The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1)

by Casey White

  And so Owl backed up a step, his thoughts still racing. The man was...odd. Too interested in Alexandria by half, for one. He nodded, though, and turned for the door.

  A plant? his thoughts whispered. Someone who slipped in to try and milk us for information? Is it a threat?

  Underneath it all, the possibility that he’d screwed up and let one of the real-world mages get inside left a pang in his chest. He couldn’t quite remember the words anymore, but he remembered his lessons clearly. Keep them out. Keep them away. Keep yourself safe - and protect the Library.

  A warm breeze brushed against his cheek. Owl forced himself to relax, forced his hands to unclench from their balled-up fists. Alexandria wouldn’t let someone in if she thought there was a danger. She wouldn’t let a mage trespass in her halls. She’d have kept them out.

  Surely.

  It didn’t matter that such a thing had never happened. Logically, he knew how unlikely it was for someone to slip past his own background checks and Alexandria’s watchful eye. Even still...He took in one breath after another, easing the study’s door open and slipping back into the hallways beyond.

  Maybe he should review their biographies one more time before he returned to check on them.

  * * * * *

  With every day that passed inside the Library, Owl’s fears eased a little more. The two were odd - weren’t all of the guests? - but Alan was just...different. Too attentive. So he told himself, and no amount of digging through the records could reveal some sinister history of the man.

  So he watched. Carefully.

  The wheels on the cart squealed as he pushed it along, savoring the burn of his forearms. With the pair making their demands of his time, what few hours he’d normally have claimed in the practice yard had vanished.

  “You just had to make up the difference, didn’t you?” he grunted, digging in his boots and pushing a little harder. The books stacked on top of the cart wobbled dangerously.

  Alexandria hummed around him, the soft notes of a wind-chime singing somewhere beyond its windows. He grinned, trying to pretend there wasn’t sweat pouring down his face. “Could you turn the temp back down?”

  The next push of the cart sent a particularly lively squeal from the wheels, like a metallic raspberry. Owl sighed, hanging his head. “Fine. Whatever. You know I don’t care if those two get cold. They can put on damn coats.”

  There was no reply, and with one final shove, Owl straightened, groaning.

  He leaned against the bookshelves, then, casting a look from side to side. He’d been sent to the upper floors, this time. If he peered down the long, ominously-tall set of shelves, he could see straight through to the balcony’s edge and the studying scholars below.

  “So you’re not comfortable either, hmm?” he murmured, letting his gloved fingers drag against the bookshelves. All morning while he’d worked, in fact, it’d kept him close at hand. Even when a dreamer had appeared a few hours ago, he’d only had to lead it through a few racks before it found its desire. The whole time, he’d been within shouting distance of their guests.

  Again, Alex didn’t respond - but he thought he felt the shelves quiver under his fingers.

  He stared at the pair a moment longer, squinting through the glow. The study was brightly lit, with chandeliers overhead and lanterns below. Couldn’t have the researchers straining their eyes, after all. He snorted. The shelves, on the other hand, were sunken and dark, with just enough light for him to make out the names on the spines around him.

  Alan and Dylan would never see him, in other words. He smiled, his pulse quickening. Right. Time to get to work.

  One book at a time, he heaved the tomes off the cart and slotted them onto an empty shelf. Alex was being kind, at least. He’d take care of the day’s racking in minutes, at this rate.

  Standing on tiptoes, he peered over the shelf, letting his eyes scan the rest of the library wing. Only darkened shelves waited beyond.

  His nose wrinkled. Dropping back to flattened feet, he grabbed another book and pushed it onto the shelf.

  Surely he wasn’t wrong. Surely he’d picked up on the signs by now. The location was perfect, and he’d been in Alexandria for almost half of the pair’s six-month stay. Alex never kept him waiting that long, and-

  The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. With his ears pricked, straining for the faintest scrap of noise, he could just barely make the sound out.

  Footsteps. Somewhere in the shelves, the sound of footsteps fractured the silence.

  Owl smiled - and then shook his head, wiping the expression carefully blank. His hands spread across the leathery covers of the books, and then dragged away. He took a step back, slow and soft.

