Page 59 of Her Shadow so Dark and Lovely
“Help me grab her,” the first assailant calls to the other. “Hold her—Fuck!”
My heel connects with his face in a crunch of bone. He holds on in spite of it and the second Lightkeeper joins him. He tries to grab me, which is awkward for him because I am entirely naked, exactly as Sila had left me. I scratch at him with my free hand, rough-edged nails digging into the flesh of his arm. I try to twist away to the other side of the bed and the second Lightkeeper grabs my flailing legs. I catch him under the chin for his troubles. He holds me down as I thrash, unwilling to give me up. I’m dragged back and the first Lightkeeper with the broken nose grabs for my arms. I catch his cheek with my nails, a hair's breadth away from his eyes. He cries out, but it doesn’t take him long to try again, and my limbs are already weary. I do not have Sila’s ability to recover so well.
His hands close around my arms and twist them behind my back painfully.
“Fuck,” he says, breathless, as he presses his knee into my back.
“Be easier if we could just kill her,” says the one holding my legs. He says it like I have been the one to ruinhisevening.
“We could call it an accident,” the other replies, leaning in.
“Fuck you,” I spit back.
He sneers at me.
“Where the fuck is Beryl?” hisses the other.
“Here,” comes a woman’s voice, short of breath. Lantern light blooms across the room. I recognise her face. Mousy brown hair and pale grey eyes set in a hard, mean face. A water mage, and another of my sister's peers.
“You’ll need to pacify her,” says the first one, the one with a broken nose. He sounds a bit nasal. Good.
“I can see that,” she says, dry. “Get out of the way.”
Broken Nose lets my arms free and I twist, snarling and reaching for whoever is closest. Beryl moves swiftly and within seconds my limbs turn as light as air. All the fight goes out of my body. My mind struggles as sedation magic coats my thoughts, leaving them soft and syrupy.
“Lively, isn’t she?” Beryl says.
I push through the sedation. “Fuck. You.” It’s a little slurred, my tongue growing heavy. My body goes entirely limp, my thoughts drifting like an angry, futile storm over an indifferent mountain. I catch Beryl’s expression, an unsubtle sneer as she looks me over. Casts her eyes over the bed and discarded clothes. I manage nothing more than a small growl. Entirely ineffective.
“Wrap her up so she’s decent and let’s get her out of here. I’ve had enough of Librarians for one day.”
The two Lightkeepers jump to her command, pinning my arms to my sides and wrapping me in Sila’s silken bedsheets. They still smell of her, of us. I am tossed over a shoulder like nothing more than a sack of grain.
The hallway is littered with the injured and dead as we pass. There is the occasional muffled noise or abrupt movement. I try to keep my eyes open. I feel the curse shift, and my thoughts clear somewhat. My eyelids don’t feel quite so heavy. Even the curse is sedated by the mage, a pale image of itself.
My thoughts are still slow, drifting, but one burns through, bright as a flame. I need to stay alive long enough for Sila to find me.
Because I have no doubt that when Sila returns to find her bed empty and bloody, she will come for me.
Chapter 35
Sila
The scriptorium isin a state of disarray. I thought I had left it in a mess when I rescued Lorel, but I had nothing on the current chaos. The shelves and desks are pushed out into the corridors, books and supplies scattered everywhere. The Cupbearer is negotiating with a young woman. She sits at the centre of it all, clutching the body of another. Around her are the bodies of two other scribes, long dead before they were brought to the scriptorium, and three Lightkeepers, recently departed.
“Is that?—?”
“Yes,” sighs Mercias. “Noela.”
Mercias’ trainee Librarian. She’d only recently pledged herself to the Library’s Heart. It seems the Heart is being generous with her, if the black marks across the scriptorium courtyard are anything to go by.
“Is she clutching a scribe?”
“Yes.”
“Dawn King have mercy. Have we all taken leave of our senses?” I rub my temples. Think ofmyscribe tucked upsafely in bed. So much for the rules, for us or the wretched Lightkeepers.
I follow Mercias into the central courtyard. The Head Librarian had summoned us, since we are currently in charge of the scriptorium, and it is not the first time Lightkeepers had been found here. Mercias crouches down next to Noela. Something tugs at my consciousness, and I frown down at them.
