Chapter Two - The Library at Eladin

The morning was quiet. There wasn't much to be heard other than the gentle passing of the wind outside his window. Adric looked outside. The dark, ominous sky suggested another storm was approaching quickly. He let the curtains fall back into place and walked back to a chair, picking up the large and ancient book. There was no label, no title, no identifying marks of any kind on this book. This book was a book of legends that had been written by his ancestors and handed down through Adric’s family for generations. Adric had been studying this book for as long as he could remember. There was something about the storm from the previous night that stood out to him. It wasn’t normal. Not, at least, normal in the sense that storms are usually seen. The pages of the Rhodhinian legend mention strange storms and he wanted to review it. Like the night before, something just didn’t quite feel right to him.

Adric opened the book and again flipped through to the page titled, The Staff of Rhodhinia. This legend was one that attracted Adric’s curiosity like no other. True, Adric was a lover of fantasy and old tales, but this one was a tale that captured him like no other. There was just something about this one that… but he could never find the words to describe it. Perhaps it was the stories of magical beings and mystic places beyond the realm of what you would consider natural, he once tried explaining to Gaden. Maybe it was the ancient battles that took place; wild, daring, full of the unexpected and unexplained. But more likely, it was the existence of objective evidence. Never had he investigated such a legend as wild as this one, to be sure, but never had he studied something so possibly real either. Everything pointed him to more evidence. A result both encouraging and disappointing if truth be told.

Regarding the evidence he had in his possession, Adric’s most significant discovery was a scrap of paper torn from a book. The page was filled with strange signs and symbols which he did not recognize. Adric looked over the page time and time again, but no explanation ever came to him, and neither did he find anything remotely similar by which to compare the page. While he never disregarded any clues or evidence he managed to uncover, most everything he found seemed insignificant by comparison to this fragment. For why would something like this exist at all, if it did not lead to something real? Adric was, after all, an excellent linguist, fluent in his own language as well as that of Rhodhinian and a rather thorough understanding of Lorlean, Socerian, and the guttural slang that was known as Ahraic. He knew from his linguistic studies that all the languages in the land eventually stemmed from a common predecessor. Because of that, they shared similarities in a variety of ways like spelling, method of pronunciation, rules for use, and others like them. But this was unknown to him. Nothing stood out.

Gaden once suggested that, perhaps, it wasn’t a language at all. Maybe it was ornamental. Adric hadn’t criticized Gaden for the observation. It was fair and worth consideration. But Adric had already had the idea himself. He dismissed it based on several criteria.

“First,” he told Gaden, “All of the writing is in glyphs. You can distinguish each one individually. Of course, this probably does not represent their entire library of glyphs that they used, but you can pick them out individually.” Adric took a pen, a bottle of ink, and a scrap of paper and began to copy each unique glyph out individually onto the page as best as he could.

“Well, yeah, but Haela has all these funny vases around the house that have funny shapes around them, and they’re not glyphs,” Gaden argued as Adric was drawing. This comment stood out in Adric’s memory particularly well. He had held up a hand to stop Gaden while he was writing. When he had finished copying each unique glyph down, he held the evidence back up for Gaden to see.

“Next, you’ll notice some of these glyphs are repeated, here, here, a couple there…” he pointed in several places.

“Yeah, they are on the vases at home too, I still don’t…”

“But you’ll notice,” Adric interrupted, “none of them appear to be repeated in any sort of discernible pattern. They’re randomized.”

“So?” Gaden had asked him. Adric remembered some frustration at this point, as he sighed heavily, stood up, and grabbed a bowl from the table in the next room.

“Look,” he said, running a finger around the rim of the bowl where several decorative geometric patterns were carved.

“Yeah,” Gaden said, pointing to several repeated shapes along the surface of the bowl.”

“But look closer, those shapes reappear as every fourth one. It’s a consistent, decorative pattern used strictly for decoration. These,” Adric held up the evidence again, “are not done the same way. Each section of glyphs is different in length, content, and even in some places, consistency of penmanship. Whatever this is, it was not intended to be decorative. It bears all the hallmarks of printed language.” Gaden had been convinced at this point, though he was thoroughly disappointed at Adric’s inability to decipher even one of them. Gaden wasn’t alone in his frustration.

