The Human Library

‘Shh! They’ll see you.’ Cassie crouched behind a large oak, signalling to her twin to do the same.

Kasey ignored her, stepping closer to the edge and peering over the drop. Below them their father and uncle galloped along the forest path following the witch who ran, scared, through the trees to the east.

‘She’s dropped something!’ Kasey hissed back to her sister.

‘Just leave it – we’ll be beaten if they find us out here.’

‘I won’t get caught, I’m quicker than you.’

The two horsemen dashed past. Seconds later, bow in hand, quiver dragging behind her, she slid on her back through the dirt and bluebells grabbing at branches as she went. She caught her breath at the bottom and brushed the soil from her clothes. Sitting in the dried leaves and twigs was a black cloth-bound book encircled by a wide white band. It reminded her of a priest’s shirt and collar. Kasey grabbed the book and tucked it in her buckskin bag before fruitlessly searching for a way back up the bank.

‘Cassie! Cassie! You’ll have to come down. It’s ok, they’ve gone.’

Her sister appeared at the top of the overhang, eyes narrowed, arms folded.

‘Come on! You’re such a coward!’

‘I am not!’

‘The bravest thing you ever did was get that tattoo, and even that’s down your spine where Father will never see it. Who wants roses anyway? I’d have got a dragon.’

‘You didn’t though did you? Too scared?’

‘Not likely, just don’t want to be a copycat. I’m sick of looking so much like you as it is! I’m going to follow them, I want to see where the witch lives.’

‘I’m not coming! I’m going to finish my chores before Father gets back. I don’t want to be beaten over something as stupid as a witch.’

‘Father doesn’t think they’re stupid, he got five gold pieces for the last one. When I grow up I’m going to hunt witches too.’

‘I’ll see you back home.’ Cassie felt a pang of jealousy over her sister’s tendency towards the intrepid, but couldn’t bring herself to drop down that bank.

Kasey veered off the path to run between the trees and avoid being seen if the men came back. She followed their direction and soon heard hooves on the track. Her father’s voice was unmistakable.

‘We should have brought William, had we been three we could have left him at the entrance and followed her in on foot.’

‘Caves are always a danger, even without a witch inside. Those two boys killed in the rock fall last month showed that.’

‘Ey, imagine the damage a witch could do in such a confined space. Best we leave it for another day.’

Kasey hid behind a broad elm holding her breath until they passed, then continued east. She soon found the entrance to a cave, partially obscured by ferns and bushes but certainly a cave. She checked her bag, the book was still there.

‘Hello!’ she stepped closer to the cave mouth. ‘Hello? I think I have something of yours.’

There was a rustle among the bushes at the opening. She had to strain her eyes to see it but there was the outline of a hunched figure camouflaged among the leaves.

‘Hello?’ she tried again.

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m Kasey, I think I have something of yours. May we speak?’

‘What have you got?’

‘A book.’ She pulled it out of her bag and held it out towards the hidden figure.

Leaves rustled and slowly the outline of the middle bush started to change, a woman in a dark cloak and hat, exactly the shade of the greenery she was emerging from, started to appear.

‘Where did you find it?’

‘Back there, in the forest, I saw you drop it, when those men were chasing you.’

‘What do you want in return?’

Kasey had not expected a bargain, if anything she’d hoped for an opportunity to wound the witch so she could brag to her sister, but this might be more interesting.

‘What can you offer?’

‘You won’t be able to read the book you’re holding. It’s written in a voice you cannot hear, I’m still working on it myself. But I have plenty of others in my library, written in tastes, pictures, sounds, scent. There is great knowledge to be gained from them. If you return that one to me I will lend you another. Any one you choose.’

The witch beckoned the girl closer, pointing a twisted finger into the dark cave entrance. Kasey set her jaw, checked her bow and quiver and stepped forward. The witch lit the way with a kerosene storm lantern.

The back of the cave opened out into a gloomy underground room which Kasey could hardly see anything of. The witch took a taper from a low table in one corner and lit it in the lamp, then proceeded to light a series of candles and lanterns that were fixed to the walls between rows and rows and rows of books. They stood on crooked stone shelves carved out of the rock, reaching from the uneven floor to the start of the rounded ceiling.

‘This is my library. My books contain memories, knowledge, dreams. You may choose any one you want to borrow from me. But there are three rules you must not break, or I will require a second book to be returned, one you will not want to give. Firstly you must not tell anyone of the book or the library. Secondly you must not use the knowledge for anyone but yourself. Thirdly you must return the book by midnight of the next full moon.’

