The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

during the Great Wars of Disruption fed his tremendous guilt and his fear of retaliation. Now he saw every person beyond his control as his enemy, determined to murder him for his past activities.
    “Stargods preserve us from righteous tyrants!” Nimbulan muttered. He crossed himself then fell silent.
    “Our backs are against the wall, Scarecrow. Our options are limited. We may have to resort to trickery to oust Scarface and regain control of the Commune.” Queen Katie reached out and clung to her husband’s hand.
    “I think we can trust Wind-drift and Whitehands,” Bessel mused. “They seem to be aware of what Scarface is doing and defying him in subtle ways, but they have to appear to go along with him for their own safety.”
    “A good piece of information,” Nimbulan replied. “We may call upon it later. But right now, we can trust only ourselves.”
    A long moment of silence stretched out while all of them thought furiously.
    “Quinnault, the tunnels beneath the central keep of your palace, is there still access to them?” Nimbulan finally broke the silence. Unsteadily, he attempted to roll to his knees.
    Myrilandel urged him back down on his pallet with anxious hands. He shook off her help. Bessel offered his own hand gently under his master’s elbow. Nimbulan accepted his silent assistance.
    “Can we still get to the tunnels?” he repeated his question as he staggered upright.
    “Yes. I have workmen excavating a direct route beneath the river between the palace and the University,” Quinnault replied. “If you are thinking of hiding the books down there, the place is much too public at the moment.”
    “I remember side tunnels and dead ends from the time you showed me the escape route from the royal apartments to a hidden cove on an adjacent island.” Nimbulan’s face grayed a moment before returning to a more normal, if somewhat pale, color. He leaned heavily against the chimney but remained standing.
    “Yes. We’ve filled some of those dead ends with dirt and rubble from the excavation, others are tool storage and resting places for the workers.” Quinnault began to pace, hands behind his back and shoulders slightly hunched.
    “A dead end could be walled off, cloaked in magic so it would be ignored.” Queen Katie joined him in his thinking ritual, pacing beside him with one hand looped in the crook of his elbow.
    “It will have to be an enduring spell, and a subtle one that misdirects. We can’t take a chance on Scarface stumbling on the books because he senses the presence of magic,” Nimbulan added.
    “We can’t hide the books forever, Master,” Bessel protested. “The books will have to be found someday. Hiding them forever is as bad as burning them.”
    “A minor detail. We have to take every precaution. We don’t know how long Scarface and his conservative faction will remain in power,” Nimbulan dismissed Bessel’s suggestion. “When will Scarface burn the books?”
    “At dawn,” Bessel replied sullenly. He didn’t like the shortsightedness of his king and his master. “Scarface wants to make a huge public spectacle of the burning. He’s planning a speech that will make it seem as if he’s doing everyone a favor.”
    “But he won’t burn all of the books,” Katie protested. “I don’t want to imagine a life without books.”
    Nor I, Your Grace, Bessel thought. When ignorance guides people, the innocent suffer. As he had suffered as a child because his father believed only myths and legends about magicians rather than looking for the truth.
    A pang of regret and loneliness made a knot in his gut. He had to abandon yet another family, the family of the Commune, in order to maintain control of his own destiny.
    But he would survive. He would find a new family among the fisherfolk and their dogs.
    “Oh, Scarface will keep the volumes he needs or considers ‘safe,’ ” Quinnault reassured her. “He’s making a spectacle of the event just to defy me and demonstrate his power and reassert his popularity among the people.”
    “We’ll need help,” Nimbulan said. “We might not be able to save all of the books, but we can move a large number from the library between now and dawn. I wish Lyman and Powwell were here. I can trust them to resist Scarface’s manipulation.”
    “I think I know how to keep Scarface busy.” Bessel’s face brightened.
    “How?” Nimbulan raised one eyebrow in query.
    “Mopsie and I need to destroy the depth