“Excuses,” he scoffs. “You’re besotted with him.”
“Stop it. I’m not besotted.”
“Excuse me?” Ardruna turns to me. “I didn’t catch that.”
My face heats. “I was talking to Olm.”
“Besotted, huh?” Her lips pull back. “With Roane?”
“Forget it.” The heat spreads to my neck and ears. “Olm was only goading me. So... the door?”
“It’s not a complicated trick,” she says. “Only complicated enough to keep monsters out.”
“Better check nobody is looking, then.”
“Now you are the one goading me.”
“Is it working?” I wink.
“Yeah.” She rises on her hind legs and places her front paws on the door. “Now pay attention. You see the horned snake carved into the door? And this word,Ara.”
“Ara? That’s it? Do I have to speak the word out loud?”
“No, you push it.” She does so, a paw pressing on the word, and a creak sounds from inside.
A mechanism. Not magic. A clockwork mechanism which allows the double doors to slowly open inwardly.
Arais an old word for a weaver. A weaver of anything, including tales. It’s also a word for ‘curse’ and ‘strife’ which gave war god Ares his name.
So fitting.
I follow Ardruna inside, pondering this. The horned snake is a symbol of the god Ares. He has many symbols. I already saw the birds, the egrets who turned into stymphalians, and then there is the axe, the horse, the shield, the spear, and the horned snake.
“Ares,” I whisper. “Sounds so much like Areon. Areon was named after Ares, wasn’t he?”
“You should ask?—”
“Roane. Yeah.” I take a few steps toward the stairs, squinting in the dimness. “What is this place? Why is the actual library downstairs? What’s this part used for?”
“Decoy.” She halts, a white phantom in the dark. “It’s only the entrance hall. If against all odds anyone manages to break in, we barricade ourselves below. Block the staircase. Easier to defend. And there is a secret exit, through the cave with the lake that Roane likes so much.”
The cave might be another place to search for clues, perhaps.
“Has it happened before?” I ask. “Monsters breaking into the library, forcing you to barricade yourselves downstairs?”
“No, but Roane told us it happened to him once.”
“Before he met you.”
“That’s right. Now you’ve arrived safely home, I’ll go look for Talton.” She ambles back out the doors, leaving me inside. “And Roane. You eat and rest. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Yes, Mom. Hey, wait, can’t I go with you to—?” The doors swing closed with a clang and darkness envelops me. “Of course not. I thought you disagreed with Roane about keeping me locked up?”
My mistake.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
NO QUEEN
