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down upon the floor so that the lamplight shone inside. The papers carefully
preserved within were padded with small pillows of down and silk. On the
top page was written, Principles for Community, and underneath, scarcely
readable in faded ink, the name Mackapee.
Emil did not touch the fragile paper, but he bent his face close to it, and
breathed deeply. He could smell, so faint it scarcely was there at all, the
scent of peat smoke. The Mackapee manuscript had not been burned after
all.
He saw that his life had been a spiral, first veering away from loss, but now
turning back to a new beginning. He had done his duty. Now, at last, he
could follow his heart.
You can only be Medric, he said.
Sir, can you return this manuscript to its rightful place?
It belongs at the library at Kisha, which has been destroyed. Emil carefully
closed the lid of the manuscript box. I ll have to build a new library, and a
new university. And first, I ll have to make Shaftal a place in which libraries
and universities can be built.
The young man said, That s not a bad idea.
It s an undertaking so large I doubt anyone alive now will live to see the
end of it.
Oh, no, I think you re wrong. But in any case, What s worth doing is worth
merely beginning.
So wrote Mackapee, the first G deon of Shaftal. Have you read the
manuscript?
The manuscript? No, sir, it has not been removed from its box. I ve studied
a printed copy.
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FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS
Emil took up the little traveling lamp by the handle, and lifted it so it
illuminated Mednc s face. The seer s lenses glowed with flame. You are
young, Emil said.
I suppose. You re exactly as I dreamed.
You dreamed of me? What did you dream?
Medric s gesture took in the dark warehouse, the glowing lamp, the fortress
of books. Emil set down the lamp rather sharply, and sat back on his heels.
When two fire bloods share a dream, it is said, their fates are linked forever.
Medric peered at him. Are you all right, sir?
You ll help me build that library.
You ll accept my help?
Why wouldn t I? Oh. Emil began to laugh. That s right; you re the enemy.
It seemed to also strike Medric as terribly funny, and his hilarity didn t run
dry until his spectacles fell off and he had to retrieve them by feel.
Emil said, A few days after Fire Night, when Zanja was on her way to meet
you though I didn t know it then she said she was trapped in the past and
needed to cross over into the future. I foolishly asked her to take me with
her. So here I am, bewildered mainly by my lack of regret.
Medric smiled. I crossed over also, knowingly and willingly. But what
became of her?
I managed to get her safely out of South Hill. That s all I know. But let me
thank you now, while I m thinking of it, for your letter. It helped me to do
what was right, and I needed that help desperately.
Well, I m glad I ve done some good for once.
Have you eaten? May I buy your supper?
Medric gathered himself up and rose to his feet. I confess, I haven t eaten
in a day or two, and not because I m fasting for a vision.
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FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS
You re penniless, of course, which is why you re sleeping with your books.
Your books.
My books, if you insist. Yet it seems that you accompany them.
Sir, the books are not a bribe. Ever since I began to collect them, I knew
that I would have to deliver them to a proper caretaker. I simply could not
bear to leave them unguarded. Medric offered his hand to help Emil rise.
Emil took Medric s hand and let himself be helped. Medric was slightly built
and had a soft hand, but he was not without muscle. Only a fool would
underestimate him: no accident had brought them to this place, but the
active, determined intervention of a gifted seer. His air of uncertainty was
merely an affectation.
Emil said, still holding his hand, My name is Emil. If you call me sir again,
I ll start calling you Master Seer .
Medric looked appalled. Please don t, Emil.
Let s get some food in you.
Emil could not bear to leave the manuscript unattended, so they took it with
them. At the inn, Medric asked for bread and vegetables, causing the cook to
look at him askance, but Emil accepted roast capon and a pie of fresh
peaches. Over food, their conversation turned from somber to hilarious, and
Emil laughed until his ribs hurt, wondering if that lightness in his chest
could possibly be his heart. If it was his heart, it was on holiday.
After supper, he purchased a wagon and a sturdy dray horse, using almost
all the money he had taken with him. Haprin had a ferry that would take
him across the river; from there he would go to the western border where he
could store the books with his friend the shepherd. After that; well, he
supposed some plan would come to him.
It was nearly dark when they returned to the storehouse. Medric showed
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FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS
Emil the other rare books in his collection. He had found them one by one
through dreams, he said, stored at the bottom of one or another soldier s
footlocker. He had collected a couple of hundred books by the time he
finally got the one he was looking for, The Way of the Seer, and each book
had its own adventure story of unlikely survival in a hostile world. They
talked about the books until the lamp oil ran out and left them sitting
shoulder to shoulder in a sudden darkness.
Medric said, Sometimes this summer I have envisioned myself in another
place: a stone cottage in a lonely land, with sleet tapping on the shutters and
a warm fire burning. And I m not alone there. I ask a question, and you
come and sit down next to me. You tell me how the past became the present.
You get a book down from the shelf and read it to me.
Emil said, It s still a long time before sleet taps on the shutters, but
tomorrow is close by. I hope you ll be traveling with me.
I will, Medric said. Don t go.
Emil could feel Medric s warm breath stirring the air between them. He
found Medric s face by feel and carefully took off his spectacles and put
them safely atop the trunk. Then, in a bed that was made of as much book
as blanket, he made love to a son of the enemy. It occurred to him later that
even his oldest and most loyal friends would not forgive him this
transgression, or even worse, they d misunderstand and pity him. He lay in
the rustling darkness of the warehouse with Medric asleep in his arms, and
could not bring himself to care what anyone thought of him. He had broken
with the past, and the future was a book he could hardly wait to read.
Chapter Twenty
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FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS
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