Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Beatrice pushed the covers of her bed aside and rolled out of the mossy alcove in her bedroom in the House in the fae village where she lived with her sister, brother-in-law, and three nieces.
On her bed, a red bookwyrm, a legless and wingless dragon, grumbled and burrowed into the rumpled blankets. She wasn’t supposed to take the bookwyrms home from the Great Library. They were, after all, the dragons that guarded the Library from pests of all sorts.
But sometimes one of them just had to come home with her. She’d slip this one back into the Library this morning.
Even if today would be more difficult than usual. As tomorrow was a Midsummer Day—the day in a Summer Court when the magic was at its highest—King Theseus had called a meeting today of all the librarians who worked in the Great Library.
Beside her bed, there came a tiny yapping, scraping sound. She smiled and peered into the nook where her glass dog lived. She’d gotten it at a Faerie Market shortly after she first arrived in the Fae Realm.
Not that the glass dog was alive, exactly. But it wasn’t unalive either. Yes, that was mind-boggling, but many things in the Fae Realm were. As a human living in the Fae Realm, she’d learned to just accept it rather than letting it break her mind.
After sliding her hand into the leather glove she kept nearby, she reached into the nook and ran her gloved finger over the dog’s back. Once she’d given the glass dog attention, it wandered off to sniff around the nook.
She reached into the jar she kept on the shelf next to the nook and fished out one of the pieces of sea glass her sister Viola had given her. When she dropped the sea glass into the nook, the glass dog gave another scraping bark and set to industriously gnawing on the sea glass.
After taking off the glove, she crossed the room to her wardrobe and rested a hand on the door handle. “House, I could really use something cute but professional today.”
The House gave a slightly huffy shudder around her, as if it didn’t appreciate having its tastes questioned.
When she opened the wardrobe door, a light pink dress with ruffles around the neck and around the hem hung next to her gray librarian coat, the coat’s color designating her as an apprentice librarian.
The dress was more on the cute side than professional, but she reached for it anyway.
Cute and ruffly was her preference. At least the pink paired nicely with her apprentice librarian coat.
Now that she was eighteen, she could be promoted to assistant librarian—earning a green coat—any day. If an opening for another assistant librarian opened up.
Thanks to the war with the Court of Revels, the Anywhere Doors connecting the Courts to the Great Library had been shut down to all but the closest of allies, meaning that few people from other Courts were seeking knowledge at the Library.
Thus there was little need for additional assistant librarians.
Would the truce make a difference? Or would all those fae returning from fighting the Court of Revels fill the spots, robbing Beatrice of the position at the Great Library that she’d been working so hard to attain?
Beatrice changed into the pink dress and shrugged into the gray librarian coat.
After taming her slightly curly blond hair with a ribbon, she picked up the red bookwyrm.
It grumbled as she tucked it into a pocket.
Not a magical pocket, of course. Magical pockets could hold all sorts of things, but if a living creature was put into one, it wasn’t alive when it was taken out again.
The bookwyrm squirmed around in the large pocket at the front of her coat before finding a comfortable spot with its nose poking out. It formed a large lump that would be difficult to hide, but it was more hidden than carrying it in her arms.
When she opened the door that connected her bedroom to the main part of the House, she stepped into a scene of pure chaos.
The oldest two of Beatrice’s nieces clambered off their seats rather than sitting and eating their breakfast while her brother-in-law Basil was attempting to corral them.
Rebecca, the youngest of the girls, was perched on Meg’s lap as Meg fed her mashed vegetables with a spoon.
To top it all off, the House kept shaking bits of dirt onto their heads in annoyance.
Buddy, their talking pony companion, kept the lower door to his stall closed, but he’d stuck his head over it. Addy, the oldest niece, kept leaping from her chair to feed him carrots.
“Buddy, you aren’t helping matters.” Basil shot the pony a look as he scooped up Addy and carried her, giggling, back to the table. He plopped her into her seat. “Sit.”
“It’s an old pony adage: Never turn down free carrots.” Buddy bobbed his head as he talked through his mouthful of the purple-colored carrots. “Besides, if I’m going to babysit these hooligans, I might as well get something out of it.”
