Leaf and Branch (New Druids Series Vol 1 & 2)

by Donald D. Allan

  I smiled and shook my head. "I've no idea. It appears Gaea is taking some of your years back."

  Nadine looked at me with wet eyes. "Do you really think so?"

  "I do. I can see the changes in you. You're walking much better. Your back is almost straight again. Your joints don't hurt nearly so much do they?"

  Nadine nodded and wiped away a tear. "Why? Why would she do this? How?"

  I just shook my head and smiled. "I have no idea. Except..." I looked around and pulled Nadine off the street and away from ears.

  Nadine understood and looked around. "Except what?" she asked under her breath.

  "Well, I can see the changes in you. And I can see how I could do some of that. It would take time though and I would have to concentrate. It would take days I think. But..."

  "But what?"

  "Any changes wouldn't be permanent. I'm not sure I can explain it. I can see how your body works. Aging is deeper than just wearing out. Age is part of a process and I have no idea how to reverse it. I can only remove the damage of the wear and tear of age. I can't actually stop aging. So whatever I did it would be temporary and take so much time I doubt there would be any benefit."

  Nadine looked into my eyes as if searching for something. I could only look back. After a moment, she lowered her eyes and nodded. "Fair enough. Come. We've still a ways to go."

  * * *

  We reached the Library of Jergen in half an hour. It was a monumentally tall and beautiful white stone building with the Cathedral looming over it. I couldn't believe people were capable of creating something so lovely. The stonework was carved in ornate swirls and all around the roof edge, carved gargoyles and angels danced and flew. They looked so lifelike and real. The centre of the roof was a domed stained glass structure bigger than most of the homes in Jaipers. I stood with my head tilted back admiring it for a few minutes and Nadine gave me the time.

  "It's beautiful isn't it?" she asked after a moment.

  "Yes. Yes, it is."

  "Too bad it represents the death of so many of our people. And countless others all around the Realm. Enough gawking. Let's go in, young man."

  "As you command, old woman."

  Nadine laughed and led the way up the two dozen or so steps stretching across the entire front of the building. We walked past two enormous stone pillars marking the entrance and up through the large, red-stained, double oak doors standing open in the summer heat. The steps and entrance were vacant. The library was not a place often visited at midday on hot summer days. It seemed Nadine was right.

  Inside the shade of the entrance, the temperature was a bit cooler but still stifling. We stood for a moment to let our eyes adjust to the dim interior of the building. I could smell the dusty old books and I felt an excitement build within me. When my eyes adjusted I could see deep into the library and saw bookcases from floor to ceiling as far as my eyes could see. The inside was almost one great big room, with the centre of the library lit by the stained glass dome. It cast beautiful hues of all colours throughout the room. I saw all this without trying but my eyes were locked on the books. There are hundreds and thousands of tomes of knowledge, I thought looking to the left and right at all the shelved and stacked books. Enough to last me a lifetime and I probably wouldn't even dent it. I wondered what herb lore I could find within and felt tempted to just find books on the subject and lose myself in here for days.

  A smack on my arm from Nadine had me following behind her and we stopped at the large square counter area that dominated the front of the room. It held an ornate black desk and an overweight, bald, robed man sat behind it doing something with a book containing loose leaf pages. The desk was positioned right under the domed stained-glass ceiling. Nadine touched a small bell at the counter and the soft peal had the man looking up. He wore round and thick, wire-rimmed spectacles making his eyes big and round. He squinted at us and then struggled to rise from the desk without toppling the piles of books balanced precariously beside him. He wore a shirt and collar I assumed marked him as a priest of the Church of the New Order. I had never met one before and I was intrigued. He wore a dark brown, almost black, wool robe despite the heat.

  "Coming! One second, please, if God grants it," he said in a high and feminine voice that made me blink.

  "Take your time, Father Peter. Take your time. It's just me, Nadine, with a young friend from out of town."

