CHAPTER 103
REACHING THE LIBRARY
Anya led the group through the narrow service passage, keeping the spatial distortion wrapped around them.
The passage was barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Pipes ran along the upper walls, and occasional metal doors opened into storage rooms filled with cleaning equipment, spare furniture, and other supplies used by the castle's servants.
Unlike the grand corridors of the Great Keep, this section was plain and largely undecorated.
It was precisely why Anya had chosen it.
Servants used these passages to move between different sections of the castle without disturbing the royal guests. Although guards occasionally patrolled the area, their numbers were considerably fewer than those stationed along the main corridors.
Anya knew the general layout from her previous visits, but she still relied on Fury to detect nearby movement.
The squirrel sat on her shoulder, his perception stretching through the surrounding rooms and corridors. Whenever he sensed someone approaching, he alerted her with a slight movement of his ears.
Anya would then alter their route.
Sometimes they slipped through an empty storage room and emerged through another door. On other occasions, they waited silently inside an alcove until the approaching footsteps faded.
Roman followed without complaint.
The eagerness he had displayed during their journey through the tunnels had given way to concentration. They had already fought their way through an enormous horde of beasts and defeated a magical-ranked creature. He had no intention of allowing a careless mistake to ruin their progress now.
Besides, the book and artifact were waiting somewhere inside this castle.
He wanted to find them.
Eventually, the service passage ended at a staircase.
Anya stopped at the bottom and examined the walls.
"This leads to the eastern wing," she whispered. "We'll need to cross one of the upper corridors."
She looked toward Fury.
The squirrel closed his eyes briefly, extending his perception beyond the staircase.
After a moment, he squeaked.
Anya nodded.
"Nobody nearby."
She began climbing.
The others followed, taking care not to make unnecessary noise. At the top, Anya pushed open a narrow door and peered into the corridor beyond.
The architecture changed immediately.
They had entered a section of the castle reserved for royal administration.
Polished stone covered the floor, reflecting the light of enchanted lamps mounted along the walls. Ornate pillars supported a high ceiling decorated with gold patterns, while framed paintings depicted former royal officials and distinguished members of the kingdom's noble families.
Several doors lined the corridor, each marked with a small metallic plaque.
Anya recognised some of them.
Administrative offices. Private meeting chambers. Records rooms.
And farther ahead, a broad archway led toward the central section of the Great Keep.
She stepped into the corridor.
The others followed.
They had barely travelled a dozen paces when voices reached them from the opposite end.
Anya stopped.
Two royal officials were approaching, accompanied by a pair of armed guards. They were discussing something in low voices, their attention focused on a document one of the officials carried.
The group immediately moved toward a recessed alcove between two pillars.
Anya concentrated.
The spatial distortion around them tightened, bending the light so that their concealed forms blended with the shadows.
The officials approached.
One of the guards slowed.
He glanced toward the alcove.
For a moment, his gaze seemed to linger on the empty space where Roman stood.
Roman remained perfectly still.
The guard frowned slightly, then turned back toward his companions.
They continued down the corridor.
Anya waited until the sound of their footsteps disappeared before relaxing her concentration.
"That was close," Lunar murmured.
"Not particularly," Anya replied quietly. "He didn't see anything."
She resumed walking.
Roman followed her without comment.
A few minutes later, they reached the archway.
Beyond it lay a large circular hall connecting several sections of the Great Keep. Marble columns surrounded the chamber, and a magnificent chandelier hung from the ceiling, its enchanted crystals casting warm light across the polished floor.
A grand staircase rose along the far wall, dividing into two flights that curved toward the upper levels.
Several corridors branched away from the hall.
Anya studied them.
The royal library occupied a separate section of the Great Keep, connected to the main structure by an elevated passage. She remembered visiting it during a formal gathering with her father, when she had wandered away from the reception and found herself fascinated by the enormous collection of ancient books.
She had been younger then, but the memory remained clear.
The library was one of the oldest buildings within the castle.
Unlike the newer administrative chambers, it had been constructed around an ancient stone foundation. Its architecture reflected an earlier period of the kingdom's history, when scholars, historians, and royal advisers gathered to preserve knowledge from across the land.
Anya pointed toward a corridor on their right.
"That way."
They crossed the hall.
Halfway through, a group of servants emerged from a doorway carrying trays of food and folded linens.
Anya immediately changed direction, guiding the others behind a row of marble columns.
The servants passed without noticing anything unusual.
Once the path was clear, the group continued toward a smaller staircase tucked behind a decorative screen.
The staircase led to an elevated passage overlooking one of the castle's inner courtyards.
Below them, several guards were changing shifts.
Their armour clinked as they exchanged equipment and reported to the incoming patrol. A commander stood nearby, inspecting their formation before dismissing them to their assigned positions.
Anya watched the activity.
This was a more heavily guarded section of the castle.
The elevated passage offered a direct route toward the library, but its entrance stood near a checkpoint. Crossing it without being noticed would require careful timing.
