Muse Unchained (The Last Library Book 3)

by Jill Cooper

  Copyright, 2018 Jill Cooper. All Rights Reserved

  The last curator crosses into enemy territory. The Dark Lord awaits her arrival.

  Tarnish Rose knows she’s made a mistake. A deal brokered with the evil Temptress to buy herself some time nearly destroys her allegiance with her friends. Now they stand before the burning fires of the former capital.

  Once the final crystal shard is in Tarnish’s hands, she must venture into Temptress’s fortress, defeat her, and take her staff. Only then, will the last library location be revealed.

  Chapter: Tarnish Rose

  The way through DC was lit with fire and the remains of an old empire burned.

  From the memories I had shared with Temptress, thanks to the remnant crystal shard, the area looked familiar. Everything, though, was now different. Destroyed. The capital building they once called the White House was little more than a crumbled foundation, with the roof cracked through like an egg split open. Out front, the old flags of Creighton were tattered and paper thin. It was an ocean aways, rocks drifting in lava separating us from it.

  Yet, I still had to find our way to the Smithsonian. Once a treasured museum, it was now nothing more than a lair to the monsters of the old age who protected the last crystal remnant I needed to complete my sphere and defeat the Dark Lord Creighton.

  Except there was one problem…

  I jumped to the next rock, really nothing more than a crusted piece of lava, I tottered, holding out my hands as my friends Sebastian and Ella jumped beside me. Ella grabbed my arm and I squealed, losing my balance. We nearly fell backward into the burning flames. Sebastian grabbed my robe and made sure the both of us were all right.

  “Sorry!” Ella cried and clung to my arm. For someone who despised me most of the time, now she couldn’t get enough of me. Her desperation to survive made her all at once a liability and an asset.

  “We need to jump to the next ledge,” I said and pointed to some rocks gathered near what was once a street, now lava churned and splashed up onto the Boulevard. The old maps we had found pointed to the Smithsonian being that way, and we were coming up on the worst parts of the lava streama.

  I pulled the golden staff free and used it to point off in the distance. Ella and Sebastian nodded as they stood beside me. Each of us gathered our strength and fortitude in our attempt to make it across. None of us talked about where we had recently been and the death we had faced. Instead, we just pushed forward, our quest so close to completion.

  Three rocks in a line, I made the jump first, skipping across. I took a deep breath and leapt with power from my knees. I landed on an old crumbled street slowly being eaten by the lava. The old asphalt was melted, sticking to my boots, and I ran a foot before scraping the sole of it against some dry, brown grass.

  Ella leapt beside me first. She had the face of an angel but the sneer of a devil. Her cheeks were flushed red from the heat of the place and behind her smoke rose up from the flames. Sebastian leapt next, fluffing his robe out and examining his hem. “A little smolder, but nothing I can’t handle.”

  I smiled at him, hoping he’d return it.

  We made it through the rough part. With a deep breath, I turned and led everyone down the street. Coming to a brick overpass, we ducked beneath it. Inside the brief archway, old words were spray painted above us. My fingers stroked the letters as I read them:

  Tyranny of the US Government.

  President opposes free will and law.

  Help educate our children!

  Privacy or protection. We can’t have both!

  Ella’s eyes twitched from me to the words. “Is it a warning about this place? Where we venture and where we’re going?”

  “A history lesson,” I answered sadly. “Unfortunately, they lost, but we’re not about to make the same mistake they did.”

  “We make brand new mistakes,” Sebastian said and cast me a look. My stomach rumbled as it twisted. His words cut me as they were designed to. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Tarnish. You didn’t deserve that. I’m tired and scared. I just want to get this over with.”

  I accepted his apology, but he was right. I had made a mistake of the worst kind. You shouldn’t make a deal with the devil, but that’s exactly what I did, and I couldn’t even regret it. If I hadn’t, we’d all be dead, me and my friends alike. Maybe even worse, my quest would be over and the world’s slavery to evil would never end.

  Now, my problems were tenfold.

  Get the shard, bring it to Temptress but double cross and destroy her, free the children, and take her staff. I couldn’t forget, either, about my dear beloved George who she kept prisoner and lorded over me.

  We rested for a moment to regain our strength—and our courage. After a few sips of water, we walked beneath the underpass and further into the city. I saw the remains of the Smithsonian in the distance, and all around it the ravengers waited. Wraiths dressed in red robes sitting on rooftops, watching us, as if we were a precision marching to our deaths.

  I couldn’t say they were wrong. The grief in me soured so strong that I didn’t know what to do. I could barely breathe as their eyes followed me. We walked closer and I felt like I was walking toward death, inside a tomb. Sebastian and Ella walked close behind, and my boots hit the smashed marble steps of the museum entrance. Glancing down, I stared at the beaten, uneven stairs before stepping up to them.