A knock on his door brought him back to the present. It startled him, and he dropped what he had been holding.

“Just a minute!” He shouted, bending to pick up what he had dropped. He went to the door, unlocked it, and pushed it open. For a moment, words failed him. Karina was standing in his doorway. Aside from being unannounced, she also had never been to his house before, and Adric wondered why she was there. Remembering himself, he shook his head and invited her inside.

“You left without saying goodbye,” she said, not waiting for a greeting.

“I, um… yeah, sorry about that, I wasn’t feeling well,” Adric half lied.

“You seem fine to me,” Karina said.

“Yeah, well…” Adric answered with a sigh. “Have a seat,” he led her to a chair, and she sat. He went to the kitchen, poured some tea from the kettle he had been warming, and brought it back with him.

“Nice place,” she said matter-of-factly. Adric took the seat opposite her and began sipping his tea.

“Thanks, I… is there something I can do for you?” Adric asked, not knowing what to say, or why she had come.

“Maybe. Gaden says you’re a legend chaser,” she said, not hesitating to jump right to the matter. Adric coughed into his cup.

“A what?” He asked, as though he had no idea what she had just said. She didn’t buy it. She cut her eyes at him and he yielded. “Well, I’ve never heard it worded like that, but yeah, I suppose that’s accurate.”

“Well, I think that’s great, in fact, I…” she trailed off. Adric got the impression she was weighing her next words carefully.

“You what?” Adric encouraged.

“I just find it to be very worthwhile, that’s all.”

“How do you figure?” Adric asked, cautiously interested.

“Well, I consider myself a student of history. Where would our history be if there weren’t people like you out there crossing out the fantasies?” Adric shrugged.

“This is why you came to see me?” She sighed heavily and ran her fingers through her hair. She had a look on her face that indicated she didn’t want to move on yet.

“My uncle was at the party last night, do you remember him?”

“Elric, right?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“He works for the Steward of Alldel, Lord Thale, right?”

“Yes, he’s the grand marshal.” Adric’s eyes went wide. Grand marshal was the highest rank one could achieve, and there was only one grand marshal. “Yeah, that’s definitely impressive,” he confirmed, “What about him?”

“Adric, I’m going to say something that you’re going to want to deny. Don’t bother, we already know, and Gaden has already confirmed it.”

“What are you talking about?” Adric asked, feeling the barriers coming back up.

“Elric says you left last night because of the storm. He says it was unmistakable. He says it bears all the signs of the Staff of Rhodhinia,” Karina stopped. There was silence. Adric was determined; he would not be the one to break the silence. If she wanted information, she would have to ask for it. He wasn’t going to start offering anything and everything. “The Staff of Rhodhinia, Adric, you know what I’m talking about.” Still, Adric said nothing.

Of course, she knew, and of course she was in on it. Everything was falling into place, now. Avan, the famed military trainer for Alldel, wasn’t coming to Eladin just to seek a fight with a random bar patron. He and his father were not at the dinner only to be there, not all the way from Aelwynn. The idea was ludicrous, now he was thinking on it. They bore their military colors, the rings, signifying their position among the leaders, distinguishing themselves from the average citizen. And their presence on the very night of the apparent return the Staff of Rhodhinia wasn’t a coincidence either. They had known it was coming. Maybe they didn’t know exactly when it would happen or who had restored it, but they knew it was coming. They were trying to get close to Adric in the most inconspicuous way possible. And at this thought, his hopes for Karina slipped, even if just a little.

“Alright, what do you want to know?” He asked finally. She smiled, was it relief?

“They know you have information. They just want to know what you have.”

“And they couldn’t just come to me about it? They know who I am.”

“Well, they were going to, but as I said, you left without saying goodbye,” Karina scolded. Adric sighed.

