The Moon Beyond the Mist

3. A volume in velvet

It was mid-morning and the sunlight was streaming in through the crooked windows of the manor's library. Dust was swirling through the air and haphazardly stacked books threatened to topple over and into the lap of Maria Merryweather.

The girl sat on the hardwood flooring, legs crossed and brow furrowed. She had been studying since the sun had risen into the pale Moonacre sky, absorbed in reading the thin paper pages of the ancient novels. She had started off perched at the large oak table that took up the centre of the room, but now every last bit of space, on both table and chairs, had been taken up with the antique tomes. All but one that is, which was occupied with an inattentive Robin de Noir. His chair was rocked back, with his heels balanced on the table in front of him. He hummed a quiet tune, fading in and out as Maria occasionally muttered a word or phrase taken from the threadbare volumes within her hands.

"I'm not sure what you intend to find, Princess. The forest is about the most commonplace setting in all of Moonacre Valley, it's not likely you're just going to stumble across some miraculously significant piece of information, even if you could read every book in this musty, old place."

Robin loosed a sigh as he let his chair's front legs clatter to the ground, standing up and stretching his cramping arms. Maria was determined to keep her eyes on the page in front of her, looking away from the rough and tanning skin Robin was exposing in his movements. A frown furrowed his brow as Robin's arms dropped to his sides, clearly vexed by the lack of attention Maria had given him all morning. He strolled around the table, before prowling towards Maria, resolved to get her to notice him.

Maria slammed shut her book, puffs of dust expelled from its worn pages. She swiftly placed it upon the growing pile in front of her, creating a higher barrier between herself and her companion.

"Distracted, Princess?" Robin asked innocently, letting a smirk play across his lips.

Maria scowled up at him, her cheeks growing warm as she remembered the previous day when she had fallen into the young man's arms. The feeling of being pressed so closely against him. His breath across her ear.

"Not at all, Bird Boy," she said, disdain evident in her voice, "in fact, I've just finished going through the bottom shelf!"

"But found nothing..." Robin stated.

It was true, within all the books and chapters Maria had skimmed through, there had been no mention of events quite like the valley had been experiencing recently. A shiver tingled the skin at her spine as she recalled the churning centre of the woods she had seen, the twisting mists and deformed branches. It had almost looked like the forest was in pain.

After returning back to the Moonacre Manor with Robin the night before, she had explained over and over again to her uncle what she had seen. They had deliberated on it long into the night and when Maria had woken the next morning all she could think to do was to seek out anything she could within the library; her most trusted source of knowledge. It had not taken long for Robin to track her down, taking his place across from her and watching her read. She found his gaze maddeningly distracting, but did not want to give him the pleasure of voicing her discomfort.

"Perhaps... perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong place," Maria started, "there's got to be something here, there always is!"

She stood up restlessly, weaving between the bookcases with Robin hard on her heels. She scanned across the many shelves, noting the books on herbalism, botany, wild beasts and astronomy. There was so much information on Moonacre and its inhabitants, but none seemed to even reference strange mists and decaying trees. It was a problem with no resolution.

Rays of light danced between the ageing novels and caught in Maria's hair. Swept away in her thoughts, she did not notice Robin once again gazing down at her until rough fingers brushing across her cheeks startled her back into reality. Robin had pushed strands of hair out of her face and behind her ear, distracting her from her musings.

She turned her head abruptly, prepared to be affronted by his sudden action. But instead, a tall and shadowed bookcase caught her eye. It was hidden away in the corner of the room, separated from the glass windows and candle nooks. She recognised it immediately and cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner. It was the bookcase that held the secrets and magic of Moonacre. The old tomes were said to hold tales of mystic power and dangerous energy. There was information of great power held between its shelves, from necromancy to thaumaturgy. She rarely dared go up to its imposing structure, let alone read from it.

She dashed past Robin and approached the formidable shelves. The bookcase was large, reaching higher up than any other in the room. The books looked threadbare, the writing barely visible on their battered spines. One was illustrated with a crystal chalice, another with a cracking skull. There were so many novels, each looking more menacing than the next, Maria had no idea where to start.

She took a step back, breaking free from the sinister pull of the ancient books. Running her eyes over the tattered covers she wondered whether it would be more efficient to light a candle and inspect the books more closely. But then her eyes alighted on one volume in particular. It was several shelves up, its spine a deep purple in colour, almost as if it had been bound in velvet. What had drawn her gaze was the subtle decoration, laced circlets spotted across the indigo background, luminous even in the dim light like pearls falling into a churning sea.

She stumbled forward, enigmatically sure that she had to read this book. She could almost touch it, her fingers stretching upwards as she balanced precariously on her toes. She huffed out a breath, trying to reach further, higher. Suddenly her body was pressed forward, into the shelf. Her back felt the warmth of the young man behind her, his feet placed either side of her own as he simultaneously reached up, his fingers brushing against her wrists and the feathers at his neck tickling the tops of her ears.

"Is it this one, Princess?" asked Robin, his deep voice rumbling through her chest and her face blushing furiously.

"Yes," she whispered breathlessly, watching as Robin slipped the old book out of its place and brought it down into her hands, stepping away nonchalantly from her frozen body.

She looked down immediately, turning away from him and trying to calm her racing pulse. She could feel his eyes over her shoulder, watching as she flipped through the pages. She didn't know what exactly she was searching for until she stopped suddenly at a faded pencil design. It was of a full moon, glowing against a dark night sky. However it was not in the company of stars, instead it was wrapped in fog, which twisted malevolently around it and hid it from view.

Maria felt her blood run cold as she realised that Moonacre, once again, was calling out to its Moon Princess.