He rubbed his hands over his face. “I’m an idiot. He put that spell over the entire country two decades ago. Before then, it was an open secret that Seannair hardly knew who came and went. He’s famous for hiding his crown in a bloody bin of dried beans, which left his kitchens ransacked more than once.”
“As well as this library?”
He shook his head. “Nay, it has always been a bit difficult to get into.”
“You would know, of course.”
“Of course,” he said with a smile.
“But what about Prince Soilléir’s spells?” she asked. “Were they just left lying about?”
“Definitely not. I’m guessing he was already working on them before he could toddle across his nursery and keeping them to himself as soon as he understood what they could do. I’m honestly not certain how many of his family members have the key to the chest full of them. I’ve always suspected he has them written down somewhere, but I couldn’t begin to decide where that place might be. Those spells in the hands of someone truly evil…”
She didn’t want to follow that thought to where it would lead. Those spots of shadow were awful enough.
“The spells of ward on the border are more recent.” He frowned suddenly. “I would say within the last score of years, no longer. I told you about my having investigated the same to see how difficult it might be to simply saunter in and have a peep in the king’s armoire.”
“Or bean barrel.”
“Exactly that,” he agreed. He considered, then shook his head. “I built my house almost a score of years ago, but I’m not that undesirable a neighbor. Soilléir didn’t set those spells simply to keep me out.”
“Nor are you that close,” she pointed out. “I left my parents’ home almost a score of years ago. Nineteen, to be exact. Odd, isn’t it?”
He looked slightly green. “I assure you, darling, that I would not have gone down on bended knee at the time, if you’ll forgive my lack of enthusiasm over the idea. I would say, though, that we were engaging in far different activities at the same…ah—”
“Same time?” she finished for him, reaching out to steady him. “Why is that odd?”
He shook his head sharply. “I think too much. I would need to see what else was happening in the world at that time besides my paying exorbitant sums to have a house constructed whilst I wish I had been rescuing the youthful version of yourself to put you somewhere safe. And aye, I think it was about that time that Soilléir did something about his grandfather’s appalling lack of concern over his safety.”
“But someone could have gotten inside the library before then.”
“Having hid their essence?” Acair asked. “Possibly. There are certainly spells that will take everything that makes you yourself and smother it until you might forget who you are.”
“Have you ever done that?”
He shook his head. “Don’t care for it, actually. I can’t breathe. I have occasionally used something to still the magical waters, if that makes any sense. Saves burying your magic then having to dig it all back up again. There’s a layer of un-noticing that goes with it.” He lifted his eyebrows briefly. “’Tis a spell of my Gran’s, if you want the truth of it.”
“An interesting woman, your grandmother.”
“Shrewd and calculating is closer to the mark perhaps,” he said, “but aye, interesting nonetheless. It makes me wonder how many things I’ve simply walked right past without seeing them.” He looked off into the library for a moment or two, then blew out his breath. “Best not to think about that. Let’s see what we have here.”
She nodded and looked at the books she held in her hands. The first turned out to be an herbal that she supposed would have been useful, but she wasn’t one for medicines past horse liniment. She checked it for missing pages, then set it aside as complete. She held the second book up to the werelight she’d asked that beautiful elvish magic to make…
She wondered when she might stop seeing things that left her wanting to weep and howl at the same time.
The exact color of blue the cover had been dyed was difficult to discern in the faint light, but the dragon lying there with his head resting on his scaly tail certainly wasn’t.
She shifted to sit closer to Acair.
“Are you unwell, darling?”
“Just chilled,” she lied. She looked at the book in her hands and wondered if her soul would crack in two if she openedthatone.
Dragons and Other Mythical Beasts
Of course. She hadn’t thought about the title in years, but there it was in front of her. ’Twas entirely possible, as she’d thought in Acair’s library, that printers made several copies of books to sell. There was no reason to suspect that the book she held in her hands was anything but a copy that had somehow found its way into a palace library.
What shewascertain of was that she wouldn’t find her own addition to the book on the final page. If memory served, she had drawn a picture of an ocean she’d never seen, a wizard standing on the edge of that ocean casting his spell for his true love to come find him, and a dragon snoozing peacefully at his feet.
