CHAPTER 14
As the journey to the Ashen Library took a month and we hadn’t stopped on the way, Maddox informs us we need to restock the ship and make a few repairs. The island of the Ashen Library is a day’s journey by sea to the coastline of the nearest town, a place called Zylo.
Nolan informs me when we dock that a few of the supplies we need are a few villages away, at which point I ask him if we can go together. The waters of the Shifting Sea have been harsh. I can’t imagine reading the book I stole from the library with the way the sea is tossing us about, so I feel as though a trip to land would do me good.
He agrees, and the next day we rent a horse from a stable in Zylo and travel two villages away to a place called Rodeth, Michael tucked between Nolan and me on the horse, Charlie and Maddox trailing behind us on their own sets of horses.
It’s not the kind of village I’d been imagining. All the houses are made of white sandstone. The people walk about not in the trousers and apron-covered skirts common among peasants, but in togas draped from their shoulders. The sun shines down on us pleasantly, so I suppose the attire makes sense.
But still.
“They just seem so…exposed,” I say to Nolan, who smirks at me.
After we purchase supplies, we find an inn. Once three rooms have been purchased, we all pile into my and Nolan’s room.
For a moment, we all just stare at the stolen book I’ve laid atop the bed. There’s an eeriness about it I can’t quite put my finger on. Something about it that feels living.
“Well. Someone’s got to read it,” says Maddox.
I nod, climb onto the bed and sit cross-legged, then pull it into my lap and open the cover.
“Darling here ripped out the index, so prepare yourself for a long night,” says Nolan.
“Nice thinking, Winds,” says Maddox. “You couldn’t have ripped out the title page?”
“She did that too,” says Charlie.
“Time for a bedtime story,” says Michael, settling in next to me as Nolan situates himself at the headboard of the rickety bed, Charlie and Maddox resting on the floor.
So I read.
“While the story of the Fates, the Three Sisters, is interwoven into all cultures of the world, and while there is great mystery clouding their history and nature, there is no mystery quite so intriguing and elusive as that of the Youngest Sister.
“It takes little research for a scholar to understand that the Youngest Sister, though integral to the lore of the Fates, only makes an appearance in the earliest legends. While the ancients had no doubt of the Youngest Sister’s existence, considering her just as influential in mortal affairs as the older two, recent academic studies have called her very existence into question.”
“So Cap’s only hope might not even exist?” says Maddox.
Charlie grabs a pillow from the bed and throws it at him.
I continue, grateful for Charlie’s intervention, though it does nothing to quell the fact that my thoughts align with Maddox’s.
“This history of the Youngest Sister will cover not only the legends in which she appears, but debates over her very existence, ranging from whether she at some point was erased from existence, whether she simply never existed to begin with, or whether she is still meddling in the lives of mortals to this very day, somehow going unrecognized by those she assists.”
I bite my lip, peering up at everyone else in the room. In every face, I glimpse the same worry bubbling up in my chest, then flip the pages until I find a heading detailing the earliest mentions of the Youngest Sister.
Most of the information repeats what we already know. The Youngest Sister was thought to be the favored daughter of the Creator. She was gentler with mortals than her Sisters, caring not to meddle in their lives until her Sisters had already ruined them. According to the book, she had a strict belief that interfering in the affairs of others only caused trouble, and would only intervene in cases in which her Sisters had already caused enough trouble and the Youngest Sister felt extreme pity for the mortals involved.
“That part, at least, is promising,” says Charlie.
“Assuming she exists. Or still exists,” says Maddox.
“Here’s to assuming,” says Nolan.
“Oh,” I say, hardly paying attention to them. “It says here that there’s one legend of the Youngest Sister removing a girl’s Mating Mark. The story goes that the Eldest Sister mated the girl to the man her sister loved, and the girl despaired over crushing her sister’s heart. So she went to the Youngest Sister and begged for the Marks to be taken away. The Youngest Sister, wishing for as strong of a love between her Sisters as this girl exhibited for her own, somberly complied.” I skim that particular legend forthe end. “And the rest of the story says all three lived happily into old age.”
“So the Sister can take away a Mark without leaving behind a magical illness,” says Nolan. “It’s not a guarantee that she can rid an illness that’s already there, but it’s something.”
“She has to exist,” I say. “Doesn’t she? I mean, we know the other two exist. We’ve met them. Why would the legends say there were three if there were only two?”
