Seeker of the Four Winds: A Galatia Novel (29 page)

As they continued to walk around the building
together, they talked freely.

“I can’t believe you married a Commoner,”
Josie said.

“Is that a crime?” her father said.

“No, I always expected you to get married
someday, I just thought it would be to a human.”

“Now, hold on there a minute, little
Josie—Bianca is every bit as human as you and me.”

“No, she’s not.”

“She is where it counts.”

“I suppose. Um, can Commoners and humans, uh,
like have babies together?”

“We already have a boy and a girl.”

“You mean I have half-breed siblings?”

“Please don’t use that term when referring to
my children.”

“I’m related to Commoners,” Josie huffed. “I
can’t believe it.”

“Do you have a problem with Commoners?”

“
They’re
the ones with the problem,”
Josie hissed. “The captain of the slave ship was Commoner. The
owner of the theater company was Commoner. A lot of my enemies in
the ring were Commoners. It seems like every Commoner I meet is
trying to sell me, own me, or fight me, so, yeah, I guess I do have
a problem with them.”

He gave a deep sigh. “In time, you will learn
it’s not the Commoner in a Commoner that is causing you so much
trouble—it’s their human side. We’re a fallen race—you know.”

Growing up, to hear her mother talk, Josie’s
father was about as intellectually stimulating as a turd. Josie
never felt that way. He might not be book-smart, but he had a way
of cutting down an argument to its bare bones. However, his
decision to stay in Galatia when he knew that she was in the
Northlands had wounded her deeply.

“When you learned the rest of the bunker had
arrived, why didn’t you try to find me?”

“I wanted to, but other obligations held me
here.” She had never seen her father cry, but a tear splashed from
his lashes onto the dust of the alley cobblestones. “I’m sorry for
not being there for you through the years, Josie. And I wish I
could do more for you now, but I have a wife and two little kids
here in Tectonia.”

“I suppose, in the end, you came through by
being here today.”

“I love you, little girl,” he said, squeezing
her shoulders in a one-arm hug.

“I’m not so little anymore. I can take care
of myself pretty well now.”

“That you can.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing that you’ve
finally found a woman—a wife I mean.”

“Yes, Bianca is a good woman.”

“What do you do here in Tectonia,
anyway?”

“I’m just a notch below a lawyer,” her father
said, standing a little straighter, a little prouder. “Businessmen
pay me to read and write up contracts. Among the Galatians, I was
just an average guy, .got through high school with Cs and Ds. Here
on Future Earth, I’m practically a scholar. Being able to read and
write English made it easier for me to learn how to read and write
Commoner, which puts me ahead of most of the population.”

“That’s great, Dad.”

She returned her attention to the Seeker. No
matter what side of the library she was on, the starburst pendant
tugged toward the building. When they came full circle, the Seeker
aimed itself up the steps once again. Josie matched the angle of
the chain with her arm, following an imaginary line to the upper
floors of the building.

“My guess is it’s on the third or fourth
floor.”

“Here comes Dante and Lindsey.” Her father
pointed down the congested city street.

Josie glanced their way as she started up the
broad entrance staircase.

As people walked up the steps, she tried to
read their personalities by looking at their demeanors, the way
they held themselves. Most people walked swiftly, hunched over,
heads down, but then she spotted him—a bulldog-jowled humanoid
covered in shaggy white fur. A pair of wire half-moon glasses
rested on the end of his snout. He held a stack of books against
his chest, but took the time to nod and smile at everyone he
passed.

She bounded up the stairs past him and
positioned herself near the top so that he would pass by her with a
cheery hello.

“Hello, young lady.”

“Hello, kind sir.” she said as he brushed
past her toward the doors. Her father raised his eyebrows, but
stepped aside and blended into the background to let her work. “Are
you going into the library?”

“I’m not walking up the steps for my health,”
he said with good humor.

“Me neither,” she said. “Are you a
student?”

“I wish.” The dog man snorted with laughter.
“No, I’m a very old Kaninder. I teach history at the Royal Academy.
I take it you’re from out of town?”

