The Girl Cloaked in Shadow by Megan O'Russell

Author:Megan O'Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ink Worlds Press

CHAPTER 16

“The brethren are insane.” Maggie sat on the table, rubbing her temples in a failed attempt to stop the pounding in her head. “How many hundreds of shadows have they locked down here?”

“Thousands.” Nilla thumbed through a wide book at the back of the room. “If these ledgers are even half right, there are thousands of shadows locked down here.”

“I think the more troubling figure would be the sorts of shadows they’ve locked in,” Bertrand said.

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked.

“The brethren don’t deal with the normal spirits that wander the halls of homes, or walk by the sea at night,” Bertrand said. “The brethren are called to take care of the shadows Saranans find troublesome. The ones that do damage, cause mischief.”

“Shades and specters.” Nilla closed the book, her face pale. “They’ve trapped people who have been wrapped in darkness in the same cells as the very creatures that unleashed the horrible torment upon them.”

“Nilla, no,” Bertrand said.

Nilla walked to the door, ignoring Bertrand’s warning.

“We have to help them, Bertrand,” Nilla said. “Some of these shades might have been trapped as long as I was. We can’t allow them to continue in such agony.”

“We cannot open these doors, Nilla.” Bertrand planted himself between her and the shadows. “The moment we give any of them a path back into darkness we would be overwhelmed by specters. We’d never make it out, none of the lost souls in these vaults would be saved.”

“We have to do something,” Nilla growled.

“We will find a way to help them.” Bertrand took Nilla’s shoulders. “But we can’t be hasty. To move on compassionate impulse could cause massive amounts of harm.”

“Promise me we won’t leave them trapped,” Nilla said.

“I swear.” Bertrand turned her away from the doors. “We need to find the source of the specters. If we can stop more of the dark creatures from being made, we stand a chance at turning the tide.”

“What are we even looking for?” Maggie asked. “We know now why they’re called the vaults. The brethren locked a bomb’s worth of shadows away. The sparkle dust stops working, and the whole city could be swarmed and taken. But we knew they weren’t destroying specters. What are we supposed to learn?”

“What the books can tell us,” Bertrand said.

“You don’t already know everything?” Maggie slid off the table and headed over to the bookshelf.

“I never presume to know everything, Miss Trent,” Bertrand said. “The brethren hold their knowledge close to their chest. I even considered joining them to gain access to their secrets.”

“Why didn’t you?” Maggie asked. “The sparkle bath too much for you?”

“There are some rules of the brethren by which I could not survive.” Bertrand pulled a book down from the top shelf.

“I, for one, am glad you didn’t join.” Nilla stretched out a scroll on the table.

Maggie knelt by the bottom shelf, carefully pulling out a large gray volume. “What would the brethren hide in their books?”

“I don’t know.” Bertrand quickly scanned each page of his text. “And that’s exactly what bothers me.

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