From dust to dust.
Then even the dust coating her hands and her lap disappeared into small puffs of smoke that drifted off into nothing. Not a single drop of his blood was left, like he hadn’t even been there at all.
It was all just a test.
Symon had appeared to be a villain to her but really he was her greatest friend, her teacher, her mentor. He was fighting her because that’s what she needed to grow. She needed adversity so she could remember who she was.
She leaped to her feet in one swift move and walked over to her sword, her boots barely making a sound now against the marble. Using her toe she flicked her weapon up into the air and caught the handle in her hand.
Would you look at that?
Pride filled her body with a lightness that she hadn’t remembered feeling since…since she was a girl. She’d once believed that she could do anything if she put her mind to it. When had she stopped believing?
At the exit, Alyx took one last look over her shoulder at the museum. It hadn’t been the right place but in some ways it had been. “Thanks, Symon,” she whispered. “I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”
She swung open the front door, squinting into the light outside before she stepped out. And collided with something solid. Something grabbed her by her upper arms and held her.
“Alyx?”
She knew that voice. She pulled back to stare at Israel’s face and her heart thumped away in her chest so hard that she could swear he must be able to hear it. She’d never been so happy to see anyone.
“Hi,” she said, not being able to come up with anything else.
“Hi.”
She studied him. He was so lovely to look at: wide, thick lips, a strong jaw, and those deep-set hazel eyes, an explosion of chocolate and amber and caramel, flecked with moss and silver. She’d never noticed that lovely freckle on the top of the left side of his lip. Funny, she kept thinking that there should be a scar there instead.
“Alyx?”
Dear God. How long had she just stood here staring at him? She pulled herself back and cleared her throat. “Where did you disappear off to?”
“You’re the one who disappeared. By the time I entered the castle you were already gone.”
“Castle?” She frowned. “It was a museum inside.”
Israel shook his head. “It was a castle.” He snapped his fingers. “The museum in the mirror. That was where you had gone.”
“What?”
He explained the mirror that he saw in one of the castle rooms. “This building,” he turned back to look at the museum/castle, “it must have taken us both to two different parts of it.”
“That’s impossible.”
“This place doesn’t follow the rules of real life, remember?” He explained what had happened with Vix and Balthazar and showed her the AirWhisperer tattoo on his muscular, tanned bicep. She couldn’t help herself, she brushed his tattoo with her fingers. His skin was warm and smooth. She noticed him watching her with a strange look on his face.
She looked away. “So…Air, right?”
He shrugged his jacket back on. “Yeah, Air. But I couldn’t get it to work.”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t even get a tiny book to move.”
“You’ll get it. You just need a reason to remember.” Alyx explained her fight with Symon and how she’d finally been able to remember.
Israel’s face broke out into a grin. “I knew you’d get it. After all that, did you get the globe?”
She shook her head. “We’re at the wrong place again.” Past Israel’s shoulder she spotted a leaf, edges turning yellow, on a tree in the museum garden. Time was marching on. “It’s almost autumn. We’re running out of time. We’ve got to figure out this riddle. We’re missing something.”
She pulled out the scroll and read over the cursive scrawl, trying to ignore Israel’s breath on her cheek as he stood close to her, too close to her, and read over her shoulder.
In a place of memories old,
Of distant lands and lessons told.
With stiff spines and arms fold’d,
That can be borrow’d but nev’r sold.
There ’neath the spiral stars of gold.
Lies a world within a globe.
“You know,” Israel began, “maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. What if the spines aren’t literally spines? What if they’re talking about something other than bones?”
“So like the spines on a plant, or…the spine of a book?”
Israel’s eyes widened. “Books! Books have spines and the front and back cover are like folded arms. And ‘in a place of memories old, of distant lands and lessons told’, I’m guessing we’re looking for really old books, some fiction, some nonfiction. So, a bookshop? But which one?”
The final piece clicked in. “Oh my God, the bit we’ve been missing… That can be borrow’d but nev’r sold… It’s not a bookshop. It’s a library.”
“Saint Joseph’s Public Library,” they both said together.
Israel grabbed her arm. “Come on.”
Saint Joseph’s Public Library was housed in a large stern and imposing cluster of buildings that stretched across the whole city block. Solemn white walls rose up all three stories, broken only by tall, arched windows, and capped with a steep red-tile roof. Three towers rose up out of the monolith reaching the height of almost another three stories, each domed with ornate copper spires now lime green with age, and crowned with a glimmering gold cross. The tallest one loomed over the entrance, housing a disused bell tower and a large brass clock face.
“This used to be an old monastery,” Alyx said as they walked towards the silent entry, a large door fit for a giant with a small working door in the center. She shuddered as they passed under the great stone overhang, bursting with flowers and guarded by two fierce crouching lions about to pounce.
“What’s wrong?” Israel asked. He must have noticed her shiver. He seemed to notice everything with her.
“Can I just say, I’ll be happy if I never have to walk under another gargoyle again.”
