The palace seems smaller than when I first came. It's still huge, but less of a maze and more of a giant building. I wander through it as my guards follow until I come to a new room. A library. Perfect. Just the place to learn about the first queen.
I point at the entrance. “Stay here,” I say to my guards, Eldim and a familiar woman I don’t know the name of.
“Let me make certain it's safe first, My Lady,” Eldim says.
“I'm perfectly safe going in myself.” I make my words crisp.
“But I must insist on checking it first.”
Hmm. No coward then. Plus, Inkga was poisoned. It doesn't hurt to have someone else look. Unless it’s a trap he’s setting up. I can handle myself if it is, though, and if it will appease him… “Very well. But make it quick.”
It only takes him a minute to comb through the library and return. “The room is empty. There are still windows that could be used for an attack, though. I think it best that we remain with you.”
“You will remain here.” I leave them without another word. There's bravery, and then there's just plain being annoying.
The library smells very old. Musty, and like books. I savor the scent I've not had many chances to come across but always associated with happy memories. I may have found a new place to hide out if I can get away from learning things long enough.
I wish Nash was here to tell me more about the library since the librarian desk is empty. Sometimes I forget he used to only be a guard. Maybe he knows nothing of this place. I'll have to remember to ask him next time I see him. If we can get over the fight we just had, that is.
I run my hands across the books at my height, though the shelves fill the walls all the way to the ceiling. There's a ladder to reach the top books, but I go around it. What secrets do these books hold? Is there anything like mine? Or are they common knowledge to everyone but me?
I know so little about this country I'm the leader of. It wasn’t in my training. Nothing was, except imitating, obeying, and killing. Perhaps becoming a shadow too. I learned plenty of things, but not outside of what Daros wanted me to know.
I move through books and books and more books, searching the titles for… I don't know what. Something about a history of the country. Perhaps the founding of Valcora. Anything that would hint at the first queen.
I come across a section of books that deal with the history of this land. I wonder if any of them contain information on the Mortum Tura and its chalice. Where it came from? How it works? Information to back up what the first queen told me, if she is the first queen.
Though if the answer was in a book, I suppose it would already be known. If someone read it. Maybe it's here and it hasn't been read in so long, everyone forgot it. I hope for the latter.
I skim through book after book, wishing reading came to me more easily. It would make this process go a lot faster.
I find nothing useful. A book on how all of Valcora is in a large valley. How pure mountain water gets to Valcora's lands. When the last invasion was—which I glance at, to find it was over five hundred years ago, when this book was written. It doesn't tell me about the first queen, though.
More books fly through my hands. History of Economics. History of Farming. The history of our language. More and more books, but nothing that looks just right.
Then I find an old, tattered book. Something the likes of which is unlike anything else around it. I'm afraid I'm going to break it just by opening it, but I do so anyway. There's no reward with out taking a chance.
Inside, the very first thing I see is a picture of her. The First Queen. She's not as crisp as she is in my dreams, but it's definitely her. Even the green dress is the same.
She's real then.
And with the fact that I haven’t seen this image before makes it all the more real. It's numbing. Terrifying. All too real.
But I must press on.
I search the text before and after her picture, hoping to find something that will tell me more about her. Let me know her name. Something. But there's nothing there. Nothing at all.
Instead, the book talks about the forming of Valcora. How travelers came long ago from some distance and found this land that was shielded by the mountains and decided to make it their home. It speaks of them and what they were like. How they struggled to make the land into a country they could live in. That their families could belong to.
“There you are,” Ranen says, walking into the library as if he owns the place, startling me from the book.
“I see you haven't gotten to this room yet. These chairs are horrid.” Not that I really care, it's just the first thing that comes to mind when I spot them.
“If I'd have known the Queen has a perchance for reading, I'd have covered this room sooner.”
“I'm certain you'll remedy that.”
“Yes, whatever I can do to help my Queen.” Though the words are fine, the way he says them like he not only thinks me a child but wants me out of his way leaves me feeling like pulling out my poisoned dagger. I don't even know why.
“What is it you want?”
“I just wanted to check in and see how my work is going for you. Clearly there's more room for improvement, but I'd like to think I'm making it to your liking.”
I shrug. “What work you have done is fine.”
“I thought then perhaps we could speak about a change of position. Or even having me work as the Furniture Master while I'm also assisting you in another way. You'll find I'm capable of taking a lot on. I have a lot to offer you as Head Advisor.”
“That may be, but I have no further use for you than as a Furniture Master.”
“My skills are much more suited to something else.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I know what your skills are good for.” Scheming.
He takes a step closer. Slowly, I reach for one of my daggers. All my senses are on alert, but I try to keep him from realizing it. I don't think he'll do anything to me; he's too sniveling for that. That doesn't mean he won't have someone else stab me in the back while he has my attention, though.
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know enough.”
He bares his teeth at me. “You don't understand who I am. What I can do to you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Of course not, Your Majesty,” he spits out. “I wouldn’t threaten you.”
“Good, because I can get rid of you any time I want.”
“You will not get rid of me. I have powerful people on my side.” His voice is low, but ominous.
I mimic his tone. “I will do what I want to do.”
“Then you will have consequences of my choosing.” As loud as he is, I expect the guards to come running in, but they don't.
I can do without them anyway. I flick the tassel of his hat. “Nothing you can do will hurt me.”
“It's dou—”
“No. Any further outburst will be settled by having you dismissed. Don't think I can't get someone else to do your job. It's easy enough and you're not even excelling at it.”
His lips thin. “Very well. If that is all, My Lady.”
“That is all.”
He gives a bow and hurries from the room. Why do I feel like the best option just then would have been to stab him?