“I didn’t know Reinar talked like that.” She shook her head. “But thank you—if Reinar caught me, he would have been thrilled to turn me in. He’s always sniveling around the nobles any chance he gets.” She carefully walked back to the opening that led to the exit of the shelving labyrinth.
Damien followed. “You’re in trouble with the nobles?”
“Nope.” Amma stepped warily out as if testing the emptiness of the chamber. But when she saw the double doors to the restricted section at the back wall, she walked up to them as if greeting an old friend.
Damien came to stand beside her. “Why do I feel like you’re lying?”
“I think because you like it better when I do.” She smirked to herself and pressed a hand to each liathau door, that familiar thrum of life coming out to touch her back, to read her as she did it.
Can I come in, please?she asked without a word.
Sure, the doors replied, and then opened.
“Seriously,” said Damien, “we havegotto talk about that.”
The stairs leading downward were wide and dark, the wall on either side curving overhead like a stone tunnel into the earth. Chilly air rose up to meet them as they descended, footsteps echoing into the corridor below no matter how careful they were to be quiet. The sconces here were widely spread, illuminating only small patches of wall with pitch darkness between, but Kaz lit his tail once more.
At the foot of the stairs, the chamber opened into a wide room. There were rows of shelves here too, but these ones held far fewer tomes, many spread out from the others and set on angled stands so their titles could be read. Some were covered in chains, others under glass, while still others simply sat, able to be touched but only by hands that had been approved.
“So, this is the Grand Athenaeum of Faebarrow?” asked Damien as if he had not just been led through it already, eyes sweeping over the many cases.
“The restricted section, yes.”
Less a labyrinth here, the shelves were laid out in clean rows and did not move about. Amma hurried forward. Typically when here, she would have to do much searching—the categorizing of things in the restricted section was always a mystery to her, especially as someone without arcana, and it seemed as soon as she began to learn it, the librarians would change everything about. She suspected it had something to do with fending off exactly what the two of them were attempting. However, there was a spot near the back of the large chamber where new things were always kept prior to fully cataloging them.
Damien kept up and cast an appreciating glance around as they turned down another row. “Is there anything else of particular interest to you here? Something you might want to liberate from this place?”
“Oh, lots,” said Amma, knowing she had only read the smallest possible fraction of what the library had to offer from books on self-defense to magic out in the world beyond Eiren to fictional tales of adventure, love, and lust, but she knew that wasn’t what Damien was actually asking. “But none of it’s for you, so hands off.”
He scoffed, and there was almost sincerity in his offense. “Now, that’s where you’re wrong—I can have anything I want.”
She cocked a brow as she led them around the shelves that opened up into the uncategorized section, knowing their query would be close. “You’re in Eiren now, Damien. The crown is all around, there are Holy Knights on every corner, and you had to sneak in here withme. We’re here for one thing, and that’s it.”
He frowned when they came to a stop, glancing to the shelf beside him and reaching out. “Well, I think I’ll take this too.” The book he lifted suddenly jerked in his hand, snapping, and he dropped the newly animate thing to the ground.
“Damien!” she hissed, trying to pick it up, but it snapped at her as well, and she recoiled. The pages bent around a makeshift mouth, cover flapping, managing to thrash about on the stone floor, but it didn’t get far.
Damien tried to retrieve it again, but it clamped down hard. “Oh, you bloody waste of parchment and ink!” He yanked an uninjured hand back—it was only paper and leather after all—but brought back a booted foot to kick it.
“Don’t you dare!” Amma slapped at him to stop. “Kaz, do you think you can help?”
The imp looked to Damien, exacerbated, and the blood mage rubbed his hand, only shrugging and then gestured to the angry book. “Go on.”
Kaz growled, fluttering down to it, and reached out his long, spindly arms. He threw himself at it all at once, rolled over the book to pin it to him, and flew back up to where it belonged to deposit the thing where it fell into stillness.
“That’ll do,” said Damien, brushing off some unseen dirt from his front. “But that’s not what I was asking, Amma. Doyouwant something specific?”
She scoffed. “Do I want tostealsomething that I can’t ever bring back? No, of course not!”
His features pinched. “But the opportunity is right here. What kind of thief are you?”
Amma wasn’t sure how to respond, so she didn’t.
Damien grimaced. “Fine, we’re here for the Lux Codex anyway.”
“And that should be just back here,” she said, pointing.
In the carved-out space there was a table and chairs and a set of cases specifically for unknown things. Sometimes books would be left there for moons before they were properly researched and cataloged, and predictably there was a line of them, each unique but none clearly marked. In fact, not a single one had a name on its spine, which was typical for the restricted section, but would make this challenging. “Well, it should be amongst these, especially if it came here in the last moon or so, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to tell.”
