Page 38 of Wings of Starlight

“I don’t have anything for you.” Clarion tentatively scratched his ear. It flicked, as though a fly had landed on it.

“Fenris,” a good-natured voice called from somewhere in the stacks. “What is all this fuss about? Oh!”

A winter fairy flitted into the atrium. He was short in stature, with a kindly face and hair like a tongue of white fire. He was wearing a rather serious-looking suit, but when his eyes landed on them, his expression lit up with an unbridled, unselfconscious enthusiasm. “Milori!”

“Keeper.” Milori’s entire demeanor changed. His answering smile made him seem instantly lighter. “I’ve brought you someone.”

Thiswas the Keeper?

Clarion had expected the Keeper of Fairy Knowledge to be more…retiring. The Keeper, however, was exuberant. He turned his attention to Clarion, adjusting his spectacles as he came closer. “A warm fairy, eh? It’s been a long time since one of those has crossed into Winter.”

“You’veseenwarm fairies before?” Clarion asked.

“Oh, no. I wish! I’ve read stories, though.” Fenris trotted over to the Keeper, his tail wagging, and whined softly. The Keeper absently patted the top of his head. “Apparently, warm fairies used to come here all the time, way back when. Do a little ice-skating, make snowfairies…”

“That sounds delightful.” Clarion had no concept of skating or snowfairies, but the fond way he spoke filled her up with wonder. “I’d love to read those.”

The Keeper brightened. “Well, I—”

“Perhaps later,” Milori interjected, clearly sensing a tangent. “She isn’t justawarm fairy. Clarion is the Queen of Pixie Hollow.”

“Queen-in-training,” Clarion amended, with a pointed look in Milori’s direction. He looked far too pleased with himself.

The Keeper gawped at her. “Then…”

Milori smiled at him, almost indulgently. “Someone can read our book at last.”

Our book.Clearly, this was something they’d been working on together for a long time.

The look on the Keeper’s face could only be described as exultant. “You can?”

“I hope so,” said Clarion. The thought of crushing his hopes was almost unbearable. “But I’m not sure yet.”

“Excellent!” The Keeper grabbed her by the arm and all but dragged her deeper into the library.

“Keeper,” Milori groaned, with the long-suffering resignation of someone who knew it was pointless to protest.

He followed, with Fenris padding along just behind him. The labyrinthine shelves seemed to rearrange themselves the farther they went. Clarion absently studied them as they passed, the gilded titles illuminated by the ice sconces glowing with soft blue light. At last, they arrived at their destination: a square of empty space, hemmed in on all sides by the stacks. A table filled much of the area, cluttered with piles of books and quill pens.

“Wait just one moment,” said the Keeper.

The Keeper released her and retrieved a set of gloves from his pocket. After pulling them on, he soared upward, nearly to the ceiling, until he found what he was looking for. He freed a massive leather-bound tome from the shelf—and almost dropped from the weight of it. Clarion held her breath until he brought it safely back to ground level. With utmost care, he laid it on the table.

No wonder Milori said he couldn’t bring it to the border. It was indeed ancient, with thin, yellowing pages. The cover was peeling and worn, and while Clarion could see there had once been an illustration, the paint had faded with time. All that remained now were strange shapes carved into the leather, shimmering faintly with dormant power.

“What is this?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” the Keeper said, far more cheerfully than she would’ve expected. “It’s been in the collection for a long,longtime. It’s written in a lost language. But it’s filled with illustrations of Nightmares.”

A shudder passed through her. “What do you need me to do?”

“It’s sealed with runes that respond to governing-talent magic,” the Keeper replied. “I suspect it’s like a cipher. Once you unlock it, you should be able to understand the language it’s written in.”

Dread constricted her throat. “I’ve never learned to unlock anything with governing-talent magic.”

“Try,” he said encouragingly. “It should come naturally.”

If only.“All right.”