what seemed like forever, the door opened narrowly and a young boy squeezed through. Marco took his chance and darted into the slit, his tail caught by the closing door. He yelped as he shot into the building and almost missed Cicero, who was resting under a bench.

Marco washed his bruised tail, which did not hurt as much as his injured pride.

“Keep up with me,” Cicero ordered. “If you dawdle or wander off, we may never find each other in this place.”

Marco kept silent. Instead he considered the library building as he trotted along behind Cicero. Light streaming in from lofty windows on the pale blue walls gave the impression they were still outside. Clay pots and baskets invited him to investigate. Giant marble columns drew his attention upwards to a ceiling dotted with domes and skylights. A pool of clear running water called him to drink, but he didn’t dare stop. Cicero was moving at a good clip.

Passing through a towering arched doorway, they entered a room full of long high tables where young men stood, busily engaged in something Marco could not see. They were not discussing the stars or navigational charts, but their intense, focused energy saturated the room.

“What is that strange sound?” he asked Cicero.

“Books were hand printed in the fourth century,” Cicero said. “That is the sound of many reed pens put to papyrus—the sound of the scribes.”

Young boys carried bundles of rolled papers in and out of wide interior doors. Their conversation, muted and sparse, drifted upwards. Marco yawned and thought fondly of a nap.

Suddenly a group of men burst through the doors and several young boys rushed over to receive armfuls of rolled papyrus. With practiced efficiency, the young attendants distributed them to the scribes.

Marco and Cicero had sought refuge from the hustle and bustle, observing the surge of activity from under a bench.

“A boat has come into port!” Cicero declared. “I love the harbor. We must go down there sometime. They are always plenty of fish heads for the taking.”

The mention of food made Marco hungry, but he asked, “What do boats and fish heads have to do with the library?”

“Boats bring books! Merchants brought their books and scrolls with them on their long journeys. Even the new Roman codices found their way here. Alexandrians valued them even more than merchants’ goods, because all scrolls and books were taken before their owners were even allowed to disembark.”

As if illustrating his story, hundreds of papyrus scrolls were being rolled out in the hall.

“You see, the scribes waste no time,” Cicero said. “When they are finished copying, runners return them to their owners still on the ships. I’ve heard rumors, though, that the original books often stay here, and their owners only got back a good copy.”

Cicero scooted out from under the chair. “Come. Now I want to show you something really interesting.”

Marco was perfectly content to stay under the chair. Why leave this beautiful dreamlike palace full of books? He began purring himself into a nap and allowed his eyes to close.

"Suit yourself," said Cicero.

Even with his eyes closed, Marco felt Cicero’s absence. He opened one eye in time to see him heading towards one of the doors.

For a brief moment, he thought of the advantages of being on his own. Without this mysterious companion who seemed bent on leading him into stranger and stranger territories, he would be free to plant himself right here. As appealing as the idea was, something made him get up anyway.

Curiosity and Cicero’s magic. They drew him like a magnet.

Maybe I’ll just see where he’s going. It can’t be any stranger than time traveling.