  Careful not to make a sound, he crept back through the shelves, scanning the darkness. Damn it, the place was so dark even he couldn’t-

  There. His eyes narrowed, fixing on a tall figure wandering the shelves. One that didn’t glow from within like a dreamer.

  A figure that had become quite familiar over the myriad nights. And quite welcome.

  The hem of his coat swished out behind him as he darted forward, the cured leather brushing gently against the shelves and their contents. His hood fluttered, clipped securely to his mask.

  He stared fixated at the figure, wide-eyed, as he stalked up behind him. His hand came up, and-

  “Jesus!” Leon yelped, spinning around as Owl’s hand dropped onto his shoulder.

  “Shh!” Owl hissed, smothering a laugh and clapping his hand over the man’s mouth. Leon froze, blinking desperately.

  For a long moment, the two stood poised in the darkness. Owl glanced back over his shoulder, back toward the brilliantly-lit edge of the balcony to the study below.

  The sounds of turning pages and uninterrupted conversation drifted up to meet him. He exhaled, back to grinning. Safe.

  “Do you have to yell every time?” Owl said, his voice low.

  Leon glared at him, brushing his hand away. “Do you have to sneak up on me every time?”

  Owl chuckled again. “Well. No. But it’s more fun this way.”

  “Damn it,” Leon muttered. “One of these times, I’ll be the one to scare the fucking daylights out of you.”

  “Of course you will.”

  “You could at least sound like you believe me,” Leon said with a groan.

  Owl kept chuckling, turning away from Leon to walk back through the balcony shelves. The cart lay ahead, right where he’d left it. The candles burning around the curtain-wall lining the wing’s edge hadn’t gotten any brighter, but from the twinkling dance of them flickering to and fro, they might as well have been laughing too.

  “Come on,” Owl said, waving Leon on. “You might as well help.”

  “Damn it. You know, I sleep to sleep, not-”

  “If you want to leave, you can leave,” Owl said, cocking an eyebrow back toward the man.

  Leon’s complaints died, his expression turning sullen. “But you said you’d help me. I’m doomed. The chem final is in two weeks, and I-”

  “I’m well aware how screwed you are,” Owl said, his laughter growing. “So come on. The sooner you help me, the sooner I can help un-fuck your grades.”

  “...Sweet.”

  For all his complaints, Leon grabbed the nearest book readily enough - and Alexandria positively purred as he started filling shelves.

  Owl saw Leon’s eyes dart to the studying pair below, though. He saw Leon hesitated, book in hand. “Uh...will they-”

  “If we’re quiet, they shouldn’t notice,” Owl said. “So don’t go yelling, and we’ll be fine. It’s really dark up here, and the books will eat the sound.”

  “Oh. Right. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. You sure you don’t want to leave, though?”

  “I’m sure. We’ll...we’ll be fine here.”

  “Only, most of the time, you always try and hide us deeper in the-”

  “I kinda want to keep an eye on them, this time,” Owl said, his mood darke
ning again.

  Leon stopped, the book half-placed on the shelf. “Problems?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle.” Owl pasted a smile onto his face, grabbing at the next tome. “We’ll just be quiet. But, I mean...are you really the one to give me shit about problems?”

  “W-What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Owl cast a sidelong glance at Leon. “Weren’t you supposed to ask Saul, uh...last night?” His mind raced, slotting the proper timeframe into place.

  His heart fell as Leon’s face turned stony. “Oh. That.”

  “Yeah, that. Weren’t you-”

  “It’s not happening, Owl,” Leon said with a sigh, giving his head a single, final shake. “Just...it’s a mess.”

  “Oh.” Owl nodded, searching for the right words. Somehow, nothing he could say felt right. Somehow, it all felt cheap, like sticking a bandaid over a knife-wound. “Sorry, man.”

  “It’s just...I thought this was something, you know?” Leon burst out, then flinched. His hand slapped over his mouth.

  Again, Owl glanced back to the anthropologists. Again, he stood motionless, waiting.

