Chapter 16

“I think you made an enemy just now,” Ezza said.

Aden rolled his head, trying to stretch his neck muscles. “He was already an adversary, my friend. I only helped him confirm it. He would have been a useful ally; yet he chose otherwise. I don’t pretend to understand what political calculations he relies upon, but he knows something that he is not willing to share.”

“Like what?”

“Like something about the history of this building or its inhabitants, I would guess first,” Aden said as he used his nail to separate another sticky bun from its companions. “He knows something that he is not willing to share. He knows a good bakery too. If we are going to get zeecked today, we might as well do it on a full belly.”

“I was hoping he was just using last night’s incident as an excuse to get inside the building without an invitation,” Ezza said. “I guess I was wrong.”

“You may have been right,” Aden said between bites. “His calculations took a stark turn when he eyeballed the headmaster’s safe. Whatever he thinks he saw, he skittered out of here at the first possible instant like his britches were catching fire.”

“You did lay it on thick,” Ezza said. “These rolls are better than anything I’ve had that I can remember. It is good to be the governor.” He looked up and saw Aden’s face. “Maybe not so good.”

“Finish up and we tackle the upstairs,” Aden said. “Care to take bets on what we will find?”

“Desiccated carcasses of magical beasts still chained to the wall,” Ezza said. “Thirty chits if the bones of their last victims are scattered across the floor.”

“Only if they are scattered,” Aden said as he licked his fingers and pointed towards the door. “Come, our immediate fate awaits.”

“I think I liked you better when all you did was whine and complain instead of prophesying our doom,” Ezza said. “I’ve got my long knife.”

One after the other they ascended the stairs to the second floor. The long hallway with inset doors could be seen from the main floor. Looking out, the banners were still far above their heads. “The roof is taller than it looks,” Ezza said.

“These are dormitory rooms,” Aden said. He opened the first door and counted eight bunk beds and chests. He shut the door and opened the second just to confirm that the room were identical. “The end of the hall should be the head resident’s room and the facilities.”

They walked back to the staircase and turned right. The short hallway was completely screened from downstairs. Double doors were set into the back wall. Aden pushed one door and peeked in: “Kitchen and mess.”

“They placed them upstairs?”

“They powered the kitchen with phyzeec, a helluva lot on any given day. No need to worry about fire and its dangers.”

The long hallway on the other side had the same number of doors running down its length. The first room was the same size as the dormitory but contained one bed, a settee, drawers, and a large desk. Aden opened the top drawer and fingered the clothes that were folded inside. “This is a teacher’s room, and they were expecting to return. They left their clothes.”

“This room too,” Ezza shouted from next door. Going down the hallway they found four rooms with signs of occupancy. “Four teachers and nine students,” Ezza said as they returned to the corridor and looked down at the main floor. “This must have been intense training.”

“There is another staircase next to the teacher’s toilets,” Ezza said. “Clearly it leads up to the watchtower. Do we assume only the masters kept watch over the city and the harbor? One would think they would garrison graduated students as soldiers and watchmen ... yet.”

“Too few,” Aden said, finishing the thought. Ezza nodded in agreement, saying nothing. Walking back down the teacher’s hallway, they noticed another staircase in the back corner leading upward. They climbed in silence. When they reached the landing, Aden lit the sconces with a snap of phyzeec.

“Damn stupid wizards,” Ezza said as he counted the tables and chairs in the room lined with full bookshelves. “There are a hundred-hundred times more books than chairs. They must have died of old age before they read all these books.”

Aden chuckled. “These are textbooks and reference works. They are probably fabulous by themselves compared to what I had to study, but this room is not the prize. Behind those metal bars at the back is the holy of holies.”

“Weapons?”

“Banned or dangerous books,” Aden said. “You know the stories, the scroll that contains the magic incantation that could destroy the world or the book with the spell of undying love, emphasis on undying. The secrets of the universe are back there, so one would think.”

“Really?”

“No, probably just recitations of shortcuts of how to kill oneself through stupidity,” Aden said. “At least that was my experience in my temple’s library. Who can say what we will find in this place?”

Unlike the downstairs where all was in order, including the private rooms, the tables were askew and the chairs were pushed aside, some jammed against each other. Aden threaded a path through the disarray and led his companion to a door handle set in a block of metal.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to open the fool thing?” Ezza said.

“First, I’m not going to fall for the same trick twice by grasping the handle,” Aden said. He paused and looked at Ezza. “Second, look in there and tell me what you see.”

Ezza put his face as close to the bars as possible and squinted his eyes. “I see empty shelves. Are they bare or is there one of those wizard illusions hiding them?”

“No,” Aden said, flinging a small ball of phyzeec at one of the small shelves. “The books are gone. Turn around and look at the tables. Someone or ones emptied this room in haste and barreled through the close configuration of tables to get them out of here. They were in a hurry, but they still closed the door behind them. What caused them to empty this secured space and where are the books now?”

“I don’t like your questions,” Ezza said. “You said these battlemages were powerful. What could have possibly frightened them?”

You forgot the question the governor left us: Is the threat still lurking?” Aden took one last look around, reluctant to even start reading the titles on the spines. Speculation of how much he did not know that might be contained in the student tomes was enough to cause pangs of regret. He forced himself to aim for the stairs. “Onward to the basement unless you believe your dried dragon carcass is still on the butcher’s block in the kitchen.”