“We are grateful for the babysitting.” Meg popped another bite into Rebecca’s mouth, scooping up most of it again as it gooshed out of the baby’s mouth and dribbled down her chin.
Beatrice shook her head, grinning, as she strode all the way into the main room and shut the door behind her.
Who knew that a talking pony would turn out to be such a great nanny?
Especially considering he didn’t have hands.
Between him and the House, the children were well looked after during the times when Basil and Meg couldn’t take them to the Library.
On most days, Meg took all the kids with her. She had a corner of the book repair room turned into a nursery and playroom for the children. A few of the older fae children, who also came to the Library with their librarian parents, sometimes helped out with the younger ones.
And, of course, the Library did its best to help. It had a protective streak over not only its books but also its librarians and their children.
“Auntie Bea!” Both Addy and Morgan hopped from their chairs and raced toward her. Basil snatched at them but missed.
The two young girls slammed into Beatrice’s legs, and she leaned down to hug them to her, careful not to squash the bookwyrm stashed in her pocket. “Good morning, Addy, Morgan. What are we having for breakfast?”
“Toast!” Addy grinned, her mouth rimmed with bread crumbs.
“Jam!” Morgan waved her sticky fingers.
“I see that.” Beatrice extricated herself, checked that her dress hadn’t gotten stained, and nudged the girls back toward their chairs as she took her own seat beside Meg. She reached for the last of the pink toast and bright purple jam.
“Good morning.” Meg smiled at Beatrice as she swiped a line of drool and mushed vegetable off Becca’s chin. “Just our normal chaos.”
“I don’t mind.” Beatrice forced a smile. And she didn’t. Not really.
But she was eighteen now, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that, while her sister and brother-in-law didn’t mind having her there or the extra pair of hands, she was still in the way.
The final sibling who hadn’t yet moved out to give Basil and Meg the privacy they should have to focus on their growing family.
A little over eight years ago, Basil had married Meg and taken in Beatrice and her other siblings, saving them from indentured servitude and changing all of their lives forever.
Brigid had married a human forester, Munch, several years ago while both Sebastian and Viola had found their matches on the Island of Melyria.
Sebastian had gotten married months ago, and Beatrice fully expected Viola to announce her own marriage soon, now that the Courts of Revels and Knowledge had declared a truce.
That left only Beatrice still awkwardly staying with Basil and Meg. It had been a little better for those months when Meg, the girls, and Beatrice had stayed on Melyria to keep them safe during the height of the fighting.
But now that they’d all returned, Beatrice chafed at being underfoot, although she tried to hide it. It was time that she, too, found her permanent place here in the Fae Realm.
If she became an assistant librarian, she would qualify for a House of her own. She would have her own status in the Court apart from Basil and finally navigate this realm on her own merits. No one would be able to uproot her from her home ever again.
After hurrying through eating her own breakfast, Beatrice helped Basil and Meg wrangle the girls, getting them cleaned up after breakfast and ready for spending time with Buddy.
Once the girls were happily ensconced in the main room of the House with the talking pony, Basil opened the Anywhere Door, and they trooped directly from the House into the grand, white-marbled hall that connected the Great Library and King Theseus’s castle.
Anywhere Doors lined the hall, each one set between pillars shaped like massive trees. These Doors connected to other Anywhere Doors all throughout the Fae Realm, providing access to the Great Library for everyone from the monarch of a court to the lowliest goblin.
At least, they had until the war.
Other librarians poured into the hall from the Anywhere Doors, coming from their homes and the various outpost libraries to be there for the king’s announcement.
“Basil! Meg! Beatrice!” Viola waved from a spot in the line waiting to pass the swordmaidens guarding the double doors into the Library.
Ignoring the slightly annoyed looks she received from the others in line, Beatrice joined her sister, followed by Basil and Meg. She exchanged a hug with Viola, then a side hug with her brother Sebastian. “How are Favian and Olivia?”
“Olivia is well. Glad to finally be past the nausea stage.” Sebastian beamed with that proud father-to-be smile that Beatrice was learning to recognize rather well.
“And Favian, well—” Viola, too, beamed as she held out her wrist, showing off the gold line now seemingly a part of her skin. The sign of a fae marriage binding.
Beatrice squealed and hugged her sister again. “I’m so happy for the two of you!”