Sarai continued to fall until her armpit slammed against the edge of the stone.
She grunted in pain.
With her back toward the bench, Noble tried to mitigate the fall and helped her friend stand up.
"Are you hurt?"
Sarai rubbed under her arm as she looked at the far wall. "I'll be fine. My fire missile seems to have caused more than just cracks in the wall…"
"I think it was more likely an aftershock left over from earlier." Noble pushed the memory of the insidious poison aside as her conscience tried to whisper about the dangers of it once more. She turned her mouth up slightly. "But surely the shaking wasn't bad enough to warrant breaking the bench!"
Noble hadn't felt the tremors since she was floating, but Kosi had managed to keep his footing.
Granted, he had catlike reflexes.
His poise had made Sarai's action seem dramatic by comparison.
"I didn't break the bench," the younger woman defended herself. "It opened!"
'Opened?'
Sarai processed her own words as well.
Turning to observe the bench, both women looked closely at what had happened for the first time.
What they had always assumed was a solid bench now had the stone lid halfway in the box tilted awkwardly to one side.
"How did you..." Noble furrowed her brow. In all the times Counsel or Sarai had sat there before, it had never done this trick.
Even when Emira sat primly with her hands folded in her lap, the bench–chest?–had remained solid.
"I am not sure." Sarai bit her lip.
Noble tried to use her ability to lift the lid out of place, but it stayed firmly in place. 'That's strange...'
It shouldn't have been heavy enough to give Noble too much trouble, but it felt more solid than even the train that she had thrown while defending against the gate.
The professor's eyes swirled with curiosity. Like the walls, the stone was enchanted. That was why it was the only piece of furniture left in the room after all of these years. Somehow Sarai had broken the seal and opened the chest.
But no matter what Noble did, she could not move it a centimeter more.
"It won't budge. Can you do whatever it was you did again?" Noble asked politely.
"It wasn't anything special. I was falling and braced myself on the bench like this." Sarai demonstrated. "Oh!"
As soon as her hand touched the stone, her bracelet slipped down and made contact as well. The metal shone with a dull luminescence.
Pulling her hand away, Sarai removed the bracelet and set it on the lid.
"Try moving it now."
Noble nodded. "Already on it!"
The stone lid scraped against the inner wall of the chest. Slowly but surely, it lifted away to reveal the contents inside.
Sarai's eyes widened. "Books?"
"Books!" Noble exclaimed at the time. "Those are the missing books!"
Noble picked up the first, and two pages fluttered out unattached. That coupled with the yellow cover told her all she needed to know. This was the volume that Emira had taken from her months ago.
'I guess she got the pages before we could,' Noble mused. She picked them up off the ground and looked at them briefly.
There were two circles written on one page with an accompanying drawing while the second was a map of something she had not seen before.
'I am sure it will make more sense in context.' Tucking the pages into the cover of the book, Noble looked at the rest of the contents. There were close to a hundred journals packed in the stone encasement.
How had Emira gotten them down there without at least someone noticing? Or perhaps someone noticed, and they were silenced one way or another.
Noble had no time to contemplate the old Queen's method. She was far more concerned with the contents of Emria's deception. She studied the stacks.
"By the age and color, I think they are all from King Cron."
"That was the king whose daughter had the obsessed lover?" Sarai opened another book to peek inside.
"That is the one," Noble nodded. "Since nothing else we have found seems to have detailed information on the Tyrant, surely he will! Especially since the Lord of the Mountain seems to have appeared during his reign."
It was strange. All the leaders before Cron which Noble had read did not mention a protective array or a monster that was attacking the kingdom.
And all of the leaders afterward, which were mostly read by Sarai, only mentioned the Lord of the Mountains in passing and all but one failed to talk about the protective array. It was like there was some unspoken taboo about mentioning such things even in the sovereign's private journals.
If Emira had gone to the trouble of even removing the books from the library, then she must have known that they contained something which Noble needed. The professor tapped the yellow cover in her hand.
"What secrets do you have for me?" she whispered.
The question was answered by footsteps on the stairs.
'Not good.'
"Stop right there!" Noble called.
"It's me! Is everything alright?" Rather than obey the command, a concerned Counsel hurried down the flight of stairs even faster. "I felt another tremor, and I became worried that...What...are those the missing books?"
"They are," Noble said slowly. "My aunt just found them. Isn't that wonderful!"
Counsel paused, taking the book from the Queen's hand. He opened the cover and saw the torn-out pages tucked inside. He frowned.
"While I am very glad that these have been discovered, I cannot help but wonder how they got down here at all. You know, placed in a stone bench and entombed in a remote corner of the palace..."
"That is indeed curious." Noble's heart beat faster.
"I am also interested in how the books were found. What made you try to look in something that appears solid, Your Grace?" Counsel kept his face neutral, but Noble knew it was more than idle curiosity.
"It was the tremor. It knocked me off balance and my bracelet touched the stone. I did not know that would open the chest." Sarai kept her voice steady, but inside she was panicking.
"I suppose you miraculously found the right key for the right lock." Counsel glanced at the golden band, which was still sitting on top of the discarded lid. "That is most fortunate."
"It really is!" Noble agreed. "And you are just in time to help us get it upstairs."
Noble picked up a pile of books and held it out for Counsel to take.
Tucking the loose pages into his garment for safekeeping, the man shut the book and accepted the additional tomes.
Noble took a second pile in her hands.
"You shouldn't need to carry things, Your Majesty. There are servants for that." Counsel glanced at the former queen, who was also picking up a stack, and amended his words to Noble. "But if you feel compelled to bring some of the priceless treasures with me, I would like to have a word with you."
"Of course! I am sure the three of us have a lot to discuss with this new discovery." Noble smiled brightly and motioned for Sarai to follow.
But Counsel shook his head. "I want to speak with you...alone."