“But Ziary’s not any older than you are.”
“We left pieces of ourselves behind when we had children,” Mirel said. “If your friend is a convergence of several different lines of limaph, then he has innumerable pieces of the pharim in him. Each may be only a small portion, but even the tiniest fraction of a being that has existed since the beginning of time can hold centuries of memories.”
“And my pharim ancestors have mostly been Shadeslayers. Their memories aren’t exactly the most pleasant.”
“Lina, how are you doing?” Jez asked as Mirel touched her shoulder.
She struggled to pick herself off the ground, and Osmund moved to help her up. She was shaking, and it looked like she would refuse to touch him, but she forced herself to be still and took his arm. As soon as she stood, however, she scampered away, and her hand went to her scar. She shook her head.
“I saw...” She rubbed her cheek. “This. I’m sorry, Osmund. I don’t blame you anymore.” She let out a heavy breath. “It’s just it was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced, and I thought I had gotten over it.”
“Try to let it pass,” Mirel said. “That’s what these shadows do. They bring up things long forgotten. If you let them, they will destroy you.”
Lina nodded and brought her hand down. Jez stared at her for a while. Her normally alabaster skin looked pasty white, and he suspected she wouldn’t survive another attack like that. He turned to the library, his gaze locking onto the fire. A faint whispering echoed in his mind, but he did his best to ignore it.
“Come on. We need to hurry.”
There was a round of nods, and they started moving quickly. Every step now sounded like leather on stone. The fog gradually thinned, and Jez realized there was more than just the library. Buildings of yellow stone materialized and streets appeared out of the mist. The sun shone in a cloudless sky, and the cage around them took on the smoky appearance it had had in the mortal realm.
“This isn’t real,” Jez said.
“Real is a matter of perspective here,” Mirel said, “but if you’re asking if Gayel brought the entire city here, the answer is no.”
Jez waved his hand. There was no sign of the fog anymore. “Then how?”
“The library was from a real place, and it brought the reflection of that place here. If you look in any of the buildings, you’ll find them empty. In some, you won’t find anything more than the fogs of Between.”
“This was Zandra before the fire?” Osmund’s voice was almost reverent.
“Yes.”
“There were times I would’ve given my right hand to be able to come here.” He eyed the library. Jez smiled. Given how frighteningly effective Osmund was in combat, Jez often forgot his friend had spent years in study trying to learn about his own heritage. “I wonder what knowledge about the limaph is in that place.”
“More than you can imagine,” Mirel said.
The library grew larger as they approached, and the emptiness of the city began to unnerve Jez. The shadows seemed too dark, and he held himself on the edge of summoning his sword. Without saying anything, they spread out with Mirel in front of Lina and Jez and Osmund behind. She looked over her shoulder at him but didn’t say anything.
Finally, they reached a set of double doors made of red wood inlaid with gold. They went up at least fifty feet and looked solid enough to hold back an army. Jez placed a hand on them and pushed. They were lighter than he expected, and they swung open at his touch. When he withdrew his hands, there were black smudges on his fingers. He raised an eyebrow at Mirel.
“The door was burned in the fire. You touched the piece of them that remains, though your eyes saw the reflection this place created. Shall we go?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The receiving room might’ve belonged in a palace. Marble walls rose up around them, and a circular desk sat in the middle of the chamber. There were no books, but wide stairs behind the desk went up four levels. Gold inlays ran through everything from the handrails of the stairs to the marble columns holding up the ceiling. The chamber was only about a hundred feet wide, but doors lined the wall opposite the entryway, presumably leading to the main library. Jez and the others moved to the center of the chamber. Mirel stepped out in front of them and paused.
“Now what do we do?”
“Are we safe from the shadows here?” Jez asked as he eyed the faint outline of the cage. It still seemed persistent in spite of the reality of the library.
“Not really. This is still their home. They can’t move about here as easily as they can outside, but that’s largely a matter of degree. It’s like saying you can’t move around as easily at night.”
“What about that?” Jez motioned at the cage.
“We won’t need it to maintain us anymore. The library itself protects us.”
Jez nodded and raised his hand to release the cage but paused. He couldn’t just dismiss it. He could practically hear the shadows screaming in his mind. Dismissing the working would just unleash them. He summoned his sword and held it in two hands. He drove it down into one of the shadowy bars on the floor. A pulse of energy ran through the cage. The screams in his mind intensified for a second and then vanished.
“A bit of an overkill, don’t you think?” Lina asked.
“Do you want them running around the library?” For a second she looked like she was going to be sick, but instead, she shook her head. Jez turned to Mirel. “Now that we’re here, how do we get the library back home?”
“This is just a thought,” Osmund said slowly, “but have you thought about burning it?”
“What?” Mirel practically shrieked. “No, you can’t.”
“We’re not going to,” Jez said.
“But we just want to stop Sharim from getting the information, right?” Osmund asked. “If we destroy it, he can’t get it.”
