Conquest of War

Chapter nine

Later that day in the Talvok Library
Fayrn looked around the room as she sat on the floor in an alcove where the oldest books in the library were locked in heavy wooden cabinets. Unbeknownst to anyone, Fayrn had read almost all of the books locked away in those cabinets; as a child she had been driven mad by curiosity about them until she finally mastered the art of picking locks and opened the forbidden archive of books herself. It was from these books she learned a deep knowledge of healing and many other things. One book had spoken of hidden passages in the palace that would allow one to go almost anywhere in the oldest parts of the structure without being seen. They were built as escape tunnels in the early age of the Talvok when the Shavendral had nearly destroyed their kind. The tunnels also led into a cave system beneath the palace which the book had hinted was a way to escape into the Natiri Forest. However the location of any entrances were never specified.
Fayrn sighed as she picked up the heavy book of histories and set it on the floor in front of her. She traced the strange symbol of a snake spiraling around itself that was etched into the corner of the cracking leather cover. She had searched the archives for what the symbol meant but no book she had come across had any information about it. She was going to read the book again in hopes that she had missed something about the entrances. As she scanned the yellowed parchment pages she scowled as she tried to remember the specifics of grammatical structure in the ancient dialects. After several pages she looked up at the wall and rubbed her temples as she let out a frustrated breath. She loved reading, but she despised translations from ancient texts they made her head hurt after a while.
Then after she took a breath she looked back at the text with a concentrated frown. The first time she had translated this text she had not been as careful as she would be this time so it would take much longer this time. Nonetheless as much as she was not looking forward to doing it she only had a few hours to complete her task. The small princess studiously a rip through the ancient book for several hours until her candle burned low and she blinked and surprise. She didn't realize that she had been sitting there for that long. When she tried to sit up straight her back protested and she scowled as she stretched her back trying to get out the kinks. She sighed as she stood up stretching as she looked around the room. She found that she was still alone, no pesky soldiers had found her just yet. Finally, she sat back down pulling the book into her lap so she could examine the words more closely. After several moments she heard someone open to heavy wooden doors of the library and immediately shut the book she was holding. Last thing she needed was the enemy knowing about her secret tunnels.
"Princess?" A soldier called softly as his voice of edged with fear and Fayrn froze as she looked around for a place to hide the book. Then her eyes landed on the pile of old books and she quickly buried the book in there before walking around the corner to where the soldier could see her.
"Can I help you?" She asked calmly as she looked at the man and he sighed.
"The Prince's orders were you were only allowed to leave your chambers if accompanied by one of your guards..." She cut him off with a scowl.
"I wanted to read in peace, without a brute looking over my shoulder the whole time. I am not going anywhere" Fayrn grumbled as the man looked at her in confusion. He had heard that Talvok women were not allowed to read, but apparently that was just a rumor because the woman before him was obviously very well versed in literature.
"I know it is not what you are accustomed to, but if we don't obey our prince we are punished. Also your laws are no longer in place. You are now under Shavendral rule and you must learn to follow our laws..." The man trailed off as he realized that the princess was rolling her eyes at him. He had only seen her with the Prince and she was submissive to him, but now she was a willful defiant pain in the ass.
"Oh well I will return to my chambers now" she muttered in annoyance as she walked out and the soldier followed after her.
When Fayrn got back to her chambers she locked the door and glares at the wall, but frowned when she notices something off about the carved stonework of her fireplace. The pattern was slightly off. She walked over to examine it further and gasped in shock. Hidden in the pattern of vines and leaves was the symbol from the book. Why had she never noticed it before? Slowly she reached out a hand and touched the symbol. To her surprise it sank further into the stone and something clicked and a panel of stone beside the fireplace slide open to reveal a dark passageway. She had found an entrance.
Now the only problem was navigating the vast network and tunnels which the book had spoken about. She had no map so it was going to make things much harder on everyone.
AN:
I am so glad and then finals are almost over. Once they're over going vegging on the couch. This semester has been horrible for me LOL. Once I'm done with the semester I should be a little update more regularly. So should I keep this chapter will get rid of it. Does it all makes sense? How do you like the character nurturance? Do you like this chapter?. Please comment and give me feedback and thank you for reading my story and have a great day.