She glanced at Fury.
The squirrel's perception spread across the passage and the surrounding rooms.
He detected the guards below, two servants approaching from the far end, and another patrol moving through a corridor behind them.
Anya considered the timing.
Then she waited.
The first patrol moved away from the courtyard.
A few moments later, the servants disappeared through a side door.
The remaining guards were occupied with their shift report.
Anya moved.
The others followed her across the elevated passage, their concealed forms passing beneath the arches and along the outer wall.
They reached the opposite end just as a guard stepped through a nearby doorway.
Anya immediately pulled the group behind a stone partition.
The guard stopped and looked down the passage.
He adjusted the weapon at his waist, then walked toward the staircase they had just crossed.
The group remained hidden until his footsteps faded.
Anya released a slow breath and continued.
They were getting closer.
---
The elevated passage ended at a pair of tall wooden doors.
Unlike the doors they had passed earlier, these were decorated with intricate carvings of books, scrolls, and mythical creatures. Their frames were reinforced with bronze, and small crystals embedded in the surrounding stone emitted a soft golden glow.
Anya recognised the entrance.
Beyond those doors lay the western archive wing.
She had finally brought them to the section of the castle where the royal library was located.
However, they were not there yet.
The archive wing contained several rooms devoted to historical records, royal correspondence, and the preservation of ancient documents. The main library occupied the largest chamber at the end of the wing.
Anya approached the doors and examined the corridor beyond them.
There were no guards immediately outside, but she sensed that the area ahead was more active than the service passages they had used earlier.
She extended her perception as far as she could.
Several people were moving through the rooms beyond the doors.
Some were stationary.
Others appeared to be carrying objects between different chambers.
The castle library was still in use, even at this hour.
Anya turned toward Roman.
"We're in the archive wing," she whispered. "The library is farther ahead."
Roman nodded.
"Can we get there without crossing the main corridor?"
Anya considered the layout.
"Yes. There's a connecting passage behind the archive rooms. I remember seeing it when I visited with my father."
She placed her palm against the door.
The lock clicked softly.
Rather than forcing it open, Anya manipulated the space around the mechanism, shifting the internal components just enough to release the latch.
The door opened a fraction.
She slipped inside.
The others followed.
---
The archive wing was quieter than the main corridors.
Tall shelves occupied the walls, filled with rolled parchments, bound ledgers, and wooden boxes containing historical records. Several long tables stood beneath suspended lamps, their surfaces covered with documents arranged in neat piles.
The room smelled of old paper, polished wood, and dust.
At the far end, a narrow doorway led into another chamber.
Anya crossed the room, keeping the spatial distortion around the group intact.
She recognised the layout from memory, though some of the furniture had changed since her last visit. The shelves were taller now, and several new cabinets had been installed along the walls.
She reached the narrow doorway and paused.
Beyond it was a connecting passage, exactly where she remembered it.
The passage curved around the outer wall of the archive wing before opening into a small vestibule.
Anya stepped through.
Roman followed, his eyes moving over the ancient carvings along the walls.
Unlike the administrative corridors, this passage contained no portraits or decorative banners. Instead, its stone walls were covered with inscriptions written in several old languages.
Some were records of royal decrees.
Others commemorated scholars who had devoted their lives to preserving the kingdom's history.
At the end of the passage stood another set of doors.
These were considerably larger.
Their dark wooden surfaces were reinforced with ornate metalwork, and the royal dragon crest had been engraved above the central handles.
Two enchanted lamps illuminated the entrance.
Beyond those doors, Anya knew, was the royal library.
She stopped in front of them.
For the first time since entering the castle, she allowed herself a brief moment to study the entrance.
The library had always fascinated her. It was said to contain records dating back to the founding of the kingdom, including accounts of ancient clans, forgotten wars, and legendary beasts whose existence had become little more than myth.
It also contained restricted collections that ordinary scholars were forbidden to access.
That was where Roman's objective would most likely be found.
Anya turned toward him.
"We're here."
Roman's gaze settled on the great doors.
The book Penny had mentioned was somewhere inside. So was the artifact he believed had belonged to his father.
He had crossed the underground tunnels, fought through a tide of beasts, and faced a magical-ranked creature to reach this point.
Now, the final obstacle stood directly before him.
Roman looked at Anya.
"Can you open it?"
Anya examined the lock.
"I can try."
She placed her hand against the metalwork, carefully extending her spatial ability into the mechanism.
The lock shifted with a faint click.
But the doors did not move.
Anya frowned slightly and examined the frame.
There was another mechanism concealed within it, one more complex than the simple locks they had encountered earlier.
She withdrew her hand.
"Give me a moment."
Roman stepped aside, allowing her room to work.
Sylver stood close to Roman watching the passage behind them. Lunar remained near the opposite wall, listening for approaching footsteps.
Fury's perception continued to sweep the surrounding rooms.
They had reached the royal library.
But they had not yet entered it.
And somewhere beyond those enormous doors lay the answers Roman had come to find.
TBC