Free A Tale of Magic... by Brandon Dorman Page A

weekends, Brystal snoozed in between her chores at the Evergreen house. At church, she spent the majority of the service with her eyes closed, pretending to pray. Luckily, her brothers did the same thing, so her parents never noticed.
    Aside from the fatigue, Brystal thought her scheme was going very smoothly and she didn’t face anywhere near as much suspicion as she had feared. She only saw her family for a few minutes each morning, so there wasn’t much time for them to question her about her daily activities. Everyone was so focused on Barrie’s inaugural weeks as a Deputy Justice that they never even asked about her volunteering for the Home for the Hopeless. Still, Brystal had developed stories about feeding the hungry and bathing the sick in case she needed them.
    The only hitch happened at the beginning of her second month of employment. One evening Brystal entered the library to find Mr. Woolsore on his hands and knees searching under the furniture.
    “Mr. Woolsore? Can I help you with something?” she asked.
    “I’m looking for Champions of the Champions, Volume 3 ,” Mr. Woolsore explained. “A student requested it this afternoon and it’s vanished from the shelves.”
    Unbeknownst to the librarian, Brystal had borrowed Champions of the Champions, Volume 3 the night before. She pulled her coat a little tighter around her shoulders so the librarian wouldn’t see that the book was tucked under her arm.
    “I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” she said. “Would you like me to help you look?”
    “No, no, no,” he grumped, and got to his feet. “The assistant librarian probably filed it incorrectly— idiot man ! Just leave it on the counter if it shows up while you’re cleaning.”
    Once Mr. Woolsore was gone, Brystal left Champions of the Champions, Volume 3 on the counter. It was a simple remedy to a simple situation, but Brystal didn’t want to experience a closer call to getting caught. To avoid any future risk, Brystal decided it would be wise if she stopped sneaking books home altogether. From then on, after she finished cleaning, Brystal stayed at the library to read. Sometimes she didn’t return home until the early hours of the morning and had to sneak back into the house through a window.
    At first, Brystal welcomed the change to her schedule. The empty library was very peaceful at night and the perfect place to get lost in a good book. Sometimes the moon shone so brightly through the glass ceiling she didn’t even need a lantern to see the pages. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Brystal became too comfortable with the new setup.
    One morning Brystal was awoken by the cathedral bells—but they were different this morning. Instead of the distant ringing that gradually stirred her awake, a thunderous clanging caused her to jump to her feet. The noise was so sudden and alarming it was discombobulating. When she finally gained consciousness of her whereabouts, Brystal received her second shock of the morning—she wasn’t standing in her bedroom. She was still at the library!
    “Oh no!” she gasped. “I fell asleep reading! Father will be furious if he realizes I’ve been gone all night! I’ve got to get home before Mother notices my bed is empty!”
    Brystal tucked her reading glasses into the top of her dress, stashed the books she had been reading on the nearest shelf, and ran out of the library as fast as she could. Outside, the cathedral bells were causing a hurricane of noise in the town square. Brystal covered her ears and had trouble staying upright as she was hit by wave after wave of sound. She dashed down the path toward the eastern countryside and reached the Evergreen home just as the final bell tolled. When she arrived, Mrs. Evergreen was standing on the front porch, frantically looking in every direction for her daughter. Her shoulders sank almost an entire foot when she saw Brystal approaching.
    “Where on God’s green earth have you been?” she yelled. “You