“Indeed, far north of here. Blue Junction,
actually,” she lied. “My name is Josephine.”

“A pleasure, Josephine.” He offered a paw.
“My students call me Master Casey.”

She wasn’t sure what to do with a paw, so she
gave it a shake. Master Casey looked momentarily taken aback. Was
it the handshake or the fact that he had noticed she had five
fingers—not the four of a Commoner?

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to hide her
embarrassment. “I don’t know your customs.”

“It’s quite all right, young lady. What
brings you to Tectonia?”

“I’m looking for information.”

“You’ve certainly come to the right
place.”

“I thought so,” she said with a long face.
“But when I got here, I learned that not just anybody can access
the Deposit of Knowledge.”

He started forward again toward the
doors.

Images of armies heading toward Galatia
marched through Josie’s imagination. This was taking far too long.
Time to take a calculated risk.

“Look, Master Casey, I’ll be straight with
you. I need to get in that building bad, real bad. I will pay you
for assistance. Just tell me what you want.”

“I’m sorry, Josephine,” he said, looking more
curious than shocked by her proposal. “But I have all the money I
need.”

“What do you like besides money?” she asked,
hoping he wasn’t some kind of pervert.

“Like I said, I’m a teacher of ancient
history.”

Just then Lindsey climbed the steps to join
them.

“Hey, Josie, what’s up?”

Then it clicked into place. She had the
perfect bargaining tool. Taking Lindsey by the arm, she shoved her
squarely in front of Master Casey.

“Do you want to see a neat trick?” she
offered, despite Lindsey’s startled squawk. “Hand her your glasses,
Master Casey.”

“Excuse me?”

“Hand her your spectacles and she will tell
you their history.”

“This is most unprecedented,” Master Casey
grumbled, but Josie was banking on his curious nature to win out.
He gingerly handed them over. Lindsey shot her an irritated glare,
but held the glasses between her palms. A few moments later, she
rattled off the history of the glasses.

“These glasses were purchased in Faladore. A
short fat guy named Hogsworth made them. He charged you double the
agreed-upon price, which made you so furious, you swiped a cigar on
the way out of his shop. You were wearing these glasses when your
wife died two years ago. She passed away in a big warehouse where
hundreds of other sick people were being treated. Was there a
plague here or something?” His mouth was hanging open, but Lindsey
continued rattling off information. “You teach cadets at the Royal
Academy. You don’t fraternize with the other instructors
much—sitting by yourself at lunch to read. Before your wife died,
you used to rush home where a warm dinner and a kiss were waiting
for you. Nowadays, when class is over, you go down to the bakery
every single day, where you sit drinking a coffee and eating
pastries. Then you come to the library, where you browse the
collection of artifacts, just before you choose a book, which you
read until closing. I get the impression that you don’t like to go
home anymore.” Lindsey placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’s sweet
how you put the pillows on her side of the bed every night and
cover them with the blanket, just so you can pretend that she is
still there. You’ve been very lonely since your wife passed
away—haven’t you? I think the secretary in the Royal Academy likes
you. Haven’t you notice how she gets flustered whenever you come
near her desk?”

“B-B-Bernice?”

“Definitely, you should ask her out for a
bite at the bakery or something.”

“Wait a moment, h-h-how did you do that? Is
this some parlor trick?”

“No,” Josie said. “Lindsey can read the
history of any object, no matter how ancient. Get me into the
Deposit of Knowledge, and she’s all yours until I get what I need.
What do you say?”

“Hey!” Lindsey protested.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” said Master
Casey, giving both girls an enthusiastic handshake. He proceeded to
offer each of them an arm. “Just wait until my associates and
students see me waltz into the library escorted by two beautiful
ladies.”

..............................

The inside of the Deposit of Knowledge
didn’t look much like the bunker’s library. Instead of rows of
metal shelves, computers, brightly painted walls, and carpets—the
dark wooden shelves here were so tall you’d need a ladder to reach
the top five shelves. The walls were more of the same dark wood,
intermingled with oil paintings of pompous humanoids, landscapes
and battle scenes. The floor was polished green marble. Chandeliers
flickering with candles were arranged intermittently along the
copper-tiled ceiling. Elderly gentlemen sat on long
velvet-cushioned benches, smoking pipes, reading the books, and
occasionally muttering to one another. One of them caught sight of
Master Casey, nudged the gentlemen next to him and pointed. Soon,
the congregation of old fellows were gawking in interest at him and
his two female companions.