“I don’t have that much. I have tales and speculation. Like you said, I cross out the fantasies. I have been chasing this thing down for a very long time. When I was a boy, before my father died, I used to go with him. You probably knew him, Cassian, he used to run the smithy where I work. When he died in the fire, he left it to Misk, his apprentice at the time. Misk will leave it to me when he retires.”

“What about your mother?” Karina asked.

“She died bearing me. That’s why I’m alone. Her name was Vanna. After the fire I was raised by Misk, he’s a family friend.” There was an awkward moment where Karina acted as though she didn’t know what to say or where he was going with this. But Adric moved on, he had never known his mother, and his father’s death had been years ago.

“Well, my father and I never had much luck,” he said, simply. Still, Karina sat in silence. “Okay,” he said, resigning to the situation, and he sat down beside her. He picked up the book off the side of the chair. Adric flipped through the pages of the book looking for the beginning of the tale.

This book was different. The pages were heavily worn. Some pages were torn down the middle, just set back in place. Adric held them delicately so as not to lose them. He gently fingered through titles such as The Riddles of Marlin Gray, Tale of the Two-Faced Warlock, Centauri – Man, or Horse? There was also, Necraphym, and The Blue. Most concluded with the words, solved, just a tale. Several were in his own hand. Others were written by his forebears. Finally, he reached the page labeled, The Staff of Rhodhinia. There was no, solved written beneath this page. He paused for a moment. Even the title gave him a certain chill that could not be explained.

“You have a book?” Karina, intrigued, reached to grab it from him, but Adric was too quick.

“Hold on a minute,” he said, and he set it back in his lap.

“Have you solved all of these yourself?” Karina asked.

“Not all of them, but some of them I did. Gaden started going with me after my father died.”

“Why are you keeping all this stuff secret?” Karina asked. Adric just shrugged.

“I really want to solve this one. My family has been working on this one for generations, but there are so many unanswered questions. I’m just not sure where to start.”

“Did you say your grandfathers helped put this book together?”

“Over time; we all have been working on it. Whenever we investigate a new legend we add it to the book and tell of its true origins. But this one has been in here forever. None of my grandfathers even knew how long it’s been in here. In fact, it’s almost a legend that the legend put itself in here. I mean, think about it; a magical staff that can influence the elements?”

“Well you know there is a science that suggests rare gems did exist that exhibited unique abilities,” Karina suggested.

“But when have you ever heard of one being uncovered? There just isn’t anything new to go on that hasn’t been tried.”

“You should start with your ancestry,” Karina said.

“How will that help? I don’t recall my family being tied to this legend,” Adric was lost.

“Maybe there’s something in the library that could lead you through your lineage to guide you to a more educated conclusion. If we can learn who added it to the book, maybe we can find a lead.” Adric thought for a minute.

“Wait, which library?” He asked skeptically.

“You know which one,” Karina smirked. Adric looked back at the book. It was an approach he had not yet considered. He always started with evidence from the book. How simple an idea to begin by attempting to trace his family line? What if he could be the one to uncover the author? Even if that’s all he accomplished, it would be an incredible feat. “I’ve already talked it over with Gaden; we talked last night. He’s up for a trip if you want to invite him along.”

“You really want to come?” Adric asked.

“I’d love to go,” she said, as though this were an official invitation. And then she hugged him around the neck.

“Wait!” Adric shouted. “We can’t just walk into the library. It’s sealed.”

“You’ll be working for Alldel. And like you said, you know who you are. Somehow, I doubt you’ll meet with any trouble,” she said, winking. He started to say he doubted it, his bloodline did not grant him complete immunity to any situation, but without another word of explanation, she took off toward town. Adric sat there, just trying to take it in. Deciding he hadn’t pulled everything out just to look at it, he got up and began to prepare for the journey.

He began to gather a variety of clothes and put them into a bag. He wasn’t sure how long he would be gone, or if he would even be coming back here when he was finished at the library. What if they went straight to Aelwynn? Suddenly, a feeling of empowerment filled him. With the might of Alldel behind him, maybe this would be the break he needed. And then what of Lord Thale’s pending abdication? Did this somehow tie in? Pushing it from his mind, yet again, he decided to focus on the day and continued packing.