  And again, when the only sounds he heard were those of total normalcy, he exhaled. “We’re good,” he said.

  “Sorry,” Leon whispered. “Uh. Again. Do we need to go...somewhere...else? Somewhere they can’t-”

  Owl pressed a hand to his face. His fingers scraped against the porcelain, blocking his lenses for a brief moment. He needed to keep an eye on Alan and Dylan. It was his job. And yet...”Up to you,” he said, pulling his fingers away. “If you can handle it, I’d like to stay. But if you need to be loud, we should-”

  “I’m good,” Leon said. It was hard to tell through the dark, but his face certainly looked to be bright red. “It’s not a problem. I’m good. Yeah. I just...”

  He stepped away from the cart, raising his hands to rake through his hair. “It’s like...every time I open my mouth he keeps...”

  Owl watched, methodically unloading the cart as Leon ranted. He chuckled along as his friend laughed. On and on it went - and when Leon’s poor, ill-fated romance with Saul was talked out, he let the conversation turn to his poor, ill-fated test scores, and his poor, ill-fated job prospects.

  Every word Leon said hung in Owl’s mind, painting a picture richer than any hanging from Alexandria’s walls. He could see it all - the people, the places, the sights and sounds of the man’s life.

  There, with Leon’s stories still filling his mind, Owl was again faced with the worry that he’d made a mistake. That he should have gone to college, like society said a normal young man his age should. Back then, it’d seemed like such a horrible idea. Him? Giving up his freedom on his precious days off, to sit in classes for hours on end that would teach him nothing? He’d suffer through millennia of boredom, he’d thought back then.

  Now, though, he wasn’t so sure. Now, looking back, he could only see all of the things he’d passed straight by in exchange for that freedom.

  “Shit. I’m sorry.”

  Owl jerked, his head lifting. Leon stared at him, chagrined. “W-What?” Owl said.

  Leon reached out for another book from the steadily-dwindling stack, not quite meeting Owl’s eyes. “I don’t mean to talk your ear off every time.”

  “I keep telling you it’s fine,” Owl said, trying to cast his mind back across the conversation and get caught up.

  “You’re not my personal therapist,” Leon mumbled. “I really don’t mean to keep treating you like that. So...sorry.”

  “Leon. I told you it’s fine.”

  “Oh, don’t give me that polite-professional bullshit. I don’t care how much you have to kiss their asses, I’d rather you didn’t lie to me. Sorry. I’ll keep a better lid on my shit.”

  “Seriously,” Owl said, a stubborn edge entering his voice. “I don’t mind, Leon. I like hearing about all of it.”

  “Why the hell would you like that?” Leon said, snorting, then pressed a hand to his mouth again. “Shit. Too loud. Sorry.”

  “Because-”

  “No one likes being whined at,” Leon mumbled.

  Owl stared at the bookshelves, tossing the words around in his mind. Finally, he shrugged. “I’ve told you before,” he said. “I don’t get out a whole lot.”

  “Oh.”

  “So I really don’t mind,” Owl said hurriedly. “Really. It’s nice to hear about...well, about the stuff happening out there.”

  Leon was still glaring when he mustered up the will to look his way, still chewing on what Owl had said. “That’s pretty fucked,” he said at last.

  “Oh, screw you,” Owl said. “I thought you wanted me to save your chem grade.”

  “I-I mean, I do, but, like...to be so desperate that you’d rather hear my stupid melodrama than nothing at all.”

  “I’m not desperate.”

  Leon snorted. “You’re a little desperate.”

  “Again,” Owl said. “Screw you.”

  “Can’t you, like...take a vacation, or something?” Leon said, propping one elbow up on the bookshelves. “There’s got to be someone out there to...” His words trailed off as Owl started shaking his head. “What, never?”

  “That’s not how it works,” Owl said, chuckling softly. “It’s...yeah, it’s a bit fucked, but that’s just reality. As far as I know, Alexandria is the only Library out there. And I’m the only Librarian.”

  “Well...” Leon began, screwing up his face. “Well, shit.”

  “Shit indeed,” Owl said, slapping his hand down onto the next tome.

