Between the Lines, page 22
“And that is?” the Elder said, voice like whispered wind.
She kept her eyes closed. Perhaps if she didn’t look, they would confide in her. A childish thought, but she went on anyway. “What else are these Guardians protecting against?” It couldn’t just be organizations like the Travel Guild or even the Painted Edge. Those were products of the inking. They weren’t there before the Book opened up to be a threat.
There was a slight shuffle, a sip of coffee, and then their wavering voice answered: “Let’s turn that particular page when we get there.”
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About HIDDEN WORDS
Life flourishes in the Book, a world of stacked realms spanning the ages. Those who can travel between them are page turners, blessed with the power to go from one page to the next.
For investigator Fiona Thorne, turning the page is normal life. Solving mysteries is where the excitement lives. No case is too small to ignite her curiosity, no page too familiar to explore.
Hired by her charming, gossipy neighbor to track down a shipment of rare books, Fiona thinks it’ll be easy. She’ll search for clues, sort out the issue, and be back in time for her nightly cup of coffee. And her reward? An introduction to one of the most reclusive leaders in Spine, the Druid Elder.
But that dream slips through her fingers as she realizes there’s little evidence. She’ll have to kick this investigation into high gear if she wants to impress her neighbor and earn her way into a privileged connection.
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Glossary of The Planar Pages series
Find expanded lore, world information and more at https://go.dhalerambo.com/tpp
Spine: A realm connected to every page in the Book. All page turners live here and can suffer ill effects for being gone too long. Split into over a dozen districts.
Seven Known Pages (as stacked in the Book)
Elemental Chapter
Blaze: page of fire, contains salamanders, flarions, ragnis, and other fire elementals
Depths: page of water, contains water elementals, merfolk, turtles, and more
Mistral: page of air, contains sylphs and other air elementals
Cobbles: page of earth, contains gnomes and other earth elementals
Mortal Chapter
Restless Rise (Rise): page of humans, contains a central mountain with floating islands all round it
Kerus: page of smilodon, elephas, and ursidon
Court of Copper (Court): page of faekin: fairies, fae, fauns, centaurs, and nymphs
Terms
Aer: language from page of air, Mistral
Aguan: language from the Depths
the Binder: leader of the Guild
the Book of Larrakane (the Book): all the known pages of the universe
bookmark: token from a page, used to travel there by a page turner
the Card: a free leaflet by the Travel Guild
the Church of Larrakane: organization devoted to worship of Larrakane
Claire: a language from page of fire, Blaze
Depth’s Door: a lake in Spine
diamonnette paper (papers): universal currency
elephas: like elephants standing on their hind legs, from Kerus
faekin: fauns, fairies, pixies, centaurs, all from the Court of Copper
Fallen Bubble: a cocktail
flarion(s): fire elementals who live in pools of magma from page of fire, Blaze
the Followers: a subset of the Church of Larrakane
format: slang for rumor
the Gilded: six leaders in the Travel Guild, including the Binder
the Hinge: Travel Guild headquarters
inked: blessed by Larrakane with the ability to turn pages
the Inking: historic event that created page turners
jacket(s): slang for officers of the Guild
kora: fish with an oily excretion from page of water, Depths
Larrakane (she/her): bestows the ability to turn pages and creator of the Book
La’mior: a fire forest in Blaze
pagemark(s): safe places where turners can move between pages
page turners (turners): people who can move between pages
Pestles and Mortar: smithy in the Spine
pulp: slang for creatures from various pages who are not page turners
ragnis: metallic-boned quasi-flame creatures from page of fire, Blaze
ripper(s): slang for thieves and smugglers across pages
Schiflan: a language spoken from page of humans, Restless Rise
skimmer(s): slang for tourists visiting other pages
skips: slang for criminals on the run
Sod: language from the earth pages
the Towers of Calistino (the towers): prison in Copper
smilodon(s): catlike people, from Kerus
Sod: language from page of earth, Cobbles
sylph: stark white air creatures from page of air, Mistral
the Travel Guild, the Guild: organization that regulates all the comings and goings of page turners in the Book
the Trussadary Inn: hotel in Court of Copper
the Waterfall Palace: hotel in the Depths
unread turner: slang for someone new to being a page turner
ursidon: bearlike people, from Kerus
Excerpt of Hard Bound, Book 2
Step into the next Page and read Chapter One of
HARD BOUND
About HARD BOUND: Someone has stolen from the Court of Copper, the illustrious fae page nestled within the Book. As the fabled Order of Seven, once impervious to discord, tears under the weight of distrust and strife, an innocent risks being shelved, penned as the thief. Who lies at the heart of the crime? Is it a member of the fractured counsel, or could the thief be much closer to Fiona than she realizes?
As the fate of the fae teeters on the brink of upheaval, Fiona and her alchemist ally, Gaili, must delve deep into the tangled mysteries of the page, racing against the clock to unearth the truth and restore harmony to the Court of Copper. Can they halt the rewrite of the fae page before it’s too late and keep it from tearing inside out?