Many times, his more involved investigations kept him out for days at a time. He secretly hoped for another long journey. He went to his bedroom. It was a small square room on the south side of his house. There was a small bed in the corner and a few artifacts from previous journeys hanging from the walls. These artifacts, of course, were just ancient trinkets that had some other place in history.

There was a rusty old knife sitting on a shelf. This knife was a ceremonial tool used for sacrificing animals to the idols in the legend he titled, The Blue. There was a figure of a man holding a young child whittled out of wood. This was supposed to be a symbol of the father’s acceptance of his daughter’s mate. He would give this figure as a gift to the male who sought his daughter’s hand, and it meant he wished for them to establish a family together. Once the gift was given, the male was then allowed to ask his bride to marry him. He would present her with the figure as a token of his loyalty to her family. If she said yes, they were then married, and their primary function was to have children and raise them together, while the male’s father provided for them. This figure belonged to the pages of the legend, The Riddles of Marlin Gray.

Thinking he would go ahead and pull out all the information he had inherited from his grandfathers, he opened the closet in his bedroom and looked up. Hidden in the ceiling of the closet was a small cupboard. He opened it, and a small wooden box fell into his hands.

He carried the box back to a chair, sat down, turned the small brass latch over, and opened it. Inside were many small pieces of paper. Most of them were yellow and very brittle. Some were neatly cut out, some were torn, some looked as though they had been wadded up and then carelessly unfolded, some were incomplete, and a couple of them looked as though they might have even been burned.

He carefully picked them up and began to study them. After he read for a couple of minutes, he would go back to his book and flip through a couple of pages until he found the corresponding legend to which they belonged. A couple of them he threw back into the box because he had already investigated these legends and found, to his great disappointment, that they were just silly old stories told to teach children a lesson or to entertain party guests.

Adric opened one final box. It was small, wooden, and polished to shine. He knew exactly what was in this box, though he did not know of their origins. Inside this box was the real reason he had never really given up on the possibility of the existence of the Staff of Rhodhinia. Karina had been right about one thing. The stones inside this box were the very thing she had described just a little while ago. These stones, which he had dubbed whisper stones, exhibited a unique attribute Adric had never seen in any other element. It was for this reason he had kept them secret and had even bordered on lying about it to Karina.

To his knowledge, only one other person knew of these stones. He and Gaden had used them before on some of their more unique explorations. The two stones exhibited a kind of mirroring property. One could trace something onto the face of one stone. Whatever was traced onto one stone would appear on the other stone. This was very useful if one needed to communicate with the other immediately across great distances.

Adric pulled the stones out of the box. Each stone was about the size of his palm, ruby red, and smooth on the surface. He held them in his hands. They clearly had once been a single stone, because when held together, they clearly matched each other perfectly. He tossed one of them, caught it, and put them both into his bag.

Adric finished putting a plethora of items into his bag and then put the rest of it back into the box and back up into the cupboard. He closed it, tidied his things, and decided to go and sit in the chair by the front door and wait for Gaden and Karina to arrive. He did not have to wait long. Soon, they were knocking at his door, and he was letting them in.

“The library?” Gaden asked, not waiting for a welcome, but pushing his way inside. He looked skeptical, raising his eyebrows.

“What’s wrong with the library?” Adric asked.

“What’s wrong with the library?” Gaden repeated. “Other than the fact that it’s prohibited, condemned, ancient, falling apart…”

“Yes, we get the idea. It’s everything we aren’t supposed to do,” Karina said. “Nobody even goes near it. They’ll never know we were even there, and if they do, we’re working for Alldel,” she said, brightly.

“Says who?” Gaden asked skeptically. They ignored him.

“So, yeah, the library.” Adric continued. “Let’s just go have a quick look around, and let’s see if we can find something. If not, we’ll just find somewhere else to do some research. I think Karina was right. If we can find the original author, we might find out more about him, and possibly come up with a lead.”

“You’re the boss,” Gaden said.

