The Blood Sigil (The Sigilord Chronicles Book 2) (26 page)

"So where is the real library?" Choein asked.

"There's a book on one of the shelves out here in the main area," Lu said with a smile. "It's the only book in this library not of this world. Actually, it isn't even from this universe. That's how we know it's the right book. It unlocks the true library. It's a story about a girl who travels to another world. Rather fitting, really. It's red with a three-oval symbol on the spine. If you find it, do not touch the sigil."

They spread out in search of the book. It seemed to take them hours, but Urus didn't mind.
 
I have to come back here when we're done
, he thought.
So many books to read!

"Got it!" shouted Tol, victoriously holding up a red book with a golden image of a queen embossed on the front cover. "I think."

They regrouped around a table in the center of the library, where Tol set down the book.
 

"That's it," Lu said, clapping. "You see that symbol on the spine with the three ovals and the circle in the middle? That's the sigil to open the library."

"Press it," Urus said.

Luse did so. The sigil glowed green. The same pattern on the book spine appeared in the floor of the library. The stone within each of the ovals and the center circle vanished, revealing a staircase spiraling downward.

"Why wouldn't the blood mages have just smashed the floor open if they were looking for the hidden library?" Urus asked.

"You're still not thinking like a sigilord," Lu said, her smile contagious. "Time and space, remember? The hidden library
wasn't there
until we unlocked it with the book. They could have smashed the floor, but they would have found nothing."

"Where was it before we unlocked it?" asked Urus.

Lu grinned. "Ah, now that's a good question, isn't it?" Without answering his question, she dashed down the staircase and disappeared.

The real library, the library that existed
somewhere
other than in the decoy library, was far less elegant. Where the library on display was neat and organized, with everything in its place and properly labeled, the lower library was just a dark hole, into which had been filed books and papers with no apparent purpose or organization.

Lu's green light illuminated the room. The radixes spread out, searching the room for potential threats, and then took up defensive positions. Urus was thankful to have them around. Some of them insisted on calling him
my lord
, while others, like Tol, viewed him much the same way Battlemaster Guren had, as a poor excuse for a warrior and certainly not someone who was fit to lead. Despite the conflict, having been given a taste of what it felt like to be alone, he was glad for their company.

"Here it is," Lu said, hefting an enormous tome back to a table made. "The Codex of Sigils."

"Careful, my lady," Choein cautioned. "That is the most sacred of all books."

Lu took a piece of parchment from the table and used it to open the book. "I know," she whispered, her reverence for the book obvious. Using the same piece of parchment to keep the oils from her fingers from touching the book, she flipped through the pages as fast as she could without risking a tear.
 

"There are so many sigils," Urus said. "What do they all do?"

"Just about anything you can imagine," Lu said. "As long as it involves time and space, which is pretty much everything."

As Lu examined each page, Urus grew bored and restless. He found other books nearby to look through, dismissing a few because he either couldn't read them or they contained things like recipes for mixing mortar or the proper way to stack bricks for a wall.

Frustrated, he continued to sift through more books, until he found what looked like a children's book about sigilcraft. He opened it, surprised to see brightly colored pictures depicting sigilords wielding their magic.
 

I've been reduced to reading children's books
, Urus thought.
Luse must think I'm a burden. But I have to start somewhere
. Checking to ensure no one was paying attention to him, he studied the children's book. At least the pictures were well done and entertaining. It would give him something to do to pass the time while Lu did the real research. Hunched over the giant tome as she was, concentrating on each page, she seemed far older than she had before.

He turned the pages carefully, Children's book or no, it was terribly old. He read through pages with pictures of various animals, children playing, descriptions of the seasons and weather. He was about to turn past a page that had far more words on it than the previous pages when he noticed that the person drawn at the top of the page wielded
blue
sigilcraft.

The drawing depicted a young boy, his hands outstretched, palms pressed against a floating sigil. On the other side of the page, other boys seemed to be blown backwards by a wind, illustrated by tossed leaves and blustery lines across the page, all artfully done to frame the words below.

The page began, "The birth defect known as ceruleanism has only happened twice in the recorded history of the sigilords."

Birth defect?

He continued reading. "While the standard green and occasionally occurring yellow sigilcraft are well balanced and anchored in the home universe of the sigilord, a cerulean sigilord has no such anchor. Their power, and thus the consequences of their sigilcraft, can span several,
or all
, universes at once."

Urus shook his head, unable to believe what he was reading, but couldn't stop either.

"If a mother were to become pregnant with a cerulean sigilord, fear not," the book continued. "The sigil archlords would discover it before the baby was born and stop the birth defect."

Stop the birth defect
. He read the line again. It was pretty clear what that meant. They would kill the unborn baby.

His heart ached. One night after his uncle had drunk too much mead, he had let slip that upon discovering Urus's deafness, Urus's father tried to kill him. Aegaz had somehow convinced the man not to do it, an argument that rested on the fact that even a deaf child could be taught to fight. Urus had been unwanted from birth because of his deafness, and he had always lived with that knowledge and shame.
 

Now he had discovered that he had yet another birth defect. The sigilords, people he thought might have been more enlightened than the Kestians, would have killed him too, had he been born in Vultura like Luse. Deaf, culled, and now cerulean. At every turn, every chance he had to belong, to be part of something, had shunned him, tried to kill him, or had him physically branded as an exile.

