The librarian shrugged. ‘The choice is his,’ he said. ‘Not mine. Gods help anyone who ever dared tell acatwhat to do.’
So Ezer knelt, reaching out to scratch it behind the ears. But the second she did, the cat hissed and darted off towards the shadows between bookshelves like a little orange demon.
‘I suppose I’m not the best with cats,’ Ezer said with a sigh. ‘Birds mostly.’
The librarian only chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t take it personally. Well now …’ He clucked his tongue and put his glasses back on, as if he’d just noticed something important. The lenses were so thick his eyes looked thrice the size as he leaned in. ‘That’s an odd, ugly little thing. But worth far more than it looks.’
‘What?’ Ezerasked, recoiling.
‘The ring, child.’
She looked down at her mother’s ring, the symbols of the gods surrounding it. ‘It was my mother’s,’ she said.
‘May I?’
She shrugged and held out her hand for him to examine it. ‘Curious. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen one of these.’
‘What is it?’Ezer asked.
He stared at her thumb a moment longer, twisting his mouth sideways. ‘A Ring of Finding,’ he said. ‘Given from one Sacred to another. A symbol of love, really, meant to be worn even in the grave. So that even in death, the bearers of the rings can find one another. This is … quite sad, really.’
‘Why?’ Ezer asked. ‘Seems more romantic than sad to me.’
‘It would be romantic,’ the librarian said, frowning, ‘if the ring was still on the bearer’s finger. Your mother’s, you say?’ His brows raised higher than the lenses of his glasses. ‘Won’t help with finding her now.’
He turned,tsking,like he didn’t know he’d just dropped a hammer across her soul.
She looked down at the ring and frowned.
If the librarian was correct … that meant her mother’s ring, the ring meant to connect her to whoever had given it to her …
It hadn’t gone with her to the grave.
A lump formed in Ezer’s throat as she squeezed her thumb around it.
Ervos had taken it off her mother’s body, hoping to bring something back to Ezer. He’d meant it to be a gesture of kindness, a way for Ezer to keep some part of her mother. He couldn’t have known what removing that ring might do.
If it’s even real,Ezer thought, for there were plenty of made-up things in this realm. Many stories. And she was learning plenty of different versions in the Citadel, compared to what was believed on the Outside.
A mystery for another day, and so she busied her mind again with books.
She quickly settled into a book on the characteristics of cats. How they lived, what they ate, what they enjoyed doing.
Perhaps Six had been captive for so long, she didn’t even know she could be anythingotherthan a house cat. That she could spread her wings, feel the strength of them as they carried her through the sky.
She’d start there, as soon as she found a way to halter the beast. But one thing was for certain.
There would benochains.
Soon, with the feel of the pages between her fingertips and the heat of the fire at her feet, she dozed off.
She did not dream of her labyrinth.
She dreamed, instead, of Kinlear.
It was the same as it always was, the dream where he killed her.
But this time, instead of a dark, shadowed hood … she saw his face.