“What would be lost if you do destroy it?” Mirel asked. “What about the workings that humanity has long since forgotten? What about the knowledge of the limaph that you so desire?”
“I don’t want that knowledge if the price is the entire world.”
“We’re not destroying the library,” Jez said. “Just because we know Sharim can get the information here doesn’t mean he can’t get it somewhere else. We’ll need it if we’re going to be able to stop him.”
“Fine,” Osmund said. “We find what we need, and then we burn the library.”
Jez shook his head. “He would just come up with another plan. Sharim is at war with us, and with the knowledge in this library, we’ll be able to defend against him, no matter what he does.”
“It’s a weapon he can use against us, just as easily.”
“This is a surprise,” Lina said. “You two never argue like this. Not when it’s serious.”
“Jezreel is a Shadowguard,” Mirel said. “Osmund is a limaph descended from the Shadeslayers. The two orders often agree but not always. One is focused on defense and the other on offense.”
Jez blinked at Osmund. He’d never considered that, and judging from the expression on the other boy’s face, Osmund never had either. Still, it made sense.
“Can you create a working to set the library on fire but will remain dormant until you set it off?” Jez asked.
“What?” Mirel asked.
“He has a point, and you know it. We can’t let Sharim get this place. We have to be ready to destroy it.”
Osmund nodded. “That should be simple enough.”
“Do that. I’ll work on the banishing.”
“What banishing?”
“We don’t want the library here, right? I might be able to craft a working to banish this place back to the mortal realm, but if I can’t, or if Sharim’s allies show up, we can destroy it.”
“No.” Mirel’s face looked horrified. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
Jez narrowed his eyes. “We’re stopping a human-form demon from bringing an army into the mortal realm. I’m sorry, but tha
t’s more important than this library.”
“But...”
“We’ll save it if we can, Mirel,” Jez said. “For now, you and Lina look through the library and see if you can find what Sharim needs. I’ll start working on the banishing.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Circle banishings were tricky, complicated things. They were among the most powerful workings a protection mage could craft, but Jez had never practice much on them. Except under very specific circumstances, they were incredibly impractical. Unless the demon was kept immobile, they could simply step out of it.
Of course, the library was immobile.
He didn’t have any sand, but many different materials could be used to craft a circle, and the fire had left a layer of ash on the ground. He set about drawing runes in the receiving chamber, but after a few minutes, he realized he was in completely over his head. He knew the runes, or at least he knew most of them, but he had only the most basic understanding of how to make them work together to achieve a circle banishing on this scale.
“I wish Besis were here.”
He spoke a little too loud, and his breath obscured the partially drawn expanding rune. Normally, in order for a circle banishing to work, he would have to draw the circle around the entire object being banished, but the area outside the library wasn’t really there, so he needed the expanding rune to link with the rune of stone. That, in turn, was interwoven with the rune for knowledge. Things just got more complicated from there.
“Jez,” Lina called from above.
Jez looked up. She was on the fourth floor, though her voice had sounded much closer.
“Yes?”
“Sorry, I can’t hear you,” her voice came from close by. “My illusion only works one way. Come up here. I found a section that’s full of books on protection magic. It might help you.”
Jez nodded and climbed the stairs. Each level was thirty feet tall and it took him a few minutes to reach the top. She led him through one of the doors and into a large chamber with a domed ceiling. Tall shelves made of dark wood covered the floor leaving just enough room between them for two people to walk side by side. The air smelled of paper and old books, and Jez realized this wasn’t just a library. It was close to a temple, one dedicated to ideas and knowledge.
Lina stepped quietly, but even so, her footsteps almost seemed to thunder in the silence of the place. His own steps echoed even louder. She led him to the back and tapped a large leather bound book with a cracked spine. Jez squinted but took in a sharp breath.
“Blood of Sariel? I thought all copies of this were lost.”
She grinned. “They were, and look.”
She ran her fingers over the books next to it, and Jez just stared. He reached out and touched one, half expecting his fingers to pass through it, but they didn’t. These books were real. “All fourteen volumes. Besis would give his right arm to read these. He’d give both his arms.”
“Can you use them to help us?”
He pulled out the eleventh book and began flipping through it. He could feel the smile forming on his face. “Almost definitely.”
He stopped on a page displaying a number of runes connected to each other in complex ways. One section even described different ways to draw the runes depending on what they were drawn in. The best, of course, was the white sand Master Linala had used. Jez hadn’t realized it came from the crystallized remains of spirits, and he had no idea how such a thing could be made. Blood could also be powerful, though it had other side effects that made using it undesirable. Just below blood in effectiveness was the ash of something precious. Jez pursed his lips. The remains of the greatest library ever built probably qualified. He flipped through a couple of pages and could see where he’d been mistaken, at least in part of the circle. It would take time for him to find all the problems.
“I’m going to need to look through these.”
