Chapter 33
Fern
“Oh my goodness…”
When I walked into the library, my dishevelled state, the fact I desperately needed a bath, was ignored.
Those thoughts couldn’t coexist, not with the sight of so many books in one place.
Father maintained a decent library, but that was mainly because it was seen to be a gentlemanly thing to do.
The nature of that collection was left mostly up to me as I was the only one who cared.
But this…
My hands shook as I stepped forward, walking blindly towards the first stack, which meant the roses fell from my grip.
“Bloody hell…” Lorien was there picking up each bloom, then holding them tightly as he looked at me, then the stacks and back again. “If you ever looked at me like you do these books.”
My cheeks burned hot as I forced my eyes down. Bluestocking, that was what my mother called me. Nothing more repellent than a woman who reads incessantly, she’d told us over breakfast, then looked my way pointedly. Nothing good came from filling your head with ideas from books.
“Got you flowers because my sisters always said that was the way to a woman’s heart, but if this is what you want?
” His face transformed as he grinned at me.
“I’ll fill your room with books. Every topic, every kind.
Big ones, old ones…” He ran a finger along the spines and I resisted the urge to stop him.
Books were precious and needed to be treated as such.
“Ones with pretty gilt covers.” He plucked one out, consulted the cover before slotting it back.
“Enough books to fill your room ten times over. You’ll have to replace all your furniture with piles of books.
Sit on a stack to sip your tea in the morning.
Sleep on a big pile like a book dragon.”
“A book dragon…”
My giggle couldn’t be held back because in my mind another dragon existed. Not gold and beautiful like Auren, but a small thing, a dusty blue or perhaps a green. It flitted through the shelves, glorying in quite a different hoard than the dragons of legend.
“I’ll beg, borrow, steal.” He winked as he took my arm and steered me towards the stacks. “Whatever kinds of books you want.”
Having a man regale me with stories about my own library was an unexpected pleasure, one that seemed to summon the librarian himself. Christian appeared from around the corner, then stopped and blinked as he took in the sight of the two of us.
“Lady Rochester!” He came to stand before us. “We missed you in class this morning.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry—” I started to babble out, but he stopped me with a smile.
“Don’t be. You’ve been off having adventures, I hear. Wasn’t sure if you’d return to the keep.” His head tilted my way. “I think many people are wondering about that.”
The oblique reference to Auren’s dramatic exit had my cheeks flushing.
Let them wonder, Auren told me. A queen does not bother herself with the twitterings of the masses.
Well, you are a queen, whereas I am—
“Is there anything I can help you with here?” Christian asked.
“Books.” Lorien shouldered forward, not letting go of my arm for a second. “The lady would like some of your best books on ancient dragons.”
“Really?” The librarian’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Inspired by the lecture I gave about Aisenbran the other day, are we?”
“Not just Aisenbran.” The stories of the massive ice dragon who lay dead under the king’s own estate, his blood used to make terrible weapons, had horrified me more than anything.
“All ancient dragons. The ones that lived in Nevermere before humans came. They were quite different to the ones we know now.”
“Very different,” Christian agreed, leading us deeper into the library.
“Huge creatures with terrible powers that terrorised the world…” He smiled at his dramatic tone.
“Of course, it’s very difficult to sort fact from fiction.
Dragons don’t keep written records and they don’t often allow humans access to the dragon stones used to store their ancestral memories, but…
” With a gesture, he indicated a small selection of books at the back of the library. “What information we do have is here.”
“Dragons…” Lorien crouched down in front of the shelf. Those long fingers skimming across the books’ spines had my own twitching. “Dragons, dragons…”
More and more books were pulled free with a kind of enthusiasm that had both Christian and me moving forward.
“Ahh, Master Lorien…”
Gingerly, I retrieved the pile of books from his grip.
“Just Lorien.”
He glanced up at me, staring far longer than was polite, and somehow I couldn’t bring myself to be the first to look away.
How had I never noticed the tiny flecks of gold in his dark eyes?
It felt like I counted each one now. A small clearing of the librarian’s throat had me stepping back, realising I was gawping too.
Christian made a small sound. “Yes, well, Lorien… perhaps we’ll start with this one?
” He removed two books from the other man’s grip, handing me one.
“It’s a good introduction to the topic of pre-human history.
This one.” The possessive way he stroked the cover had me leaning closer.
The foil embossing was almost entirely worn away, the spine starting to separate from the book block.
“It’s a very old text. You’ll need to be extremely careful with it. ”
“I’m always careful with what matters.” Lorien wasn’t looking at the librarian, nor the ancient book that drew me closer with its promise of hidden knowledge.
