The Key of Lost Things by Sean Easley

Author:Sean Easley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

17

Unexpected Guests

The morning of our big birthday party, I sit cross-legged on my bed, The Ledger of Ways between my knees. It’s all I can do, really. The rest of the trainees made Cass and me promise that we’d take our birthday to chill and “under no circumstances, work.”

For once, I’m okay with that. Everyone’s been talking about how it looks as though the Vesima is finally healed, which is great news for the Hotel. When Nagalla comes, I’ll be able to stand up to his scrutiny with pride. Kinda. I’m still not sure whether using the key actually fixed things or just hid them like Dad’s illusion of the tree, but it doesn’t matter. We just have to make it through the gala and everything will be fine.

Of course, there’s still the final matter of getting to know all the ambassadors before the gala, and that requires the Ledger.

Reading the Ledger has gotten easier, and has given me loads of info that I need to prepare for this event, but sometimes I still don’t feel like I know what I’m doing. It’s not like the book came with an instruction guide—it’s just a bunch of pages full of hidden information. The better I get at finding what I’m looking for, the more I realize that I don’t know what to look for. Mom hasn’t shown up again since that first time, but that’s okay. I know she’s in there. Agapios has been so busy lately that I never see him, which means he can’t tell me what I’m looking for either. And for some reason the Ledger still doesn’t want to tell me much more about Admiral Dare. It’s not just that the info is missing. Every time I try to look her up, the ink goes wild with scribbles, as if the book itself is in pain.

Then there’s Nico.

“I’m not ‘looking’ for him, exactly,” I tell it. “I only want to know if he’s going to try anything at the gala. Can you at least show me that?”

I press my fingers to the page, and the ink swirls, golden light turning to black as the magic draws across the page. I can’t make heads or tails out of what it sketches. There’s a shape that looks like it might be Nico, but that gets scribbled out too, like someone got angry and decided to strike his image out of existence.

It’s weird how similar this is to when I search for Admiral Dare. For most people in the Ledger, I receive too much information—their whole life story, it seems—but with these two the details are so limited. Big chunks of their pasts are missing, the pages dark or scratched out. Especially with the admiral—whole decades just blotted out. Is there a connection between the admiral and Nico?

A knock comes at my bedroom door. I glance reflexively to my nightstand to make sure the drawer is closed, but then I remember that the sliver’s still gone. I never did find it after it vanished.

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