Quill of Thieves

Chapter 9 Part II

Hollace Lambert wondered about the young Sebastian even after the boy had already his office. He chuckled to himself, not quite believing his luck, before locking the office door behind the boy. As such, it didn't necessarily surprise him when a bulky shadow moved against the far wall by the famed portrait titled Ride of the Fire Sprite.

Then again, that particular painting hadn't been considered infamous since before the Purge. 

The dying fireplace illuminated the shadow's handsome face. It reminded Lambert of the ageless faces he had lived amongst in his foolish youth. Taking his time, Lambert approached the couch. A new stack of scrolls sat on one of the cushions, scrolls that hadn't been there moments before. From the corner of his eye, he saw the bookshelf move. It swung back into place on its hidden hinge, briefly revealing a dark corridor that led to the oldest parts of Queen Davina's fortress. Before the Purge, it had been used by Rainier's former rulers as access to the Scribal scrolls that had been kept in the library. Since Davina Salvera's reign, however, the tunnels had been all but forgotten, taking with it the remembrance of the library's former significance.

Now, the tunnels were used by Lambert and the eyes he kept in the fortress.

"I see you've been busy," Lambert finally addressed the lurker. He sighed when the thickly cloaked man refused to cross the barrier into the warmly lit office. "By all means, Sparrow, do make yourself at home."

When the stubborn man still failed to respond, Lambert returned to the scrolls that had been left on his couch. "Thank you for these," he said into the silence. He shuffled through the various parchments and saw that many included writing in the old Scribal language. After the Purge, Queen Davina had ransacked the library and taken all of those ancient books and scrolls for herself. It was rumored most of them had been burned. The rest were currently kept in the queen's Keep.

He took the beats of silence to translate a few words and symbols from the scrolls Sparrow had brought from the Keep and then reorganized them into an orderly pile.

Finally, Sparrow spoke the words Lambert knew had been suffocating him. "This is a risk," he said. "You know it to be true."

"There are many risks in this world. As such, there are some we must take. Progress halts without risks."

He felt the man's scowl from the shadows. "Risks can also kill. We've worked too hard and long for it to rest on the shoulders of some uneducated fisher's boy."

"Appearances can be deceiving."

"So can placing trust in those who have failed to prove themselves." Sparrow hesitated and then began again. "If you would only allow Her Highness—"

"She is useless to us," Lambert snapped, "Though keep an eye on that little terror of a girl. My suspicions say she has already encountered her equal."

"Keep an eye on that boy," Sparrow countered, and, with that, he stepped deeper into the hidden passage and was gone.

Lambert exhaled slowly into the now empty room, rubbing his temples, before shutting the bookcase back into place. He collected Davina's scrolls and placed them into the secret compartment that he'd built over the fireplace. With one last look around his office to make sure everything was how it should be, he unlocked the door and stepped into one of the corridors of the library. Despite his earlier disagreement with the man from the secret tunnel, he knew he had work to do with the so-called Sebastian d'Aximos.

The forgotten Author child.

O O O

Sebastian sat at a small desk in an alcove amidst stacks of books when Master Lambert found him again. His finger hovered over a passage in an old alchemy book that explained various methods of solidifying water into a golden substance stronger than stone. A little guiltily, he met Master Lambert's wrinkled gaze which looked questioningly at the scrolls he had given Sebastian to translate.