Kasey’s eyes widened as they travelled across rows of spines, bound in an array of colours and textures. None of them showed titles like the books in the town library, some were considerably bigger than any she had seen before and some were smaller than most. There were no labels on the shelves.

‘How will I know which one to take?’

‘Run your fingers over the books and stop when you feel one call to you.’

Kasey bent down to a shelf near the ground, touching each spine in turn and waiting for a sign. She worked her way up the first set of carved out shelves until she could reach no higher, then she started again on the next. One book was covered in rough brown cloth like the milk maids wore, another in soft leather like a wise man’s tunic, yet another had the texture of chain-mail and one was the green felt of a woodsman’s jacket.

On the third set, four shelves up from the floor, the girl felt a small shock in her fingers, a kind of pulse that made her twitch and pull away. She stopped to examine the book that had caused it, to check she had not imagined it. She had not. The spine was dark blue silk with lines of golden thread running diagonally across it, it reminded her of a magician’s hat. She pulled the book off the shelf, the blue and gold pattern continued over the cover. She opened it, the end papers were beautifully marbled with the same colours and the pages were thick and heavy, edged with gold leaf.

‘An excellent choice.’

Kasey had almost forgotten the witch was there and was startled by her voice.

‘What’s it about?’ she asked.

‘My books contain many stories, but that one, that one contains ancient knowledge, if it speaks to you, you should listen. You could use it to your advantage.’

Kasey opened a page near the middle to reveal swirled italic lettering in a language she did not know but there were images too. A fire with a cauldron sitting on it and a series of herbs and insects illustrated underneath.

‘Are they spells?’

‘They could be, if used correctly.’

‘But I can’t read the writing.’

‘Feel the meaning.’

Kasey placed her palm flat across the text, and caught the scent of rosemary and thyme in her nostrils and the buzzing of a bee in her ears. Then the sound of bubbling water as it boiled in a pot. She built thoughts about the spell, the ingredients, the length of time to let it infuse, the number of times to stir it, thrice, to the left, thrice to the right. Then she felt the purpose of the concoction, courage, strength of heart, bravery in dark places. She closed the silk-covered book and handed the black cloth one to the witch.

‘It seems a fair exchange. I’ll take this one with me.’

‘Remember the rules, breaking any one of them will lead to harsh retribution.’

It was dark when she got home and her father demanded to know where she had been. When she failed to produce any rabbits he did not believe her hunting story and beat her soundly before sending her to bed without supper. It wasn’t long before Cassie joined her in their room.

‘Did you find the witch?’

‘Yes, she has secret caves in the forest. I went in with her.’

‘You did not!’

‘I did, I’m not scared of my own shadow like some people.’

‘Prove it!’

‘I don’t have to prove anything to you, coward! But I could if I wanted to, she gave me a reward for returning her book. I’m not allowed to talk about it.’

‘I don’t believe you, you got lost in the woods that’s all, you couldn’t get back up that bank.’

‘Think what you like, I don’t care.’

Cassie waited for her sister’s breathing to indicate that she was asleep. She crept out of bed and across the wooden floor in the moonlight before slowly inching Kasey’s buckskin bag out from under her bed. She reached inside and felt smooth silk, not the woven cloth of the volume Kasey had found in the woods. Cassie took the book and secreted it away under her covers with her.  

It was too dark to read but she opened the pages somewhere in the middle anyway, pushing her nose between them to smell the binding glue. But the expected scent was not to be found, instead she detected rosemary and thyme and heard the buzz of a bee. As she continued to breathe in the book its images formed in her mind. A list of ingredients, a cauldron on a fire, a wooden spoon turned thrice to the left and thrice to the right. And then, a sense of what the spell was for, courage, strength of heart, bravery in dark places.

The witch awoke at once, her flesh prickled with suspicion and she leapt from her bed. A sprinkle of mirror dust into her cauldron, stirred with a blue and gold painted stick and she could see the book she had loaned. And the girl exploring it. Though she looked just like the girl who had visited earlier that day, this girl had something that girl did not. A tattoo of red roses climbing her spine. Rule one had been broken.

As the sun rose over the back of the house the light glared through the window of Cassie and Kasey’s room. They awoke together and temporarily forgot their argument.

‘Shall we get breakfast?’ Kasey reached for her bag. It felt lighter than it should. ‘Where is it?’

‘Oh, you mean this?’ Cassie held out the dark blue book. ‘It’s weird. It smells different on different pages and it made me see things, and hear things. I’m going to tell Father.’

‘We’ll be in more trouble if you tell than if you don’t. You think a beating from Father is bad, what do you think a witch would do to us?’

Cassie thought about this, her sister might be right, but it wasn’t often Cassie had the upper hand.

