Page 74

“Wonderful,” Paige moaned.

“We should have no problem getting into the library, but accessing the archive itself may prove tricky.”

“Uh, yeah, I’m sure they have security in place just like we do.”

“Right, but the question is, what kind?”

Paige ceased her pacing again and shot a glance at the tiny dragon. “Is it not universal?”

“No,” Dewey said with a shake of his head, “each archive has its own security. But I may have a way around that, too.”

“I’m all ears.”

“We have an artifact that allows the user to seep through walls.”

Paige collapsed into the chair in a heap, raising her eyebrows. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not. We should practice with it if we’re going to use it though because it can be a little…fiddly.”

“Fiddly?” Paige repeated.

“Yeah, and we wouldn’t want to become stuck in the middle of a wall.”

Paige settled her features into an unimpressed stare at the notion.

Dewey pulled his chin back to his chest and ticked a line on his paper. “So, that solves that. And once we’re in, we’ll just need to locate the artifact, retrieve it, and be on our way. Simple.”

“Oh, yeah. A walk in the park. Piece of cake. Easy-peasy.”

“You don’t seem grateful.”

Paige heaved a sigh and adjusted her glasses. “I am. I’m just not happy about stealing something or using a magical artifact that could get me stuck in a wall. But I’ll do it.”

“You will be happy once that beast can’t mark you again. Speaking of, let me check your wound again.”

Paige leaned forward, and Dewey flitted to her and eased the bandage back, peering underneath before he patted it back into place.

“Well?” she questioned.

“It’s no better. In fact, it may be worse.”

“Worse?” Paige exclaimed. “How could it get worse?”

Dewey winced as he landed on his chaise. “It’s turned green.”

Paige sank her forehead into her palm. “Oh, come on! I really can’t catch a break.”

Dewey hefted a large volume onto his lap and paged through it. “Actually, I’m hoping the green color is the break we need.”

He flipped several pages until he found the appropriate spot. His chunky finger traced the paper as his lips moved, murmuring a few words before he found what he sought.

“Here we go. Cases where the general remedy fails. Should the general remedy fail, it likely is the result of…” He wrinkled his nose. “No, not that.”

“What? What is it? Some kind of Cerberus? Medusa? What?”

“No, it says could be the result of poor craftsmanship of the remedy. That can’t be it. I’m excellent at potions. I aced it in school.”

“Noooo, that couldn’t be it,” Paige mocked. “You only mess up potions that require a weight calculation.”