The Librarian: A Remnants of Magic Novel (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 2) by Casey White (read ebook pdf txt) 📕

The washcloths were cheap, already worn down to the threads and with terrycloth fringes besides.  It’d make a mess of the injury, he knew.  He’d be digging it all back out of the gash once this was over.  But he didn’t have a better alternative.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed the fresh cloth against the wound—and then turned back to Olivia, his eyes watering.  “F-From the start,” he whispered.  “I need everything.  I need to know what’s going on, damn it.”

“The beginning,” Olivia whispered, rising to pace the floor.  “Right.  Yeah.”

“Olivia-”

“Indira was upset,” Olivia said, spinning back to face him.  “She felt like you’d shut the door in her face.  Closed her off from everything.  Everything.”

“We already talked about-”

“And when she didn’t feel like she had anywhere else to turn, she went to...them.”  Olivia shook her head, her eyes darkening.  “She had...old records.  A safe, hidden in her office.  One I’d never seen before.  With...contact information.”

“For the mages,” Daniel said.  His leg burned.  He kept pushing down against the wound, squeezing it tighter and tighter.  Had to stop the bleeding—and more importantly, he had to get himself back to hobbling.  He couldn’t afford to be dead weight here.

Olivia hesitated, but nodded begrudgingly.  “After a fashion,” she whispered.  “It took some digging.  The records were...outdated.  I had to-”  She shook her head again.  “It doesn’t matter.  I found the number she was looking for, and then Indira-”

“Contacted their leader,” Daniel said heavily.

“Right.”  Olivia swallowed.  “A man named Madis.  Owl, his name, the records...That name, it just kept showing up.  No matter where I looked, no matter how old the documents.  Madis, Madis, Madis.  It couldn’t possibly be the same person, but-”

“It’s not important,” Daniel said, jerking his head to the side.  He was curious, but something in him screamed to change the subject.  He needed to contain this, and that meant limiting the number of people who knew about magic.  And out of all the people he knew, Olivia was damn near the last one he wanted to have sensitive information.

But...he filed the detail away, sliding it onto its mental shelf—right alongside his memories of that blood-soaked room in Alexandria’s basement.

“She called them,” he said instead, inclining his head a fraction of an inch.

Olivia stiffened.  He smiled thinly.  She’d gotten the hint—Get back on topic.

“It took a while,” she said.  Her fingers laced together in front of her, squeezing tightly.  “They...They didn’t seem eager.  But after a few weeks, I was contacted.  By them.”

“By this Madis asshole?” Leon said.  He strode toward Daniel, crouching beside the bed.  “Here,” he murmured, more quietly.  “Let me help.”

Daniel let him take the strips of fabric gratefully, leaning back onto his elbows.  Every wrap and squeeze burned, and sitting forward to do it himself put even more pressure on the injury.  His eyes stayed glued to Olivia, his lips tight.

Olivia opened her mouth, but hesitated.  “No,” she said.  “By someone else.  He called himself Rickard, said he was a representative for the Bookbinders.”

“Right,” Daniel whispered.  That second book flashed before his eyes.  “Right, that makes sense.”

“It does?” Olivia said, starting to laugh.  The sound was far from amused.  “What part of this makes sense?  We’re the Booklenders, not the- not the damn…”

When she trailed off, drooping, Leon shot an irritated look her way.  “Stop freaking out and just explain,” he snapped.

“Whatever,” she mumbled.  “It’s...I don’t...I looked.  In the records.  There were early communications included.  Ancient.  Called us some sort of splinter group.”  Her eyes flicked up.  “The Booklenders.”

“And the Bookbinders are the parent organization.”  There was no question in the words—he’d read the books himself.  He didn’t understand all of it yet, but with every word she said, the pieces were starting to fall into place.

Sure enough, Olivia nodded, swallowing again.  “They left, ages ago. Centuries. We stayed behind.” Her thumbs were in constant motion, stroking over each other again and agian. “This Rickard fellow...he asked me some questions.”

“About what?” Daniel said, leaning forward again.  Leon pushed him back to the pillows.

“About you,” Olivia said, holding his gaze.  “And about your Alexandria.  About what I remembered.  It was like...he was looking for something.  A hint.  A clue.”

“Proof,” Daniel echoed.

“Sure, but of what?” Olivia burst out.  “I don’t- Indira never said anything about-”

“Then what?” Daniel said, hardening his stare.  “Stay on topic, Olivia.”

As quickly as she’d spoken, Olivia deflated.  “R-Right.  Sorry.”  Her shoulders rose as she took a deep, long breath.  “After a while, his questions...stopped.  And then he told me a date.  Told me to make arrangements for him and his crew.”  She spat the last word, her eyes narrowing derisively.  “They were coming from- abroad.  I don’t know exactly where.  They didn’t say.  So I made the arrangements, put them up in a guild house.”  Her shoulders drooped.  “They arrived two weeks ago.”

“Rickard and his mages.”  Daniel flinched, shrinking back as Leon pulled the binding around his leg tight.  The soft touch of his hand brushed against Daniel’s leg, a tiny apology.

“Yeah.”  Olivia’s gaze fell to the horrible, worn-down carpeting.  “Indira had me in the house.  Looking after them.  They were...planning.”

“And?” Daniel said.  He balled up his fists, every muscle in his body tensing against the incessant pain in his leg.  “What are they here to do, exactly?  If we know their plans, we might be able to get ahead of them.”

“It’s not anything surprising,” Olivia whispered.  “You already know it.”

“Olivia.”

“They’re here for you,” she said, twitching as his voice cracked across the room.  “They were going to use your friends as information, like I told you.”  Her eyes dropped again, her shoulders hitching higher.  “And as bait.”

“Lovely people,” Leon muttered.

Daniel scowled.  “And you-”

“They started bringing guns into the house,” Olivia cried.  “And- And gear, and rope, and a bunch of vials of something.  I didn’t- I never signed up for that.  And so when I saw it-”

“You called me.”

Olivia’s head bobbed in a nod.  “W-We shouldn’t...We’re seekers of knowledge.  Not murderers.”

The urge to grind his teeth together