Chapter 17: Extra Credit

Thankfully, the many bookshelves on the bridges shielded me from view of the soldiers as they ran up the stairs, and a quick look around soon yielded a small cubby I could hide in case they came closer, nestled between the bookshelf and the railing. From there I listened as they walked across, desperately hoping that they wouldn’t come down into the pyromantic section as I pulled Gideon in with me and raised the hood on my coat.

 

That hope, unfortunately, was ill-fated. No sooner had I thought of it than some iron-footed soldier began making his way over, every thud upon the carpet ringing in my ears. After half a minute I saw his from a crack between the shelf, freezing as he picked up the open book I’d left at the table. 

 

“Banishment’s over here!” A shout rang out, drawing the soldier’s attention. “Yellow banner!”

 

I sighed in relief as he hurried over, away from me.

 

What could the king possibly gain from having his soldiers raid the library at night? It wasn’t like he didn’t have the power to do it during the day after all. But what was so important about the secrecy? On the same vein, why the banishment section? Was he trying to hide something?

 

Did you know this was going to happen? Gideon accused, his head twisted almost 180 degrees to glare at me. 

 

“What?” I shook my head. “Why’d you think that?”

 

Because it reeks of conspiracy, that’s why.

 

Despite what Gideon implied, I didn’t actively go looking for mysteries to solve. They sort of just came to me first.

 

Wait, didn’t Auro say she was going over to the Banishment section?

 

As quietly as I could, I peeked my head back over the railing on the side of the banishment bridge. All over it, soldiers were scurrying around like so many ants, ripping tomes off shelves, reading the titles and then slamming them back into the bookcases. It looked like they’d only made it a quarter of the way down the bridge.

 

I squinted as I scanned the bridge for any sign of Auro, and after half a minute I saw a vague outline that looked like the top of two coats stacked on top of each other. From my reckoning, it’d only be another couple minutes before they made it to where she was.

 

“Damn it, if they find Auro…”

 

Rampant fears ran through my mind at the possibility. Would they just scold her and kick her out? Or was this supposed to be a secret mission? They might even…

 

My blood ran cold as I considered the frighteningly realistic possibility.  

 

They couldn’t! I couldn’t let that happen! Not again, not so soon after. I still didn’t know her too well, but I didn’t really want another death in my conscience, not after I’d brought her into this whole thing with that haunted house. I’d encouraged her, probably even given her the push to break into here by herself, so if she died doing that, wouldn’t that death be on my hands as well? That’d be two people I’d killed as a side effect of my actions since coming here.

 

And in only a single week.

 

They got closer to Auro, now only a couple bookshelves from rounding the corner and seeing her huddled there.

 

But what could I even do? Even racking my mind, I couldn’t really see a way I could sufficiently attract their attention without giving myself away. And without knowing any real spells aside from ‘spark’ there was no way I could fight back against them. And even if I did, I didn’t actually have a wand or stave with me, meaning that I’d be casting icy snow directly out of my unprotected hands, which was… uncomfortable to say the least. No, without some kind of deus ex machina there wouldn’t be any directly fighting them.

 

But I still had to try something.

 

Thinking of nothing more in the moment, I grabbed the closest chair and, saying a silent prayer for forgiveness, threw it over the railing, aiming for one of the second floor bridges nearby.

 

I heard it crash into the bridge successfully, and it echoed through the atrium for a couple seconds before I heard someone say something.

 

“Did that chair just explode? Someone go check that out.”

 

Hopefully Auro would take the hint and get farther away, but I couldn’t check that without giving myself away now that they were looking in my direction. If they had any sense at all, they’d probably end up checking the bridge I was on after that little stunt, so I hurriedly extracted myself from my hiding spot and started sneaking along the bridge away from the soldiers. Gideon ran down my arm to the floor as well, eager to reduce my profile.

 

A pair of footsteps raced down the stairs towards the bridge, but it was unfortunately less than I would’ve hoped, and it became worse when I heard someone begin walking down the pyromancy bridge again. Since the bridge was covered in rows and squares of shelves almost the entire length, each new section on the opposite side, I was still hidden from his sight, but I knew that wouldn’t last if I kept at my current pace.

