Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers, #2)

by Brenda Drake

  “You’re going to wake a sleeping beast.” He chuckled, and it was so sexy, I had to hit him again.

  I went for a fruit dangling just above my head. Bastien’s eyes went wide. I smirked. “Chicken?”

  A growl sounded behind me, and I froze.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  I grabbed for my sword at my waist, but it wasn’t there. I stayed perfectly still, too freaked out to turn around. Behind me, several paws padded against the drying ground. I found Bastien’s eyes. He mouthed for me to stay still, a fiery ball swirling in his hands. The sunlight glinted on the blade of my sword in the shelter. Once Bastien threw the ball at the creatures, I decided I would make a break for it.

  The growling got fiercer. Bastien flung the fire ball toward the source of the growls. I dashed for my sword, stealing quick glances over my shoulder. The tree was on fire. Two of the creatures’ matted coats were smoking. I skidded to a stop. Bastien was on the ground, holding the ears of one creature, trying to keep the animal’s long teeth from his neck. I snatched up my blade and sprinted toward them. When in reach, I swung my sword and sliced the beast’s throat. Blood showered down on Bastien.

  He groaned, pushing the creature off him.

  Five of the creatures circled us, baring their teeth. They looked to be a cross between a huge cat and an extremely large wolf with saber teeth. Their hideous eyes, almost hidden behind their long snouts, stared us down. I raised my palm ever so slowly and ignited my pink globe. The animals sprung for us, and my globe shot up, engulfing Bastien and me with its protective shield. The sphere swayed against the impact, and I cried out, trying to keep it up with all my might. My sword slipped away and thumped onto the hard ground.

  The animals slammed against the pink membrane, cutting their saber-teeth across it. I could feel the globe slipping from me. I dropped to my knees.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Grab my sword! I’m going to lose the globe.”

  Bastien plucked up my sword. “I doubt one sword will take care of that pack.” In his free hand, he formed another fire ball. “You can do it, Gia. Don’t give in.”

  I clenched my teeth so hard, my jaw was about to break from the force. My arms shook, weak and about to buckle under the force. Another creature rammed the globe. I fell back on my heels but kept the sphere intact, barely. Ripples ran down the sides, the membrane thinning. Several bursts of light flashed outside the globe. Animal wails, agonizing yelps, and retreating paws faded into the woods. The globe burst, and I dropped onto my back.

  I couldn’t move. Snow floated down and landed on my face. I watched the flakes glitter against the sun. An old man, with scraggly gray hair and a matted beard, blocked the sun and glared down at me.

  “No time for resting,” the man said, his voice raspy. “The beasts are gone. Get up. The change shall happen fast.”

  I lifted my head. “Who are you?”

  “No time.” He paced, his eyes searching the woods around us. “No time. Must get back. Good thing you caught that tree on fire. It alerted us.”

  Bastien knelt beside me. “She needs time to recover from her globe.”

  “She must get up.” The man stopped his pacing when a loud scraping sound came from the other side of the purple-fruit tree.

  A younger guy guided a sled made out of odd-shaped branches and logs, pulled by two goats with long hair and stubby legs, between the trees. Furs and woven baskets filled with colorful fruits loaded down the sled.

  “Tie the dead beasts to the back of the sled. We’ll have to drag them,” the old man said to the other guy, then nodded at Bastien. “Put the girl on the sled.” He glanced up at the sky. “We have less than an hour, I’d say.”

  Bastien lifted me in his arms.

  “We can’t go with them,” I protested, wrapping my arms around his neck. “They could be dangerous.”

  “They saved our lives,” Bastien said. “I doubt they’d risk theirs just so they could kill us instead of those beasts.”

  He had a good point. My mind was too exhausted to think straight. A spark of light caught at the corner of my eye.

  “My scabbard and sword,” I practically whined, stretching my arm out for them as if I could will them to me.

  Bastien placed me on the furs draped over the sled. He paused and removed a strand of hair caught in my eyelashes, his thumb brushing my cheek.

