I wanted to share an excerpt from the rough draft of Trial By Fire, book 3 in the Going Down In Flames series. Bryn and her knight Valmont are investigating vaults below the library when they discover something interesting.
The lights in the room beyond lit up, revealing floor to ceiling bookshelves and glassed in cabinets containing museum qualify artifacts.
Valmont pointed at a saddle with an intricate pattern of frozen flames created from embedded silver. “I want one.”
“I’ll remember that next Christmas.” Bryn investigated the next glass case, which held a sword with the same frozen flame pattern etched onto the blade. “You might want to check this out before you make your list for Santa.”
Valmont came to stand by Bryn and stared into the case with a longing that almost made her jealous.
“Would you like some time alone with your new girlfriend?” Bryn asked.
He backed up a step shaking his head like he was trying to clear it.
“What’s wrong?”
He pointed at the sword. “I’d swear theres some sort of magnetic pull from that sword, like it wants to find a new knight.” He held his hand toward the glass. “Can you feel that?”
Bryn moved in closer and stared at the sword, putting her palm flat on the glass. “No. I mean it’s beautiful, but I don’t feel the need to possess it. Let’s investigate the bookshelves and see if we can find the information for my paper and something about hybrids.”
Valmont pointed at the old fashioned mahogany card catalog. “Do we start there?”
“I guess.” Fifteen minutes later Bryn had a new respect for anyone who’d done research before Google. “Why isn’t lineage under L?”
“Did you try Directorate Lineage checks?”
“Yes, and marriage and laws.”
“What does lineage check mean in the simplest sense?” Valmont asked.
Bryn racked her brain. “The Directorate talks about checking bloodlines.” She moved over to the B drawer. Halfway through blood-related titles, she found, “Bloodlines: Lineage Checks.”
“Finally. This card says the books start with number 762 and go through 894.”
“That narrows it down,” Valmont muttered as he headed for the bookshelves. After staring at a row of books, he sighed. “Did the card catalog tell you where the numbers were located on the books?”
“They’re not on the spine, like the normal library books?” Bryn moved to the closest shelf and grabbed a green leather bound book. The spine was bare. No title. No number. “It feels like the Directorate is mocking anyone who finds these books, like maybe you found our secret stash, but we removed all the titles to spite you.” She flipped the book open to the first page. “The Best of Botany” She slammed it shut. “There has to be an easier way.”
When Valmont didn’t respond she glanced up. No knight. “Valmont?”
“Over here,” He called from the other side of the ginormous card catalog. “You need to see this.”
Goosebumps broke out on Bryn’s upper arms. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t a good thing?” She walked around the card catalog and found Valmont staring at the wall.
“Can you see it?” he asked.
“I’m going to go with no, since all I see is the wall.”
“It’s the same writing I saw on the door upstairs. “Only those who have given their all may enter. Those who have taken everything must give to see.”
“And it’s just written on the wall?”
“No. There’s an outline of a door.” He held his hand out to her. “Come here. I want to test a theory.”
She moved closer and held his hand.
“I think the message refers to a knight and his dragon.”
She didn’t love how the description made it sound like the knight gave while the dragon only took. “Okay. Now what?”
He unsheathed his sword. “I think it want’s your blood.”
She was not loving where this was going. “Like in Mr. Stanton’s class?”
He pulled the hand he held toward the wall. “I’ll hold the sword. You touch it.”
It went against her instinct to willingly touch the razor sharp sword, but Valmont would do it for her, so she slid her finger down the edge of the blade, flinching as it sliced through her skin.
The sword glowed red as Bryn’s blood trickled down the blade.
“Touch the wall right there.” Valmont pointed at a blank piece of stone four feet off the ground with the tip of his sword.
A tingling sensation started on Bryn’s scalp the closer her finger came to the wall. When she touched the stone, an electric shock made her wince. The smell of hot copper filled the air. And the wall was gone. In it’s place was a wooden door with iron hinges. “No way.”
Valmont grabbed the handle and pulled. Unlike the outer door to the vault, this door did creak from disuse. No lights came on, but the scent of dust and decay drifted out to them.
“I don’t think anyone has been here in a long time.” Bryn produced a fireball in her right hand, and leaned in the doorway scanning the area for danger or anything that might go up in flames.
A long wooden table took up the center of the room. Books were stacked on the table and spilled over onto the floor.
“Seems safe enough.” Valmont crossed the threshold batting cobwebs out of his way. He pointed at a fat candle in a sconce on the wall. “Light that.”
“Sure.” Bryn lit the candle with her flame. The sound of creatures scurrying across the floor made her shiver. When something scrambled over her foot, she jumped backwards.
“It’s only mice,” Valmont said.
She might be a kick-ass shape shifting dragon, but a mouse crawling over her foot still gave her the heebie—jeebies.
Valmont laughed, like he knew what she was thinking.
“Shut up.” She stuck her tongue out at him. As the flame on the candle grew, light filled the room. How was that possible? And then she saw it, the wall behind the sconce held a large mirror, which directed the light across the room to another mirror, where it bounced across the room again. “That,” She pointed at the candle, “is ingenious.”
“And probably a bit magical,” Valmont said.
From the table, Bryn picked up a dust covered book. Scrawled inside, she found names, with lists next to them, like family history of greed, malice, and cunning. That was weird. Did the person who made this list consider those positive or negative traits? She tried to turn the page, but it crumbled beneath her fingers. “Crap. Should we get Miss Enid to look at these? She might be able to preserve some of them.
“Are you sure you want to share the existence of this room with anyone?”
“If anyone else discovered it, and found out we already knew we’d be labeled as disloyal. We’ll tell Miss Enid when we go back upstairs, but for now we investigate. Sound good?”