Born of Air_Book 1 of the Valdir Chronicles by R. A. Lewis

Author:R. A. Lewis [Lewis, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-05-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Kalina rubbed her bleary and burning eyes as she put down yet another book. Her heart sank with every new book, every time she didn’t find anything useful. There were plenty of mentions of the Valdir, the food they cultivated for years in the Great Grey Mountains, what the dragons ate, how they governed themselves. But nothing from the last decade, let alone the last hundred years. Talon and she had been at it for hours, gathering a huge stack of books from both the dragon section and the flying section in hopes of cross-referencing something useful. Beside her, Talon was diligently reading away. Kalina smiled softly at him and stood to stretch.

“I’m going to wander a bit, see if I can think of another tactic.” Talon looked up at her and nodded in a distracted way. She began meandering down the rows between the stacks, grateful that she was at home here. There had to be more information about the Valdir but they had searched in the V section, the Flying section, the Wyvern section, and the Dragon section. All of them came up empty with recent references. As she wandered towards the flying section again, wondering if they’d missed some obscure reference, she heard raised voices. She paused in the darkness of the aisle and pressed herself against the books, listening.

“I’m telling you, there’s more here!” She recognized that voice and her blood ran cold.

“Your Majesty, I have brought you every single book within this library with any reference to the Valdir going back a hundred years! I don’t know what child you seek, nor do I know of any mention of one being born!” The shrill voice of a much older man and Kalina’s stomach twisted. She desperately hoped the prince wouldn’t hurt someone who sounded so old and frail.

“That’s not good enough. Bring me every genealogy on the Valdir, along with every book that mentions them.”

“All the books, your Highness?”

“Yes. All of them, Alexil,” the prince snapped out. There was a flurry of movement and an old man in black scholar robes hurried past her hideout. Kalina quietly slipped farther down the row to where the light globes barely reached. Footsteps sounded and she watched as the prince paused before her aisle. His face was cold, devoid of any emotion, and Kalina knew in her bones that he would kill her the moment he found her. Finally, the prince turned away and strode off into the darkness, but it was a few minutes before Kalina felt like she could breathe once again.

Clearly, Scholar Alexil was the man to talk to about the Valdir. She walked as quickly as she could to the front desk where she asked the attendant in charge where to find Scholar Alexil.

“Why would you want to talk to that old coot?” the young man there scoffed, eying her with disdain.

“Just tell me where he is,” she said impatiently. The boy pointed down the long hall lined with offices.

“Last one on the end.

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