The Forbidden Library Read online

  “Well, I am a direct descendant of Chonda Lu, and according to my fetch, Lu Bei, I’m special somehow … I’m Chonda Lu’s heir in a unique way I don’t understand. Sometimes I think that maybe I’m …”

  He woke to the old woman’s hand on his forehead. She frowned down at him, concerned. “You need more rest.”

  “That’s what happens when I think too hard about Chonda Lu and how I’m different than other wizards.”

  “I have decided,” Eira said. “You and Chonda Lu … You have twin souls.”

  “Twin souls … sure, maybe … but I’m not going to think about it.”

  She laughed. “Probably wise. If something powerful keeps you from thinking about it, there’s a good reason.” She took his wrist, felt his pulse, and frowned. “Your spirit will return in time, though what damage you’ve done internally, I don’t know. It’s not healthy to give so much of your spirit away.”

  “Didn’t have much choice. Say, how is it that I can speak your language? When I concentrate, I realize I’m speaking it, but I’ve never heard it before.”

  “We have discussed that, the priestesses and I. I’m afraid the answer is that we simply don’t know. We thought you might.”

  “Maybe something about passing through the gate,” he suggested with a shrug that made him wince as pain shot through is arm.

  “My assistant put the splint on your arm last night. I suspect the pain medicine I gave you is wearing off. Is the pain getting worse?”

  He nodded and she pulled out a vial of dark liquid.

  “I’m going after my friends,” he said. “I can’t take more. I’ll sleep all day.”

  “I know. This will dull the pain without making you sleepy.”

  He drank the liquid and gagged, but he managed to keep it down. Whatever it was, it tasted coppery and sweet … like blood and herbs. He wouldn’t ask.

  “It will take maybe six or seven weeks for your arm to heal,” she said. “Don’t pull the splint off before then.”

  “Once my spirit recovers, I can cast a healing spell.” Turesobei tapped his kavaru. “One of the benefits of being a wizard.”

  “How miraculous. Your people must be incredibly long lived.”

  “Magic can slow the progression of a poison or disease, but it can’t stop them. It only speeds natural recovery. And you still have to sew up a wound, put a bone back in place, all those sorts of things. And you can only apply it to an injury once.”

  “Still better than what I can do.” She groaned as she stood. “Too bad it can’t fix old joints.”

  “It could help them a bit, for a while.”

  “Well then, you can pay me for my services once you’re in better health.” She gave him another vial of dark liquid to him. “Take sips as needed.”

  “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure. When you reach my age, you don’t expect to learn wondrously new things. I feel blessed to have encountered you.”

  *****

  Turesobei woke with a snap as a striking young goronku girl bustled in with a heaping bundle of clothing in her arms. She had soft, white fur, sparkling green eyes, full lips, and a golden mane tied into a braid that hung over her shoulder. She was very … curvy … and suddenly he was all too aware that he was naked under the fur covers.

  She smiled broadly, and somehow that brightened the room. “I have clothes for you.”

  He gathered the furs tight around him and sat up. “Thanks.”

  “I’m Kurine.”

  “Turesobei.”

  She winked. “I know. Everyone’s talking about you.”

  “I — I can’t believe you had anything that would fit me.”

  “We didn’t. You’re as thin as a child but as tall as an adult. Our clothes aren’t warm enough for you anyway, what with you not having any fur. All that bare skin.” She cocked her eyebrows saucily. He clutched the furs tighter. “Had to stay up all night with my mother, sewing. She’s the head seamstress. We took your measurements from the clothes you were wearing.”

  “I’m sorry you had to stay up working.”

  “Oh no. Don’t be sorry.” She winked again. “I really do love a challenge.” She knelt beside him and started to sort out the bundle of clothes.

  “That’s a whole lot of clothing. You didn’t make spares for me, did you?”

  “Never been out in our kind of cold before, huh? Poor fellow. Poor, poor fellow. Afraid you’re going to need all of these out there. And I suspect you’ll still be miserable. There is one spare shirt here, and Mother is rigging up a basic spare coat for you. In case yours gets torn. You know how beasts are.”

