Call of the Wind: Dragon Sin #4 (Dragon Shifter Romance)

Chapter 2

2

“Shall we settle on a trade of information?” Asher suggested.

Cosimos shot Asher a look out of the sides of his narrowed eyes that wasn’t at all friendly. “My knowledge is no doubt far more valuable than yours.”

“If you believed that then you wouldn’t have let us in,” Asher countered.

“Perhaps you might amuse me.”

“We would rather trade information.”

Cosimos sneered at him. “On your terms, no doubt.”

I couldn’t think of quibbling over trades when there was a strange, and very dusty, world around us. The stack of books I’d nearly hugged was just one of countless others, and believe me, I tried to count them. There were some taller than me, and others only a few books high, but all of them were laid about in a haphazard way, though I did notice the book titles faced toward the center of the large entrance hall.

A winding staircase interrupted the stacks of books and climbed to the second floor where a balcony overlooked us. In keeping with the messy outside, there were two doors on our left that led to separate rooms, but the right had only one. A cobweb-covered chandelier hung over us, and the long tendrils of the working arachnid stretched out from the extravagant tips of the gold-inlaid candle holders to the far reaches of the paneled room. Two hallways twenty feet apart stood below the balcony and led to the rear of the home. I could see a dozen doors scattered down each of them, and most of them sported a different style of door.

“Wow,” I breathed.

That caught the attention of our ‘host’ who studied me with his dark eyes. “You have a strange aura, girl.”

I blinked at him. “I do?”

Cosimos stroked one end of his long mustache as he looked me over. “What made Athas reveal himself to you?”

“I was trying to save his mountain,” I told him.

Cosimos shook his head. “I know of what transpired on the mountain. That is not the reason.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Asher questioned him.

Cosimos frowned at him, but gave a great sigh. “Because I know the history of that mountain, dragon blood.” Asher stiffened, and that reaction made our host smile a little. “You think you can hide such a curse from me, eh? In my studies I have seen more curses than anyone can imagine.” He waved his hand over the countless tomes that surrounded us. “Read half of what I have read and you would be called a scholar of great renown. Read all of what I have read and-well-” He puffed out his thin chest and revealed even more food stains. “You will be sought for miles around for your knowledge.”

“And you’ll turn them all away,” I quipped.

His sneer returned. “What are their tiny questions compared to my studies?”

“Our question concerns gods and men,” Asher spoke up.

Cosimos twitched his mustache. “Yes, that would be it, wouldn’t it? Such a curse could only have come from such a creature, eh?” He turned and scurried off into the room on the right. Asher and I looked at each other before the professor’s voice called to us. “Come along now! I’m not getting any younger!”

We hurried after him and arrived at the doorway where we gave pause. Asher and I didn’t have much of a choice. The room was cluttered with stacks of books taller than him. A few narrow, winding paths with worn carpets were the only way through the mess. Cosimos himself had followed one to a large table covered in charts and scrolls.

Asher went first and I followed, and soon we joined the professor as he opened a scroll only to toss it aside. “No, no, no,” he muttered to himself as he pushed books to the side and tossed scrolls over his shoulder. “Where is that blasted thing?”

“Might we help?” Asher offered.

“Only if you have a knowledge of ancient Fiontarian,” Cosimos snapped.

Asher swept his eyes carefully over the mess and drew out one of the scrolls. He held it out to Cosimos. “Is this it?”

Cosimos paused and studied the scroll for a moment before he snatched the scroll. “Yes, though I’m surprised you read ancient Fiontarian.”

“I can’t read it, but I do recognize the letters,” Asher explained.

“Hmph,” the professor replied as he unrolled the parchment and scanned the contents.

I leaned over his shoulder and studied the ancient Fiontarian. The letters were slightly runic with their thick bodies, but there were enough tails to make it elegant.

Cosimos paused and looked over his shoulder at us. “What exactly did you want to know about the gods?”

“Anything you can tell us about their origins and about a wooden cylinder that one might use to trap part of their essence,” Asher told him.

Both of the professor’s eyebrows shot up. “What sort of cylinder?”

