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She rolled her eyes again, a small laugh coming from her throat at the name, and finally her eyes met mine, rimmed red and still swimming, but less void than they had been before.
“It’s just… a lot.” She smiled lightly, her hands locking behind my neck. “You. Kira. The dragons. It’s all a lot.”
“I know,” I soothed, letting my hands soothe over the back of her shirt. “It’s a lot for me, too.”
She nodded, sighing, and letting her shoulders slump slightly.
“Have you figured it out yet?” she asked, meeting my eyes again.
I had been working for weeks now trying to find a way to get the dragons into Fire safely, and without detection. It seemed unlikely, with my spies coming back to me every time telling me that the coastline of Fire was so heavily guarded that getting in and out without anyone noticing would be a nearly impossible task within itself — never mind getting out with a kidnapped Queen.
I shook my head, chewing on my bottom lip as the anxiety set into my stomach. The longer we left her there,the longer they had to turn her against us. The longer they kept her locked up, the longer she had to lose herself.
“Not yet,” I sighed, my heart breaking at the look of devastation that crossed Hollis’s face, “I’m working on it.”
Hollis nodded, pushing herself up from my lap and finishing getting herself dressed. I followed her lead, standing and locating my own clothes, pulling them on over goose-pimpled skin and frozen fingers. Slipping my cold hand into one of Hollis’s, I let her lead me back outof the cave.
4
Kira
Dust filtered through the air as I pushed the loaded library cart.
Most days, the library lay empty. A single woman named Iris kept an eye on the whole collection, and she had no cares for who I was when I asked if she needed any help. She had handed me a loaded-up cart and told me to put the books back on their respective shelves, and I had never been so happy to oblige. She reminded me a lot of Eyvlin.
I could hear Iris now, clearing her throat for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. I had pinned her constant sore throat down to the amount of dust in the stacks of old books, but she refused to open any windows. I had smiled when she told me not to bother because too muchsun would damage the books, the conversation reminding me of one I had had with Eyvlin back home, and instead offered to send for a pot of tea to help soothe the irritation. That, she had accepted gratefully.
The sound of the library door opening made me lift my head from the book I had been examining, the navy cover faded, and the golden lettering flaked off, and my eyebrows furrowed. No one else usually came into the library at this time of day, or, at least, not while I was visiting anyway.
Placing the book back onto the now empty cart, I pushed it back towards the desk where Iris sat. Her hair had been pulled back and held into place with a pencil, its end completely blunt. She was hunched over the desk, her glasses held in one hand to make up for their one broken leg, and her mouth moving as she whispered along with whatever she was reading. She seemed so completely lost in her work that I felt guilty when I cleared my throat and she jumped, her glasses falling to the floor.
“You scared me!” She laughed; her voice rough with her sore throat. I held up my hands, a smile on my face.
“The books are all sorted,” I smiled, showing her the cart, “but can I please take this one?”
“What one is that?” She asked, standing from her chair, and reaching over the small desk, holding her glasses to her face again so she could read the title. I handed it to her, more of the gold lettering flaking off into my hand.
Iris flipped the book open to a random page, her eyes speeding over the words before her face broke into a smile.
“Interested in piracy, Your Majesty?”
“Piracy?!” I took the book back, opening it up for myself and being greeted with an intricate drawing of five daggers spread across two pages. Their hilts were all different and yet strikingly similar in their designs, and I took my time taking in every one of them.
“Yes, that book is about the Pirate King of the southernmost seas. He died, many years ago, but his prized possessions were stolen from him when he was young. He spent the rest of his years hunting for them, and his son has taken over now.”
I stared at Iris as she spoke, my eyes wide. I had never in my life heard what she was telling me, but my fingers held on tighter to the book.
At home in our cottage, every book I had read had been about adventures to find lost treasure, people who spent their days crossing dangerous lands and winning wars. I had not been able to get into a book since we had left, and even less so since I had gotten here. Iris laughed at the look on my face, nodding her head and telling me to take the book with me when I left.
I thanked her profusely, and holding the book tight to my chest, I took off into the stacks of books to find one of the small book nooks.
The nook I settled in had plush cushions and a small table. It sat at the end of two aisles near the back of the library, and if I craned my neck in just the right way, I could see the top of Iris’s head as she worked at her desk. The armchairs were ancient, the leather cracking and the seats sagging, but they were the most comfortable chairs I had ever had the pleasure of spending time in. Compared to the uncomfortable velvet seats of my throne, anyway.
Settling myself into the chair nearest the wall, I leaned up to prop open the window slightly, wincing when it creaked loudly. I waited for Iris to scold me, but it never came. Letting out a breath, I grinned to myself as I flipped open the book at the first page, letting myself get lost into the story of the long dead pirate.
~~~
A small hand tapping my shoulder made me jump out of my chair, a loud shriek leaving my lips as I did so.