There seemed to be no escaping his fate as an outcast.

He looked up from the book, down the hall at Luse, her head buried in the tome as the radixes milled about.
 

I'm going to fail them
, he thought.
I don't know what I'm doing, the arbiters are going to kill the sigilord, and I am going to fail all these people. I'm little more than a collection of birth defects.

Returning his attention to the book, he realized that in his anger he had torn out the page on ceruleanism.
 

He regained his composure and returned to Luse.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking up, her eyes red from reading so much. Apparently there was very little he could hide from her.

"I'm just a little frustrated with the books," Urus said.

Lu flashed him a comforting smile. "Don't let it get to you. I can't read most of them either, and I was born here."

Urus limped around the small sub-library, hands clasped behind his back. It suddenly dawned on him that he had seen his uncle pace exactly the same way countless times before. He wondered where his uncle was, and if he was with Goodwyn.

A piece of parchment bounced off the side of his face. He turned to see Luse smiling at him.

"I think I have something," she said.

"What is it?" Urus asked, coming to peek at the book over her shoulder.

"This sigil here," Lu tapped the page. "The codex calls it 'the net.' Apparently the crafter, if powerful enough, can cast a net that will detect and locate the use of sigilcraft. Assuming Autar Kelus is the only other sigilord on this planet, it should be easy to find him with this."

"And if he is using his sigilcraft because the arbiters are killing him?" Urus asked.

"Then we'll have to hope we get there in time to save him," Lu said. "I think you should etch this one, Urus. If I do it, I think it will only pick up green sigilcraft. On the off chance he's a yellow, your net sigil should still detect it."

Because I have a birth defect
, Urus thought. The thought infuriated him, as did the sigilords. They were just like the Kestians, only they had far more power. He no longer wanted any part of it. Not the sigilords, the blood mages, the Kestians, or anyone else. Someday he would be done with all of it and find a nice place to get away; a nice, green, cool place with lots of water and no sand.

"I can't," he said. "What if something goes wrong? You could get hurt…or worse."

"You can do it," Luse said. "I believe in you. Just clear your mind and concentrate on just the sigil."

"I would feel better if everyone left," Urus said. "Just in case."

Choein took the cue and ushered the radixes out of the library.

Once he was alone with Luse, Urus called the power of the sigils to him. This time the sight of the blue smoke and the warm pain in his fingers and arms didn't feel the same as it had before. It felt tainted somehow. As the wisps of cerulean power drifted up from his fingers, all he could think about were the poor babies who had been taken from their mothers, just because their power was different.

He studied the book, copying the intricate webwork of lines that made up the net sigil. Lu gave him more instructions as he etched, the blue smoke congealing into a thick, glowing latticework hovering in the middle of the library.

"Once it's done, you have to concentrate on what you want to detect. In our case, I think it's just any kind of sigilcraft, so just think about generic magic. Unlike the travel sigil that needs specifics, keep your mind open and unfocused for this one."

Urus tried to empty his mind, to keep it unfocused. Each time he did, his thoughts returned to the page folded in his shirt, to the mention of his other birth defect. The anger was so hard to keep down. He thought of sigilcraft, but it no longer held the same mystery or awe for him.
 

He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, finally able to let go of the anger long enough to focus—or not focus—on what he wanted. His mind was a broad, empty slate, open to the use of any kind of magic. Hoping he was unfocused enough, he pressed his hand to the sigil.
 

At once the lattice of the sigil's net expanded, surging out of the room until it was gone. The original sigil shape warped and began to sag. Bits of the solid blue power dripped like molten lava, burning holes in the floor.

He took a few steps back, watching as the sigil dissipated, taking large chunks of stone floor with it.

"What happened?" Urus asked.

"I think it worked," Lu said. "The sigil just didn't fade as smoothly as it should have."

Urus frowned. "A big piece of the floor is missing. That's worse than just not smooth."

"It's okay, you will get better."

"So how does the sigil work?" Urus asked, unable to take his eyes off the charred voids left behind by the sigil.

"If someone uses sigilcraft on Emys, the net should let you know," Lu said. "And before you ask—no, I don't know how it will let you know. I've never used this sigil before."

"So now we wait," Urus said, taking a seat on one of the book stacks. "We wait and hope that the arbiters haven't killed another sigilord."

Chapter Seventeen

"You can't just walk in there," Colin pleaded, tugging on Cailix's arm. Shivering against the cold, they stood across the street from the pub she'd seen Anderis's henchmen enter.

She needed to get rid of Colin. He was part of a different world, a world where people had luxuries like emotions and attachments. She couldn't afford to have him around. His presence made her wish she was back on Aldsdowne and brought back feelings for the people who had become her family. Those kinds of feelings could get her, and Colin, killed.

"First, I can go wherever I like, whenever I like," Cailix said, pulling her arm back. "Second, you're the one who is in danger here, not me. And finally, Anderis already knows I'm here. There's no use hiding anymore. I have to make the next move to stay in control."

"What next move?" Colin asked.

"Let me worry about that," Cailix said. "You just need to stay out of the way."

"I'm not letting you go in there alone," said Colin.
 

Such a stubborn fool
, she thought.
An annoying, stubborn farmer
.

"I'm going in there," said Cailix. "If you insist on going in, you give me five minutes and come in then. Do not look at me. Do not acknowledge that I exist. Understood?"