When the Raven Calls

Chapter 19

"FOUND IT," MACEY SAID, SITTING up, her face aglow with excitement. I leaned over, looking at her book and seeing the ales-prodigo.

"Great job!" I said, my heart picking up its pace. "What does it mean?"

"According to this," she said, skimming the page. "It means an (or sometimes the) 'omen'."

"Wow, because nothing was dramatically cryptic enough as it was," Chris said sarcastically, leaning his chair back to look over her shoulder at the document. A librarian walking past gave us a suspicious look, but didn't stop.

We were in the Caerin Library--one of the most famous collections of literature and nonfiction in all of Illvonya. We had actually been in Caerin for a few days, and we had even bought a small, 5 room apartment (3 rooms to be used for whatever you wanted, one bathroom, one kitchen) and split into teams--Chris and Thomas shared a room, and so did Syrena and Aria, and Macey and I.

"Okay, now we know what it means. Why's that matter?" Syrena ask grumpily, closing a book hard enough that a dust cloud erupted around her. Macey glared at his fiercely, reaching across the table, grabbing the book out of her hands and caressing its cover. Syrena rolled her eyes.

"Because once we know what it means, we can research it historically. If these guys are religious fanatics, they probably named themselves after or used their symbol as something from their religion, something to do with what they want. Once we know that, we can understand their patterns and predict what they'll do next, which will make them easier to beat," Aria said, still absorbed in her own dusty book. She hadn't so much as looked up this whole time, actually.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked, moving to stand behind her.

"Nothing!" she said, trying to cover the pages with her hands. She wasn't fast enough, though, and I grabbed it from under her. she had a smaller, thinner, and definitely more modern book hidden behind her huge, dusty volume.

"What is this, anyways?" I asked, surprised that she of all people was the one skimping out of her work. I started skimming, and my eyes grew bigger as my face grew redder. I slamed it shut after a few sentences.

"Aria!" I said, scandalized.

She flushed. "Hey, I'm entitled to my own preferences!"

"The Baron's Secret Mistress... Hang on, that's not one of those stories, is it?" Chris said, his eyes wide.

"I want to see," Thomas said, intrigued.

"Give me the damn book. I can like whatever I want!" she snapped, bright red.

"Oh, sure," I said, a mischievous grin curving across my face. "I just didn't know you liked things quite so... vivid."

"Give me the book!" she shrieked so loud that the librarians came running, scowling at us.

"What's going on here?" one of them snapped, looking around at us.

"Huh?" Macey asked, finally looking up from her translation. "Oh, dear. What happened now?"

She caught sight of the book's cover. "Who picked that up? Those books are gross. And don't anyone say it was a mistake--those books only make up 0.5% of all the types of books, so the odds of that happening are tiny."

We all just looked at each other and burst out laughing.The librarians tried to usher us out, and it was only after several sincere-sounding promises to be quieter that they allowed us to stay, walking away while shooting us dirty looks, and we went straight back to work.

***

"SAM?" MACEY ASKED quietly as I pulled the covers back to climb into bed.

"Yeah?" I said, turning off the light.

"It's just that... well, I've run the numbers, over and over and over, and I've tried every possible scenario I can think of, and I really mean every scenario; like, there was this one with horses that planted explosives and another one where--"

"Macey," I interrupted, knowing that she only rambled like this when it was something serious.

"Oh, right. So, the thing is..." She took a deep breath and said her next part all in one, unintelligible burst. "I ran the numbers and did the math and tried everything and everything points to the Deditanum using magic and I know they're supposed to kill the Tainted but I think that at least one must be working with them."

"Okay... Breath, and try that again," I said, trying to keep up.

"I think the Deditanum are working with at least one of the Tainted."

"Oh," I said, frowning thoughtfully. "But don't the Deditanum kill Tainted?"

"Yeah, but think about it. The chances of a fire starting in our house--especially since Syrena went through and fire-proofed it after that incident a few years back--"

I winced, remembering the disastrous results of our brief stint as pet-iguana owners.

"--it's almost impossible to start a fire in that house. We can't even use actual flames or flammable material to cook, and she switched all the oil lamps out."

"I know. What about it?"

"Well... I know it sounds crazy, but I think they might be working with a Tainted person. It's the only way they could've started a fire."

"Couldn't they have just have set it from the inside and run out?"

"No. We have too many locks for that to be feasible, and even if they did get past the ones you could in theory pick, we have old-fashioned chain locks on all the door and windows. The only way for someone to get it would be if they had broken in--like, by breaking the window. And that kind of noise would've woken us up."

"So..." I trailed off, my mind still reeling, considering the possibilities.

"So, the only way they could've possibly done that is if they were working with someone with powers. Someone Tainted."

She fell asleep not long after that, but I stayed awake, tossing and turning, my head spinning with possibilities. They only way they could've possibly done that is if they were working with someone with powers...

This changed everything we thought we knew about the Deditanum.