‘I’ll give it you back, and not tell anyone, if you’ll help me cast one of the spells.’

‘Which one?’

‘To make me brave, like you.’

How would the witch possibly know? There was probably no harm in just one small spell for her twin. And Cassie would be a much better companion if she was more adventurous.

‘Fine, we’ll do it today while Father’s out, now give me the book and I’ll see what we need.’

After breakfast they gathered the items required for the recipe. They built a small fire in the kitchen grate and followed the instructions exactly, finishing the spell by stirring thrice to the left and thrice to the right. The resulting potion smelled much like the herb garden on a summer day. There was only a small amount and Cassie was keen to drink it.

As the liquid touched the girl’s lips the witch felt her flesh prickle with suspicion and she stood from her chair. A sprinkle of mirror dust into her cauldron, stirred with a blue and gold painted stick and she could see the potion concocted and the girl drinking it. The girl with the tattoo of red roses climbing her spine. Rule two had been broken.

‘Do you feel any different?’

‘Maybe I do, I feel now that I was wrong to let you go after the witch by yourself, I should have come, and next time I will.’

‘You can’t come next time, she mustn’t know I told you about it, or that I let you use it. We’ve broken two rules, I can’t break the third. I have to take it back by the full moon, that’s Friday, two days’ time. I mustn’t be late.’

That night the girls couldn’t stop chatting in their beds, about all the adventures they might have now that Cassie was brave and strong like her sister.

‘We’ll get you a bow and arrows, just like mine and you can come hunting.’

‘We’ll go up the mountain path and track the trolls.’

‘We’ll creep into the dragon’s lair and steal gold pieces.’

‘We’ll help Father kill the witch!’

‘I’m not sure the witch is all that bad. She was grateful to get her book back and willing to lend me this one. Her cave is a library, that’s all, just books. It wasn’t scary.’

Cassie had indeed lost her fears and that night she waited ‘til Kasey was sound asleep and took the book from her again. Perhaps it could give her other qualities, advantages over her twin. She turned the pages in the dark waiting for one to speak to her and soon enough it did. This time scented like lavender, cut grass, and peaches. How could she find peaches? This spell was for beauty, and it was perfect, no longer would anyone confuse her for her twin, she would be more brave and more beautiful than Kasey and no one would be able to deny it. There was a market in the next town every Saturday, she’d borrow Father’s horse and find peaches there. Surely her sister could return the book just one day late. But until Saturday morning the book would stay hidden under the loose floorboard next to her bed.

‘Where is it?’ Kasey frantically searched her bag as the morning light brightened the girls’ bedroom.

‘Where’s what?’

‘My book, you’ve taken it again! You don’t understand the rules, you’re not supposed to even know about it, we could be in terrible trouble.’

‘Scared of the witch? You said she wasn’t all that bad. Who’s the coward now?’

‘Girls, girls, stop bickering and get down here for breakfast.’ Their Mother shouted up the stairs.

The sisters argued for two days, Kasey desperate to return the book to the witch, Cassie goading her and calling her a coward at every opportunity. As the grandfather clock chimed quarter to eleven that Friday night Kasey made a final plea.

‘If you give it to me right now I can get there before midnight if I run.’

‘You can’t, and anyway, Father will hear you leave and beat you for it. One day won’t make any difference. I’ll give it you back tomorrow after I’ve cast my next spell.’

‘You mustn’t cast more spells, you weren’t supposed to do the first one.’

‘You’re such a coward. What do you think will happen? The witch won’t lend you anymore books?’

At midnight the witch felt her flesh prickle with suspicion and she stirred a sprinkle of mirror dust into her cauldron with a blue and gold painted stick. She saw the book hidden under the floorboards and heard the argument between the sisters. One with the tattoo of red roses climbing her spine. Rule three had been broken.

Kasey spent a sleepless night fretting about how she would get a second book for the witch. She would need to steal one. Perhaps from the library in town.

As the sun hit the window, and Kasey dreaded the day starting, she looked across to her sister’s bed, ready to renew the argument. But Cassie was not there. Kasey jumped up and lifted her twin’s blankets but there was no sign of her. Her bare foot touched something wet, crimson splashes on the floor. There was a trail from the bed to the corner of a floorboard and she bent down to investigate.

She lifted the corner with her fingertips, the board came up easily and underneath it there were two books. One covered in blue silk with gold thread running through it. And another one underneath. Kasey reached for the second book and felt that familiar shock in her fingers, she picked it out of its hiding place and turned it in her hands. There were red roses climbing the spine. In desperation she flung open the cover, but there were no herb scented pages, just the bone chilling sound of her sister screaming.