"Vector Coil Breaches and How to Avoid Them"
Pasha swiped at the portal, but it had closed and left them behind.
"Come on," Rumer said, mounting the great saber. "We need to reach the valley before nightfall and make camp."
Pasha stood his ground. "You're not still thinking of going to Ironforge? After what that velvet-hooded dwarf just did?"
"He's a Gnome not a Dwarf. And yes. Let's go."
They traversed slowly against the biting wind, snow squalls whipping around their heads and stinging their faces. Pasha, still upset, snorted every so often to show his contempt, and condensation from his breath froze on his whiskers. Even Rumer had wrapped a Defias handkerchief, a souvenir she'd kept from one of the Brotherhood's failed ambushes, around her mouth and nose.
They barely reached the base of the mountain before dark. Rumer started a fire and pitched a shelter of animal pelts while Pasha, freed from his saddle and packs, pranced after Alpine hares in the snow.
"Don't play with our food. Just kill it," she called out to him.
He crouched with his hindquarters in the air and, his butt giving that telltale wiggle, pounced on an unsuspecting rabbit and broke its neck in his jaw. He carried it back to Rumer and dropped it at her feet. She praised him with a kiss and a scratch behind his ears."I hate this part."
With a few deft slices of her blade, she had the rabbit skinned, filleted, and soon roasting over the open flame with the two that came before.
When it was time for dinner, though, she preferred a bottle of stolen rum over the rabbit and tossed the meat to Pasha. He disapproved. But only after he had devoured it.
"Do you trust him?" he asked.
"I don't trust anyone, but I can't imagine he'd waste his time bringing us this far if there wasn't something in the Library."
Pasha snarled but kept quiet.
She'd been tossing about the scenarios inside her head all day. If the mage lived up to his promise and the book did contain the name of her father's betrayer, what was she supposed to do? Whisperra had always been their father's favorite and no doubt she would have gone after the culprit. But what if that led to a dead end? Or worse—her sister's death?
What if all these years searching had been a waste? What of Rumer's life then?
Of course there was always the chance that Glittergold was lying, that there was no book, and that the whole thing was a setup to ambush a wanted fugitive and collect bounty money.
Either way, she would deal with the consequences as they came.
Nearing midnight, Rumer polished off the rum and strapped on her daggers.
Pasha, who had dozed off by the fire, suddenly woke. "You're not going without me."
"It's best if you stay here. No sense in us both getting caught."
"So you do think it's a trick."
"No. I'm just being cautious."
He stood up and stretched. "I'm coming with you."
It would be nice to have some company, she thought. And he would be useful in case she had to make a hasty departure.
"Fine. You can come with me as far as the city, but you're not going inside."
Pasha bowed his head.
They ascended in silence the stone path to the gates of the great Dwarven city. Ironforge Guards stood sentry at the entrance. Rumer didn't notice any Stormwind police lurking about but that didn't mean there weren't any inside the city proper. It was only too easy for off-duty officials to take the underground tram into Ironforge for a weekend of carousing with the city's legendary tavern girls.
Once inside the main gates, the air became hot and smoky from the earth's core burning below. Heat rose up from the air shafts that had been cut all along the outer perimeter, and iron grates stopped travelers from falling into them.
Rumer pulled the hood of her cloak down in an effort to hide her Elven features. She couldn't be sure this was a trap, but she wasn't going to take a chance that it wasn't either.
According to her map, the Hall of the Explorers was directly opposite the Gates of Ironforge. She had two choices: either circle around through the Commons, Military Ward, and Tinker Town, or cut a direct route through the Great Forge itself. She'd be less likely to encounter anyone along the outer rim, but then again there were too many darkened buildings where old enemies could lie in wait.
As a woman of both subtlety and self-preservation, she took the direct path. Though Ironforge Guards wielding sharpened axes still patrolled the area, they were fewer and farther between in the heart of the city, and she could maneuver around them without causing suspicion. Hiding in plain sight came just as easily to her as hiding in the shadows.
At one juncture, she stopped to watch a blacksmith work on a new style of dagger and engaged in curious banter with him while a guard passed by. The blade was forged to look like two entwined snakes, sharpened on either side until their heads merged into one vicious point. She quite fancied it but would never be able to afford it and, although the thought of stealing it did cross her mind, she knew it would be unwise to pull off that kind of heist in the middle of an Alliance capital.
