Lord of the Libraries

by Mel Odom

  “Because The Book of Time can’t be destroyed by fire. Its magical nature prevents that. Perhaps something can destroy it, but we never learned what that might be.”

  “Kharrion had no clue where the book was?”

  “Obviously not. He destroyed nearly every library on the mainland.” Craugh looked hesitant. “Though his body rose again centuries later, not all of his mind was there. He’d become a loathsome creature, filled with hate and a desire for vengeance.”

  “So the goblinkin didn’t destroy all those books out of jealousy against the dwarves, elves, and humans.”

  “Oh, they destroyed them for those reasons, too. But primarily they searched for The Book of Time. During the Cataclysm, the Unity armies heard whispers about the ‘book that would not burn.”’

  “I’ve never read anything about it.”

  “We didn’t allow that to be written about,” Craugh said. “It was dangerous enough that Kharrion knew about The Book of Time.”

  And that you did, Juhg thought, but decided to keep still his tongue.

  “We decided that the fewer who knew about The Book of Time, the better,” Craugh said.

  “But the myths persisted.”

  “Of course. They always do.”

  “How did the Grandmagister find out The Book of Time was real?”

  “Because there were others that searched for it,” Craugh answered. “He learned of Aldhran Khempus and the others who searched for the book.”

  “What others?”

  Craugh shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps Wick knows more about them than he has told me.”

  “He was keeping secrets from you?”

  Craugh’s green gaze turned misty with sadness. “It appears that he had uncovered enough of my secrets that he chose to play his own game.”

  Cold understanding dawned inside Juhg. “That was why you shamed me and told me I should stay with him. You thought that whatever burden the Grandmagister carries he might share with me. And that I could be persuaded or bullied into telling you.”

  “It,” Craugh said softly, “was a plan.”

  “And you admit this to me?”

  Craugh stared at him. “Would it help my case if I were to lie?”

  “No.”

  “I could have tried to lie now. I could have tried to persuade you or bully you, but I didn’t.”

  Juhg pushed himself up and started to walk away. His mind was dizzy with suspicious and questions. He wanted to walk away. By the Old Ones, he should have walked away.

  But he couldn’t. In the end, the Grandmagister was in the hands of goblinkin and Aldhran Khempus, and Juhg knew that Craugh’s power would probably be needed to set the Grandmagister free.

  If he chooses to help anyone other than himself, Juhg warned himself. He turned back to the wizard, trembling and more scared than he could remember being in years. The danger surrounding the Grandmagister seemed to have intensified during the last few hours.

  “So you have told me the truth?” Juhg challenged.

  “Yes.”

  “All of the truth?”

  “I have.” Craugh sat quietly, looking defeated, an appearance that Juhg had never before seen on the wizard.

  “I can’t bear any more lies or half-truths,” Juhg said. “Your power can’t be discounted in this struggle to free the Grandmagister, Craugh, but I’ll not wish to leave myself or anyone else open to the dark side of that power.”

  “I want to save my friend,” Craugh said. “The only true friend I’ve known in all these years. And I want to set right those things that I did wrong all those years ago.”

  Juhg paced the deck. One-Eyed Peggie’s crew watched the encounter, but none of them could hear from as far away as they were.

  “There is something else you must know, apprentice,” Craugh said.

  Juhg waited, fearing what was going to be said.

  “If you are correct and The Book of Time lies within Imarish as Wick told you, you must be very wary of it.”

  “I already am.” And should I get it, that book will never leave my hand and you will never lay eyes on it.

  “If you open that book and so much as peek at one page—” Craugh paused. “You may be lost forever.”

  A ghostly chill threaded up Juhg’s spine.

  “When I found out Wick was pursuing The Book of Time some years ago—”

  “‘Some years ago’?” Juhg echoed in disbelief. Has the Grandmagister truly been searching for The Book of Time that long?

  “You didn’t know either.”

  “No. Not until we were on the goblinkin ship together.”

  “Then Wick hid his secret from both of us.”

