71 Andy’s secret
“Who’s there?!”
Anne was shouting at one tree with a large shadow beside it. Xavier instinctively pushes her body while shielding her. Justice and his guards walk carefully towards the shadow, and he shouted to Xavier to stay behind with Andy and Anne. When they saw the shadow, a slight relief come into Justice. Goes back to Xavier and Anne, and he told them about the shadow.
“It was a linen.”
“A what? You’re joking.” Xavier couldn’t believe him in the slightest.
His guards came back with a long white fabric in their hands. Justice handed the fabric to Xavier.
“It was hanging in one of the branches. From afar, it looks like a shadow of a person using a long coat.” Justice explained everything with the white fabric still in his hand, “Anne, you must be imagined it.”
Anne grew quiet for a short time, and then a smile came to her face. “Yes, you’re right. I must imagine things. Come on, just... let’s go.”
Nervously, she stepped into the graves, leaving them behind. She tried not to mention anything about the shadow anymore because she knew something that the others didn’t see. The shadow also had red eyes. It was a person, not a fabric. They searched for some clues in some mausoleums until Andy sees some particular object in the mausoleum.
“Hey, I think this is it!” Shouted Andy with excitement in his voice.
.....
Justice raised one of his eyebrows. “Are you sure? Because we need to open the gate by force, I don’t want to be disrespectful.”
“Yes, I read the Aksara. This is a secret location of a tome.”
Aksara is a rare language that came from the ancient time of the Valorian kingdom. In the olden days, people used Aksara as their preferred language, but not anymore. Aksara is the old tongue, the forgotten language that only the librarian has the skill to read and spoke, the linguistic skill of the librarian gave them the ability to read or even spoke any forbidden or forgotten language.
Justice order his guards to pry open the gate, while Andy was busy copying the words engraved on the wall of the outer part of the mausoleum. The gate opened with a loud clanging. Dust and debris exploded from the inside of the mausoleum. Anne cover her face and coughed from the dust. Justice gave her his handkerchief to cover her mouth.
“Maybe you should stay outside with the guards,” Said Justice to Anne.
Anne shook her head. “No, I’m going inside with you.”
Looking frustrated by her stubbornness, Justice replied with very stinging words, “You’re going to be in our way, so better just waiting here.”
There were no other words afterward. She reluctantly agreed and waited for them outside with the guards. The inside of the mausoleum was not as wide as they predicted. There was only a small hall fit for one person to squeeze in, and the three of them looks at each other.
“Alright, Andy, prepare yourself,” Said Xavier, pushing Andy towards the way.
Andy looks surprised. “What?! Why me? We should go for the one with the most votes.”
“We did, and we chose you, so hauled your *ss.” Justice proclaimed it to Andy while leaning on the wall, smirking at the poor young man.
Let out his frustration with a short grunt, he reluctantly steps inside the small hall. Thankfully, it’s just a short walk to the other room, an altar with a book in the middle of the altar. Andy reached for the book with a shaken hand, he opened the book and put it inside his bag immediately. He goes back to the other room where Justice and Xavier already waiting.
“Well, did you find it?” Asked Xavier.
He looks at Xavier and Justice. “It wasn’t the book that you were searching for. We need to open another mausoleum. Don’t worry, I saw another Aksara back then.” Andy said to Justice, and Xavier tried to be calm as he can.
The way he walks outside, make Justice suspicious of how he acted. He put his hand on the way out, blocking Andy to go outside, “Wait! Where’s the book?”
Andy was sweating bullets, he answered Justice with his nervous tone, “Boo... Book? No, this is not the book that you wanted, so...”
“No, what I meant, where’s the book inside these mausoleums?” His gaze gave Andy a chill to his bone.
“I... There’s no book inside... I swear!” Andy screamed the words and was dazed to the outside of the mausoleum.
Anne and the others were slightly disturbed by Andy. She rushed to him and with concern asked him directly. “Andy, what happened?”
The fear in his eyes couldn’t even explain this wrongdoing inside the mausoleum, “No... Nothing, let’s go inside the other, that’s not the mausoleum where the...”
