He couldn’t find the seawall, and he wasn’t sure he had the courage to throw himself into the ocean if he did.
Even the slavers were avoiding him. Though with his luck, they wouldn’t kill him when they saw his foot was gone. He couldn’t imagine why they’d keep him, but it wasn’t worth the risk. Becoming a slave was even worse than being a cripple.
The Paduans must be watching him, though. His back crawled from the eyes examining him. It could be the street vendors, eying the poor cripple crutching along the lane. It could be the neighborhood beggars, wondering if he planned to hold out a begging cup in their territories. But his bet was on the slavers.
He had no bets now. No plans, no hopes.
Without his foot, he was ruined. A worthless cripple, not even worth feeding. Though the Thunderer knew he was eating enough. Every time the nurses walked past him, they shoved something into his mouth. A rice ball. A honey cake. A sugared almond. He ought to weigh seven thousand pounds.
Karisu said he was too skinny.
His father said he was too skinny to feed to the bahtdor.
He’d dreamed about being Outcast again last night, but instead of saying he was too short, his father had screamed that he’d disown a crippled son.
What could he say? He was a cripple, and now he was a foot shorter.
One good thing about Sedra-Kei: almost everyone was as short as he was. Lorel must feel like giant. Who was he kidding? She was a giant.
She’d been gone for ten days.
It had never occurred to him that he might miss her. She was too loud, too brash, too– annoying.
She was interesting. Always. Even when he was mad at her.
Viper sighed and sat down on some big building’s steps. It was time to admit it. He wasn’t only a lonely cripple.
He was bored.
He’d never been bored since the day he met Lorel. She never gave him the chance.
Maybe he should enjoy the change?
No. Boring wasn’t change. Boring was just– boring.
Despair was boring. He’d become boring. If he was going to live, he had to do something about that.
He needed a book. Preferably a big book that would require a lot of time to read. He had a lot of time on his hands.
Viper sighed and propped his elbows on his good knee. He didn’t know how to cope with the loss of his foot. Maybe a book could tell him what to do.
Now, to find a book. Any book.
An elderly woman walked out of the building behind him. Viper stood, balanced on his crutches, and bowed to her. “Could you direct me to a bookstore?”
The old woman smiled and glanced over her shoulder. “Would a library do? You are standing on the steps of the second biggest library in Dureme-Lor.”
“Thunderer’s dice, talk about luck.” And she hadn’t even looked at his foot. Lack of foot. Maybe being crippled meant less when people got old?
Viper bowed politely and hobbled up the stairs. He pushed through the heavy doors and froze halfway into the building.
Red silk and gold paint overwhelmed him. A white-haired man with a dragon-bright aura guarded a counter of black marble that dominated the ornate room like a royal mausoleum in a wealthy neighborhood’s cemetery. Plush walls were lined with golden doors and marble shelves. At least a hundred shelves.
There weren’t more than twenty books on all the shelves put together. They called this a library?
Tears blurred his vision. He tried to back out the door before the old man at the counter noticed him.
Someone elbowed him between the shoulders and thrust him into the room.
Flames ate through his stump. Agony darkened the room. He staggered and hopped several steps forward on his crutches to catch his balance. When his vision cleared, he turned and glared at his attacker.
A spindly young man in a gray student-scholar’s tunic smirked and stroked his downy beard. “I bet you’ve never seen so many books in your life.”
Viper scowled at him. “I have more books than this in my backpack.”
The old man looked up and laid his book on the counter. “Toad-brained students. You, get yourself off to your mentor’s room. I won’t put up with your sass. Out.”
The boy shrugged and sauntered through a doorway on the right.
The old man turned to Viper. “I haven’t seen you before. Who do you belong to?”
He bowed, trying to hide the irritation branded on his face. “I am an independent, sir.”
“Look at me when you speak.”
He glared at the old vulture. He hadn’t done anything to deserve that tone.
“Better. What do you want?”
“I want to study.”
“Study what?”
