I hoped Heidel was okay. She seemed to have some knowledge of magic, but I doubted she knew how dangerous that dream catcher could be. I had to find her soon. No, I had to find her now. I didn’t have time to let my bones heal.
I headed for the door and peeked outside. The empty hallway stared back. Good. Eugrid couldn’t follow me, although I suspected she would find out sooner or later that I’d escaped. The stone tiles felt cold under my bare feet, and windows, similar to the ones in my room, sat in recesses along the walls. Pale sunlight drifted through them, painting warmth across the chilly floors.
As I walked through the hall, I decided that if I ever settled down, I’d like to have a view like this. If I got into an awful mood, which wasn’t hard for me to do, I would stand in front of these windows until I calmed down. Or if that didn’t work, I could at least pound my head against the glass.
I found the library. The doors were slightly ajar, so I pushed them aside to enter a room large enough to rival Fan’twar’s chambers. Smells of worn leather and careworn paper greeted me, and I breathed them in. This room reminded me of the libraries in the dragon cave. I’d spent hours there as a child, never feeling as if I’d soaked in enough knowledge, always feeling as if a new adventure waited behind the cover of another book.
The number of books in this library rivaled the dragons’ collections. I had no idea the Wults were so interested in books. The shelves spanned all the way to the ceiling—at least two-stories tall. My footsteps echoed over the huge, marble tiles.
“Heidel?” I called. My voice bounced off the walls, though I got no reply. I searched through the stacks but found no one.
Where was she?
I followed the stacks until I found the back wall. A fireplace as tall as two men and with a wooden grate took up most of the wall. Odd. Why would anyone use a wooden grate in a fireplace?
I stepped closer and noticed stones of differing colors made up the flu’s back wall. They formed an arch and reminded me of a doorway. I stepped past the grate and stood in front of the arched stones. A handle had been worked into the bricks.
Before deciding to blow the thing up, I tried the door handle. With a grating of stone, the door swung open. I entered a small chamber.
The dimly lit chamber looked dungeon-like with its low ceiling and smells of rot. Sconces made from animal bone lined the hallway. Firelight flickered from the wooden torches, putting off a smell of wood smoke.
I glanced back at the library. Would Heidel be back here? It seemed an odd place to wait for me, but if she had my dream catcher, I had no other choice but to find her. My bare feet made little sound as I crossed over the stone tiles.
Pain stitched through my side. I winced with every step, but continued on until sunlight replaced firelight. Leaving the hallway, I stepped into a cavernous room.
A domed ceiling soared overhead. Glass panels replaced the walls and ceiling. I’d thought the view out of my room had been beautiful, but this view was breathtaking. The mist burned away from the mountains. Tree branches swayed under a sapphire sky. Maywelters made ripples in the water.
“Didn’t you read the sign? Death to those who enter?”
Kull’s voice. I focused on a leather chair near the back of the room.
“My Wultish is rusty. Aren’t you supposed to be hunting?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”
I walked around the chair to face him. He was wearing actual glasses—the nerdy kind that made his eyes bulge. His knit turtleneck sweater made the glasses look even nerdier. He sat comfortably in his chair, a tumbler filled with an amber-colored liquid next to him. I wondered if I’d stumbled on Kull’s smarter, less arrogant, more cultured twin brother.
He closed the book he’d been reading to stare at me.
“You look confused,” he said.
“I’m wondering what happened to the sword and blood-soaked animal skins.”
His grin looked rakish. “You preferred me in that?”
I couldn’t answer. What was it with him that made me so tongue-tied?
“You’re trespassing. Most people who come in here leave as corpses.”
“Sure they do.”
Nope, still arrogant.
He took a sip from his tumbler when I noticed the cover of his book. When Dreams Cometh.
I gasped. “Where’d you get that?”
He inspected the book. “Boring as hell, but I’ve read everything else in this library.”
“You stole it from me.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions. It’s been in my library for years.”
I crossed my arms. “Did Heidel manage to smuggle that away along with us?”
“She might have. I might have borrowed it from her. I was curious to know why you felt the need to steal it from Geth. But I’ve decided that you must find something more exciting to read. Like the romance category—very stimulating—and I’m sure you’d discover it to be very educational.”
“I’ll have you know that I have a boyfriend.” One that I hadn’t talked to in a week, but he didn’t have to know that.
“Heidel says the same thing when I prod her. But, you know, she’s never introduced me to him. Makes me wonder if she’s lying to me.”
“I am not lying.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“You implied it.”
He stood slowly, and stopped next to me. I flinched when he pushed my hair away from my ear. “Are elven ears always so pink? Or is it only the half-elf sort that changes this color?”
“Why don’t you ask Euralysia?”
He laughed.
I stepped toward the window. Being close to him made me feel too volatile. “I’d like that book back, if you don’t mind.”
“Do you know what you’re asking for?”
I sighed. He wore down my patience. “Of course I do.”
“No.” His voice took on a somber tone. When he removed his glasses, he somehow seemed
