“You’d do that for me?” I asked when I could speak again.
“I wouldn’t be much of a scholar if I couldn’t pass on all this learning to other people, would I?”
I chuckled. “I suppose not.”
Amelia turned and picked up the book sitting by her side. She held it out to me.
I stared at it in wonder. “I’ve never even held a book like this before.”
“Well, go on then, this is your first chance.”
When I took the book reverently in both hands, I noticed that it was heavy. I laid it on my lap and put my hand on the stiff leather cover.
A quiver of excitement ran through me, and I looked at Amelia.
She nodded. “Open it up.”
I opened the book and laid the cover against my left knee, the rest of the dense codex resting against my right knee.
The first page was blank. That seemed strange. What were you meant to do at a blank page? I stared at it for a moment.
“You need to turn that first page over as well,” Amelia said gently.
I felt heat rise to my cheeks. “Right, that makes sense.”
I reached out and took the first page between my fingers. It was about the thickness of most tree leaves. The surface was a little rough and had a faint texture of browns mixed in with the lighter shades of cream and white. Near the top of the page were slightly darker gray markings. They almost resembled letters, like what I’d seen in the rest of the book.
As I watched, they grew darker. The stark black outlines of ink letters started to appear on the page.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
Amelia stared, her eyes wide and her hand to her mouth. “I don’t know. This has never happened before.”
I took my hand away, and the half letters started to fade again.
“Pick it up again,” Amelia said. “I think your hand is doing something to it.”
I took the page between my fingers again, and in the flickering light of the fire, we watched the letters continue to grow darker.
My hands trembled slightly as I clutched the book. “Why is this happening?” I asked, my voice quavering.
“I have no idea,” Amelia said.
“What does it say?” I asked. The letters stretched across the whole page at this point, reaching from top to bottom, and had almost finished darkening.
“Keep holding the page in your hand,” Amelia said. “I don’t know why, but it seems like your hand needs to be touching the page. I’ll read it aloud.”
I grasped the edge of the page between my trembling fingers as Amelia began to read.
“My end grows near. Ink Mage, in the hour of my final desperation, I leave this message here for you. Ink Mage, if by your touch you reveal this message, know beyond all doubt what you are, and what you must do. You are the only one who can save us from the folly of the High Order of Arcanists. Ink Mage, I have seen this. The greed of the High Order has grown great, and it will grow still greater in the years to come. The High Order of Arcanists will unleash a terrible evil upon the Kingdom. Only an Ink Mage has the power to confront this evil. I hope that even for you it will not prove too strong. You must prepare yourself with practice, and equip yourself with loyal allies and faithful companions.
You will face a formidable challenge sooner than you might wish.”
Chapter Six
“That’s everything?” I asked when Amelia had stopped reading.
“That’s all that was written,” Amelia replied.
We waited in silence for a moment. When I lifted my hand, the letters faded from the page in front of me.
The fire had died down a little, and I closed the book and handed it to Amelia before reaching over to chuck a handful of dry sticks and a few bigger logs onto the embers.
“What does it mean?” I asked as the flames licked up the fresh fuel.
“I can’t say for sure,” she replied. “In all the books I’ve ever read, I’ve never heard of a magic like this. But the message was left there for an Ink Mage, and it leaves me in no doubt that there’s more to this than chance.”
“I didn’t like the sound of that ancient evil which the Order of Arcanists will stir up.”
“Me neither, but that’s an odd thing, too; I’ve never heard of such an organization. There is the Council of Arcanists, and the Librarian’s Assembly—both of those organizations advise the King—but the High Order of Arcanists? That’s new to me.”
“Could be some secret group of elite Arcanists that doesn’t want to be generally known?”
She was nodding. “It’s not hard to believe. The Arcanists are already an elitist group, and they always try to take every opportunity for power.”
“If that was the case, then maybe they are doing some kind of secret magic, something they shouldn’t be doing?”
“Well, I suppose if I can read forbidden books, then so can others.”
“And perhaps there are other forbidden books, ones that you haven’t seen. Could that be possible?”
“Oh, yes, the Great Library as Astros is an immense building, almost a city within a city, and there are countless secret towers and forgotten wings to the complex. It would be easy for a group of powerful Arcanists to hide anything they wished to there. The Librarians aren’t allowed to access many of the collections, and even they do not have the full run of the place. Nobody questions the authority of the senior Arcanists. I don’t think there’s anyone who really knows the whole building and all its secrets, but if there is, then it’s the Arcanists.”
“The High Council,” I mused. “They sound like a powerful group, whoever they are. Have you ever heard anything else about Ink Mages which might tell us something
