10.
Stars glittered above me. The vast rooftop we strolled along looked more like a sculpted garden than anything else. Manicured bushes and small trees in silver pots had been artfully placed across the frosted glass while paths between them provided privacy. I took a deep breath. The cool night air smelled of jasmine and roses.
“What is it that you do for a living?” Niadhir asked.
I blinked to clear my head. “I’m, uhm... I’m a procurer of goods. Of a sort.”
“Oh, so you sell wares to merchants?”
“You could say that.” I wiped the grin from my face before he could see it. “What about you?”
Niadhir ran his fingers through the green leaves of a bush as we passed. “I am a scholar. In fact, I am one of Tkeister’s foremost scholars.”
“Hmm.”
Not one for modesty, this elf. When he turned and peered down at me with his face full of surprise and disappointment, I realized that he had expected a different reaction to his statement.
“Impressive,” I quickly amended.
He seemed satisfied because he smiled at me. “If you want, you could accompany me to the library tomorrow.”
“Sure.” I blinked repeatedly again to clear my head. “Yeah, that would be great.” Stopping in front of a white bench, I pressed a hand to my forehead. “Can we sit down? I’m not feeling so good.”
“Of course,” Niadhir said and sat down next to me. “After the food and drink and adapting to a new environment, it is understandable that you are tired.”
He was right, there had been a lot of new circumstances to navigate, but I wasn’t sure that was the reason. I had been in overwhelming situations before but had never reacted like this. It felt as though thick fog was pressing in on my consciousness. At the beginning of our walk, it had been faint but now my normally sharp mind was growing duller with each passing minute. Even the darkness felt very far away.
“Are you alright?” Niadhir turned pale violet eyes full of concern on me.
“No,” I answered honestly.
This was dangerous. Without a clear head, there was no telling what I could reveal. I had to get out of there. The elf placed a hand on my arm and gave me an encouraging smile. He asked me something. I looked at him for a moment and then opened my mouth to reply.
THE WHITE DOOR TO MY room appeared in front of me. Panic flashed through my body like lightning. How had we gotten here?
“It was so nice to get to know you, Storm,” Niadhir said as he let go of my arm.
Hadn’t I told him that my name was the Oncoming Storm? How did he know that other people called me Storm? Realizing that he was still waiting for a reply, I gave my head a quick shake and pulled myself together.
“Yeah, you too.”
“I will see you tomorrow, then.”
“What?”
He gave me a patient smile. “When we go to the library.”
“Right. Yes, of course.” I cleared my throat. “See you tomorrow.”
Before he could reply, I yanked open the door and slipped inside. Once it was closed behind me, I slid down the door and rested the back of my head against the cool white material. A lock clicked shut above me. Not a prisoner, huh? I drew my knees up to my chest.
For a while, I just sat there on the floor, waiting for the last of the strange dampening sensation to disappear from my mind. For what I was going to do next, I needed a clear head. Once I was satisfied that my brain worked as normal again, I pushed off from the floor and strode to the window.
That intoxicating scent of jasmine and roses drifted into my room when I threw open the window. Sticking my head out, I analyzed the situation. We were high up. Very high up. And at the end of that steep drop, cliffs made of dark stone waited. After adding ‘not falling down the building’ to my to-do list, I took a hold of the frame and climbed through.
Wind pulled at my white dress. Still standing on the windowsill, I made a quick decision and ditched my inconvenient shoes. They thudded to the floor after I kicked them back in through the window. Feeling much steadier on my feet, I moved to the edge of the windowsill.
It wasn’t that far to the next one but I would still have to leave the relative safety of the long rectangular slab and free climb across the wall to reach it. Fortunately for me, the shiny material that the castle was built from wasn’t as smooth as it looked. Dents and bumps were mixed with tiny cracks in the wall. Taking a deep breath of cool night air, I reached for the closest one.
The strange material was cold against my skin as I placed my hand on it. Adrenaline surged through me when both feet left the windowsill and I was only using the wall’s uneven surface to remain in the land of the living. My heart beat rapidly in my chest. It was exhilarating.
A strong gust snatched at me. I pressed myself harder into the frosted material to avoid being flung away. Scrambling around on the side of a building was so much harder in a dress than in my normal burglar-friendly clothes. I cursed the star elves’ limited view of fashion for the hundredth time. When the wind finally died down, I continued my climb. Cold glass appeared under my feet as I reached the next windowsill. Crouching down, I peered in through the window.
Elaran was sitting on the bed with his back towards me. Using a tiny spoon I had stolen during dinner, I lifted the latch and edged open the window. My feet hit the floor soundlessly.
The grumpy elf on the bed still hadn’t noticed me. I studied him. With his face buried in his hands like that, he looked exhausted. Vulnerable. Like he had given up. I had never seen him like that before and I had no idea what the appropriate thing to say would be.
“Your room is bigger than mine,” I simply stated instead.
“Gah!” Elaran yelped and shot up from the mattress. Whirling around, he crouched into a fight stance before realizing that it was me. “What the hell is wrong with you? Sneaking up on people like this.” He whipped his head from side to side. “Where did you even come from?”
