“Here we are.” She swung them ajar, and out wafted the familiar scent of parchment and ink. “You go on ahead inside. I’m sure Prince Barnabus is already in there somewhere, and we wouldn’t want to keep him waiting. I’ll return in a bit with some tea and pastries.”
But Kestrel could hardly hear her as she breached the entrance, her wonderment overtaking her.
The library was expansive. Exhaustive, surely. Kestrel couldn’t imagine there was a book in existence that wasn’t upon these dusty shelves. Kestrel floated over to the closest bookshelf and dragged a finger along the vellum spines, barely hearing Marion as she shut the doors behind her. Reading the titles of a few of the books, Kestrel was quickly able to deduce that they were categorized. This section seemed to be about astronomy and science. There was another section on farming and livestock. Kestrel glided before each of the bookshelves on the first floor, eager for the moment she wouldfind the staircase that would lead her up to the second level. That is, until the titles started to sound more familiar.
She came upon a section of stories, myths and legends and fictional tales, much like the ones she was used to reading.
Finding a title that sounded most intriguing, Kestrel pulled the book out and opened it to the first page.
“Please don’t!” someone yipped behind her. “The books are organized very specifically.”
Kestrel spun around, clutching the book to her chest. A scrawny but tidy young man was walking swiftly in her direction. He was holding a stack of books in one arm and pointing at her with the other.
“If you intend on borrowing a book, there is a loan system. However—” the young man snatched the book out of her clutches and eyed it suspiciously, as if he were looking for damages— “If you’re who I believe you are, these aren’t the books you’re here to study. Is my assumption correct, Kestrel Highmore?”
“It’s just Kestrel,” she corrected, but the only confirmation he gave was a slight grunt as he nudged past her to put the book back in its place on the shelf. “And you must be Barnabus then?”
“The one and only—well, probably notthe onlyone. That’s just a thing people say.”
“Right,” she laughed a little, assuming it had been meant as a joke.
Barnabus’ face remained stoic though, utterly unchanging. There was a scholarly yet youthful look about him that made him difficult to take seriously. But it was clear from how tidied his crimson tie was beneath the folds of his cyan vest that he took himselfquiteseriously. It would be all business with him, and she was okay with that. It left little room for shenanigans and deceit.
Kestrel nodded toward the stack of books he was still balancing. “Can I help with those?”
“No need. Follow me.”
Barnabus spun on his heels without another word, and Kestrel scrambled to keep up with him. He led her over to a table closer to the window on the far end of the library. The sun was finally in the sky and shining down into the room, but he had already lit a lantern for them, just in case.
Thunder boomed outside, but Kestrel noted that she didn’t hear any rainfall. The storms that blew in from the ocean where she grew up almost always brought a downpour of rain with them, but she hadn’t noticed a single speck yet in Irongate.
“There’s been a lot of thunder here the last couple days,” she said, attempting to make small talk.
“Not really,” Barnabus replied matter-of-factly. “We’ve had more.”
“Oh? Is that usual?”
As Barnabus scurried down a few steps and toward a table, he nodded. “Yes. Why else would we put it on our sigil?”
He gave a half-hearted bob of his head toward the window, and the two banners on either side of it that showcased the Irongate crest. Of course, Kestrel had seen it plenty already, but she still appreciated his thoroughness in assuring that she knew what he was talking about. It boded well for their study time together.
Barnabus stacked the books onto the table, one at a time, and Kestrel took it upon herself to take a seat in one of the chairs. He addressed her as he organized their readings.
“Leighton tells me that you don’t know anything about the histories of Grimtol, but sometimes he exaggerates, so I wasn’t sure what to grab, and just grabbed a bit of everything.”
“In this case, he’s probably not too far off from the truth,”she said, anticipating some sort of reaction. A guffaw. A joke. A challenge.
Barnabus merely frowned, considering the information. She realized then that his eyes matched his cyan vest perfectly, and she wondered if that was by mistake or if this young man was really that fastidious. She guessed it was the latter.
Barnabus moved the books around so that he could grab the second from the bottom of the stack. He handed it to Kestrel.
“We should start here then.”
Kestrel read the title aloud, “The Day the Land, Sky, and Sea Shook?”
He shrugged, almost looking sheepish. “Is that too far back? I was told to cover only our most recent histories, but history isn’t learned that way. Some things can only truly be understood once you delve deeper into what came before them. History builds upon itself. But if you’re already familiar with?—”
“I’m not,” she interrupted, curiously excited to delve deeper into the unknown histories of Grimtol. “I mean, I’ve heard mention of that period of time, but I don’t know the full story, and I’d be more than interested to learn it.”
