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AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

I AM A LIAR

I REALIZE THAT YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE THIS IN FACT, I HOPE THAT YOU DON’T NOT ONLY WOULD THAT MAKE THE STATEMENT PARTICULARLY IRONIC, BUT IT MEANS YOU HAVE VERY FAR TO FALL

YOU SEE, I KNOW THAT YOU FREE KINGDOMERS HAVE HEARD STORIES ABOUT ME PERHAPS YOU’VE SEEN A DOCUMENTARY OR TWO ABOUT MY LIFE THROUGH A SILIMATIC SCREEN I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY YOU MIGHT NOT BELIEVE THAT I’M A LIAR YOU PROBABLY THINK THAT I’M JUST BEING HUMBLE

YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME YOU’VE LISTENED TO THE STORYTELLERS YOU’VE TALKED WITH YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT MY EXPLOITS YOU’VE READ HISTORY BOOKS AND HEARD THE CRIERS TELL OF MY HEROIC DEEDS THE TROUBLE IS, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO ARE BIGGER LIARS THAN MYSELF ARE THE PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO TALK ABOUT ME

YOU DON’T KNOW ME YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ME AND YOU CERTAINLY SHOULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ ABOUT ME EXCEPT – OF COURSE – WHAT YOU READ IN THIS BOOK, FOR IT WILL CONTAIN THE TRUTH

NOW, LET ME SPEAK TO THE HUSHLANDERS THAT MEANS THOSE OF YOU WHO LIVE IN PLACES LIKE CANADA, EUROPE, OR THE AMERICAS DO NOT BE FOOLED BECAUSE THIS BOOK LOOKS LIKE A WORK OF FANTASY! LIKE THE PREVIOUS VOLUME, WE ARE PUBLISHING THIS BOOK AS FICTION IN THE HUSHLANDS TO HIDE IT FROM THE LIBRARIANS

THIS IS NOT FICTION IN THE FREE KINGDOMS – LANDS LIKE MOKIA AND NALHALLA – IT WILL BE PUBLISHED OPENLY AS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY FOR THAT IS WHAT IT IS MY OWN STORY TOLD – FOR THE FIRST TIME – TO PROVE WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

FOR ONCE, I INTENT TO CUT THROUGH THE FALSEHOODS FOR ONCE, I INTEND TO SEE THE TRUTH IN PRINT MY NAME IS ALCATRAZ SMEDRY, AND I WELCOME YOU TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF MY LIFE STORY

MAY YOU FIND IT ENLIGHTENING

CHAPTER 1

So, there I was, slu absently on a bag of stale potato chips

Not the beginning you expected, is it? You likely thought that I would start this book with so evil Librarians, perhaps – souns

I’m sorry to disappoint you It won’t be the first tiood You see, I have decided to reform My last book was terribly unfair – I started it with an intense, threatening scene of action Then I cut away fro, and frustrated

I pro I won’t use cliff-hangers or other tricks to keep you reading I will be calhtforward

Oh, by the way Did Iin that airport I was probably in the er I’d ever been in my entire life?

I ate another stale potato chip

If you’d passed by ht that I looked like an average American boy I was thirteen years old, and I had dark brown hair I wore loose jeans, a green jacket, and white sneakers I’d started to grow a bit taller during the last few e

In fact, the only abnor Not truly sunglasses, they looked like an old lasses, only with a baby-blue tint

(I still consider this aspect of my life to be terribly unfair For some reason, the more powerful a pair of Oculator Lenses is, the less cool they tend to look I’ a theory about it – the Law of Disproportional Lameness)

I ht Where are you?

My grandfather, as usual, was late Now, he couldn’t completely be blamed for it Leavenworth Siveaway) Like all Sically arrive late to appointments

While e inconvenience, it’s the Smedry way to use our Talents for our benefit Grandpa Ss like bullet wounds and disasters His Talent had saved his life on numerous occasions

Unfortunately, he also tends to be late the rest of the time too I think he uses his Talent as an excuse even when it isn’t to blae him on this several ti, and so the sound would never reach hi is a disaster)

I hunched down a little bitto look inconspicuous The problem was, anyone who knehat to look for could see I earing Oculatory Lenses In this case, my baby-blue spectacles were Courier’s Lenses, a common type of Lens that lets two Oculators corandfather and I had put the froents

Few people in the Hushlands understand the power of Oculatory Lenses Most of those alked through the airport were coy, and the sect of evil Librarians who secretly ruled the world

Yes You read that right Evil Librarians control the world They keep everyone in ignorance, teaching theraphy, and politics It’s kind of joke to them Why else do you think the Librarians named themselves what they did?

Librarians LIE-brarians

Sounds obvious now, doesn’t it? If you wish to smack yourself in the forehead and curse loudly, you may proceed to do so I can wait

I ate another chip Grandpa Smedry was supposed to have contacted me via the Courier’s Lenseslate, even for hi to deterents in the airport crowd

I couldn’t spot any, but that didn’t h to realize that you can’t always tell a Librarian by looking at one While solasses for the women, bow ties and vests for thein with the regular Hushlanders Dangerous, but unseen (Kind of like those troublemakers who read fantasy novels)

I had a tough decision tothe Courier’s Lenses, which would ents Or, I could take theot close enough to contact me

If he got close enough to contact me

A group of people walked over to where I was sitting, draping their luggage across several rows of chairs and chatting about the fog delays I tensed, wondering if they were Librarian agents Threeanxious

But that running was over I would soon escape the Hushlands and finally get to visit doh it was a large continent that sat in the Pacific Ocean between North America and Asia

I’d never seen it before, but I’d heard stories, and I’d seen soy Cars that could drive thelasses that could keep tiet to Nalhalla – though, even et out of Librarian-controlled lands

Grandpa Setat the airport It seedoms However, no matter what the method, I knew our escape probably wouldn’t be easy

Fortunately, I had a few things on my side First, I was an Oculator, and I had access to sorandfather, as an expert

at avoiding Librarian agents Third, I knew that the Librarians liked to keep a low profile, even while they secretly ruled most of the world I probably didn’t have to worry about police or airport security – the Librarians wouldn’t want to involve the the conspiracy to people ere too low ranked

I also had my Talent But… well, I wasn’t really sure whether that was an advantage or not It –

I froze A ate next toright attoo nonchalant

Sunglasses probably meant Warrior’s Lenses – one of the only kinds of Lenses that a non-Oculator could use I stiffened; theto himself

Or talking into a radio receiver

Shattering Glass! I thought, standing up and throwing on ate behind, and raisedto pull off the Courier’s Lenses