Lightgiver (16 page)

Of course, the library was immobile.

He didn’t have any sand, but many different materials could be used to craft a circle, and the fire had left a layer of ash on the ground. He set about drawing runes in the receiving chamber, but after a few minutes, he realized he was in completely over his head. He knew the runes, or at least he knew most of them, but he had only the most basic understanding of how to make them work together to achieve a circle banishing on this scale.

“I wish Besis were here.”

He spoke a little too loud, and his breath obscured the partially drawn expanding rune. Normally, in order for a circle banishing to work, he would have to draw the circle around the entire object being banished, but the area outside the library wasn’t really there, so he needed the expanding rune to link with the rune of stone. That, in turn, was interwoven with the rune for knowledge. Things just got more complicated from there.

“Jez,” Lina called from above.

Jez looked up. She was on the fourth floor, though her voice had sounded much closer.

“Yes?”

“Sorry, I can’t hear you,” her voice came from close by. “My illusion only works one way. Come up here. I found a section that’s full of books on protection magic. It might help you.”

Jez nodded and climbed the stairs. Each level was thirty feet tall and it took him a few minutes to reach the top. She led him through one of the doors and into a large chamber with a domed ceiling. Tall shelves made of dark wood covered the floor leaving just enough room between them for two people to walk side by side. The air smelled of paper and old books, and Jez realized this wasn’t just a library. It was close to a temple, one dedicated to ideas and knowledge.

Lina stepped quietly, but even so, her footsteps almost seemed to thunder in the silence of the place. His own steps echoed even louder. She led him to the back and tapped a large leather bound book with a cracked spine. Jez squinted but took in a sharp breath.

“
Blood of Sariel
? I thought all copies of this were lost.”

She grinned. “They were, and look.”

She ran her fingers over the books next to it, and Jez just stared. He reached out and touched one, half expecting his fingers to pass through it, but they didn’t. These books were real. “All fourteen volumes. Besis would give his right arm to read these. He’d give both his arms.”

“Can you use them to help us?”

He pulled out the eleventh book and began flipping through it. He could feel the smile forming on his face. “Almost definitely.”

He stopped on a page displaying a number of runes connected to each other in complex ways. One section even described different ways to draw the runes depending on what they were drawn in. The best, of course, was the white sand Master Linala had used. Jez hadn’t realized it came from the crystallized remains of spirits, and he had no idea how such a thing could be made. Blood could also be powerful, though it had other side effects that made using it undesirable. Just below blood in effectiveness was the ash of something precious. Jez pursed his lips. The remains of the greatest library ever built probably qualified. He flipped through a couple of pages and could see where he’d been mistaken, at least in part of the circle. It would take time for him to find all the problems.

“I’m going to need to look through these.”

She pointed at a nearby alcove in the wall. “There are empty rooms everywhere. I think they were used as reading rooms.”

“Where is everyone else?”

“Jez, this place is larger than the whole Academy grounds. We decided it would be better to spread out.”

Jez started. “Aren’t you worried about...” He waved his hands at a corner that, in the mortal realm, would’ve been hidden by shadows.

She clenched her teeth before nodding. “This is important, Jez. If it comes down to it, I think I can defend myself against one or two of them, at least long enough to send a signal one of you can see.” She let out a long breath. “I just hate feeling so helpless.”

“Don’t feel bad because you don’t have a mystical sword capable of banishing creatures from a place that isn’t really a place.”

She gave him a half smile. “What about your sword? Can I borrow it?”

“It doesn’t work that way. I’m not sure I can even let it go without it vanishing.”

“No, not the crystal one.” She pointed to his waist. “That one.”

Jez stared at the weapon for a second before drawing it. The veins of gold running through the silvery metal glimmered. Forged by his own power, it was far stronger than ordinary steel and could fight the forces of the abyss better than any normal weapon. He held it out to her.

“Sorry, I should’ve thought of that myself. I’m not sure how much good it will do. The shadows aren’t demons, and they don’t have a physical form.”

She took it and immediately, her hand dropped a few inches. He tried to hide a smile, but judging by the look on her face, he hadn’t succeeded. He unbelted the sheath and handed that over as well.

“I’ll take whatever I can get.”

“Be careful.” He pointed to the reading room. “I’ll be in there. Call me if you need help.”

She looked like she was going to argue, but instead she shivered and nodded. She helped him carry all fourteen volumes, and he sat down to study.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

It didn’t take him long to puzzle out the sequence of runes he needed for the banishing. The circle would require nearly three hundred runes to function properly. He’d been on the right track, but that was like saying taking a step onto a road was on the right track to reaching the next town. It was technically true, but it was only the smallest portion of it. With a dozen years to practice, he might have been able to craft the appropriate circle without the help of these books. Probably not, but it was possible. It would only take him hours to craft one now though.

He stopped to tell Lina to find the others and returned to the receiving room of the library. He drew a couple of dozen runes before she returned with Osmund in tow.

“I couldn’t find Mirel,” she said.

Jez finished drawing a line that bisected a triangle and looked up. “Did you finish the working to burn everything?”

“I found a room full of clay tablets. I’m not sure those will burn, and there a couple of places that had pretty serious wards on them. I could get in, but I’m not sure the runes will hold there. Other than that, I think I got everything.”

“How long will it take you to set it off?”

“A couple of seconds, but I need to be at one of the runes.”

Jez glanced at the door. “Put one there so you can do it faster.”

