“You know I hate violence, but I’ve made a career out of it anyway. At first, I fought to protect my friends, now I fight to protect the people of Terabinia. If you need help then I’ll get to do both.”
“I haven’t even told you what’s going on,” said Will. “How do you know it’s to protect the people of Terabinia?”
The massive soldier reached out and slapped Will’s chest just over his heart, the blow landing with such force that he nearly lost his balance. “Because I know you, Will. Your heart is always getting you into more trouble than you can handle, and it’s always on someone else’s behalf.”
Will shook his head. “That isn’t true.”
Tiny arched one brow. “We can argue later. I need a nap.”
“Don’t you want to know what we’ll be doing?”
“It might disturb my sleep. Tell me later.”
***
At the library, he ran into Janice as he headed for the stairs. “Oh, hello,” he greeted her, noting that she had tied her hair into an unruly bun and somehow anchored it in place using only a pencil. Clearly an act of magic, he told himself silently.
Janice blinked at him for a second then frowned. “This can’t be good.”
“What?”
“You’re in the library.” Pretending to shade her eyes with one hand, she stared in the direction of the front entrance. “Has the sun gone dark? Is this the end? Has Marduke risen from hell to consume the world?”
“Very funny. I do come to the library on my own for legitimate purposes, you do realize that, don’t you?”
“Mmhmm,” she replied noncommittally. “And what brings you here today?”
Will glanced to one side then focused on meeting her gaze. “Nothing special,” he answered, keeping his tone innocent.
“Then you won’t mind if I tag along.”
“I’m sure you’re busy. No need to go out of your way.”
“I don’t mind,” she said blandly, following him up the stairs. As they passed the second floor, she commented, “Third floor, spell archives—why am I not surprised?”
“I could be going to the fourth floor.”
“Mmhmm, you could, but I’d bet good money you aren’t.”
Will stopped. “God damn it, Janice. Don’t you have something better to do?”
“And there’s the temper,” she observed. “Is that why Rob’s mad at you? Did he ask too many questions?”
Will pursed his lips. After a second he replied, “I’m not angry.”
Janice took his hand and started back up the stairs. “Come on. I’ll help you look for whatever it is.”
“I don’t want to get you involved.”
“I’m not going to get involved. I have no desire to get caught in one of your adventures, but this is the library. I’m pretty good with index cards. I’ll give you a hand and then you can go do stupid things with the information afterwards. I won’t interfere.”
He glowered at her for a moment, trying to decide whether to be offended or touched by her remarks.
She tugged on his arm. “Come on, hero, it’s the library. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Fine.”
Once they reached the third floor, they headed for the card files. “What are you looking for?”
“A spell called the iron-skin transformation, another called Ethelgren’s Illumination, and anything with simple fire battle magics in it.”
Janice stared at him blankly for a moment, then her lips began working silently. Will could easily make out the words, ‘What the fuck?’ but to her credit Janice didn’t actually voice her thoughts. Instead she turned back to the card index and began searching.
He stepped to the other end of the card file and started at the E’s. “I’ll look for Ethelgren’s Illumination.”
She nodded, already working her way through the I’s. Fifteen minutes later, courtesy of Janice, they had a tidy sheet with notes on the locations of what Will wanted. He’d brought his own journal and writing implements, but they were stored in the limnthal, so he had deferred to her rather than display yet another of his secrets.
“You’re out of luck,” she told him, looking over the sheet once again. “Every single one of these items is in the restricted section, even Ethelgren’s Illumination.”
“Which makes no sense,” he complained. “It’s a light spell.”
“It might have something to do with the book it’s in, Battling the Darkness,” remarked Janice in a droll tone. “This is just a guess on my part, but I’m betting the book has offensive spells in it too. Remind me again, what did you need these spells for?”
“It’s a special project,” Will said evasively.
“Are you going to need holy water and specially blessed silver for this special project, or will garlic be enough?”
Will stared at her, then asked, “How did you know?”
Janice’s eyes grew round. “It’s really vampires? You’re kidding, please tell me you’re kidding!”
“I’m kidding,” he reassured her. “And from what I hear, the garlic and holy symbols don’t work, but the silver does. Why did you think it was vampires?”
“I forget how sheltered your upbringing was. The wizard Ethelgren was famous for only one thing, his obsession with vampires.”
“Now the title of his book makes sense,” said Will, nodding. “It’s too bad everything is in the restricted section. You might as well go. I’ll stick around and see if I can find anything useful in the non-restricted stacks.”
Janice eyed him suspiciously, then whispered, “You’re going to break into the restricted section again, aren’t you?”
Will frowned. “I don’t think I ever told you I did that before.”
She tapped her temple, then leaned closer. “I’ll be your lookout.”
He sighed. He didn’t really need a lookout. Over the past year he’d been into the restricted section several times. The very first time he had hid in the library and explored it after the library closed, but he had later learned that his efforts had been excessively cautious. For one, almost no one used the restricted section, so there was little chance of encountering anyone, and two, when he did encounter someone, they assumed he had permission. In part that might have been because of who his wife was, but it also had a lot to do with the fact that no one could enter the restricted section without a special talisman that served as a key to prevent the wards from doing them serious harm. If he remained nonchalant and acted as though he belonged, no one would look at him twice.