All's Fair in Revenge

Chapter 27: A Drink

"It's down here."

I sprinted to keep up with Liv. "Where are you taking me?"

"You'll see." She turned. "Now you stay here. We'll be back soon." Liv commanded Sira Alona, the worst Second Guard there ever was, by placing her in a small nook outside the doors to the library. The Sira obeyed without question. Though I thought I saw the hint of a curled lip as I bit a smile back.

Inside, Liv yanked me wrist-first into the depths of the library where she had apparently spent much of her time since we'd arrived in Castle Moer. When the queen wasn't hassling her about my location, that was.

During my last trip there, I hadn't the time to appreciate the thin gold archways separating each section or the dark sky murals painting the walls and ceilings. I hadn't noticed the dome shaped like a replica of the moon or the alley-like aisles. The bridges had gone disregarded and the starry chandeliers, too. And then there were the books; stacked in levels and taller than mountains; leather-bound and older than dirt and just as dusty.

"Here it is. Come sit!" She guided me to an alcove deep into the exceptionally large section. Compared to the rest of the library, it seemed more of an embellished hovel with its round window and plush velvet bench. She thrusted me into a wooden chair at a wooden desk by the window towered high with tomes older than the gods from the look of them. "Isn't this place the best?"

I looked around. Chalices and plates were heaped on a stool and the floor. Liv hadn't been kidding. She had been there awhile. "It's...homey. Why'd you drag me down here?"

Liv slid a book from around the tower. It was already open to a page near the back. "Read." I pinched my eyebrows together at her. "Don't look at me like that. We both know you can. It's okay if it's hard. I'll help. I promise."

I wiped dust off the page and pointed to a paragraph at the top. "Here?" She nodded. "In theory, time travel is not bermissiple—permissible—by any magics known to man or non-human alike. Were one to backpack? Oh, backtrack the current of time to change events one would in-adv, in-ad-ver, in-ad-whatever erase one's own lineage. To hear the Norns speak of it is absolute—"

"What?" Liv tore the book from my hands, its spine skidding across the musty desk. "Oh, how'd that get there. Here." She flipped a few pages. "No, that's on the blue death. And this is the Diatribe of Hella. Remind me to take thatwith me." She found a book bound in black with a silver font. "Ah, here we are."

I glanced up at her. "You're sure this time?"

"Yes. Read."

I sighed, the curvy s's and f's blending together and switching places. "Dear brother, while I'm on the subject of the north, let us speak briefly of the smoke that lingers there. There are tales trickling into the valley of silver-eyed monsters so vile even the town's most seasoned hunter refuses to pass the plain. There is no amount of coin he's willing to take, no property either. Reports begin with a description of a man who can dis-dis-disappa-disappa-pate—"

"Dissipate."

"...dissipate into thin air and reform behind his attackers. They say that steel nor iron im-impales the beast, but rumors claim of a new material found in the caves that might. They say you must decapitate the monster with a blade made of the material and only relent when he's nothing more than a plume of ashen smoke. Extraction will begin soon, brother. I'll update you with the findings and I'll ask you do the same about the goose chase our godly king has sent you on. Any news you've found the stone—can I stop now?"