Merry"s library, as it turned out, was a cavernous basement at the bottom of a staircase at least two hundred steps down, or so it seemed as we trudged down them in a dank sort of darkness punctuated only with small yellow lights every twenty stairs or so. The walls were lined with bookshelves that were overflowing with ancient tomes on subjects I could only guess.
There was a large table filled with scrolls and notebooks and what looked to be a quill pen with an inkpot. Beyond that was a round fireplace over which hung a huge black cauldron. Smaller versions of the cauldron were stacked on yet another table off to the righthand side. In the two corners in the back, there were shelves lined with jars and bottles.
Now, this is what I had been expecting when I was told about witches and ma
