by Abby James
A gentle wave pushed against me, an increase in pressure subtly pressing into my chest. This had to be the energy I was searching for. But it was small, nothing but a trickle, no more than Juliet’s ability. Not enough to move the balsic. I forced my concentration wider. Luca had told me not to shut down on him when we were caught in Emrol’s glamor. I had to do that now. Keep my mind open, keep my body open, keep my ability open to what was out there.
Eyes closed, I doubled my focus. Beyond the small eddies of energy that rushed my way, I felt a bigger wave, just out of reach. Resistant to my call. I pressed my palm a little harder into Juliet’s back, opening my senses to what came from her, allowing in her innate ability, which she had yet to realize she held in spades, and directed it outward to our surrounding.
That’s when I felt it. The energetic lift. It was like I had mentally ripped the energy out of its hiding place and drew it toward me. It slammed into me in one rush. I opened my eyes, readjusting my focus onto the rock. The rock vibrated then shot up into the air and straight through the window, raining shards of glass like large crystals down onto the floor. At the exact moment the sound of shattering rang out through the glass room, Mr French collapsed forward onto the desk in front of him, clutching at his chest. But I had no time to think it was weird as Juliet and I were shot backward onto our asses from the backwash of energy. She landed partially on top of me and so continued to feed me her ability. And that was how I felt the energy fling back out of me like an elastic band and back into Mr French.
4
My scribe lead me up a spiral staircase. I’d been climbing for so long my thighs ached. As I ascended the stairwell grew narrower until it was only a few meters wide. Either side I could look out through arched windows onto the castle grounds below. I saw the rotunda to my left. When I peered out the right window I saw the arena.
The double doors at the top of the stairs leered down at me like two sets of giant eyes. The wooden inlay on either door twirled inward like vortices and at the center were black onyx stones like giant irises. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional to make the pattern look creepy but it gave me the shivers. I’d been spooked enough by the statue coming to life and spiking me to the floor to find all this suggestion of being watched uncomfortable.
The doors resisted my push. I looked at my scribe, but it gave me no information as to when the library would be closed.
I was between classes, having an hour to spare and decided I would finally visit the library. But it looked as though I would have no such luck. Stupidly I knocked but found the wood so hard it swallowed my knock without a sound, so I pounded the door with my fist.
I was about to pound again when a small flap within the left side of the door just above the stone slid open. Gray eyes folded into heavily creased skin peered out at me.
“Where is your pass?” came a hard, gravelly voice.
“I didn’t realize I needed a pass.”
Before the small flap slid closed, I caught disgruntled mutterings. The door creaked open to a bent old woman, the height of my breasts. Deep grooves, which ran in thick tracks across her face, broke up her expression, buried her lips into her gums and drooped her jawline.
“There are rules, but not one member of faculty seems to bother to remind anyone.”
She turned around and shuffled inside, and since she didn’t shut the door behind her I would guess that was my welcome.
I came along side her, which didn’t take long given how slow she moved. “I’m sorry, since it is a library I assumed it would be open to every student during school hours.”
“Of course you did. As if this place did not hold a priceless collection of artifacts.”
She waved an arm around her to demonstrate what she meant. Like a lot of roofs in the castle this one disappeared up into a spire, so far up the top was hard to define. The most amazing thing was not the height of the ceiling but the shelves of books that reached up as far. How the hell did anyone get up there?
Shelves of books wrapped the walls, filled to collapsing. Yet more shelves delineated desks, breaking the library into nooks for study. Balls of light mounted on the end of the book shelves and the pillars, segregating the shelving, provided most of the light given the only windows were placed high up in the roof spire. The light they cast shone a soft glow over the wooden tables. Desks were dotted with students pouring over books or chatting with their heads knitted together to keep the noise low.
“This way,” the old woman waved me forward. “You will need a tag if you wish to enter the library again.”
Because of her hunch she stared at her feet the whole time she walked. She’d likely be able to walk the entirety of the library with her eyes blindfolded and not bump into anything. She looked as old and dusty as the books and smelt like them too. A lot of time spent working with leather and glue and the smell had worked its way into her pores.
I followed her to the front desk. As it was chest high, once she went around to her side all but the crown of her head disappeared. With the sound of mechanical whirring the librarian came into view, raising slowly above the desk with the aid of a motorized platform.
She looked at me over the top of her reading glasses. “I need your name.”
“Samara Wright.”
She eyed me for longer than I felt comfortable with before looking down at a huge, fat ledger in front of her. “I hope you do not intend to be as much a disruption as your father was.”
“You knew my father?”
“Why does that come as a surprise to you? Do I not look as though I could pre-date this castle by at least fifty years?”
She had a point, but agreeing with her would be rude. I smiled because she was looking at her ledger and wouldn’t notice I found it funny.