“Why not here?”

“I don’t want it interfering with the banishing.”

“Can you really make that work?”

Jez nodded and went back to drawing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Osmund raise a hand. There was an explosion of sparks and a rune appeared on the door. Normally, using magic to create a rune wasn’t possible as the magic creating the rune would inevitably interfere with its function. In this case, however, both the magic used to craft the rune, and the magic the rune would release were ember magic. In fact, it would probably make the final working stronger. It also made it so Osmund could work a lot faster than Jez. By the time Jez finished crafting the circle, several hours had passed, though he had no way of telling how many. His bones creaked as he stood up, and his back ached from so much time being hunched over. Lina paced back and forth, and Osmund snoozed in a corner. Mirel still hadn’t returned.

“Should we go looking for her?” Lina asked.

“Probably. I’m not completely sure this will work, and we should have everyone together in case something goes wrong.”

“You know you’re not inspiring a whole lot of confidence.” Osmund said without opening his eyes.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“The sound of you coming up with another plan gave me nightmares.” His eyes opened. “Where do you think she would be anyway?”

Jez shrugged. “What kind of knowledge would a Lightgiver want?”

“She wanted to preserve the library,” Lina said. “Maybe something to help us do that.”

“
The Blood of Sariel
probably helped more than anything she could find. Besides, you were in the protection section. You would’ve seen her.”

Lina laughed. “I was in one protection section, but I think you’re assuming this place is a lot better organized than it actually is. I found books on the abyss in half a dozen places.”

“Are you sure you weren’t in the same section? In a place like this, the sections must be huge.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know what I’m doing, Jez.”

Jez nodded. “She might’ve gone to the lower levels. What’s down there?”

“Cobwebs mostly,” Osmund said. “It’s a scroll storage area and the room of tablets I told you about. I think it was kept dark, and I got the feeling that even before the Lightgivers took the library, not many people went there. I also found some big empty chambers, but I’m not sure what those are for.”

“Summoning chambers,” Lina said.

“How do you know?”

Lina shrugged. “It’s a guess, but it makes sense. This is a place of knowledge, and summoning is in the dominion of knowledge. They have to have places for summoning.”

“Do you think she’d be there?”

“It’s as good a place as any.”

Jez nodded. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

The lower levels smelled of dust and old paper. Osmund’s large footprints crisscrossed the room and led to several glowing runes scattered about the chamber. A smaller set of footprints led toward the other end of the room. Through a door, Jez could see a faint yellow light pulsing.

“What is she trying to summon?” Jez asked.

Osmund shrugged. “Some kind of knowledge spirit? Maybe something to guide her through the library.”

They walked more quickly. On instinct, Jez sniffed for the sulfuric smell that always accompanied demons. He found none. Something tickled at his memories, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. They stepped into the room, and Jez stopped in his tracks.

“Enki.”

The scaled demon stood at the edge of a summoning circle with its hands raised. Its snake-like eyes focused on him and gave him a toothless smile. The hairs on the back of Jez’s neck stood on end.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were destroyed.” As soon as the words had left his lips, Jez’s blood went cold. “I never smelled sulfur around you, not even when you were first summoned. You’re no demon.”

“No.”

“You altered the circle, didn’t you?” Jez asked. “That’s how you survived Ziary’s attack.”

“It was a simple change, and it summoned me a few yards, though it used up all the remaining energy in the sand.”

“It blew out the ceiling.”

“And I simply flew away, only to return when you summoned the afur you had seen.” His form shimmered, and Mirel stood in his place. “Our forms are determined by our self-perception. This is the form I wore when you saw me, but I can alter it if I choose.”

“You see yourself as a demon?”

The smile she gave was even more unnerving than Enki’s. “Why not? I did, after all, rebel.”

“But you regretted it.”

Mirel laughed. “Do you know how much secret knowledge the demons hold? It’s more than you can imagine. More than is contained in this place. It is knowledge forbidden even to us. Why would I regret seeking it?”

“Then why did you help us?”

“Few pieces of knowledge have escaped the demons, but those few are in this place. I could’ve never come here without you. It required a mortal. The goal was to bring you here alone, and it surprised me when you pushed passed my interference and brought your friends here, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Osmund,” Jez said. “Run. Activate your runes.”

“No,” Mirel said.

Shadows swirled around the room. Lina let out a yelp but drew Jez’s sword. It only took Jez a second to realize that these creatures hadn’t come in response to Mirel’s summoning. However she was controlling them had nothing to do with the circle she’d drawn. That was too similar to Jez’s own. It wasn’t a circle of summoning. It was one of banishing.

Osmund was halfway to the closest rune before the shadows fell on him. He cried out and clutched his head. More shadows rushed toward Jez. His sword materialized in his hands, and he cut one down as soon as it got close, but there were too many, and a dozen of the creatures entered him. Lina impaled one, though the gold-veined sword only slowed it down. A second later, the shadows swarmed over them.

All around Jez, there was fire and death. Beings as old as time screamed in pain. Jez knew this was all terrible, but it felt somehow muted and far away. His eyes wouldn’t focus on it.

“Do not look at it, Jez.”

Luntayary appeared before him looking far more solid than he had the last time Jez had been drawn into such a vision.

“How are you here? Sariel locked you away.”

“Yes he did, and I still am, but Sariel’s barriers were meant to keep me in, not to keep creatures like the shadows out, and they have brought you into my memories. This is where Sariel put me.”