Life Reader

by Shea, K. M.

  Raven watched with popping eyes as Alison smeared her hands across the staircase structure, which crumbled and burned after touching the venom green colored magic.

  “There we go,” Alison said, shaking her hands off. She caught Raven’s gaze and grinned. “Acid magic, dead useful at times,” she said, looking over the empty, gaping hole.

  Raven’s father dragged her away before Raven could further inquire. “Rocky, set up a rearguard with the twins. You, Daire. You go with Royce—your magic won’t work well with Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you take care of Brandon and guard Mrs. Conners. Director, you’ll take point with Roland?”

  The page turners uncomfortably shifted, and Daire narrowed his eyes. “How do you know our names?”

  “He did his research. He wouldn’t send Rachel in blind. Do what he says,” Director Eastgate coldly said, rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt.

  Mr. Wishmore’s grip on Raven tightened, and blind panic swept through Raven as she realized her father was frightened. It was an emotion she had never seen in her father. Not even when their home was getting attacked.

  “Get the guards up, now!” Raven’s father shouted, and the twins’ fire blazed, casting a red glow on the bookshelves.

  “This way,” the director said, plunging down a book aisle, Roland right on his heels. Alison strolled after him, holding out a hand to help steady Brandon when he and Jeremiah tottered past.

  “You two next,” Raven’s father said, releasing Raven long enough to shove a finger at Daire and Royce.

  Royce—who had again mysteriously obtained a sword—followed Jeremiah and Brandon with the assurance of a soldier used to taking orders.

  Daire, instead, remained motionless and gave Raven a withering glare. “Now would be a good time to use your magic, don’t you think?” he sneered.

  Raven flattened her lips. She had no real response to that. It was selfish of her, but Raven couldn’t use her magic in front of her father.

  From the front of the line Director Eastgate managed to hiss, “If you haven’t anything of intelligence to say, useless prefect, do not speak.”

  Daire turned to look at his uncle, his mouth dropping open. “You must be kidding. She could save us!”

  “Daire a family feud in the middle of an ambush might not be the best timing,” Jeremiah laughed. “Although you do have a point. Mind explaining the hold up, little warrior?” Jeremiah said, twisting long enough to flash Raven a beautiful smile before correcting Brandon’s slumping posture.

  Raven’s father reached out to snag Daire by the collar of his shirt. “I don’t know what your problem is, page turner,” he said, spitting out the title. “But this is an emergency and you will do what I order you to do. Move. Now.”

  Raven’s father released the prefect, pushing him towards the retreating line of library staff. Daire shot Raven a glare before he turned on his heels and fell in line.

  Raven’s father went next, dragging Raven with. Raven trailed the occasional cloud of pixie dust as Tinker Bell fluttered her wings, nested safely in Raven’s hair.

  Rocky and the twins brought up the rear. The twins planted several walls of fire in various directions, making false leads as they went.

  The director confidently led the way, but abruptly stopped and held up his hand.

  Loud, groaning cracks pierced the air, followed by thuds. The ground shook, and the cracking noises spread, growing closer.

  “They’re tipping the shelves. We need to get to an open area or we’ll be crushed,” the director said in clipped tones before changing their course.

  Raven winced as another bookshelf was knocked over, falling with the sickening crunch of a chopped tree.

  “You two, keep planting the firewalls away from us. Don’t leave any behind us,” Rocky said.

  “That will leave us exposed, won’t it?” Aron asked.

  “Quiet!” Raven’s father snarled.

  Raven ran past a bookshelf that shook when another shelving unit crashed against it. It held just long enough for the twins and Rocky to pass through before falling, sending other bookshelves near it crashing to the ground like dominos.

  Raven breathed with relief when she looked ahead and saw the director and Roland sprint into the walkway along the wall. Raven’s father released Raven’s arm for a moment to adjust his grip on the cauldron as they also hurried into the open area.

  “Look out!” Royce shouted, brandishing his sword.

  Raven twisted to look in the direction he pointed. Something curled around her waist and snapped her to the side, dragging her on the ground for some length before slamming her into the wall.

