Kasira prided herself on her ability to read people. Thane had kept her in his crew because she was the quickest on her feet and could adapt when things went wrong. But she could not for the life of her reconcile the pristine, put-together Librarian with the utter chaos of his office. It did tell her one thing, however: Allaster must not allow anyone in here, or else surely someone would have been responsible for tidying the place. Perhaps his distrust of her was less about her and more about him.
The desk was by far the neatest, though its edges were cluttered with papers and framed collections of beast bones displayed with the same delight she would show toward a particularly well-crafted blade. She nearly tripped over a crate of empty mylak bottles on her way to sort through the documents, which were in a mix of Miravi and the Common Tongue.
Those at the bottom of the stack were mostly historical notes or observations of beasts, written in a hurried, excited hand as they documented that “the Avari had three cardinal dragons, not two as previously believed,” and “the correct hand gesture for respect from before the Jacari unification requires the right fingertips be placed beneath thepalmof the left, not the thumb.” But the excitement soon petered out, as did the coherency.
Double the amount
Catacombs??
Ayador??
Mora Mora Mora Mora Mora
He’d scribbled the previous Librarian’s name until he ran out of space, the handwriting frenzied and violent toward the end. She moved on to searching the drawers, where she found a palm-sized figurine of a Kyler Bird, an annotated copy of a book titledCreatures and Curses, and a flat box containing more of the black metal jewelry Allaster seemed so fond of.
Most likely it was just some silly ornament he wore for its value,like any other noble, but she dropped one of the rings into her pocket just in case, intending to seek out more information about it. She had just approached a section of the wall obscured by a ruffled curtain when the sound of two people arguing reached her.
“We can’t rush into this. I won’t risk more than I have to,” said a woman’s voice Kasira didn’t recognize.
Then, a familiar tone of irritation. “We can’t wait that long. Vera has already made her next move.”
Allaster was back early.
Kasira’s gaze darted around the room. There was a stack of books in the corner so high it nearly formed a wall, but it was too far away for her to reach. The curtain beside her had a series of bulky items behind it and hung unevenly to the floor—hardly the best place to risk hiding, but she didn’t have another choice. She slipped behind it just as the door to the study opened, her hip butting up against an armoire beneath a narrow board tacked up by her head.
“You heard them in that meeting, Nyelle.” Allaster approached the desk. “The royal court has no interest in anything I have to say. No matter how many delegates we send talking about the balance of magic and the importance of beasts, all it takes is that Paratal brat to stand up and lament the safety of Kalish souls to undo every word we speak.”
“Paratal Helvarin is Vera’s pawn,” said Nyelle, her patient tone a stark contrast to Allaster’s anger. “If we can fetter her, it will severely weaken his position. And for the sake of all that is holy, Allaster, would you organize this room?” There was the distinct sound of several books hitting the floor as Nyelle no doubt bumped into them.
Kasira had never met Nyelle Yadora before, but her family was renowned across Kalthos for their ancestry. The Silvaire bloodline had ruled Kalthos until three generations ago, when the King died with only his daughter to inherit the throne. When the widowed Queen remarried Valsen Ralk and produced a son who later became the King, the Ralks effectively wrested the throne from the Silvaires.
In turn, the Silvaire Princess married Rhodri Yadora, an ambassador from Riviair. Nyelle was their son’s wife and one of the mostoutspoken voices against the Haidrin Church’s extermination of beasts. Between their royal ancestry and incredibly deep coffers they continuously reinvested into Kalthos, particularly its noble houses, the Yadoras remained well respected and connected despite beliefs that were deemed blasphemous for anyone else.
It wouldn’t shock anyone to learn the Yadoras and the Librarian were on good terms, but was Vera aware that Nyelle knew Allaster well enough to meet with him privately?
The sound of Allaster dropping into his chair echoed through the high-ceilinged room. “I am not prepared to deal with her as things stand now. I have too many other prob—Iylis, have you been in here recently?”
“You don’t let me in here.Me!”
“That’s because you insist on moving everything.”
“Cleaning, Lord Allaster. Cleaning!”
Kasira needed to go. She had chosen to hide, and Allaster suspected someone had been through his things. There wasn’t anything she could say now to convince him this had been an innocent visit. She was lucky he hadn’t already detected her the same way he had outside the portal room. But this didn’t sound like the type of conversation with a quick resolution, and the exit was clear across the room.
Then something very strange happened. What had been a solid wall behind her became a door that swung open without a sound. She didn’t have time to question it, diving gratefully into the hallway. Faint lines of balestone ran through the walls and curved ceiling like veins, offering barely enough light to see by and making the already-narrow hall feel tighter.
Unease crept through her, the cramped space making her lungs feel short of air and her mind run rampant with memories she kept tamped down. An odd beckoning sensation pulled her inward even as every instinct she had told her to walk the other way.
I’m fine, she thought to her burgeoning panic.
The hallway spiraled down, then leveled out, and she emerged into a corridor of doors. By then, she had deduced she must be in the catacombs of the old castle, which her tour with May told her rested justbehind Allaster’s tower. The balestone in the walls was thicker here, making the silver light brighter, and it eased the tightness in her chest.
Her venture into Allaster’s office had been a near disaster, showing her rusted skills. She should have had two exit strategies planned, and all she had learned from her near capture was that he might have a stronger alliance with the Yadoras than anyone suspected. Perhaps searching the catacombs would serve her better, assuming she could bear to stay here.
The first door was locked, but she picked it easily with Loraya’s hairpin, revealing a musty storage room full of boxes of files. They were all past mage applications separated into various named sections, including a small box full of applications from Kalthos labeled in Allaster’s messy scrawl, “over my very, very dead body,” and shoved in a dark corner. The next three rooms were empty of everything save cobwebs and dust.
When the hallway ended in a T, she went right, only to reach a dead end. Spinning back around, she stopped. Did the corridor look narrower? The walls nearly pressed against her shoulders now, which she would have noticed before, seeing as the last time she had been in a dark, closed-in space she hadn’t seen daylight for three years.
