that. You got a minute to give me a hand with a critical mission?”
Sora blinked at him, excited at the thought of spending more time with the dragon. But there was something about Ravi’s expression that had him questioning Ravi’s definition of critical. “Sure. What can I do?”
Ravi threaded his arm through Sora’s and turned him toward the hallway. He looked around before finally settling on a door. Pulling Sora along, Ravi dipped inside what proved to be a small sitting area with tall windows looking out on a thick forest. The bright blue sky was steadily darkening toward evening, and Sora could see hints of orange slipping into the horizon as the sun set.
Ravi released him as he closed the door behind them. “So, I know you met Gunter.”
Sora had met so many people that it took a second to recall him. “Yes, he’s the king’s lead researcher and historian, right? Blond hair and glasses?”
“Yep. That’s him. Though, I like to call him Alric’s librarian. Incredibly smart dragon. He tries to keep the clan’s entire history locked away in his head. But he has a problem that Hoheit has charged me with helping him sort out.”
“What’s that?”
Ravi paced the room as if he had too much energy to even attempt to stand still. “Gunter doesn’t like to leave his books. He stays locked away in his dungeon.”
Sora felt his eyes go wide and his mouth fall open. “You actually have a dungeon here? I know it’s a castle, but I hadn’t thought—”
“No! No!” Ravi said quickly, waving his hands as he rushed across the room to Sora’s side. “I mean, we do have some cells we could use if someone were to do something really bad, but they haven’t been used for that in centuries. I think there’s a couple casks of whiskey in there right now that someone is trying their hand at brewing. No, I teasingly call the royal library the dungeon because it’s a room without windows and it’s on the lower level.”
He paced away from Sora again, waving his hand. “Gunter said something about the sunlight being bad for the old documents.”
Sora released a heavy sigh of relief. “Oh, good.”
“Good for books. Bad for dragons. Gunter forgets to shift and fly. His dragon gets grumpy, and then he gets grumpy, and no one wants to be around him when he’s grumpy. Hoheit worries about Gunter.”
“And if you get Gunter to fly, then the king won’t worry,” Sora filled in.
“Exactly! I knew you’d understand.”
“I’m not sure I understand why you need my help, though.”
Ravi’s expression twisted up a little. “Well, Gunter doesn’t willingly leave his library. He has to be…coerced.”
Sora narrowed his eyes at Ravi, and the wind dragon’s smile turned devilish.
“Ravi, what are you planning to do to Gunter?”
“It’s just that, in order to get Gunter to fly, I usually have to get him to chase me.”
It was an incredible struggle to not grin at the dragon when he was being so adorable, but he wasn’t entirely sure that he should be encouraging this behavior.
Ravi rushed back to his side and grabbed both of his arms. “I was thinking that I could set off a glitter bomb in the library.”
Sora winced at the thought of millions of sparkling particles getting blasted over every surface, covering ancient books and scrolls. A spell could be used to remove the glitter again, but if the glitter bomb spell they used was off by the tiniest bit, damage could be done to the documents. Gunter would be devastated, and Ravi would be heartbroken over having caused actual damage.
“That would definitely get Gunter out of the library and chasing you,” Sora agreed a bit slowly.
“You see where I’m going with this?” Ravi’s expression was pure devilment.
“I do. I think you’ll make a polite corpse.”
“Will I die?”
“Pretty sure Gunter would kill you. How about this instead? Let’s shrink-wrap the bookshelves. The books will be safe, and you’ll still get the desired response from Gunter.”
Ravi wrapped one arm across his waist and propped his opposite elbow up on it while tapping his finger on his bottom lip. “You know…that’s a pretty good idea. I think we’ve got a bunch of that stuff still in storage from when we moved Cassie and Cameron into the castle. Bunch of bubble wrap that I’ve been dying to use, too.”
“You could bubble wrap all the chairs in the library,” Sora suggested, after pushing down his sigh of relief.