Creatures of Snow (20 page)

Con pulled his mind back to the moment, his
eyes again alive and his face decorated with a loose smile.
“Originally?”

“Yeah. Where you were
born.”

Con shrugged and looked up
at the cloudless sky, “I guess I’m not sure; I’ve been on
Arche so
long, it’s hard
to remember.” He pondered a bit, “I spent some time in Condor I
know.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter
anyway, right. I was technically born on Arche from what I’m told,
but I lived on Haigon when I was real small, and then we moved here
to Archaios. If someone asks me where I’m from I generally always
just say Archaios, even though it’s not really true.” Sky rambled.
“How old are you?”

“
My, my, aren’t we full of
questions all of a sudden.”

“
You said we were a team
right, and needed to trust one another. Well, I don’t know anything
about you.”

“Touché,” He laughed. “I
would guess a year or two older than you. The Arche Academy isn’t
as much divided by age as it is ability anyway. Since I’ve been a
part of them since I was real young I’m a few years ahead of most
kids my age. Same goes for Ellie and Roland, we’ve been considered
upperclassmen for years now.”

“And you said you were
pretty high up in the ranks right? So, your goal is to work for the
ILA?”

Con shook his head and ran
a hand through his hair, messing it up purposefully, “Nope. So now
can I ask you some questions?”

“
Wait, so you don’t want
to work for the ILA?” They were almost to the Library and Sky
didn’t really want to answer any questions about
himself.

“
Nope.” Con said again. “I
have my own goals. Now what about you? Why did you apply to
Arche?”

“
Because I was rejected by
REALM and it was the only other school that I’ve really heard
of.”

“
Fair enough. Let’s see…”
Con scratched at his chin.

They were only a few yards from the Library
stairs.

“
You like Sara, don’t
you.” Con nudged him in the ribs. “That was more of a statement and
not a question. I’m pretty good at picking up on this sort of
thing.”

Sky’s heart was in his
throat and he could feel a cold sweat break out over his body,
“What? No, don’t be ridiculous. She hates me.”

“
Well, I know that. But
that doesn’t mean you can’t like her.” He pulled open the door for
Sky and gestured him in. “I mean, heck, Ellie used to hate me too,
not that I had overly romantic feelings for her, but I don’t really
like it when people don’t like me.”

“
Roland doesn’t like
you.”

“Roland doesn’t like
anybody. And that’s beside the point. The point is, over time, once
she got to know me, we became friends. And it was totally worth all
the abuse I took from her to get there.” Con stopped him before he
went in the doors. “But you, all I see you doing is fawning over
her and not doing anything about it. You’re not even trying to let
her get to know you, and now after today, I’m pretty sure she
thinks you’re pathetic.”

That was true.

A few students pushed
there way past them as they stood blocking the entrance. “Come on.”
He said and led the way into the Grand Literature
Library.

The place was huge - two
city blocks and four stories of pure information. Finding Al and
Lee might be harder than he had thought.

“Let me be honest with you
and say this is the last place I would have imagined you going when
we just gave you the afternoon off.” Con laughed looking
around.

He was ready to write off
finding them as impossible when he saw a flash of red hair moving
between the aisles over by the ancient history section.

“
This way.” Sky walked
quickly, feeling uncomfortable in such a large, nearly silent
place.

Thankfully it was Lee, and not some other
randomly tall, red head that he had followed. As he rounded the
aisle he could see Al, nearly buried in mounds of old books and
papers, scribbling away at one of the middle tables.

“
Skyden.” Lee greeted him
as he got closer. “Hello.”

“
Hey, Lee. Hiya Al.” He
gestured to Con who stood smiling beside him, “This is my mentor,
Con. Con, this is Lee and Al.”

“You’re really good at
introductions, Sky.” Con’s smile widened as he extended his hand to
Al and then Lee. “Nice to meet both of you.”

“Yeah, nice to meet the
poor soul in charge of this guy.” Al shook his hand
heartily.

Con laughed too loud in
the silence, and retracted it immediately. “So, you guys look
busy.” He turned to Sky, “Why are we interrupting them
again?”

“
Because I’m supposed to
tell them to stop.” Sky fidgeted with one of the papers next to Al.
“You guys can just stop, okay.”

Al’s eyebrows came
together in concern. “What do you mean?” Al looked up at Sky, and
then over to Con.

“Ohh, the Book of Nine.”
Con leaned across the desk and pointed at Al’s notes, “That’s
right, you were trying to research that.”

“
You know of it?” Lee
questioned, looking Con over with a suspicious eye.

Con caught his look and he
answered with a wicked smirk, “I know a lot of things.”

“Well, we’re not looking
for information on the Book itself really, more of…its
significance.”

“Al.” Lee said shortly. “I
am sure they have many other important things to do
today.”

“Not really.” Con punched
Lee in his shoulder, “We just let class out for the day, but you’re
right – I honestly couldn’t care less what you’re doing, no
offense.”

“
None taken.” Al
chuckled.

“But you know, I was just
telling Sky how you’re not going to find much information on that
book in here.” Con leaned on the desk and gestured around them
absently, “Even REALM has its limits.”

Al looked up at him with a
keen interest, “You make it sound like you know a bit about
it.”

“Like I said, I know a lot
of stuff. Like that the Book of Nine contains one very curious bit
of information that the government has gone to great lengths to
protect.”

“
What do you mean by
that?” Al whispered breathlessly.

“It’s just as I said, the
government has tried and succeeded to keep most information about
it hidden.” Con leaned closer to Al, “if you want information and
history that has been untainted by Government censorship then I
would suggest going to Meral.” he shrugged and crossed his arms
over his chest. “They’re a Sovereign Nation, or whatever you call
it, so the Government can’t touch them.”