“Andy! How dare you! You took the book inside, right?!” Xavier came screaming, with Justice behind him, walking slowly while his eyes fixed on Andy. Xavier grab into Andy’s collar shirt and glared at him. “What is your play here? Why do you have to lie?!”
Struggling on Xavier’s hold, he screamed with his last breath, “Yessss! I’ll... Explain anything, please... put me down.”
Xavier throws Andy to the ground. When she looks at the poor young man, Anne immediately examined him, checking his injuries. Justice sat on one stone, his eyes fixed on Andy.
“Now, tell us everything, leave nothing, do you hear me?!”
“Yes, your majesty, I’ll explain everything.” Andy was crying, but thankfully he didn’t have any major injuries, only bruises and cuts. While Anne treated his wound, he explained everything to them. “Actually, the main reason I was coming here was to retrieve all the tomes from the cemetery. There were several attempts before this expedition... But...”
“But? Hey, explain it properly.” Xavier tried to intimidate as he can be. It works tremendously at the looks of the poor librarian.
“They... they go missing!” Said Andy with a cracked voice.
The others couldn’t believe what Andy just says, especially Justice and Xavier.
“Missing? How could I never be aware of this? I never even received any report!” Said Justice, stunned by Andy’s confession.
“We cover it up because the tomes are forbidden. It will have raised many questions from the empress and the councils.” Andy was whimpering with tears coming from his eyes, “I’ve lost my friends, that’s why I’m the only junior librarian now. Most of them were missing, and the rest decided to resign.”
“How many expeditions before ours?” Asked Xavier.
“Five, at first they sent only two librarians, the number increased but still...”
Xavier shares a glance with Justice. “All of them were never coming back.”
Stands up from the place he sat, Justice pulled Andy from the ground and looked him in the eyes, “How many?”
“Wha... What? What do you mean?” Andy stuttered, afraid of how those red eyes looked at him directly.
“I asked, how many forbidden tomes are in here?” said Justice to Andy.
Andy tried so hard to count, and finally have the answers, “Including Arcana tome, three, your majesty.”
“Good thing not that many,” Gruntled Justice, while he rustled his hair in frustration. “Come on then, where to next?”
Stunned by the crown prince’s words, Andy just stands on the ground while looking at Justice, “What? your majesty?”
Xavier took a deep breath and smack him from behind. “Come on! We are going to help you, that was what your majesty said before.”
“Oh, God! Thank you, your majesty! Thank you so much!” The shimmering eyes on Andy showed how his burden was finally being lifted. He got helped, and he doesn’t have any secrets from the group anymore.
With his ability, he easily located another mausoleum of the forbidden tomes, and this time the arcana tome was inside, settling on the altar like the other tome before. Justice insisted on keeping the tome on his side, and they continued on to search for the last forbidden tome.
The mist came creeping down, less for a bit and becoming thicker, not that long. Our group catches their breath and took a rest in one of the large dead trees.
“Oh, Gods! What kind of tome that you need to be retrieved? The first one was easy enough, even for the arcana tome, but the last one...” Xavier was complaining while sitting on one of the branches of the dead tree.
“What I have right now was the Liven tome, and you must be already guessed what forbidden tome I need to search for.”
Stands up immediately, Justice looks at Andy with a concerned face, “No... Doomen tome? What in Gods name they wanted to be kept it in the main library!”
“Oh no, your majesty, we have a safe place for the forbidden tomes now, so it will be...”
“No! Doomen tome was the ancient document about death, its place not inside the capital, it should be here in this... cursed place!” His eyes were glaring, and the sound of his voice was full of rage and fear.
Anne could see in Justice’s eyes, he was afraid of the tome, but why? But, before she could ask Justice, once again she catch a glimpse of something peculiar. This time, it wasn’t far from the way they sat. She walked over and wiped the writing on one of the protruding stones on the ground. When she read the writing, she rushed back and informed Justice and Xavier.
“You need to go with me.” Said Anne to them.
Both of them were alerted by her. “What’s the matter?”
“Remember about the Beyor mansion that is being burned to ashes in the story?” She gulped and nervously continued, “I think We are inside the Beyor mansion right now.”
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