  Juhg shook his head. “No, back in Greydawn Moors you intimated that you knew the enemies that faced the Grandmagister.”

  “I knew of Aldhran Khempus and a few of the people that followed him. They are united as well.”

  “United how?”

  “They also have a library that survived the Cataclysm.”

  Juhg’s mind reeled. “That can’t be.”

  “But it is, apprentice. Aldhran Khempus is only a vassal for Quhrag.”

  “Quhrag the Black?” Juhg remembered all the old stories of the wizard. From all accounts, Quhrag was evil beyond comparison. He had served with Lord Kharrion during the Cataclysm.

  “Yes.”

  “I thought he was dead.”

  “He cheats death,” Craugh said. “He lives, but not really. There is only a spark of life within him, but no true flame. He has been hiding for years. Until I saw Aldhran Khempus on Greydawn Moors, I thought Quhrag was dead. There has always been a being that has called himself Aldhran Khempus who has carried Quhrag the Black’s mark. I didn’t want Wick captured at that point. I tried to prevent it. I couldn’t. And Wick would not have let me if I’d been able.”

  “Quhrag wants The Book of Time?”

  Craugh nodded. “There can be no other prize that would interest him. Quhrag knows I have lived far past what I should have, and he knows I have been interested in The Book of Time. He believes that it has been the source of my long years.”

  “What about the other library?” Juhg asked. “Where is it? Why didn’t anyone know about it?”

  “I don’t know where it is,” Craugh admitted. “I don’t know that Wick knows, though—as we have both come to recognize—he has kept his secrets from me.”

  “Why was a second library built?”

  Craugh shook his head. “Evil built the second library. As the Unity armies raced through the town just ahead of the goblinkin hordes, books were found that were filled with evil. We discovered evil men that held them and wanted to pay us to rescue their personal libraries.”

  “Some of the books in the Vault of All Known Knowledge were filled with despicable and dangerous things. Poisons, torturers’ skills, and traps are all there for the reader to discover. I have read several of them. With all the places I have gone with the Grandmagister, I had to know about those things.”

  “There are things much worse than those. Magic is neutral on its own, but humankind and most of the rest of the world found the power was much easier to manipulate when it was used for darkness. Magic often thrives on pain, whether from the wielder or from those it is used against. Haven’t you ever noticed how spells for killing dozens of enemies are so much simpler than healing spells?”

  Juhg had noticed, but since magic wasn’t his purview, he’d had no real experience in those matters.

  “The other library,” Craugh said, “preserved the worst of the lot that the Unity forces chose to discard.”

  “But that was stupid,” Juhg said. “As Dhon Korli Ohn says in his treatise The Art of the Offer Others Cannot Refuse, you have to understand everything you can about who or what you are dealing with. By discarding those books, the Librarians have been seriously disadvantaged in learning how to deal with whatever evil they contained.”

  “We could not save all the books,” Craugh said.
“We failed to save a great many of them. But we hoped to save what was the best, the books that would promise a better future for those that survived the Cataclysm.”

  Struggling to deal with all that he had learned—that it was Craugh’s son who had become Lord Kharrion, that the Grandmagister had not fully trusted the wizard, that The Book of Time truly existed, and that another library existed somewhere out there filled only with evil things—Juhg walked to the railing and peered through the misty fog that surrounded One-Eyed Peggie. Somewhere out there lay the mainland and all the dangers it held.

  “There is a further problem, apprentice.”

  Juhg shook his head. “Only one? With the list you’ve given me, I can’t believe there would be only one.”

  “I didn’t know Wick knew The Book of Time existed years ago,” Craugh went on. “Now that he does, I worry about the consequences of that knowledge. You know how curious he is. I fear that if he were left to his own devices with the book, he would peer into it.”

  Dread filled Juhg because he knew Craugh spoke the truth. There had never been a book that the Grandmagister could pass up. Even if he never read the book, he always took time to get the feel of it. The mystic tome the Grandmagister sought could only offer mesmerizing passages.

  “We have to get to The Book of Time before Wick gets it,” Craugh said. “I fear what he might unleash if left to his own devices and not knowing the true history of the book.”

