Chapter 10 #2
Right. With no mana to spare, Alsen helped physically.
His body still shook from the thought of how close he had been to death.
He engaged the drakes in a moment of unfounded confidence.
He believed that even if he didn’t have much power left, he could pull off one lance to kill one drake, and that Luna would get the second one.
But Luna didn’t look as though she believed she could have fought the drake. Her whole body shook, her breath fast and ragged.
He swept the thoughts away and focused on moving around a barrel of water.
The fire took over an hour to fully extinguish. Since the flames tore holes into the roof of the eastern wing, whatever documents didn’t get burned got drenched. Hopefully, they would recover from that.
At least the library didn’t burn down.
The rain helped to stop the fire from spreading. From the oil-like marks on the burnt wood, Alsen deemed that the drakes spat out a burning liquid, like napalm, rather than pure fire.
The scholars and the villagers who showed up worked fast. Some of the scholars could cast simple spells to snuff the flames while villagers formed bucket chains from the well.
Luna and Alsen joined the bucket chain. It was the least they could do, given their intervention had nearly made everything worse. The physical labor also helped warm Alsen up, his magical exhaustion slowly fading as his body recovered.
Luna worked in a disturbingly uncharacteristic silence, clearly rattled. The rain stopped pouring before they finished with the flame.
As the last flames died and the steam stopped rising, everyone stood in the muddy clearing, soaked and exhausted.
The east wing partly survived, the roof and walls charred and collapsed, the beams mostly standing.
But the main structure had survived, along with the west wing and, most importantly, the ancient oak at the building’s heart.
The elderly scholar approached Alsen. Up close, she looked even older than he’d first thought, her face lined with decades of worry that today had only deepened. “I’m Keeper Mirella,” she said. “Thank you for helping with the fire.”
Not for confronting the drakes. There was nothing to thank them for there. “I apologize for misreading the situation.”
“That forces me to ask, where are you from?” She managed a tired smile. “I have been of the belief that the entire world suffers under the dragons’ rule. With that in mind, I cannot fathom where you would have come from to not know.”
Luna arrived at his side in an instant. “We grew up in the mountains. Down south from Ambervale. It’s pretty… isolated in there.”
“We saw a dragon fly over from time to time,” Alsen added. “But none ever landed nearby.”
Mirella scanned them with an analytical look. She didn’t believe them, obviously, but drenched from the rain after four days of traveling, they looked like they could have been from anywhere. “Anyway, have you come to the Oak Library seeking knowledge? You have picked quite the day.”
“We originally set out to find Corwin to see why he wasn’t returning home at his usual time,” Alsen said. “We saved him from goblins on the way, but we figured we might as well come to do some reading. We didn’t plan the timing.”
The Keeper laughed, a sound with little humor in it. “No, I don’t suppose you did. Well, you have helped save what remains of our collection. The least I can do is grant you access to it.” She gestured toward the main entrance. “Come. Let’s help you get dried off.”
They walked in.
The interior of the Oak Library smelled of smoke and wet paper, but it remained intact.
Shelves lined every wall, climbing up toward a ceiling that disappeared into the branches of the ancient oak.
Ladders on rails allowed access to the higher levels.
Reading tables filled the central space, several of them currently occupied by scholars checking books for water damage.
“What knowledge do you seek?” Mirella asked, leading them deeper into the stacks.
Alsen pondered what to start with. The dragons. Definitely, the dragons. “The history of this… realm. We seem to have plenty to learn about local customs.”
Mirella stopped walking. She turned to face him, her expression shifting from tired hospitality to sharp assessment. “Are you looking for anything specific, or just the general idea?”
“The general idea,” Luna said. “It’s going to be extremely long, anyway.”
Alsen spared her a glare.
But Mirella answered. “You may wish to sit down then.” She walked to an empty table and took her seat.
Luna and Alsen also did. His muscles screamed with relief, reminding him that he’d spent an hour carrying buckets full of water.
“I lived through that time,” Mirella said.
“So, I can provide a more succinct review of what happened. The dragons used to live in the north. There used to be kingdoms here, four of them. We are now in the remains of the Relkal Kingdom, named after King Relkal the First, and the last. Now, a part of the realm of the dragons.”
Alsen paid attention. Even Luna seemed to.
“Nobody knows why the dragons united. They used to be wild, self-interested creatures. Intelligent, but disorganized. Then, one day, they started forming into an army. Many have theorized the emergence of a dragon emperor, but none of the claims have been confirmed. It matters little now.”
Indeed, it didn’t matter how the dragon tyrannizing the lands was titled.