Page 21 of Deceiving the Cursed Beast
“My best guess is because the scrolls in the archives are a product of the node’s magic. They cannot be summoned the same as mundane objects.”
“You’d think being made by the node would make them easier to summon with magic.”
“That would be nice. Since I can’t summon a scroll, however, is there a book you wanted?”
I didn’t know what I wanted, which was most of the problem. I was hunting through a vast library, sorted according to magical whims, with only the vaguest idea of wanting to find something that would help me understand nodes a little more. A biography of oneof the mages who had locked the nodes centuries ago might be helpful. If I knew the name of any. The only mage’s name I knew from history was . . .
My eyes widened. “Do you have a copy of Demeret’sTheory of All Magics?”
Felix plucked at the air with a claw and a thick book landed on the floor in front of him.
I snatched it up. “Have you looked through this for clues as to how Cecily could have used the node? Can pregnancy grant a tie to the mother?” Even if Felix had gone through the book cover to cover, I still wanted to read it.Theory of All Magicswas worth more than its weight in gold. I’d never have another chance to look through the rare book.
Felix shuddered. “I cannot stand trying to read Demeret. If you can make sense of anything in that book, then I will be in awe.” I didn’t care if it was written in High-Nemyan, the dialect used by court poets centuries ago. I’d slog through gladly. I was so impatient to dive in, I almost missed Felix’s next comment. “As for pregnancy, I don’t know how it might impact node-ties, but I am certain Cecily wasn’t carrying my child.”
I rolled my eyes. “A woman hoping to force a marriage might lie about a contraceptive enchantment.”
“Not at Rose Castle. And while Cecily might have attempted to trick me and say she had a contraceptive and then not use it, I was wary enough of her by the end that I demanded a straight answer on the possibility of a pregnancy before she left.”
“So much for that theory.” I tapped the cover of the book. “Hopefully, this will give me new ideas.”
One paw reached out again, and a red silk ribbon fell to the floor in front of the duke. “If you leave that in as a bookmark and don’t leave the book anywhere but a table when you aren’t reading, it won’t get re-shelved.”
“Does that mean any books I pull from the library will keep disappearing if I don’t use a bookmark?”
“If you leave them on the floor. If you keep them on a table, they’ll stay until midnight, even without a bookmark.”
“That wasn’t in your list of Truths.”
“It is an automatic function of the castle. It happens without any input from a person tied to the node.”
I picked up the ribbon, settling it between the cover and first page of the book. “You included the candles lighting themselves in the list.”
“That is because I can choose whether or not to activate that function. I can’t stop books from being re-shelved.”
“Your home is a strange place, Your Grace.”
???
Demeret had writtenthe most comprehensive book on magical theory known, and within two pages I understood why it was a rare tome cherished by scholars rather than a work that had been made widely available. Demeret used technical jargon to an extent that it almost resembled a secret language. He packed so many details into each sentence that I had to reread them a few times to ensure I caught everything.
The most frustrating part of readingTheory of All Magics, however, was that it apparently shared an organizational system with the library at Rose Castle. The chapters had no titles. Nothing indicated the subjects covered in any range of pages, because anything might appear on any page.
I refused to admit defeat, however. Making myself comfortable on the chaise in the spire room above the library, I read. I thought the first chapter was supposed to explain the different types of magic and how to classify them. I knew about power families and their relationships, so I would have skipped the chapter, if it weren’t for the random anecdotes. Demeret loved to go off on tangents. I had already read about an enchantment gone wrong and an oddapplication of chance-making magic that had never occurred to me before. For all I knew, I’d skip the rest of the chapter only to discover that the next page in the skipped section had a story of a node tied to an active power being used to perform a passive spell. Or an animate power being used on inanimate objects.
In fact, I was almost certain that if the answers I needed were in this book, they’d be in one of the little stories sprinkled throughout.
At noon, a tray appeared on the table next to me. Perhaps the only reason Felix hadn’t done the same for me the day before was because I had been wandering the library, not sitting near a table. I gladly stayed in the spire room, working my way through Demeret and avoiding another conversation with the duke. I didn’t like how often I came close to smiling while talking with him.
I didn’t smile while readingTheory of All Magics,which lived up to its name. Theory after theory about all the idiosyncrasies of magic that I had always accepted but never understood filled the pages. I wasn’t sure I fully understood them all now, either, but I was certainly learning plenty. Sliding the bookmark between the pages, I set the book on the table and tried to digest all the information I had read.
I rubbed at my breastbone, trying to decide what I should do next. I couldn’t decode another sentence of Demeret. Not without a break. But breaks weren’t a part of my contract. Well, since coming to Rose Castle, the magic didn’t bother me while I ate and slept. I wondered how that worked. That first night, before my father told me what he had done, the magic had tugged at me nonstop.
Much as it was doing now. But it shouldn’t be pulling at me right now; I was doing the same as I had all morning, and the node had left me alone, even when I put aside the book to mull over its contents.
Closing my eyes, Ilistened. The hum of power had a direction. Down and to the west. I was in the top level of a tower on the eastern side of the castle. Almost everywhere in the building was down and to the west.
I left the spire room, pausing at the landing on each level of the library to listen to the node magic once more. Even when I reached the ground floor, I sensed the same thing. Down and west.