  “See Fox, what did I tell you? Page turners are not at all difficult to kill,” said a cold voice that made Raven’s spine crawl.

  Raven scrambled to her knees, but she was kicked in the ribs and slammed into the wall again. A boot smashed against her throat, the treads rubbing his skin.

  Raven chocked and scrabbled at the boot with her hands, barely able to see the lean, black shape that loomed above her. Tinker Bell scrambled at the back of her neck, planting her tiny feet against the wall before pushing against the book with her shoulder, furiously beating her wings.

  Fox stood just past the man, his hands deep in the pockets of his black jacket. “You missed the target. You were supposed to get the black dog with the cauldron,” he said.

  The man applied more pressure to Raven’s neck as he caught an axe midair. “Maybe I wasn’t aiming for the black dog. Nice trick by the way, mutt. But it’ll take more than axes to get me,” he said, speaking to Rocky, who already had another throwing axe readied.

  “Likely story,” Fox muttered.

  The oily voiced man twisted to look at Fox, easing the pressure slightly on Raven’s neck. “I dare you to say that again,” he said as Raven took a deep breath and finally placed his voice.

  It was Kraken, from the Errësi. He was magic abuser Korbin ordered to help Fox at the next attack. They must have received word about the swap.

  “You have bad aim,” Fox flatly said, lifting his chin up.

  Kraken growled. “Why you—,” he stopped when sand pelted him in the face.

  “NOW RACHEL!” Director Eastgate shouted.

  Raven shoved at the boot and slid out from behind it before lunging to her feet. She managed to take one step before Kraken reached out and grabbed her by the neck, slamming her head against the wall.

  Raven hit the stone with a crack and went limp. The ocean roared in her ears as she saw fireworks and stars. She bonelessly sagged to the ground, barely aware of her father howling like an animal.

  Her eyes opened and closed, rolling from side to side as Kraken reached down and pulled Raven’s head up by a chunk of her hair. “This one is down for the count,” he chuckled before turning around. “Black Dog Wishmore, we will trade the cauldron for this girl. Resist and we’ll kill her,” he said, releasing Raven’s hair.

  Raven’s head cracked again when it hit the marble floor. Tinker Bell made distressed circles above her before diving back into Raven’s hair, unnoticed by the enemy.

  “Wishmore, what are you doing? You can’t give it to them, they’ll kill her anyway!” Rocky shouted as Raven’s father took two steps towards Raven, holding the cauldron.

  Raven tried to look at her father and her coworkers. Their frames were stretched and slowly rotating.

  “The cauldron may be our only hope, use it as a lever to get us out of here, Wishmore!” Roland urged.

  “Are you insane? They’re magic abusers, they’ll gut us like fish the second they have it, don’t!” Rocky snarled.

  Raven’s father took another step forward. “Raven!” he shouted. “Can you wave your hand? Do something, are you OK?”

  Kraken leaned over Raven. “I’m pretty sure she’s addled and can’t hear you, mutt. Besides, I’m growing bored. Hand the cauldron over before I lose complete interest in her life,” he said before kicking Raven in the stomach.

  Raven wretch
ed, curling into a ball. She moaned, and Kraken prodded her head with his boot.

  “Could we finish this instead of acting like juvenile delinquents at a rumble?” Fox sneered, his shoes entering Raven’s hazy field of vision. “They’re not going for it.”

  Kraken shrugged. “Decayors will clearly be overkill for this lot, although the Wishmore mutt is getting mad. I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” Kraken said with a tarry laugh that echoed oddly in Raven’s ears.

  “Get up! Rachel, get up!” someone shouted past the magic abusers.

  Raven blinked, feeling the pain of her head in the pit of her stomach. She looked past her shouting friends—who were strangely muted—and stared at the black blobs that began to separate from the shadow. The shadow was everywhere, there was not one inch of the walls and ceiling that was not covered in it.

  Decayors separated from the shadow, emerging like a plague of spiders. They crawled over every surface, covering the library in a sea of skeletal fingers and yellow teeth.