  Ella and Sebastian followed behind, but as I reached what remained of the door, the ravenger bent down and shrieked until my ears wanted to bleed. His hood separating me and my friends, he outstretched his hands to grab them until they stumbled backwards down the steps.

  My heart raced and I stepped forward, ready to pluck the ravenger out of the air, even knowing doing so would cause my death. Sebastian took a step toward me again, his eyes wide and frightened. The ravenger protested again, this time even louder.

  “It doesn’t want us to follow!” Ella cried. “It wants her to do this alone.” She swallowed hard. “So be it then. Maybe Tarnish Rose gets what she deserves.”

  My nostrils flared angrily and my chest puffed up, defensive, but I didn’t say what I wanted. Because I wanted to scream what I had done, the deal I made, had saved her life.

  “She does this with us!” Sebastian countered to the ravenger who flew down to meet him. He pulled his sword free and took another step forward.

  “Sebastian!” I called as the Ravenger spread his arms wide, diving toward my friend. “Don’t hurt him! I’ll go alone. I promise you.”

  “And if they eat us after you get what it is they want?” Ella asked and crossed her arms, always pushing, always saying the things I wished she wouldn’t.

  “They won’t get the remnant if they do that, they know that, as does their mistress.” I took a deep breath. “I’ll come back for you, I promise.”

  “Be careful, Tarnish,” Sebastian said softly, lowering his sword. “Please.”

  There was nothing more to say, and I couldn’t stomach staring at Sebastian any longer. I was just as afraid for them as I was for myself. Quickly, I raced up the stairs. The front entrance was smashed bits of rock and stone. I ducked as I raced in and stood in the remains of the grand lobby. Only the glow from outside lit the way. The ground had been pushed up and crumbled as if a great earthquake had destroyed the place.

  I needed something to light the way.

  My satchel carried what I had of the remnant shards, but it also held books. Those outlawed pieces of contraband that time had forgotten and that I had the ability to read when most others had forgotten how.

  I was the curator and this was my job.

  Pulling a book free, I rested my hand on the
hard cover, feeling it’s rough edges beneath my fingertips. My touch brought to life a golden glow within the pages and lit the way. Swaying the book to the right, I screamed at the sight of a large animal before I realized it was an old statue.

  Taking a deep breath, I walked around the exhibit. Before me were shattered desks and collapsed glass display cases. Inside was nothing more than debris and dirt. Glancing upward, I was in awe at how high the ceilings were and how absolutely gorgeous the pillars were, even six hundred years later.

  I could barely fathom what it must’ve looked like in its day when it was new and shiny.

  As I continued through the grand lobby, I could see that there were doorways leading in all directions but which way was right? I rotated toward them each in turn and when my messenger bag started to hum, I paused. My bag lit up with intense light from the remnant inside.

  It was telling me which way to go.

  I rushed down toward the hall and came to a barricaded entrance. Large pieces of wood had been nailed across and spray painted with warning signs. The written word had already fallen out of favor by the time it was done because the words CAUTION: KEEP OUT were spelled wrong, the C and K both reversed as if a child had written the message. Just beneath that, were the letters:

  MONSTER

  I raced with a chill. We had heard the stories, we had all been afraid, and now it was time for me to face it. Alone.

  ****

  Using the power of the books, I bent the screws and twisted the wood until they were loose enough and I pried off the middle piece. Ducked down low, I was able to sneak beneath the top board and climb over the second. Inside a new wide chamber, I found displays of birds made of wax and feathers. Housed behind glass, they were unharmed due to war and time. It was fascinating to see creatures I hadn’t even dreamed of.

  My wildest dreams couldn’t even begin to prepare me for what was to come next.

  I turned left into the next chamber, this one smaller than the last, and my footsteps echoed in the great expanse of the room. In the middle, was a giant globe with a railing all around. There, a plaque read that the giant ball was the Earth—this was our planet, where we lived, and it wasn’t flat like we had been told. It was a giant circle and it floated in space?

  My mind was blown, and I didn’t have the words to describe how I was feeling. Overwhelmed, my fingers gripped the railing and a noise from down below chilled me. Part howl, part sigh, the deepest growl I had ever heard came together like a voice, a sound.

  “….Curator….”

  Hiss, hiss, it went, like a rattle.

  Gulping, I stepped back from the railing as if to hide. I gripped the shoulder strap of my satchel and gazed down. The light in my bag shone the brightest when I pivoted toward a closed door. The heat inside it was now intense enough to feel against the outside of my robe.

  There was a monster guarding the last remnant, and it knew who I was and knew I was here. The only question, was I strong enough to go down those stairs?