Inside, the library stretched out in a main hall soaring all three levels with wings branching out to the sides. You could tell this had been a monastery. All the stoic white pillars were carved with recognizable holy figures and the ceiling was covered in painted biblical scenes. The heavy wooden bookcases were their own pieces of art, carved like thrones and inlaid with gold, housing thousands and thousands of ancient volumes. “With stiff spines and arms fold’d…” Alyx whispered as she traced the cracked and worn leather spines of the closest bookcase to her.
On the right the grand staircase circled up to the heavens and protruded out into the open space like a giant nautilus shell. She inhaled softly, letting the scent of old leather and paper fill her lungs.
“This place is huge.” Israel chewed on his lip and a crease appeared between his thick dark brows. Alyx found herself staring at his mouth. His top lip was a defined cupid’s bow, and when he released his teeth from his bottom lip, it sprung back out like a pillow, revealing a natural slight pout. What would they taste like?
“Alyx?”
She blinked and realized Israel was staring at her. “Huh, what?”
Israel smirked at her like he knew what she had been thinking, and she fought a flush. “I asked you what you thought. Where should we start looking for the globe?”
“There ’neath the spiral stars of gold, lies a world within a globe… The spiral stars of gold sound like they could be a constellation.” She frowned and stared up at the ceiling. All the ceilings here were painted, but did any of them have constellations in them? With globes underneath it?
Then it struck her. She remembered where she’d seen a large globe of the world here. Several, actually. “The Theological Hall,” she cried out.
“The what?”
“Follow me.”
Alyx led Israel down one of the wings. Her heart was hammering like mad a
nd her stomach was bubbling. They’d found it. They’d finally found it. She stopped at a wooden door and tested the handle. It was unlocked. She shot Israel a grin. She could remember the first time she had stepped foot inside this room. It had filled her with wonder then and it never ceased to since. She pulled Israel inside.
“Welcome to the Theological Hall.”
“Wow, this is some room,” Israel said from her side.
It was indeed. The ceiling was vaulted as if they were in a tomb, the arches and corners of the ceiling were engraved with vines and flowers creating decorative frames around circles and ovals of painted sections. All four walls were lined with heavy gothic bookcases in dark wood. But most important were the aged browned and brass globes sitting proudly in their stands across the black and cream tiled floor.
“The Theological Hall houses a collection of globes,” Alyx said as they walked through the hall. “And over 18,000 original theological books.”
“Some of these globes look strange,” he said. He stopped at a large one that was mainly made up of circles. “Like this one. It doesn’t even have the world on it.”
“That’s a celestial globe. It represents stars and constellations, and it’s used to make some astrological or astronomical calculations.”
“Well this looks like the right place.” He brushed the globe with his fingertip, making part of it turn.
Alyx stared up at the ceiling as she walked about. “We should find a golden constellation above the correct globe. You take that half of the room and I’ll take this half.”
Starting at each end, Alyx and Israel scanned the ceiling until they met in the middle. There were angels and clouds and birds and moons painted across the ceiling. There were even single silver stars but none grouped in constellations and no golden stars.
“I can’t see it,” Israel said.
“But this has to be the right place. It fits the riddle perfectly.” Her shoulders drooped with disappointment. “Maybe this isn’t the right room? Maybe it’s on another ceiling?”
Alyx and Israel spilt up so they could search all three levels of the library in half the time. They agreed to meet up on the third floor by the staircase. Usually Alyx would have taken her time going through this library, marvelling at each new thing she noticed engraved or painted on the walls or ceilings. But she wasn’t here for fun. Her nerves strung tighter and tighter as she slowly ran out of rooms and halls to search.
By the time she met up with Israel at the top of the staircase, her neck was aching from looking up for so long.
“Did you find it?” Alyx asked, rubbing her neck with her hand.
“No, you?”
“Not a trace. There are no constellations. There are barely even any golden stars on the ceiling. They all seem to be silver.”
“Maybe we are in the wrong place.”
She let out a growl of frustration and slammed her palms on the balustrade. “This has to be it. It has to be.” She let out a breath, trying to loosen up her shoulders as she leaned on the railing and stared down at the circular void the staircase created below. It was almost hypnotic the way the staircase wound around and around like a spiral all the way down to the ground, glimmering as the light filtering in from the skylight shone off all those stars embedded into the handrails.
Oh my God.
The spiral stars of gold…
It wasn’t a constellation painted on the ceiling. It was this staircase.
“Israel, look!” She grabbed his arm and yanked him to her side. She pointed over the railing, her finger tracing the staircase handrails as they spiraled around and around all the way down to the ground.
“The spiral stars…” He looked up and caught her eye, admiration shining from them. “Alyx, you’re a genius.”
She flushed. “We should go down there and see if I’m right before you start calling me names.”
He grinned. “Race ya.” He turned and sprinted to the stairs.
“Hey!” She raced after him down the stairs, their laughter and their footsteps echoing off the walls.
