She couldn’t conceive of Gerard being some ultra powerful force though. He wasn’t a greedy or lustful person. Even if he did have power, he would be content with it, and not yearn for more. Pael’s concern seemed rooted in fear for himself. If what Pael had said was true, that the same power that had manifested in him, had also manifested in Gerard, then it made sense that Pael would fear Gerard if he were released. After all, it had been Pael who had shoved the dagger into Gerard’s heart. He of all people would expect Gerard to come seeking vengeance.
Shaella had to force the excitement from tingling through her body. She had to be clearheaded when Pael had her speak the blood oath. She couldn’t be filled with daydreams, and delusions of Gerard. The exact words of a given oath were sometimes the undoing of it. It wouldn’t do to have her head in the clouds when she spoke hers.
Once they reached the floor below the library, Shaella halted the lift. She showed Pael where the books were stacked up off of the floor on a plank of wood that she had sat on a couple of stone blocks. The room stank sharply, with a mixture of scents that were foreign to the common nose. A cask of bear urine, and an open jar of pickled griffin livers were the main contributors, but a crate full of dried bat wings, and many different bags of the herbs and powders used in spell crafting, added to the fierce aroma.
Pael ignored the stench, as he hurried to kneel on the dust caked floor before the stack of books. He ran his finger down the spines, searching the titles. More than once, he growled in frustration. Before long, he had the once neat piles scattered across the floor, and had created a new stack. Flipping through the pages of these with a feverish intensity, he ended up discarding all but two of them into the disarray.
The two that he kept, he sat on a shelf, next to a jar full of grayish, yellow liquid, labeled Plague Pus. In the jar next to it, a fat black spider with a bright yellow star-like design on its back, floated in clear liquid. Shaella studied it all as she waited on him. The shape of the spider’s mark was like three double jagged lightning bolts, all crossing in the middle. Shaella and Cole had been trying to decide what symbol she would use on her banner, and now the choice had been made. Cole’s dragon design was fierce and impressive, but this was not the dragon’s kingdom, nor was it Cole’s. Shaella would have the lightning star.
“What kind of spider is this?” she asked her father.
Pael was making a halfhearted effort to restack the texts he’d strewn about, but he stopped long enough to look and see what she was referring to.
“One you don’t ever want to get bitten by,” he said, as he went back to what he was doing. “It’s called Arachnid Voltonimous, common name, the Luminous Weaver, or just the plain ol’ Shock Spider. Its web glows a soft, yellowish color at night, and with a single bite, it can kill an animal as big as an opossum, or lemur, with a shock of lightning-like intensity. The shock is not quite powerful enough to kill an average human, but its venom is acidic, and painfully lethal. The venom is excellent for etching, and enchanting steel with a rune or a symbol.”
Her eyes drifted to the cover of the book Pael had left exposed. It had the letter P scribed ornately upon its leather-bound face, four times. She had to peer in closer, to see the smaller script between the letters. “Plants and Potions for Poison and Preservation” the book was titled.
A brief tremor of paranoia passed through her, only subsiding after she convinced herself that her father had no reason to kill her, and that if he did, he didn’t need poison to get it done. Neither Cole, nor Flick, who would each die for her in any other situation, would do anything to thwart Pael. They both emulated him in every way that they could. If Pael wanted to kill her, all he had to do was kill her, or possibly order one of them to do it for him. She shook her head, and cursed herself a fool for being so stupidly suspicious.
Pael had stood, and was now making a feeble attempt to get the dust off of the hem of his fancy wizard’s robe. The sight made Shaella smile, in spite of herself.
Seeing her mirth, Pael snarled. He passed his hand over his face, down his body, and with the gesture, his robe was instantly pristine again.
Shaella wasn’t impressed.
“The Spectral Orb?” she prompted, seeing that he had already forgotten their agreement. She hoped that he had forgotten the oath that he wanted her to swear as well.
“Very well,” he said, grabbing up the two books he had chosen. “Take us up out of this foul place. I have a dagger up in the nest.”
Disappointed that he hadn’t forgotten the Binding of Blood, but excited beyond reason about finally getting to learn the trick to using the artifact, she spoke the command that took the lift up into the library.
Pael snarled with disgust, at having to crawl up through the trapdoor to get to the nest, and then the floor above it, but he went.