Master of Tomes

by Raconteur, Honor

  Oh, good point. Mei Li cast her a grateful smile. “Thank you, Huan. I didn’t think of that, and you’re right, it’ll be easier if you help. Catch up soon, okay? All of you. This is…not going to be easy.”

  “Do you even have a plan?” Huan asked her, expression worried.

  “I do. Don’t get killed. Don’t let anyone else get killed, either.”

  “I think…that plan needs some work.”

  “Best I’ve got at the moment. I can’t do better until I get eyes on the situation.” She clapped her hands. “We don’t have time to talk, go.”

  So saying, she whirled in place, darting back into her room to yank on clothes and stuff things back into her bag. She hadn’t pulled out much the night before, so fortunately, that didn’t take more than a minute.

  Shunlei came running back in, pulling his night clothes off as he relayed, “Everyone is up and moving. Huan told me she’s staying with Tengfei and Ling Ling to help clear the air?”

  “Budworth wanted Sotejo and Curtis to help him,” Mei Li explained.

  “Ah. Then yes, three dragons should stay with them. I wondered but didn’t pause for a full explanation.” Shunlei rubbed a palm over his face, looking tired and worn out.

  Mei Li hated to see that. Ever since their reunion, he’d been running around like mad, helping her keep the world from exploding. Or imploding. Really, it was a toss-up some days which way things would go.

  Catching her expression, he gave her a rueful smile. “I’m alright. Tired, but alright. We’ve been through worse.”

  “Worse is not the direction we’re trying to go, beloved,” she informed him. It took willpower not to return to bed, yank the covers over her head, and pretend everything was fine.

  Shunlei snorted a dark laugh. “Truly, and yet, here we are.”

  She came in to kiss him, lingering a moment. With all the insanity, she sometimes felt they didn’t have enough time for each other. Which was frustrating in the extreme.

  “Let’s go save the world,” she whispered to him. “Just one more time.”

  “For this winter, anyway.” He smiled at her, blue eyes warm. “Anything else that crops up can wait until spring.”

  “That’s the spirit. I’ll pack your stuff—you finish dressing.”

  He dove for his boots as she reached for clothes to stuff back into his bag.

  Even as they frantically got ready to race back out the door, Mei Li promised herself that they really would find time to pause and rest after this. Both of them had pushed themselves too far for too long, and everyone deserved to rest properly.

  Kovel Below had best brace for impact. Mei Li was out of patience, and she wasn’t going to show that city any mercy.

  With the urgency pressing down on them, more than a few people wanted to sprint right out the door. Such a thing wasn’t feasible, of course; they couldn’t sprint the many days it would take to reach Kovel. Even by dragon, this wasn’t a short trip. They had to cross the entire continent to get there.

  Shunlei, after so much experience, knew better than to rush. He set the pace for the flight and didn’t let anyone try to race ahead of him. It was ground-eating, that pace, no doubt about that. But it was also sustainable. A pace they could keep up for days without driving themselves to exhaustion.

  It wasn’t enough that they get there quickly. This wasn’t a race. They had to get there with enough energy to deal with the problem upon arrival.

  Mei Li kept Dolan in the carrier with her, as cramped as that was, so she could send messages back and forth. Right now, she had no details, and the lack of intelligence grated. Everyone wanted a plan, and she had none to offer because she couldn’t wrap her head around the situation.

  The messages weren’t instantaneous, of course, so she really was only able to send two and get two replies before they landed for the evening.

  The replies that she did receive were…not promising.

  Normally when traveling, they tried to aim for a town so they could stay at an inn for the night. Even if it meant sacrificing an hour or two of travel time, it was generally deemed worth it. But not this time. Every day, they flew until the sun started to set, and only then set down. Tents were hastily erected, fires started, and it was well past sunset by the time they sat down to eat a quick dinner.

  Then they got back up the next morning at daybreak to do it again.