 

Was it time to go loud yet? There was only so much further I could go sneaking anyway. Once I got off the bridge the railings weren’t solid anymore, and I’d be spotted pretty much immediately. As well, there was a small stairwell on this side I could reasonably dash down before I’d be caught. The only problem was Auro.

 

Ryder, hide. Gideon said suddenly, his ears standing up on end. Quickly.

 

Thankfully, a similar spot to my first hiding spot was repeated in this square of bookshelves, so I dashed over and squeezed myself in without retort, though I accidentally knocked a book to the floor in my haste. Just as I reached to correct it however, I had to reel it back just in time for an armoured soldier to soundlessly creep into the section.

 

He was obviously taking his time, sneaking forward much as I had. He even held his sword sheath in hand, and the metal plating on his boots had been removed.

 

Damn. 

 

I had to marvel at the quick thinking on the part of the soldiers, for both accurately judging where the chair must’ve come from and then again for not just rushing over. They probably intended for the first to lure me into the open while the second grabbed me from behind, and without Gideon’s ears they would’ve done just that.

 

But why though? Surely just running down the bridge would’ve worked just as well, right? 

 

I patiently waited as he crept along, too afraid of notice to immediately jump back out and begin my earlier sneaking. The footsteps from the other guard stopped in the section behind me, and I got the answer to my question.

 

“He’s still on the bridge.” One of them said. “I would’ve heard him if he were warding his presence.”

 

Ah! So it was to detect directed invisibility or sound masking… I’d have to remember that.

 

“Start tearing the place up.” The other guy said, the very same voice as the captain who’d shouted earlier. “In between bookshelves, under tables. I want this guy found before we continue.”

 

“Aye, sir.”

 

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“Halso, Brent, on this bridge!”

 

Various ‘aye’s and stomping boots echoed throughout the room.

 

My blood drained from my face as I listened to them plan. They’d definitely find me with six people searching at it, which meant I only had one real option left: break out.

 

I waited until the captain had moved farther towards the other end of the bridge, the screeching of moving heavy furniture and the thuds of falling books making its way closer and closer. The same guy who’d been trying to catch me by skulking earlier walking into my section soon enough, and I began casting the one spell I knew, with one neat change. Soon enough I felt the bookshelf I was hiding behind begin to shift, and a hooded face appeared right in front of me.

 

“Spatal.”

 

My hands went blue as a massive burst of snow burst from the palms, exploding in the soldier’s face like a foot-long snowball. He went reeling backwards to the bookshelf behind, and I leapt up and over to behind sprinting down the bridge towards the stairs. The shouting wasn’t far behind, and after a couple seconds the soldier I’d hit was already on his feet thundering after me.

 

“S… Snow caster! It’s a witch!”

 

“Snow?”

 

One funny thing about really simple and well-crafted spells was that they’d often work with a horribly incorrect amount of inputted mana. WIth the larger spells, a well-designed one might work with something like fifteen percent more mana in its force input, allowing you to increase certain attributes as you wanted, but for the simplest things like ‘spark’ or ‘flake’ back on Earth…

 

I felt an inordinate swaying in my mind as the blowback of the spell hit me, way more than I would’ve expected from a spell as cheap as that. It felt almost like I had just cast something equivalent to a minor ice storm back on Earth. 

 

Was spell tolerance a body wide thing then and not soul bound? It had taken quite a bit of painful practice back on Earth before I’d been able to cast for long periods of times, and the thought of having to spend the same amount of days in a magical drunken daze didn’t sound nearly as appealing as it did back in a college dorm. I wasn’t sure if Marcolo’s presence would even allow me to cast myself into a stupor repeatedly as I had then.

 

As I dashed through the shelves, I glanced over at the banishment section occasionally to see if I could see Auro, but I couldn’t see her from here, though it was possible she was just behind the shelves or railing. One thing I could plainly hear however was the two or three people sprinting down the bridge after me.