I shrugged. “It was cylinder in shape and had a bunch of creatures carved into its sides. I think I saw a chimera, werewolves, vampyres, and-”

“Dragons?” he guessed.

My eyes widened. “Yes, but how did you know?” Cosimos turned to us and unraveled the rest of the scroll. At the bottom was a sketch of the very cylinder I had seen. I pointed at the picture. “That’s it! That’s what he had!”

“What is it?” Asher asked him.

A dark shadow settled on Cosimos’ brow as he looked from Asher to me. “First, I wish to know who this ‘he’ is.”

Asher pursed his lips. “His name is David Bellua. Fifteen years ago he and I journeyed to-”

“Deus Insula,” Cosimos interrupted.

Asher frowned. “God Island?”

Cosimos set down the scroll and brushed aside a few parchments to reveal the tabletop. A map adorned the wood, emblazoned with pictures and fancy scrawling. He tapped one part of the map with a long fingernail. It showed a port with a craggy island in the middle. The name Deus Insula stood out from among the dark waters.

“An ancient name most have forgotten,” Cosimos mused with a sad shake of his head. “Now they call it Shadow Island, or Black Island, or whatever tickles their fancy, but that only hints at what my ancestors knew to be the truth.”

“What truth is that?” I asked him.

Cosimos stretched to his full height and his face was a picture of sorrow. “That a god once inhabited that island, and my family was the one to put it there.”

Asher arched an eyebrow. “Your ancestors placed a god on an island?”

Cosimos swept his tired eyes over the disheveled room. Beneath the layers of dust and books there was a hint of wealth. Fancy rugs, oak bookshelves, a chair with gold inlaid. “You have no doubt heard the tales of the wealth of my family. We sought that above all else, even knowledge.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “We even sought to harness the power of a god for our own purposes, and so we hunted down one of the ancients.”

My eyes widened. “With the cylinder?”

He nodded. “Yes, though three were made in all. Two have been lost, one was destroyed when the god was loosed from its prison.”

“That prison wouldn’t have happened to have been a vase, would it?” Asher guessed.

Cosimos frowned at him. “Yes, the one you and your foolish friends found fifteen years ago.”

Anger flashed through Asher’s eyes. He grabbed the front of the professor’s ragged coat and yanked the small man against his chest. Cosimos’ feet dangled from the floor as Asher shoved their faces together. “Why didn’t you tell anyone about this? Why didn’t you help us?”

Cosimos met the furious look in Asher’s eyes with his own steady gaze. “What good would it have done?”

“It would have meant knowing what happened!” Asher snapped.

Cosimos scoffed. “You had loosed a god and paid the price. My knowledge would not have brought anyone any comfort other than to know that the consequences were irreversible.”

Asher’s face fell, and so did his grip. He let Cosimos down and closed his eyes. “I see. . .”

Cosimos adjusted his wrinkled wreck of clothes and eyed Asher with a hint of pity. “Of course, that is not to say that my knowledge might not help you now. You wish to know about more than just the god on the island, correct?”

“We were wondering how many of these gods were out there to stop Davy from getting there first,” I admitted.

Cosimos nodded. “I see. An interesting dilemma, though not very original.” He reached for a book and flipped through the pages of the tome. “I know of many stories of men, and women, throughout the ages trying to catch a bit of god-power, as it were. Now what did this Davy fellow want with a god?”

“I think he was wanting to reverse what happened to him by taking a piece of the god,” I told him.

Cosimos froze before he spun around to face me. His eyes were wild and his bushy eyebrows had shot clear into his thinning hair. “H-he said what?”

“He wanted to-”

“I heard you the first time!” Cosimos snapped as he threw the book down on the table and paced what little floor we had. He was like a train as Asher and I stumbled out of his warpath, and his whistle was his fist as he pounded it along the top of the table. “That fool! That ignorant-thump-stupid-thump-fool!”

“A fool about what exactly?” Asher questioned him as he pressed up against a large stack of books.

Cosimos stopped at the far end and spun around to face us. His cheeks were red and his eyes shone with fury. “To take a god away from its territory, even a piece of it, is to doom the whole!”

