Chapter 11 By A Different Name
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BY A DIFFERENT NAME
ADELINE
“Is this normal? Glass snakes attacking you and then breaking into pieces and burning the grass?” My pulse is still ringing in my ears. I keep expecting more such snakes to sneak up on me at any moment.
“That’s odd,” Olm says.
“You don’t say!”
“The Living Lights don’t normally break. This guardian has some strange power over this world.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Also, they don’t normally approach outsiders. They are sentient and magical and attach themselves to fictional characters.” He pauses. “You will soon find that this world isn’t safe. And its creatures may seem familiar at first, only to turn out to be something else entirely.”
“I’m starting to figure that out. But how would you know anything about a world you’ve never been to before?”
“It’s only talk. We’d better not linger,” Olm says. “The guardian has already left.”
“What? Crap.”
Ersil threw the knife, killed the snake, then resumed striding across the meadow as if nothing had happened, leaving me to scramble after him.
I’m starting to get annoyed with him, which aggravates me because he probably just saved my life, but would it kill him to give me a moment to gather my wits, or at least slow down and let me catch up?
“You asked to go to the library,” Olm reminds me. “That’s probably where he’s taking you.”
“He still could walk more slowly,” I grumble.
Hadn’t I passed out not long ago? Had he offered me anything to eat or drink? Time to process everything? No. I can’t seem to be able to catch my breath and he doesn’t care.
Slowing down would also allow me a moment to observe and absorb this unknown to me world.
Everything is new to me. I’ve spent my life in the capital and the house, except for the one visit to the palace, the errands Naida sent me on and my own explorations, and by that yeah, I do mean thievery and shenanigans.
I want to explore and experience this city and the land beyond it. I’d love to ask for the story behind this unlikely friendship between the library guardian, the lioness and the raven, to ask how his life has been.
If he would like to send a message to the outside world.
If there is anything he needs.
Let’s be honest, I’d love to experience this library guardian. Maybe it’s that fierce gaze, that stubborn set of his mouth, the powerful physique, the mystery of the warrior librarian.
That sense of distance and mystery he exudes.
Bad idea. Don’t let yourself be attracted to the library’s ancient guardian, I admonish myself, rushing again to catch up as we reach the first houses. You can’t steal everything you can’t have, and that includes this enigmatic and handsome warrior.
And wait, when did I decide that he’s handsome?
Anyway, you probably wouldn’t like his answers if he replied to your questions. Wouldn’t like what you found if you scratched underneath the handsome surface.
As I jog, the stitch to my side returning, I catch snatches of… a conversation?
“Sit?” a female voice is growling. “Sit? I’m not a dog. How dare you.”
He laughs, the sound low and warm. He’s walking incredibly fast, but seems to have a slight limp to his gait.
“How about calling out, Hey, stop? Halt? Hang on?”
Another chuckle.
“Why won’t you speak to the human?”
My ears perk, but I can’t hear any reply. Putting in a last burst of energy, I finally reach him falling into step with him and his pets. “Hey.”
He glances at me, as if surprised I’m now beside him instead of trailing far behind but offers no answer.
The snake in the grass, as well as the lioness and the raven, proved one thing: there is life in this world. I wonder…
“Are there people living here?” I ask, out of breath. “In this city?”
I think I won’t get anything more out of him, but he shakes his head. His eyes glimmer in the shadow of his hood. Does it mean he’s exasperated with me, or is that a no?
Wary of the lioness, I do my best to keep up, even if my feet are killing me. We walk through the streets which are covered in dirt and overgrown with weeds. Many houses are missing their doors and windows, and I see small animals scuttling inside.
Yeah, there is life in this world. Definitely.
“Where is the library building?” I gape right and left, feeling like a baby who sees the world for the first time.
The houses may be falling apart but they were obviously rich once, porticos supported by marble pillars, walls covered in slabs of colorful granite, abandoned gardens turned into tangles of roses and thorns. “Is it nearby?”