  “‘We’?” Juhg turned around to face the wizard.

  Slowly, Craugh hauled himself to his feet. He brought his staff up with him. Green embers flared from the end of the staff. “Would you want to face the unpredictable nature of The Book of Time on your own?”

  Juhg thought about that long and hard. The wind shot across One-Eyed Peggie’s deck and rattled the loose rigging.

  “Those are the stakes, apprentice,” Craugh said softly. “We have to save Wick, and we must save what’s left of this world.”

  “The goblinkin ship is rendezvousing at Imarish tomorrow morning,” Juhg said. “For all that you know the Grandmagister has told Aldhran Khempus where to find the prize they seek.”

  “No. Not even on pain of death,” Craugh said. “Wick has the ability to hold his secrets, apprentice.” He paused. “Or don’t you think that keeping silent to us about what he knew and what he suspected wasn’t painful to him?”

  The knowledge settled heavily onto Juhg. How did the Grandmagister hold up under all those secrets? He looked at the wizard, loathing trusting Craugh and feeling shamed about that reaction at the same time.

  “Well, apprentice?” Craugh asked.

  “You want to come with me to Imarish?”

  “Yes.” Craugh waited. The slow wind pulled at his robe, sweeping the frayed hem across the scarred deck.

  “Do we attempt to take the Grandmagister from the goblinkin?”

  “Not before we secure The Book of Time.”

  Juhg started to argue.

  “Think, apprentice,” the wizard challenged. “Wick told you the book was there. He intended for you to safeguard it. He also intended that he not come into contact with the book.”

  “I don’t want the Grandmagister to remain in goblinkin hands.”

  “Nor do I.”

  “Then we should trust that The Book of Time will remain hidden till after we free the Grandmagister.”

  “And if you are killed or captured, apprentice? What then?”

  Juhg had no ready answer. “I can only hope that does not happen.”

  “That’s a fool’s hope and you know it,” Craugh snapped. “Wick tasked you a mission. If you would honor him, then you will tend to that first.”

  Juhg barely held back a hot-tempered response. He took a deep breath and let it out. “And if I choose to see to the Grandmagister’s rescue first?”

  “Then the Old Ones protect you,” Craugh replied, “for your mule-headedness may well have doomed the world.” Without another word, the wizard turned and left.

  Torchlight shone against the dark water surrounding the pirate ship, reminding Juhg how far he was from any place that might be called safe. My mule-headedness may doom the world now, Craugh, but your greed and desire for power brought the means of that doom into this world.

  Reluctantly, he turned away from the wizard’s departing back and stared out to sea.

  6

  A Hard Decision

  “Juhg.”

  Lying abed in a gently swinging hammock, Juhg Lying abed in a gently swinging hammock, Juhg felt rough hands upon him. He woke from a fever-hot dream that was filled with nightmare images and screams of the dead and dying. He didn’t know if the sights and sounds came from the night the Vault of All Known Knowledge had fallen or if they were from what he feared might lie in the future.

  “Juhg, c’mon now. Get a move on. Cap’n Hallekk, he wants to see ye, he does. It’s about Wick.”

  Hearing that, Juhg forced himself up, expertly grabbing the hammock’s edge and flipping himself over. He kept his fingers knotted in the edge for a moment until his brain stopped spinning. He was tired from days of hard work and doubt and worry.

  Deldar stood before him with a nervous look.

  “Has something happened to the Grandmagister?” Juhg asked.

  “He’s alive, he is. But it seems as though Aldhran Khempus ain’t stoppin’ in Imarish after all. Cap’n Hallekk, he wants to see ye right away.”

  “Where’s Craugh?” Juhg adjusted his clothing on the run. Habits from the Vault of All Known Knowledge died hard. The Grandmagister had never put up with slovenly appearances from his Librarians and Novices.

  “With the cap’n.”

  Juhg ran through the waist and climbed the stairs leading to the deck, then raced to the captain’s quarters under the stern castle. He knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Hallekk boomed in his big voice.