Al’s face lit up. “You’re
right. You’re a genius!”

“
I get that a
lot.”

“Con, you’re not helping.”
Sky shot him a deadly look, “Guys, it doesn’t matter. We’re
dropping the whole thing. I talked to my Junior Professor about it,
and he’s gonna take care of everything.”

“A Junior Professor?” Al
shook his head, “What does he know about it? And yes, it does
matter, it matters to me, Sky. Someone might be after my
mom.”

“
Oooh, this sounds
serious.” Con bounced off the desk and crossed over to stand behind
Sky.

“I said it was being taken
care of and there’s no need to get anyone else involved,
okay.”

“Lee, you know Sara pretty
well, you think you could go ask her about the library in Meral?”
Al scooted his chair back and started gathering up his papers,
ignoring Sky completely.

Lee shifted around
uneasily. “I suppose I could, yes.”

“No.” Sky’s shout
reverberated into the silence of the vast interior, “Al, I get it,
I didn’t mean to make it sound like it didn’t matter. Look, if
you’re serious about still pursuing this, I’ll go to Meral, I’ll
see what I can find.”

“Are you snapped?” Al
shook his head. “That place would chew you up.”

“I can handle Meral.” Sky
shot back defensively. “Besides,” he shot an awkward look over to
Con, “it’s part of my training to adapt to new and unusual
surroundings.”

“Technically true, but a
bit unwise at this point in your training.” Con nodded.

“You wouldn’t even know
what you’re looking for.” Al scoffed.

“I think if we could just
let Sara know what we are doing.” Lee stepped up to the desk, “She
is smart enough to find the correct texts if they
exist.”

“I said, no. Are you even
listening to me? Lee, you said before that we weren’t taking this
seriously enough, well, now I am. This is dangerous and we’re not
getting anyone else involved, okay. Roland is telling Zeph, and
he’s gonna handle things.”

“
Zeph! That’s the last
person I would rely on for anything.” Al pounded his fists on the
table and stood.

“Watch your mouth, pip
squeak.” Con narrowed his eyes. “You speak unkindly towards Master
Zeph, you’ll have some new problems. You got that.”

Al stared hard at Con, Sky
could tell by the look on his face that he was memorizing and
analyzing. Al was most likely remembering how that gray outside of
REALM all those nights ago had reacted in much the same way when
Sky had bad mouthed the Iko.

“I’ll go to Meral, don’t
talk to Sara. We don’t need to get her involved.” Sky spoke slowly
and looked to Lee, the only level head in there “I’ll let you guys
know right away if I find something, okay?”

“Seems like the matter is
settled.” Con slapped an uncomfortable-looking Lee on the back
before pushing Sky towards the door. “We’re going to
Meral.”

Sky shot a desperate look
over to Al and hoped he wasn’t too angry.

When they exited the
library Sky felt like the biggest idiot.

“You look mad.”

“
What were you doing in
there?” Sky shouted at his mentor.

“Settle down, you should
be thanking me. When I said, ‘we’re going to Meral’ I just sort of
meant just you. This gives you a great opportunity to go prove
you’re not a pussy, and confess your love to Sara.” Con nudged him
again.

Sky shrank down. “This is
serious. They expect me to come back with information and if I
don’t, they’ll ask Sara about it.”

“Hey look at this, I just
sent you her address.” He made a few swipes over his
wav-com.

“
You can’t do that –
that’s private information.”

“It’s team building.” Con
held a finger up, “In fact, I order you to go see her.”

“No. Aren’t you listening?
I don’t want to get anyone else involved.”

“
You got me
involved.”

“Roland got you involved.”
He clenched his jaw to keep from shouting. “And he told me not to
tell anyone.” Sky’s heart began to race, the feeling in the air, he
couldn’t describe it. “No. I don’t want to see anyone else
hurt.”

Con laughed, but it wasn’t
friendly. He leaned in closer still, forcing Sky to stare directly
into his black eyes, “I know, but you can’t stop it.” Con
straightened and backed up a step. “You’re a stupid boy.” He
growled. “The Man of Mist is not someone you walk away from. The
only reason you’re still here,” Con face softened to an almost
empathetic state, “is because he isn’t done with you
yet.”

Sky swallowed hard, lost for words.

“It wasn’t really going to
hurt anything to let Sara know, but there you go and just throw
yourself on the fire and say you’ll go to Meral? Stop trying to do
things on your own.” Con sighed “I’m scared for you. I’m upset that
you didn’t come to me or Ellie and I’m truly disgusted that I had
to learn about it from Roland of all people over a com message. Why
didn’t you just tell us?”

“I…” He didn’t know why,
it had never even occurred to him. “I didn’t really believe it had
really happened. I already told you, I don’t understand it, I don’t
know what’s really going on.” Sky pulled his hood up over his head
and wrapped his arms around his head.

“
Go home, Sky.” Con placed
a firm, but somehow gentle hand on his shoulder, “We’ve got it from
here, okay.”

“But, Meral-”

“You’re not going to
Meral. Not unless you’re going there to recite poems of adoration
to Sara. Then you can go, otherwise, there’s no point. There are no
libraries in Meral.”

“But you said-”

“What I said was true, the
information they want is in Meral, but ancient clans don’t write
their history down and they would never allow anyone outside a True
Blood know them.”

“Why did you say it at
all?”

Con looked down with a
devious smile, “I was just playing around.”

“
But, that’s cruel.” He
couldn’t believe it.

“I don’t like the way you
handled this whole situation, but I will say I’m impressed by the
way you protected your teammate, even if it was stupid and the
wrong thing to do.”

“The wrong thing to do?
What is that supposed to mean?”

“
You don’t need to play
the hero, Sky. There are no heroes in this war.”