  “Hush,” he said. “Just rest. I’ll gather our things.”

  The wind picked up. A flurry of snow rushed across the woods. Chilly air nipped at my skin. When the guy finished tying the beasts to the back of the sled, the old man clicked his tongue. The longhaired goats tugged on the ropes harnessed around their chests, and the sled bumped after them. The storm got angry, blowing snow in my face.

  “What’s up with the weather,” I called out to the old man. “It was just burning hot, and now it’s getting so cold.”

  “It is this Somnium’s cycle,” he spoke over the shrieking wind. “It’s warm only a few hours each day. The rest of the time, it is dangerously cold.”

  Bastien handed me my trench coat, and I struggled to put it on, my arms feeling like there were no bones supporting them. The sled bouncing over rocks and roots heightened the level of difficulty, but I managed to get it on and wrap it tightly around me.

  The woods resembled one you’d see in a horror film. The wind whistled eerily through the trees. The animals and bugs were silent once again. Shadows moved under the wind’s touch. The trees remained green, the unusual leaves seemingly mocking the arctic madness swirling around them.

  Our sled came out of the woods and tilted up as it climbed rocky foothills to the base of a cliff that soared into the sky, the top of it hidden behind angry dark clouds. The younger guy rushed to the front of the sled and grabbed the rope tied to the goats. He tugged them around a large boulder and stopped the sled in front of a cave opening.

  “This way,” the old man said, heading into the cave.

  My legs struggled to hold the rest of me up as I followed the old man and Bastien into the dank cave.

  The other guy stayed behind and worked at untying the goats from the sled.

  Inside the cave was a long tunnel. The man took a torch off the wall and lit it with his magic.

  He’s a wizard.

  The old man wobbled down the tunnel. On the left was a smaller cave. It stank like a porta-potty. There were dead grass and leaves on the floor. The area must’ve been a sort of stable for the goats. The tunnel banked right, and we came into a large cavern.

  It was like the Swiss Family Robinson’s tree-house in Disney World, except for it being a cave. Kind of like a hunting cabin. Furs draped the walls and covered the floors. A table made of logs took up one side. Two benches flanked its sides, with plates and cups whittled out of wood on its top. Two wide chairs made of wood, with furs as cushions, sat beside a fire pit. Between the chairs were stacked books.

  “Come, come, and make yourselves comfortable.” The man went to the pit and held his hand over the flame. No smoke rose from the fire.

  “You’re a wizard,” Bastien said, stating the obvious. He stood by the man and warmed his hands over the wizard’s fire.

  I dragged my feet across the fur-lined floor and plopped down on one of the chairs. I was starving and weak. “Do you have anything to eat?” I asked and crossed my arms, trying to stop the quakes.

  Bastien retrieved one of the energy bars from his coat pocket and gave it to me.

  “What’s your friend doing outside? It’s freezing.” I tore the wrapper open with my teeth and pulled the fur draped on the back of the chair around my shoulders.

  “He’s sheltering the animals and storing our supplies,” the man said. “He won’t be able to skin the two dead beasts until it warms again.”

  “Gross.” That had to be a bloody business. I could never imagine skinning an animal. How did someone get up the nerve to do something like that?

  Bastien reclaimed his spot by the fire. “How
long have you been here?”

  “A moment of nothingness in and of itself is difficult to bear, but to add them together would be complete agony.” The man crooked his head and watched Bastien. “I have been here too long to count, and my friend has been here even longer. It is something we choose not to speak of, a sort of taboo, you might say.”

  His words sank to my stomach and mixed around with the energy bar, making me queasy. “Have you tried to get out?”

  He glanced over his shoulder at me. His brown eyes hooded with bushy eyebrows and folded skin held sadness. “I’ve tried every spell, every bit of magic I know, and the trapdoor remains closed.”

  I stood. “So you just gave up?” The fur slipped off my shoulders, and the cold instantly rushed over me. I hurried to Bastien’s side and hovered over the fire pit.

