“To obey and protect you,”Simu whispers in my mind.“You are right. I will not let you fall.”
“Wait… you hear my every thought?”
“Yes. I also receive the touch of your emotions. I have felt that you like Roane, which is why I have agreed to his new orders.”
“I thought you had to obey him? That he tamed you?”
“A phoenix cannot be tamed.”
That makes sense. “So why do you obey Roane?”
“You’ll have to ask him for the story.”
“Everyone keeps telling me to ask him,” I mutter, “and he lies or evades my questions.”
Simu flies even lower, skimming trees. One of them catches on fire.“He is the story master.”
“Not fair. He doesn’t even like stories.” As we prepare to land next to the cemetery, I focus on staying put. It’s a surprisingly smooth landing. “But thanks for flying me around.”
“My pleasure. I will wait here.”
Sliding down his back, I land on my feet with a wince, then walk over to the tombs. It’s easy to find which one Roane had stood before. It’s the only one without a name.
“And how will looking at a blank tombstone help you?” Olm asks, not sounding sarcastic for once but genuinely curious.
“The tombs follow a chronological order. I know the names of the last two librarians, Ingene Leafcrowned from two centuries ago, and Velirius Fonserres from the last century, Ersil’s direct predecessor. I only need to check the tomb before the blank one, which is the last one of the line. It’s obviously the most recent one in the cemetery.”
“Clever,” Olm says in a dubious tone.
Itisa bit of a stretch, I’ll admit, but something tells me I’m on the right track, at last. Hurrying through the cemetery, I spot the last tombstone and head straight for it.
Blank and pristine. No name was erased here. No, no name was ever etched into its white marble surface.
Holding my breath, I move to the next two tombs. Was I right? Could it be true?
And there they are, the two names I expected to find. Ingene Leafcrowned, and next to it Velirius Fonserres, between Ingene’s tomb and the blank tombstone.
“What does this mean?” Olm sounds confused. “So the last librarian was Velirius Fonserres. So what? What’s so interesting about it?”
“If Velirius was the last librarian, then who is buried here?”
“It could be an empty tomb, like Roane said.”
“Roane wouldn’t come and sit at an empty tomb, no matter what he said. I know who is buried there.” I swallow hard. “It’s Ersil Davara.”
Simu says nothing when I climb back onto his back and we fly off once more.
Olm is right. In the end, what does it matter? I may have solved part of the riddle, but Roane is still dying from the hydra’s venom. I still failed him.
We land on the rock shelf and I clamber off Simu, bid him goodbye and open the library doors. I enter, moving in a daze. I don’t want to face Roane and his friends and admit my failure. I don’t want to watch him die.
Facing the griffin and asking her, begging her for a way out might be easier.
“See?” Olm says.
Which is why I won’t do it. It’s the easy way out. It means I wouldn’t face my fears.
And that I’ll never see Roane again, which is an unbearable thought. I’d rather take his presence like a blade to the heart than walk away.