“Are you ready to go?” Karina asked.

“My stuff is packed. It’s in my room,” Adric said. The usual pre-journey anticipation was starting to surface. He retrieved his bag, as did Gaden, and they walked to the front door. Adric opened the door and allowed Gaden and Karina to go through first. He walked to the doorway, turned around, looked into his house one last time, shut the door, and stepped into the wind.

For quite some time, they talked, swapped stories, and laughed as they walked down the cobbled street, back through the heart of Eladin. After leaving a note for Misk at the smithy explaining he might be gone for a while, they changed direction and walked toward the old library in the distance. Adric was too anxious to get into the library to let the bustling crowds bother him. But he still wasn’t sure how they were going to get inside. As they approached the massive building, they noticed a sign out in the yard. A message was burned on strips of wood,

The Library at Eladin. Danger! Do not enter!

“Any ideas?” Gaden asked. Luckily the angle of the building hid them from view of the town. The library was set in a field far off Eladin’s cobbled path.

“Not really. These boards don’t look all that sturdy to me,” Adric said as he reached for one. There was a weak sort of crunch as it pulled off with tremendous ease. Adric’s eyes flashed with excitement. A grin spread involuntarily over Adric’s face. They looked at one another.

As if they were on cue, they all three reached forward and pulled the boards holding the door shut. A loud creaking noise issued from the old nails, as they pulled from the door. Gaden peered around to see that nobody was looking.

They could see where once there was a sign written on the door, but they couldn’t make it out. The door looked as though it was smashed with some sort of ram. It was chipped and banged in. There was a rusty iron handle still intact. Adric reached for it and tried to open the door, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Either the door is jammed, or someone locked it from the inside,” he pushed hard with his shoulders, but the door still wouldn’t open.

“Let me try,” Gaden said. He was much stronger than Adric. Adric stepped aside. Gaden grabbed the handle and pushed hard, but still, the door wouldn’t move. Gaden sighed.

“Stand back,” he warned.

“Be careful. We don’t know what’s in there,” Adric said. Gaden grabbed the door handle firmly, took a step back, and rammed the door with his shoulder. Finally, the door gave an earsplitting crack, the hinges groaned in protest, and it gave way to Gaden. Gaden fell inside. He coughed, and brushed the dirt loose from his cloak, pulling spider webs from his hair as Adric helped him to his feet.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Fine, thanks.” Gaden brushed his pants. Their voices echoed around them. It was a disastrous mess on the inside, and so dark they couldn’t see much. Thin beams of sunlight from the boarded windows reflected the newly disturbed dust. Adric and Gaden removed the boards from a couple of windows to allow more light inside. Books were everywhere. Torn pages littered the dusty stone floor. Lamps hung too far from the ceiling carelessly. They had to be careful not to walk into some of them. It smelled strongly of mildew on the inside. The aisles were narrow.

“Look,” Gaden pointed to the door.

“It was locked from the inside. I wonder how the last person got out,” Adric said.

“Maybe they never did,” Gaden winked.

“Really, Gaden?” Karina said. “I bet they left through that tunnel,” she pointed to the far side of the room, where stood a dilapidated, round opening. It was very dark, and spider webs stood abandoned in its uppermost corners.

“I wonder where that leads, though,” Gaden said.

“Let’s take care of business and go. I don’t want to linger and get caught,” Adric said. They decided to split up and look through individual aisles.

The books were obviously arranged alphabetically at one point, but now they had been rummaged through so much that they were only partly organized. Dust was caked so heavily on most books that Adric had to rub its title clear, just to read it. On more than one occasion, Adric thought he saw what he was looking for, but it turned out to be something else entirely. And then a high-pitched shriek burst from the other end of the room. Adric dropped the book he was holding and ran to the end of the aisle to see what happened.

“I found something!” Karina screamed. “Here,” she handed him a small stack of papers.

“This is it?” Adric asked, admittedly disappointed.

“It was on the table. There could be more around here somewhere,” Karina said.

