Chapter 13
“ N olan, ru—” But I don’t have to finish my sentence. He’s already thrown me behind him and shouted for Maddox to get me back to the ship. A moment later, and Maddox has thrown me over his shoulder and is barreling toward the shore.
I watch in horror, helpless, as the serpent hisses, then raises itself up above my husband, preparing to strike.
“Maddox, we have to go back.”
“Only thing that’s going to do,” Maddox heaves in between huffs, “is get the captain killed being distracted by protecting you.”
“He’s going to get himself killed anyway,” I say, pounding against Maddox’s back.
And it’s going to be my fault, I don’t say, thinking of the book tucked into the back of my trousers.
The scribe had helped me leave before it was too late, but had I read the books in the order it gave them to me, I could have read the book on the Youngest Sister first, then immediately left after reading the book on the library’s history.
The scribe was trying to help me, and I’d been too stupid to see that.
The scribe was trying to help me.
My mind flits back to the scribe’s last words to me. I don’t remember them exactly, but it was something about the serpent being blind and deaf. Surely it was the serpent the scribe had to be referring to.
Yet the serpent had not indicated any such thing. I watch now as it strikes at my husband, who rolls out of the way just in time. Charlie fires a shot, but the serpent senses the device as soon as it makes a sound, rearing back and dodging her bullet.
“Its tongue,” I scream. “It senses everything with its tongue.” My stomach sinks, because neither Nolan nor Charlie seems to hear me.
Maddox comes to a halt, groans, then turns around before setting me on the ground. “You run back to the ship.”
“No, I?—”
“Wendy,” Maddox snaps. “This is not the time to be insubordinate. You want to save Nolan? Well, assuming you found what you were looking for in that library, you’re the only person in the world who knows how to do that. Meaning you need to live.”
I’m left, jaw agape with a response I don’t have as Maddox sprints off toward the fight.
For a moment, my feet don’t move. But then, against my back, the book grows cold.
Almost like it knows it’s leaving its home.
I pull the book out and stare at it, the way the moonlight makes its bony surface glow.
“I want to go back home,” a voice that is not mine whispers inside my head.
I turn for the ship and run.
I make it three steps before, beneath me, the ground shakes. I’m thrown off balance, and as it’s between letting the book go flying and throwing my hands out to catch myself, I hit the earth face-first. Spewing dirt, I go to stand back up, but something slithers at my feet.
A scream breaks out from my throat. A glance down reveals a root spiraling around my ankle. It crawls up my leg, and in seconds, it’s compressing my thigh, cutting off my circulation.
Pain ripples through me, and distantly, I hear Nolan let out an angry shout.
Fearful I distracted him with my scream, I bite my tongue and try to pry the roots away with my fingers, but the more I struggle, the tighter it becomes.
“It wants its book,” says a voice—a wraith, forming just beyond me, watching on as if bored. “You could avoid my fate, you know, if you just gave it back.”
“Yes,” says another, forming to my right. “The serpent doesn’t kill its prey before it eats you. It shouldn’t be its teeth you fear, but the acid in its stomach, being crushed, over and over, by its musculature.”
“Just give the library its book back,” whispers another wraith, this one a woman. “It’s not worth whatever you can sell it for.”
“Get away from me,” I gasp.
“We’re not trying to hurt you. We just want to help,” say the wraiths in unison.
The roots squeeze harder, and I let out a cry without being able to hold it in. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse another root emerge from the ground. Whether this one will wrap around my neck or go straight for the book, I don’t know.
I don’t give it a chance to do either.
I open the book and rip out the title page.
Below me, the ground itself seems to shrink. The root to my right rears back, and the one around my leg quakes.
“Let me go, or I keep ripping,” I say.
There’s a moment of hesitation.
I rip out the index.
The ground screeches as the roots retreat back to their home in the earth.
Trembling, I go to stand, but as soon as I put weight on my foot, needles puncture my skin, my muscles, my bones as the blood flow returns to my limb.
In the distance, lit by the moonlight, I watch as Nolan, Charlie, and Maddox battle the serpent.
Maddox must have told them by now to go for the tongue, because that’s where they all seem to be aiming, but the serpent is too quick and the target too small.
“You have what you came for. Just go,” whispers a wraith.
“I didn’t come for a book,” I say. “I came for him.”
And then I run, hobbling, for the ocean.
The ocean waves lap around my ankles, cold and bitter.
The entire way, the roots of the tree ran beside me, bubbling up carefully, racing to be near their beloved book just a few moments more.
They creep out onto the beach, following me.
I raise the book above my head. “I’m the rule-breaker,” I yell, hoping my voice will carry across the island, that the serpent will be able to sense it. “You don’t have the right to feast on them. Only me.”
In the distance, the serpent’s head pivots.
A moment later, it barrels across the island toward me, a jet of black, its scales shimmering white in the moonlight.
“Kill it,” I whisper to the roots, to the Tree, to the library below. “Kill it, or I drop your book in the ocean.”
A few of the roots draw back, looking offended.
I step back further into the water, fighting a shiver as it reaches up to my knees. One more step, and I’m waist deep. Another, and it’s up to my chest, and I’m having to hold the book above the water and brace my core to keep myself steady.
“Maybe you think you can get to it before the ocean does,” I say, but as if on my side, the ocean spray spatters against the bony cover, sprinkling the page ends with droplets.
The roots shudder, but they advance all the same.
At the same time, the head of the serpent grows larger. It thrusts itself through the air, jaw agape and razors for teeth glittering.
The roots turn back, as if gauging the speed of the library’s menacing servant.
This isn’t going to work. The library won’t sacrifice its servant for one book.
“You don’t have to kill it,” I say to the roots. “But you do have to stop it. Keep it from hurting us.”
The roots crane back toward me, like serpents themselves, swiveling their heads.
In the distance, I hear my husband call my name as the serpent reaches the shore.
All of a sudden, roots sprout forth from the earth.
The ones on the beach go for the serpent’s tongue, ripping it from its mouth in a coordinated attack.
Those still on the island emerge in roots the thickness of my waist, wrapping themselves around the shocked creature.
It writhes, but the roots are many, and they squeeze against the serpent’s body.
I trudge through the water, making my way toward the ship, careful to keep the book from getting damaged. Shouts are coming from the island and the ship. A few moments later, a rescue boat emerges from the darkness in front of me, Evans at its helm.
He grabs for me, but I hand him the book first. “Keep it safe,” I gasp as soon as a wave hits my mouth.
He hands it to the sailor behind him, then grabs me under the arms and hauls me into the boat.
As soon as I’ve regained my balance, I glance toward the shore, hoping Nolan and the others made it.
It occurs to me that the library might try to hold them hostage in order to get its book back, but as I glance back at the serpent, I notice that all the roots seem to be preoccupied with keeping it down, restricting its writhing massive body, as the master cages its loyal servant over the preservation of a book.
By the time we’ve reached the ship and Evans has helped me up to the deck, my entire body is shaking from adrenaline.
“Darling,” says the only voice I ever care to hear.
I glance up to find Nolan leaning over me, his face contorted with what looks to be mingled irritation and pride. He scoops me into his arms, pulling me to his warm chest. Faintly, I hear Charlie telling him she’ll find the healer, and Maddox directing orders to the crew.
“The book,” I say. “Evans gave it to one of the sailors. We can’t lose the book.”
Nolan carries me down the stairs, his grip tightening around me. “Stop muttering about a book, you stupid, wonderful woman.”