Entranced (Prince of the Doomed City Book 1) by Sylvia Mercedes

Author:Sylvia Mercedes [Mercedes, Sylvia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FireWyrm Books
Published: 2021-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Nelle seems determined to cram as much information as possible into my skull at once.

She starts out by showing me the upper floor, including the desks and various doors. Some of those doors may be used both for entrance and exit, but some must be used only for one or the other. She doesn’t explain the reasoning behind this, and I don’t have the nerve to ask. I’ll simply take her word for it.

There’s a spiral staircase leading down to the next level, and Nelle guides me that way. As we go, we pass several cages of silver bars suspended on cables above the central drop. “Book lifts,” Nelle calls them. “And mind,” she adds, with a severe waggle of one finger, “don’t you go trying to ride the lifts yourself now! They’re meant for books, not folks.”

The blue dragon—or wyvern, as she called it—lifts its head from her shoulder and flares its crest at me, as though to emphasize her point.

“Yes, ma’am,” I murmur obediently.

Nelle and the wyvern both grunt, sounding oddly alike. Then it lowers its head again, and she continues leading me to the stair, the pair of them apparently oblivious to the odd picture they make.

“The library, you’ll find,” Nelle says, “has a bit of a life of its own. A personality, as it were—most libraries do. You’ve worked in a library before, I understand?”

“Yes,” I answer promptly. “Aurelis Library, at the Court of Dawn.”

“Ah.” Nelle nods. “I been there once or twice. Quite a bright personality that one has. Vespre, however . . .” The old woman purses her lips a moment before continuing. “Vespre’s an altogether different animal. Not a nice library, you understand. It’s because of the Noswraiths. They’ve given her a rotten heart. But”—and here she sighs—“we all love her just the same. Like a mother can’t help loving even the wickedest of her little ones.”

We reach the head of the stairs and begin our descent to the next level. Nelle informs me that she and her fellow librarians confine their efforts to the top twenty stories of the library. She’s not entirely certain how many more stories there are—she’s never ventured below the twentieth floor and hopes she never will. The bulk of the librarians’ work is spent in the upper ten stories anyway.

“And we’ll stick to the upper five floors today,” Nelle says as we descend. “I’ll let the Prince take you below when he’s ready. That’s a place you’re better off seeing for the first time with him at your side.”

She goes on to explain that the top floor we just left is considered the primary workspace where the majority of the “scribbling,” as she calls it, is done. They call it the first floor, even though it is the highest in the citadel.

“And this,” she says, stepping off the spiral stair, “is the second floor.”

Here at last are the books. Many, many books. The shelves are carved into the wall just like the desks up above. They tower a good fifteen feet tall at least and are packed from floor to ceiling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.