  Kraken held his arms in the air. “Absolute destruction is your aim for today,” he shouted to the decayors.

  Fox turned back to the emissaries and library staff members. “…Where is Wishmore?”

  “What?” Kraken asked, lowering his arms.

  “Black dog Wishmore is not with the group,” Fox said, looking up and down the lineup.

  “What?!” Kraken yelled, sending spit into the air. “You took your eyes off him? He’s got cloaking magic!”

  “You were the idiot who trolled his daughter,” Fox shrugged.

  “You—AGH,” Kraken said before choking and grasping at his throat.

  Two walls of fire cut a path from Raven to the library forces. Asher and Aron were at her side in seconds, hefting her between them.

  “Careful,” Aron warned.

  “Obviously,” Asher said as they hurried down their path.

  “No, I mean—ack that,” Aron said when Raven wretched from the movement. “She’s got a concussion for sure.”

  Raven sagged into Asher, closing her eyes to shut out the spinning world.

  “Excellent work, kiddies,” Alison said when the twins stopped.

  “We need to get back into the shelves,” Director Eastgate said as Raven opened her eyes long enough to affirm she was in the center of a library defensive huddle.

  “What if they start tipping the shelves down on us again?” Jeremiah asked, staring up at the decayors that scuttled across the ceiling. They had yet to descend on them.

  “They won’t, not with the decayors loose,” Director Eastgate said, shifting the cauldron from one hand to the other. He had reclaimed custody of it while Raven’s father was occupied.

  Past the staff huddle, Kraken was still choking. Fox had his arms folded and stared at his red faced partner for a few moments before finally ambling into motion when a dagger appeared at Kraken’s throat.

  “Brannon are you well enough to take a look at Raven?” Aron asked. “She’s in pretty bad shape.”

  “Almost, I just need to rest a bit,” the big football player said, crouching on the ground.

  Fox lifted his hand, summoning chains of fire as he approached Kraken. He cracked them in the air, and Kraken was jerked sideways, avoiding the blow. Fox flicked his free hand at Kraken’s other side as the magic abuser was pulled along by unseen hands. Fire chains snapped into existence, fizzling when they made contact with Raven’s invisible father.

  “Um, shouldn’t we be helping?” Asher asked, watching the fight.

  “We should make our stand here,” Roland argued.

  “No, Isaac is right. The only way we’ll survive this is if we make it to an exit,” Mrs. Conners said.

  Kraken fell when he was released, grunting as he hit the floor.

  Director Eastgate removed his ring and waited. Raven’s father stumbled into the huddle, reappearing with grainy sparks. The director threw his ring into the air and shouted a command in the lilting language he had used in the tunnels.

  An iridescent grey shield sprang around the group. Director Eastgate caught his ring and slipped it back on his finger. “That will hold for a time, but we must get back into the shelves.”

  “Raven,” Raven’s father said, kneeling at her side. Raven peeled back her eyes. Blood dripped from a nasty looking wound on her father’s arm. The burnt smell of flesh engulfed her, and Raven gagged.

  “Step back, we’ll carry her,” the twins said, holding Raven up.

  They smelled like chimney soot, but their hands were warm. Raven flopped against them, groaning slightly as the roaring in her ears turned into a high pitched ring. Something yellow sparkled on her shoulder and tapped at her face.

  Above the ringing Raven could hear Fox and Kraken arguing, and the malicious laughter of the decayors who were still waiting to spring.

  “Quick, into the shelves,” Rocky snapped, pointing to the maze of bookshelves.

  The library staff stood, hurrying down the pathway one by one, Alison leading them.

  “By the beard of a dwarf, not now,” the director said as the cauldron started bubbling, fog and mist oozing from it. “Dormio!”

  The cauldron did not stop, instead garbled hisses started to leak from the brew that was assembling at the bottom of the pot.

  “Deal with it later, Eastgate. Go!” Rocky said, pulling Raven’s father to his feet. “Wise up Wishmore. Keep your head on or we’re all lost,” he grimly said before shoving the black dog after Director Eastgate, leaving the safety of the grey shield behind.

