Page 73 of When Sorrows Come

“Has it been the same Librarian the whole time?”

“No, there have been several Librarians in the time the Library has been anchored here. They change every fifty years or so, either due to retirement or because they’ve transferred to another Library. The Libraries prefer to keep their staff well-informed, which means moving them between locations from time to time.”

All knowes are alive and self-aware. The Library knowes are weird enough that it made sense they might be able to tell their Librarians what they wanted and see to it that their will was carried out.

“Huh,” I said.

The ladder came rolling back along the line of shelves, now carrying a dainty woman in a floor-length pink velour bathrobe with white bunnies embroidered all the way around the hem. Her sleek black hair was gathered into a messy braid that fell down her back in snarls and puffs of tangled strands, capped at the bottom with a sparkly rhinestone butterfly clip. She looked more like a teenager who’d been raiding May’s closet than a Librarian, and I blinked.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said, hopping off the ladder, which rolled on into the dark without her. “I was in the children’s section, and you know how those picture books can get.”

She was even wearing pink bunny slippers. The corner of my mouth twitched with an involuntary smile.

Fiac bowed. “Librarian Yenay,” he said solemnly. “These guests would like to speak to you on matters of history and the records you have custody of.”

“Seneschal Fiac,” said the Librarian, voice much lighter. “Do any of them have Library cards?”

“Nope, although I’ve been a patron of the Library of Stars in the Mists,” I said. “Hi. My name is—”

“Sir October Daye, Knight of Lost Words, most recently known of the Dóchas Sidhe, proof that Amandine the Liar can fail to do her duty more than once without attracting the vengeance of Oberon himself, oh, yes, I know whoyouare,” said the Librarian. “I’m Yenay Ng, and this is my Library.”

“It’s very... misty,” I said. “The walls don’t look like they’ve quite committed to the idea that they need to keep existing when no one’s looking at them.”

“That’s one of my favorite things about the place,” said Yenay, and looped her arm through mine. Her skin was a remarkablyclear medium brown, so smooth it was like she had no pores, and her eyes were black from one side to the other, lacking the aura of vague menace that the Luidaeg took on when her eyes were in the same state. “I mean, that, and somehow I can always find fresh donuts in the breakroom, when I can find the breakroom at all. Sometimes it doesn’t exist becausesomeonewants me to eat more salads.” She tipped her head back to yell her final words at the ceiling. Then she shrugged. “But breaking in a new Librarian has got to be frustrating, so I guess it’s okay if this one wants me to last for a little while. Come on.”

She started leading me between the shelves. Quentin, who didn’t want to be left alone with Fiac, followed.

“So what is it our humble Library can do for a daughter of Amandine the Liar?” she asked brightly. “I’ve seen the biography you helped Magdaleana Brooks write of her. Lots of pieces missing. Plenty of room for an update if you wanted to make one.”

The Libraries trade in information, and for a Librarian, knowing something no one else knows is sort of like getting a gift card to Willy Wonka’s factory, along with permission to buy as much candy as they can carry. It’s a big deal. “I can’t give you any secrets about my mother,” I said. “Those are promised to the Library of Stars.”

She turned to me so I could see her pout. “Well, then, what do you have to bargain with? I assume there must be something, or you wouldn’t be here looking for information.”

“I can tell you where the other Dóchas Sidhe is.”

Yenay blinked, pout fading into a look of profound confusion. “But August Torquill was lost in 1906, when she went looking for Oberon himself, at the behest of the sea witch,” she said. “She was bade not to return until her quest was complete.”

“That’s true.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean... you mean she found Oberon?”

The Libraries are independent of the Kingdom structure, immune to the word of Kings and Queens, but they’re still part of Faerie, and that means they have to answer to someone. That someone is and has always been Oberon himself. If he had returned, their days of independence were over.

For some reason, that hadn’t been a big enough concern to occur to me before now, at least in part because I still didn’t have permission to tell anyone he was back.

“No,” I said carefully. “She did not find Oberon. But I found her, at the request of Amandine the Liar, and I was able to work with her father and the Luidaeg to bring her safely home. She’s living with her father in the Undersea demesne of Saltmist, having chosen him in the divorce.”

“Hmmm,” said Yenay. “Human interest angle is strong—I wish we had a better way of saying that, but since we decided to go all-in on stealing language from the mortals, I don’t really have an easy-to-follow way to construct the phrase ‘fae interest angle.’ That’s just word salad. But anyway, people will be interested in hearing how she came back, given how long she was missing, and how little we know about her. Don’t suppose you’re down for narrating another biography?”

Giving Mags the information she’d asked for about my mother had been a relatively painless process, although I probably needed to talk to Janet and then talk to Mags again—it was time for a second edition now that we knew who my grandmother was. But Mom had given up her right to privacy when she spent my entire childhood keeping secrets from me. As far as I was concerned, she no longer had any reason to expect me to stay quiet about private matters.

August, though... August was a different case. We weren’t what I’d call friends, but we were sisters, and we’d chosen the same side during the divorce. We were both daughters of Simon Torquill in the eyes of Faerie. I had no doubt that meant something, in the tangled and self-contradictory web of rules and traditions that increasingly governed my life. I didn’t want to cross any lines I didn’t know existed.

“Sorry,” I said, honestly. “August’s life story is only on the table if she puts it there. But I can tell you the parts that involved me. Maybe that’s enough to buy the information I need. Maybe it’s not. I don’t really know. I don’t think I’m asking for anything that valuable.”

“True, we should figure out what you want me to pull before I get down to barter.” Yenay cast a sour look over her shoulder at Fiac. “Blame these people. They act like we’re the Kingdom’s private Library because of where we’re anchored, and half the time they’re sending their people here looking for the latest bestseller or reallyweirderotica. I don’t care what gets people hot andbothered, I don’t judge, but if Cait Sidhe are your thing, why not just date one, instead of reading about someone else doing it?”

“I’m marrying one later today,” I said, fighting the urge to smile.

---