“It’s better than nothing, I suppose.” He took the papers and sat at the nearest table. He began stacking the books up to make room for his own articles.

Gaden shook his head and then took his forearm and raked all the clutter off the table and onto the floor.

“Gaden!” Karina said astonished.

“What? Everyone else did it!”

“Well, yes, but what if there was something in that stack that we need?”

“Well,” Gaden said, thinking of a response, “It’ll be here on the floor then, won’t it? It’s not as though I dumped them into the fire.” Adric ignored the two of them and started sorting through the papers, pulling out unnecessary information. The first line read,

Here follows the account of King Wystan of Alldel, son of none.

Adric sighed. So this record knew no more than he did of his ancient ancestor, Wystan. Wystan’s parentage had been a topic of debate within his family for generations. It was one question he had hoped to uncover here. He read on, but nothing caught his eye. Gaden picked up the pile of filtered papers and started flipping them over and holding them up to the light.

“Adric, do you remember that one we did about a year ago?” Gaden asked, still holding the page to the light from the window.

“Marlin Gray? Yeah.”

“Well,” Gaden paused. “I expect that was about the same period as these records. And you remember the popular method for delivering covert material..,” he examined every last one with the utmost scrutiny.

“What’s he doing?” Karina asked.

“Of course!” Adric jumped to his feet.

“What?” Karina sounded impatient.

“A long time ago, people hid coded messages or maps between the layers in the paper. We’ve found things like that before,” Gaden said.

“And…” Karina encouraged.

“What do you think this is?” Gaden asked, and he pointed to the corner of a thicker piece of paper. It was bent down at the top and looked as though it were starting to separate. If he hadn’t pointed it out, Adric would have never noticed it.

“I’m not sure. Hold it up to the window.” Gaden did as Adric suggested and held it up. They could see the outline of a tiny sliver of something on the other side of the paper. He put it on the table and flipped it over, but nothing was there.

“Do you think it’s between the layers?” Gaden asked.

“Could be,” Adric said. He took the page, tapped its corner against the wood table a few times, and then held the corner by his fingertips, very carefully beginning to pull it back. It felt like it was going to tear.

Finally, after several long minutes, the page relented, and it opened. Sure enough, just as Gaden had suggested, there was a tiny sliver of very thin parchment-like, yellowish paper on the inside that looked as though it was torn away from something else. Adric turned it over and read aloud,

“When the ground goes to dust, and skies turn dark, then the staff has risen, watch for the mark.”

Adric finished reading it aloud and turned the paper over. On the back of the parchment-like paper, was written one word. In long, thin, loopy writing was the name, Gnostgate.

“Gnostgate?” Gaden asked. “What’s that mean? Isn’t that the old, abandoned city in Rhodhinia?”

“That does sound right,” Adric said. He began to read a list of possessions his grandfather had left to his family members. Among these items was the famous book of legends that Adric held so dear. He found a list of awards he had won from what may have been some form of military service.

“Maybe we should make an appointment with the Steward of Alldel,” Gaden said and then started going through another stack of papers, not noticing that Adric was looking at him incredulously.

“Well, your uncle is the grand marshal right? Let’s go see him.” Gaden looked between Adric and Karina, who weren’t saying anything. “Must I spell it out?” Gaden was irritated. “Elric, your uncle, is a high-ranking officer. He wanted to talk to Adric. Adric needs an audience with Alldel…” He trailed off, giving them a look to indicate that it was time for them to connect the dots.

“Alright,” Adric admitted, going back to his paper.

“So, what do we do?” Karina asked. Adric smiled.

“Let’s keep looking, for now.” Adric got up. “Let’s see what we can find out about Gnostgate.”

There were pages all over the floor. Adric nearly tripped over a burned-out, broken lamp that someone had left in the aisle. He kicked it aside. Gaden found only the cover of a book left abandoned by its own contents lying covered in dust on the floor.

“You don’t think this was done on purpose, do you?” Gaden asked Adric.

“The mess? Who knows?”

