A Dark and Starless Night

Chapter Six

Eve

Eve jumped as a stack of books was slammed down in front of her.

"Sorry," the librarian said, giving Eve a thin smile.

"It's fine," she said, laughing a little harder than necessary.

She was still jumpy after what had happened at Nadia's apartment. Not that anything had happened. She had thought she'd heard someone, but when she'd turned, there hadn't been a single person around. She had stayed frozen, waiting to see if maybe she heard the movement again, if maybe it had been someone in one of the other rooms. But there had been nothing. Only the thundering of her heart and a feeling of dread weighing on her limbs. She had never felt anything like that, at least not that she could remember. A primal kind of fear, as if she was a jackrabbit and a hawk circled above. It had been so bad that she had need to sit at the top of the stairs for a few moments before she had practically fled the rickety building and headed for the library.

"I found a few books on rare or dead languages that may help in your research, but, if I'm honest, Your Grace, I've never seen a symbol like it before."

Eve had shown the librarian – Tia, the woman Eve usually went to for book recommendations due to her easiness around Eve – the symbol after weighing up her options. She needed help finding out what the symbol meant, even if it made her feel uneasy to show it to anyone.

"Maybe if I could show it to some of my colleagues?"

"I'll see how I get on," Eve said, forcing a smile. Tia nodded, excusing herself and leaving Eve to her work.

When Eve had come to Zyrna originally, she had hated the tutors that poked and prodded, ordered and commanded. It wasn't until she moved to Teryon with Don that she truly loved the learning. The tutors in the city, under Don's instruction, gave her freedom to learn at her own pace and to direct the topics. She had been hungry for knowledge, anything to keep her occupied before she had cemented friendships and earned the respect and admiration of her peers. Most of them at least.

In order to find the knowledge she wanted, she had needed to learn how to hunt for it. And she had, under a very patient and yet demanding tutor. The woman had taught her the art of researching. She couldn't say it was a skill she'd entirely mastered, but that was where the librarians stepped in, helping to start the ball rolling. So, Eve took out a notebook, grabbed a pencil, and began.

She noted anything and everything that looked even remotely similar to the symbol on Nadia's talisman. She knew that she would have to ask Alexis at some point, but better to be readily equipped with information before she started asking questions. It was never a good idea to be entirely reliant on trusting someone's word. Once she had found all the symbols that she believed were closest to the talisman, she reviewed her notes. There were seven languages, mostly related to Zyrna and the five smaller nations that surrounded it – the Isle of Light, Dusten Island, Tria Island, Enridon, and Faspian Island. When she finished counting, most of the symbols that had the same roots and curves as the one on the talisman came from a dead language – Brailadine, or Old Islan, the original tongue of the Isle of Light before the alphabet had shifted to one similar to the Zyrnan alphabet.

She ran her thumb over the talisman, looking at it closely, willing it to give up its secrets. Maybe it meant nothing at all, at least in regard to Nadia's death. But then she remembered something Luc had told her once, when she had told him that she'd seen a dolphin in the sea twice and wasn't sure if it was the same one.

"There is no such thing as coincidence in this strange world of ours, dear Evelyn," he'd said, a hand on her shoulder, squeezing firmly. "Dolphins are a sign of blessing in your culture, isn't that right?"