Lord of the Libraries (13 page)
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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?”
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
A Hard Decision
“
J
uhg.”
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.
J
uhg.”
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.
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.
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?
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 hearin’ 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.
One-Eyed Peggie.
It was magic, just as Craugh had claimed. An older and more primitive magic.
A purple nimbus flared to life inside the bottle, then spread outward.
For a time, Juhg saw only the monster’s eye floating in the colorless liquid inside the bottle. Then it disappeared, lost in the purple nimbus. When Juhg next blinked, he peered into the world in another place.
The panorama of the view was outstanding. To the left—to the east, Juhg reminded himself, knowing that the mainland was east of their position a good half day’s sailing—the canal city of Imarish lay spread across the coastline. The gray-green waters of the Ravening Sea (called so even though it was connected to the Blood-Soaked Sea—though not burgundy colored as the waters were around Greydawn Moors—because it insisted on drinking down one of the tiny islands that made up Imarish every so often) leaked curved claws between the dozens of islands.
Several of the larger islands had ports that opened to the Ravening Sea, but most of the travel between the islands of the interior of the mass was by canal boats. All of the islands bore tall stone columns that plunged into the water at the dockyards or the small boat landings that held sculpted sea creatures. The sea creatures announced the political affiliation among the merchant classes that ruled the islands.
Some of the islands, usually the larger ones with a number of buildings but some of them were tiny islands with only two or three houses, had tall buildings made from the stone and shells taken from the sea. Some of the rock had been transported from the mainland, from quarries cut deep into the Shattered Coast by dwarven clans.
Most of the populace of Imarish were humans, though elves and dwarves could often be found there plying their trades or merely passing through while speculating on trade goods. A number of the islands were
dedicated to one trade or another, ranging from houses that made tea, spun silk, and made candles to dwarven smithies that hammered weapons as well as farm tools, to mercenaries that trained on islands that were no more than barren outcroppings of rock where houses might be built, and some were outposts of elven bands dedicated to a deeper understanding of the sea and the creatures that lived within deep bodies of water.
dedicated to one trade or another, ranging from houses that made tea, spun silk, and made candles to dwarven smithies that hammered weapons as well as farm tools, to mercenaries that trained on islands that were no more than barren outcroppings of rock where houses might be built, and some were outposts of elven bands dedicated to a deeper understanding of the sea and the creatures that lived within deep bodies of water.
Magic was stronger and more uncertain on the islands as well. Few wizards ever lived in the islands, and none of those had ever stayed unless they were unfortunate enough to be killed before they could leave.
Lord Kharrion had unleashed a spell that had destroyed the mainland here after the Unity armies had holed up and tried to last through the winter. Horrible forces had riven the land, breaking it and creating upheavals that had even freed the ocean floor to rise to the surface in places. Imarish was located at the northernmost point of the Shattered Coast, as Teldane’s Bounty had come to be called over the years.
“Closer, O beastie,” Hallekk murmured in a taunting lilt. “I ain’t seen nothin’ yet to be a-feared of.”
The view changed, gliding in toward the cluster of islands as if on the wings of a seahawk. In the space of a drawn breath, the viewpoint hung over the coastline, showing the stone buildings and tall towers that had been constructed there over the years. Nausea rippled through Juhg’s stomach as the view lurched to one side. Then it focused on one particular ship and closed in again.
Edgewick Lamplighter, Grandmagister of the Vault of All Known Knowledge—at least, Grandmagister of all that remained of the Library—stood in chains in the ship’s stern. He was dirty and unkempt, standing in the same clothes he’d had on when Greydawn Moors had been attacked. Bruises darkened his face.
“No,” Juhg whispered before he knew he was even speaking.
Slowly, the great sails that propelled the goblinkin ship filled as the goblinkin sailors turned them to the wind. The ship came about and sailed once more to the south, heading for the open sea away from the islands. Two other ships flanked the first, all of them filled with goblinkin warriors.
Aldhran Khempus came up from amidship to stand at the Grandmagister’s side. The human spoke with the Grandmagister, but the Grandmagister said nothing. Without warning, Aldhran struck the Grandmagister with the back of his hand. Trapped by the chains that bound him hand and
foot, the Grandmagister sprawled onto the deck, then raised his arms over his head as best as he could to protect himself.
foot, the Grandmagister sprawled onto the deck, then raised his arms over his head as best as he could to protect himself.
The human gestured toward the fallen dweller. Four of the goblinkin came forward and picked the Grandmagister up. For a moment, Juhg was afraid that they were going to toss their prisoner over the ship’s side and let him drown. Instead, they marched back to the hold and dropped the Grandmagister down.
“Enough,” Hallekk whispered hoarsely.
The scene vanished. In the large glass bottle, the eyeball blinked and looked royally perturbed.
Juhg’s own eyes burned from the strain of the ensorcelment that bound the monster’s eye to the crew of the pirate ship.
“Wick didn’t stay at Imarish,” Hallekk said. “Means we’re gonna have to make a decision.” He grabbed the bottle containing the monster’s eye and slid it under the bed built into one side of the room.
The captain’s quarters had remained as meager as Captain Farok had ever kept them. There was scarcely room to turn around and personal belongings were kept to a minimum. Most of them were things that Farok himself had kept over the years. Hallekk wasn’t one for sentiment when it came to things instead of people.
Hallekk used his foot to push the bottle farther under the bed. Then he dropped the bedding low so it hung to the wooden floor. No one liked talking in front of the eyeball.
“We have to go after the Grandmagister,” Juhg said.
And what of
The Book of Time? He knew that question was going to come up from the look on Craugh’s face.
And what of
The Book of Time? He knew that question was going to come up from the look on Craugh’s face.
Craugh said nothing.
Hallekk pulled at his beard and looked uncomfortable.
“We will
go after Wick,” he said. “But that isn’t your place, Juhg.”
“We will
go after Wick,” he said. “But that isn’t your place, Juhg.”
Angry immediately, Juhg glared at the wizard. “He put you up to this.”
“No,” Hallekk said in a clear voice that brooked no argument. “I’m captain of this here ship, an’ no one tells me what to think or do. Been thinkin’ for meownself an’ fer the crew since Cap’n Farok passed on.” He paused. “Yer place is here, Juhg, a-doin’ what Wick bade ye to do. What I needs to know—”
“We don’t even know if what we seek is here,” Juhg argued.
“Wick,” Hallekk stated slowly, “he told ye that it were here. He
wouldn’t a-told ye that if’n it weren’t here. This thing, this
Book o’ Time
Craugh mentioned, why I hear tell it’s a powerful piece o’ magic. Can wreck the world if’n it’s in the wrong hands. That’s why Wick trusted this job to ye.”
wouldn’t a-told ye that if’n it weren’t here. This thing, this
Book o’ Time
Craugh mentioned, why I hear tell it’s a powerful piece o’ magic. Can wreck the world if’n it’s in the wrong hands. That’s why Wick trusted this job to ye.”
“You can send other crew to look for the book,” Juhg protested.
Hallekk shook his head. “Most of ‘em, why they wouldn’t know all forms a book takes the way ye can, Juhg. Wick knew that. That’s why he up an’ set ye free from them goblinkin what had ye. He counted on ye a-finishin’ what he’d started.”
Juhg opened his mouth to argue but couldn’t find the words to get it done. His shoulders slumped.
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