“Hey, look.” Gaden pointed to the bottom shelf. There was an extensive book with the title Gnostgate written across its spine. Adric picked it up, and they took it back to the table, where Karina sat reading through all of the other information.

This book was very different from the others. Instead of several neatly bound pages, they found a cavity. The book was almost like a container filled with minor artifacts, clippings, and other kinds of memorabilia. It gave a strong resemblance to Adric’s box back home.

Adric started pulling out the information that did not apply and began going through the cutouts. There was only one cutout that caught Adric’s eye. It was small, torn down the middle, and very yellow. It looked very familiar to Adric, though still not quite right. He picked it up and turned it over. Half of the writing was torn off. Without the other half, the message was impossible to make out. Adric looked at it.

“Gaden,” he said, poking the paper repeatedly with his left forefinger, “Gaden, I know what this is.” Adric turned and looked at him. “I only ever received one thing from my grandfather, apart from this book. It was a torn piece of paper. He told me that it was possibly the most significant discovery our family has ever made. When he gave it to me, I thought for sure he didn’t know what he was talking about, but I kept it anyway. He told me that nobody had ever been able to understand why it was so great, but that from generation to generation, it was handed down, and it was said that this was the most important discovery of all.

Now I understand why. This has to be it.” Adric held up the new torn piece of paper he had pulled out of the book. His hands were trembling. He felt confident he was on the verge of explaining the mysterious cutting that had drawn the curiosity of his family for generations.

“Gaden, I have the other half.” For some reason, this didn’t seem to have the dramatic impact on Gaden and Karina that Adric had been hoping for.

“Okay, but why is that so spectacular?” Gaden asked.

“My grandfather told me how Wystan found it. It was a time of war, and the nations of Alldel, Lorlea, and Rhodhinia were in conflict. King Wystan was involved in a lot of research. He thought he knew where Rhodhinia was finding its power. Without any proof of this or any kind of lead, they could never hope to find it and dismantle it for good. So, he came here, but a double agent was working for him, and he had tipped off the Rhodhinian army that he would be here. Wystan must have gotten as far as this book by the time they arrived, and when they did, all he could do was tear it out and run. Obviously, he only got half of it and didn’t realize it. The way I was told, Wystan made it back to the rendezvous. When he got there, the whole army was waiting for him, but Wystan was killed in the battle. Luckily though, he had already passed the page off to someone else, and after the battle was over, they returned it to the family,” Adric paused.

“And now you have the paper?” Karina asked. She had been listening with incredible interest.

“Yes,” Adric said boldly. “And what if…” he began to walk circles around them, “what if this relates to the Staff of Rhodhinia? What other great power would have been worth so much research?”

“Where is it?” Gaden asked.

“In my book.” Adric folded his arms in triumph. Gaden immediately pulled the bag off his back and rummaged through it until he found the book. He pulled out the famous book of legends and handed it to Adric. Adric took it and turned right to the page. He pulled it out and held the two pieces of paper together. It was nearly a perfect match. He turned and showed the others. The page now read,

“Far eastern shore, mines of Dank’hurst.”

Now he was getting the reaction he had been looking for. They both stared at him, lost for words. Karina was the one to break the silence.

“What do we do next?” Karina asked.

“I think Gaden is right. Let’s try to talk to your uncle; then we can go to Dank’hurst,” Adric said.

“We’ll need a map,” Karina told him.

“I have one in my bag.” Adric pulled a map from his bag.

“This is it,” Adric told them. He pointed to a drawing of a cave on the map, somewhere in the eastern part of Rhodhinia. “It’s going to be a long journey, but if we go, there’s a good chance that we can…” Out of nowhere, a deafening crash echoed from wall to wall. They all looked up, but none of them saw anything. Adric’s heart was pounding. Who had found them? Adric walked around the corner, kicking loose pages out of his way.

“We need to go, we’re not supposed to be here,” Gaden said. Adric stepped into the tunnel, which lead to somewhere in the back of the Library. There was an orange glow flickering in the distance.

