The Librarian simply stared at me, unblinkingly.
“Not yet, but soon,” he said, his eyes pure white. They turned back to their milky light blue before he turned on his heel and whisked away to the front of the shop. I shook my head and stuck my tongue out at his retreating back.
The walk to the front of the store was quicker than the walk to the back, and I was soon placing the two books carefully in my box. I went to stand, but a pale hand over my own stopped me. I looked up, crouched on the floor, to see the Librarian staring intently at me.
“Much will happen, child. You will need to decide where you stand.”
Where I stand? What in the fuck?
“Oookayy, thanks for that cryptic message,” I said as I tried to stand again, but the Librarian gently pushed me back down once more.
“Keep them hidden,” his eyes glanced to my books. “You’ll be back, but I won’t be. Get them out and keep them safe.” His head shot up like he heard something outside the shop, but there was no one standing there. “It is time for you to go, child. You’ll look back, but don’t come back. Everything changes if you do.”
With that, he released me, and I scampered out of the store as quickly as I could without disturbing the books in my box. As I left, I felt a presence to my right. A wall of black-clad Mages moved in unison down Market Street, the two on each end barking at citizens to get into their shops or homes and lock up.
What in the realms?
This type of forced curfew had never happened before, there hadn’t even been an attack near here in weeks!
The line of Mages moved quickly and efficiently, effectively shutting down any commerce for an unknown amount of time. Jani threw some angry sounding words at one of the passing Mages, and the air was quickly stolen from her lungs as her body rose in the air, likely suspended by the same Mage’s magic. The vendor’s hands clasped open and shut, vainly scratching at her throat, trying to dislodge the magic and allow air to flow into her lungs again. I sucked in a breath as Jani’s movements grew jerkier and slower, her hands eventually sagging to the side and her head lolling onto her shoulder. She stayed suspended in the air for a moment longer before her body abruptly fell from the sky and crumpled to the ground, unmoving. I didn’t have to check her pulse to know her fate, and my blood ran hot in anger at the audacity of these Mages.
The line of Mages had moved farther down the street during the exchange, but the Air Mage took a moment to address the whole of Isrun. “Any who dares to interfere with the business of Lord d’Refan will face the same fate. That stands for those who deign to help those who get in the way,” his voice rang through the nearly empty streets, the echo hanging in the air. The Mage surveyed the area once more before turning and jogging to catch up to his compatriots. The line of Mages grew ever closer, and I had moments to make a decision.
Do I stay here and hole up in The Corner? Or do I chance it and try to make it across the street to the inn before the Mages reach me?
The Corner was loud and boisterous, the sounds of drunk patrons bleeding into the silent street. I knew that I’d be safe there, but I wasn’t particularly sure that I wanted to spend potentially hours in the company of drunk people who only got progressively more drunk. The only other option nearby was the village’s only inn, which stood across the street. It was probably empty, I reasoned, or at least mostly unoccupied, and I could get a meal or two to make up for the lack of sustenance I had today. I turned from looking at the Mages to the inn across the street before darting my gaze behind me to The Corner and, subsequently, The Curious next door.
Could I just go back inside there?
But something niggled in the back of my brain, telling me that theLibrarian didn’t want me, or the books, in the shop right now. So, I took a chance and darted across the street, my bare feet slapping the cobblestones and my purchases rattling around the box, until I reached the door of the inn and pulled it open, panting and out of breath.
I took a quick glance over my shoulder and saw the line of Mages approach The Curious and, consequently, the inn. I expected them to keep going and clear out the rest of the town, but they came to an abrupt halt, their movements completely synchronized as they stopped walking as one.
The lack of sound on the normally busy street was eerie, even the wind was subdued. It took a second for the lack of noise to register, but I eventually realized that the normally rowdy patrons at The Corner were quiet, watching through the windows. I was frozen in the entryway to the inn, half-inside and half-outside, unable to move in either direction. It felt as if the town held a collective breath as we waited for the Mages’ next move, and I briefly wondered if one of the Mages froze us all with air or ice.
But the lack of ice and my ability to still breathe—I checked just to make sure—made both of those options impossible. No, we were just anxiously watching and waiting to see what tragedy would befall our little community next.
It wasn’t enough that they started policing Holt and watching the store, now they had to terrorize someone else’s business.
The Mage in the middle—a woman with severe cheekbones and black hair pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, the combination of which gave her a birdlike appearance that was simultaneously enthralling and terrifying—moved from the center of the line with clipped assured steps, her boots tapping against the stone street. Her Vessel followed a few steps behind, a younger man with his face downcast, ready should his Mage need him. The Mage’s hands were loose at her sides, but didn’t swing, and she quickly made her way to the front door of The Curious.
What did they want with the Librarian?
The Mage stopped abruptly outside the door, almost as if shecouldn’tactually approach or enter the shop. The remainder of the Mages and their Vessels stood at loose attention, eyes focused forward, but bodies coiled and ready to strike if chaos ensued.
“KEEPER!” the Mage’s voice boomed. “Come out and face your reckoning.”
Keeper?!I shook my head.There was no way the Librarian was a Keeper . . . was there?
I had read all about them, or as much as I could anyway, but most of the books about their particular brand of magic were either destroyed or redacted by Lord d’Refan’s scholars. Any information seemed to be obviously biased, especially when the Keepers were referred to as “frauds” or that they “incited violence against the people of Elyria with their false prophecies.” The Librarian, if he really was a Keeper, had never given me a prophecy or tried to sway my actions.
Although, as I listened to the Mage continue to bellow for the Librarian, I realized that wasn’t fully true.
He gave me a warning today. Was that a prophecy? Some short look into the future?My heart skipped in excitement and fear.What would happen if I went over there?
My curious mind got the better of me, and I started to move as if in a trance out of the doorway of the inn and toward the street. As soon as I moved my foot down a step, the door to The Curious flew open, the Librarian wearing a look of malice and wrath. But his gaze wasn’t directed at the red-faced Mage standing and shouting on his doorstep.
His eyes were unnervingly connected to my own.
