Summary

In Chapter 20, Agnieszka goes to the Charovnikov, which has a library. It is not as welcoming as Sarkan's library, but she feels drawn to the place. She begins to browse. A wizard named Ballo is in charge. At Agnieszka's questions, he sends her to a room with lots of books he has determined to be unsuitable for the library for various reasons. Most he has decided are useless. She feels the evil of the Wood, which surprises her because she is so far from what she knows as the boundaries of the Wood. She discovers that she has found a text “full of monsters” that feel real (275).

She summons Ballo and Alosha who realize the book explains an apprentice who disappeared without a trace on the same day a hydra was killed in the castle. The book had been presented as a gift...