It only took another ten to know this was going to be more difficult than I expected.
“There’s not much here,” I said, closing the book I’d been paging through.
“Yeah,” Matt agreed, sliding another book toward him. “Where’sThe Black Guild for Dummieswhen you need it?”
“I guess when you train and hire out assassins, you discourage anyone even talking about you.” I sighed and looked up another reference.
Matt leafed through a leather covered tome with a spine three inches thick. “If that’s the case, who knows how many of these authors survived to write another book?”
The one I perused wasn’t much smaller than his. I’d almost given up on it, too, when I finally found something. A moment later, Matt looked up from his. “You okay?”
I wasn’t. Not at all. “You were right—they do buy kids to train as assassins. And it says here that the training is so brutal that only three out of every ten survive to adulthood.”
Matt’s face twisted. “Threeout often?”
My gut was in knots as my fingers traced the lines in the book. “The training is a strict secret, but it states that the tests are often lethal. Only the very best survive it.”
The Dire shook his head. “That explains a few things. The bloke was bloody intense.”
My fingers trembled as I read. “Dragons are often preferred purchases due to their shifting ability and inherent toughness, but they are put into service as adolescents due to their slow maturity rate.” I met his eye. “How long do Dragons take to grow up?”
He shrugged. “I’ve heard close to forty of our years.”
“So if Talakai is an adult now—”
“He’s endured decades of their ruthless training.”
I swallowed. Decades. How old had he been when he’d written in those books? Was that person still alive inside him?
I cleared my throat, but my voice still came out sounding hoarse. “Cody said he wasn’t a slave anymore. It says here that slaves can buy their freedom from the Guild, if they can come up with the money. But most don’t.”
“So how did he come up with the money?” Matt asked.
“Yeah. But he didn’t have enough left to pay off the underworld Dragona that’s after him,” I pointed out.
Matt met my eyes. “Unless he...”
My frustration pushed at me. “We need to talk to Aaron.”
“Cody said Tyrez would do it.”
“Most believe Talakai did this,” I ground out. “With the twins back, it’s all about keeping it from happening again. Not about finding Talakai.”
Matt grimaced. “They’re not going to let us just stroll into the dungeon, even if we knew where it was.”
I stood up, and he rose with me, pacing me as I left the library.
“So where we goin’, Angel?”
“Time we talked to a friend in a high place.”
* * *
I paused in the hall outside the library. It was on the second floor, and the staff quarters were on the third and fourth. I closed my eyes and cast my fledgling talent outward.
“What ya doin’?” Matt asked, sounding uneasy.
I held up a hand, and he subsided. I envisioned the energy I’d come to know well, the calm sense of harmony that accompanied the woman wherever she went...
