The Library (The Librarian of Alexandria Book 1) by Casey White (ebook reader 8 inch .TXT) 📗

chair at last.  Damn it, he’d been comfortable - but they’d had a whole week to putz around.  “Unless Indira was making empty promises to get you inside the walls?”

“N-No,” Olivia said, shaking her head so furiously he thought her neck might snap.  “Of course not.  If you need- Of course.  I’m here to learn - about your Library as much as my studies.”

“Right,” Owl said.  “I’m sure.”  He swiveled toward the door, following in the footsteps of the rapidly-disappearing Will, and gestured for her to follow.  “Come on, then.  I’ll show you this once, and then you can handle it every day before you get started on your personal projects.”

“I’ll just finish my-”

“Bring it.”

“...Okay,” Olivia mumbled, clutching her mug more tightly.

Her muffled complaints followed him out of the sitting room as they trudged into Alexandria.

* * * * *

“Here you go,” Owl said, leaning against the cart.

Olivia came to a stop, freezing in place.  “What?”

His lips curled back into a smile - and he patted the wooden slat.  “Your job.  This is a library, after all.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “A magical library.”

Owl chuckled.  For a moment, he could see a woman grinning crookedly, sprawled out behind her desk.  “A magical library indeed.  Sometimes, she just likes to make you coddle her.”

Begrudgingly, Olivia reached out, grasping the first book.

Owl folded his arms, cocking his head to one side.  Olivia was still watching him.  “Well?” he said.  “Go on.”

She licked her lips, staring down at the book.  “Uh...where should I-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Owl said, letting a bit of the smugness fade from his voice.  “She’ll be happy wherever you find room.”

“...Okay, then.”  Olivia twisted slowly, angling away from the cart - and eased the book onto the shelf alongside her.

“Was that so hard?” Owl said.

“I didn’t think it’d be like this,” Olivia mumbled.

“Like what?”

“Like...mundane stuff.  Chores.  Restocking books, and all that.”

He snorted.  “That’s the job.”

Olivia wrinkled her nose, reaching for the next text.

She’d get the hang of it soon enough. Owl leaned back against a bookshelf, casting a sidelong glance further down the aisle.

There’d been no sign of Leon since the start of his shift in Alexandria.  She always brought him around once - no more, and almost never any less.  It made sense, if he thought of it in terms of the outside world.  One night, one period of sleep, one visit.

Only, now, he had Olivia and her friend.  Indira was the last possible person he wanted catching wind of Leon.  He prayed that Alexandria would have enough sense to let Leon dream mundane, average dreams for a certain night.

He’d miss his friend for the months they’d spend apart, but it was for the best.

“You keep calling this place a she.”

Olivia’s words brought Owl back to reality in an instant.  He glanced over to where she was even then shelving another book.  “What?”

“The Library.”  Olivia grabbed a stack off the top, forcing them into every open space available to her.  “This place.  When you...”  She winced, getting a tighter hold on the books.  “When you talk about it, you always refer to it more like a person.  Not a building.  A ‘she’.”

“Oh.”  Owl’s hands tightened against his folded arms.  “Well, like you said.  The Library is magical.”

“So-”

“So, she...has a mind of her own, sometimes,” Owl said with a shrug.  “You already know that she’s called Alexandria.”

“Yeah.”  Olivia paused for a moment.  Her chin lifted, and her eyes swept across the room.  This wing Alexandria had made was smaller, somehow.  Cozier.  The stones making up the walls were ancient brick that looked right on the edge of crumbling entirely, with windows every so often framed in aged, weathered wood.  “I did hear the name.  I just...wondered.”

“She’s kind of a bitch, if we’re being honest.”

Olivia’s head snapped back around.  Owl tried for a moment to keep a straight face - and then erupted in laughter at the affront in her eyes.  The timber ceiling creaked under a non-existent weight.  Sorry, Alex, couldn’t resist.

“You shouldn’t talk like that,” Olivia muttered, turning back to the cart with a swish of her hair.  “You’re this place’s caretaker.  Take it more seriously.”

More seriously, eh?  Owl watched, still fighting to contain the last dregs of laughter, as Olivia scooped up book after book.

She was taking this whole ‘chore’ matter seriously, if he really looked at it.  She’d griped at first, yes, but with every tome she grabbed, the irritation left her eyes.  She wasn’t just throwing them onto the shelves, either.  No, she lined the books up, tucking them in just far enough so that their spines made a neat, orderly row.  Every time the books pushed against each other, bulging a binding or flexing a cover, she’d snatch the offending volume right back out again and settle it somewhere else.

Odd.  He’d have thought she would’ve rushed through the task as quickly as possible and gotten back to her own work.  Was she mindful of her guild’s reputation?  Was it a sense of loyalty to Indira, and a need to not tarnish her own name?  Or was she really that driven?

“This would go faster if you helped me,” he heard her whisper under her breath - and he chuckled again, shaking his head.

Well, it was a lot of books.  He could only expect so much out of her.

“Just this once,” Owl said, stepping closer.  “Since I’m already here.”

“...Thanks,” Olivia mumbled, casting a wide-eyed look his way.  Maybe she hadn’t meant for him to overhear.

But he had.  And now he couldn’t help but feel obligated to do his part.  Oh well.  Owl reached for a stack, sliding a whole section free with practiced ease.

But his eyes never left her back as they worked.

* * * * *

Olivia collapsed to the ground with a relieved sigh.  “There.  I-It’s done.  Holy hell.”

“It’s just shelving books,” Owl said, his voice amused.

Olivia cracked an eye, peering up at him from behind sweat-soaked waves of hair. “Like, fifty thousand of the things.”

“You’ll get used to it.”  Granted, it had