  Peter glanced up as he rounded the desk and caught the corner on his upper thigh. He let out an oof and grasped the sore spot. "Dammit!" he cursed and then looked around in fright at his blasphemy. I laughed despite the need to stay serious here and Nadine elbowed me. Peter fumbled at his spectacles and pulled them off his ears and nose. He blinked furiously for a moment and then focused on us. "Sorry, my reading glasses make it impossible to move about! You'd think I would have learned by now."

  Peter came over to the counter in front of us and reached across to grasp Nadine's hands warmly. "Good to see you again, Nadine. How are you keeping?"

  "Fine, Peter. Just fine. How is your problem?"

  Peter blushed a bright red and looked away. "Oh, well. Oh, dear. Well, fine I suppose. Thanks to you." He looked tentatively at me and then locked eyes with me and smiled. "And who is this gorgeous young man you bring me?"

  "Peter! Behave yourself! This is my friend, Will. I'm sorry Father but I have little time. I have a favour to ask if I may?"

  "Of course, of course! For you anything! What is it?" He glanced quickly at Nadine and then looked me up and down. He pursed his lips.

  "I need to see a special section of the library today, I'm afraid."

  "Special? Which section would that be?" Peter was openly checking me over and I felt a little uncomfortable

  "The occult."

  Peter tore his gaze from me and frowned at Nadine. "The occult! What would you need to see that section for?"

  "For my herb lore, Peter. My friend here is visiting and told me the wordsmith from another town mentioned an old book that possibly lay in there that had recipes for some special potions. Ones that speed up healing. Others that stimulate blood flow."

  Peter's mouth formed an 'O'. "Blood flow?" he asked.

  "Yes, you know. Gets blood moving and into places it can't seem to find anymore."

  "Ah." Peter grew quiet for a moment and it appeared his cheeks grew a little redder. "I see. Well. Let me think."

  "Take your time, dear."

  Peter looked about the empty library. He seemed a bit agitated to me. He leaned in and whispered. "This is most unorthodox! I am not allowed to let anyone in the occult section other than the high priesthood and above. There are books in there that are priceless! You ask a lot of me!"

  Nadine patted Peter's hand gently. "It will be okay. We only need a couple of hours. Undisturbed hours, Peter. I have never asked you for anything, have I? Give me this, please."

  Peter looked down and thought before nodding. "Okay, Nadine. Only because no one else is here. The building is empty at the moment." He paused and looked pleadingly at Nadine. "Promise me you won't disturb anything?"

  "Of course, you have my word, my dear."

  "Alright. One second."

  Peter hurried over to the side of the counter and lifted the wood countertop and walked through the opening. He crossed over to a door I hadn't noticed before and opened it with a key hanging around his neck. He entered the door and disappeared. I looked over at Nadine and saw she was smiling.

  "Easier than I expected," she declared. "He won't be long. He needs to draw the key for the section we want. The occult section is locked tight behind a thick door."

  "Why's he giving us access?"

  "Let's just say not all members of the clergy are chaste and not all of their members work right. Peter's peter peters."

  "What?"

  "Nothing. Now shush. This is a library, be quiet."

  After a long wait, Peter emerged back through the door. He looked around the library as he approached the counter and he
quickly lifted the counter top and passed back inside to his workspace. He came over to us and continued to look around.

  "Did anyone come in while I was away?" he asked in a hushed tone.

  "No, Peter. Still just us," answered Nadine.

  "Okay," he said and slid a key over the counter to us. Nadine reached out and snatched it up quickly.

  "Give us two hours, Peter. That's all we'll need. Thank you."

  "Just hurry."

  "We will."

  Nadine grabbed my arm and pulled us past the counter. She led me to a set of stairs that disappeared into a side structure of the library. Nadine led me up several stairs to the back of the library. The place was huge and it took us a good ten minutes to navigate to the special area of the library. As we walked past all the bookshelves, I could only gawk at the sheer volume of books. So much knowledge right here for anyone to take and read and learn. I felt a little giddy. As we neared the rear of the library on the upper floor, a thought occurred to me.

