Lacuna - N.R. Walker Page 0,68

too well to know there wasn’t any bite to it because he simply kept walking.

“Tancho,” Crow whispered. “This way.”

“Oh,” he looked up, surprised. He closed the book and held it to his chest. “May I bring this with me?”

All Crow could do was smile at him. “Of course. And when you’re done with it, you can choose another.”

The smile Tancho gave Crow in return was just for him, as though no one and nothing else existed. A smile that could have made Crow forget everything, as though no danger lurked through a magical doorway, as though their whole lives hadn’t been turned upside down. That smile was just for Crow and nothing in the world could convince him otherwise.

“Are you two done?” Karasu stood at the end of the stacks. She must have come back for them. “It’s great that you two aren’t trying to kill each other anymore, and you have some weird connection now where you’re all smitten and I know that must be distracting, but have you forgotten that an invading legion of creatures stormed our castle and disappeared through a compass doorway to somewhere, and we came here to heed warning, and we had intended to warn the Eastlands and Southlands—”

“We haven’t forgotten,” Tancho replied, cool and sharp.

And that was true. They hadn’t forgotten . . . they were just distracted. “Forgotten, no. Though it is hard to think of anything else,” Crow admitted. Tancho’s blush was his only reply.

Karasu rolled her eyes and sighed. “Please come this way. We’re running out of time.”

They followed her out to where Erelis sat at a long table with books spread out and open in front of him. If anyone noticed how close Crow and Tancho were now standing to each other, they never made mention of it.

“My king,” Erelis said when he saw Crow. “I have found something. I take it, given the company included here, that these matters can be discussed openly. Or should we strive for privacy?”

Given Tancho was with Crow when he’d asked, Crow assumed his mentor was referring to Soko, Kohaku, and Karasu.

“It’s fine. Please continue.”

“There are no records of any kind of doorway above the compass in our histories. Not as recorded data, anyway. But I found this.” He slid one book on the table closer toward Crow and Tancho. “A fictional book, written a long time ago. Actually, there is no date. But it has been with the fictional tomes since well before my time.”

“Fictional?” Crow asked. “A fictional book about what, exactly?” The book in front of them was old.

“About a circular witch-door with a secret key,” Erelis explained. “Not a physical key, such as one that would fit a lock. No, this key was no more metal components and a chant.”

“That’s hardly fiction,” Crow countered. “As I think we have all witnessed.”

“Maybe the record keepers thought it to be too far-fetched to have any truth to it,” Tancho offered. “The doorways had been forgotten for many generations.”

“True,” Erelis agreed. “But there is a record of it. Albeit disguised as fiction.”

Crow gave a thoughtful nod. “Perhaps disguising it was the point. Does it say how they used the doorways, how many there were, and why they closed them?”

Erelis nodded. “I have only had time enough to skim the pages, but yes. There were five in total; one in each kingdom and one in the Aequi Kentron. They used the doors for matters of the high courts. Only for the kings and queens and consuls, which is why they were inside the castles. If there is a way to guard the door and decide if you’ll allow entry, I’m yet to find it. I will continue to read and report what I learn.”

“What else does it say?” Crow asked. “Is there anything that points to where the creatures came from?”

Erelis pushed one book aside and pulled another, larger one closer. It was somehow even older than the first. The pages were yellowed papyrus, the cover some type of ancient black leather with a raven embossed on the cover.

Tancho looked puzzled. “This is similar to the book Asagi found, only white with a koi on the cover. He called it a grimoire.”

Erelis gave a nod. “A book of spells and invocations. Amongst other things.” He carefully opened it. Spread over two pages was a compass rose . . . no, a map superimposed with a compass rose. As if the Great Kingdoms were a compass, the western point was Tancho’s castle, the northern