Free The Onyx Vial (Shadows of The Nine Book 1) by Alexis Lampley Page B

shuffled to the stairs on the right wall. He eyed the open doorway at the top of the stairway and slowly, like a predator stalking its prey, mounted the first step.
    While Pabl made his ascent, she waded through the stacks, breathing in the scent of books and absently stroking their spines.
    Eventually, Pabl started back down, and she tread carefully to the stair bottom to wait for him.
    His eyes glittered with excitement.
    Ariana's heart fluttered in anticipation.
    "Unlike your mother, I see the good your talent can bring." His chin jutted out seriously. "We need someone as Master of Words, dangerous profession or not."
    She straightened and nodded. "I want that. I want to fill my father's place more than anything ."
    He grinned and thrust a small box into her hands. "I know."
    She gasped as she took it. "A masking box."
    Seamless, and surprisingly light, the box was big enough for a book like Hunter's, which was twice the size of her father's, to fit inside. With the dark wood stained black, highlights, even from the dim lighting in the store, brought out the ghosts of once detailed carvings. This was the perfect place to hide her father's book the next time she found it. Her mother would never be able to sense it, and never be able to take it away. As she ran her finger across the smooth surface, Pabl spoke.
    "This is not just a masking box, Ariana."
    She lowered it to meet his gaze. "No?"
    "The Shadows have put me in charge of something very important. I was going to come to your mother about this. Explain what I needed —that I'd keep your name out of it. But I see now that we are past the point of reasoning with her."
    Ariana's heartbeat took off. She stared into Pabl's twinkling, mustardy-green eyes. "You mean...?"
    He grabbed her shoulders. "There's a half-working portal book inside."
    She sucked in her breath. "Pabl, I —" What? Shouldn't take this because my mother forbade it? Won't help the Shadows in exactly the way I've always wanted ? "What do you need me to do?"
    "Fix the side that's broken. It's the return side. The Ionian side."
    She broke into a smile so big it hurt.
    Pabl's bushy brows drew together. "Find those break words you're always going on about, and get this thing in working order."
    "Thank you, Pabl," she said, nearly bouncing now.
    Pabl raised a hand. "You're a smart girl, but I'd feel better warning you. Be very careful not to touch the working pages, or you will get sucked through the flaming thing."
    "I know."
    His expression darkened. "The working side is Helede."
    Ariana's stomach dropped. "Helede?" She breathed the word in fear and wonder, picturing the desert-lands of her father's final resting place. "But that means..."
    "Yes. We could finally resume contact with the Heledians."
    "And pick up where my father left off."
    Pabl's smile was sad. "Yes. That is the hope."
    She felt her heart swell. Finally. Finally she had the opportunity to truly make a difference. To turn the tide for the Ionians and save them from a future like the citizens suffered—were still suffering—in Helede. Her dream could still come true after all.
    Pabl winked at her. "Now upstairs with you. The machines are ready and waiting."
    Ariana turned, then paused. " What if I had said no?"
    He only smiled knowingly, patted her on the shoulder, then began picking books up off the floor.
     
    V ery little time passed before she was absorbed in the work. She barely noticed Pabl come and go, offering her food or drink from time to time. She ate and drank on automatic, too focused on her work. She sat hunched over the book at Pabl's spare desk, filling her notebook with possible break words and the page numbers of the places that were damaged. She coded them in Elder Script, as any Master of Words would be required to do. Hunter's book lay open atop the masking box, a useful tool for reference. The pages he'd been so keen to keep hidden from her had been tucked inside. He wouldn't be happy to find those missing, she knew.