  "Nadine, why the occult section? Why do you think the book is there of all the places it could be?" I asked.

  Nadine snorted. "It's a book about the draoi, our magic and our lore. For the Church that would be in the occult section."

  We reached the section Nadine wanted. It was cordoned off with a thick red velvet rope hung off brass stanchions. Beyond the rope, I could see four large heavy-set doors. Nadine ducked under the ropes and approached the door labelled Occult. She inserted the key into the lock and turned it to the left. A soft metallic click was heard and Nadine pulled out the key and pulled open the door. It swung quietly on its hinges and beyond we could see it was pitch black.

  "Grab a light," she said and held the door open.

  I grabbed a reading candle off a nearby shelf and lit it from one of the wall torches. I handed it to Nadine and she led the way inside. I closed the door behind us and turned to examine the room. It was smaller than I expected. It was only about thirty feet square but rose some thirty feet high. The walls were floor to ceiling covered bookshelves and the shelves were full. Long ladders ran on metal tracks and I could see they could be moved to reach the books on the upper shelves. A long wooden table was centred in the room with two plush leather seats placed before it. In the middle of the table sat a large book. Nadine moved over to the table and lit the other reading lamps. The soft glow of the lamps warmed the room and the rich reds and browns gave the room a very studious but comfortable look. One day, I want a library that looks just like this, I thought as I admired the view. There sure were a lot of books.

  "I think it will take us more than a couple of hours to sort through all this," I said. Nadine looked at me and I could see she was trying to see if I was joking or not. "What?"

  "There's a card catalogue, Will. Over there," and she pointed at a tall desk filled with rows of tiny drawers. I walked over to it and I could see each drawer was labeled and the drawers were ordered alphabetically and numerically. I pulled open one of the drawers and saw with amazement they were filled with cards with writing on them. Tabs separated the cards further.

  "Um, what do I do with this?" I pulled out a card and scanned it.

  "First, we find what we are looking for in the listing book, and then we look it up in the card catalogue. The cards will tell us where in the shelves the book is placed."

  "Really?" I could see the card in my hand had an alphabetic group written at the top and, under the group listing, was a book title and, under the title, was information about the author, where the book had come from, and the location on the shelves. Huh, smart.

  "Really, really."

  "That's pretty smart."

  "Uh, huh. Pretty smart. Now come over here and help me with the listing. It's heavy." I put the card back in the drawer where I found it and joined her at the table, watching as she opened the large book. The pages were loose leaf and held by rings inside the bookbinding. "This is the inventory listing. We will need to figure out what they would have called our book then find it in here. Then we can look it up in the card catalogue which will tell us where to find it on the shelves."

  "Okay. So let's start with Draoi Manuscript." Nadine shot me a look with a smirk on it but located a tabbed page for the 'D' section and started turning pages. She ran her fingers down the listings until she completed all the entries.

  "Nope," she declared. "Not listed."

  "Druid Manuscript, then?"

  Nadine scanned again. "Nope."

  "Well, I'm out of ideas. Let's go."

  Nadine smacked me but laughed. I was liking making her laugh. Her whole face lit up. My arm was getting a bit sore. It was strange being so close to her. The bond we had — the draoi bond — was strong. The blue ribbon twisted and pulsed and white tinged the edges of it. I had been practicing minimizing my use of the power. Nadine said I no longer glowed blue. I closed my eyes and used the bond and could see which way she was facing. I could almost feel her movements and I think with just a little effort I could probably feel what she felt too. I opened my eyes to see her staring right at me. She reached out a hand and patted my cheek and sighed. "Focus on finding the book, Will." I nodded.

  We spent the next hour picking titles and searching with no luck. Eventually, we began at page one and started reading each entry. After about ten minutes and little to show for it, we stopped and sat back in the seats to stare at the books all around us.

  "How many books do you think there are in this room, Nadine?"

  "Too many. And maybe it's not even here."

  I nodded and felt crestfallen. I leaned forward and turned pages randomly and looked for anything to jump out. "I wish I knew what it looked like, at least," I murmured.