  ****

  I had no choice but to push open the heavy wooden door and creep down those stairs. They curved against the wall, bringing me closer to the basement floor. The further I went, the more I could make out the sound of heavy breathing and a rattling noise. The glow from my books lit the way, and I saw the last few steps, along with the floor, were coated in long dried red paint.

  Yet, it wasn’t paint. It was blood.

  I stepped down, my breathing labored, not from fatigue but from pure fear. The remnant led me left down the hall to a set of double doors. Placing my hand against the wood, claws clacked against the glass window as a giant spider walked across the entrance. I covered my mouth to hide my scream and jumped backward so the spider wouldn’t see me.

  But it was so close.

  The remnant was so close.

  I thought about all the children from the McGee who were counting on me. I thought of Claire who had such a rough birth and now was missing her two sons. I had the power to reunite a family, if I was brave enough to confront and defeat evil.

  What made me think that I could do such a thing? I was a merchant’s daughter from Rottenwood, a nice place filled with kind, if not spectacular, people. Now Creighton had my beloved town in his iron clad grip and the only thing I could do to fight him was to get that remnant and complete my sphere.

  I pushed open the door and stepped into the basement storage room. The smell of mildew and dust hit me first. Boxes were long gone and giant spiders with large grey bodies and black markings stood in the corners of the room, some balanced across the front of metal shelving units. The room had a collection of old weapons—swords, shields, crossbows—laying against the walls and pillars.

  Cobwebs the size of blankets lined the back walls, and in the center of the room, an ivory throne where a woman made of golden and black scales appeared to be moving.

  The lower half of her body was twisted like a giant snake. Her torso was sleek and her hair moved. Her tendrils were the mouths of snakes, snapping and biting at one another, throwing venom at the spiders clinging to the walls and advancing on the ground. On her neck, a golden chain dangled between the soft rise of her breasts, and from it, a dangling blue shard. It pulsed with blue light as I got close, sensing me and the other remnants near.

  I hid behind a marble pillar, keeping an eye on the spiders, as well as the woman. Her face was one of pure beauty and her skin shined. Her black eyes, a voice of light, snapped open and she growled through puckered lips. Glowering, she sat up and pushed off her throne, but a large spider struck her with his mighty fangs. The female beast howled in pain and retracted back to her throne, reclining like a queen, she was nothing short of a prisoner.

  I had to worry what would happen if she was set free. A monster and nothing more, would she show me mercy or would she respond only with death? Either way, I had to try and get the remnant.

  Slowly, I moved and opened my messenger bag. Inside, I saw the glowing remnant pulsing with light and power, desperate to be made whole. I heard the scampering of claws above and around me moving closer, wanting what I had.

  I pulled the leather-bound Wizard of Oz free, and clasped my bag closed. The blue light shined from inside, making the bag hot to the touch. I had to ignore it and I flipped the book open.

  I flipped to chapter four when the twister came for Dorothy and Toto because of the power of those words and the immediacy I required and started to read the words.

  “The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.

  The north and south winds met where the house stood, and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In the middle of a cyclone the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher, until it was at the very top of the cyclone; and there it remained and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.

  It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle.”

  A spider suspended himself in front of me from the silk of its web, its multiple eyes on me and saliva dripping from its mouth.

  I screamed and rotated around the marble post. The distance between me and the beast on the throne seemed massive. She leered forward as I made my appearance and she screamed, her black eyes rolling over yellow. Incapable of human speech, she pointed at me. The snakes on her head became aggressive, shooting venom and biting at one another.

  The spiders marched like an army toward me as they descended the walls toward my location. I stood my ground and continued to read the passage.

  “Once Toto got too near the open trap door, and fell in; and at first the little girl thought she had lost him. But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure o
f the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trap door so that no more accidents could happen.

  Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again; but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last, she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her.

  In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.”

  The wind picked up as the book shined, and my own hands glowed as the light radiated around me. As the light engulfed the spiders, they became dry and brittle and turned to dust, falling where they stood.

  The creature stood from her throne, coiling on her snake tail and picked up a bow and arrow. She slithered toward me and I became relentless in my reading.

  A spider knocked me down on my stomach and my book went wide. I screamed and stretched out my hand for the book as it tumbled, but the spider pinned me. The size of a horse-drawn carriage, its mandible spat at my cheek and it immediately went numb.

  I feared I’d die beneath it, and my task would come to an end so quickly, and quietly. Stretching my hand out to my book, its pages flew open and a brilliant light shown up and out from it.

  My task wasn’t finished. I could do this.

  “The cyclone had set the house down very gently—for a cyclone—in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes. A little way off was a small brook, rushing and sparkling along between green banks, and murmuring in a voice very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long on the dry, gray prairies.”