Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,17
me in the right direction, I’d like to take a tour of the library now. If I am to perform the duties of a temporary Keeper, I’d best begin without delay.”
“Here, I’ll take you to it,” Clara offered. “I’ve been meaning to spend some time there myself. You see, I’m an artist. The Cove has so many gorgeous scrolls full of calligraphy and artwork from ancient times. They inspire me. I want to integrate some of the symbols and styles into my latest work.”
Chatting amicably, the two women made their way to the Cove’s massive library that took up three entire floors of space.
The library was a giant oval with concentric ovals of stacked gold cages from floor to ceiling, suspended by gold cables overhead, each metal box containing a priceless piece of the Dark Ones’ history. There were thousands of volumes in this chamber, each with hundreds of pages, which contained small, painstakingly written words in countless languages, lost and current, most of which were written in blood, for it was far more permanent than ink.
Even so, if the Dark histories were the sands of the Saharan desert, the records here represented a single grain.
Eveline couldn’t wait to get started. But where to dig in?
“How do I…”
She was about to ask how she accessed the books when, pausing with her fingers extended toward a particular volume, the metal cage the book was housed in unlocked of its own accord.
“Well that’s convenient,” Eveline murmured, impressed by either the magic or the technology in the library that provided such individualized access and security.
“Right?” Clara agreed. “I thought it was the neatest trick when I first ventured in here too. I wonder how it’s done. By now I’ve seen so many wondrous things, not the least of which is what my Eli can do. But every day I learn something new.”
“Are all of the books here accessible by anyone and everyone?” Eveline asked, glancing her fingers along a row of cages at chest level.
As soon as her hand left the metal box that had unlocked for her, it locked up again automatically.
“Definitely not,” Clara said. “There is a whole section in the northeast corner that won’t unlock for me. And of course, that’s the section I want access to the most. Those cages seem to contain the oldest scrolls, reams and reams of them.”
Eveline looked toward the mentioned direction.
A concentrated beam of sunlight filtering through the intricate stain-glass windows surrounding the library illuminated the forbidden section of tomes.
Even from several yards away, Eveline could tell that the scrolls lying in their metal boxes weren’t made of papyrus, but instead some sort of cloth, animal hide or parchment. Predating the time when papyrus was invented, around three thousand B.C., over five millennia ago. There were clay tablets as well, wrapped in leather, stacked in neat rows in a special section all their own.
“I’m in heaven,” Eveline breathed, spinning on the balls of her feet in a slow circle, and staring unblinkingly and lovingly at the endless shelves of books all around her.
“Come on,” Clara said, smiling at her new friend.
“Let’s go exploring.”
*** *** *** ***
Ramses made his way one floor down from the throne room to the library a couple of hours before dawn.
He kept tabs on his new Keeper occasionally throughout the day and night through video surveillance. He knew where she was at all times.
He knew when she’d bumped into Clara Scott. When the two women headed to the library. When Clara left without Eveline after a few hours of exploring the shelves together. When Eveline stayed in the library poring over one book after another for hours on end, forgetting to eat, only leaving briefly to answer the call of nature and to guzzle some water in the small adjacent kitchenette. And when she finally passed out over the gigantic teak wood table that rested in the center of the oval rings, supported on thick roots, carved from one continuous block.
It was then that Ramses realized he’d been had.
He should have held out for more when the Pure female bargained for her life. The way she loved this library, he could probably have asked for a whole year of Blood Contract and she wouldn’t have batted an eye.
He stood over the unconscious Seer (well, his temporary Keeper) now, observing her undetected.
Her face rested on her arms, folded on top of the smooth, glossy wood. Her squashed cheek pulled her mouth slightly open, and a bit of drool leaked out of