I hiked a thumb over my shoulder. “The window.”
“The window.” The grumpy elf stalked over to the offending building feature. “Of course you came through the bloody window.” He stuck his head out before letting out another yelp and stumbling backwards.
Shade jumped through and landed silently on the floor. His black eyes met mine. “I see you understood my message.”
“Of course I did.”
“What bloody message?” Elaran raked his hands through his hair and threw an exasperated stare at the assassin.
“At dinner.” Shade moved away from the window and dropped into the chair by the white desk. “When I said Elaran I meant: we meet at Elaran’s room after we’re done. Because your room is in the middle.”
The elf drew his eyebrows down and crossed his arms. “And you actually expected me to infer all of that from just my name?”
Amusement played in the assassin’s dark eyes. Shaking his head, Elaran stalked over to the bed and sat down while muttering something under his breath about skulking underworlders.
“Alright, we need to talk about a few things,” Shade said.
Striding across the room, I plopped down on the bed next to Elaran. “Yeah.”
The grumpy elf scowled at me. “There’s a whole room here. We don’t have to sit right on top of each other.”
“Then move over.”
Muttering under his breath again, he scooted from the middle of the bed to the side closest to the headboard. I drew my legs up and crossed them underneath me. After smoothing the white dress over my thighs, I turned serious eyes on my two friends.
“After dinner, I went to some rooftop garden with the scholar, Niadhir.” I let out a long exhale. “I can’t remember what we talked about.”
Shade and Elaran exchanged a look.
“Same,” the assassin said.
The elf leaned back on his palms. “Yeah, me neither.”
“You think we were drugged?” I asked.
“Most likely.” Shade ran a
hand along his jaw. “It has to have happened sometime during the dinner.” Dropping his arm, he flicked calculating eyes between us. “How much training have you had in withstanding advanced interrogation techniques?”
I wasn’t sure whether to chuckle or sigh in exasperation. “Yeah, uh, none.”
“I grew up in Tkeideru,” Elaran announced as if that was explanation enough that no such ridiculous skills would have been needed there.
The Master Assassin clicked his tongue. “Yeah, I expected as much. But that’s not our top priority right now. So drop that because now we need to figure out how to escape from here.”
“You’re giving orders again,” Elaran stated with a frown directed at the self-proclaimed dictator.
“Yeah, and what do you mean drop it?” I shot up from the bed and took to pacing the room. “If we don’t remember what we said, we could’ve said anything! It could be a huge problem.”
The auburn-haired archer backed me up with a nod. “She’s right. What if we told them everything? All our secrets?” He rubbed his temples. “They might know that the two of us aren’t Storm Casters. They might know that you’re the General of Pernula. They might–”
“Stop panicking!” Shade cut off. Using his whole arm, he pointed from me to the bed. “And you, sit down.”
Raising my chin, I crossed my arms and remained standing firmly on the floor. The Master of the Assassins’ Guild blew out an exasperated breath and shook his head.
“You might not have been trained to withstand interrogation techniques like these,” he began. “But the two of you are the most distrusting people I know. I highly doubt you would’ve just blabbered on about anything.” Leaning back in the chair, he crossed his ankles. “And besides, making someone answer is just half of it. You also need to know the right questions to ask. So yeah, calm down and let’s talk about our escape plan.”
Reluctantly admitting that he did have a point, I gave him a short nod. Elaran did the same. I wanted to sit down for our discussion but I didn’t want him to think I did it because he told me to, so I waited until I judged an appropriate amount of time had passed since his arrogant command before strolling over to the bed and sitting down again. When Shade’s mouth twitched in amusement, I knew he had seen right through me. Damn assassin.
“So, the plan,” I said once I’d drawn my legs up underneath me again.
We spent the first part of our strategy meeting sharing what we had learned about the star elves from our respective dinner companions. It wasn’t much, all things considered. But it was enough to get us started at least.
Shade pressed his fingers together, forming a little triangle, and tapped them against his chin. “So, what we know is basically this then. We’re locked in our rooms but the corridors aren’t patrolled a lot. The stairs, on the other hand, are heavily guarded.”
“Yeah, and we need the stairs to get to the ground floor,” I added. “Which is where all the exits are.”
“No, we don’t necessarily need the stairs,” the infuriatingly smug assassin contradicted. “What it means is that we will have to find another way down.”
“And we also know that the queen is pulling all the strings,” Elaran cut in before my eye roll could turn into something more tangible.
“Correct. And we learned that the princess will inherit the crown so she has to have some pull too.” Shade turned to the elf. “She seemed to like you.”
Elaran nodded. “Yeah. She’s actually pretty nice.”
“For someone who kidnaps and drugs people,” I filled in.
The bed creaked as the archer shook his head and leaned back on his palms again. I shifted my weight on the mattress.
“Our best shot of finding out something important is probably through her, so keep being friendly with her.” Shade moved his eyes from Elaran to me. “And you’ll keep trying to get information from this Niadhir fellow. I’ll keep trying with Lady Nelyssae.”
I rolled my eyes.
“What?” he demanded.