It’s eerie. You’ll find similar houses lining the avenue leading to the palace in Siris, but in Siris you’ll also find trees planted along the way, gardens in full bloom, carriages rattling down the road, children running, birds flying, dogs wandering… This place feels like a graveyard.
“What happened here?” I whisper. “It’s as if the inhabitants abandoned the city one day and never returned.”
The lioness snuffles, nose in the air, and I jerk away, remembering how she had leaped at me.
A whistling sound comes from above, and I raise the book over my head to protect it, ignoring Olm’s indignant shriek.
But a hand grabs me and hauls me away, pulling me up a flight of wide steps and into an abandoned house.
“What is…?” I have to swallow to get some moisture into my mouth as the librarian drags me further inside, over broken tiles with weeds sprouting in the cracks and trees growing through the windows. “What was that? We’re inside a mountain, it can’t be… Was that a dragon?”
With a growl, he swings me around and pushes my back to a wall. “Fuck.” He’s panting, his broad chest rising and falling, splotches of red on his cheeks. “It wasn’t a dragon. It was a griffin. Why did you come here?”
He’s glaring down at me, and from up close, his eyes are a frosty gray edged with blue. They look almost too pretty to be real, as is his hard-jawed face with those sharp cheekbones. The scar somehow adds to that air of beautiful danger.
His hood has fallen back all the way, revealing the sharp points of his ears. His hair had seemed short, but now I see a long dark braid hanging over one shoulder.
His words take long moments to sink in and then I glare at him. “You can talk?”
He rolls his eyes a little, as if to say, Yes, isn’t that obvious? but that’s it.
“As for why I came, it was for this book, remember?” I shake it in his face, struggling to shrug off my shock. “I told you that already.”
“You’re right,” he says evenly after a long moment. “You did.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me before, Ersil?” I didn’t mean to sound so accusing, but that was rather rude.
“I’d rather you called me Roane,” he replies instead. His voice is low and grave, just like his laughter.
“Roane?”
His gaze is unflinching. “That’s the name I go by now.”
Roane. Honestly, it suits him much better than Ersil. And also… “Wait, griffins? In here?”
He blinks thick, dark lashes, which are as distracting as his mouth, so soft and wide, and… “You need to leave.”
“Um.” As he steps away, I fight to regroup my thoughts. “What?”
“This place is dangerous.”
“I’m starting to notice.” I clear my throat and straighten my long, filthy skirt. “So if you’ll just take me to the library to deliver the book… The book! Where is it?”
Both to my relief and horror, the white lioness approaches, the book in her mouth.
“Get me out of this animal’s filthy maw,” Olm yells. “He has fleas!”
“It’s a she,” I say.
“That’s right,” the raven croaks. “A lioness.”
I realize I’m staring. “Your animals… can speak, too?”
Roane is checking the knives sheathed at his belt, ignoring me. How many does he have? It’s as if his entire belt is hung with leather sheaths.
“Why wouldn’t I be able to speak?” The raven flutters down on the lioness’s back. “I’m not a hermit like Roane.”
“Aline!” Olm shrieks. “Save me!”
What a melodramatic book. I sigh and grimace as I approach the lioness. “May I…?” I grab the book gingerly and tug it free. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” the lioness says and the voice is familiar.
I swallow hard. “That was you talking to Roane earlier, wasn’t it?”
The lioness’s blue eyes study me, impassive. “Will you be stating the obvious all the time? You’d better move on. You’re not in your world anymore, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart,” I mutter. “And what do you mean I’m not in my world? This place is in a mountain inside my world.”
“Roane…” The lioness turns her back to me. “Will someone explain to this girl the hot water she’s landed in?”
“She needs to go,” Roane growls.
“Nobody can leave this library, boy, as both you and I know,” the lioness says. “So what is your plan for getting her out? You’d better start talking.”