Chapter 10 The Guardian
CHAPTER TEN
THE GUARDIAN
ADELINE
The lioness stops mid-leap and crashes back to all fours, still snarling. Then she turns away, tail flicking back and forth.
Wait… She didn’t eat me? I lower my arms a little, cowering by the door, the satchel lying on the floor beside me. A loud whistle turns my attention to a raven flying in circles overhead.
And then I glimpse a man. He’s tall with broad shoulders and clad in a dark vest with a hood that’s drawn low over his face. His long legs are encased in black leather pants and tall boots.
He’s frowning at the lioness, a hand on the handle of a long knife sheathed at his belt. He lifts the other, gesturing imperatively, and the raven lands on the ground and hops a few steps. Its eyes are golden and hard.
What a strange tableau.
Wait a moment… I let my arms drop to my sides. Am I in the presence of the library’s legendary warrior guardian? I mean, who else could it be?
“Ersil,” I say. “Are you Ersil? Ersil Davara?”
The man’s gaze swings to me, and I feel my jaw dropping as I get my first good look at him.
This is the library’s guardian who has been here for a hundred years?
Buried in the mountain with tons of dangerous books—and okay, also a city and meadows and hills, but still.
.. This is him? I’d expected a ghoul, a muscular orc-like creature, or else a bent old man with a goatee and a gold-rimmed monocle.
A warrior or a librarian. My mind can hardly combine the two concepts and yet here he stands, straight and proud.
Not orc-like at all. And not old, either.
This man is muscular but not too much, just..
. perfectly put together, and his face is what draws my gaze the most. You wouldn’t call it beautiful but it’s.
.. arresting in the shadow of his hood. A scar runs down one cheek, distorting the edge of a generous mouth, and the eyes…
They blaze under his dark brows, pale gray like a wolf’s.
The lioness at his side licks her chops.
Slowly, I get up, back still pressed to the rock. “Cat ate your tongue?” I whisper. My limbs are shaking. This entire journey is crashing down on me. “Aren’t you Ersil? What are these animals…?”
Black spots crowd my vision.
“Aline!” Olm hisses. “Pick me up! That lioness will piss all over me, or chew me to pieces. Pick me up!”
That’s kind of funny, but my knees can’t straighten, can’t hold me up, and the darkness spreads like a sea, swallowing me.
The lioness’s deep growl is the last sound I hear before my hearing goes, too, and then I fade into unconsciousness.
Someone is crouched over me. I feel the warmth of a body and the scent of old books and leather, underlaid by a whiff of peppery spice.
For long moments, I feel comfortable and cozy. Safe. I’m home, on my pallet, my parents and Eiras hovering close by in our little house in Siris.
Then it hits me that I can’t hear the crackling of the fire or any voices. It’s eerily quiet. So who is crouched over me?
My eyes fly open in alarm, and that someone scoots away, soles scuffing on rock.
Rolling my head to the side, I blink into the dimness. I realize I’m lying on coarse fabric, but the space around me coalesces into… a grove. Tree trunks rise around us like pillars and here and there the ground has sprouted tiny white flowers.
Where am I? This place has the feel of a fairytale or a dream.
It takes me long moments of confusion to piece together what happened, to remember entering the cave, seeing the world inside the cavern, the lioness leaping at me and a voice stopping the beast from tearing me apart.
The man. I make him out now. He’s obviously the one who carried me here, the one who stopped the lioness. He’s crouched beside the animal, petting the pale fur, his eyes gleaming.
Fixed on me.
Pushing myself up on an elbow, I lick my dry lips. “Ersil,” I whisper. “Are you Ersil, the warrior librarian of Areon?”
He’s frowning at me, face shadowed by the hood, dark brows drawn into a knot. Abandoning the lioness, he straightens his tall body and gazes down at me.
“Are you or aren’t you?” I demand. “Answer me.”
Finally, he gives a reluctant nod.
