Tara Meadowguard's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Tara knelt over the open book and stared at pages she could not read. The ritual to wake the guardian spirit filled three leaves. Every line curled in a script she had never learned. She traced the marks with one clawed finger and got nothing. The words for the summoning were locked, and so was the spirit. The dragonfly landed beside her. Its glass wings threw color across the gold. It breathed a thin flame near the page, and Tara flinched back. "Careful," she said. "This book is all I have." The cat dropped from his ledge. He crossed the coins without a sound and looked down at the writing. "You cannot read it." "Not yet." "Then you are stuck." He sat and wrapped his tail around his paws. "The troll kept more than gold. He kept a wall of books. Rare ones. Scrolls tied with ribbon." His green eyes narrowed. "One taught this same old tongue." Tara sat up. "Where?" "Deep in the back. Behind the crowns." He licked a paw. "But the shelf is guarded. The troll set a light there. Touch the wrong wick and it curses you." Tara took a candle stub and went into the dark throat of the cave. The dragonfly flew ahead and lit the way. Behind a heap of crowns she found the shelf. Weathered tomes leaned together. Scrolls poked out between them, tied with faded ribbon. On top stood a tall brass candelabra. Runes crawled up its stem. Its eight candles burned though no one had lit them. "The light chooses," the cat called from the dark. "Feed it right and it helps. Feed it wrong and it ruins you." Tara studied the runes. She could not read the book, but these marks matched shapes on the shelf. She found a scroll stamped with the same rune as the tallest candle. She pulled it free. The candles flared white. Heat pushed her back. She held the scroll up and shielded her face. The dragonfly wrapped its wings around the flames and pressed them low. The white light shrank. The candelabra went still. Tara unrolled the scroll under the steady candles. It held two columns. One side showed the strange script. The other side showed plain letters she knew. It was a key. A guide from the old tongue to hers. She carried the scroll back and laid it beside the book. Line by line, she matched the marks. The summoning slowly opened to her. She read the first true word aloud, and her fur stood on end. Then the ground shivered. Coins slid and rang. Deep under the cave, something old shifted in its sleep. The cat's ears went flat. "You woke it," he said. "You woke something." Tara looked at the trembling floor. She could read the ritual now. But the first word alone had stirred the spirit, and she did not yet know how to finish what she had started.