“I’ll trust your word on that, but I don’t think I’m up for going out there again.” She had zero desire to bump into the imp again. Not after opening up again—it was too humiliating.
“I suppose… the library?” Left corner of her lip tilting up, Dalia said it as a question.
“Yes!” Shayera jumped on it. Not that she was much of a reader. Mother had tried to instill a love for the written word in her, but the idea of reading for entertainment baffled her. But learning? Now that she enjoyed. And surely in a library there’d be books about Delerium, something she could study and hopefully learn something about him.
She still had no desire to hang out with Rumpelstiltskin, but the need to figure him out hadn’t waned one bit.
“Good.” Dalia stood. “Good.” Her red eyes twinkled. “Then it’s the library. Would you like to walk, or?” She held out her hand.
Chuckling and grabbing onto her stomach, Shayera shook her head. “I don’t think I’m quite over the last jump. Let’s just walk.”
Fifteen minutes later, Dalia left her in the library with the promise that she’d return the moment Shayera called for her.
Once the door closed behind the maid, she turned on her heel and gaped at the mind-boggling dimensions of the room. The ceiling seemed to scrape into eternity, and there had to be a mile, at least, separating each wall. There were large white columns spaced evenly and gleaming white marble cases with gold-trimmed shelves were lined all in a row. Way to the back there was even a spiraling staircase that led to a second floor.
In short, Mother would have peed herself to see this place. The thought made her chuckle.
“Goodness,” she breathed. Yet more evidence that Rumpel had a serious hoarding problem. “You are indeed a magpie, imp.”
Because Mother had tried so dutifully to brainwash Shayera into enjoying the library as much as she, she’d taught her daughter that the first place to look—especially in a room of this size—was the catalog shelf.
It stood tall and proud in the very center of the room. The clack of her shoes echoed hollowly through the place and made her shiver.
Running her fingers along the letters until she got to D, she opened the drawer and began riffling through the cards until she found Delerium. There were exactly five books on the subject.
Plucking the cards out so that she wouldn’t have to memorize the long digit, she walked up the staircase to the second level.
The room was well lit, but not by any light source she could actually see. There were no windows, so therefore no sun peeked through. It was more like the stones themselves cast a radiant glow—it made everything have a dreamlike quality to it.
One thing she could say for Rumpel: what he lacked in good manners, he more than made up for in the beauty he surrounded himself with.
Pulling out the first card, she studied the numbers and then looked at the placard hanging from the bookshelf; it was a match. But, the books were on the uppermost shelf and she was way too short to reach. Looking around, she spied a sliding ladder and jogged over so that she could push it into place.
Climbing up, she easily found the books and suffered yet another pang of disappointment. Her hopes for massive tomes detailing his rise and fall, just what Delerium was and why he’d run away, those were quickly dashed. The books, if they could even be called that, were no thicker than pamphlets. And though they were leather bound and clearly very old, she doubted she’d learn much, if anything.
But she’d come all this way. Sighing, she pulled the books out. At least it wouldn’t be hard to carry them all at once.
Back down the ladder, she hurriedly returned the cards to the catalog and then took a seat at one of several long wooden tables. The books were laced up.
Picking one at random, she undid the knot and gasped the moment she opened it, jumping in alarm because the book grew into a large volume. Its weathered pages looked as though they’d not seen the light of day for years, let alone centuries. Easily the size of her entire chest and just as heavy, she moaned when she realized this would definitely not be light reading.
“Oh gods,” she breathed as she tried to do a quick count of the pages inside, losing count after two hundred or so. “Nothing for it, I guess.” Placing her chin on her fist, she began at the beginning.