  Asher and Aron moved just in front of the director and black dogs, carefully carrying Raven.

  Raven stared at the ceiling. The giggling decayors were an endless black smear to her unfocused eyes.

  They hustled through the maze of books, glancing up uneasily at the decayors.

  “They’re coming!” Mrs. Conners said from the front of the line.

  The decayors on the far wall started skidding down the shadows, sliding to the ground like a black tide of filth.

  “Director, are we near an exit? A safe haven zone? Anything that could help us at all?” Raven’s father said.

  The director shook his head and set the cauldron down by a supportive pillar. “No. We’re in a dead zone. If the library’s magic steps in we’ll be fine.”

  “If it steps in?” Rocky said, stopping next to the director. “Can’t you order it?”

  Director Eastgate gave him a wry look. “If you wish to shout orders at a mindless building, by all means be my guest.”

  “Saint Cloud’s magic can’t be controlled,” Alison said as she joined them, having stopped the party. “Not by us anyway,” she said, glancing at the ceiling.

  “Form a defensive huddle, if we can last long enough EC reinforcements will arrive,” Raven’s father said. “I sent Gram notification the moment we were attacked.”

  The twins carefully leaned Raven against the supportive pillar, directly next to the spitting cauldron. One of them brushed Raven’s bangs from her forehead before hurrying after his twin to take up their place in the circle.

  Royce walked up to Raven’s feet. “Why don’t we have Rachel read something?”

  Director Eastgate narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know, maybe it’s because she’s barely conscious and can’t see straight? Kay, we must take another look at the hiring policies of Saint Cloud. The majority of our page turners are incurably stupid.”

  “I agree. We shall have to be mindful of the particular requirements we set,” Mrs. Conners nodded, her white curls bobbing.

  Raven’s father shifted. “What are you talking about?” he asked as Royce scowled at Raven.

  The cowboy opened his mouth to reply, but Alison slipped in. “Not much, just library concerns. Cowdog over there has his boots in a bundle from jealousy. On to more pressing matters, I think we’re about to be overrun. What’s our strategy?”

  “A tight circle around the cauldron, it would be ideal if we could plant our backs to a wall, but that’s not
possible. More space would be nice…,” Raven’s father trailed off.

  “Wish granted,” Mrs. Conners said snapping her fingers at the bookcases. They blasted away from her, leaving a fairly nice sized, clear circle to work in.

  “Keep blowing the bookshelves away if you can, the decayors will have an advantage if they can jump down on us,” Rocky said.

  “Very well,” Mrs. Conners said, setting her eyes on the shelves, which started moving further and further away.

  “Set the guard,” Raven’s father called as the library staff activated their magic.

  Brannon ignored the call for a moment and stopped next to Raven, crouching down to place a hand on her head.

  “Can you fix her, Brannon? We could really use her help,” Aron said.

  Brannon shook his head. “It’s a bad concussion. I can splint bones and heal muscle tears, but brain injuries are beyond my skill.”

  “Thank you for trying, Page Turner Dougal. Please join the defensive line,” Director Eastgate said.

  “How can you calmly accept that? She could easily stop this all. Forget it, Brannon, try healing her anyway!” Daire said.

  “You overstep your boundaries, prefect,” the director said in a voice that was as cold and terrifying as the magic abusers loose in the library.

  “Here they come, magic up!” Raven’s father shouted.

  The library director repeated his previous trick and tossed his ring into the air, shouting at it to form a defensive shield before catching it and putting it back on.

  Mrs. Conners brought down several bookshelves on the first wave of decayors. The twins barbequed the next group, forming a huge ring of fire twenty feet out from the grey defensive shield.

  Daire loosened a storm of sand in the space between the fire and the shield, blinding the decayors. Jeremiah slammed walls of water into the sightless creatures, tossing them to the ground where Brannon impaled them on spikes of marble tile or Alison melted them with her acidic magic.

  Rocky threw more weapons than any of the page turners legitimately guessed him to possess. Roland stood at his side with a sword, crouched and waiting for the decayors to hit the defensive shield, Royce mimicking him.