Chapter 11: The Records Room

Felix did not like the Hall of Records, because it had no snacks.

It was a long cold vault under the academy, with iron shelves and a ceiling of stone arches.

Dust lay thick on every ledger.

A sign over the door said no food or drink.

An archivist with a closed, sour face sat at a desk beneath it.

Felix had eaten his last roll on the stairs, out of respect.

"Thornwood annex," he said.

The archivist did not look up. "Name."

"Felix of Thornwood."

"Your clan's papers are in the third alcove. The Ashfall boxes are at the bottom."

He turned a page.

"You may read them here. You may not take them."

"I've been asked to bring them to Matthew Phoenix."

"Then Matthew Phoenix may come and read them here."

Felix sighed and went to the third alcove.

Matthew had given the order at the end of the evening, in the hall, with his hand on Felix's shoulder.

Fetch the Ashfall ledgers, my boy. Remind the heirs what my family did. They'll sign quickly after that.

It was easy to say yes to Matthew.

Felix had said yes to him for ten years.

He knelt on the cold stone and slid the lowest box out of its slot.

Inside were forty narrow ledgers, bound in green cloth.

Each had a date on the spine and the Thornwood serpent stamped in black.

He opened the first one.

The ink was faded but clear.

It was a record of grain, sack by sack.

Four hundred sacks of barley, forty of seed wheat and ninety cartloads of coal.

All of it had been sent to Thornwood in the second week of the Ashfall Winter.

Under it, a line in a small, upright hand.

Shipped from the Emberfall granaries by order of Lord and Lady Phoenix. No interest. No return required.

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