The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

his office while the children napped and he could guarantee at least a little time without familial interference. Puzzled, Marcus sent an inquisitive probe into the room. It circled aimlessly, encountering only empty air and dust.
    “You won’t find our Senior Magician anywhere near the University, Marcus,” Slippy said coming toward him from the direction of the courtyard. “One of the twins is dying. He’s with his family.”
    “Where he belongs,” Marcus replied. “But I need to talk to him. Now. It’s important.”
    “I doubt he wants anyone near except his wife and his sons.” Slippy shook his head. “I sent a message to our representative in the king’s court to inform His Grace. Jaylor and Brevelan may want to share their grief with their oldest friends, but no one else.”
    “I wondered why everyone was so quiet today.” Actually he hadn’t noticed the lack of activity or the conversations in unusually hushed tones until now. His concentration had all been on his research. He looked at his books, weighing them in his hands. Now what? He had to get back to the monastery soon. He’d wasted too much time already.
    “May I be of assistance?” Slippy looked pointedly at the books Marcus carried.
    “Do you know anything about time travel?” Marcus asked.
    “Never! Impossible.” Slippy sniffed with disdain.
    “I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to find the help I need right off.” Marcus excused himself and went in search of Old Lyman. If anyone had ever traveled through time and lived, Lyman was the most likely candidate.
    Marcus hadn’t seen the ancient librarian in any of his usual haunts about the library. He turned his steps toward the master’s quarters on the opposite wing of the sprawling University. But that didn’t feel right. Lyman loved his library and his books. Even if he were dying, he’d want to be there, not in some sterile bedroom.
    Marcus found him in a deep recess at the back of the second gallery, near an open window that looked at the cliff face, between his books and the dragons. The best place for the old man.
    Lyman turned rheumy eyes on Marcus as he tiptoed closer. “Who?” His question came out of tired lungs almost like a whistle, or the call of a baby dragon.
    “It’s Marcus, sir. I have a question that only you can answer.” He knelt beside the old man’s pallet.
    “Marcus? You can’t be here. You are lost between here and there, now and then.”
    “I found my way back home, sir.”
    “That is hard to do, boy.”
    “Easy enough once you have the scent in your mind. In spirit I’ve never left.” In that moment he knew that the one hearth to light his days and cook his meals and the one bed at the end of the day that he craved was here, at the University. But the one smiling face to greet him at the door, cook his meals, warm his bed? He’d loved Margit. He’d loved Vareena. Did either woman belong to his heart and his life forever?
    The image of a smiling woman with a cloud of blond curls and a twinkle of mischief in her eyes while she dealt cartes came to mind.
    Expelling a huge, pent-up breath, he shed a lot of the weight of indecision.
    Lyman closed his eyes and turned his face toward the window. “My time is nearly come, boy. I must leave this body behind very soon. Ask your question and let me get on with this.”
    “Master Librarian, I need to lay a ghost to rest and remove the curse he placed upon a hoard of gold.”
    “Ghosts are easy to get rid of. Curses are not.”
    “How do I trick Ackerly into telling me how he laid the curse so that I may reverse it?”
    “Ackerly, eh? Always knew that man would not give up his gold even in death. He’ll not tell you, boy. He invented the tricks you plan to turn on him. The gold must remain cursed even after you lay him to rest.”
    “Won’t the curse dissipate once his presence no longer nourishes it?”
    “If the curse has lasted three hundred years beyond his death then it will not fade in time to save those now cursed by the cursed gold.”
    “Then how do I . . . ?”
    “You must go back in time and watch him throw the spell. Ackerly was tricky. He probably used a mixture of solitary, blood, and dragon magic. You’ll have to use an exact reversal of his ritual. One slip and you fail. One slip and you and the gold become one.”
    “Trapped in the gloaming forever,” Marcus finished for him. “How do I travel back in time?”
    “Jack will have to guide you. He’s done it