The Strings in the Shadows

Chapter Four- In which two days have passed

"Shala, Lord Luke."

"Well, Shala, this is good bye. For now," he flashed a grin at the pretty maid, who ducked her head and blushed. "Rest assured, I'll arrive at the library shortly." He gave her a mock salute and jumped off of his nineth story balcony.

Luke heard the maid scream, but he was laughing as he rapidly fell three stories. At the fourth, he twisted his body to face the wall. After falling five more stories, he braced himself and ended his fall by grabbing the first story's balcony. His muscled screamed in agony, and it felt like his arms and fingers were being torn off, but they held as he came to a jarring stop. Grinning wider than a Werewolf after eating (he'd always wanted to do that), he let go of the balcony to lightly fall to the ground below.

What he hadn't accounted for was for anybody passing below him, as Prince Edward was.

"AGH!!" Yelled Edward. "WHAT THE HELL?! LUKE?!"

Luke picked himself off his cousin and offered Edward a hand. The Prince took it, swearing. Once he was sure his Prime was okay, Luke said,"Sorry I fell on you, Ed. I was testing a new exit point from my room. It cuts travel time down considerably."

"What'd you mean..." Understanding dawned on Edward and he looked upwards, blood draining from his face. "Oh, Luke, you didn't...How-"

"No time, Ed, Kaira wants me," cut off Luke as he began his way to the East wing. "Do you want to come? She said it was important, and the maid was throwing words around like "Immediantly"."

Edward followed his Shadow, shaking his head. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Always," Luke said, still smiling. "Say, how'd the meeting with his Royalness go?"

Edward filled Luke in about the green dresses and other boring-ness the King had spoken to him about. By the end of his quick summary, they had arrived at the massive Palace library. The Librarian, a man in his middle fifties whose real name was Snag Cooks, but everyone called him Books, was at the front desk by the entryway.

Books looked up at Edward and Luke with piercing, watery blue eyes from underneath his bushy white black eyebrows. His salt and pepper hair was neatly brushed and pulled back by a blue ribbon, and he wore the blue robes that marked him Senior Librarian (the novices wore yellow robes).

"Master Luke...and Crown Prince Edward... To what do we owe the pleasure?" He asked a little disdainfully. Luke thought that might be because the last time they were in here they knocked over three book cases while playing catch.

"Up here!" The two heard Kaira's voice from the second floor. Edward gestured to Books that they were headed to Kaira as they started going her direction. The two boys didn't like the stickler-to-the-Rules Librarian anymore than he did them, "Oh, you brought Ed," she said absent mindedly when they got to her.

"Kai, what are you doing?" asked Luke puzzledly. His sister was lying flat on the floor, looking underneath the bookshelves. She sighed, and rolled up to her feet until she was in the standing posistion.

"Long story short, I've recently found out that an authentic Mactintosh notebook was in this library. I thought I might find some message or something from him, or another book, or SOMETHING!" She shouted in frustration.

"QUIET UP THERE!" Boomed Books' gravelly voice.

"A Mactintosh! Really!?" Whispered Edward. Even Luke knew about the famous founder of the Mechaniks Guild. Both Edward and Luke knew about Kaira's secret obsession of being a Mechanik, and both knew how much such a discovery would mean to Kaira.

"Yes! With designs and everything!" Kaira smiled wistfully.

"So where's the notebook?" asked Luke.

"With the kitchen servant who found it," said Kaira mournfully. At Luke's and Edward's upraised eyebrows, she elaborated,"He climbed my tree a couple days ago, we had a chat, the notebook was with him. I was so absorbed in looking at it that the two o'clock change almost caught me. Ramsey would have had a field day if he caught me, and I didn't want to risk losing the notebook,so I left it with the boy.

"But now, I can't find the boy, and I've looked through this entire library for two days, and I've found absolutely nothing!" Kaira sounded close to tears, and the two boys exchanged worried looks. This was strange, Luke mused, normally Kaira was the one worried about one of them, and she never showed her emotional range so vividly.

"Why don't we go to the kitchen and ask for him? What's his name?" Edward was interested in looking in the notebook almost as much as Kaira was, Luke thought.

"Jack..."

"Then Jack we will find! Nothing can get past two Shadows and their Prime!" Luke nudged Kaira with his shoulder, and she smiled greatfully.

On their way out of the library and past the disagreeable Books, Kaira asked why Luke's hair looked like it had been in a tornado. Her brother, grinning, leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"ARE YOU INSANE, LUCIOUS WELLINGTON!?!" Kaira yelled, and Luke took off running towards the Kitchens, Kaira on his heels, screaming at him about how deranged she thought he was, Edward running after them, slightly impeded by how much he was laughing.

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1) So, no, I don't agree with Luke's opinion about the library. I love libraries! It's where all my friends live! Without. Libraries, I highly doubt I would have survived so long, and they are definately the reason for my continued, if slightly screwed, sanity.

2) Luke's not serious about the maid, but she was, to qoute movie Dumbledore, very pretty, and he was showing off, so what's a little flirtmance on the side? Like I said, he was bored.

3) YES I KNOW THAT JUMPING OUT OF A BUILDING AND CATCHING YOURSELF LIKE THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. There is a reason for that.😈😈😈you might not like me when you find out. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Huh. First time I write from Luke's POV. He looks like a crazy daredevil...Oh wait. He is.

Also, Wattpad would not let me title this chapter for unknown reasons.

Peace out, Demigods!