Ralph and the Pixie
Page 264Before he could do so, however, his colleague suddenly broke off his observation, turned fully about, withershins, so that his eyes never came across his observer’s position, produced a key from his raiment, opened a concealed panel which had hitherto been at his back, stepped through and pulled it closed once more.
Concealing his faint surprise (which even at the time struck him as superfluous as there was no one present to observe his reaction), the false Adjunct then realized that he had not been entrusted with the whole truth of the Library of Nith. To his mind this was perfectly natural, and bespoke of things hierarchical (at least, this is how he viewed the world and his place in it): his was a lesser station, therefore his superiors were possessed of greater knowledge and had greater access to the inner workings and complexities of the Library.
But questions remained: how many levels of superiors were there, and therefore, how many sets of hidden passageways? And if he was at the bottom of the hierarchy, who was at the top? Or worse, were there two or more sets of hierarchies vying with each other? Could the King, Prince Cir, and certain of the caste of Loremasters, be working independently of each other? Or did they work in concert on the surface, yet maintain separate agendas?