I clear my throat. “No chance. I’m not here to warm his bed or cure his nasty mood.”
And all the while, Olm is quiet. He hasn’t said a word since I woke up. The book seems to… hum when I place my hand on it. I don’t know what it means.
I remember it rattling on the shelf where Roane had put it, and the fine hairs on my arms lift.
“What’s wrong?” Ardruna watches me with eyes that seem to perceive too much.
“Nothing.”
I hesitate to tell them what Olm showed me. That image… What does it mean? Does it mean anything at all? Is his story entwined with the library’s, somehow? Or is it magic, too? Did he conjure up that image?
“Can he change what’s inside his book?” I whisper. “Is it possible?”
“Are you talking about this Olm character? No, that’s one thing books and their characters can’t do. They can’t change their contents, only hide them.”
Good to know. Then, is Olm hiding the book’s contents on purpose? What else is he keeping from me?
“So what’s your plan?” Ardruna asks later as I leaf through the book, on the odd chance I notice anything interesting, any clue about Olm’s story.
“Do I have a choice? You said I can’t leave this place.”
And what? You’ll stay in here, eating stinky dried meat and arguing with Roane?
I freeze. The truth is, I tried not to think ahead, my mind stalling, then screaming in panic. My life is out there. How can I accept that I’m stuck?
“What does Roane do?” I ask, buying myself time. “When he’s not wrangling magical books or fighting goblins?”
She gives me a long look. Judging. Kind of annoyed. “Why don’t I show you?” She jumps to her feet. “Come along.”
Stuffing the book into my bodice, I rush after her. “Where are we going?”
“To the tower.”
“I hadn’t noticed any tower.”
“It’s more of a balcony.”
Intrigued, I follow her up a circular staircase. As we go further and further up, I hold onto the wall, my breaths coming short. I try to breathe in deeply and a stabbing pain in my side startles me, turning the breath into a gasp.
“Are you all right?” Ardruna doesn’t stop. “That cut in your side isn’t serious, but the bruise was nasty. You probably busted a rib or two.”
“I’m fine.”
I repeat that to myself—I’m fine, everything’s fine—as we climb higher and finally step outside.
A balcony, indeed, jutting out of the sheer cliff in which the library is carved. My mouth falls open and I grip the low stone balustrade with shaky hands. The view of the world below us is breathtaking, as is the vertiginous drop under our feet.
Ardruna doesn’t seem bothered by it. She props her massive forepaws on the balustrade, peering down. “Take a look at your new home.”
Gritting my teeth, struggling to steady my breathing, I do as she says and take in the world of Areon. It’s a different angle from the one I had on the ledge near the entrance, and it’s facing another direction. I see hills, meadows and swamps, I see a riverwinding its way through the plain and burrowing into the city, and in the distance I see again the mountains. Actual mountains, jutting like claws out of the landscape, capped in white.
For the first time, I take a good look at the vertical walls of this gigantic cavern. They are riddled with openings, only these aren’t slots for books. These are caves.
“What lives in the walls?” I whisper.
“Demons.” At my startled look, she says, “That’s what I call them. All sorts of winged creatures who escaped from books.”
“You have an infestation, don’t you?”
