The Book of Sight by Deborah Dunlevy Page A

flyers. Even though she knew the book was inside, she found that she was fumbling with the zipper in her haste to open it.
    The book was there.
    She held it out to Adam, and he let out a sigh.
    The ornately traced red cover felt good in her hands. Safe. Alex knew that it was only logical to think that Adam had simply misplaced his book, but something inside her was saying that the instinct that brought him over here at five in the morning was truer than logic. It was the same little voice that had told her they were being watched yesterday morning.
    That thought clicked something into place.
    “You said it was sitting on the table.”
    “Yeah, but it’s not there, trust me, I looked…” he broke off at the look on her face. “What?”
    “There was someone watching us. I know it. And they would have heard you say that.”
    “Oh…no way…I didn’t even think of that.” Adam’s face was a study of combined awe and anger. “Who would do that?”
    “I don’t know. I really don’t. But think about it…a book that can make you see things that no one else sees? That’s a really big deal. There’s obviously someone who wants people to have it and use it, someone who sent it to us. But maybe there is also someone who doesn’t want people to have it.”
    “And that person must be pretty good at keeping it a secret because no one knows about it.”
    Alex felt a tingle of fear run up her spine. “So they find out who received the books and steal them? And they must know about the Redoubt because they knew to spy on us there.”
    “But how were they spying? There wasn’t anyone there.”
    “No one that we could see. But, come on, after all we’ve seen and done in the last couple of weeks, it’s not that hard to imagine there being someone there that was…invisible or something.”
    “Someone…or some thing.”
    Alex shivered.
    “So what are we supposed to do?” asked Adam. “We know the Redoubt probably isn’t safe any more, but we don’t have any idea why. I mean,” he ran a frustrated hand through his hair, making bits of it stand on end, “we don’t even know who
sent
us the books much less who might want to steal them.”
    “
Gendel sea
,” said Alex. “We just keep going on. We have the meeting tomorrow night, or tonight I guess it is now, and we see who comes. Then we take it from there. None of us asked to have the book sent to us. But it was, and I’m glad. You are, too, right? Whatever this is, it’s huge, and I wouldn’t want to never know about it.”
    “You’re right. Obviously.” Adam gave her a half smile. “But I sure hope someone comes to this meeting. Someone who knows something, ‘cause not knowing anything is really starting to get to me. I wonder why the person who sent the books couldn’t just send a letter with it, a note, anything. I mean, would it have killed them to write their name and a return address?”
    “Maybe it would have,” said Alex quietly.
    Adam looked like he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
    She wasn’t.
    He laughed nervously. “I am really hoping that this is not that serious. And did you ever think that we don’t even know who the good guys are? I mean, what if the person sending out the books is the bad guy and the other ones are trying to save us?”
    “They aren’t.”
    “But how do you know that?”
    “I just do.” Alex held up the book. “This is good. I think we all know that. Anyone who is trying to keep it a secret is trying to cover up something really good.”
    Adam was silent, but Alex knew he agreed with her. He reached out a finger and touched the red cover in her hands.
    “Can I see this for a minute?” He thumbed through the pages. “I want to see if it says
gendel sea
in any of the other stories. I thought of that earlier. That was what first made me look for my book tonight before bed. Yes! Here it is in the second chapter. It’s repeated several times.”
    Alex looked over his shoulder and began to read.