The Untold Prophecy (The Last Library Book 1)

by Jill Cooper

  “Checking on things while you slept. I think he wanted to avoid me. To say we don’t get along…”

  I touched George’s face and pulled it closer to mine. “You should’ve heard the argument we got into last night after you fell asleep. This is new for all of us…we’ll get there.”

  “I want to end the ministers as much as you and Sebastian do, I just hope there’s a place for me.”

  “There’s a place for you because we do things together. I need you because of who you are, not because of what you do.” My words were so different from the ideals the ministers instilled in all of us that they jarred me. But I meant them. They rang true and weren’t hollow appeasements.

  “And what will freedom mean? What will it bring us or our cities and towns? Even if we win, everything will be scary and strange.” George took a deep breath. “But if it means no mother ever has to be dragged from her home, if it means the sick get treatment, and the weak are protected, how can we not continue forward?”

  “You make me love you more every day,” I said and wrapped my arms around him in a big bear hug.

  “Think fast,” Sebastian’s voice rang out from somewhere and as George and I pulled apart, fruit came flying at our heads.

  We caught the golden apples thrown through the air. “It smells yummy,” I said.

  “Imagination fruit. It’ll taste like whatever you want it to.”

  Mine tasted like an apple, but sweeter. George and I fell in line, following Sebastian through the twisted caverns. We walked in silence until a howling of wind gusted past, pulling us toward something.

  “Careful,” Sebastian warned, “it’ll get stronger. Hold onto the cavern walls as we get closer to the exit. The uncharted territories want to scare us away.”

  I gulped and glanced at George who looked as green as we felt. He reached for my hand and kept me close to protect me. In front of him, I walked slowly, feeling his hand on my waist. Sebastian never got too far ahead, glancing over his shoulder to make sure we weren’t falling behind.

  The gusts grew so strong, Sebastian had to holler over them so we could hear him. My heart pounded. The further we went, the closer we got to the opening. What would I see? What would it feel like?

  I couldn’t do this. The rhythm of uncertainty pounded in my chest. I’d fail. I knew it. What business did I have doing any of this?

  Sebastian gripped the opening of the cavern, his finger taut against the brick, as though he could only hold on through pure force of will. The wind blew back his brown hair and for the first time, a four-pronged scar revealed itself on his cheek. His unmoving eyes studied the landscape.

  “The wind will catch us and guide us down. We’ll need to jump.”

  I took a deep breath and studied the horror on George’s face. Outside, I saw pillars of rocks like towers. Between them, a dry and brittle landscape of brown. The wind made it difficult to see, but I didn’t see any people or settlements to speak of. The sky was foggy and grey, but a beacon of light shone, trying to break free from the clouds.

  Fear gripped me. I couldn’t swallow. What if we all fell to our deaths?

  Sebastian extended his hand to me. “I can guide you.”

  I shook my head; I’d stay with George. “We can do this.” I took George’s hand and readied for the jump.

  “Let the wind take you. Don’t fight it.” With the next big gust, Sebastian jumped with a swooping arm gesture and bent knees.

  I tugged on George’s arm, my feet on the edge of the cavern gazing down at the terrain. The wind picked us both up like we were pieces of paper, carrying us out through the air. Arms extended, we slowly swooped down, but not under our own propulsion. I felt like a bird and George squeezed my fingers hard with a yelp.

  The ground rushed up to meet us and George landed first, falling into a rolling tumble against the bitter rough terrain. I landed on my feet, but—unable to control my speed—stumbled and fell onto him.

  George laughed, catching my hips and gently lowering me for a kiss. “I never would’ve believed it if I hadn’t done it,” George said. “It was almost fun, wasn’t it?”

  Breathless, I laughed, settling in for a longer embrace, but Sebastian sighed and said, “You’re both alive. Can we please get on with it?”

  I rolled up to my feet. “This might not be new to you, but to us it is. If you’d just give us a moment....”

  “Moments are few and far between out here. We have no cover and we need to get to some before we’re spotted.”

  “Spotted?”

