The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown Read Online Free PDF Page B

ground to cover if we hope to find some mention of this Crown of the Snow Leopard. Feynam, peruse the Encyclopedia of Artifacts . Edna, you and I shall check all the diaries of kings and queens of yore. Children, see if there’s anything in the old Wizard Almanac s. Start with the earliest editions.”
    Everyone dispersed. Feynam headed for the second floor with Ramoth, his firescale snake, slithering behind him. Loranella walked to a far wall of sheepskin journals and started reaching for the ones at the very top. Sorceress Edna, much shorter than the queen, began at the bottom. Stolix remained coiled round her neck, fast asleep. Marianne approached the meek librarian who was sitting behind the front desk.
    “Excuse me,” she asked. “Could you point us to your Wizard Almanac s?”
    The young woman looked up from the Archives’ book roster, which she was busily updating. “Most of them are in the Reference section. I’d start there.” The librarian was about to return to her administrative task, but became sidetracked by a slither of bookworms crawling in through an open window. “Pesky little creepers,” she muttered as she grabbed a broomstick to sweep the purple parasitic worms back outside.
    Marianne, Gilbert, Dalton and Skylar made their way through the stacks. Jack and Aldwyn followed behind. Jack slowed as he passed by a counter cluttered with conch and snail shells.
    “Did you hear that?” Jack asked his familiar.
    Aldwyn listened. Sure enough, he could hear faint voices coming from nearby. He approached the shelf with the shells resting atop it and the quiet murmurs got louder. Jack came up beside Aldwyn and lifted one to his ear.
    “They’re whisper shells,” explained Jack. “I’ve heard about these. They preserve voices spoken from long ago. Put your ear up to one.”
    Aldwyn jumped up on the counter and leaned his left ear – the one with the bite taken out of it – up to a rose-coloured spiral shell. Immediately, he could hear the sound of a voice speaking: “This is Derkis Toliver, local fisherman, speaking to you three years into the reign of the seventh king. I stand here at the port of Split River, watching the first spice vessel sail in, and I wonder if this will be a renowned harbour in the years to…”
    Aldwyn pulled his ear away. Not the most riveting recollection, but just the fact that the words were spoken centuries ago made the otherwise mundane message become vivid and real.
    “Maybe one of these shells will mention the Crown of the Snow Leopard,” said Aldwyn.
    Jack didn’t even respond, as his attention was drawn to a shelf labelled Tales of the Beyonders . He quickly began lifting snail shells to his ears. “What if my mum’s or dad’s voice has been captured in one of these?” the boy wizard asked.
    Jack had told Aldwyn how he and Marianne’s parents were Beyonders, lost at sea while on a secret mission ordered by Queen Loranella. The boy wished to become an explorer of distant lands too, one day, in the hopes of finding his mum and dad, who were perhaps waiting to be rescued on some deserted island. This desire to reunite with the family he never knew was one that Aldwyn could relate to, having only the foggy memories of his own parents that had come to him in dreams. He often wondered why his parents had abandoned him, sending him away from his home.
    “No,” Jack kept saying, as he listened to each shell for a brief moment before trading it in for the next. “No, no, no.” He moved through them quickly, then put the last one down with a defeated look on his face. “I knew it was a slender chance anyway.”
    “Don’t be discouraged,” said Aldwyn, trying to comfort his loyal. “I know how you feel.” He nuzzled his head up against Jack’s hand.
    “I wish I could hear their voices, just once,” said the boy, melancholy filling his voice.
    Dalton and Marianne walked up with armloads of books and scrolls, interrupting the shared moment between loyal and