Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shade Read Online Free PDF Page B

holders fixed into the corners of the chamber. Barely radiating any light at first, they stirred brighter when the enchantress gestured toward one of them.
    She approached the tapestry with awe. All her life, she had heard of it, and even though when older she had watched it being used, Valea had never gotten used to the artifact. She knew it predated the city, yet it displayed Penacles as if only sewn yesterday. The detail was fantastic. The buildings were not simply marked, they were re-created with perfection. There were even two that showed current construction.
    The tapestry was of an ancient magic, perhaps the same magic that Shade represented. Part of that magic enabled it to ever show the region as it currently stood. At some point in the far past, that would have meant a mostly wooded area devoid of any sign of civilization save one thing.
    That one thing was the only structure not marked by a true image of itself. Valea thought perhaps that was because no one knew if it even had a permanent shape. She peered through the immense display, seeking whatever symbol the tapestry had chosen this time to represent her goal.
    In a high corner of the scene, Valea at last spotted what had to be it. The icon of a closed book lay half-hidden among the buildings there.There was some sort of bird on the cover, but she could not make out exactly what it was and did not care. Valea stretched as high as she could but still could not touch the image. She could not recall the tapestry being quite so tall, but the artifact had altered itself in other ways over the years, so growing did not seem so odd a thing for it to do.
    In too much of a hurry to even bother dragging over a bench from the side of the table, Valea cast a minor spell. As if suddenly weighing nothing, she rose a foot above the floor. The icon finally came into reach. She put a finger to it and began rubbing.
    The grating of metal behind her warned the enchantress of her mistake. The Gryphon had evidently altered his commands to the golems; her simple spell had stirred them to action.
    Rubbing the icon harder, Valea concentrated. It was hard to do so with the knowledge that death might be inches from her. The grating rose to a crescendo, all but deafening the enchantress. She sensed at least one of the iron guardians already right behind her and imagined the powerful hands reaching for her neck or swinging hard at her spine.
    She suddenly stood in a white hallway at the intersection of no less than six corridors, all lined with shelf after shelf of huge, thick books.
    The Libraries of Penacles, or at least some meager part, stood before her.
    Valea gasped and could not help looking behind her even though she knew all she would see was another corridor. Only through the magic of the tapestry could one reach the fabled libraries. Who had built them, no one knew, nor how extensive they were. The hundreds of ancient tomes in sight represented only a fraction of the wealth of knowledge found in them. Her father and the Gryphon were of the opinion that some sentient force inside the libraries continued to add information at a constant rate.
    Yet, with so much knowledge said to reside here, finding what one desired and divining the meaning of it was often difficult. Valea went to the nearest shelf and seized one hefty book. She let the tome open wherever it pleased and found herself staring at two blank pages.Turning a few more pages revealed more emptiness. All the books would be the same. One could not simply choose a volume at random and peruse its contents; the libraries kept all their secrets until properly asked.
    She had never attempted this herself, but she had accompanied both her parents on previous sojourns. Those times, a gnomelike librarian generally came to assist, but Valea saw no one. Not certain what to make of that, she decided at last to press on with her quest alone. Valea had no way of knowing whether her spell had also sent some signal to the Gryphon. He