Page 55 of Myths and Manuscripts
Roan opened his eyes, inclining his head when he noticed me. “Demon Lord.”
“Adventurer,” I answered back. We hadn’t bonded like him and the other story spirits had, but I respected his desire to protect them and the library. Plus, he had been useful at times. “I’m looking for an update on the Willow situation.”
He motioned at Nyssa and Oren with a shrug before closing his eyes and apparently going back to sleep. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t be so useful this time. I turned to the others who were bent over books, so lost in whatever they were reading that neither moved to answer me. I absently pet the three-headed beast while I waited for one of them to snap out of it, but after a few minutes, I’d had enough. Each minute we wasted was another Willow had to spend away from her family.
“Can you rescue Willow or not?” My shadows crossed the little book circle of theirs, sweeping over the text they were trying to read. “That is what you’re working on, right?”
Nyssa finally glanced up at me, her forehead scrunched up. She rubbed her eyes and tilted her head like she was coming out of some kind of trance. “Yeah, we’ve been working on it a bit each day.”
“So can you get her out or not?” I asked.
Oren took his glasses off to clean them as they shared somekind of silent conversation, staring at each other and shaking their heads.
“Well, about that...” Nyssa stood up, brushing the wrinkles out of her clothes. “We’ve tried a few things, different artifacts and spells, but nothing’s worked. And with the library’s magic going a bit haywire lately, we haven’t had as much time to figure it out as we’d like.”
Logically, that made sense, but I didn’t like hearing that she wasn’t their priority. She deserved better than that. “She’s literally stuck in a book. If word got out about that–”
“Don’t even think about it.” Nyssa shook her head firmly. “I am still trying to get Willow out, yes, but the library’s growth needs to be looked into as well. I’m guessing it’s all connected. Misty has never had this many patrons before and the tree is literally overflowing with magic.”
I knew that, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Misty obviously didn’t know how to control its wild magic, not yet, so I couldn’t force the library to bring Willow back. All I could do was rely on these librarians to figure something out. I needed somebody who could see the big picture, but they were too overwhelmed to do anything but put out fires right now.
“Just get her out.” I took a deep breath and forced myself to walk away. Threatening them wouldn’t get me anywhere. “I’m going to visit the apothecary.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet of you.” Nyssa grinned, waving goodbye. “Tell Mable we say hi and we’re doing our best for her granddaughter.”
If only their best was a little better. At least Willow was happy, getting all the information she could ever want from the hero. They’d been thick as thieves the past few days, laughing and brainstorming better than I ever could. They’d find a good ending to my story, I could feel it. Even if the hero had done nothing but irritate me since he arrived.
Willow was too good of a writer to fail.
Chapter 23
Willow
The trip to the gardens had gone off without a hitch so far, which was probably because we’d left Inkheart and Dawnbreaker at the castle. Their bickering was a surefire way to get us caught and I really didn’t want anyone questioning why the Demon Lord’s human consort was entertaining the hero as a guest.
The longer we walked, the more I started worrying if I could actually help the hero too. It had taken the royal healers years to figure out a medicine that worked for him, but here I was claiming I could pull it off in one day? Maybe if I studied the tonic he’d brought with him, I could work backwards and identify the herbs inside.
“Do you still have some of your medication left?” I asked the hero as we finally made it to the garden. The plants were even more beautiful during the day, pulsing with dark purple magic like they were alive. “It could be useful when we’re looking for new remedies.”
He handed me a bottle with a few drops of dark liquid in it. “That’s all I’ve got. Not that it’s been helping anyway.”
I held it up to the light, staring at the beautiful swirls of purple running through it that looked far too familiar. I’d bet my title as an apothecary that this medication was made with herbs from this very garden. Or at least, herbs that had been infusedwith demonic magic. We wandered deeper into the gardens, smiling and waving at the other apothecaries without a word, hoping they wouldn’t come over by us.
This tonic definitely looked demon-made though. “Dain, have you ever—”
The hero clutched his hand to his chest, doubling over. I sank to the ground in front of him to support him. Sweat beaded his forehead and his breathing was labored.
“What’s happening?” he asked through clenched teeth. “It feels like my chest is going to explode.”
I held a finger against his wrist. His pulse was racing. I might know about illnesses because of my job, but I wasn’t a doctor. It had been foolish to take him here.
“We need to get him to the capital.” I shot Dain a frantic look. “Now. Before he dies right in front of us.”
He moved to lift the hero over his shoulder, not even second-guessing my request to visit the human lands, but the hero screamed, and Dain dropped him back down. The hero curled into a ball, holding his head like it was splitting.
“This isn’t normal.” Panic had my own heart beating fast. How had he gone from having a headache to this? “We need to get him out of here. His symptoms started getting worse the moment we stepped into the garden.”
How could I have been so careless? I should have left him at the castle where he’d be safe, locked away from most of the demonic magic in town. But instead, I dragged him to a place that was literally overflowing with it. The magic was so strong here you could practically taste it in the air, like a faint metallic note on your tongue.