She was never going to win if she just ran. She grabbed the railing and pulled herself up to sit on it then slid down, building up speed and overtaking Israel. Giddiness flowed through her body as she wound down the staircase. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt this way. The end of the railing was coming up. She didn’t even flinch as she shot off the end and twisted in the air to land smoothly on her feet.
She spun around. “I won.”
Israel stopped partway down the stairs, shaking his head. “You cheated,” he called down.
“You’re just mad that you got beat by a girl.”
He let out a laugh before he grabbed the railing and threw his feet over it.
A shot of fear lashed through her before Israel twisted in the air, once, twice, then landed gracefully on the marble in front of her, a grin on his face. “You technically might have won, but I have way more style.”
She shook her head. “You think you’re so impressive.”
He stepped in closer. “Don’t lie. You’re so impressed by me.”
She let out a snort. “Come on. Let’s find this globe.”
They got down on their hands and knees, studying the circular section of floor contained within the spiral staircase.
“Over here,” she heard Israel say. “This tile is loose.”
She rushed over and dropped to her knees beside him. Her heart skipped a beat as he shifted one of the large marble floor tiles sideways, revealing a small dark hole.
“There’s something in there,” Israel exclaimed. He reached in. Something inside the hole flared with a blue light.
They’d found it.
He pulled out…an empty glass globe about the size of a large apple, the light from the inside of the glass already fading. It wasn’t a world globe, but a snow globe.
“We did it.” Israel dusted the globe and handed it to her. She slipped it in her canvas bag before slinging it back across her body, the globe sitting on her back.
She saw the shadow moving along the ground before she heard the call of an eagle. “Look out!” She shoved him aside, knocking them both over as a sword came crashing down against the marble.
Chapter Twelve
Alyx rolled off Israel and leaped up to her feet, her sword singing as she pulled it out of its sheath. Her eyes darted all around her as she counted four, five, six attackers, the same ones who had chased them before, some men, some women, all dressed in black leather just like her uniform and all carrying long, sharp-looking swords. She prayed that her remembering to fight with Symon wasn’t a fluke.
The closest one attacked. She met his sword with her own. She ducked and spun to fend off another attack behind her. A third attacker came from her side. Even as her sword flashed like lightning through the air, she was only barely shielding herself. There were too many of them.
She tried to steady her thoughts and kicked out at an attacker behind her, sending him flying back as she lashed at the two in front.
“Alyx, come closer to me,” Israel called as he fought off his own attackers. One of them had fallen and was struggling to get back up.
She grit her teeth as her sword continued to sing. “I can take care of myself, you know.”
“I know you can but…” Israel kicked up and off the man he was fighting, knocking him backwards, then twisted in the air landing back to back with her. “…we’re better together.” He shot her a grin over his shoulder before facing forward. The six attackers circled them, swords swirling, mouths snarling as they closed in.
There was a blur of movement and the glinting of steel. The void within the spiral staircase exploded with furious cries of metal on metal and grunts of exertion. Alyx should have been terrified at their odds. Six against two. But Israel at her back was a warm, solidifying presence. She wasn’t alone in this.
“Duck,” she cried, swinging her sword around and over Israel’s head, slicing one of his attackers.<
br />
“Jump,” Israel shouted and swept his sword around as she flipped over him in the air. She landed where he had been and Israel stood facing out where she had been, their swords like twin flashes of lighting around them.
Finally the last of the attackers slid off the end of Alyx’s sword. She let out a huff as she stared at the six bodies around them staining the marble floor with bright red blood. She stared at the sword in her hand. Had that really happened? Had she really fought like that? It had felt like someone else had taken over her body.
She turned to Israel, who was wiping his sword, gleaming with blood, on the shirt of one of the fallen. “Thanks,” she said. “That was quick thinking on your part, getting us back to back.”
He grinned at her. “You weren’t so bad yourself.” He sheathed his sword. “You know, we make a good team.”
“A great team.”
“We should call ourselves…Team Awesome.”
She snorted. “What?”
“Alright. Team Badass it is.”
She shook her head, repressing a smile as she wiped her own sword and sheathed it too.
“Now to take this troublesome globe back to the Mapmaker and get our damn map.”
Back at the Mapmaker’s shop, Israel didn’t knock before he entered, Alyx close behind him. They found the Mapmaker standing near the back of the store. It didn’t look like he had tidied up anything while they were gone. What the hell had he been doing while they had been out there risking their lives?
“Have you gotten what I asked for?” the Mapmaker demanded, his voice booming throughout the store.
“Yeah, no thanks to you,” Israel said.
The Mapmaker held out his hand. “Give it to me.”
“You could have helped. We took several wrong turns and wasted time at the wrong places.”
“That’s not my fault if you weren’t smart enough to figure out the riddle on the first go.”
“Israel, we don’t have time to argue,” said Alyx, standing by his side. She pulled the canvas bag off her back. “Let’s just make the trade and go.” To the Mapmaker she said, “Have you got the map we need?”
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