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All these thoughts flooded my mind as I walked away from The Scholar, aware of the way he stared after me far longer than he should have. Would the children be safe with him? We were in the library of antiquities. Every hall was under surveillance, which he knew as well as I did. He would not be attacking those children today.
I exhaled and slowed down, trying to be calm and reasonable. I shouldn’t have run like a frightened puppy, but he’d felt so good and smelled even better. He was tall, dark and handsome, although handsome didn’t quite convey the depths of his pulchritude. He was probably a vampire or a necromancer, maybe a sorcerer who delved into the dark arts, but his eyes were wrong for all of those.
I didn’t know, didn’t want to know, didn’t need to know, and I certainly didn’t need to think about the way he’d felt holding me in the kind of embrace that made you wonder if there was more good than bad in him. There wasn’t. I was far too old and experienced to fall for that kind of thinking.
I exhaled and walked slowly and sedately towards the main desk where I’d left the snacks I’d brought for the children. It was fine, nothing to get rattled about. People ran into people from time to time, and then they continued doing what they were doing once they’d apologized. He had no reason to think that I’d been affected by that encounter in the slightest.
I grabbed the snacks and headed back to the east hall, confident that he wouldn’t be there when I arrived. I was right about that, but the children weren’t either.
Chapter
Two
Had he kidnapped them, after all? The possibilities were nerve-wracking. My heart beat quickly as I rushed down the hall to the security room on the side, where Bert was eying the jelly-screens while stroking his long, full mustache.
“What are those kids doing in there?” he asked as I came in.
“You see them? Where are they?” I peered into the screen he was looking at, anxious about who might be with them, but Sarah and Robert were alone, heading down the hall where I’d told them all the dangerous books were kept.
I exhaled the stress I’d been holding, grabbed the chair against the wall and dragged it over to him, sitting down and opening the bag of pretzels. I offered him the bag, and he took a handful.
I said, “I told them that was where all the demonic books were kept.”
He snorted and shot me a look. “How long do you think that old fragment archive is going to hold their interest?”
“For at least an hour. That will give them a half hour of coloring before their grandfather picks them up.”
“An hour rummaging through dusty old boxes?”
“They aren’t dusty. Maybe they used to be dusty, but I spent an entire month two years ago spelling that entire area dust-free.”
“You aren’t paid enough for all your talents.”
I had enough money to buy everything I wanted, but it was nice to be valued, even if it was mostly by the security guy because I made a point of giving him snacks. “Thank you.” I bit into a pretzel and watched the screen.
Sarah was holding back, arguing that maybe they shouldn’t break the rules, but then she gave up and went along with him, walking towards an old wooden case. It should be about there that…
They leapt back screaming as flames flared up, six feet high, circling them rapidly. I nodded and ate another pretzel.
“What the…” Burt started up, reaching for his weapon.
I patted his arm, pulling him back down. “It’s an illusion I prepared in case the crayons didn’t work. It should keep them busy for an hour, and then I’ll go rescue them. Keep the pretzels. They clearly won’t be needing them.”
A demonic figure rose from the flames. You couldn’t hear it through the screen, but it was very well done, and if the terror in Sarah’s eyes was any indication, very convincing.
“Are you sure they’ll be okay?” Bert asked, looking uncertain.
“Physically, they’ll be perfectly fine. I promise. I spelled that area completely safe so that they won’t be able to get so much as a sliver. I’m going to go get some work done.” I smiled at him, satisfied that I’d come up with an effective solution to entertain the children until their grandfather was available.
The time I’d been away from my desk showed in the stacks of papers and the books on the edge that needed to be placed in the proper return carts. I kept myself busy for the next hour, then went upstairs with my crayons and a stack of clean white paper. They should be ready to color now.
I nodded at the students hard at work before I continued up to the end, past the sentinels, and up the curving staircase until I reached the fragment archives. The children were holding each other and sobbing. They hadn’t realized that my illusion was running in a loop yet.
I walked into the room, doused the illusory flames and almost got knocked over when the two threw themselves at me, crying and promising to never disobey again. Their reaction was extremely gratifying. The next time they were in a library, they would probably obey the rules and not end up getting their souls burned out of them.
“It’s all right. You’re just fine,” I said, patting Sarah’s hair. It was so silky. When was the last time I’d touched someone’s hair? When was the last time someone had held onto me this tight? I was pretty sure it was when I was being crushed alive.
I started feeling uncomfortable because they didn’t let go, and their sobs were so genuine. Of course, they’d been truly frightened, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the disciplinary illusions I’d grown up with. Mine had always come with the sensation of pain and burning, which I’d specifically left out of theirs. At any rate, they’d needed to learn that lesson, because there were books in the library that would devour their souls if they didn’t know what they were doing. There were demonic books and angelic tomes, and both would burn you to ashes. But maybe I should have gotten them sooner. Maybe I shouldn’t have made the demon quite so terrifying. Maybe I should have come up with a different plan more suitable for delicate elves who hadn’t ever watched their parents get slaughtered, like Cross, who’d been at the House of Mercy as long as I’d been there.
