Chapter 27

“Oops, how clumsy of me! Luckily we have a cleaning boy nearby - boy, come here and clean this mess! Hurry up!”

“You shouldn’t be smoking inside the Library.”

I knew that it was useless to talk sense to these guys. They were the future leaders and they already knew that. However, only the most stupid or the most arrogant of them would smoke inside the Library. The fact that you were able to get some tobacco proved that you were important, you had some real contacts. The fact that you smoked inside the Library proved that you were arrogant - and stupid.

My former friend Rurik was there, laughing with his new friends, who all thought that making fun of the rest of us was something they really should do.

“Oh, what do you plan to do about it? Rat us out to your friend Rudolf when all of us are ready to say that it was you who smoked here.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “There’s no need for me to rat out anybody. I’m sure that both the Old Man and Rudolf already know who smokes and who doesn’t. In case of fire...”

Then I turned my back on the group even though I knew that it would inspire them to create even more mess. Eating, drinking and especially smoking were things you shouldn’t do at the Library tables, but on the days when both Halvard and Rudolf were gone, there was nobody left whom these future leaders would have been afraid of. Myself, I ignored them the best I could, which annoyed some of those heroes quite a lot. During recent months Rurik had eagerly picked up the habits of his new friends and they had teased me for being afraid of them - and their ways of using magic. The use of which was also strictly forbidden inside the Library. The way the Magicians used their magic could end up releasing quite a lot of energy - which could mean that something got heated, sometimes even enough to cause a fire. So, even while some of the group had tried to scare me by making a pretense of using their magic, I wasn’t too worried. Not even the dumbest of them would really be stupid enough to use magic inside the Library.

I made a note to myself to return to the area once the group had left, however late that would be. I might need to clean the area, but there was no need to give them the satisfaction of seeing me do it. Besides, it gave me a good excuse to stay behind after this space was officially closed. Most likely those assholes had no idea that, in a way, they were doing me a favor. Besides, within a week it would be the spring equinox, my birthday - and I would again have some visitors. Maybe it would have been safer to change the date, but the silly truth was that the Elves weren’t really that good at following the calendar, but they did focus on those equinoxes and solstices. Besides, nobody here should be expecting anything from those silly but scary women hiding in their valley.

Once I was sure that I was alone in the ‘Dark Floor’ I walked to the guard who was watching the entrance. I told him about the mess that needed to be cleaned up and therefore I’d need to stay late - again. Since he didn’t like those Magician students any more than I did, he merely said he regretted my situation - but, just as I assumed, he didn’t want to do anything to help me. If Rudolf trusted me, it was okay to leave me behind - but since I wasn’t his boss there was no need to help me. After all, his job was to guard the stairs, nothing else. I wanted to smile.

It didn’t take me that long to clean the corner where those guys had held their court. After that, I started systematically going through the shelves for the books that had some hidden messages or the books I needed to read. And then there were those books that most likely were important to the Magicians. If possible, I wanted to do something to them, too. But most importantly, I needed the information from those old books. Which meant that I needed to find them first.

Soon it was clear that even if I sort-of knew where the books were, this would take time. I sighed. This wasn’t going to be too easy. At least I would be able to sense if somebody else came too close.

This time it was Fainauriel who accompanied Hantaliel. Again, poor Frode didn’t know where to look and Miss Dahl - Hanna - was all smiles when Fainauriel and Hantaliel ate dinner with us. Hanna just couldn’t get enough of looking at the two petite women.

“What plays we could have had with your people around. There were some interesting ones in my youth, but now they all have disappeared somewhere and almost all criticism has been removed from the stage. No more making fun of those damned Magicians, not even Royals - only merchants and landlords are free game now. All the scripts of those plays with some real edge seem to have disappeared somewhere.”

There was a great deal of sadness in her voice. I wanted to curse myself for being so focused on my own mission, that I hadn’t really realized that the change was happening all around the place. Maybe it wasn’t that visible outside Aston yet, but for sure it was happening here. Hiding and ‘forgetting’ all critical plays was only a small part of this. I remembered that, when there had been the ‘incident’ of the dead Guardians together with those monsters, there had been one or two newspapers that had made a great deal of it, but very soon the critical discussion had more or less died.

“There are copies of those plays in the Dark Floor of the Library, together with some other dangerous books. Should I try to steal them for you?”

It was like a candle had been lit behind those eyes, but then the old woman turned serious again.

“No, it would serve no purpose. For sure, I would be happy to read those plays again, but the plays belong on the stage, not just for me, or hidden in the darkness of the Library. Just make sure that they stay safe, if you can, young man.”

“I will, milady. I will do that for you.”

I smiled and bowed my head to her, which resulted to few more quotations from her and the discussion continued more freely from there.

““Has Elise talked with you, Stian?””

Fainauriel was resting next to me and only her breathing had revealed to me that she wasn’t asleep yet. Neither was Hantaliel, since she was moving her hand carefully along my side, just like she’d be checking that I was still there.

““About what?””

““Oh, you’d know if she had. I was just merely curious, nothing more.””

I guess that was as close to lying as you could come with the Old Language. At least I already knew better than to try to get the answer from her. If my women had conspired behind my back, I would be allowed to know when the time would be right, but not a moment sooner than that. However, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t tease Fainauriel and Hantaliel about it. Not that it would do me much good, either.

