Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

to kill every one of your friends.” He looked around the room. My companions stood, held by Librarian thugs. Only Bastille still struggled – Sing and Quentin looked like they had been punched a few good times in the stomach to keep them quiet.
    “No,” Blackburn said, “not one of the Smedrys. Your blasted Talents are too protective. Let’s start with the girl.” He smiled, focusing his single eye on Bastille.
    “No!” Grandpa Smedry said. “Ask your questions, monster!”
    “Not yet, Smedry,” Blackburn said. “I have to kill one of them first, you see. Then you will understand how serious this all is.”
    The Firebringer’s Lens began to glow.
    “NO!” Grandpa Smedry screamed.
    The Firebringer’s Lens fired…
    …directly back into Blackburn’s eye.
    Taking advantage of the moment, I twisted with a sudden motion, raising my hands and grabbing the arms of my captors. I sent out shocks of Talent and felt bones snap beneath my fingers. My captors cried out, jumping back and cradling broken limbs. Blackburn fell to his knees, and the Firebringer’s Lens fell free, leaving a smoking socket behind. He screamed in pain.
    I stepped toward the now powerless Dark Oculator. “When I grabbed the Firebringer’s Lens, Blackburn, I wasn’t trying to use it on you,” I said. “You see, I only needed to touch it for a moment – just long enough to break it.
    “It shoots backward now.”

Chapter 19
    I apologize for that last chapter. It was far too deep and ponderous. At this rate, it won’t be long before this story departs speaking of evil Librarians, and instead turns into a terribly boring tale about a lawyer who defends unjustly accused field hands.
    What do mockingbirds have to do with that, anyway?
    I scooped up the Firebringer’s Lens, spinning toward the thugs who still held my grandfather. The Librarians looked down at the fallen Oculator, then back up at me. I raised the Lens.
    The two men dashed away. In the fury of the moment, I didn’t even realize that I’d finally been able to pick up the Lens without it going off.
    Grandpa Smedry slumped back against the wall in exhaustion. However, he smiled at me. “Well done, lad. Well done. You’re a Smedry for certain!”
    The other thugs in the room backed away, towing their hostages. “There are two of us now,” Grandpa Smedry said, righting himself, staring down at the Librarians. “And your Oculator has fallen. Do you really want to make us mad?”
    There was a moment of hesitance, and Bastille seized it. She swung up and slammed her feet into the back of the Librarian in front of her. Then she pulled herself free from her surprised captors.
    The other thugs dropped Quentin and Sing, then dashed away. Bastille chased after them, cursing and kicking at one as he rushed out the door. But she let him go, grumbling quietly as she turned to make certain Sing and Quentin were all right. Both seemed well enough.
    Blackburn groaned. Grandpa Smedry shook his head, looking down at the Dark Oculator.
    “Should we… do something with him?” I asked.
    “He’s no threat now, lad,” Grandpa Smedry said. “An Oculator without eyes is about as dangerous as a little girl.”
    “Excuse me?” Bastille huffed, rolling over one of the Librarian thugs that she’d knocked out before. She pulled off his sword belt and tied it around her waist.
    “I apologize, dear,” Grandpa Smedry said in his tired voice. “It was just a figure of speech. Sing, would you do me a favor…?”
    Sing rushed over, steadying Grandpa Smedry. “Ah, very nice,” Grandpa Smedry said. “Quentin, gather up any unbroken Lenses you can find. Bastille, be a dear and watch for danger at the door – there are others in this library who won’t be as easily intimidated as those thugs.”
    “And me?” I asked.
    Grandpa Smedry smiled. “You, lad, should recover your inheritance.”
    I turned, noticing the glasses that still lay on the ground. I walked over, picking them up. “Blackburn seemed disappointed in these.”
    “Blackburn was a man who focused only on one kind of power,” Grandpa Smedry said. “For a man whose abilities depended on seeing, he was remarkable shortsighted.”
    “So… what do these do?” I asked.
    “Try them on,” Grandpa Smedry suggested.
    I took off my Oculator’s Lenses and put on the Rashid Lenses instead. I couldn’t see any difference – no release of power, no amazing revelations.
    “What am I looking for?” I