Free Alliance of Serpents by Kevin Domenic Page A

Arus'
response. He burst into open laughter as though Arus had missed the
greatest joke ever told. "No, no," he said between gasps of air,
"it's called a transportation lift. Some cultures call it an
elevator. It's just an easier way of traveling from floor to floor
than taking the stairs. I apologize, I meant no insult by my
reaction, I just sometimes forget that your people do not use
machines."
    "No offense taken," Arus told him.
    Here either, Kitreena's voice spoke in
his mind. He looked at her briefly, but her hair was blocking most
of her face from that angle. Was she grinning at him? Girls
were so confusing.
    When the doors opened again, they were on a
completely different level of the ship. The hallways were
constructed of the same silver polished metal and wood as the
previous deck, though the uniformed men and women here sometimes
wore coats of white and grey and blue, and many carried either
books or clipboards or packets of paper that they studied as they
walked. Clearly this deck of the ship was dedicated to research in
some way, especially if the library was located here. Arus followed
Damien and Kitreena down the corridor to an intersection where they
turned left. They led him into the first door they came to on their
right, and he gaped in awe at what lay before him.
    The library was larger and grander than
anything he could've expected. There had to be at least a hundred
aisles of shelves packed with books on either side, and lines of
tables, chairs, and computer terminals separated them by threes. A
wooden railing circled off an area in the center of the library
where the floor was dropped down by several steps. Several red
cushioned chairs meant for lounging and three long couches with
curved backs and covered with an assortment of tasseled pillows sat
within the circle to provide a secluded area for relaxation where
one could read or study. Not too far beyond the circle, several
elderly men and women stood behind a long counter; no doubt they
were the librarians. The carpets were brown and grey where pictures
of various planets mingled with beautiful landscapes formed by the
different colored fibers. The sight was like something out of
Master Eaisan's fables about royal lords and ladies in their
luxurious mansions. Certainly not a place Arus had ever expected to
find himself in one day.
    "How big is this ship?" was all Arus
could get out.
    Damien led them toward the bookshelves on the
left. "I don't know how people on Terranias measure things, but to
try to put it into perspective, I'd guess you could fit your entire
village on the Refuge at least twice. Perhaps more." That
made Arus' jaw drop further.
    "Watch out for that guy," Kitreena whispered,
pointing to one of the grey-haired men behind the counter. "He
watches everyone like a hawk, and he always accuses me of wrinkling
pages even when I don't touch anything."
    "Knock it off, Kitreena," Damien smiled as he
rolled his eyes. "Devlin's just trying to keep everything in good
condition. Give the old man a break."
    At the end of the first aisle, Damien turned
to the wall and started thumbing through titles. "I don't know how
much, if anything, you've heard during your time on the Refuge , Arus, but do you know anything about the Vezulian
Armada?"
    "I remember you two mentioning them a couple
times, but that's all I know," he admitted. He kept his voice soft;
anything less in a library would be improper. "Are they enemies?"
he nearly bit his tongue at the end of the question. Of course they
were enemies if they were allied with Sartan Truce.
    "Most of the time," Damien said, flipping
through the pages of an old brown book. Beside him, Kitreena was
looking a book with some kind of incoherent scribbling on the
front. Some kind of foreign language, Arus assumed. "They claim to
be an intergalactic military like us, spreading peace and
protecting the innocent. Unfortunately, the truth is that they are
more like conquerors."
    Kitreena snorted without looking up