Greysons of Grimoire

by Tpaul Homdrom

  “How’d you find us, anyway?” Chelsea asked. “We weren’t even originally going to come to the music library.”

  “I was just waiting,” Lahain said. “I… well, I hid the score for the Song of Solitude here, so, I thought I should stay close to it. And I thought you might… perhaps… come here at some point? I didn’t know Isabelle was traveling with so many people.”

  “So basically, you gave up on looking for her and just got lucky,” Chelsea said.

  Lahain chuckled nervously. “Seems that w-way, huh?” he asked.

  “Why hide the music here?” Lorelei asked. The climbed a wrought-iron spiral staircase to a sitting area surrounded by shelves of books. “Why not keep it with you and search the Dominion?”

  “I did search,” Lahain said. “For… a long time. Lady Kodoka didn’t have much for me to go off of. I just had a, um, description of Isabelle. And some ideas of where she might go. And… there is this.” Lahain reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue stone pendant on a silver chain. “She said it m-might lead me to her.”

  “Mommy used to always carry that,” Isabelle said. She’d become subdued since watching the video of her mother, but now she stared at the pendant with wide eyes. “She said it made sure her daughters wouldn’t get lost.”

  Lahain nodded. “But whoever used magic on Lady Kodoka must have also tampered with the stone,” he said. “It continued to point me here. So, eventually, I gave up the search and waited, hoping perhaps you would arrive. In truth…” He bowed his head. “I had almost given up waiting here, too. I… I had planned to leave tomorrow.”

  “So where’s the Song of Solitude’s score?” Delilah asked. “How far in here did you hide it?”

  “There are e-employee safe boxes,” Lahain said. “I started working here early, when the stone first started pointing here, so I have one of my own. I… well… I put it there. It isn’t much father now.”

  “So you know this library pretty well then,” Chelsea said. Lahain nodded, responding with a nervous chuckle.

  Their winding path took them up and up, until they were on the highest platforms of the music library, looking down about seven stories at the floor far below. They’d stayed close to the walls of the library, which had a series of metal lockers with combination locks on the top floor.

  “Why do they keep the employee safe boxes in such an out-of-the-way place?” Gwen asked. “It seems they’d be better situated on the lower levels, closer to the entrance or reception desks.”

  “Oh, these are just…” Lahain said, taking a moment to clear his throat. “These are just for the lowest level employees. The s-sprouts. That’s what… that’s what they call us.” He began busying himself with one of the lockers, while Delilah found herself struggling not to laugh. Looking over at Chelsea, she was the same. Sprouts? Delilah wanted to ask, incredulous. They call you sprouts?

  “There we go,” Lahain said, opening the locker and retrieving the only item inside: two sheets of white paper. He started to give them to Isabelle, but then stopped. “I… I’ll be honest. I don’t know everything. But… you may not want to g-go back to the Library of Solitude.”

  “Why not?” Isabelle asked, holding out her hands expectantly.

  Lahain looked away, fear flashing across his face. “Something isn’t right,” he said. “Lady Kodoka can’t go back, but even if she could… she might not be able to fix everything. It may not be safe for you.”

  “She has us, too,” Delilah said.

  “How much do you know, Lahain?” Gwen asked. “Isabelle’s mother told her to go back to the Library. Why would she say that if it isn’t safe?”

  Lahain clutched the score tightly, the papers rustling against each other. “I… I was able to reach it,” he said. “Only once, shortly after Lady Kodoka found me. She isn’t able to go back, but she was able to send me there, temporarily, so that I could… could see what…” Lahain covered his face with the sheets of music. “I’m not sure anyone should go there.”

  “Mommy told me to go,” Isabelle said, her voice strong and determined. “Not just in her message. She always would tell me ‘If anything happens to me, you must return to the Library. Keep it safe.’ That’s what she told me. That’s why I’ve been trying to get back. So I have to go. It doesn’t matter how dangerous or scary it is. It’s my home.” She held out her hands again, smiling. “You don’t have to come, Lahain. You can stay where it’s safe.”

  Lahain sighed, lowering the score into Isabelle’s hands. “If you need help reading it, I can assist you,” he said.

  Isabelle took a look at the two pages of music, eyes wide with awe and excitement. She shook her head. “Nope,” she said. “I can read this. And I recognize some of it. I was really close to figuring it out!”

  “If… if you’d like,” Lahain said, pointing to his right, “there’s a performance room that’s a little more private. Playing a song to teleport you somewhere else… it might disturb the library’s patrons. Perhaps. Maybe. I don’t…”

  “You’re just trying to help,” Lorelei said, smiling reassuringly. “We understand. Thank you.”

  “And you… you should have this,” Lahain said, holding out the stone pendant to Isabelle.

  Isabelle took it gently, eyes filled with emotion. “Thank you,” she said, clutching the pendant to her chest. After a moment she left, waving to Lahain as she led the way to the performance room. She had to stand on tiptoe to open the door, and then in they went. Delilah came in last, casting one last look back at Lahain. He looked dejected, staring at the carpet.