“Everything!” Viper spread his arms wide. “I want to learn everything.”
The old man glared at him, but a grin crept across his face. “You’ll do. A traveler?”
He blinked and nodded.
“Who was your last mentor?”
“Trevor of Zedista.” Viper lifted his chin. If this old man made fun of Trevor, he’d… he’d…
“Bless the Seven Temples. A brilliant writer. I believe we have a copy of every one of his books.”
His jaw dropped. How many books could that be? “I only have one,” he whispered.
“Have you read all of them?” The old man gestured at a door behind him. “The Seventh Reading Room. Third door on the left, fourth stack from the right, eighth section from the front, second shelf up from the floor.”
He glanced at the empty shelves surrounding him.
The old man snorted. “This lot is for show. Expensively-bound poetry, written by various emperors. The real books are in the stacks.” He stood and opened a huge journal. “Sign in here, and tell any librarian on duty that Henrikei vouches for you.”
Viper signed the book with a shaking hand.
Henrikei studied the signature. “You call yourself ‘Venomous Snake’? Like a wizard might?”
“It’s a long story.” One he wasn’t up to telling at the moment. What was the shortest version? “I’m Setoyan. I didn’t know wizards named themselves in Zedisti, or that they claimed terms from the natural world.”
“A fair explanation.”
Not a single joke about him being the shortest Setoyan in history. He wanted to hug the old librarian.
“The bell rings half an hour before closing time.” Henrikei opened the door into the stacks. “I suggest you shelve up and head to the main door as soon as you hear it. The closing librarian is a perfect dragon.”
Viper grinned and crutched down the hall. He passed all of the closed doors until he reached the third entrance on the left.
He opened the door to the Seventh Reading Room.
Lost his breath to perfect awe. There were more books in this single room than in all of Trevor’s Lab. And this was just one room out of at least seven? How many thousands of books did they have?
He shook himself and searched for Trevor’s books. Fourth stack from the right, out of twenty stacks. Eighth section from the front, out of twenty sections. Second shelf from the bottom, out of ten shelves. He couldn’t reach the top shelf, not even if he’d been able to climb the rolling ladder.
Fifteen to twenty books per shelf.
He sank down to the floor and stared at a shelf and a half of Trevor’s books.
A shelf and a half.
Tears ran down his cheeks. He gulped, wiped his face on his sleeve. He hadn’t known that Trevor had written more than one little book.
He stroked the spine of each book, feeling Trevor’s hand under his fingers. Seeing those cheerful green eyes.
Wishing he could talk to his teacher again.
He dropped his face into his hands. He felt so guilty, so inadequate. There were so many things he should have said while Trevor was still alive to hear them. So many stories he should have heard.
Trevor had been dead for two lunars.
A bell near the door chimed t
wice.
Viper jumped. He couldn’t guess how long he been sitting on the floor, but his rear end had gone numb. Both of his sleeves were damp and his face felt swollen. He knew his eyes were red.
He hoped it was dark outside.
Viper wobbled to his foot and looked down at Trevor’s books.
He still hadn’t taken a single book off the shelf.
But now he had something to live for. He couldn’t die until he’d read all of Trevor’s books.
Chapter 28.
Scrubbing baby moss off the stairwell wall was the stupidest job Lorel had ever gotten stuck with. She’d already done her section, and three of the shorter girls’, besides. No way was she doing everybody’s work.
Only Tsai’dona had stayed with her, and she was working her butt off to keep up.
“I’m bored.” Bored, bored, bored. If she didn’t do something interesting soon, she was gonna get herself into trouble.
Tsai’dona looked at her like she’d fallen off the Shuttle. “Go take a nap. We have lessons soon. He’ll work you hard, and you know it.”
Working hard was fine with her. She’d learn more, and faster that way. But scrubbing a wall was boring. Sleeping was boring. “I ain’t tired. I wanna go exploring.”
“Explore what?” Tsai’dona snorted, but quickly brightened. “In the kitchen?”
