The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

searching for?”
    “Once before, many generations ago, three O’Hara brothers came to Kardia Hodos and cured a virulent disease. I just hope my brothers can arrive in time to prevent the next plague.”

    Early morning, the hidden library in Hanassa’s palace
     
    “Books, the knowledge of the ages,” Rollett whispered, too awestruck to raise his voice. He reached a tentative hand to brush his fingertips across the spine of the nearest volume.
    The faintest whisper of power tingled against his skin.
    “Books,” Powwell repeated. He rushed into the room and started reading titles. He pulled volume after volume from the shelves. Dust rose in massive swirls like columns of smoke.
    Rollett choked back a cough. Powwell barked from deep in his lungs, stirring the dust into a wilder storm.
    “Have you read these books?” Rollett asked Yaala.
    “I . . . ah . . . I don’t know how to read. Yaassima didn’t think it a skill I would find valuable. But the last engineer taught me to read diagrams. Each engineer has passed on the knowledge of this library to his successor.” She pulled a tall volume from a shelf just to the right of the entrance—easily grabbed by a person who had only a stolen moment to get in and get out. She opened the well-worn book to a page in the middle. Lines snaked around the pages in geometric patterns. At certain intervals blobs and crosses indicated something important. Yaala traced the pattern with her finger.
    “This is a circuit board inside one of the ’motes.”
    Rollett looked at her blankly.
    “The lines are wires. This is a resistor, and this a switch,” she explained, pointing out the various symbols. “This diagram is greatly magnified so I can learn the exact pattern and find broken places in the ’mote.”
    “Look, Rollett, this is an herbal remedy book compiled by Kimmer—he’s the scribe who wrote so many of the books in the University library.” Powwell thumbed through the small volume quickly. “And this is a . . . Stargods! This is a journal of one of the Stargods. In the original hand! Do you know how valuable this information is? We have to get these books back to the University.”
    “No!” Yaala protested, much too loudly. “These books are mine . Hanassa stole them from the Stargods along with the machines and willed them to his descendants. They are mine!”
    “To what purpose?” Powwell returned angrily. “The books serve no one but you, and you can’t even read. The world needs this information.”
    “The books remain here, protected and secure. The only people who can come here revere the books. They don’t burn or ban them.” Yaala faced him, hands on hips, lips pursed in determination.
    Rollett stared at her a moment, struck by the intensity of her commitment.
    “Who is burning and banning books?” Rollett asked.
    “No one,” Powwell answered.
    “Scarface has talked in the Council of Provinces about putting certain books behind locked doors to keep the knowledge contained within them from falling into the wrong hands,” Yaala answered. “He’ll destroy them, mark my words, I know that man. He’ll destroy anything he can’t control. I will never allow him to control these books.”
    “These books must remain hidden a while longer,” Rollett agreed. He’d discuss ownership of the books with her later. She must see that knowledge and, therefore, the books belonged to all. “We can’t move this many books until we know how we are going to escape Hanassa.” If we escape Hanassa. “We have to scout the city better, we have to know what we are up against. That is knowledge more immediately valuable than this entire library of collected learning.”
    I have to save these books as well as my people in the city, Rollett thought to himself.
    For this treasure I might agree to stay in Hanassa. With Yaala at his side if she wouldn’t yield to him?
    That thought brought him up short. He wanted nothing more than to be gone from this city with or without the daughter of the late, unlamented Yaassima. But if he opened the city to the outside world, then the library would be available to all magicians, priests, and healers. He could rule the library—but he’d have to rule Hanassa as well.
    The image of Yaala standing by his side, helping him govern, kept replacing the image of him presiding over the library. He pushed it aside, concentrating on the here and now. He had to depose the current ruler of Hanassa and make an escape