  The more he learned about the Ancient Cold and Deep, the less he liked it. He was starting to think he might be safer in the Shadowland.

  “Don’t worry. We know what we’re doing. We make clothes like this twice each year and trade them to the bareskins.”

  “Bareskins? So there are other people that look like me here?”

  “Yes, but I’ve never seen one of them.” She gave him a long, hard stare. “And I think they’re coloring is different, and I’ve heard they’re hairy. Not so bare as you. We trade them for iron, and wood when it’s available.”

  Kurine was pretty and the way she looked at him made him incredibly uncomfortable. Probably because he was a novelty here. He wanted to clutch the furs tighter, but they were as tight as he could get them.

  Poof! Lu Bei woke up, zipped around the room once, and landed in front of Kurine. He yawned, then bowed. “I am the grand illustrious Lu Bei — diary, fetch, and fearsome guardian for Master Chonda.”

  She laughed and clapped her hands. “The little demon! I was hoping I’d get to see you.”

  Lu Bei frowned and shook his head. “Not a demon, madam. Not a demon. I’m a fetch.”

  “We don’t have demon servants,” she said wistfully. “Oh how I wish.”

  Lu Bei pouted. “Not a demon.”

  “We only have one book, too. For records. And it’s not a demon either.”

  “Not a demon.”

  “Does everyone in your world have demons, Turesobei?”

  Sparks blasted from Lu Bei’s eyes. “Not a demon!”

  Kurine gasped and shuffled back.

  Lu Bei threw a hand over his mouth, then he drooped his shoulders and wings. “Sorry … So sorry, madam. Got a little carried away. Just wanted to say, most demonstrably, that I’m a fetch, not a demon.”

  Laughing, she reached out and pinched Lu Bei’s cheek. His eyes went wide as saucers. “And so cute!”

  Turesobei laughed, too. “Lu Bei’s one of a kind. I’m the only person anywhere who has a fetch that turns into a book. Well, hardly anyone else has a fetch for that matter.”

  “Too bad. Well, back to business, eh?” She picked up a shirt of leathery blue-grey animal skin with the gray fur still on it. It matched the shirt Narbenu wore, but Kurine turned it inside-out. “Sonoke skin shirt. Wear it with the fur toward your skin.”

  “Toward my skin?”

  “Keeps the heat in better that way. And it’s softer. She ran her hands along it. “The sonoke skin would chafe against your pretty smooth skin.”

  He reached a hand out and touched the fur. It was very soft. As she turned the shirt over, her hand brushed his, as if by accident. But he didn’t think it was an accident.

  “You … you weren’t here when … you didn’t undress me, did you?”

  Kurine sighed wistfully. “No, I wasn’t here.” She glanced toward the doorway. “Oh, by the way, you aren’t going to tell anyone I was in here alone with you, right?”

  “Er … I don’t … guess so. Why?”

  “It’s not allowed, you know. Boy and a girl alone in a room together. Big no-no. I was supposed to go get Narbenu, but he was busy and, you know …”

  He was afraid he did know. “I would never tell on you. I swear.”

  She patted him on the cheek. “I knew you’d understand.” She picked up another, larger shirt. “This is the jacket
. Same material. Wear it on top of your shirt but with the fur pointing out.” She showed him the laces at the neckline and sleeves of both garments. “You’ve got to keep them tight. Don’t let the heat out. Now, these are underpants. I’d wager you want the fur inward on these since —”

  “Yeah, yeah, got it.”

  Smiling, she lifted a pair of pants. “Trousers. Notice the fur inside and out. Already sewn together, works better that way for pants. Laces at the top and bottom.” She raised a giant coat with a smooth outer surface. “A parka with seal skin on the outside.”

  “We have seals!” said Lu Bei, drowsily. “I’ve seen them.”

  “We don’t use their skins for anything, though,” Turesobei added.

  “You should,” Kurine said. “The seal skin is water resistant, especially when treated properly. I can’t stress this enough: Do not get wet when you’re outside. Never. Now, the inside of the coat is sonoke skin and fur. The padding inside is hair.”

