Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,77

just here on the south map, but I studied my map as a child, and I can tell you. Not one of the lands is the same.”

Tancho picked up the white-bound book. On the front was a koi fish, embossed into the leather, the same symbol on their flag, on their capes and uniforms, as the birthmark on his wrist. He flipped through the pages and stopped, going back a few to one page in particular.

There was a drawing of the compass rose, the arrows at the W pointing toward the centre. “That’s odd.”

Crow opened the black book, finding the same page. Only on his compass, the arrows at the N pointed toward the centre as well. “Is it a code?”

Sirocco and Oaken flipped open the red and green books and found theirs to be the same. “There are clues here,” Erelis said. “We just need to find the key.”

“Maghdlm,” Crow said, his voice low. “Where is she?”

“Resting,” Karasu said. “She is still recovering.”

“Please bring her,” Crow said. “And the book she carries. She knows more than she says.”

Karasu and Soko both nodded at the order and disappeared out the door, and Crow sighed. “Can we even guess the origins of those creatures Asagi described? Do we know from where they come?”

Asagi rummaged through the open books on the table until he came to one in particular. He pulled it out and handed it to Crow. “We found this.”

“It’s not exact,” Erelis said. “And we can’t know if it’s what we’re after, but it might be something.”

The picture was of a boar-like creature on a strange planet. “This is fiction,” Tancho said. “I read this book when I was a boy. It’s the story of a world different to ours, they had no moons and only suns. They lived in perpetual daylight. There was a quest for them to seek a new world, but they had to wait for the suns to set. Only the suns never set.”

“These creatures?” Crow asked. “And you’re just remembering this now?”

Tancho shot him a glare. “I read this when I was no more than seven. I’ve read most of these books.” He gestured to the stacks around the library. “And you expect me to remember every word?”

“Not the words, Tancho,” Crow said, trying to sound calm. “But the creatures with boar-like faces seeking a new world.”

Tancho shrugged, defiant. “It was the story of seeking what you cannot have. I never much cared for that book. I probably tossed it aside and read another book the very same day. And it is fiction, Crow. Perhaps if I’d learned it in histories, I might have retained it.”

Crow clenched his jaw and tried to speak calmly. “Perhaps we could have saved everyone a lot of time that we do not have if you’d remembered it sooner.”

“And perhaps if you’d read a book at all—”

“Ah,” Erelis hedged. “My good kings, there’s no need to argue.”

Karasu and Soko walked back in with Maghdlm, and Soko looked from Crow to Tancho. “Oh, goodie. We’re back to trying to kill each other again? I’d hoped we were past that.”

Crow and Tancho both snarled at him but Soko simply grinned. “Maghdlm, as requested.”

Maghdlm eyed the four older mentors.

Crow tried to simmer his temper. “Maghdlm, the book you carry with you, and the books we gave you.”

“Yes?” she said, unsure. “What of them.”

“We need them, if you’d be so kind,” Tancho said. Though Crow didn’t know why he was being so polite about it. Two of the books she got from both Crow and Tancho. They didn’t belong to her.

She walked slowly to the table and put two books on the table, giving a nod to the four mentors. Crow didn’t miss how she eyed the four leather-bound books they’d brought with them.

“And the other,” Crow said flatly. “The third book.”

“The third book is mine,” she said simply. She pulled it out from the folds in her cloak and held it. “It’s mostly notes and scrawled handwriting, illegible to anyone but me, I’d say.”

“If they can’t read it, then you won’t mind handing it over,” Crow said. “They won’t damage it. I’ll see it returned to you. I promise.”

She looked up at him as if trying to decide if she should argue. She very wisely put the book on the table. “As you wish.” She bowed her head and lumbered out of the room.

The cover of the book was a mottled purple, the book somewhat bent from overuse and time. Crow skimmed the