I felt a lump develop in my throat. “Are you sure?”

He gave a curt nod. “Yes, and my foolish ancestors were the ones to find that out. It was they who created the Hortus Album.”

Asher started back. “Created that? How?”

Cosimos tapped the rolled-up parchment. “By using this ill-gotten magic to take the god away from their land.”

I looked up at Asher with perplexity written across my face. “Hortus Album?”

“Interesting.” Asher and I looked to Cosimos. His sharp eyes examined me with a sparkle that made me wince at my big mouth. He tilted his head to one side and narrowed his eyes at me. “You truly do not know of the Hortus Album.”

Asher stepped between us. “She isn’t why we’re here.”

Cosimos grinned and slowly shook his head. “No, but she is why you are in here.” He studied me for a moment longer before he shook his head. “But we will set that aside for a moment.” He waved his hand at Asher. “Explain to her what the Hortus Album is, and I shall furniture the truth.”

Asher frowned at the professor for a moment before he turned to me. “The Hortus Album is a wasteland to the south, a desert of where nothing grows and no animals dare venture into.”

Cosimos tapped a place on the map where the only color was a white void. “Right there. Hortus Album. The White Garden.”

Asher watched our fidgety host with a careful eye. “Legends say that the White Garden came into being after the people were forsaken by their god-”

“Ha!” Cosimos interjected as he turned away from us and strode to the end of the book-lined path. “More like their god was forsaken by those whom it trusted.”

“What really happened?” I asked him.

Cosimos spun around on his heels and shows us a sly grin. He tapped the side of his temple and gave us a wink. “It’s all up here, and nowhere else.”

“You haven’t written it down,” Asher guessed.

Cosimos shook his head. “No, I haven’t written it down, and I don’t intend to.”

Asher slid a book over the map that showed the White Garden. “A legend won’t help us to figure out Da-our foe’s plan.”

“I might have a few other tricks up these weathered sleeves,” Cosimos hinted.

Asher frowned. “What do you mean?”

The professor studied him with a sharp look. “You are a man of your word, are you not, Lord Nilogh?”

Asher’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his name. We hadn’t mentioned it. “I am.”

“Then what do you say to a deal?” Cosimos suggested as he snatched a blank parchment from the table and grabbed a quill with it. The professor leaned over the table and scribbled a few lines on the paper before he held it out to Asher. “For your assessment.”

Asher took the parchment and read over the words. His eyes darted up from the paper to our host. “Why?”

Cosimos lay one withered hand against the table and leaned heavily upon its support. “Consider it the last wish of a very old man.”

“I can’t emphasis enough that what we intend to do will be dangerous,” Asher warned him as he set the parchment on the table. “Our foes are ruthless, and will not hesitate to do away with you.”

Cosimos’ eyes twinkled as he shrugged. “Perhaps I only wish for an adventure.”

My eyes widened as the truth struck me. “You want to go with us?”

Cosimos inclined his head. “I do.”

“And if we don’t let you come with us you won’t give us more information,” Asher guessed.

“Precisely.”

“What information is equal to your life?” Asher questioned him.

Cosimos swept his arm over the vast assortment of knowledge. “My life is here. My very blood is here. I merely wish to see this to its finish, if I might. Now then-” He pricked the end of his thumb with the quill and pressed the digit against the parchment, leaving his mark. Cosimos then held the quill out to Asher. “Will you not sign?”

Asher folded his arms over his chest. “You have my word.”

“I wish for something more,” Cosimos insisted.

Asher’s eyes flickered between the quill and the professor’s unmoving gaze. After a moment he sighed and took the quill. “Very well.”

Asher pricked his thumb and made his own mark against on the paper. At the finish I noticed a strange, soft light flicker across the parchment. Asher’s eyes flashed with anger as Cosimos gathered up the paper.

“What magic was that?” he growled.

Cosimos turned his back on us and tucked the paper into his large coat. “Merely a mild spell to ensure I won’t be left behind. Now-” He turned back to us and folded his arms. “I shall relate to you the true story of the end of the Cursus Empire and the birth of the White Garden.”