Befriending the gorgeous and elegant Lady Nelyssae, what a sacrifice on his part. Really taking one for the team. However, when the assassin met my gaze with raised eyebrows, I just waved a hand in front of my face.
“Nothing.” I looked between the two of them. “So, the plan is to figure out the plan later.”
Elaran threw a scowl in my direction. “Yes. We can’t break out without a proper plan because we’ll likely only get one chance at this. How can you not get that?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t get it.” I pushed off from the bed and stalked back and forth across the polished floor. “I said it’s annoying and I don’t like it. The formal dinners and the pompous ladies snickering behind their hands. The five hundred different forks. And this!” Flicking my hands, I motioned up and down the white dress. “I’ve never felt this out of place in all my life.”
Yellow and black eyes softened when my friends looked at me. I wanted to slap them both. I didn’t want their sympathy. What I wanted was to get my clothes and my knives back and then get the hell out. Raking my fingers through my hair, I tipped my head back and let out a long breath. It wasn’t their fault that we were here so I shouldn’t be getting angry at them.
“The plan is to continue gathering intel until we can figure out how to get to the ground floor without being caught by all the guards,” I amended. “Got it.”
When I tilted my head back down, I found Elaran and Shade nodding at me. After nodding back, I strode to the window. With one hand on the frame, I turned back to the assassin and the archer.
“As soon as you find something out, let me know. I wanna get out of here as fast as possible.”
Without waiting for a reply, I climbed out the window and into the flower-scented night.
11.
Rows upon rows of bookcases crowded the whole room. Studying the multicolored spines, I realized that this was probably one of very few rooms in Starhaven that wasn’t entirely white and silver. The walls and floor were of course made of that strange frosted glass, and all the furniture was a mix of white wood and silver, but at least the rather vast collection of books added some color to it.
“Is it not beautiful?” Niadhir’s handsome face beamed with enthusiasm.
My eyes drifted over the large tables covered in stacks of books that broke up the long rows of bookcases. “Yeah, sure.”
He seemed a bit disappointed with my lukewarm reply but led me further into the library anyway. No natural light made it inside because there were no windows. Instead, countless candles in glass containers illuminated the vast space smelling of dust and old books. It made me feel as if I was entering a place separate from the rest of the world. A place where time somehow stood still. I shook off the strange feeling.
“So, this is where you work?” I asked.
“Yes, this is where I spend most of my time.” His mouth drew into a small smile. “My own little kingdom.”
I chuckled. “Don’t let the queen hear you say that.”
Niadhir stopped dead in his tracks and frowned down at me. “Why not? She knows about my love of books and research.”
For a moment, I just stared at him with my mouth slightly open. Man. Literal much? I mean, I didn’t have much of a sense of humor but apparently, there were people worse than me. I cleared my throat and then plastered an apologetic smile on my face.
“It was a joke. I’m sorry. It wasn’t a very good one.”
“Oh,” the humor-challenged scholar said before forcing out a dry laugh.
This situation was making even my social awkwardness feel awkward so I decided to switch topic. Lifting a hand, I motioned at the empty tables around us.
“Is it usually this empty?”
Having recovered from the failed joke, Niadhir waved me forward and started out again. “No, there are usually a few more people here. We are a bit early today.”
When we reached a large table overlaid with books and scrolls, the scholar stopped and pulled out a
chair made of white wood. I stared between him and the piece of furniture. Niadhir pointed a graceful hand at the chair.
“Please have a seat,” he clarified when I still didn’t move.
“Oh, uhm, okay.” I moved towards the offered seat.
He pushed the chair in behind me, making me jerk a little in surprise. Resisting the urge to inform him that I did know how to sit down on a chair by myself, I just smoothed my dress in silence. Niadhir rounded the table and sat down to my left. After picking up an already open book, he started reading. I glanced between him and the rest of the room. What was I supposed to do now?
Minutes dragged on while the scholar continued studying the text. Other elves started trickling in through the door, filling the tables around us or browsing the bookshelves. I drummed my fingers restlessly on the wooden tabletop but stopped when Niadhir threw me a sharp look. Did he actually expect me to just sit there? What a waste of time.
“So, do you mind if I just take a look around?” I asked with as much politeness as I could muster.
The engrossed scholar looked up from his book and blinked at me. “Oh. Yes, of course.”
He had barely finished the sentence before I shot up from the chair and strode away. My white dress billowed behind me as I made for the closest wall. While I was here, I might as well see if I could find some kind of exit. Doubtful. But still worth a shot.
Most of the wall space was covered by those white wooden bookcases and if one of them hid a secret passage, I would have to pull on thousands of books before finding it. It also seemed quite unlikely that there would be a hidden door here. These star elves didn’t seem like the kind of people who built clandestine passageways behind their library walls. But then again, you never know.
While I made my way around the room, I pulled on random books just in case. Nothing happened. Eventually, I arrived at the very back of the room. Stacks of books had been pushed in front of what looked like the edge of a very tall door. Actually, stacks wasn’t quite accurate. Towers was more like it. They were so tall they reached all the way up and covered part of the ceiling. I flicked my gaze over the huge mounds.
A Storm of Glass and Stars (The Oncoming Storm Book 4) Page 7