  “No, I just ran out of options.” The man stared at the flame, and a frown pulled down his face, the wrinkles deepening around his mouth. “Being in this wasteland for such a long time has caused me to forget my manners.” He straightened and faced us. “Please forgive my transgressions. We haven’t been properly introduced. I am Gian Bianchi from the Mantello haven.”

  My mouth gaped as I took in what he said.

  My great-grandfather? He can’t be. He’s dead. They said he was dead. How can this man be him?

  “You can’t be.” Bastien voiced what I couldn’t. “He was murdered.”

  “I assure you, I am. I had used a wizard’s illusion to fake my death.” He placed his hand over the fire and raised it.

  The flames shot up, the warmth encircling me. I was sure he did that to emphasize the wizard thing.

  I cut a puzzled look at Bastien. “A wizard illusion?”

  Bastien opened his hand, and a perfectly red apple appeared on it. I reached for it, but when my fingers touched it, they went through it. A cool, tingling sensation prickled across my skin.

  Bastien lowered his hand. “Wizards can create illusions. Objects from their memories.”

  “This is un-fricking-believable.” I stepped closer. “How can you be alive? It’s been over seventy-five years since…”

  “It’s been that long, huh?” He swallowed. “And my wife? Is she gone?”

  I nodded, tears shocking my eyes at the sight of his glossing. “I’m…um…I’m your great-granddaughter. My mom named me after you. I’m Gianna, and this is Bastien from Couve.”

  He paused in the middle of reaching for a clay pot on the table and stared at his hand. “I should make us some tea,” he finally said, and grabbed the pot. “It’ll warm our bones, it will.” He peeked over his shoulder. “You do like tea, yeah?”

  “Yes. I’d love some,” I said, watching him carefully.

  He started his task, pouring water from a carafe made of wood into the clay pot.

  I gave Bastien a curious brow. Either Gian was in shock or he was indifferent to me being his relative. My bet was that he was trying to gather his emotions. He probably thought all this time that his wife was still alive.

  “So,” Bastien cut through the silence, “you used an illusion to fake your death? Why?”

  “I had been searching the libraries with a recovered Chiave,” Gian said, adding some leaves to the pot. “A Laniar ambushed me and buried his dagger into my chest. I had tagged the slip to this Somnium before, so I knew it was there—”

  “It’s tagged?” I blurted. “So they could find us.”

  Gian shook his head. “No. I hadn’t registered it. No one knows it exists, except me.”

  My shoulders slumped, deflated. The second of hope I’d had crushing like a dried flower between the pages of a book.

  “But he didn’t get the scroll,” Bastien said.

  “I had given it to Toad and begged him to hide it. When Conemar was busy searching my things for the Chiave, I created a doppelganger of myself and slipped into the trap.”

  I wanted to cry. Here was my great-grandfather. Alive. In front of me, and he didn’t seem to care that I was here.

  Bastien took my hand and squeezed it. “What were you searching for in the libraries?”

  “I was following someone’s path. I had found jump recordings in an old book. This person will change both worlds. Our salvation. When the presages come, whomever they may be must protect the one who will stop the Tetrad.” He hooked the woven handle of the pot to a pole rigged across the fire. “I must get him back to the havens. He has to be protected at all cost.”

  “Who is it?” Bastien asked.

  “My companion. The boy outside.” Gian looked over his shoulder as if to make sure he hadn’t come in. “Royston.”

  “Royston?” I stumbled back and fell onto the chair. Could it be? It was the name written on the scroll we had retrieved from Toad. “How did you know where to find him?”

  He went to the stack of books and pulled out a tattered blue linen journal. “In this. Agnost’s notes.” He placed it back on the pile. “An heir from the Seventh Wizard is our salvation. I discovered in old records that Royston’s guard witnessed him vanish through a slip. I knew if he were still alive in one of the Somniums, he would be the nearest heir, and our salvation. It became my quest to recover him.”

  “I haven’t heard of this book,” Bastien said. “Did you not show it to the Wizard Council?”

