I scoffed.“I enjoy your company, too, and no unfounded jealousy by a certain king will change that.I’d like us to be friends.”
He paused with the door half-open.“My Queen.”His voice wavered, and he gave me the deepest bow ever.
I smiled and gave a clumsy curtsy, which had the corners of his lips twitching.
I meant what I said.The question was, would I stay here long enough to make friends?
– 21 –
For Flexible Users Only
Ihad visited many libraries over the years, from ultra-modern university ones to old monastic libraries that took your breath away with ceiling frescoes or Rococo architecture.And yet, none of those could compare to the Gargoyles’ library I found myself in.
The place was like a tower, with shelves upon shelves of scrolls along the rounded blue walls, all the way up to the domed ceiling.And up there, when I craned my neck, I saw clouds.Right under the ceiling, small puffs the color of cotton candy were coming in through one wall and exiting through another.
“Holy crap, my Queen?”
I laughed, still feeling like my eyes were playing tricks on me.“You’ve got that right.There are clouds in your library!I know thiswhole building is basically a cloud, but what if it starts raining inside?”
“These clouds are of a special variety.Their movement is limited to the library’s top level for the purpose of maintaining stable temperature and humidity.This prolongs the life of our collection.”
“Amazing.”
I walked to the single round table in the center of the library.There were four chairs around it, all made of the same dark-red wood I’d seen around the palace.With the bright light coming in from above and the clouds drifting lazily, the space felt cozy.I could spend a whole day here.
“What will my Queen like to read first?”Samuin asked from his position by the door.
I looked around.This library had clearly been designed with winged readers in mind.There wasn’t a ladder in sight, so apart from the scrolls on the lowest shelves, I couldn’t reach anything.“I was thinking about a read on the history of your kind?Then something on your culture?”
I was mostly hoping to learn more about the creatures the Gargoyles had fought or worked with before.If there was such a thing as supernatural politics, I needed to be in on it.
“Our history spans centuries.Would you like to see the most recent scrolls telling the history of this particular homecloud?Those have been drawn and written in English by my liege’s mother.The other works on history and culture are in Gargoylish, I’m afraid.”
“Oh.”With everyone here speaking to me in English, I hadn’t considered their own language.“Can you bring me everything that’s written in English or in the form of drawings?”
“It would be my honor.”
He flew up and started gathering scroll after scroll from various shelves.I was starting to worry that the literature I had requested wasn’t as limited as he’d suggested, when he landed by the table with only five scrolls in hand.
“Is this everything?”
“There are two more works–the most important ones, if you would allow me the recommendation.”Samuin walked to a shelf behind me and pulled out two worn-out scrolls.“It is humans who read them the most, hence the easy access.Please return them to the same shelf once you are done.”
I accepted the two bestsellers carefully.I didn’t want to damage them, so I was relieved to discover they weren’t made of paper but fabric that felt like silk.“What are these about?”
“One is theMate Bond Scroll, the English version.It was translated and adapted to the female point of view by my liege’s grandmother on his father’s side.”
“Huh.”Was there no escape from the mate stuff?
“The other scroll contains drawings by my liege’s mother again.I was told she was a talented painter of…” A pensive expression crossed his face, and his tail swished.“Ah!Co-mics.She drew co-mics, my Queen.She took it upon herself to leave detailed information for all humans yet to arrive here with their newfound mates.”
“Information about what?”I asked, already unrolling the scroll.
A naked gargoyle stared back at me.Little arrows pointed from various body parts to long descriptions under the headingA Gargoyle’s Erogenous Zones.Another heading below the very generously endowed gargoyle read,Gargoyle Claiming Positions: For Experienced and Flexible Users Only!Illustrations followed.
I closed the scroll at lightning speed, my face undoubtedly tomato-worthy.Samuin had handed me aKama Sutrafor Gargoyles.Hand-drawn by Xaniban’s mom.
I shot a look at my winged librarian.He appeared as serious as usual, but I didn’t miss the twinkle in his eye.“I will leave my Queen to her useful reading,” he told me with a light bow.“If you need anything, pull this right here, and I will be with you shortly.”He pointed at a rope by the table that I hadn’t noticed before, probably because I didn’t expect to see a rope sticking out of the floor, ramrodstraight.
