grasp the meanings of. To think descriptions of northern cave systems and converted mine shafts could be so complicated.
He could only stand the old dusty book for an hour before his head began to spin, and he had to put it aside. A dull headache was building behind his eyes. Going to the desk, he picked up the last of the burned notes. They drew his attention and curiosity like a moth to a flame. He brought them back to the chaise lounge.
He had translated a few more, but he hadn’t shown any of them to the Sky Guard scholar who came by a few days before to pick up last week’s translations. He glanced at the rug and thought about the large stain underneath and the letters carved into the floorboards. He thought about the scratched out document labeled with the word ‘theft’ and the dragon master seal at the bottom. Whenever the scholar came by, Kalai was careful with what he told him. The scholar was always very interested in the documents that seemed to come from the dragon temples. Despite not being able to read them, he was privy to their origin like a mouse sniffing out cheese. So Kalai made an effort to translate all the most harmless texts he could find - weather reports, and some of the previous archivist’s mostly useless daily logs. Kalai knew he couldn’t keep it up forever. He also had no concrete reason to be distrustful of the Sky Guard, but Aunt Iako had always told him to trust his gut feeling, and Kalai’s gut feeling about this was particularly strong, despite Tauran’s reassurances.
A sound made Kalai look out the window. A young boy tossed a leather ball into the air, spun, and caught it. When he tossed and spun again, the ball struck the pavement and he ran to catch it. The boy turned back, and Kalai recognized him as Sparrow, the messenger boy Tauran had sent to fetch him lunch.
Sitting up on his knees, Kalai pushed the window open. “Hi there!” he called.
Sparrow broke into a wide grin when he spotted Kalai. “Good day, Mister!” He darted to the window. His clothes looked old and worn, his shoes even more so. Kalai felt a sting of sadness for the boy. Sparrow had little hope of growing out of homelessness as a messenger boy. Kalai had heard the people in the street talk. Many of them got sick and died in shelters. The ones with decently attractive faces often turned to prostitution. Was that the road Sparrow’s large green eyes and golden hair would take him down? Kalai hoped to the skies it wasn’t.
“Wait here,” Kalai said, and slid off the chaise lounge. “I’ll bring you some lunch.”
“I don’t have coin, sir!” Sparrow called after him.
“Don’t worry about it!” Kalai shouted from the kitchen. He found some leftover buns from yesterday’s lunch in the bread box and made a cheese and lettuce sandwich, then returned to the window. “Here you go,” he said, passing it through.
Sparrow’s eyes went wide as teacups when he took the sandwich from Kalai and bit into it. He didn’t even stop to consider if Kalai might have drugged or poisoned it. He didn’t have the luxury.
Kalai wondered if he’d need permission from the Sky Guard to take the boy in as an assistant. Not that he had any work for Sparrow, except perhaps to clean a little now and then, but Kalai’s salary was plenty to keep him fed. There wasn’t anywhere in the archive Sparrow could sleep, but perhaps Kalai could fix him a bed in the main room, or he could use the chaise lounge.
“You’re meant to burn those.”
“Huh?” Kalai followed the direction Sparrow pointed to the stack of burned documents Kalai had left on the windowsill. He picked them up. “These?”
Sparrow nodded, mouth full of sandwich.
“Why?”
Sparrow’s words were muffled. “I helped Mister Aihiri burn them. He didn’t want the Sky Guard to have them.”
Kalai’s breath caught in his throat. Was Sparrow really saying what Kalai thought he was saying? “Was Mister Aihiri the previous archivist?”
Sparrow nodded again. “They found out what he was doing and…” He paused and looked down at his shoes.
Kalai leaned through the window. “And what, Sparrow?”
Sparrow shuffled his feet. He took a single step backwards and Kalai wanted to reach through the window and grab him, but he didn’t.
“Hey,” Kalai said instead. “This stays between us. You won’t get in trouble, I swear.”