They walked up to the large gate door and Kim knocked firmly 3 times, nothing happened for a moment then a voice rang out as if from the walls themselves:

"Truth be told,
We'll clear the way,
Just be carefull,
What you say."

Velvet looked around for the voices owner but Kim hushed her. Standing faceing the door Kim spoke:

"We bring no harm,
"No harm we'll do,
"I speak the truth,
"So let us through."

Another pause, then a grating, grinding sound made both Keeper and Derraka lookto the wall on the right - a small stone passage way had appeared, dimly lit by torchs mounted on the walls

*****************************

Kim's boots were loud on the stone floor and were accompanied by the light tapping of Velvet's claws. The ceiling was low and oppressive and the air was damp and stale but the two pressed on passing neither a door nor a window along the way. The walls were damp in places and mold and moss had began to grow where they could get a hold giving the place a very unkept feel... luckily it was not long till they reached the end of the dank corridor, much to their relief. They were then presented with an equally dank, narrow and rather worn stone, spiral staircase and, though nether liked the fact they couldn’t see far up them, there was little option but to ascend. After a brief pause and once Kim had removed one of the torches from its wall brace they began to clime, Kim had to hike up the skirt of the cloak to avoid tripping on it and Velvet clambered behind on all fours, nether liking the enclosed space or the fact there seemed to be a lot of dust in a place that was supposed to be being used.
Eventually a wooden door lay before them and after looking at it for a moment Kim proceeded to knock however before she had chance to touched the ruddy brown grain the door opened to a large warm and light Library.

*****************************

"Stormfire, are you there?" called Kim who had now lowered her hood "It’s me Lusewing" Velvet relaxed at the sound of her Keepers voice, she sounded happy and existed, the Derraka had been worried for her during the journey as she had been so tense and closed, they had not spoken a word since they had entered the castle. However soon a note of concern and then worry drifted into Kim’s words as she searched round the book cases that held many a large, old volume, there was a fine layer of dust on everything.
"Stormfire?" called Kim when she thought she saw movement from behind a book case, Velvet trotted behind her, liking this place less and less, there was a funny smell coming from the books, she was about to ask what it was when...
"What the...!" Kim had gone to where she had thought she saw movement; it seemed to be the center of the Library as it was more open here and there was a large table with a few chairs seated around it, one or two books and papers were scattered on top and a strange metal lamp sat in the middle of it all. It was not that though that had shocked Kim but the sight that lay on the other side of the table...
A very grand looking book case with a glass front stood in all its glory, the edges were gilded in gold and intricate carvings of plants and animals decorated it from top to bottom but the glass was open and over half the books were gone. Kim ran over to the case, knocking the table in her rush.
"Where are they?!, What in stars name has he done!" she quickly turned at the sound of Velvet's growling to see her Derraka staring at the middle of the table...the...the lamp was moving, it was edging away from Velvet on two metal bird like feet