Shadow in Ar'Sanciond by Sarina Langer

Author:Sarina Langer [Langer, Sarina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Mavis would never tire of the Library. It wasn’t why she was stifling yet another yawn or why the open book in front of her looked like an inviting pillow—she’d never have too much research to do—and yet… She could admit that she needed a day off, and at any other time she would have asked Vail to make sure she took one, but this was too important. What if she went home for the day, returned in two days, and found her world had been destroyed? No, that wasn’t right. If her world had been destroyed by then, how would she return to the Library? The building itself would probably withstand any disaster, but the rest of the city wouldn’t be there anymore and then she’d be too dead to worry about taking time off.

Mavis put her head in her hands and took a deep breath. She couldn’t stop now. Not for a whole day. Maybe a one-hour nap would do the trick, but later. She’d nap later.

She picked up the book at the top of her to-study pile—Ancients, Dragons, and Rites—and took it downstairs to the front desk. Over the least three hours, she’d pulled so many books off the shelves, she didn’t want the important ones to get buried under everything else. She had a pile now, but would she still see the difference in another hour? Safer to leave it at the desk.

She hurried back despite wanting to take it slowly, hoping it would conjure some energy in her. It worked while she was moving, but as soon as she sat back in front of her seemingly endless tomes, her eyes got heavy and her limbs protested all other movements.

Mavis blinked a few times to coax moisture back into her eyes and pulled the next book off her stack. She’d considered sorting them in order of promise but had decided against it. Each book had only a small chance of having what she needed. She didn’t want to rule any out; the best secrets often hid where no one looked.

She leafed through the book, scanned the table of contents, but the words blurred. Maybe if she wrote down the prophecy… But she couldn’t risk someone else seeing it. Felan hadn’t brought it up, which reaffirmed her decision to keep it to herself.

Mavis closed her eyes and tried to picture it. When the blue blood flows freely… The red dots dancing before her closed lids turned a deep azure, spread like water or… worse, and filled the darkness. Little sparrows, chirping and lively, rose from the blue depths as one, and the blue became a clear sky. One bird flew ahead of the others, but his friends weren’t far behind. Sparrows were like that—deeply loyal and able to adapt fast, which explained why they’d adjusted to the sky so quickly after the water. Or had it been blood? But wait, birds didn’t live in liquid. Sparrows—

Something touched her shoulder.

Mavis jolted. ‘I’m awake!’

Someone chuckled. ‘I see that. But don’t you think that sleep would be the better option?’

She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

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