Rather, his lips twitched, those gold and brown eyes sparkling as I stopped just short of the book.
“And right now, that means carrying all these books for you. Oof…!” He made a show of stumbling under the weight of his burden, but the way his biceps popped had me thinking it was all for show.
Christian’s frown seemed to confirm that. “Now, a table for milady?”
Lorien held the books with one arm, reaching for the mug of coffee he’d brought in with the other, but Christian was already there, removing it from the shelves.
“No drinks around the books,” he said primly, picking up the flowers and depositing them in Lorien’s now free hand. “You’ll let me know if you need anything else?”
“Yes.” Lorien stared after the librarian mournfully. “Coffee. I need coffee.”
“Oh, well, I can take things from here.” Moving forward, I went to take the books, but his grip tightened.
That roguish smile was back as I tried again and failed.
With a sigh I stepped back, but he broached the gap, moving until the books were almost pressed into my chest. “You’re free to go and get coffee, Master… Just Lorien. Breakfast, perhaps?”
My own stomach felt faintly hollow at the thought of that, but the allure of the books was too great. Food could wait, but knowledge…
“Only if you’ll join me for a meal.” Had his voice gotten huskier? And how had I missed how tall he was? Lorien loomed over me, blocking all view of the rest of the library. “Walking in to the mess with you on my arm? That would be a grand thing.”
“I… Well…”
Knowledge, Auren prompted. You went to the library to find out more about Drathnor.
Of course. My cheeks were burning hot as I scurried over to the closest table, but before I could reach it, Lorien was there. The books were deposited, then my chair whisked out, as neatly as a gentleman.
“Books first, then breakfast?”
He took his own seat across from me, looking too large, too wild, for a library.
It was as if one of those massive panthers they talked about prowling the wilds of the continent had chosen to curl himself up in an overstuffed chair.
Lorien may as well have been one because I felt completely out of my depth.
But books? As soon as my eyes landed on the covers, I drew the pile closer.
“Books first,” Lorien amended with a grin. “Books second, third, fourth—”
“This research,” I explained. “It’s why we returned.
Auren… she can’t live like this, being hounded from the skies.
Queen dragons, they weren’t always a prize for males to win.
” His smile faded. “We have reason to believe they were considerably more powerful than they are now and we need to find out why that changed.”
When I stared at him, it wasn’t the rider I saw, but the vision gifted to us by the stone egg.
That silver queen sweeping forward, destroying everything in her path.
Auren might want to claim such power, but in my heart of hearts, I knew I needed to find out more simply to avoid that happening again.
“There has to be a way for Auren and all the other queen dragons to live free.” I opened the first book carefully, a little alarmed by the crack of its spine.
The paper was as fine as parchment, feeling terribly fragile under my fingers.
I flicked past the title page where the words Dragon Prehistory was printed, then skimmed the table of contents, stopping at a familiar name. “Drathnor…” I gasped.
Seeing the ancient dragon’s name in black and white felt different somehow. As if the vision was just a dream, but it was only now I was waking up to reality.
“Drathnor?” Lorien moved, dropping down to one knee beside me to peer at the book. “That’s who you want to find out more about?” His eyes rolled up to meet mine. “Well, the gods have indeed been kind.”
“What do you mean?”
I couldn’t keep the steel out of my voice as I frowned. He’d used almost the same words when we’d met and that wasn’t a pleasant memory. Lorien’s arm landed on the desk and I was forced to study the leather bracer bound to his wrist, that and the thick cord of muscle.
“Drathnor terrorised most of Nevermere,” he said. “She still does today.”
“What?”
“Least her bones do.” His eyes locked with mine, forcing me to maintain the stare. “We ran into her burial site to get away from the duke’s executioner,” he said. “Managed to fall through the cave ceiling to another hollow below. Was fair shivering in my boots, right up until I saw them.”
His wrist twisted, as if he’d conjure up a memory like a street charlatan, but somehow I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Hovering in a nimbus of silver light, I’m pretty sure Drathnor used the last of her magic to protect her sons.”
Sons?
Auren’s voice rung in my head, but it was drowned out by Lorien’s.
“There’s a reason why people haven’t seen silver dragons in… forever. Our dragons were the last eggs Drathnor gave birth to, right before she died.”
My hand slapped down on Lorien’s wrist, some idle part of me disappointed it was leather I felt, not hot skin.
“Show me,” I demanded, my voice an echo of Auren’s. “Show me where Drathnor died.”