  Three days of traveling like this wore on everyone. The mages tried to work up as many talismans as they could in the evenings so they would be able to hit the ground running when they arrived. The dragons helped them by taking over the camp chores.

  Their last night before reaching Kovel was no different. The dragons leaned over the campfires, keeping them going for both heat and light. It was a starless, moonless night, and inky darkness wrapped all around them. It would encroach and take over the camp if it could. Only the fires kept it at bay.

  Mages hovered near the fires, staying as warm as they could. Mei Li felt fortunate that everyone was making do between the fires and the heating charms. She, herself, felt that her heating charm was wearing off, considering she felt hot on her front side, but her back was freezing, even under her coat.

  Seriously, they avoided traveling in the winter for a reason.

  Mei Li sat with Shunlei and looked them all over, her volunteers. Mages and dragons alike looked tired after so many days of travel, but they were also determined.

  “Lady Mei Li.” Scott cleared his throat, drawing her attention to where he sat on her right side, his back braced against a log. “You’ve mentioned Kovel Below a few times. And warned us that it took over a whole city. But I don’t think all of us have a clear picture of the problem.”

  That was fair. Half of this group had joined recently, and she never had the chance to properly explain Kovel when they were in the midst of battling something else.

  “I should probably explain this better,” she said ruefully. “Sorry, everyone. I was too busy trying to get you to the problem; my head was full of logistics.

  “Right. Kovel Below is probably one of the most unique problems we Tomes have ever faced. Most of our tasks can be neatly divided into one of two categories: repair it or reseal it. But Kovel Below is a different category in and of itself. It’s a place where the boundaries of space and time have lost their integrity. The past bleeds into the present and tries to take over.”

  She paused, trying to think of the best way to explain this. Abe had talked this over with her before ever letting her read about it because it was sort of difficult to truly picture.

  “Kovel is one of the oldest cities in existence. The old cities divide into two, sort of like an iceberg. You have the Above and the Below. Time gets trapped in amber and drops through, perfectly preserved, so that the Below is kind of like a mirror, reflecting the past. It’s difficult to explain—you kind of have to see it for that to fully make sense. But there’s magic in Below. And creatures, and darkness, and things forgotten by living memory.”

  “But it’s not staying below, is what you said. It’s coming up to the surface?” Preston frowned at her, his handsome face troubled.

  “Yes, unfortunately. Some of the older cities have a Below version of themselves, but you’d never know it, because it stays neatly segregated. But Kovel, for some reason, is the problem child. The Below there likes to rise and take over Above. We’ve never been able to determine why. But it’s almost as if the Below wants to reverse with Above and flip its stance, and the Above section is either weak enough to allow this, or there’s some undercurrent there that we don’t understand.”

  Mei Li rubbed at her forehead, feeling a headache coming on just trying to explain this. “I can’t tell you why this happens. Only that it started a few hundred years ago, and it’s not easy to reverse. I do know how the previous Tomes tackled the problem, and I hope I can implement his solution, but…”

  “You weren’t getting good answers today,” Dolan piped up, tone sympathetic.

&n
bsp; “No,” she sighed. “No, I was not.”

  To the rest of the group, he explained, “I rode with her so we could send messages to Kovel and get more details. The situation over there is rather dire, more so than we expected. The Prince of Horvath isn’t just wounded—he was gravely wounded. It took two mages and a lot of healing spells to get him into a recovery bed. His men have entirely pulled out, and instead of being on the offensive, they are now on the defensive. Half of Kovel has evacuated to the surrounding cities. We have thousands reported missing. As of this moment, half the city is mixed so thoroughly with Below that monsters, ghosts, and shadows are openly stalking the streets.”

  Shunlei’s hand rose so that he could stroke Mei Li’s back soothingly.

  Rone sat forward, leaning around Dolan to look at her. “Mei Li, I hate to ask, because I’m not sure if I want to know. But the last time that Kovel Below was dealt with, how bad was the situation? Was it comparable to now?”