“I wish. I’m not that crazy, though.” She was always hungry these days, but the kitchen was guarded by grumpy twin cooks who carried meat mallets on their belts like swords. Three days ago they’d cornered a thieving boy and broken his arm. And gotten him kicked out of school.
It was sweet of Tsai’dona to think she had what it took sneak past the twins and escape with a bit of food. She’d risk facing the meat mallets, but no way would she gamble on getting kicked out.
“I wanna explore the towers.” They kept the towers all locked up. Gotta be something interesting in there.
Tsai’dona frowned, and her face got thoughtful. “Nobody goes into the towers. Why not?”
“Let’s go see.” Lorel dumped green water into a gutter, carried their bucket and scrub brushes to the nearest closet and stashed them away. She climbed the stairs up to the ground floor and strolled along the corridor as if she owned the place.
Tsai’dona followed, watching the empty hall like it might grow teeth and bite her.
She better get the girl under cover before somebody decided they were looking for trouble. But first she needed a look at the tower door’s lock. She’d squirreled a few interesting bits of wire and stuff under her bedmat, but she’d never been good at lock picking. If it needed anything fancy, she’d have to track down the key and borrow it.
But there wasn’t a lock at all. The door was secured by a simple swivel latch. How disappointing. Couldn’t be anything very interesting if they didn’t bother to secure it.
She eased the door open an inch and peeked inside. Nobody was in the big empty room. She opened the door wider and squeezed through. “You coming?”
Tsai’dona hesitated, but nodded and slipped through the opening.
Lorel pushed the door shut and strolled across the floor. It looked like an indoor practice area. Ought to be nice when winter arrived. If they got to use it. So far, they worked outside, rain or humid heat.
She peeked through the shutters of the sole window. Yup, that was the West Courtyard, where she practiced some days. When the instructors were happy with her. That didn’t happen often enough.
Tsai’dona was already halfway up the stairs on the far wall. “You coming?”
“Right behind you.” Like she’d stay behind or something. This was her adventure, after all. Besides, this room was boring.
They pushed through the heavy door at the top of the stairs. And froze.
Tsai’dona gasped.
Lorel’s heart raced. This was a true treasure trove, an armory for exotic weapons. One wall was covered with oddly-shaped swords, another with huge war axes, the third with hundreds of daggers. Many of the weapons were made of bronze, but most were made of rare – and expensive – Crayl steel. She’d never seen so much steel in all her life.
She desperately wanted to touch the swords, but they all gleamed like they were polished every day. She’d heard enough lectures on how body oil damaged metal to keep her hands to herself. They’d know it was her. Her fingers were bigger than everybody’s, even the instructors’.
This was a treasure somebody watched. Why were they hiding it here?
No Setoyan swords, though. No bone swords at all. Right now she was glad she’d left her swords safe with the kid.
The fourth wall held the staircase leading up. The first floor made up for the boring ground floor. She couldn’t wait to see what was on the second.
She trotted up the steps, with Tsai’dona right on her heels. Together they pushed open the next door.
The room was filled with armor. Plates, chainmail, ringed mail sewn on leather, all stuff she’d only seen drawn in chalk on the classroom wall. All of it on display dummies, looking halfway alive. All of it gleaming with a fresh coat of oil.
What she’d give for a good set of chainmail!
Tsai’dona shook her head. “I don’t see the point to this stuff. Heavy. Hot. Slows a fighter down.”
Lorel shrugged. “You get hit hard enough, you’ll wish for armor.”
“You get hit that hard?”
Only by Kraken’s fist. She supposed that didn’t count. “I seen a fight where it saved a guy’s arm.” A practice fight in the City Guard’s training yard. The fraying lieutenant like to yelled his voice out before the training master calmed him down. She never did figure out if he was yelling at the guy who got hit, or the one who hit him.
Tsai’dona shrugged and headed up the next flight of stairs.