Chapter One
It took every ounce of Fiona’s self-control not to dump her drink on the scribe currently intruding on her space. It wasn’t that she didn’t love a good verbal sparring match—she certainly started those enough. Or even that in the past she hadn’t daydreamed about giving interviews about her work like all people who wanted someone to notice their intelligence. But here, in the tavern that was like a second home, one of her favorite places in the Book of Larrakane, she simply didn’t want to be the one who started the fight. First because every page turner in the place would gossip about it like the hens they were, but second because Mac, the fae proprietress, would tut and look disappointed. Fiona never wanted to trifle with the bond of friendship she had with Mac. Especially not over something as small as this.
The Book of Larrakane, or the Book for short, was the way everyone grouped the seven known pages in the universe that could be traveled or “turned” to by people with the ability to do so: page turners. Fiona was one of thousands or so creatures who had the power to walk through the stacked worlds, turning the page from one to the next. It seemed like a big number until compared to the vast ocean of people who were not page turners. That was somewhere in the millions.
With a deep sigh and a tight clutch on the clay mug holding Mac’s latest concoction, Fiona answered another exasperating question as reasonably as she could: “What was it like to help the Guild with Blaze? I didn’t help the Guild with Blaze. I helped Blaze with Blaze. The citizens did it for themselves. They were quite extraordinary.“ She motioned with her mug to punctuate the last sentence.
Format had been decided on what had happened a couple of weeks ago, when the dying page of fire, Blaze, suddenly flared back to life, and it was all tangled. She had returned a previously stolen fire artifact to its rightful place in the dimmed page after recovering it from its hiding place, Cobbles, the page of earth. That was true. And though it had been quite the endeavor, she’d had help along the way. Once she got around to asking for it. Fiona liked to think of it as a team effort now. But naturally, the Card would get it wrong. The printed booklet was best at spreading the word of everything the Travel Guild did. Made sense, as they were owned by them.
The Travel Guild was a powerful organization that regulated, administrated, and profited off the Book and the page turners who traveled it. They supported them too, of course. When page turners started to travel across the Book two hundred years ago, there was a heady mess of conflict, page versus page, on what permissions the page turners were allowed, who they could take with them to another page, and much more. The first turners quickly dived into the fray and established order out of the chaos, all at a reasonable cost, and quickly the Travel Guild was born. But Fiona knew who to trust when things truly got tough, and it wasn’t the Guild.
The reporter, his young voice belied by the crinkles around his eyes and mouth, nodded as he scratched on the paper. She had seen him on the edges of her vision as she moved around the city in the last week or so. It wasn’t until he turned up here that she realized he had been dogging her steps closer than expected. If she hadn’t been irritated, she may have been impressed.
He scrunched up his face, a habit familiar to Fiona from other humans like herself when trying to puzzle out a scheme, and said, “But the Travel Guild expressed that it was their jacket working with you that solved the broken page. Indeed, we made that the headline the next day: ‘Guild Saves Blaze.’“ He said it quite loudly, making sure to accentuate the headline with his hands as if it were written in front of him directly. The turners on the stools next to him nodded and raised mugs happily. He smirked, seemingly pleased that his show was well received.
“Well, when you print it, you can write what you like, can’t you?” Fiona said through gritted teeth. “But I assure you, the Ashborn working together with the other fire denizens are really the ones who saved Blaze.” Fiona knew that trying to pivot the story to the exact version would be a lost cause. But she wasn’t going to let the Guild earn all the honors just because she had used some of their resources. They would take the recognition and use that for undue influence elsewhere. Well, not if she had any control over it.
Though the Guild worked to regulate the Book of Larrakane, sending jackets from page to page and stepping their foot in every negotiation they could, they were not an altruistic bunch. Dodger, one of her closest friends, and Rockcruncher, a salamander she had gotten to know well chasing down the stolen fire artifact, were about the only worthy jackets she knew. She tried to find the angle the scribe was coming from. Had been for a few minutes. But he was being elusive and wasting her time. “Why are you talking to me if you have all the facts?”
The scribe looked up, blinking. “Format has it you work for them now. There were sightings of you coming and going to the Hinge the day before. A little birdie told me you were offered a job in regulations. And your partner”—he consulted his notes—“Marcius was the one who traveled with you to Cobbles and then turned in the smilodon tigress culprit.”
Damn her to the dark edge for writing his name down on the logs. At the time it was to cover her tracks in case anyone was following her. She didn’t think it would be evidence that the Guild had retrieved the artifact. An artifact that enabled the fire page to be what it was and had, to her surprise, been part of a friend she dearly missed, Soots. So much had been uncovered by the simple act of restoring Blaze. So much still to discover. Fiona had many questions but so little time in getting to research exactly what a Guardian was, besides what Soots called themselves. Protector of a single page who could control it completely. The page was roiling fire currently, so hot that no one mortal could turn back into Blaze at the moment, so further questions to Soots were on hold. Fiona reasoned that this was Soots fixing the page after she left, but her curiosity made her itch to confirm it with the Guardian herself. She had given full reports to her client, the Elder druid, briefed Dodger, and filed information (obfuscating Soots’s involvement naturally) so that the trial for the smugglers of the artifact could begin. Interruptions to research that would answer her questions crowded her like a swarm of ants to sugar, and the scribe was just the latest one.
