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She shook her head. “You misunderstand. The library is twenty of my feet wide on the inside, add another two or so to account for the bookcases, another two at the most to account for the thickness for the wall, giving a total of around twenty-four. However, the hallway is forty.”
He frowned, eyed the space around him and exited, glancing from the doorway to the hall that extended much longer until it turned the corner. Despite having seen around that bend his entire life, he looked again, looked at the second hall with no entrance to a room for a good distance.
He returned to find Fionna inspecting the bookcases against the wall they’d both just measured and stated, “You think there is a hidden chamber.”
“It seems quite likely given the size, don’t you think? And we already know your citadel has secret passages, why not a room as well?”
“Perhaps they bricked it over,” he said even as it sounded inane. Why would anyone close off a room? They could always use the space.
“Let’s find out shall we,” she murmured. Her fingers ran over the spines of the books, boring things about husbandry and crops and even a tome on grass. The one that made no sense was a book on sailing. They had no accessible seas, and while they had lakes and rivers, none required a craft with sails.
She had to rise on the tip of her toes to yank the dusty blue sailing book.
Click.
The noise sent his hand to the hilt of his sword. His eyes widened as a section of the bookcase shifted, revealing a doorway.
She turned a grin on him. “Found it.”
Without waiting for him to secure the space, she entered. He quickly followed in time to see her conjuring a ball of light that lifted to illuminate the snug study. A large desk rested against the wall, above it a shelf with a half dozen books.
Fionna blew the dust off the one sitting on the desk and craned for a peek. “The script is faded, but readable.”
“What does it say?” He leaned over her shoulder to look and noticed the resemblance between this writing and that in the cave. In other words, a language he couldn’t decipher.
“It’s in an old tongue no longer in use,” she murmured.
“Looks to be the same as the writing in the cave.”
She cast him a sharp glance. “Which you never mentioned before.”
“I forgot.”
“A good thing Lomar remembered.”
The dig had him bristling. “I didn’t think it important since it couldn’t be read. But if you’re that interested, Khaal transcribed it in a journal. I can show it to you if you’d like.”
“I would like, but first…” She squinted and began to read slowly. “It is a month since we vanquished—” she paused. “There’s that symbol again that I don’t recognize so we’ll assume it stands for whatever threat we’re dealing with. He goes on to say, ‘I’ve been travelling the country, reassuring those who survived, setting in motion the plans for rebuilding, and garnering support for my rule. The people are eager for a sense of normalcy.’”
“The mention of rebuilding makes it sound like it was written by Airiok.” Despite not being a scholar, Kormac found himself intrigued.
“And he was quite the penman.” She flipped through the book, pages and pages of tight script. “It will take me a while to read through this. Do you mind if I take it to my room?”
“Go ahead. It’s not like I can decipher it.” He pulled down a slimmer tome and opened it to see drawings. “What are these books?”
“It appears to be a bestiary,” she murmured, standing close enough he could smell the soap emanating from her hair. “There’s a kreean—fancy name for an oversized rat—and an ogre. What looks to be a salamander, but not the fire-breathing kind.”
“There are lizards that breathe fire?”
“Yes. They’re much like smaller, wingless versions of dragons. But this one appears to be spewing something different.”
He turned a page and there was a maakath. “We see these in the mountains mostly. They only descend from the heights if they’re hungry.”
Some of the creatures he recognized—bears, wolves—but others…
“This can’t be real,” he scoffed, seeing a spider depicted as looming over a man.
“Oh, they exist. Or used to. We’re seeing signs of them returning all over.”