  Sebastian pointed to the sky and I followed his gaze, where gray clouds took shape. There was barely a twinkle but forms of disfigured robes flew just beyond the plains, drawing circles at the mountain ridges along the horizon. These ones were bigger than I was used to and screeched louder, like animals.

  Ravengers. It had to be.

  They were active, even out this far, and they called to each other, their deafening cry echoing in my ears so loud, they wanted to bleed.

  George peered with me. “They’ll find us for sure. I’m not so sure about this plan, Abby.”

  Sebastian wasn’t too far ahead of us and he beckoned for us to follow. “Hurry, hurry!” Hunched low to the ground, he made a dash for a cluster of dying trees. When he got there, he waved at me to follow. I crept along but kept low.

  “We can’t turn back now. Come on.” I tossed my hand to George and he took it, staying low as I was. When we reached the cluster of trees, we rested against the trunks and peered up at the mountain range. Clusters of clouds camouflaged the snowy peaks that had the ravengers’ attention.

  Sebastian tapped me on the shoulder and pointed off in the distance. “That’s where we’re headed,” he whispered. I followed his gaze and I barely made out a domed building off in the distance. It was vast and merely a pinprick on a map. Between us and them, a bog, some more trees, and a low mountain pass.

  I glanced back at the ravengers circling and didn’t see how we could make it. Fear gripped me, and I struggled to swallow. “I don’t know if…. This is a lot to ask, Sebastian.”

  “If you’re Tarnish Rose, if I’m not wrong about you, you’ll do it.” Sebastian started ahead, heading for a rock formation, pulling the sword free from his back.

  I willed my feet to move but I was incapable. “Who’s the bravest girl I know?” George asked. “Who is the one who risked hunters to rescue me from execution?”

  “Even the brave have moments of weakness,” I admitted.

  “I’ll be with you, Abby.” George took my hand and his skin was warm and comforting. “Together we’ll get there, and maybe find some answers about what’s been going on all this time.”

  His words gave me strength and we hurried, single file, across the gray and black terrain. When we arrived at the rock formation, we found a nestled area inside of which we could hide. Flat on my belly, I kept my bag safe and close to me. I reached in to make sure the books were still there—of course they were, but I needed to touch them.

  The ravengers shrieked as they flew, reporting to each other, but what they could talk about, I wasn’t sure. This was a barren wasteland of grass and rock, what was there to report on? The minister’s rules and code of conduct couldn’t be broken out here; there was no one to break it.

  Then an animal rose from the mountaintop. With majesty and grace, unlike anything I had ever seen with my own eyes. A cottontail deer. Her long legs kicked off as she raced down the rock with a spring in her step. Her narrow face was regal as her ears twitched and I found myself smiling at her.

  That something so beautiful, so regal, could survive out here, mystified me, its form and grace hypnotizing.

  “It’s so beautiful,” I whispered. “Like Bambi.” A story I’d read about only once, back before I’d felt the calling to save the books. I’d read and then discarded it, afraid of getting caught.

  “I’m afraid it has a bleak future,” Sebastian said. “Quickly, while the ravengers are still distracted,
we must hurry toward the bog. If we can get to the mountain pass without being spotted, we’ll be home free.”

  We followed Sebastian toward the pass toward freedom. The ravengers screeched.

  “Don’t look back,” Sebastian said, but it was too late. The deer was in a full-on sprint down the rocky side of the mountain, but the ravengers had her surrounded. She rose up on her hind legs, her hoofs striking at the hunter.

  She struck him center mass, pushing the vile hunter backward, but the others on either side of her clamped their boney hands onto her hide. Before I knew it, dark light shone beneath their hoods. It engulfed the deer whose skin turned a pasty gray, withering it to nothing but ash.

  “No!” I screamed without realizing I’d even spoken. The ravengers spun toward us and sounded their death charge. So much louder than I was used to. Beneath their hoods, I saw red eyes and mouths full of fangs and death.

  By the workmen, what had I done?