“I banned that boy from coming into my library many times, but he always managed find a way around me. Usually with an extraordinary pass from one of his teachers.”
She picked up a quill beside the large ledger and wrote in tight scroll along the bottom line. “Caught him juggling fire balls down row three. Trying to impress one of the young first years. Lucy Lenal if I remember rightly.”
Old she may be, this woman had a memory like an elephant.
“You won’t catch me being so careless with books.”
She glanced up at me over the top of her glasses. Given all her facial creases it was hard to say whether she was frowning.
“I’m not a fire elemental. So no juggling fire balls for me.”
She continued to stare at me, which would have to mean she was not amused.
Miles raised me for the first five years of my life, but he was not my father. And since I had no memory of those first five years I couldn’t find it in me to care what he did. It was like hearing the antics of any of the students.
“Empath are you, like your mother?”
I nodded, not enjoying spreading the lie. “You remember my mother?”
“I remember every student who has set foot through that door. Your mother worked in the library, sorting and shelving books after her classes. She appreciated the sacredness of the place.”
“For all of her time here?”
“Most of her student days. On the days he was banned from coming into the library, your father would sit on the steps and wait for her to finish. They weren’t dating then. She thought he was a pest. But I could see the smile she gave whenever she said that. He had her back then, even though she pretended to find him irritating.”
Just like any modern day romance movie.
“Do you remember another student called McManus? He was friends with my mum.”
“Yes, I remember McManus,” she said as she returned to scratching in her ledger. “Quiet lad, he was. Followed your mother around like a puppy. Anyone could see how sweet he was on her, everyone except Gloria. I’m sure she knew in her heart, but she pretended not to realize. Her heart was set on Miles.”
“So they were sweethearts when they were at Darkwells?”
“Your mother and Miles? God no. He fancied her, flirted with her, escorted her back to her house after she’d been in the library, or so she would tell me, but Miles was a terrible flirt.” She stopped writing and glanced up at me. “Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this.”
“Go ahead. I’ve heard similar stories. I’m not blind to what my father was like.”
“He was young, having a time of his life. Handsome and very popular. He wasn’t interested in having a relationship. But all scallawags grow up eventually. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” She chuckled to herself as she maneuvered whatever it was she stood on across to another part of the desk.
I looked around the library while I waited for her to finish and spied Jona sitting by himself on one of the far tables.
“Here you go,” she said, making me jump because I’d not heard her return. She held one of those pencil like devices similar to the type they had used to tag us at the tournament. “Hold out your arm, child, wrist facing up.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” After last time, definitely not.
“You need a library tag if you wish to enter the library again.”
“Last time they used one of those on me, I got a shock. I’m not keen to feel that again.”
That never happened but what could I say to explain my reluctance. I didn’t want to explode another like I had last time.
“Gracious, that shouldn’t happen. It is a harmless procedure, Miss Wright. And you will not be given admittance unless you carry a library tag.”
I slowly lowered my arm across the desk.
“Don’t look so alarmed, child.” She tutted to herself as she waved the black device above my wrist.
I blew out a breath when nothing happened. It was only once she touched the tip to my wrist did it vibrate gently. Starting from the tip a glow emanated up the pencil, turning red like molten metal until it reached her hand. The librarian shrieked and threw the pencil away, at the same time tumbling backward off her platform and out of sight.
“Oh, shit. Are you all right?” I leaned over as far as I could go, but couldn’t see her.
I was about to climb onto the desk to make sure she was fine when she appeared, looking disheveled, her glasses askew. She climbed back up onto her movable platform and leaned her elbows on the desk. “Well, well, that has never happened before. You sure you’re not a fire elemental?”
“Not as far as I know. Ms Lane said I was an empath.”
She straightened her glasses and stared at me over the rim. “Yes, I have heard speak of you through faculty gossip.”
That didn’t sound good.
“What happened with your pencil thingy, that wasn’t my fault.”
“I’m not sure what I can do about your access to the library. You must have a library tag to enter.”
“Can’t you just give me a pass or something?”
“The door registers the tag on the student. That is how it opens. There is no other way. And if you think I will come and open it for you every time you wish to enter, my dear girl, you are gravely mistaken.”
Not a good idea to upset the librarian. Especially on my first visit. “Maybe I will have to time my arrival with someone else and they can let me in.”
She huffed her agreement, but didn’t bother to look at me. It seemed I was already forgotten.
“I’m sorry I don’t know your name,” I asked.
She looked over her readers at me. “Ms Appleguard. I do believe you are one of the few who has bothered to ask. You and your mother.”
She smiled and it was as if her terse words of seconds ago never happened. “It seems there is some of your mother in you after all. I must say you don’t look a thing like her.”
“I have more of my dad in me.”
She shook her head. “Nope. I don’t see any of him either. But at least you have your mother’s polite demeanor.”