  “Thank you,” Delilah said, and Lahain looked up sharply, a puzzled look in his eyes. Delilah smiled. “You helped her. She’s been trying to get back home for a very long time. What you did means more to her than you know.”

  Lahain offered a weak smile. “Thank you for that,” he said, nodding. Delilah slipped into the room, closing the door behind her.

  Inside was a white room with only a few black benches for seating, and a trio of black metal music stands. Lorelei set one up for Isabelle, who took her seat on a bench in front of it. She waved a hand and… Delilah had to do a double-take. She’d heard about it from Caleb and Chelsea, but seeing the little girl conjure up a Piper’s Flute out of thin air and prepare to play it like it was some ordinary instrument was alarming.

  It just goes to show that the mages of Grimoire don’t know as much as they thought. Magic’s bigger than we ever realized, and so is the universe. And then along comes this little girl, showing us that Piper’s Flutes are something else entirely. They’re not just some evil instrument that lures children from their homes.

  “You should all probably stand close to me,” Isabelle said. “I don’t know exactly how this all works. But the closer you are, the better chance I have of taking all of you with me.”

  Delilah, Chelsea, Lorelei, and Gwen crowded in around Isabelle, who giggled as Chelsea ruffled her hair. She looked up at each of them in turn, expectantly, and each of the girls around her nodded as she looked at them, placing a hand on her shoulders or head to offer reassurance, and to stay connected to her for what came next.

  “Okay,” Isabelle said, her voice quavering with anticipation. “Here… here we go.”

  “It’s going to be all right,” Lorelei said gently.

  Isabelle nodded, raised the Flute to her lips, and began to play.

  Delilah recognized the sound, but… this was different. She knew the haunting, sorrowful tones of a Piper’s Flute, but the way Isabelle played, there was a soul to the music that wasn’t normally present. From the very first note, Delilah felt Isabelle’s hopefulness mingled in with the pained, almost anguished sounds of the song itself played on this specific instrument. Slow and somber went the song, and yet there was an undercurrent of childish joy, shimmering through the sadness like a lone ray of light shining down in the midst of a storm.

  Chelsea looked like she was in physical pain, and had turned towards Lorelei. They leaned their fo
reheads against each other’s, Chelsea gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut while Lorelei whispered words that Delilah couldn’t hear. Gwen had closed her eyes and bowed her head, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

  Delilah, for her part, was captivated. Where had this song come from? Who had written it, and why was a song to take someone back home so sad and lonely? Though perhaps that wasn’t the original intent of the song. Lahain had called it “The Song of Solitude.” And indeed, it did evoke a sense of isolation, of someone who had been separated from everyone and everything they loved, and yet couldn’t return.

  So why was such a song the way to return? Delilah didn’t understand, and as it seemed Isabelle was nearing the end of the song, she wondered if it would actually work at all.

  Isabelle let one final note ring out, longer and longer, until it seemed like it was fighting a desperate, impossible battle to stay in the air. Isabelle’s face turned a slight shade of red as she held that note, not taking a breath, and Delilah could see the girl’s effort, knowing that this was the last note, her last chance, and she was terrified that the song hadn’t worked, that there was no way for her to return home.

  Finally, painfully, the final note ended, and Isabelle sat back, struggling to catch her breath. For several moments, all five girls waited, hanging on the echoed memory of the final note.

  And then… the entire room seemed to shift. In Delilah’s vision, it looked like the room was starting to rotate, and yet she felt like she was standing still. She swayed, struggling to make sense of her body’s sensations and what she could see. Lights began to float through the air, blue and purple and green, flickering and floating like globes of fuzzy radiance.

  “What’s happening?” Delilah asked, and her voice sounded funny to her, like the sound of talking into a fan as it was spinning.

  She didn’t get a reply, and suddenly she was spinning, unable to find solid ground, rotating round and round in space as the lights grew more and more plentiful, obscuring every hint of the performance room until they were all that Delilah could see. She couldn’t stand it, so she shut her eyes tight. She could still feel herself spinning, and there was a sound, like a single musical note, ringing out in the distance. On and on it went, growing louder and louder, until it washed through Delilah’s mind, clearing out every thought until that single note was all she could hear, see, think, taste, touch — a single note consumed all, until Delilah couldn’t bear it.

  And then…

  It stopped.

  In the silent stillness came a voice.

  “You should not have come here.”

  Chapter 41: The Next Adventure

  — G —

  Shana slowly opened her eyes.

  The rushing velocity and constant, oppressive pressure had abated, and her feet had touched solid ground. But as she looked around her, she could tell she wasn’t back in Grimoire.

  “Where are we?” she asked, spotting Shias, Kathryn, Rae, and Ben. All of them were fine, looking around in puzzlement like her.

  Shana stood on a small rocky island. A large building with a jumble of clashing architecture took up most of the space, and all around it were clotheslines. Hanging on those lines weren’t clothes or fabric, but paper and parchment, flapping in the breeze.

