Page 5

CHAPTER FIVE

I’d wondered why Althea had never mentioned this ancient text full of lost wisdom; surely she knew about it, even if she hadn’t read it. But as soon as I hit the first page, I realized why. Firstly, it was written in tiny, cramped handwritten letters. Secondly, it was in Latin. Probably. I didn’t actually know Latin, but that was what people wrote stuff in back in the old days, wasn’t it? The letters seemed more or less the same as the alphabet I knew, so it wasn’t in hieroglyphs or runes or something, but I had about as much chance of understanding it either way.

I glanced around. The curator was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t lurking in the shadows. Or had some kind of nanny-cam set up for his books. He hadn’t explicitly told me not to use my phone around the book, but I doubted he’d approve. Still, he must’ve known I couldn’t understand Latin, right?

I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t have much choice. I pulled out my phone and loaded up my translation app. It was going to take forever, scanning each page to see if it was relevant, but if it gave me a step-by-step guide to using the lodestone, it would be worth it.

It was chilly and uncomfortable down there, especially perched weirdly on the chair like I was, but I didn’t want to take a break to get the feeling back in my knees or go grab a sweater. I didn’t trust that the curator would give me access to the book a second time, especially if he knew I’d exposed it to radiation from my phone or whatever.

So, I kept on. Carefully turn a page, place the weighted string, aim my phone, and wait for it to translate, realize it wasn’t relevant, pick up the string, and repeat. Assuming the book had a hundred pages – it was definitely more, but for the sake of easy math – and it took around a minute per page – it was definitely longer, the app was super slow all the way down in this book dungeon – then I’d be there for a few hours at least. My belly rumbled, but I ignored it and kept on. Turn the page, place the string, translate the text, over and over.

There was some super interesting stuff in this book, but I didn’t have time to be diverted by it. I thought Hannah would probably give her right arm for some of the rituals, and occasionally I’d screenshot the translation if something sounded particularly awesome.

When I finally got to it, I almost skipped the page. It was headed “nexum e cursus”, which I just assumed would be about a curse of some sort, which wasn’t helpful to me, but my app started translating before I could move the string and turn the page, and as soon as it did, I realized I’d found what I was looking for.

“Cursus” wasn’t anything to do with a curse, it was course , or journey, like the “lode” in lodestone; and nexum was the same as nexus, like a coming together, a convergence. I sat back on my heels, giving my body a break for a moment while I thought about what that meant.

A meeting of different paths? Like a crossroads? Maybe. But how did that relate to the power of the stone?

My neck cracked in protest as I sat up to crane over the book again, but I couldn’t stop now that I was so close.

It was hard going. The translation app worked fine to get a gist of what the text was about, but it got a little confused when it came to the details. There were about five pages in total about the lodestone, then it moved on to an entry about a talking tree, which sounded awesome but not helpful.

I made sure the flash was off in my camera app and photographed the pages about the lodestone carefully, making sure every word was legible in the photos. I screenshotted the translations as well, but figured it was best to have the original so I could get a more accurate translation when I was out of there.

I’d barely made it halfway through the book, and I just bet there was a bunch more awesome stuff, but now that I had what I needed, I realized my body was screaming at me. It wanted the bathroom, food, and sleep, in that order. Then maybe a massage.

I flicked through my camera roll one more time, just to make sure everything was clear enough to read, then carefully closed the book and stood up. My legs were like jelly after kneeling for all that time, so I bounced up and down for a minute to get the feeling back into them. Probably, I shouldn’t make any sudden movements near the book, either, but I was going to face-plant otherwise.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find my way back to the curator’s desk, but it was surprisingly easy, as he’d put an extra lamp out at each turn. I hadn’t expected him to be so thoughtful, but maybe he just didn’t want me lost among his precious books.

“Did you damage the book?” he demanded, as soon as I came into sight. He must have been just sitting there waiting for me to appear the whole time, fretting over his book.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s as good as new,” I said. “But thank you for showing it to me. It was very helpful.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You know Latin?”

I shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “I know enough.”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie. I knew enough to use my translation app.

“Good luck,” he said. “I hope you find a cure for Althea. She deserves to live a full and healthy life.”

It seemed like a weird thing to say, but he was a weird guy. Althea was probably the only person he saw regularly, stuck down there in the book dungeon. Well, and Hamish. No wonder he was a bit of an odd duck.

My brothers were all asleep by the time I got back. I’d been gone a lot longer than I thought. I made a sandwich in the little kitchenette in our shared area. I was dead tired and still a bit cold, but I wanted to work more on the translation of the book, so I took my sandwich to bed and cranked up the heating. I was always nagging my brothers about eating in bed, so I’d have to make sure I left no trace or I’d never hear the end of it.

I started with the app-translated text as a guide, matching it with the original text word by word, noting anything that didn’t make sense or words that could have wildly different meanings. A picture started to form of what the text meant, but by that point, the words were swimming in front of my eyes. I emailed the original text along with the few paragraphs that I’d translated to Tennyson, with the subject: “you know Latin, right?”, then took my plate out of the sink to rinse off the sandwich crumbs.

“You shouldn’t eat in bed, you know.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. I dropped the plate and it clattered in the sink.

“Sheesh, Liam, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

He shuffled out of the darkness and took a seat at the table. “You missed dinner.”

“I know. I lost track of time.”

“You were with Tennyson?”

I didn’t like the way Liam said Tennyson’s name. Like Tennyson was something awful.

“No,” I said. “I was in the library doing some research. What did Hamish do to that guy down there, anyway?”

Liam huffed a laugh. “Papier maché.”

I groaned, but I was pleased that Liam sounded a little more like himself. I wanted things to be okay between us. He was my brother, the closest to my age, and I relied on him for so much. I didn’t want him to resent me.

“If things go well, this all might be over soon,” I told him. “You can go to a real school, and everything can get back to normal.”

He snorted. “Normal. Right.”

“I just want you to be safe,” I said. “And it’s not safe at the moment.”

“He wouldn’t hurt us,” Liam said. “He’s our dad.”

I chewed on my lip. I had to be careful. I suspected our father had been in contact with the boys. I didn’t know how, or how often, or what he’d said, but I thought maybe he’d been targeting Liam.

Liam was older, and the other two couldn’t keep their mouths shut for love or money, so I was fairly sure they’d have slipped up and told me. Liam obviously saw me as the authority figure he needed to rebel against, which left him wide open for manipulation by our father. He’d been so young when our dad left that he only had good memories. Heck, even I’d mostly only had good memories, at least, up until when he came back into our lives and caused a magical war.

“He hurts people,” I said. “That’s what he does. He hurt me, and he’d hurt you and the boys as well. You can’t trust him.”

Liam looked as if he was about to argue, then shook his head. “You should go to bed. Hamish will have you up at the crack of dawn.”

He gave me a wry smile and then stood up. I sighed, watching as he retreated back into the shadows and closed his bedroom door. I could see that whole situation turning into a problem. I should nip it in the bud, but I didn’t know how. I’d never signed up to be a parent to my brothers. I had no clue what I was doing. The easiest way was to stop my father before he could interfere in our lives anymore.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t woken at the crack of dawn by Hamish. It was by Tennyson, looming over my bed like a creeper.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked when my eyes focused enough to see him.

“Not long,” he said. “Hurry up and get dressed, we need to go back to school. Althea’s awake.”