Blood of A Seeker

Blood of A Seeker -8-

I looked down at the first symbol and frowned. To be honest it was a lot simpler than the first two symbols on the previous pages so it was nothing compared to the title. The word ‘Code’ lolled at the tip of my tongue. Calling these mixed lines of ink ‘symbols’ didn’t sound quite right – code seemed more like it.

For a moment, I felt my fingers twitch. I had the strangest urge to draw this particular symbol, especially because it was so simple. The word ‘door’ caught my eye, scrawled in a single messy bullet point beneath the character: code opens doors.

I frowned. So these symbols were really called codes . . . and this one supposedly opened doors? I shook my head. There was no way . . .

My fingers twitched again, the urge to draw the code overcoming me and before I knew it, I was up on my feet and searching for some paper and pen.

With no luck, I settled down in one of the comfy chairs and curled up in it with the book in my lap. I skimmed through the pages, catching glimpses of snippets of scrawled notes written all over the book and codes. Somebody had obviously borrowed it and made it their own, what with all these scribbles and annotations around it. So why on earth was this book in the Fairwyn library? Was it part of ancient history books or was it just in the wrong place?

I’d have to ask Rosemarie about that later.

“Hey Mary?” I asked aloud and chewed on my lower lip. The small thin book was hiding in the large pocket of my jacket as she drove back to the Council Hall.

It was only the day after Jocelyn and Katherine had presented their demonstration and Rosemarie had been too busy with some Protectors meetings to pay attention to my questions. Now that we were alone in the car that morning, I could ask her.

“Yeah, kiddo?” she replied grumpily. “Sorry. I’ve been up all night . . . figuring something out.” I caught her glancing at me then realised the dark rings under her eyes – something I had been without over the past few days, fortunately for me.

“Do you know anything about . . . symbols?” I questioned lightly, not wanting to use the actual term ‘code’ in front of her in case she immediately felt like I shouldn’t know about it.

“Well there are female and male symbols on bathroom doors.” Her tone was sour and sarcastic. “There are millions of symbols in the world – it’s a very wide topic.” No doubt she was cranky.

“More specifically for Chromas,” I said hastily, stroking the rough leather of the book. I had gone over it the night before and concluded that it was a whole book of codes dedicated to opening things. For all I knew, it could just be opening locks or whatnot – I had still yet to figure out how it worked let alone try it out.

“Uh I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said distractedly and glued her eyes to the road, tapping her finger on the wheel.

“I mean . . . uh codes,” I told her hesitantly, my voice quietening at the end. Code was such a normal word and yet the context I was talking about it in seemed obvious enough for her to catch on – or at least I hoped.

The whole car fell silent as an array of emotions flickered across her face. “Codes, huh?”

“Yeah, codes,” I agreed with a frown and glanced at her questioningly. “Is there something wrong?”

She shook her matted blonde hair and sighed. “Sorry kiddo. I’m dragging you along with me to the meeting but Stefan will be in the library somewhere so you can hang out with him.”

I snorted. “He’s over half my age.”

“You can make friends with anybody of any age,” Rosemarie defended a little moodily. I tried to shrug off how she completely avoided my question.

“Back to the codes,” I said slowly and held a firm grasp on the book more confidently, slowly drawing it out.

The car came to an abrupt stop, the key snapped out of the ignition faster than I could blink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Alexi. Get out of the car and into the library.”

I couldn’t help but feel miffed at her sudden change of attitude and felt my own anger spark. “I was just asking a question.”

“Well don’t because I don’t know the answer to it,” she growled, slamming the car door and making me jump. I scrambled out before she could get round to scolding me more and heard her lock the car with the press of a button. “Please, just leave it alone.” She yawned for several moments and rubbed her sleepy eyes. “Go find Stefan and ask him about some of the best books in the library. He spends most of his time there anyway.”

“But he’s a Keeper, shouldn’t he be –”

“Go, shoo,” Rosemarie urged, nudging me up towards the Council Hall and through the doors, the thick scent overwhelming me for a moment. “Try find him.”