“I wonder what they’re saying.” Master Casey
chuckled warmly. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

Josie wasn’t interested in old-men games. Her
eyes went to the soldiers in military uniforms posted at the
doorway. As library patrons left, each was stopped, and thoroughly
frisked. Egads, how would she sneak anything out of this place?

“These are friends of the family from out of
town,” Master Casey told the registrar at the front desk. “They are
both avid readers and I’d like to show off the place—if you don’t
mind.” The woman raised her eyebrows, but she pushed a tablet his
way. “Have them sign in, please.”

Josie and Lindsey wrote their names in
cursive without thinking. The woman looked at their scribbles and
shook her head.

“What’s this gibberish?” the woman
complained, pushing the tablet back toward them. “If you’re
illiterate, just sign your names with an X.”

Master Casey peered over Josie’s shoulder.
His eyes widened in interest. “Gibberish—I think not.” He guided
them away from the registrar. “Tell me again, where are you are
from?”

“The bunker—” Lindsey said.

“Blue Junction—” Josie blurted out at the
same time.

“I mean Blue Junction,” Lindsey tried to
correct herself, but it was too late.

“I see,” Master Casey said, looking at them
shrewdly, but left it at that. “Tell me again, what kind of
information are you after?”

“I’ll know it when I see it,” Josie said, and
headed for the marble staircase sweeping up to the rotunda. Lindsey
started going with her, but Josie put up her palm. “You go with
Master Casey and do your rewindy thing, remember?”

“I’d like to have you take a look at the
pre-history collection in the basement,” Master Casey said
eagerly.

“This should only take a few minutes,” Josie
said. “I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

People were going down the staircase, so she
waited for them to pass before releasing the pendant. The Seeker’s
angle lessened as she climbed to the second story. It went almost
horizontal on the third, making her heart thump with excitement. As
she was part way up the fourth flight, it started to sag. Josie
suppressed a squeal of joy.

Holy Moley, it’s on an upper shelf on the
third floor, she decided.

When she went back down to the third floor,
she found dozens of young men in blue cadet uniforms sitting at
tables with open books in front of them. They were busy kicking
each other under the tables, throwing writing plumes at each other,
and horsing around. A few of them gave her curious glances, but she
wasn’t worried about them. It was the two people sitting in the
corner with their faces shrouded in cloaks that gave her the heebie
jeebies. She couldn’t tell if they were looking at her or only in
her direction. Trying to appear confident, like she was doing
nothing wrong, Josie stared boldly back at them. In response, they
lowered their heads into thick books. Josie decided she had simply
been paranoid and went on her way.

Turning behind the shelves, she let the
Seeker go again.

It reached toward the center of the room,
angling to the far wall. Jogging down the back aisle, she pictured
the Seeker as the minute hand of a clock. Right now it hovered at
the eleven o’clock position. As she passed more aisles, it shifted
to ten o’clock. To nine. The stone began to glow that familiar blue
as the Seeker pulled slightly upward.

“Oh, god,” she said, feeling weak in the
knees, knowing she was getting close. Spying a shelf ladder, she
calmly slid it from the end of the rack and climbed it. Dust puffed
where she disturbed ancient texts, some that probably hadn’t been
opened for decades, maybe longer. She sneezed again, breaking the
quiet, making her muscles clench in fear. The Seeker landed between
the spines of two thick leather-bound books—volumes IV and V of
Alchemy.

Peering at the shelf, she realized a thin
book was wedged between them. She carefully pulled it out to find,
of all things, a paperback book with a cover illustration of a
red-headed woman wearing a chainmail bikini and holding a sword.
The edges of the pages had weathered to the shade of an overcooked
biscuit. The stamp on the side said
Property of Galatians
Library
. There was even a barcode on the back cover.