She pointed at a nearby alcove in the wall. “There are empty rooms everywhere. I think they were used as reading rooms.”
“Where is everyone else?”
“Jez, this place is larger than the whole Academy grounds. We decided it would be better to spread out.”
Jez started. “Aren’t you worried about...” He waved his hands at a corner that, in the mortal realm, would’ve been hidden by shadows.
She clenched her teeth before nodding. “This is important, Jez. If it comes down to it, I think I can defend myself against one or two of them, at least long enough to send a signal one of you can see.” She let out a long breath. “I just hate feeling so helpless.”
“Don’t feel bad because you don’t have a mystical sword capable of banishing creatures from a place that isn’t really a place.”
She gave him a half smile. “What about your sword? Can I borrow it?”
“It doesn’t work that way. I’m not sure I can even let it go without it vanishing.”
“No, not the crystal one.” She pointed to his waist. “That one.”
Jez stared at the weapon for a second before drawing it. The veins of gold running through the silvery metal glimmered. Forged by his own power, it was far stronger than ordinary steel and could fight the forces of the abyss better than any normal weapon. He held it out to her.
“Sorry, I should’ve thought of that myself. I’m not sure how much good it will do. The shadows aren’t demons, and they don’t have a physical form.”
She took it and immediately, her hand dropped a few inches. He tried to hide a smile, but judging by the look on her face, he hadn’t succeeded. He unbelted the sheath and handed that over as well.
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”
“Be careful.” He pointed to the reading room. “I’ll be in there. Call me if you need help.”
She looked like she was going to argue, but instead she shivered and nodded. She helped him carry all fourteen volumes, and he sat down to study.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
It didn’t take him long to puzzle out the sequence of runes he needed for the banishing. The circle would require nearly three hundred runes to function properly. He’d been on the right track, but that was like saying taking a step onto a road was on the right track to reaching the next town. It was technically true, but it was only the smallest portion of it. With a dozen years to practice, he might have been able to craft the appropriate circle without the help of these books. Probably not, but it was possible. It would only take him hours to craft one now though.
He stopped to tell Lina to find the others and returned to the receiving room of the library. He drew a couple of dozen runes before she returned with Osmund in tow.
“I couldn’t find Mirel,” she said.
Jez finished drawing a line that bisected a triangle and looked up. “Did you finish the working to burn everything?”
“I found a room full of clay tablets. I’m not sure those will burn, and there a couple of places that had pretty serious wards on them. I could get in, but I’m not sure the runes will hold there. Other than that, I think I got everything.”
“How long will it take you to set it off?”
“A couple of seconds, but I need to be at one of the runes.”
Jez glanced at the door. “Put one there so you can do it faster.”
“Why not here?”
“I don’t want it interfering with the banishing.”
“Can you really make that work?”
Jez nodded and went back to drawing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Osmund raise a hand. There was an explosion of sparks and a rune appeared on the door. Normally, using magic to create a rune wasn’t possible as the magic creating the rune would inevitably interfere with its function. In this case, however, both the magic used to craft the rune, and the magic the rune would release were ember magic. In fact, it would probably make the final working stronger. It also made it so Osmund could work a lot faster than Jez. By the time Jez finished crafting the circle, several hours had passed, though he had no way of tellin
g how many. His bones creaked as he stood up, and his back ached from so much time being hunched over. Lina paced back and forth, and Osmund snoozed in a corner. Mirel still hadn’t returned.
“Should we go looking for her?” Lina asked.
“Probably. I’m not completely sure this will work, and we should have everyone together in case something goes wrong.”
“You know you’re not inspiring a whole lot of confidence.” Osmund said without opening his eyes.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“The sound of you coming up with another plan gave me nightmares.” His eyes opened. “Where do you think she would be anyway?”
Jez shrugged. “What kind of knowledge would a Lightgiver want?”
“She wanted to preserve the library,” Lina said. “Maybe something to help us do that.”
“The Blood of Sariel probably helped more than anything she could find. Besides, you were in the protection section. You would’ve seen her.”
Lina laughed. “I was in one protection section, but I think you’re assuming this place is a lot better organized than it actually is. I found books on the abyss in half a dozen places.”
“Are you sure you weren’t in the same section? In a place like this, the sections must be huge.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know what I’m doing, Jez.”
Jez nodded. “She might’ve gone to the lower levels. What’s down there?”
“Cobwebs mostly,” Osmund said. “It’s a scroll storage area and the room of tablets I told you about. I think it was kept dark, and I got the feeling that even before the Lightgivers took the library, not many people went there. I also found some big empty chambers, but I’m not sure what those are for.”
“Summoning chambers,” Lina said.
“How do you know?”
Lina shrugged. “It’s a guess, but it makes sense. This is a place of knowledge, and summoning is in the dominion of knowledge. They have to have places for summoning.”
“Do you think she’d be there?”
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