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Chapter Four
Archives
Catalog notwithstanding, this was going to take me much longer than a few days. The room was immaculate and organized, but shelves and shelves lined three of the four walls, not to mention the other door that I had a pretty good idea held encased documents that needed to be protected from the environment because of their age.
I flipped through the index, not sure where to start. I guessed there were at least mentions of what the ancients were capable of, some reference to powers that I could use to help Emily. It would probably be fairly old, maybe around the time their gifts had started to fade. But I wasn’t even sure they’d realized it right away. If they had, did they have the knowledge to understand it? Even today, with science and doctors, Morgan had been unable to advance his talents on his own. He’d only been able to use what my mother had given him.
I concentrated, trying to remember what she’d told me about them, but suddenly realized Logan was studying the way my eyes scrunched up. “You know,” I said, “this is going to take a while. You could go—”
The expression on his face stopped me, a clearno.
“Right. Okay then.” I stood, walking to the far wall to retrieve several of the old records of the dragon line, Aern’s line. And Morgan’s.
When I returned to the table, I spread them out, hoping one would jump out at me. It did not. I slid a random one forward, opening the carved leather binding to slightly yellowed pages. It wasn’t written in the ancients’ language, so I knew I hadn’t gone far enough, but I read a few bits anyway, trying to get a feel for how they kept records. Before long, I was engrossed in the lengthy Council reports and goings on, forgetting about Logan, who’d taken to pacing the shelves at the far side of the room.
I carefully turned the pages, reading of births, deaths, and transfers of power among the various leaders. But nothing detailed their gifts, or lack thereof. Evidently they’d still possessed a stronger sway, because they controlled their lands, the people, everything, but it wasn’t clear whether they’d held any other talents.
Logan’s pacing had moved closer, and I glanced at the clock, surprised a full hour had already passed. I closed the book I’d been reading and moved to another, this one older than the first. It contained more detailed birth records, a family tree of sorts, and listed the bloodlines much further back than anything I’d seen. It must have been copied from some other record, probably a scroll or …
I looked up, surprised to find Logan perched on the chair across from me, peering onto the page.
“Is there … something I can help you with?” he asked.
I laid the book flat, glancing again at the clock to find another half hour had passed. “I really don’t know what I’m looking for,” I said.
He shifted, sliding a hip onto the table, and spun a tome with his finger to read the title. “But you think it’s in the records?”
“Maybe,” I answered. “Mostly I’m just hoping something will spark an idea.”
He nodded, leaving me to my work. By the time I’d read through the handful of books in front of me, my back was getting stiff. I stretched, glancing around for Logan, and found him sitting in what appeared to be a far more comfortable chair by the side wall.
“Nothing here,” I said, gesturing toward the volumes on the table. “I think I’m going to try some of the older ones.”
As I returned them to their place, searching for new material, Logan stopped me. “Brianna, the section here is actually older than those.”
I followed his direction, pleased when the first documents I pulled from the shelves were handwritten in the ancient text. Logan stood, reaching over my head for a sizeable black book with leather tied binding. He pointed at the markings on the first page. “This says ‘The Blood of the Dragon’ and these are the symbols for the specific time period.”
I looked up at him. “You can read the ancient language?”
He smiled. “Don’t you think it’s odder that you can?”
I didn’t, but only because my mother had taught me. Trained me to hear the prophecies. “Do all of you know it?”
“No. Aern, Morgan, most of the elders.” He hesitated, knowing the answer was leaving something out. His gaze went back to the shelf. “And I was shown because of my duty.”
He pulled down another book, this one bulky and worn-edged.
When it became apparent he was done explaining, I asked, “Your duty?”
His eyes met mine, waiting. “To protect the heir to the dragon’s name.”
Morgan.
I winced, but instantly regretted it.
Logan sighed, stacking the three books together on his arm. “I refused. Long before any of this. I would have stayed, had it been Aern …” He glanced at the symbol etched into leather. “But it wasn’t.”
We were both silent after that, but Logan stayed beside me as I worked through the pages of archaic text. It was slow going, as I’d not studied the language since my mother’s death. Before that, I’d only seen it in her hand, in the modern curves of a ballpoint pen, not the scratches and arcs of quill and ink. I knew I had to find something, understood that if I didn’t find a way to change Emily, to fix those connections, then I couldn’t save any of us. And I knew something else, something the rest of them didn’t.
