Page 2 of Fate Unchained

A great hulk of a man with a thick barrel chest and meaty arms shouldered through the door. His steps thundered through the room as he walked past the study tables near the stacks to reach her office. The man walked through her library as if he owned it.

Boris.

Her stomach clenched. Oh no.

She straightened, leaning her hip against the desk to keep herself steady. “I told you the last time was the last.”

His dark eyes, a touch too close together, narrowed. “‘Fraid things don’t work that way.”

Lilah lowered her voice even though it was only the two of them. “I’m not doing anything illegal again.”

Boris smiled, the gesture not changing the hard glare of his eyes. “You’ll do what I say.”

“If you sold those books I helped you with before, then it’s covered the debts owed you.”

He nodded slowly. “Those debts, yes. And your father stopped gambling, so I’m not here to collect for his debt.” Her father and Boris lived in Eroica, the grubby town on the Wide River a little south of the kingdom of Rohant. It had once been a small hunting and fishing camp, but after a tannery was established, it grew into the small village it was today. Two summers ago, she’d met Boris on her annual visit with her father. Boris brought her a book he wanted her to work on, telling her about how her father owed him a chunk of money and she could help clear his debt.

Since then, he’d visited her here in Coromesto twice more with other books. Valuable ones locked by their owners so thieves couldn’t take and sell them.

She let out a long sigh, relaxing her shoulders a fraction. “Then why are you here?”

“Ten thousand, two hundred, and five obols.”

Ice slid down her spine. Why had he said that exact amount? Did he—

“What?” she whispered.

He widened his flinty smile. “Your aunt’s estate has been in arrears—what?—three years now?” He waved his hand toward the library. “Working here, you’ll never get enough to pay all that back.”

“I’ve been dealing with the creditors. I petitioned the king …” She swallowed hard. Lilah had lived with her aunt on an expansive yet aging estate along the southern edge of the city. When she died three years ago, Lilah discovered that her aunt had kept the estate afloat with loans and promises of selling off paintings and furniture. The document Lilah signed, which her aunt told her was for her will, actually listed Lilah as a secondary repayment source, and now the debt was hers. “I’ve offered to sell the estate to the king at a fair price. I know he wants more land.”

Boris waved her words away as if batting a fly. “Lucky for you, the king’s mistress has taken a particular … interest … in you. We both agreed I should buy the debt on the estate, and you can owe me instead. The king signed off on the deal.” Boris pulled a sheaf of papers from inside the dusty leather vest he wore. “Here. Now you owe me the money.”

Her vision narrowed until everything was black except his hand holding the papers. She took them. Her legs shook, and she fell back into her chair. She scanned the documents. He was right. The king’s wax seal, and his signature, sat on the last page, approving Boris as her new moneylender.

Bile rose in her throat. This was bad. Very bad.

Boris leaned across the desk. “This line here may be of particular interest.” He pointed. Failure to pay will result in an immediate life term in the debtor’s prison. “I added that to the contract. I can’t say they have many books for you to read in prison. Bit of a nasty place, really.”

Her throat grew tight, but she refused to cry. Not now. Tears did nothing. “How long do I have to get you the money?”

“A month.”

Her head jerked up, and she met his gaze. “What? No! That’s impossible. I can give you seven hundred obols today, but I’ll need more time for the rest.” A lot more time. As the bibliosoph for the library, her salary wasn’t much, and she’d already sold the items from her aunt’s estate which were worth anything. In ten years, she couldn’t pay Boris back. Maybe in twenty.

“I think we can come to a better arrangement.” He withdrew something else from his vest, but this wasn’t a large sheaf of legal papers; this was a single page, stained a deeper ivory with age.

The page glowed, fiercer than any of the books sitting on the shelves or in her cabinet.

Lilah leaned forward, placing her palms on the desk. Small, crabbed writing hunched messily above larger, carefully written words, marring the page, like a student had taken notes in one of their schoolbooks. Except the larger words weren’t normal, this book was coded, written in some kind of cipher, and the writing was an attempt at the translation.

One side of the paper was uneven, with a few jagged edges as if someone had used a knife on it. “What is this? Have you …?” She gasped. “You’ve cut a page out of a book!”

Boris wiped the back of his hand across his nose. “Not a book. More like a journal.” He opened his vest, and inside, he had a small, black leather book tucked into a pocket. The entire book shone.

Since she was small, she’d been able to see runes. When they were applied to books, their magic made them glow. She hadn’t met one person who could also see the runes, not even the few magicwielders who stopped by the library. So though this book gleamed, Boris couldn’t see it. Right? “I only need you to decode this one page.” He pointed to the bottom. One small rune sat there, inscribed in black ink. Not hidden with rune magic like normal, but showing clearly it hid something much deeper if someone understood how to unlock it.

She shook her head and pushed the paper back towards him. “I know nothing about runes.” Her face warmed with the lie, but she worked to keep her expression even. Boris knew she’d unlocked his stolen books for him, but he didn’t know how she’d done it, and she certainly hadn’t told him. Her skill with runes was a secret.

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