  “No.” Mei Li slumped a little, feeling tired just saying that one word. She really, really didn’t look forward to arriving at their destination. “No, it wasn’t even on the same scale. Only two neighborhoods had been truly affected; the rest of the city was still salvageable. You now see why, when you ask me for a plan, I can’t give you one. In principle, the last fix that was applied should still work. But I’m not just covering six blocks anymore. I’m trying to cover half a city—thousands of acres of land. It’s a momentous task, and even saying it that way is an understatement.”

  Chen cleared his throat.

  “Lady Mei Li, I think you might be looking at this wrong. I know you’re used to tackling the problem as a whole, but maybe scale it down? Or break it up? My mother loves to say that the only way to eat a whale is one spoonful at a time.”

  Mei Li stared at him, this young dragon who was barely considered an adult by some, and felt her entire head spin with his words. Not tackle the whole city at a time. Not try to do that, but instead do it piecemeal?

  Her mind whirled again, tilting things at a different angle, re-aligning with a fresh new perspective. If she could just seal the half of the city that was still whole, so it couldn’t be taken over by Kovel Below…then that would allow her to focus on the infested part. And she wouldn’t have to take it on all at once, but could instead divide it up into sections and apply the same technique as the previous Tomes, one neighborhood at a time.

  It would work.

  Chen’s suggestion would work.

  “Chen, I could kiss you,” she breathed.

  “Don’t, you’ll make me jealous.” Shunlei grinned first at her, then Chen. “Out of the mouth of babes. Chen, you just handed her the answer.”

  “Come on, Master Shunlei, I’m an adult now,” Chen whined.

  “You’re a baby to me,” Shunlei argued with a chuckle.

  “I’m older than your wife!” Chen shot back.

  Mei Li poked at Shunlei’s stomach. “He’s right. Cradle robber. But thank you, Chen, truly. I don’t know how I got stuck on the idea that I had to tackle the whole city at once. But I apparently did.”

  “If we’re going to tackle the city one bite at a time,” Dolan suggested, “then let’s split into teams now. Figure out how to divide up the city. You can teach us the method, and then we’ll be organized enough to hit the ground running.”

  Mei Li waffled a hand back and forth. “Mostly. I don’t know precisely which parts of the city have been affected. That’s one of the things that wasn’t clarified today. And I’ll need all of you plus others to help me seal the part that’s still alright.

  “But yes, let’s divide into teams. I’ll teach you the method for forcing Kovel Below back where it belongs and renewing the seals so we can separate it again. That we can do before we arrive. You’ll all have plenty of time to study and get comfortable with it on the flight over.”

  There was a hearty laugh from Finn. “You mean I get more than five minutes this time?”

  “It is rather unfair of me, the way I throw new magical theory at your head and give you five minutes to memorize it.” Mei Li would feel bad about it, if they had any other choice. She tried to give people as much time as she possibly could. “Sorry. On the other hand, you’re all amazingly intelligent, and I praise your brains.”

  “Give our brains a break,” Scott requested with his hands pressed together in a plea. “They can’t take much more.”

  “Fair enough.” Mei Li cast around for her bag. Had she put it into the tent already? Must have. “Let’s finish dinner. I’ll draw up the sigils and write instructions, then you can pass them around and copy them if you’d like. While I’m drawing things up, can you sort yourselves into teams? Pairs, if you could. We have about a hundred mages already on the ground in Kovel ready to go, so you’ll need to draw support from them. And you’ll be their instructors.”

  She got nods of agreement. Mei Li was happy Scott had asked the question, that Chen had thrown in his tidbit, because she’d never have thought to share any of this without them. Her head had become so locked in the problem, it had basically sunk into it like it were a quagmire.

  Shunlei said in a low tone, “You need your bag.”

  “I think I left it in the tent?”