Rumer waited for another guard to pass before she took her leave and headed towards the Hall of the Explorers. From the center of the Great Forge, the arched entryways stood straight ahead. She made her way into the vestibule past members of the Explorers' League and Reclaimers, Inc. and pretended to admire the display of a Pteradon skeleton and a strange scientific apparatus crafted by the Night Elves over 12,000 years ago.
"What are you doing out here? I've been waiting for you in the Library," Elder Glittergold said in his usual disapproving tone as he trotted up to her.
"It's locked," Rumer answered.
"You're a rogue! Pick it!"
Rumer scowled but at least the mage had kept his word. "Why didn't you just leave the door open?"
"And announce to everyone that I was breaking into the Library?"
"If it was locked, how did you get in?"
"Well, obviously I have a key."
"Then you weren't breaking in." Grabbing the mage by the scruff of his purple velvet robes, she stomped over to the Library entrance and tossed him inside. "Where are these documents?"
Straightening his attire, he adopted a look of annoyance. "Top shelf. Fourth row from the left. Third book in."
Rumer's head tilted far back as she surveyed the height of the bookcases. Two stories tall at least. "Seriously?"
Glittergold pulled a coil of rope from inside his robes and threw it at her. "Now get to work."
She hadn't come this far for nothing, and as much as she would have liked to strangle the little Gnome's neck, she decided to refrain from it until after acquiring the book.
Looping off one end, she lassoed it around an iron sconce and scaled the wall closest to the fourth bookcase. When she reached the top, she counted over three books.
"A Zombie's Guide to Proper Nutrition? I'm going to kill you."
Before she could slide back down the rope, Glittergold stopped her. "Wait! That's not it."
"What tipped you off?"
He began counting on his fingers and mumbling under his breath.
"Maybe it's the third row from the left and the fourth book in."
Rumer shot daggers at him with her eyes. Letting go of the rope, she grabbed onto the shelf to her left and shimmied across.
"I'll get it," he said and snapped his fingers. At once a magic carpet appeared, and the mage climbed atop as it lifted him toward the designated location.
"Ah, here it is. Trans-dimensional Ship Repair for Simpletons." His pudgy little fingers reached out and pulled a book off the shelf.
With mouth agape, Rumer plucked the book from his gasp and rappelled to the floor.
"You won't be able to open it. It's locked." Glittergold directed his flying carpet to return to the ground.
"I'll pick it."
"Not this kind. It's magical."
With a begrudging gesture, Rumer handed back the book. The Gnome mumbled some magical words, and energy bolts crackled from his fingertips. In a burst of light, the book flew open. Satisfied, he held it to her in offering.
Rumer hesitated. Did she really want to know? After all this time believing Ebon had committed treason, blaming him for Whisperra's abduction, hating him for forcing her into this corrupt, solitary lifestyle, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the truth. "This book really holds the person's name responsible for my father's execution?"
"Yes! It is brilliant, is it not? No one would ever suspect looking in there. It's not a bestseller like Blinking Rules and Regulations."
If this book was the key to finding her sister, she would just have to sort out her feelings about her father later. Flinging open the book, she began rifling through pages before finally slamming it shut. When she spoke, her words came out behind clenched teeth. "This is a book on how to fix a Draenei spaceship." She threw it down and advanced on the mage.
"Wait." He began counting on his fingers and mumbling again.
"Turn to page two-hundred fifty-three."
Rumer picked up the book and searched for the page. "Vector Coil Breaches and How to Avoid Them." She slammed it shut again and threatened the mage with her dagger.
"That cannot be." Glittergold picked up the book and rose out of reach on his flying carpet. "This isn't possible," he said after turning several pages. "It was all right here. All the Alliance secrets. Your sister even saw it."
"She stole it then."
"No, no. She couldn't have."
"She's a rogue. It's what we do."
"What part of enchanted do you not understand? If it had left the library, it would have burst into flames."
Exasperated, Rumer doubted there ever was a book. Maybe this was all just a figment of some crazy mage's imagination. She had heard that the physics of magic often drove its practitioners mad.
"This is bad. This is very bad." At once, Glittergold began flying around the room, agitated. "This could only mean one thing. Librarian Paledust must have found out someone discovered the book." He buzzed past Rumer on the magic carpet without warning and forced the young rogue to jump out of the way.
"She's just a librarian. How bad can it be?"
Glittergold buzzed back again. "She will know it's me for sure. I am the only one, of course, who actually reads any of the books in the Library. I stumbled upon it one day while looking for a manual on non-carbon based hydraulic time travel. I never found one of course, so I decided to start writing my own."
