When an old Carnegie library is closed, its seven librarians refuse to abandon their home. They lock the doors, and the forest grows around them like a cloak, sheltering them from the rest of the world. But their lives are changed when a book of fairy tales is found in the Book Drop, very, very overdue. The payment? A first-born child.
In the House of the Seven Librarians is a timeless tale for anyone who spent a childhood in the refuge of the public library, or who believes that a world full of books is a truly magical place.
This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy (2006), edited by Sharyn November, and was reprinted in Uncanny Magazine, Issue Three, March-April 2015. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Twentieth Annual Collection (2007), edited by Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link, and Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries & Lore (2017), edited by Paula Guran. It is included in the collection Portable Childhoods (2007). A chapbook edition is also available.
Read the full story for free at Uncanny.