Free Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series) by Donna Augustine Page B

but if anyone woke and looked, they'd be able to spot us in the light this giant moon reflected.
    We hit the ground silently a few moments later and I followed him quickly to the side of one boulder. I could see door openings but none of them had windows. Cormac grabbed my hand as we moved, boulder by boulder, closer to the center of the area until we were at the one that supposedly housed information. It was the largest by far, with about a thirty foot radius.
    We circled until we came to the door, or sort of door. It was simply a flap of leather that hung down over the opening , like the rest of the buildings. Cormac turned and held up a hand and mouthed for me to 'wait there.' I nodded in agreement and then followed immediately behind him anyway. Would he never learn? If I hadn't wanted to not get caught, I would've laughed.
    When we entered, it was pitch black inside ; I couldn't see a thing and walked straight into Cormac's back.
    "I thought I told you to wait?" he whispered to me.
    "You did. How are we going to find anything?"
    I heard him rustling in front of me as he pulled out a very dim flashlight and handed me another. I held it up, scanning the walls and my breath caught. It was lined, from floor to domed ceiling, all with books. Shit! Getting in had been the easy part. Finding the stuff we wanted was going to take forever.
    I quickly scanned the spines of the closest books to me.
    "Cormac, nothing is in English. How are we supposed to know which ones we need?"
    "It'll say Keepers or Alchemists on it in English, at least that's what Vitor told me." He dug in his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. "And this is how Book of Omens is written."
    I took the slip from his hand and looked at the strangle symbols. "It 's here?"
    "It 's rumored to have been taken by the wolves. It could be." We split up them as we both started at a different end of the room.
    I 'd always had a soft spot for Vitor but it was quickly hardening as we stood in the middle of an enemy camp on his planet while he frolicked, all safe and sound, on mine. I was going to have to remember this next time he whined about his people. Yeah, yeah, whatever. My people are blowing holes in their heads. Where the hell is he?
    I scanned book after book, searching for some sign and was starting to completely doubt Vitor. Had he ever even seen these books? I looked at the top shelves I couldn 't reach and that's when I noticed Cormac was floating along the top perimeter. I closed my eyes and tried to float but nothing. It sucked. If I had a mental block as a normal human, I could just go see a therapist but how the hell would I explain it to one? Hi Doc. I'm frustrated about not floating.
    I wandered over to him, having perused the lower shelves to no use.
    "Here," he said, pausing his light on one book. "I think this is something." He lifted his hand to pull the book out but I grabbed his ankle that was nearest my shoulder.
    "What?" he asked looking down at me.
    "Doesn't this seem a little too easy to you?"
    He hung there for a moment, not moving. "Yes, but I 'm not leaving empty handed."
    "I 'm just getting this weird foreboding feeling." I thought I was probably being paranoid. Things didn't have a tendency to work out smoothly in my experience. "Forget it. Let me see what you found."
    He grabbed the book and no sooner did he pull it from the shelf did he jerk back his hand in pain. If it had only been that, we still might have been okay but the shelf he pulled it from let out a high pitched squealing noise, a type I 'd never heard, high, loud and piercing. The gig was up. We had minutes, perhaps just seconds before the entire village came for us and we were stuck in a building with only one entrance.
    Cormac dropped to the ground as I went to pick up the book. I wasn 't prepared to leave empty handed either. The minute I touched it, a piercing pain shot through my hand and down my arm. It felt like someone was simultaneously breaking my bones while setting