The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

repeated.
    This time Katie sensed magic behind his words, not a compulsion, but the power to be heard and understood in the farthest reaches of the noisy crowd.
    “People of Coronnan, these books harbor evil knowledge. Knowledge of the blood magic and Rovers that brought this land low for three generations of warfare. The books must be purged so that no one can use this knowledge against you ever again.”
    Murmurs of disquiet rippled through the crowd. They pushed forward to hear more.
    Katie found herself and her friends at the edge of the paved courtyard without realizing how rapidly she had been carried forward.
    “Stargods, he’s going to make the people believe in his madness,” Quinnault muttered.
    Scarface lowered his torch.
    “Who are you to decide what knowledge is evil, which books must be destroyed?” Quinnault screamed.
    Scarface hesitated.
    “I forbid you to burn any books, Master Aadler,” Quinnault said on a calmer note. “I have already dismissed you as my adviser. You cannot be trusted to be impartial.”
    The magicians gathered around the University courtyard paused to listen. The lords who had gathered behind the magicians looked to Quinnault in puzzlement.
    “The art of reading has been forbidden to all but magicians since the coming of the Stargods,” Scarface intoned, raising his torch high above his head. “Who else but the Senior Magician can make this decision?” The flickering light cast him in a halo of fire-green light—very close to his signature color of magic.
    The crowd of mundane and magician onlookers gasped at the image of sacred blessing he invoked.
    “The three brothers who descended upon a cloud of silver flame entrusted a few select, talented people with the forbidden knowledge within these books. As magicians, we carry out that trust by knowing why this knowledge is forbidden to all but us and preventing its use for evil. Rogue magicians who have forsaken the wisdom of the Stargods for personal glory have used it against the good of the common people and the kingdom. We, the guardians of knowledge, decree that the books must be destroyed before more evil is perpetrated by those who refuse the controls of dragon magic and the Commune.”
    We cannot stop him, Katie moaned to Quinnault. He doesn’t need compulsion anymore. These people will follow him anywhere.
    “How much of our history, philosophy, and law will be lost with those books? That information is as valuable as magic. You can’t destroy all of the books just because they might contain information you deem evil,” Quinnault protested, as loud and compelling as Scarface’s diatribe.
    “I can and I will.” Scarface lowered his torch to ignite the first books.
    “You can’t ruin the Commune. I won’t let you.” A ghostly figure in white trews and yellow shirt launched himself from the edge of the crowd onto Scarface. The two men rolled to the ground. The torch flew out of Scarface’s hand onto the paving stone. Silently it rolled toward the books.
    “Bessel. The torch!” Powwell bellowed.
    “I saw him earlier in the tunnels. He helped move books, but he did it secretly,” Yaala added in a quieter tone. “He said he had to disappear. He said . . .”
    Rollett dove across the mound of books and grabbed the torch. He thudded into the pavement. Yaala gasped and held her hand to her throat until Rollett rolled to his feet, the torch held away from the precious books.
    Beside him Bessel jumped to his feet and disappeared into the shadows. Scarface lay panting where he had fallen.
    “Bessel looks more like a ghost than a man,” Katie whispered.
    “Bessel told me not to believe rumors of his death,” Powwell said. He turned a weak smile on his companions.
    “Has anyone noticed some of the books disappearing from the mound? He’s still helping, but I doubt we’ll see him do it. Maybe he is a ghost now.” He whispered the last.
    “Give it up, Scarface. The dragons burned your tower,” Quinnault countered. “Surely, if Shayla seeks to destroy your workplace, then she withdraws her covenant and her blessing from you.”
    “The priests agree with Scarface,” Lord Balthazaan shouted above the hushed whispers of the crowd. “He has the blessing of the Stargods to burn these books. I count the Stargods above a murdering dragon any day. Dragons are monsters to be avoided. We can’t trust them.” The lord clenched his fist and shook it at the skies where the dragons had flown. His fingers