Suddenly, with a deafening roar, flames erupted at the end of the hall. They danced swiftly toward him. He stood there, mesmerized. What had happened? The flames were all over the library now. Gaden and Karina were shouting his name, pleading with him to come and leave with them. Adric couldn’t explain it, but he had to know what happened.

Gaden lunged forward in an attempt to pull Adric out of the hall. Gaden ducked out of the way quickly, as the doorway that separated him from Adric caved in. Adric, still looking ahead, noticed something in the distance. A man had appeared at the end of the hall. He was tall, and a hood covered his face. He wore a long cloak that brushed the ground around his feet. For a quick moment, the flames lit his face. Adric did not recognized him. Perhaps the rumors about the library being haunted were true.

“Hello?” Adric shouted. His yell was loud and harsh. He could hear the ceiling above him crackling under the heat of the fire. Any minute now, the roof would cave in on him too, yet, for some reason, he felt glued to the place where he stood. The stranger turned, his cloak whipped around behind him, and he ran.

“Hello!” Adric yelled again, his voice echoing eerily in the distant void. Against his better judgment, he chased the man.

He ran on and on. There seemed to be no end to the tunnel; it wound around and around. The smoke was suffocating him; the heat was almost unbearable. It surrounded him and was choking him. If the tunnel did not end soon, he didn’t think he would make it. He had been foolish to give chase.

“Who’s there?” He coughed through the smoke. And there the man appeared again, flames lighting only a corner of his face. He couldn’t make him out. Then the man smiled wickedly, and started running again.

“Wait!” Adric shouted and continued his chase. What had he been thinking anyway? Why even look into the hall? Gaden tried to call him before the cave-in, why hadn’t he retreated? He was going to die running down a hallway filled with smoke, all for a few minutes of curiosity. He felt his legs weaken beneath his weight. His vision was growing faint.

He saw another whip of a cloak. Was the cave playing tricks on him? Was it really haunted? Maybe they should have obeyed the signs warning them not to enter. He was gaining on his quarry. He rounded the corner, thinking of going back. The heat was terrible. Adric ran around an endless bend. It was as if the tunnel were leading him around an infinite spiral. He would be trapped in here forever.

But then, to his great relief, the library exited to the outdoors, and fresh air filled his lungs. But a cloaked figure was nowhere to be found. Adric looked back. The flames entirely engulfed the library. It seemed such a shame. All of that history was now destroyed. His stomach cramped at the thought that his bag, along with his book of legends and all his other resources were still in the building. He thought of going back, but then he saw Gaden kneeling on the ground. Then he noticed Karina. She was lying on the ground, bleeding and apparently unconscious. He ran as fast as he could to where she lay.

“Gaden!” Adric yelled louder, and this time his voice was full of fear. Gaden did not answer.

“Gaden, Karina!” He shouted again. Finally, Gaden looked. “What happened to her?” Adric asked. Gaden looked at him. Sweat was running off his face.

“You left us. Why did you do that? How did you get out? Adric, I’m telling you, that place is playing mind games on us. I felt strange in there. Something is not right.” There was an uncomfortable silence for several seconds, maybe minutes, they had lost track of time in the confusion. And then the sky suddenly went pitch black, like a blanket being draped over the sun.

“What just happened?” Gaden asked. There was a tone of panic and worry in his voice. “This is too much. We should have never involved ourselves in this one. We’ve gone too far this time, Adric.” And then something streaked across the sky from the east. Adric had seen it first, but not long before Gaden did. From the far east, a bright blue glow spread across the sky. It was the most beautiful thing Adric had ever seen. He stared at it, utterly confused until he heard Gaden whisper,

“Watch for the mark.” And then the cloaked man appeared before them as though from nothingness. In his left hand, he clutched what was unmistakably some sort of staff. In one swift motion, the man raised the staff to the sky and slammed its shaft into the ground. The ground began to shake. A deafening roar split the air around them and then passed over them like a tidal wave. Adric felt as though he were being stretched. And then he felt himself being thrown back by some invisible force. The library crumbled, and the pressure from the shockwave blew them all onto their backs. Adric got one last look at the other two before he fell to the ground, unconscious.