  Up above, the sky was foreign to Shana. There was no sun or clouds to see, just a white veil, with occasional lights — yellow, orange, red, and blue — flickering here and there. All around the island, a deep green ocean stretched out to the horizon.

  “We must still be in the Enchanted Dominion,” Shana said. “I wonder why Annabelle sent us here?”

  “Because it’s quite easy for you to get back to Grimoire from here,” said a reedy voice. Shana looked up, and standing on the building’s porch was a small old man with a kind face and white, wispy hair. “Welcome to the Cartographer’s Waystation.”

  “The Carto-what-a?” Kathryn asked, staring up at the man.

  “You can get us to Grimoire?” Shias asked. Shana had meant to ask first, but Kathryn’s inability to grasp the name of their location had her fending off a giggle fit.

  “Indeed I can,” the man said, gesturing to a rocky path leading up to the porch. “Come along. Are some of you, by chance, Greysons?”

  “You know about us?” Shana asked, regaining her composure as she rushed up the path. “Have you seen our siblings? Caleb or Delilah or Fae?”

  “Fae came through here not all that long ago,” the man said, leading the five teens into the building. Inside, there were many men and women hard at work, and that work seemed to tie directly into the place’s name. Shias had always loved maps, so Shana was well aware of what cartography was, and every single person in this strange building was rushing around or talking to one another as they worked on drawings that were clearly of a cartographical nature.

  “But where did she go?” Shana asked. “Back to Grimoire?”

  “Before that,” Shias said, “we should probably introduce ourselves.”

  Oh, right. Manners.

  The Dawn Riders went around introducing themselves, and the old man smiled at them as he ushered them to a large round table in the corner, out of the way of the busy work. “And I am Meister Roderick,” he said. “I suppose you could say I’m in charge here, though we Cartographers have never been much for hierarchy.” He sat down after the five kids did, and then turned to a passing woman with her hair tied up in a bun. “Jasmine, could you bring us a few maps? I do believe we’ll want the Library of Solitude — the entrance hall — Eventide Archive, and…” Roderick mused for a moment. “Midnight Bridge, and the path of Goodnight Express. That should do it.”

  “Right away, sir,” Jasmine said, rushing off and gathering two other Cartographers to come with her.

  “You already know where they all are?” Shana asked.

  “Whenever Humans come to the Enchanted Dominion, it’s especially interesting,” Roderick said. “We sometimes keep an eye on them. Curiosity, nothing more. Though ever since Fae came through, I’ve been keeping a particularly close eye on you Greysons. She seemed quite worried about Caleb and Delilah. And their circumstances are fascinating, to say the least.”

  Shana smiled. Fae might not show it in front of her family, but she really did care about her siblings.

  Jasmine returned with the maps, depositing them in front of Roderick and then leaving. They were fantastically detailed, drawn in a way that they looked three-dimensional, despite being on flat sheets of paper. The first one that Roderick brought to the center of the table was labeled “Eventide Archive.” “This is where Fae and her friends have gone,” Roderick said, pointing. The archive seemed like some sort of cramped, creatively designed library. Dozens and dozens of names were all across the map, and they swayed back and forth, occasionally moving to new locations, as if they were alive. Roderick blew on his hand and brushed it across the map, and most of the names scattered to the wind, until only one remained: Fae Greyson.

  “So she’s here,” Shana said, staring longingly at the name of her sister. “And she’s all right?”

  “Oh, quite,” Roderick said with a smile. “Eventide Archive is a very safe Location. And she didn’t go alone.”

  “But why is she there?” Shana asked.

  “Sir,” Jasmine said, coming back over to the table. “The opening to Grimoire is closing in seventeen vrems. Next one won’t be until seventy-two three-forty-seven sixty. Thought you’d want to know.”

  “Ah, thank you,” Roderick said. “Well, since time is short, I should hurry to show you the whereabouts of the rest of your siblings. Not to worry about Fae, though — she is on an important journey of her own. When she’s found what she’s looking for, she’ll come back.”

  That worried Shana. Why would Fae leave of her own volition, heading to a completely other world, and not at least tell her sister? But Fae wasn’t big on sharing information. Maybe she’d thought about it, but didn’t have the time, or just didn’t know what to sa
y.

  “Vrems?” Shias asked.

  “A unit of time,” Roderick said. “It’s equal to about twenty-seven seconds in Earth time.” Roderick shifted the maps around, bringing forward a new one. “Now, as for Caleb, he seems to be doing well for himself. Ah, as I thought. He’s on a train.”

  “A train?” Shana asked. “To where?”

  “Well, he was on Midnight Bridge,” Roderick said, showing them the map. “But now it seems he’s en route to Sunset Square. And Mister Midnight is with him? Curious indeed. I wonder why he thought to take Caleb there…”

  “Mister Midnight?” Shana asked.

  “He’s a master of Time Magic,” Roderick said. “His training of Caleb must not have gone as planned…”

  “And here I thought he’d been kidnapped,” Shana said, pursing her lips. “He could have told us he was going off to do some special training.”