Page 64 of Dragon Compelled
“Then she will be free of her obligations to this place,” Phillip replies. “But the library must operate with a council of three at all times. Especially in times where a vote is required.”
“So, you’re still planning on voting her out?” my friend snaps.
Phillip shakes his head. “I apologize for how that came across.” He looks from Blossom to me. “As I said, Oliver has told me everything that he has seen, and based on his testimony, I do not see a reason to remove you as head librarian. The way I see it, the fact that this place is still standing despite your lack of understanding of your duties speaks for itself. The vote is merely a formality. One we need to see through given that our previous council member called for it.”
“And we can’t vote without a third,” Oliver adds. “It’s part of the library’s stipulations. So there can be no tie and majority rules.”
“I see.” Once again, hope burns in my chest. A single, flickering flame. Even with a new council member, it sounds like Phillip and Oliver both plan to side with me. Once the vote is over, they can go back to their lives, and we can deal with actually protecting the library from its real threat. “Okay. Then how do we get a new council member?”
“Thankfully, Phillip is more knowledgeable on this than I am.” Oliver lets out a sigh.
“Yes, well, I’ve been around quite some time.” He chuckles. “Before even Tawny. I was there when she was chosen and witnessed just how it happens.”
“How is that?” I ask.
“We do it together.” He steps forward and offers his hand. “The council members must be a part of the decision, along with every member currently employed. It’s how the library ensures the head librarian does not make a biased decision to replace a member of the council.”
Which is exactly what I’d been trying to do.
“Okay. So, we need to gather everyone who works here,” I say.
“Yes,” he replies. “And it needs to be done at the heart of the library. Where the magic is the strongest.”
“Seems easy enough,” Blossom says. “I can get everyone.”
“Fantastic.” Phillip offers her a nod. “And we will meet in the center of the stacks. Come,” Phillip says to me, “you can tell me stories of your time with Hoc.” I follow him out into the hall, hoping it really will be as easy as Phillip says. Something about him feels off.
Then again, I’ve been under an immense amount of stress the past few weeks. Anything short of an all-out war would feel too easy at this point.
“This must have been such a shock to you,” Phillip says. “Inheriting all of this without ever even being a keeper first.”
“It was a bit of a surprise,” I admit. “I’m still not sure why the library chose me to begin with.”
He chuckles softly. “That’s exactly how I felt when I received my notice that I’d been chosen as a council member for a magic library I never even knew existed. It seemed so surreal, like I was living in a dream.”
“I know that feeling,” I reply. “Did you know Hoc well?”
“Well enough,” Phillip replies. “He was a kind man. Gentle despite his genealogy.”
“Trolls are not typically gentle-natured?”
He snorts. “Hardly. They are normally brutes. But despite his tragedies, Hoc was always kind.”
“Tragedies?”
Phillip stops walking and looks down at me. “Did you not know of his past? Of what brought him here?”
“No,” I admit. “He didn’t talk about it.”
“For good reason, too,” he replies sadly. Phillip stops walking and turns to me. Oliver continues down the hall, offering me a tight smile as he passes. “Hoc’s family was murdered. He tracked down his wife and daughter’s killer but left a trail of bodies in his wake.”
I cover my mouth with my hand, shocked and saddened by the tragedy. It all makes sense now. His refusal to kill me during the Extrication, his continued protection of me even though it would have made his life easier to just turn me over to the council.
Had I reminded him of his daughter?
Or had he simply seen too much death to stomach more bloodshed?
“Is that why he was sentenced here as a keeper?” I ask.