With hands on her hips, Rumer tapped her foot in impatience.
"Ahem. Where was I? The Alliance secrets book had the first enchanted lock I opened without blowing myself up. I was quite proud of myself and may have mentioned it to a few of my school chums. To rub it in mostly. So certainly she'll know it was me who showed your sister. Why, she could ban me from Ironforge. She could ban me from the Library!"
As if mimicking the mage's emotions, the magic carpet began flying erratically in circles around Rumer. Fed up with getting rug burn, she grabbed the enchanted mat in both hands and yanked hard. Glittergold tumbled to the ground.
"I'm banned from Stormwind," she said. "You'll get used to it." Pausing for a moment, she remembered what the mage had told her on their journey through the Wetlands. Having spent as much time in the Library as myself, one hears rumors and one knows which books are held under lock and key.
She turned to Glittergold. "So you're telling me that after you opened the lock, you didn't bother to read what was inside? A curious mind like yours?"
He faltered. "I read enough to know it made no mention of vector coils and put it back before anyone found out."
Rumer lunged down on one knee and gripped him by the robe's lapels. "You're lying. You read that book from cover to cover and you know exactly who set my father up, and then instead of just telling my sister, you led her here so you wouldn't have to take the blame if someone found out."
Grabbing onto her arm as a flea grabs onto a dog's back, he said, "You don't understand. I'm a mage. I can't live without my books. I have to get out of here right away. If Paledust catches me in here with another —" he threw her a condescending glance until she warned him with an evil eye not to say anything he might regret — "another Night Elf, she'll have the Archmagus take away my spells. I'm nothing without my spells."
For once Rumer agreed.
Just then, a key turning in the lock of the Library doors sounded.
Both their heads whipped around to watch the doorknob turn.
"Who framed my father? Who ordered his execution?" She held on tighter to the Gnome's robes.
Glittergold's eyes opened to two full moons, his mouth gaping to a third, and then he blinked out of the library and left her clutching the air.
One of the Library's doors creaked open, and Rumer leaped to a bookcase near the entrance. She scrambled silently up and across the shelves until she could perch on top of the door frame.
Librarian Paledust, a stout old Dwarven maid with a book in one hand and a pickaxe in the other, entered the room. Peering through a pair of spectacles she pulled from her bathrobe, she searched the room for sign of intruders then spied the rope. As she toddled over to inspect it more closely, Rumer dropped to the ground and darted through the museum.
Glittergold jumped out from behind a display case. "You have to get me out of here."
"Why?" She continued to make her way across the room, keeping her eyes out for Librarian Paledust to make a reappearance.
"Do you know what they do to Gnomes who disobey the rules? They hang you up by your toes until everything falls out of your pockets and suffocate you in your own clothing."
"Sounds tragic." Rumer exited and hurried toward the corridor that would lead her to the Great Forge again.
"You have to take me with you."
"I don't have to do anything," she said still moving swiftly but not suspiciously. "Why don't you just open up a portal and…port somewhere?"
"Are you crazy? They track all our portal travel. No. This has to be done the old fashioned way. I have to go off the grid, and who better to help me do that than someone who has never been on it." Glittergold's legs moved so fast to keep up with her, it was a wonder he didn't start a fire from the friction.
Stopping suddenly in the privacy of the corridor, she turned around just in time for the Gnome to crash into her kneecaps. He squealed in pain and held his nose.
"I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding," he said over and over and hopped around with blood staining the white gloves on his hands.
"You'd never survive a minute in my world making all that racket." She scooped him up and, tearing a burlap bag off a display stand at Burbik's Supplies, stuffed him into it and whisked him out the Ironforge entrance.
"What's he doing here?" Pasha asked rather unpleasantly after Rumer dumped the mage onto the hard, cold ground.
She grabbed a handful of snow and pressed it against Glittergold's nose. "He's going to tell us exactly what was in that book or we let the librarian deal with him."
"You wouldn't!" the Gnome answered, his words coming out in a honk as he held his bleeding appendage.
Pasha growled. "I told you it was a trick."
"It wasn't a trick," Rumer said still with some degree of doubt. Turning to the mage, she gave her most threatening stare. "Who framed my father?"
For a moment the mage stood unmoving, his tiny three-fingered hand pressing snow against his nose, then he dropped it. "I will tell you who it wasn't."
Glittergold stared back, sincerity scorching in his amber eyes. "It was not Mathias Shaw."