Page 56 of Crown of Draga

Chapter Seventeen

Adelina

Library

Draga Royal Palace

Planet Draga

Adelina lookedat the information on her personal shreve again. Somehow the concealed royal library was in the main library and if she were to take a guess she would say the secreted place was also attached to her father’s office. It would only make sense to have access to it from multiple different areas. What if they needed to escape the family wing? There were two such exits for emergencies she knew of, but a secret route accounted for traitors close to the royal family, goddess forbid.

Based on that logic Adelina hadn’t bothered with the first five stories of the library. Those were easily accessible from the main parts of the palace, and anyone could use them. The fifth floor was exclusive as access to the royal family wing was on the fifth floor. The eighth through twelfth floors were reserved for scholars, scientists, and royals only. Adelina was currently on the eighth floor and roamed the circular space. The center of the library was an atrium with a glass domed ceiling in intricate patterns.

Librarians paid her no mind, neither did the scientists. It wasn’t unusual for a royal to escape to the exclusive floors to read for an hour or two. And since rumors of the mark on her face had circulated due to the damn recorders Adelina had even more reason to hide than normal. The librarians were used to her presence, but now they glanced at her with pity and understanding. No one tried to speak with her.

A small miracle, and a mercy.

Her cheeks burned every time she saw someone whisper as she passed. It would take a while for the gossip to move on to another topic unless something drastic occurred. A royal with a mark of punishment for all to see, and of all of the royal children it was the submissive one? Courtiers and nobles had been taking bets on why she’d been punished since the news had rippled through the palace.

It didn’t matter the mark was now gone. And she couldn’t even blame Nash. Those cula’ting recorders had caught her on the way out of the Queen’s solar. Thankfully it wasn’t only on her shoulders as both the queen and the heir should have reminded her before she left.

The history section of the library took up nearly the entire eighth floor. At first she thought she was clever to think of such a connection, but Adelina quickly realized for a long-lived people they had a lot of history. It split off into so many sections. There was the settling of Draga Terra after the journey from the ancient homeworld of Earth, and then the terraforming of all nine planets in the Draga galaxy. Not to mention the rows on their human history, the other factions of humans in the universe, and each genetic route chosen by each faction.

The section on the genetic formulas the Kalan’s chose was far more extensive than Adelina could ever have imagined. They all learned the history growing up, but it was mainly focused on the noble families, how they became noble, the royal family, and the various wars over the last few centuries.

Adelina had no reason to study such ancient history outside what they were taught as children. The warnings were clear. Without altering their genetics the humans under the Kala sun would have destroyed each other as each individual would have fought with tooth and claw for gold and power. Without rank and dominance they would all be nothing more than dust by now, like the humans who remained on Earth.

She trailed her sharp nails across the spines of the books as she wandered aimlessly through the stacks. ‘Tooth and claw’ had been figurative all those centuries ago. It was so strange to think how vulnerable she would be without her claws and teeth. Her tongue touched the tip of a canine. It was sharp and deadly, but still small and dainty.

Her people couldn’t change form, and they couldn’t grow anything strange like the wings the Drakesthai possessed. The wolves her ancestors had used as a genetic map did leave their mark though, and made her people strong and quick, loyal and steadfast. Nash would say stoic and boring, but she could be just as aggressive and vicious as he. There was simply no reason among her people when rank and dominance were followed.

It was why they were so strict and why her punishment was necessary. Adelina had pushed her sister into a corner and every time a wolf was cornered it fought back. It was cruel and vicious, but to expect anything less meant the heir was weak. Her eldest sister was anything but weak.

Adelina still wasn’t ready to forgive Raena. She smiled ruefully and stopped before one of the many shielded windows that overlooked the ocean. Her forgiveness might depend on her future husband, however petty that seemed.

With a sigh she looked back down at her shreve. There was nothing to tell her where exactly the royal library was. The mark was not precise and the blueprints of the library were outdated. Elara supposedly knew where the secret place was. Perhaps she should talk to her even if she wasn’t ready to.

A librarian walked by and Adelina waited until he disappeared around the curve. She kept to the wall and then started to walk in the opposite direction. Giselle had left that morning at dawn and with her gone Adelina felt so alone. Waiting at home to hear what would occur on the border was a never ending nightmare. Anything could happen. Her sister may never return. Adelina wasn’t naïve enough to assume Giselle would conquer Treon on the first try with no lives lost and then arrest the traitors. It would be no quick thing, and then there was the danger of the return trip.

Pirates loved to attack royal ships. They savaged their soldiers and scavenged the tech before moving on. The stories used to keep her up at night, and it was why the royal family never went on tour with anything less than half their forces.

Her fingernails then trailed the outside wall of the library as she walked. A depression, a false shelf, perhaps a cleverly misplaced book would send her in the right direction. Based on her internal map, the shreve, and cycles of running through the palace – the royal study should be directly below her three stories down. The royal library could be three stories tall, but where was the inconsistency, the space missing from other rooms? No matter how hard she tried to think, nothing came to mind.

She practically threw herself into a comfortable chair and stared at the messy alcove full of ancient books, a study table, and no uniformity to speak of. The books didn’t even seem to be on the same topic, but they were all in the language of the Ancients. She sighed and stared at the wall in front of her.

So – Elara was her mother. Adelina’s entire world had shifted when she’d learned of her true parentage and the knowledge hadn’t really settled. It made no reasonable sense as to why she would biologically have two mothers. There was no purpose to it. Elara already had Ian by the time Adelina came along, why another, and why keep it a secret? It grated uncomfortably in her mind to consider she was simply an experiment, something to test and see if they could secretly improve on the Draga royal bloodline.

What was that?

Adelina shot to her feet and crossed to the wall. She’d been staring at it long enough her eyes finally caught on to the pattern. It was the same as the glass design for the dome atrium in the center of the library – nearly invisible blacker-than-black whorls and filigree on the black wall. Adelina pressed her palm to the wall and she felt the warmth of a laser scanning her hand and seal.

The panel slid open and Adelina jumped in before she could second guess herself, or risk the chance someone might walk by and see what she was up to. The panel closed silently behind her and Adelina looked around in openmouthed wonder. The room was massive and stark white. Books and disc cases covered the room from floor to ceiling. Stairs wound down to the main floor and it appeared the space was four stories tall if narrow. Each section was labeled in the Ancient language.

Adelina carefully took the stairs to the main floor and crossed to a blank console. Based on instinct she pressed her golden palm to the black glass. It lit up and the A.I. greeted her by name, bringing up an inventory and asking politely what she would like access to.

“Found this place, eh?” her father asked, his voice echoing off the walls.

She about jumped out of her skin at the sudden sound.

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