  “Like people hair?” he asked, a little queasy.

  “Yep. Some of it’s mine.”

  “Oh … um … okay.”

  “You can think of me when you wear it. Really, this is a coat fit for a king. It would sell for a lot of iron. Most of the ones we make don’t have padding like this.”

  “I really don’t deserve something so fancy.”

  “Not everyday that we have a guest who comes from the world beyond the gate and can turn into a dragon and cast spells.”

  “I guess not.”

  “I think you could wear your leather breastplate beneath the parka.”

  Next she showed him the waterproof mittens which fit over his gloves. How he would be able to handle anything while wearing them, he had no idea. Then she showed him the stockings and socks. The boots were made of one layer of sonoke skin and fur and another layer of skin that had been boiled and hardened. The treads on the bottom were surprisingly basic. He was about to ask why when she showed him the shoes that went on top of those.

  “The overboots are waterproof with seal skin, and these tiny bits of bone on the bottom of the sole will give you traction when walking on the ice. You won’t need them inside, of course.”

  “Wow. You must have worked really, really hard last night. That’s a lot of clothes for one person.”

  “Like I said, we make similar ones for trading. We’ve done it before and had the materials ready and some parts already cut and in progress.”

  “How come the bareskins don’t make their own clothes?”

  “They do, but theirs aren’t as good as ours. We use secret treatments on the sonoke fur. We’re the best at it. Now, you need to try it all on. I might need to make some adjustments.”

  Turesobei waited for her to leave, but she didn’t budge. He glanced at Lu Bei, but he was falling asleep.

  Kurine eyed the doorway, cocked an ear, and said, “Well, go on.”

  “Okay, I’ll try them on now.”

  “Good. It’s very important that you do.” But when he didn’t move she added, “Well …”

  “Aren’t you going to leave?”

  “Aww, is that necessary?”

  “It would be where I’m from.”

  “Well, it is here, too, of course. But no one’s around.”

  “Woo woo!” cried Lu Bei, suddenly fully awake. “Show it off, master!”

  Chapter 3

  Turesobei elbowed Lu Bei. “I don’t have fur. I would be naked. It wouldn’t be right.”

  “Awww, but we don’t have furless humans here in the Southeast,” Kurine whined. “And even if we did, I’m sure they wouldn’t be as cute as you. I was just hoping to see —”

  “No. Sorry. You’re going to have to leave or turn around.”

  “Oh fine,” she huffed. “Spoil my fun.” She spun around but then glanced back and winked. “I won’t hold it against you, though.”

  Sheesh.

  With an eye on Kurine, he climbed to his feet, wobbled half a step, then caught his balance. He reached toward the underpants, grimaced, started to bend his knees …

  “I’ll fetch it for you, master!”

  “Thanks. I could use the help.”

  “I would be happy to help,” Kurine said.

  “Oh no,” Turesobei said. “You stay right like you are.”

  With Lu Bei’s help, he managed to get on his pants and stockings easily enough. The shirt was another matter. The splint was made from a thin piece of bone and it ran from the back of his hand to his elbow. The shirt was tight and he was having trouble pulling it on. He got both arms in but couldn’t pull it over his head. Lu Bei perched on Turesobei’s shoulders, reached over his head, and pulled at the collar, but that led to it getting stuck under Turesobei’s chin and then slapping him in the nose.

  Turesobei sighed. “Okay Kurine, you can help me now.”

  She skipped over. As she pulled the shirt over his head, she lightly stroked one hand down his back along the spine. Turesobei shuddered from a mixture of pleasure, tickles, and fear. Otherwise she went easy on him and neither said nor did anything else flirtatious. In fact, she soon got down to business by inspecting how everything fit and tutting over her work. The sleeves were a tad too long, and so were the pants, but she said she’d erred on the side of too long since it was easier to make it smaller than bigger.

  “How old are you, Turesobei?”

  “Fifteen.” He rapidly calculated the days and weeks that had passed since he left Ekaran to rescue Iniru. “Actually, I’ll be sixteen in several weeks.”

  “That’s fantastic! You’re almost a man! If you’re still here in Aikora then, we must throw you a feast.”