  "Well, I do. But the copy is probably different."

  "Why would they make it look different?"

  "I don't know I just assumed..."

  "So what does it look like? The original, I mean."

  "It's burgundy. Leather all around. The spine is covered in a green leather. No writing on the spine. The front cover is embossed with a Tree, which is the symbol of the draoi, and there's a triskelion."

  "Like on the coin?"

  "Yes, exactly, except large and more ornate."

  "So a green spine." I looked around at the books on the shelves and spotted green books everywhere I looked. Probably about a third of the books were green. "We know how big it is, too. Based on the pages we have, it's a rectangular book and maybe one foot tall and two feet long."

  "Hmm, yes. That's the size of the originals. The drawings require large oversize pages, but they are folded in."

  I stood up and started to walk around the room from the left looking for a green book that was one foot tall and two feet long. It would stick out from the other books with its length. "How thick?" I asked.

  Nadine stood up sensing what I was doing and she started scanning the books from the right side of the room. "It was thick. About three inches thick. Maybe a bit less."

  I dismissed book after book. The shelves were not deep and a long, thick book would stand out. I reached the far right corner at the same time as Nadine and we both looked up and saw a thick, long and green book on the top shelf, right in the corner. I looked at Nadine and grinned. I walked over to the nearest ladder and pulled it over and climbed up until the book was right in front of me. I pulled it out and turned it over to look at the front and saw a large tree painted or stained on the cover with the triskelion symbol underneath. "This is it!" I declared and heard Nadine's cry of joy below me.

  I hurried down the ladder and brought the book over to the table and laid it down. Nadine reached out and caressed the cover. "Humph. It's not embossed. It's a copy," she said and opened the cover and started flipping through the pages. "Yes, yes. It's all here exactly as I remember them. This is an exact copy, Will." She flipped through more pages and then stopped and pressed the book open to expose the inner spine. I could see the remains of a few pages that had been neatly torn out.

  Nadine looked u
p at me and I nodded. "The same book. My pages came from this book here."

  "Yes, and hopefully that means this is the only copy," she said. I hadn't thought about there being more than one copy. "I think we should try and figure out who had access to this." Nadine turned to the back inside cover. A small pocket was glued to the book with a piece of paper tucked inside. Nadine pulled it out and I read it out loud.

  "The Demonic Bible, copy," I read and we shared a look at that. "Author unknown. Source unknown. Age unknown. Signed out by Bishop Arnold Bengold, Nollaig 877 A.C., Seth Farlow, Nollaig 877 A.C., Seth Farlow, Feabhra, 878 A.C. And then just more of this Seth fellow over and over for years."

  Nadine shook her head. "Seth Farlow is the one I told you about. The weasel that worked for the Archbishop. It appears he's had access and knowledge of this book for decades. He knew everything about us. No wonder they found us so easily! Oh, Will!"

  Nadine collapsed against me sobbing. I held her easily and found myself rubbing her back and telling her everything would be all right. Through our bond, I couldn't help but feel her pain and anguish. The loss was mine too and I cried silent tears that splashed on her head and were lost to my hand stroking her hair. I felt a presence then. The earth was watching us. I looked up at the ceiling as if she were there.

  "Hello, Gaea," I said and Nadine sucked in a breath and looked up from my chest where her face had been buried.

  "Gaea is here?" she whispered.

  "Yes, she's watching us right now." As soon as I spoke the words she was gone between one heartbeat and the next. "And now she's gone."

  "Did she say anything?"

  "Say anything? She can speak?"

  Nadine leaned back, still in my embrace and smacked me on the chest. "Yes, stupid. Of course. Though, rarely. The Cill Darae, your mother for example, spoke to her all the time. Your mother once told me it was like having a friend who never left your side. Ever. She was annoyed most of the time, I think."

  I realised then we were standing embraced in the room and had been for a long time and I let Nadine go feeling awkward. Nadine raised an eyebrow at me. "Sorry," I mumbled.