  Juhg tried the door and found it unlocked. Entering the room, he saw Craugh and Captain Hallekk peering into the glass gallon bottle that held the monster’s eyeball.

  The eyeball was a tight fit inside the bottle. Red and purple veined, the dark olive eye watched intently as Juhg came closer. It was half the size of a human’s head and always carried malignant intent. Due to its magical nature, the eyeball was capable of independent movement. The large cork that had been pounded into the bottle was covered with thick, melted yellow wax to make an airtight seal.

  Though he had seen the eyeball before, Juhg never failed to gaze on it in wonderment. What manner of beast had the eyeball’s owner been? None of the pirate crew who had been with Peggie, the ship’s builder and first master, still lived. Old Captain Farok had been the last of those. With his passing, a bit of One-Eyed Peggie’s history had slipped away as well. Thankfully, the Grandmagister had traveled with the old captain one summer during a particularly nasty season of pirates and gotten all of Farok’s story down. Juhg just didn’t know if the book had survived the destruction that had swept over the Vault of All Known Knowledge.

  Even though all of the original crew was dead and gone, the savage beast whose eye Peggie had plucked remained awaiting vengeance.

  “Has something happened to the Grandmagister?” Juhg asked.

  Hallekk shook his big head and looked unhappy. “No, but things has taken an interestin’ turn, they has.”

  “We have a decision to make, apprentice,” Craugh said. This morning he was once more cold and aloof, wrapped in a fresh, clean robe and looking clear-eyed and determined.

  Do you regret telling me everything you did? Juhg wondered. Or are you walling yourself off from your own fears about my reaction and the Grandmagister’s?

  “What decision?” Juhg was instantly suspicious.

  “Which course to foller,” Hallekk growled. He looked at the wizard and at Craugh. “Heard tell the two of ye stayed up half the night a-talkin’ amongst yerselves. Now ain’t neither of ye worth a-talkin’ to this mornin’, ye ain’t. Craugh seems to have the same hea
rin’ problems as ye.”

  Craugh folded his arms over his chest and said nothing.

  Feeling the weight of Hallekk’s bold gaze, Juhg said, “I just woke up.”

  “Ain’t no excuse. Ye both neither had no business a-stayin’ up the way ye did so that neither of ye is worth the havin’. I ain’t gonna ask ye what ye was a-talkin’ about, unless it comes to makin’ some kind of decision of me own about what to do.” Hallekk slammed a big fist onto the table. The jar containing the monster’s eyeball jumped and the huge orb inside swirled, flipping end over end for a moment. “But I’ll not be takin’ chances with Wick’s life. He’s stood by me through thick an’ thin, he has, an’ by the Old Ones I’ll not be careless with his life.”

  “What decision?” Juhg asked.

  “Gimme yer hand,” Hallekk ordered.

  Reluctantly, Juhg offered his hand. He knew what was coming, had been subjected to the process before, and he didn’t like it.

  Hallekk took Juhg’s hand and held it to the bottle. Immediately, a thick miasma swarmed over Juhg and glued his palm to the glass.

  Know, O beastie what breathes the deep water, the unfound water,

  Hallekk intoned in the old litany that Captain Peggie had bequeathed to Captain Farok and him to Hallekk when he took up the captain’s post aboard the pirate ship. Juhg still didn’t know if there was magic in the words or if they only served to irritate the monster’s eye.

  That yer vengeance ain’t gonna be complete,

  Never complete,

  ’Lessen ye have us all

  At yer black mercy.

  So then show me where me mates be.

  Show me that ye can’t lose ’em

  ’Cross the briney sea.

  Use yer powers to strike fear

  Into the heart o’ me.

  Hallekk took in a deep breath and let it out, concentrating on the bottle containing the eye.

  No one understood the magic that bound the ship’s captain to the eye and then to the creature. And no one knew how the creature could know the whereabouts of every pirate that had been sworn into service aboard One-Eyed Peggie. It was magic, just as Craugh had claimed. An older and more primitive magic.