  “Alright, I’ll fetch it. Finish your dinner, love.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled after him. Truly, marrying that man was one of the best decisions she’d ever made. As overwhelmed as she sometimes felt, she wasn’t ever fully lost, not with his support.

  She finished quickly, and not just because her food was getting cold. Shunlei handed her the bag, and she fetched out paper and pen, setting about drawing the seals.

  To her surprise, Shunlei didn’t resume his seat next to her, but encouraged Dolan and Scott to sit on either side. It made sense a second later as both men started copying what she was doing, eyeing her paper sideways to duplicate it as she wrote it out. It was definitely the fastest method.

  “Lady Mei Li.” Dolan gestured toward the paper with a nod. “That’s not the design I’m used to seeing. Not that all talismans look alike, but…”

  “No, I know what you mean. Most talismans are rectangular in shape, so they’ll fit on a narrow piece of paper. This one is circular. Part of the reason is that the seals were designed to both connect to and channel the power of the ocean nearby. They were shaped in such a way that all water that touched them was drawn in, channeled, and then drained into a gutter system below.”

  Scott let out a soft huff of air, eyes a tad wide. “Like an irrigation system for magic? They literally turned the whole city into that?”

  “That’s what it took,” Mei Li explained. “I know it boggles the mind now, but because Kovel Below infects the entire landscape of the city, they had to protect the entire city. Kovel Below may have been resolved in a few weeks, but it took months of work to properly settle. You see why I felt overwhelmed. If that was the case then, when the infected area was small, what kind of workload might it take now? That was my fear.”

  “I have a better understanding now,” Scott agreed, still a little dazed. “The design is so simplistic, but powerful when I think of how many other seals it must be connected to. The entire city is a powerhouse of collected magical power. No wonder multiple mage schools exist there!”

  “Truly.” Mei Li shook her head in amusement. “It makes perfect sense when you know this. I’m teaching you the seals now for two reasons. One, you must know how they work in order to use them. Two, there’s a very good chance the seals aren’t all in place. Some of them could have been destroyed, some of them may now be Below. We’ve had reports of many people missing, and that means they’ve dropped into pockets and become lost in the Below area. The seals are just as susceptible. Whole buildings can do it, for that matter. It’s a fine mess.”

  “So, we’ll need to adjust the seals in some areas. Or rebuild them.” Dolan chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “That’s…tricky.”

  Mei Li felt like they were onl
y just beginning to really understand the full depth of the problem.

  “The upside to this is that any mage from the city will recognize these. They’ll understand the basic function, even if they don’t know how to rebuild them or properly use them. They aren’t covered. They’re part of the open fountains throughout the city, and they’re often treated like decorations more than something functional. Or so I’m told.”

  “But it’ll be familiar, as they’ve seen them all over the city.” Scott let out a breath. “That does help. Alright, let’s make sure everyone has a copy of this tonight. I certainly would like the day to study this and the chance to come back to you with questions tomorrow night.”

  “I want everyone very comfortable with how this functions, so please do ask me questions.” Mei Li went back to drawing. She would need to write out the precise conditions, power levels, and building instructions below it. And she might err on the side of being too simplistic, just in case. This really wasn’t a situation where people could wing it.

  When she finished writing one, she took up another piece of paper and copied it again. A circle of volunteers started to form, with each finished copy making the rounds down, and two people copying it before handing it off to someone else.

  Those not actively copying spoke with each other, dividing themselves up into groups. Mei Li kept a general eye and ear on this process, just to make sure arguments didn’t break out, but they seemed to know what they were doing.

  Mages weren’t used to working together on this kind of scale, so this was an unusual scene. But they were all invested in making this work. On saving a city. And that encouraged them to stop, really communicate with each other, and figure out the right way to organize themselves.

  Mei Li left them to it. She didn’t need to hover over them; they could sort themselves out. And it pleased her that the mages were including the dragons in this process, pulling them into the teams. A dragon’s protection while they worked was no insignificant thing.