  “Damn it!” Sebastian grabbed both my arms and yanked me around. We charged up the mountain pass, but the shrieks and calls of the hunters charged after us.

  “I’m sorry!” I yelled.

  “Don’t be sorry. Just run!” Sebastian pushed both me and George ahead of him. Sebastian started to overtake us and George was falling behind. “George!” I screamed and grabbed for his hand to pull him along.

  We ran and the ravengers picked up speed. When I glanced behind, I saw they were gaining on us and I struggled with despair. “Just a little farther.” My breathing labored, but I knew it wasn’t true.

  “We need to slow them down,” George said. “And I know how to do it.”

  He was no longer by my side. I pivoted to see he stood between the mountain pass with the sharpened knife he had showed me days earlier, in his hand. If he thought I was going to let him face the ravenger.

  “George!” I screamed and lunged for him, but he pushed me back and barely looked at me.

  “You protect her,” he said instead to Sebastian. “She’s the one the world needs. You keep her safe and get her where she needs to go.”

  Sebastian nodded. “I will protect her with my life. To you I swear this.”

  It was ridiculous. I wasn’t going to let George fall prey to some ravenger beast! “No!” I screamed and lunged for George but Sebastian grabbed me and dragged me onto the other side of the mountain pass. We fell end over end, rolling down the hill then landed in a dried-up creek. Dirt and dried up grass stuck in my hair from the fall and I jumped up to my feet, ready to charge back over the mountain.

  No, George. I wouldn’t let him just give up and die. That wasn’t him. This wasn’t part of the plan and he knew it. I needed him more than he realized.

  “Tarnish, you heard what he said!”

  “I don’t care!” I bore down on my teeth and took my first step into the pass. On the other side, the sky lit up gray with a boom and a glowing shadow.

  George, oh God no.

  Sebastian grabbed my arm. “He’s gone, Abby. I’m sorry. Real sorry. But let’s not waste his sacrifice and end up dead along with him. We have to move.”

  He was right but that didn’t defuse my anger. I slapped him across his face and shoved him hard as I could. “I risked everything to save him! He just threw it away and you let him. We all should’ve made it together! We don’t give up on people we love! We don’t give up on people, period!”

  Sebastian’s face looked stricken, defeated. “His sacrifice was noble, horrible, and everything that’s wrong with this world, but let it not be in vain, Tarnish! He saw what was special in you so let’s keep moving forward. I can get us to Markus and the others. I can get us to the museum.”

  I tore myself away from the side of the mountain. I couldn’t glance back and instead I willed myself to move forward. Sebastian offered me his hand, but I ignored it and broke out into a full run. Desperately, I tried to keep ahead of my grief and my tears.

  George gave his life for me and Sebastian. I couldn’t waste that chance and I had to make the most of it. Now, no matter what, I would fight the ministers and the hunters until my dying breath.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  George

  He should’ve been dead, those are the thoughts that went through George’s head as the ravenger caught up with him. George’s face was engulfed by a skeletal hand but instead of death, he was transported, together with the ravenger, to a tower. The ground rushed up to meet him and George slammed face-down onto a smooth black floor.

  Groaning, he rolled over and gawked up at the black opaque ceiling. Off in the distance, screams echoed toward him with clanks of chains and metal. Wherever he was, George might soon wish he was dead.

  Heavy footsteps drew closer and ravengers in red robes drew closer as someone approached. She wore tall ornate black boots that appeared to be more metal than a soft material, while her red cape billowed behind her. She carried a twisted black staff that let out puffs of blue smoke.

  George scampered back, but the woman slammed her staff into the center of his torso and he let out a scream as pain rippled through his body, blue smoke leaving his mouth.

  The woman, whoever she was, pulled her red hood off her head, letting her tight black curls fly free. Her pale face was set in anger, eyes narrowed, ruby lips pursed together. She bent and grabbed his chin, her metal fingernails gripping George’s skin tightly.

  “Please,” he muttered, and said little else.

  “Tell me everything you know,” her voice was husky as though it was trapped deep inside a box, “about the curator.”

