Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson Read Free Book Online

that could be used by wardens or townspeople during an emergency. She fumbled in the earthen hollow beneath the pedestal until her fingers bumped against a rain-slicked canister.
    The Malefict’svoice pursued her. “I will tell you,” it whispered, “the truth of what happened to the Director. Is that a secret you would like to hear? Someone did this, you know . . . someone released me. . . .”
    Elisabeth’s fingers froze as she fumbled the canister open.
    “I could tell you who it was—apprentice!”
    The air rippled with motion, but she reacted too slowly. Slimy leather closed in on her fromall sides, capturing her in a squeezing, stinking grip. The monster had caught her. It raised her up, lifting her feet from the ground, surveying her with eyes so near she could see the hemorrhaged veins that traced through them like scarlet threads. The fist began to tighten. Elisabeth felt her ribs bend inward, and her breath escaped in a thin gasp.
    This is not how it will end , she thought,struggling against the dark. She was to be a warden, keeper of books and words. She was their friend. Their steward. Their jailer. And if need be, their destroyer.
    Her arm came free, and she flung the canister’s contents into the air. The Malefict gave an agonized howl as a cloud of salt enveloped its body. Its grip loosened, and Elisabeth slid from its grasp to land with a sickening crack againstthe angel statue. She blinked away stars. For a moment she could not move, couldn’t feel her limbs, and wondered if she had broken her back. Then the feeling in her fingers returned in a prickling wash of agony. Demonslayer’s grip pressed against her skin. She hadn’t let go.
    Before the monster’s whispers could sink their claws into her again, she rolled onto her side, where she found herselfface to face with a giant, filmy blue eye. It was reddened and watering, quivering in pain as it attempted to remain open long enough to focus on her. Using the last of her strength, she dragged herself upright. She raised the Director’s sword above the monster’s body and drove it downward with all her strength, burying it to the hilt in the monster’s greasy hide.
    The eye’s pupil expanded, thencontracted. “ No ,” the Malefict gurgled. “No!”
    Gouts of ink bubbled from the wound. She clenched her jaw and twisted the blade. The monster heaved, throwing her aside. Demonslayer remained stuck fast in its body, far from her reach, but she no longer needed it. The eyes twitched wildly and then went still, rolling upward, the lids relaxing. As if aging in rapid time, the leather skin began toturn gray, then crack and peel. A cloudy film spread over the eyes. Chunks of its body collapsed inward, sending up fountains of fiery ashes. As she watched, the Malefict disintegrated on the wind.
    She remembered what the Director had told her in the vault. This grimoire had been the only one of its kind. She had been responsible for it, and she had destroyed it. She knew she hadn’t had a choice.But still she thought to herself, What have I done?
    Ash swirled around her like snow. A brassy ringing filled the air. At last, far too late, the Great Library’s bell had begun to ring.

FIVE

    “T HIS IS MADNESS. The girl has done nothing. You know she is innocent—”
    “I do not know that, Master Hargrove,” said Warden Finch. “Only two people handled the Book of Eyes when it arrived in Summershall. Now one of them isdead. Tell me, why was Scrivener out of bed when the Malefict broke free?”
    Hargrove wheezed a disbelieving laugh. “Are you truly suggesting that Scrivener had something to do with this? That she sabotaged a Class Eight grimoire? Preposterous. What earthly reason would she have to do such a thing?”
    “She was found out of bed, out of bounds, with the Director’s sword.”
    “Which the Director leftto her in her will, for heaven’s sake! It belongs to Scrivener now—”
    Elisabeth’s eyelids fluttered. She lay beneath a