 

It’s fine, I’ll make it to the stairs first, and then…

 

I skidded to a stop as I heard shouts ring up from the stairwell in front of me, and cursed my luck that they’d been on this side. 

 

Where to now, then?

 

I quickly picked a direction and dashed to my left towards the back of the library, down the path ringing the wall. After I had taken a couple steps, a small orange orb the size of my fist rocketed past my head and slammed into a shelf beside me like a tank shell, almost pushing me to the ground with the resulting blast of heated air, splinters, and burning paper. Quickly recovering, I barely slowed my pace for a moment and continued sprinting forward.

 

“Idiot! Alive! ALIVE!”

 

What the hell was that? That was so much more condensed than anything I’d ever cast on Earth! How the hell did anyone survive a magical duel here if that was being thrown around! And why hadn’t Andril used that in the cave!

 

I kept sprinting, the soldiers from the stairs now adding their boots to the chaos. Glancing to my left I could see that a soldier was running along the other ring as well, and yet two more were waiting along the entrances to the two bridges in case I decided to run down one of them. I was going to be trapped between them like a rat in a maze like this. Instead of meeting the guy on the ring, I did some quick calculations and did a hard left down the ‘Warding’ bridge.

 

“Warding!” Came a shout from behind me.

 

Did these people really have to be this organised?

 

“Gid…” I panted between breaths. “Bring… flag up.”

 

He nodded in understanding and flew off while I dashed towards the middle of the bridge. I could hear them close behind me now, so I began throwing chairs and books in the path as I dashed, trying to slow them down just enough for Gideon to finish his task.

 

I slid to a stop in the middle of the bridge and scrambled onto the table next to the railing, and leaned over to see Gideon still furiously flapping with the flag in his jaws.

 

“Stop! I’ll jump!” I shouted, trying and probably failing to pitch my voice down a few octaves.

 

Three of them stopped just feet away from me, the captain and snowface from where I had just come from and one from the other side. They slowly circling around, only stopping when I dangled a leg off the railing.

 

I pulled my hood tighter around my face, hoping that I was managing to hide it enough.

 

“In the name of King Esiland, stand down.” The captain said, all the earlier edge now gone from his face. “I can guarantee that no harm will come to you, my lady.”

 

If I didn’t blast that snow earlier, would I already be dead? It sounded pretty likely to me.

 

They stepped a little closer, almost coming within arm length when I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, and hopped backwards off the bridge. The captain snapped at me like a snake, and I felt a flash of pain as he pulled a tuft of my silvery hair out as I fell.

 

“No!”

 

I grabbed the flag from Gideon as I fell, but thankfully he’d held it out away from the bridge enough that I didn’t just fall straight down. Still, the jerk as I found the limit of the fabric felt like it’d rip my arms out, and I held on almost purely with the power of adrenaline and fear of death as I swung in an arc under the bridge, my arms letting out only at the end. Flying through the air, I only had a few seconds to think various obscenities before I landed on one of the second floor bridges, messing up the roll I attempted when the muscle memory didn’t kick in and slamming into a bookshelf instead.

 

“Ow…” 

 

Above me, I saw all six of them on the bridge gather against the railing, gaping when they saw that I wasn’t splattered on the side of the bridge.

 

Gideon grabbed my shoulder in his claws and helped lift me to my feet, and the guards all dispersed to try to beat me to the stairways. 

 

Wincing as pains in my ribs threatened to send me to the floor again, I again leaned over the railing to find a suitably tall shelf before again climbing over the railing and dropping myself on top of it. Despite my weight, it remained steadfast, probably being bolted to the floor, and I scrambled down the shelves like a ladder. Upon dropping to the floor, I dashed into the kitchen and locked the door behind me before leaving into the streets. 

 

Outside, I quickly ran to the canals and flagged down the first gondola I saw, handing him a few coins and telling him the closest address I knew. As I jumped into the back of the boat and he pushed away from the bricks of the street, I heard the sound of the library’s front door bursting open, accompanied by frenzied shouts. But as they finally moved into the streets to search, I was already swiftly sailing down the glyph star waters, away into the night.

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