Tattered Banners - War of the Last Day #2 [EXCERPT]

3. The Index

Sitting on her own at a table near the door of the dining hall, Leila covered her mouth with her palm as she yawned. A few were having breakfast at this early hour.

Zahra grinned at her when she entered. "Too sleepy to grab your breakfast, Your Highness?"

Leila chuckled. "I don't feel like eating right now. I'm here to find Minjun." Kungwan's successor was almost two decades younger than the late Archmage, yet he was currently the most senior mage among the ones who had survived the Battle of Paril. "He is an early bird, I was told."

Zahra furrowed her fair brow. "What is your business with him?"

The very mage they were talking about was entering the dining hall when Leila said, "An assignment he gave me," said Leila. And a couple of answers he owes me.

The slim dark-haired mage grabbed an empty tray and headed to the serving counter. The cook gave him two boiled eggs, one apple, and a loaf of bread. They are reducing our rations, she thought, watching the slim, dark-haired mage place his full tray on an unoccupied table.

"Now is your chance." Zahra nodded her chin pointedly at Minjun Sen who rarely wandered the ship unaccompanied. Leila should seize this opportunity before any of the other Koyan mages woke up hungry and joined their new leader.

Minjun Sen greeted Leila upon seeing her coming to him. "How is your progress?" he asked her as he peeled the eggshell.

"I finished it," Leila replied, the impression on his face and the way he left the egg gladdening her.

"Unbelievable. Even for a Koyan." Minjun Sen was still gaping at her. "Master Yesen was not exaggerating your talent."

"He was not." Leila met his gaze as she continued, "Now, would you tell me what this was about?"

At this point, the Koyan mage remembered that he hadn't finished peeling the eggshell. "Not before I hear you recite them all, Queen Leila."

"Please, don't." Leila gave him a warning look before she took a deep breath. "I promise you are going to hear them all. But seriously, I can't wait any longer." She leaned toward him. "I need to understand why I was asked to memorize the entire Index of Incantations?"

Minjun's faint smile reminded Leila of Master Jihoon. Except that the late mage had had chubby cheeks instead of these bony ones in front of her. "Curiosity could be torturing, I know. But believe me; it is too soon to talk about that now."

Leila smiled nervously. "Then you have no idea how torturing curiosity could be."

Thankfully, Minjun Sen was kind enough to postpone his hearty breakfast for a few minutes. "The book I asked you to memorize is literally one of its kind. Compiling all these incantations was quite a huge task that nobody before or after your great grandmother Lady Nelly had done before. When Yesen told us about your amazing ability to memorize a page just by looking at it, we thought you could help us protect this invaluable book."

"By memorizing it?" Leila asked dubiously.

"If this book is damaged for any reason, we will never be able to access any of those incantations until the end of days," said Minjun. "Unless you help us make a dozen copies of it when we settle down."

Leila found his concern about that book a bit strange, especially in the current circumstances. "Is this about teaching your mages how to use the incantations to stop the demons?"

"First of all, the incantations are about commanding demons, not just stopping them. Besides, only summoners can do that," said Minjun. "But finding summoners among mages has always been harder than finding mages among normal people. We couldn't just 'try' our mages to see if they had the ability to summon. But that might change with the books you will help us have."