Page 30 of Legends and Librarians
The commander was a bit red in the face, but he readjusted his armor and nodded. “Right, we did our duty well.”
I let out a breath, grateful he’d played along, but Nyssa didn’t seem convinced. She stared at me, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.
“Fine,” I said, “they were causing a ruckus. You should have seen them! Just ask Oren.”
Oren laughed, holding his hands up. “Leave me out of this.”
“Riiiight.” Nyssa smiled just a bit as she carefully removed the knights from their little prisons. “Run along and stay away from the big scary adventurer for a while.”
“Yes, my lady. Thank you,” the commander said with a bow.
I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t that bad, I promise.”
“Try and behave.” She shook her head, walking back inside.
As I sealed the paint and put away the tools we’d used, noises pulled my attention to the path leading up the mountain. The sounds of wagon wheels and people talking was unmistakable.
“There’s people coming up the path,” I told Oren. Who would be visiting? And what would the creatures do when they saw even more people barging into their territory? “Take the lending libraries to the woods out back and hide. I’ll head inside to wrangle the rest of the creatures in case they make their way inside.”
“Leave that to Nyssa,” he said, “she’ll find some way to keep them out. She’s the librarian after all.”
“Right, stay safe.”
The library was aflutter with creatures helping Nyssa with the patching. She sat on the golem’s shoulders with several creatures while others marched around the area picking up after her.
I leaned back, cupping my hand around my mouth. “Nyssa!”
She glanced down. “Roan? Need something else freed from a make-shift prison?”
“No, listen. There’s people coming up the path. You need to go talk to them before they burst in here and see...all this.”
Her eyes widened, but her voice stayed calm. “Golem, could you please put me down for a minute? I need to go figure a few things out.”
“Okay,” it rasped, taking Nyssa in its hand and lowering her to the floor painstakingly slowly.
I felt myself bouncing just like those lending libraries earlier, glancing from the door to Nyssa anxiously. Come on, come on. If she didn’t hurry, the creatures would see whoever was outside, and I might not be able to stop what came next.
There had to be a reason so many townsfolk had posted missions about spooky things on this mountain, like shadows chasing them through the woods or a witch who lured you into danger with her song. The creatures hadn’t been too keen on Nyssa walking in the first time. What’s to say they wouldn’t react badly again?
When Nyssa’s feet touched the ground, I raced her to the door. “Oren’s out back with the lending libraries. What do you want me to do here?”
“Hide them,” she said, eyebrows pinched together. “They won’t like it, but we can’t let anyone see them. Not until I figure out a way to explain them to the Librarians’ Guild.”
“Thatsoundslike a good plan,” I said, staring at the 20-foot forest golem, “but how am I supposed to hide and control that?”
“With creativity and perseverance?”
I groaned as she walked outside just in time to greet the guests.
“Hello, I’m Nyssa, the Misty Mountain librarian.” Her voice was muffled through the door, but I could hear pride in it.
“Oh hello,” a man’s voice said. “We’re the contractors youhired. We finished our last job early, so thought we’d head up here.”
“That’s great! Let’s take a look around outside first.”
Good, that would buy me some time to hide everyone in here while she distracted those contractors. First things first: what room would be big enough to hide everyone together so I could keep an eye on them?
Hmmm....the special collection exhibit should work. It was empty right now and had sliding doors to separate it from the rest of the library. Nothing needed to be repaired there either, but it was a bit small for all of us.
