Wulfyddia (The Tattersall Trilogy Book 1) Read Free Page B

climbing and climbing until it was a great crackling column as
tall as a man, obedient save for the fact that it would not stop growing .
    A door
slammed in the hallway, and Melisande heard heavy footsteps in the corridor.
She glanced frantically over her shoulder, knowing that the flame was now far
too large for her to hide. Felunhala would know that something was wrong
immediately. The doorknob turned and Melisande stifled a gasp as the flame,
seizing upon her distraction, began to tingle painfully in her palm. She
dropped the flame on instinct and the fire fell from her hands. The flame
seemed to feed on the rush of wind as it fell, but as it neared the ground the
air proved too much for it and it went out, little more than a ball of smoke
and ash as it landed on the thick furs that covered the floor.
    Melisande
sighed in relief as the door behind her opened, admitting the Royal Librarian,
with Felunhala just behind him, her left eye twitching. But the sigh caught in
Melisande’s throat as the faintest stirring of movement drew her stare back to
the pile of ash at her feet. There was a soft chattering sound and then from
within the ash, five or six tiny reptilian creatures, each no larger than her
little finger, emerged and shook off the dust. Melisande reared back in
astonishment as the miniscule creatures looked up, snapped tiny scaled jaws,
and then scattered in different directions. One made a run for a pile of furs,
another vanished behind a bookcase, and a third darted under the foot of the
advancing Royal Librarian and escaped down the hall. Melisande stared at the
remains of the ash in wonder. She’d had plenty of spells go wrong, but nothing
like that had ever happened before.
    “This is
a disgrace,” the Royal Librarian practically exploded in a whirl of overlong
sleeves and cheeks ruddy with anger. “In the olden days anyone who dared to
trespass against the sanctity of the Royal Archives would have been caught and
killed before he so much as crossed the threshold with one of those precious
books. These days it doesn’t even look like I’ll get my book back, let alone
see the thief punished like he deserves.” Melisande noticed that there were
tiny three-toed tracks visible in the ash, and she surreptitiously ground one
velvet slipper into the mess until no sign of the little creatures remained.
There were few secrets she trusted her mistress with, and this would not be one
of them.
    “You
will have justice, Librarian,” Felunhala said. “But this issue must be handled
through the proper channels.” She was a tall woman in her mid-thirties, with a
long, bony face and a commanding manner. Melisande had been her apprentice
since she was twelve.
    “You are
the proper channel!” The Librarian argued, “Your wards are the ones that failed
and allowed the thief inside the library. Mine remained intact.”
    “My
wards did not fail,” Felunhala responded, her voice steely, “they were
overpowered by someone very strong and very skilled. And the wards may have
been for your library, but that does not mean that I am under your command. The
Queen commands me in this, and any actions taken against the thief, any
inquiries into the event, must come through the throne room. You cannot
circumvent the Queen in this. If I take any action it must be because she
orders it.”
    “But she
does not care! She is absorbed with prophecies, with whispers of traitors in
the castle. It may be months before she has the time to attend to this. And we
do not have months. This is not a book that you want in the wrong hands.”
    “What
book is it?”
    “That is
my affair, not yours,” the Librarian snapped.
    “And
witchery is my affair, not yours. In a case like this I must observe protocol,
which dictates that I must receive a direct order from the crown. I have
received no such order. I’m not about to start tossing spells around randomly,
trying to catch a thief who may be long gone by now.” Felunhala had begun