The Book Keeper

All The Wiser Ones

                                                                                Dedicated to @Sweetpaws 

Claira walked down the paved path to the library. She felt better and was not going home in case Master became too kind and asked her to rest. For now her only goal was to search for the book and stay clear of Tellina .

"Master ?" Her voice echoed in the library as the old man appeared carrying a stack of red binded books.
"Look who's back. Come to my office and we will discuss about this book."
He said disdainfully.
Master never liked anything related with magic or things like that . Claira couldn't think how annoyed he must be.
Master's office was a dark kept between two tall bookshelves in a dark corner. The desk was cluttered with parchment , quills, an old mug and the library register. Master day down behind the desk on a leather arm chair leaving the hard wooden chair for Claira.
Well he isn't known for his chivalry , thought Claira as she settled herself down. Master have her a piece of yellowing parchment with slant writing in it .
It said -
          'some are meant to wander
             Like pretty tufts of dandelion
             Others are meant to stay like
             Like the constant azure of the
             Summer sky.'
Claira stared at master. Master stared at her. She looked at master more keenly. The old man glared at her.
"Well?" He finally flared up.
"Well what ?"
"The clue you stupid girl ! What do you understand from it ?"
"Nothing." Claira answered hesitantly . She felt like she had read the this piece of poetry before but couldn't remember where.  

" I always knew I had hired an imbecile. Now stars know what we are going to do . The King is going to behead us both all because of-" Master began his 'my-apprentice-is-stupid' monologue, which Claira knew would go on all afternoon so , instead of listening to him she went to the poetry section. 

The books in the poetry section were most expensive books of all because they were rare.  Claira pulled out a pile of books and opened the first one .

Rest of the day went by in a blur of  poetry and master's rants. But the poem was not there . It wasn't there in any of the books.  With a sigh she opened the last book .

Claira gasped in shock . The book had no pages. It was like the pages had been ripped off. And there was blood , drops of it on the half torn pages. "Master! Look at this !" Master came hobbling. "This better be good ." He muttered . Master's eyes widened at the sight. As he picked up the book from Claira's hand and scrutinised it. "The blood looks fresh. Maybe the vandal is still here. I'll get the guards." And with that master went off. 

Claira looked at the book again and realised that it was roughly pushed in between the others . Otherwise there were no signs of the mysterious vandal . With a shock Claira realised that the vandal was not alone. There were two of them and one of them was hurt. 

Claira ran out of the west door, her  skirt in her hands. She ran until she reached the west wing where the Prince lived and rushed right past the bewildered guards into the first room she saw and closed the door . Panting for her breath. She heard the guards running past the doors and a murmuring voice from behind another door set in the right wall of the ornate room. She carefully opened the door  and was relieved to see Wyll seating in an ornate chair behind a wooden desk there was another man  seating in an armchair. The man looked annoyed and Wyll looked surprised. 

" Is there a tunnel into the library?" Claira asked calmly. But she did not feel calm. 

"Is there a tunnel into the library? " She asked again.

 " How dare you co-"  Wyll cut of the man's yelling with a flip of his hand and said" Yes there is . it opens behind a bookcase full of blue books . Why do you ask?" 

That was all she needed to hear and ran back to the library. Her pace slowed down as she entered the library. It was eerily silent . 'The-bookcase-full-of-blue-books' was the only bookcase with books on the foreign seas. 

It was indeed very blue and tall. Claira raised the candle holder she had picked off master's table as she searched for a way into the secrete passage . After some time she found a dark blue book which was not arranged properly. She knew that book did not belong to this shelf as it was titled ' All The Wiser Ones' . She carefully pushed it . The case shifted. Claira exhaled, Wyll was right . And she was right too.

She took one step into the dark tunnel and found the vandal or at least on of them. 

He was a bald middle aged man .

 And he was lying dead in a pool of  blood which shone black in the candle light.