Even though their visit was short, it did wonders for the inside of my head and for some time even the most mindless work inside the Library felt easy. When the work felt easy, I had more energy to plan what I would need to do. Or I knew exactly what I needed to do: I needed to loot the Dark Floor inside the University Library and not get caught while doing it. Unfortunately for me, the environment where I was working seemed to get most of its strength from paranoia. However, I did my work without complaining about the nasty aspects to anybody - but now I did notice how Rudolf and some of the Magicians tiptoed around each other. Without the Old Man, Halvard, something might have happened, but the ‘normal’ Magicians somewhat tiptoed around him, too. It was clear that he wasn’t that much liked even among the Magicians, most likely he was much more feared than liked.

The closer the summer came, the worse my situation regarding the other students became, and it had something to with Rudolf and Halvard. The situation outside seemed to have stagnated, but inside the University walls, even I was able to tell that something was going on. It was like a kettle on a hot stove, the water inside the kettle was heating more and more and at some point it would start boiling and then it might even blow the lid away. If that happened, you’d better be careful and stay at least a tad bit away from the kettle. Of course nobody spoke to me directly, but the other students weren’t always too careful when they spoke. Even if I didn’t really like it, I carefully mentioned what I had heard to Rudolf. His response was immediate.

“Stay f***ing out of this, kid. Stay out of this and keep your head low.”

Well, at least I learned that he cared about me. I did what he asked and when the summer came the situation seemed to have calmed down inside the Library. By the end of the summer or latest a month or two after the studies started again in the autumn, I would have finished cataloging the books I wanted to loot from the Library - including the plays Hanna had talked about. My status among the workers had also risen so that I had my own room in the Dark Floor. Well, it was merely a closet without a window, and I didn’t dare leave anything incriminating there since I was sure that its contents were checked every now and then. However, since my new responsibilities included checking and even fixing some books, that little space allowed me to do a few more checks for the books containing hidden messages.

Once the term started again, a new generation of Magic students noticed me and ‘cared’ about me. Really cared about me so that I would certainly remember my position beneath them. There had been two other students who tried working on the Dark Floor, but they were able to stand the harassment for only about six weeks. This time, there were also some female students doing the tormenting, and that felt even worse. I was easily able to ignore those male students, but with these females, it was much harder. Oh, not hard in that way, not at all. Still, seeing those girls there, studying to become Magicians brought back some nightmares that included the female Magician I had killed. For the first time, I started to really feel that I needed to get out of here.

During the summer I had made some trips to the forest, but now I didn’t have that much time for such pleasures since I was working almost alone, again.

The breakthrough happened just before the autumn equinox when Frode had come to me with some old-looking paper rolls. He had ‘visited’ a house for a totally different reason and he found himself stranded for some time in an attic that was full of paper rolls that had been stored there. As he had had nothing else to do while waiting, he had started checking those rolls and found out that there actually had been some sort of sewer system planned for Aston, even partly built - and totally forgotten, for whatever reason.

The important thing for me was that one arm of the system started under the University Library and ended at the bank of River Aston! That was when a plan started to form. The fact that I was able to work in the Dark Floor didn’t mean that I could get any books out of there. Every time any person left the Library she or he was checked for permission to actually take books away from the Library building. There was no way that I could get all the books I wanted out that way. Nor did I want anything pointing at me if the books were found missing. I was still figuring out how to cover the fact that the books would be gone. Before getting there, my first task would be to find the other end of the sewer from the river bank.

Even with the map it turned out to be difficult, since it took me three tries to find it. On the other hand it was a good thing, since there was no way that the entrance at the river could be found by accident. However, that turned out to be only a small part of the problem, since once the tunnel came close to the University, it became a maze. Dark, dusty, yet wet maze. Had I been afraid of rats there would have been no way that I could have gone there. A few times I had to use my special magic skills to persuade those rats to stay away from me. After I had wasted two days in that maze, I figured out that I needed to have some better way than the inaccurate map of the tunnels to find my way under the Library.

One night I stayed behind, doing the cleaning that had once again been left for me. Only this time I had some ultramarine pigment with me. At the back of the Library I had found a drain that was partly under a cabinet. A drain that I wasn’t able to fill - so it was the most logical starting point of the sewer. Especially if they had planned to connect it to the upper floor, too. I really hoped so. However, this possibility was way too good to be ignored. So, once I was sure that I was alone there on the floor, I carried several bucketsful of water to that distant corner, mixed the ultramarine pigment with the water, and carefully poured it into the drain, careful not to leave any trace of what I had done.

The next day, I once again entered the tunnel with a lantern and a piece of chalk. Going uphill inside the maze of tunnels was a chore I wasn’t too happy with since I had to walk with a stoop because the shallowness of the tunnel. Still, I almost shouted with a joy when I noticed a pale blue color in the water on the floor! After a few turns, I found an opening on the wall going steeply upwards where the blue water had come from. As soon as I had climbed though that opening to the upper level I noticed that, if there hadn’t been as much water as there was, none of it would have entered that quite steep main tunnel system.

I had come to a slightly higher part of the system. I was really happy about that and I found it was actually a bit too level to really work as a sewer. In the middle of it, there was a depression that must have been quite full of water and the bucketful I had poured from above had been just enough to give the water a blueish tint and cause it to overflow just a bit.