Page 19 of Charming the Dragon
“Ten! I can’t even imagine having that many now, let alone back then, given the risks to humans birthing dragon babies until recently.”
His eyes roamed the scene. “Personally, I think the story was built up and eventually used to calm human fears about mating a dragon-shifter.”
“So you’re not one of the romantic believers?”
His gaze remained fixed on the far wall. “Love is great until it isn’t.”
She opened her mouth to ask for more details, but Nathan walked across the room, toward the back area. “Come on. We can enter the underground section this way.”
After pushing up her glasses, Hayley followed. It took everything she had not to ask for details about Nathan’s past love life.
Thankfully, they entered an old set of stone stairs, and not falling down them took all of her concentration. Down, down, down they went, one flight after another, until they had to be rather far underground. That’s when Nathan finally stopped in front of an old door, took out a giant key, and unlocked it. “This is where we’ll start—the known old records area. Once we go through the ones here, we can go looking for any others.”
“But wouldn’t it make more sense to find as many as possible in a day or two and then sort through them at the same time? It’d streamline the process better.”
“It’s going to take a lot of time to go through what’s inside here. Come see for yourself.”
Once Hayley walked into the room, her jaw dropped open. Bookcases both lined the walls and formed a maze within the large space. There had to be at least fifty or sixty of them, holding thousands upon thousands of records. Even though she’d explored extensive collections in London, this was different. After all, these were all related to Clan Stonefire.
She murmured, “I forget sometimes just how long your clan has lived here.”
“More than a thousand years, at least.” He gestured around the room. “Well? Do you agree we should start here?”
“That depends. Is there any sort of catalog for the items already in this room?”
“I think so. I’ll have to ask Delphine Gray, though. She’s in charge of the clan records and library.”
“Well, then I still vote for record hunting until we get that information. Otherwise, it’ll be the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack and we’ll waste a lot of time.”
“I suppose. I guess I should’ve thought about that.”
“Don’t worry about it. This was all sprung on you rather quickly, and then I kept you out late last night. There wasn’t exactly a lot of time to ask questions or think about what wemight need.” She faced him. “So? Do you have a map of the rooms we should search?”
“In my head. Like most of the younger clan members, I spent a lot of time down here.”
“To kiss and make out?”
“No. For drills and classes. We always have to be prepared for an attack, and the children need to know what to do in an emergency.”
Hayley didn’t like thinking about young dragon-shifters learning how to hide from enemies. But it wasn’t as if she were a soldier who could go and fight bad guys. All she could do was what she did best—work with the law.
She replied, “Well, since your memory is my map, you’re going to accompany me. Where should we start?”
“This floor has some of the oldest sections, so we’ll stay on it. Come on. There is a series of smaller rooms through that door.”
They wasted no time in going through one room and then the next. Both rooms were cluttered with boxes and supplies, as if tossed together in a hurry. The third small room, though, was neat and tidy, complete with a small bed, desk and chair, and a fireplace. “This room is still being used, isn’t it?”
“Yes. There’s a roster of volunteers for the night watch, and this is where they stay.”
“Night watch? Why do you need one of those?”
“There are a lot of valuables down here, and until a few years ago, there was a problem with stealing. Whilst most of the thieves were banished from the clan, the tradition stayed. It also gives those in their late teens and early twenties a chance to better know their history, or so says Bram and the clan teachers.”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
“I think security cameras would be better, but outsiders are rarely allowed down here, and Bram doesn’t want to risk thedragon hunters finding a way to get the footage and steal even more from us.”
Hayley racked her brain for the latest she knew about the dragon hunters, which wasn’t much.