“Well, format is wrong,” Fiona said, turning away from the scribe and back to the counter where Mac stood eavesdropping quite openly. The honey-skinned older fae winked at her, which eased some of Fiona’s tension. Though the fae looked like humans, apart from the wilting ears and taller height, their natural beauty made one captivated for a brief second, no matter how long you had known them. She focused on the barest of wrinkles on Mac’s face, then sighed. “I don’t have anything else to impart and I’d rather like to finish my drink alone. I’ve said all I’m going to say,” she said over her shoulder in a nicer tone.
“If you think of anything else,” the unswayed, chipper scribe said, “feel free to stop by the Card‘s office at any time.“ A calling card landed beside her on the bar. “And, nice scarf,” he said as he departed.
She ignored the card and looked up at Mac, letting out a deep breath.
Mac squeezed her lightly on the shoulder, her perpetually warm hand decorated in swirling cream, indigo, and olive tattoos, like a kite’s tail spinning in the air. “Was answering his questions truly that hard? You should’ve talked yourself up a bit more.”
“But it’s not about me. It’s about Blaze. Or it should be. People should be talking about what matters, not who saved what,” Fiona said, her shoulders slumping. She had wanted the connection to the Ashborn for larger cases and a little renown with the leaders of the pages, yes. It would help her expand the investigative work she could do and the people she could help. But she couldn’t see anything good coming out of having her name spread across the Book like this and linked with the Guild so tightly.
She had disliked the Travel Guild for most of her time as a page turner. They often made her job more laborious than it needed to be. They touched everything and were an obstacle in just getting a good job done. But she had to admit her grudge against the Guild could make it easy to judge them before their due, as it had in the case of Blaze’s stone. She had been so focused on the Guild being the culprit, she’d almost lost Dodger as a friend and fallen into the trap of the real thieves. She wouldn’t let that happen again.
She tilted her head. “Besides, the ones I want to know about my work don’t even read the Card. No sense using that to make an introduction.“ Fiona wanted to get to know the leaders of Spine, the one place connected to every page in the Book. She often thought it was better to know the people in power so one could help them do better or hinder them from doing worse.
“Well…” Mac started wiping down the polished wood bar like it too was being stubborn to her words. “If it makes any difference, I think what you did to help Blaze is invaluable. I know for a fact that one or two people in the Book are impressed with you, and that may lead to bigger things, you know.”
Fiona smiled. Mac was usually so forward and blunt. Why not say who? “That’s quite cryptic. Who’re you talking about?”
Mac shook her head, her sunglow-gold hair swinging across her ethereal azure-robed shoulder. “Nope. I’ve said more than I should’ve as it is. You’re too clever, and some secrets are best kept that way—secret.”
“Oh, now you’re simply trying to poke my curiosity.” Fiona had known Mac for the last fifteen years, ever since she was inked and brought to Spine. But somehow the fae still managed to be a bottle of mysteries as intriguing and delightful as one of her drinks.
It was a shame that the Thread was tucked so deep in the turner district. Few people outside of a smattering of page turners even knew it existed. Folks would be as awed by the proprietress as she had been—still was. Mac said she didn’t mind being unknown and that those who needed the place would find it. Fiona always suspected she kept the Thread hidden away on purpose for some secret reason. The Thread housed a large first floor boding ample seating for all body types in the Book (which varied from small and winged to large and elephantine). Its robin’s-egg exterior was edged in white trimming that gave the appearance of delicate lacework draped upon an elaborate dollhouse. That delicacy belied the showroom for performers, quaint guest rooms, private quarters, sitting areas and so on. With a handful of floors and so much space, there had to be more going on here than met her investigative eye. She had thought once that perhaps it was Mac’s experimental concoctions, like the tipsy maelstrom she sipped on, taking up so much room.
Mac waved in Fiona’s face. “Stop trying to figure me out. I know that look, and I regret every word. I’m going to go clear tables before you start asking me more questions.” Her bubbly laughter trailed after her somewhat as she headed to the other patrons in the room.
Fiona took her advice, tabling her mysterious friend’s antics for another time, and focused on finishing her drink. She ought to be getting home soon as it was. She had promised Gaili that today they could discuss future living arrangements, although she didn’t think there was much to discuss. Gaili had been staying in her house for the last week at Fiona’s insistence that she not continue sleeping on the floor of her small smithy and alchemist shop. It was no wonder the faun was always covered in streaks of dirt and oil. Though she had only known Gaili for a couple of weeks, she felt immediate kinship with her. As that didn’t happen often, Fiona didn’t treat it trivially.