Lorel spent one more moment drooling over the chainmail, but all of it was too small to fit over her head, even if she’d been stupid enough to try it on. It had never bothered her that shirts sold in the market were too tiny and Mom had to sew all her clothes, but being too big for chainmail might break her heart.
Tsai’dona pushed open the next door. “What in the Seven Temples?”
What? Even better stuff? Lorel abandoned the armor and raced up the stairs.
The room was filled with frozen animals. She froze herself, until she realized none of the critters were breathing. “Oh, they’re all stuffed.”
“Stuffed?” Tsai’dona inched into the room. “Dead?”
“Yeah. It’s something rich people do to prove they can hunt.” Not that she was a good hunter herself, but if she caught it, she ate it. The kid was real fussy about that. Surprised her every time, how good a hunter he was, even with a bum foot.
She strolled around the room, but dead animals were pretty boring. A stuffed snake tempted her, just to tease the kid with it, but who knew when she’d see him again.
Tsai’dona stared at a dead wolf like she’d never seen nothing that scary before. Gotta give the girl points for nerve. She sorta looked like she was checking it for weaknesses.
Except for the snake, there weren’t nothing interesting on this floor. She trotted up the stairs and pushed open the door.
The snarky, snotty, Toranan-Yiet brat called Sui’todou turned away from the tower’s north window.
“What are you doing up here, girl?”
Her thread was so snipped. She gestured frantically behind her back. No point in them both getting caught. “Just looking around.”
“The Kerovi barbarian, of all people.” He smiled like he’d snitched the last handful of sugared almonds again.
“I’m Zedisti, Loom lint. Ain’t never been to Kerov.” She wasn’t a barbarian, neither, not like the kid. And Zedista was lots more civilized than Dureme-Lor. At home people wore real clothes.
Footsteps whispered out of the room below her. Good. Tsai’dona had enough sense to leave. One less thing to worry about.
“Surely even a barbarian knows the towers are off lim
its.”
She forced herself to smile at the miswoven boy. “You’re up here, so it can’t be too bad.”
“I am on duty. It is my great honor to stand guard in the tower.” He tugged at his green-and-gold-striped hip wrap like he was trying to show it off. Didn’t he know the silly thing made him look maybe two feet tall? “What are you doing here?”
He kept asking that. She didn’t have a good answer. “Just wanted to see how far we could see from this high.”
The brat grinned evilly. The snake what bit the kid had a sweeter smile. “You’re trespassing. I should report you. You deserve to be dismissed from Gyrfalcon House.”
Her heart stopped beating. They couldn’t kick her out. She’d hardly learned nothing yet.
Sui’todou’s grin grew wider. “The instructors will punish you in front of the whole school.”
They could beat on her all they wanted, as long as they didn’t kick her out.
“They’ll inform all the Houses in Sedra-Kei that you were dishonorably dismissed. They’ll write to all the schools throughout Dureme-Lor.”
Her gut clenched so hard she thought she’d throw up. The room tilted. They’d done all that to the boy they’d caught raiding the kitchen.
“You’ll never get another place in any House.” His evil smile turned into a stern frown. “Unless…”
Unless what? Was he gonna make her wait all day?
Her reaction must not be what he’d hoped for. His stern expression faded into pure cranky. “Unless you let me win all our practice matches.”
That weren’t a problem. He always won anyway.
She nodded, but kept her lips pinched shut. No point in making it worse by saying what she thought about the toad.
“And you make me look good while you’re at it.”
“How?” The word burst out of her. “They’ll know if I hold back much.”
“That’s your problem.” The snaky smile slid back over his face. “You’ll think of something.” He turned back to the window. “Get out of here before the instructors notice you.”
Seven really dirty curses tried to squirm out of her mouth, but she bit them down and left without a word. If she spoke to him, she’d hit him. If she hit him half as hard as she wanted, she might kill him. Killing him wasn’t worth the misery. Kraken’s dead eyes still gave her nightmares.
Sorcery's Child (The Mindbender's Rise Book 2) Page 28