  “No. I suspect there are those on the council with ill intentions.” There was a limp to his step as he crossed the room. “I am the guardian of secrets, I suppose. Secrets that others can’t be trusted to know.”

  He went back to the fire, picked up the pot, and strained the liquid through a cloth into the wooden cups on the table. “If only I were able to record the slip, I wouldn’t have been trapped here. Pip would have picked up the tag in his globe, and my jump into the Somnium would have been recorded.

  “But there is hope. Each month the blue lights of the trapdoor turn silver for several days. I’ve managed to open it for a few seconds. I’ve seen into the library, but there is never enough time for us to jump through. The next one is in three weeks. We might have a chance to hold it open long enough with two wizards. It may take several attempts, but we could escape eventually. We have time to get Royston out before the end times begin.”

  “Gian,” I practically croaked out his name. “Um, you see…I’m the presage. Your granddaughter was my mother. She and my father were both Sentinels. The end is already in motion. We have to get back fast.”

  “Who’s the other?” Gian wiped his hands on his pants.

  Bastien and I gave each other confused looks. Nothing phased this man. I just told him I was his great-granddaughter and that I was the presage and I got nothing from him. No tears. No wide eyes. No emotion. Nothing.

  “There are two protectors.” He picked up a cup and passed it to Bastien. “One will stay true, the other will not. Has the other showed him or herself?”

  Nick.

  “You have a great-grandson from your affair with Anise.” I wanted to take back the part about the affair. My mother and Jacalyn had discovered it after Gian’s disappearance.

  “I see my memoirs were found.” He gave me a cup.

  I eyed him as I took the cup. Still nothing. “He’s Conemar’s son.”

  He picked up a cup and took a sip. “Now that is unfortunate. Conemar has a son who can find the Chiavi and release the Tetrad for him.”

  The look of doom on his face scared the crap out of me. “Well, Nick is on our side. He hates his father for killing his mother. He’d never help Conemar. Besides, Bastien sent Conemar into an untraced or untagged, whatever, Somnium. He’s basically in prison.”

  “The prophecy is in motion,” Gian mumbled into his cup. “Did you use an ancient charm to send him away?”

  Bastien shifted nervously. “Yes. But—how did you know that?”

  “It’s in the prophecy. In that blue book over there.”

  “At the time, I didn’t know it would put him some place where he’d gain power. I was just trying to save Gia and the others
.”

  Gian took a sip from his cup. “I couldn’t find any reference in Agnost’s journals about where that place might be. All I know for certain is he will return.”

  “Lovely,” I muttered under my breath. “And we’re stuck here.”

  Royston shuffled into the cavern, with six ferrets running after him. Blond matted hair framed his face and covered his jawline. His icy blue eyes surveyed my body like I was a steak or something. The guy was built, with wide shoulders, but he sure was hairy, and dirty. I stepped a little bit behind Bastien to avoid Royston’s stare. It was like he’d never seen a girl before.

  That’s because he hasn’t seen a girl in centuries. I mentally slapped my forehead.

  One of the ferrets came up to my toes and sniffed. “Oh, how cute. Where did they come from?”

  “They were here. They are friends,” Royston said. “We feed them, and they alert us when the beasts are near.”

  Gian clunked his cup onto the table. “I say we eat dinner, and while we eat, I think you two should fill me in about all that’s happened since I’ve been away. We shall turn in early and wake in time for the next warm spell.”

  I searched the cave. It was one room, which meant the sleepover would be co-ed, with me being the only girl.

  Wonderful.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  It felt as though someone was staring at me, so I popped open my eyes. Royston was leaning over me, his face so close to mine I could smell his majorly stinky breath. I sat up fast and bonked heads with him. I tugged a fur up to my chin, which was stupid since I still had all my clothes on.

  “What are you doing?” I gave the crouching guy a sharp look and felt for my scabbard.

  Bastien sprung up. “What’s the matter?”

  “You hungry?” Royston grunted, rubbing his head where our heads collided. “Gian says to eat. The sun is rising. It is the warm time. You must hurry.” He scampered off and straddled the bench at the table.