“Thanks.”
She returned her attention to other things, so I took that to mean scram. I wove around the tables heading for Jona. On the way I slowed countless times to gaze, jaw hanging, up to the high spiral ceiling and the books that disappeared up into the heavens. Perhaps the least requested books were shelved up so high.
Jona spied me before I made it across to him. He smiled and gathered the books he had strewn over the desk to one side as a welcome for me to join him.
“Hi,” I whispered as I slid into the seat opposite him. I’d not seen Jona since the tournament, when they had limped in fourth. Mila blamed me for every ill that befell the team once McGilus had pulled me out. I kept my mouth zipped and allowed her to rant. There was little point in stirring up an argument when it was obvious her beef had everything to do with the fact she broke two heels, lots of nails and ended up with her hair so badly knotted from some horrible glue that she had to cut the knots out. Her hair was now in a fashionable bob, but it had taken her all these weeks to simmer from the shock of losing her locks.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you in the library.”
“And it may be my last. That pencil thingy Ms Appleguard uses to give you a library tag, well it broke. And she’s not going to let me in each time.”
“That’s strange, about it breaking I mean. If you let me know when you’re coming, I could let you in. I practically live here.”
“You like books?”
“I would like to be better than I am. So I read a lot in hope it will improve my skill.”
“You weren’t so shabby during the tournament. It was because of you we worked out where the map led.”
I could tell by his expression he wasn’t convinced.
“You’re a second year, right?”
He nodded.
“From what I can see, most second years are still struggling with their ability.”
“You should’ve seen my parents, and my older brothers. They were proficient by the time they’d finished their first year.”
“They don’t expect that of you, though, surely? Everyone is different.”
“Not in my family, everyone is perfect in my family. I’m an embarrassment.”
“Don’t think like that. It’s what makes you struggle. Confidence in your ability to wield the power gifted to you is what will make you good.”
“You’ve been visiting Ms Lane too much. Hey, have you heard anything about how she’s going?”
“Not yet. The curse is proving difficult to unravel.”
“I have every confidence in our healers.”
I wish I could say the same, but I hadn’t been around Darkwells long enough to know.
“What are you reading?” I turned one of the books around so I could see the large picture on the inside page. “It’s the library, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but how it looked a couple of hundred years ago.”
“Doesn’t look much different.” I turned the cover over so I could read the title. “Darkwells Through the Ages. Are you a history buff?”
“You could say that. I spend half my time studying the great sorcerers of old and the other half learning about the beginnings of the supernatural.”
“And what have you learned about Darkwells?”
Jona looked around. We’d kept our voices down during the whole conversation so as not to disturb anyone else, but also to keep on the good side of Ms Appleguard. “It is no coincidence Darkwells was built where it was.”
“Why is that?”
“This location is the nexus for a series of power sources that emanate through the globe. Here and also at each of the other academies. It’s why they were built.”
“McGilus told me they were built to encourage harmony between all the factions.”
“Yes, yes, that to, but why build them on these exact locations?” Without waiting for me to reply, he said, “because of the need to control the ultimate power. It’s no wonder this location was the spot for many ancient rites and rituals that were performed through the ages. Most were to do with harnessing power a
nd the like. And what better place than on a font of power waiting to be tapped into if you know how, which most of them didn’t by the sounds of things. You see the ancients’s power was primitive compared to our own. They needed the extra juice from the nexus to enhance their own pathetic abilities. Then when abilities developed and everyone became more powerful, the nexus at Darkwells along with the locations of the other academies became battlegrounds amongst the powerful factions to gain control.”
“And that power still exists today.”
“Yep.”
“It explains why they have caged the creature at the heart of Darkwells. Amy said it was the only place powerful enough to contain it.”
“Darkwells is warded by its own energy. It’s not the energy of the casters.”
“How is that?”
“The casters manipulate the power that springs from within the nexus to keep Darkwells safe and to keep the creature locked within.”
“Do you know what it is? Is there anything in these books that tells you what it is?”
“No. Those books are probably in McGilus’s room. He keeps everything of great importance vaulted in his office. There are some works that should not fall into the wrong hands.”
I looked to the ceiling. “What about up there?”
“Don’t know. I’ve never requested a book that high up. I wouldn’t know what is up there.”
I looked back at the picture of the library. Trying to keep my voice casual, I said, “do you know much about supernatural evolutionary genetics?”
“We’re studying that currently. Fascinating subject. It is how I know so much about our early ancestors. We’ve evolved a lot since then. The things we can do now, geez, those early supes would not believe. It’s kind of like apes to humans, if you’re not a creationist that is.”
“Do you know much about supernatural’s with mixed ability?”
“Not a lot. It’s a hypotheses that some have put forth. A hope one day we will evolve to such an extent that we will all be the same. Many think it’s a foolish science.”