  “So goronku are adults when they turn sixteen?”

  “Naturally. Wait, are … Say, what are you exactly?”

  “I’m baojendari.”

  “Ah. Are baojendari not adults at sixteen?”

  “Eighteen,” he muttered.

  “If we did that, I’d still be three months away from adulthood. It’s silly to wait until then. What’s the point?”

  “That’s exactly what Iniru said when she found out. Her people become adults at sixteen, too.”

  “What’s an Iniru?”

  “She’s my …” Was Iniru his girlfriend? Was that the right term? They’d never really discussed their relationship. They hadn’t actually spent that much time together. She obviously wasn’t his betrothed.

  “She’s your …” Kurine prompted, frowning ever so slightly.

  “She’s … a very good friend.”

  “Oh,” Kurine said brightly.

  “Do you have a betrothed, Kurine?”

  “What’s a betrothed?”

  “Someone you’re supposed to marry.”

  “Goronku women select their husbands,” she replied, as if doing it any other way were ludicrous. “Do you have a betrothed?”

  “Yeah. It was arranged when I was still too young to even speak.”

  “That’s terrible! Why would someone do that?”

  “I’m a prince in my clan. It was a political thing.”

  Her eyes went wide. “You’re a wizard, a dragon, and a prince?! How wonderful.”

  “It’s really not.”

  “Is your betrothed this Iniru person?”

  “No, my betrothed is Awasa and … I think she died … when we came through the gate. I can’t imagine how she could’ve survived. And she wasn’t herself anymore. She’d been attacked and possessed by a demon sorcerer. It’s a long story.”

  Kurine touched his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. You must be devastated.”

  “I haven’t really had time to be. It just happened yesterday, and I’m trying not to think about it. Trying just to focus on rescuing my sister Enashoma, Iniru, and my other companions. I can be upset later and … Awasa and I didn’t get along. I cared for her, but we never loved one another. I don’t think.”

  “Well, if you want to save your friends, I’d best get back to work. Walk around and let’s see how well you can m
ove with all of it on.”

  With the parka, the clothes weighed almost as much as his full suit of armor, and it was far more bulky. He walked around, awkwardly. “If I wear my breastplate, I’m not going to be able to move. Are you sure I’ll need all this?”

  “I’m afraid so.” She took some measurements. “All right. Clothes off. I need to make some quick adjustments before you leave here.”

  She helped him undress all the way to his pants at which point he said, “Turn around.”

  Kurine didn’t complain. Swiftly once he was naked, he crawled back into the covers. She picked up the clothes and hurried out. He napped until a plump goronku man bounded in with a tray of food.

  “Don’t know if it’s what you’re used to, lad, but it’s what passes for food around here. Cooked it up special for you. A real fancy meal. Enjoy!” He kissed his fingers and left.

  “Thank you!” he called out as the man disappeared.

  One bowl had three different kinds of smoked meat. The second bowl had smoked fish on top of a thin layer of purplish leafy vegetables. And the third held steaming broth with bits of … something. He didn’t care. He was starving. He drank down the broth, which wasn’t soothing. His lips and the back of his throat burned by the time he finished. The fish tasted great, as did one of the meats. The other two were chewy and tangy, and heavily spiced as well. He drank all the water available and his mouth still burned.

  Narbenu entered carrying a bowl of water with some herbs mixed in. “How’s it going, lad?”

  Turesobei took the bowl and stared into it with dread. Sweat dripped down his forehead and from his lips.

  “You look like you need a drink.”

  “It’s not spicy is it? I can’t take anymore spice.”

  Narbenu laughed. “No, it’s just cold water. Cook likes his spice, more than most of us, and it occurred to me you might not eat spice in your world.”

  “We have loads of spices in my world. We use them a lot. But they’re not this hot.”

  “Lots of spices? Huh. We only have the one. You’ll have to tell Cook about them.”

  Turesobei drank the water. It helped, but the burn didn’t go away completely.

  Kurine stepped into the room with the bundle of clothes. “Alterations are done.” She spotted Narbenu and made an oh-no face.