  For a while, Leon let him shelve in silence, staring blankly at the floor as he processed. Owl focused on the last few books still waiting for his attentions, trying to pretend like his face wasn’t burning. Through all the years he’d spent as Librarian, he’d never spent so long talking about himself.

  “Well,” Leon said.

  “Stop saying ‘well’.”

  “I mean...couldn’t we find someone to, like, help out? Hell, I’m good with people,” Leon said, straightening and patting his chest. He flashed Owl a winning grin. “I could take over sometimes, couldn’t I?”

  “You just want to wear the mask,” Owl said dryly.

  “Can you blame me?” Leon said. “But, seriously. We could hire someone else, couldn’t we? How’d you get the job, anyway? I mean, I don’t think you can be much older than me, and you’re this mystical Librarian.”

  It was Owl’s turn to snort. “How would you know how old I am, anyway?”

  “How you talk,” Leon said without hesitation. “How you move. You’re not old. I’m not an idiot. Answer the question.

  “I...don’t really...”

  “Come on. Spit it out. Stop playing shy.”

  “I just don’t remember,” Owl said. Leon blinked, his eyes wide. Owl shrugged. “Sorry. I just-”

  “You don’t remember?” Leon burst out.

  “...No?” Owl said, shrinking back. “I just...it’s been years and years, Leon. But I remember being here when I was a kid, and...” A figure flashed through his mind, willowy and black-masked. “I remember the old Librarian, a little. That’s all.” He bit his lip, his head falling forward slightly. “More than that...I don’t remember.”

  “Were they, like, your parent, or-”

  “No, no,” Owl said, shaking his head. “My family wasn’t...they aren’t involved. They don’t know.” The years fogged it all, putting a haze over the parts he could almost remember, but more than anything...”I can’t remember anything before being here. Not even them. I don’t...I don’t think I ever could.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Just Alexandria, and...her. My old teacher. That’s all.”

  Owl fell quiet, after that. His brows pulled together. The old frustration welled up in him again. It didn’t make sense. Alexandria was his home, and...Even if he wanted out, he didn’t want to lose her, but he just wanted things to make sense. Maybe it was time. Maybe Alex was right, and he should start delving into things. />
  Too late, he realized that the silence that had fallen between them dragged on still, growing deeper and more fathomless with every second it went unbroken. He looked up. “B-But, uh.”

  Leon stared back at him, every line of his face appalled. “Owl, that sounds like kidnapping.”

  “N-No,” Owl said, shaking his head. “I mean...I don’t know. I just-”

  “But, then, you didn’t ever get a choice in this, did you?”

  Owl stopped, his arguments dying. “I guess not,” he said finally.

  Again, that horrible silence sprawled out, long and heavy. The books filled his eyes, but he didn’t look away. It was easier to look at the books than Leon. If he looked at Leon, he’d have to deal with the pity shining through the blue depths of his eyes.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” he heard Leon say softly. “Shit, you’ve listened to me babble for months, and I never...I never stopped to think.” More silence. “I guess...if you want me to leave it alone, that’s okay, but-”

  “I don’t...” Owl began, but stopped. He didn’t want to talk about it. Not right then. Maybe not ever. But Alexandria pressed in closer around them, with the darkness swathing the both of them like a blanket.

  A sigh ripped from his throat. “I think maybe-”

  Porcelain shattered from afar, splintering the moment, and Owl stiffened. More than the sound of it breaking, he heard the voices raised in startled, fearful cries. He heard the curses.

  He took off running in an instant, leaving Leon in that dark, shadowed aisle. His eyes snapped forward, angled down into the study, where-

  His limbs went cold and heavy, freezing him in place. He reeled, catching himself a moment before he could tumble down. But his gaze never faltered, never tore free from the sight before him.

  The two scholars, standing beside their table, with chairs askew behind them.

  The shattered plate, scattered across the ground. The cup that’d broken along with it, marring the carpet with flecks of broken glass.

  And the water that cheerfully hovered in midair before Alan’s shaking hand.

  - Chapter Twenty-Two -