“Okay. All right. We’re getting somewhere,” I whisper. “Can’t you speak? Or can’t you hear me?” I tap one of my ears. “Nod if you can hear me.”
Another slow nod.
“That’s a relief. Makes things easier.” I push myself to a sitting position, my head spinning. I’m thirsty and hungry, and… “The book. Where is it?”
I scan the ground around me, panic gripping me. Would Olm unleash a dragon if he thought I’ve abandoned him to oblivion?
With a low sound, almost like a growl, the guardian crosses the short distance between us and points at something behind me.
The book. Relieved, I grab it and clutch it to my chest. “Thank you.”
He inclines his head to the side, mouth pressed into a hard line. Then he reaches out a hand.
I flinch, but when it doesn’t turn into a snake and bite me, I take it. A look of surprise flashes over his face but he pulls me to my feet, then releases me again as if I’ve burned him, taking a step back.
Gods, he’s tall.
Then he reaches out again—this time going for the book.
Um, no. My turn to take a step back, shaking my head, my grip on Olm’s book tightening.
His dark brows rise.
I mean, he’s right to be shocked. After all, I came here to bring this book to the library and he’s the librarian.
I don’t know why I’m not ready to give it up just yet.
Maybe because Ersil still hasn’t spoken a single word to me.
But why should it matter? I should give him the book, get out and go find Eiras, make sure he’s okay.
“I’ll carry it myself,” I amend. “To the actual library. The building where the books are kept?”
He’s frowning at me. That frown seems permanently etched into his face. His hands clench, curling into fists.
I swallow hard. “Would you take me there? And then tell me how to get out of here?”
The lioness trots up to him and I recoil, but she only stands beside him, blue eyes on me, the same color as Eiras’ eyes. The flutter of wings alerts me to the arrival of the raven who comes to alight on Ersil’s shoulder.
Here is the strangest trio I’ve ever had the questionable pleasure of meeting.
Says I, whose only companion at the moment is an annoying, magical book.
When he turns to go, followed by the lioness, I’m left there standing like an idiot with my book and mixed feelings.
“Hey, wait for me!” I start after them but he doesn’t even slow down or look back. His strides eating up the distance, he marches among the tall trees. They are unlike any trees I’ve ever seen before with silver spirals on their trunks, but I’m in too much of a rush to look properly. “Wait!”
I haven’t seen the satchel lying around, so the only thing I have left of my belongings is the book, and I cradle it close as I jog after the silent guardian and his animals.
“Was it you?” I hiss at Olm as we break out of the grove and cross a green meadow, heading toward the city that rises right in front of us, silent and ghostly. “Did you influence me not to hand you over?”
“Haven’t you noticed that my influence on you is nonexistent?” he answers curtly. “As for why you didn’t hand me over, I’m curious about that myself.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Suit yourself.”
We’re crossing this meadow, Ersil cutting a formidable figure against the city’s roofs and domes, with his animals scouting ahead, when suddenly the raven whistles and flies off.
The lioness growls, and Ersil turns smoothly, drawing a small knife from his belt. The man moves like water, that elegance in every movement so typical of the fae.
He throws his blade, and I yelp.
Then I gasp when a snake slithers through the grass. It’s huge, thick as my thigh, and it’s moving toward me, glistening like glass, changing colors. Its mouth is open, fangs bared, and I halt in my tracks, frozen in place.
It rises, about to strike. Its triangular head weaves right and left, hypnotizing.
Another knife whizzes through the air and the snake drops to the grass, writhing, the blade stuck in its head.
Behind it, Ersil is standing with his hand still raised.
The snake is made of glass, I realize, or some crystal. My pulse still thudding in my ears, I crouch down to study it. On closer inspection, it has a symbol engraved in its flesh, one you can only see if you look at it sideways. It looks like a star.
Suddenly the snake breaks, crumbling into shards, and the grass around it blackens and dies.
Lovely.