  George shook his head. “I won’t. I know nothing. Nothing!”

  “Will she come for you?” She tilted her head and her eyes shone with something not human. They burned red, looked like flame. George didn’t want to look into her eyes again He didn’t want to see what might lie in them.

  He reaved his head away. “I’m nothing to the curator. Nothing!”

  The woman stood taller, slamming the heel of her boot down into the floor causing the tower to tremor and shake. “She is everything to you. For your sake, the feeling better be mutual. I have something she needs. I have something she’s looking for. And when she comes for it….” The woman snapped her metal thumbnail along her other fingers and generated a spark of fire.

  The ravengers bent and grabbed George by the elbow, pulling him back toward the prison cells. “Argh!” He fought against them, but it was of no use.

  Abby had to stay away, she had to. Oh Abby…George couldn’t be the cause of her demise. He wanted to help her, free her, not hurt her.

  “Now we begin with your training. We’ll teach you a thing or two, fool, about what it means to serve a real woman.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Rottenwood

  Evelyn was in a mood most foul; even dessert after dinner wasn’t enough to quiet her angry spirit. Mitchell had excused himself to go upstairs to his office. The hallway upstairs had a dank draft and the old floor boards creaked beneath his feet.

  As he approached his office, he heard crying in the servant’s room. Saddened to hear her wailing sobs, Mitchell rested his palm against the door. Before he knew what he was doing, he knocked on the door softly. “May I enter? It’s me. Mitchell.” He felt foolish for identifying himself so; it was obvious who it was.

  Who else would it be?

  “Enter if you wish, Mr. Richardson.”

  He closed his eyes to steel himself as he twisted the door open and stepped into the tiny room. Smaller than most of the closets in the house, there was only a plain bed sheet on the floor with a pillow and in the corner, a small stool where Danni sat. Her old dress was gathered around her waist and she used her apron to dot at her eyes. Her long brown hair was pinned up at the nape of her neck and she wore a small servant’s cap to keep it tidy.

  Mitchell exhaled as he bent down and lent her his fingers, stroking away her tears. She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. He understood it; being able to touch her brought hi
m moments of ecstasy, and comfort, too.

  He leaned her head back to kiss her full lips, and the bruises on both cheekbones didn’t go unnoticed. The embrace was tender, and Mitchell, hands on her shoulders, drew her back against him.

  “Oh,” Danni exhaled, reaching back to touch his face, “we shouldn’t, sir. We shouldn’t, or I’ll get it again. I know it.”

  “I can’t find the will to stay away from you. The beatings will stop. I’ll make sure of it.”

  Danni shook her head, leaning forward again on her stool. “She has the ear of the ministers. We’d be fools to keep this up, no matter how good it feels or what our hearts say.”

  Mitchell couldn’t stay away from Danni. To know she was here in his house, sleeping just upstairs, and to see her tender skin every day, how her bosom pushed against the harsh fabric of her uniform. If only he had met her first….

  Nothing would be different. He couldn’t deny the will of the ministers any more than he could deny his wife’s iron-fisted rule in their home.

  “We will find a way. I won’t let you go, Danni. Now that I know what it feels like to crave and feel,” Mitchell took her hand and kissed it. “We will be together. If there were to be an accident…”

  Danni turned on her stool. “No, sir! You can’t do that on my account. If something were to happen to the misses, you would be punished. You would. The ministers would see. They know all. You know that’s true.”

  Did he? Mitchell wasn’t sure. He worked with them and they didn’t know everything, but they worked hard to obtain knowledge and keep it to themselves. “Not if I’m never caught.”

  Her face was stricken with grief as she pivoted on her stool. “I will go away before that happens.”

  “I love you, Danni. I’m not going to let you go because of the wretched woman I happen to be married to.”

  “Don’t make promises with your mouth that your soul can’t keep. My heart couldn’t stand it.” Danni dabbed her eyes with her apron, before nearly dissolving with grief. Mitchell hated to see her that way. He covered her hands with his and pulled them away from her face.