Amid the Clouds (Brave New World Book 1)

Chapter 26

I dug into the history scroll first. It turned out Xan's mom had covered all gargoyles' history in her comic book, not just this homecloud's. She had been crazy talented – had she not been snatched by a gargoyle king, she might have been by Marvel. I mean, her drawings were seriously good.

They were loaded with humor, too. The huge gargoyle warriors in the middle of what was described as the first war among gargoyles, had smiley faces on. A ripped warrior with a scary-long sword was staring at a woman in a crinoline dress, his eyes two big stars. In the next drawing, these two were standing together in royal clothing, tiny hearts floating over their heads and their faces dopey.

I burst out laughing and once I started, I couldn't stop. This woman had been a genius. Why translate tedious historical texts when you could simply draw sketches of the key moments and make most of them hilarious in the process? I hadn't laughed like this for ages.

By the time I stopped, I had gone through all the scrolls on history. Unfortunately, what I had learned was interesting but not useful. Gargoyles had battled lots of creatures – including dragons and what looked like Bigfoot - but the drawings said nothing about the strategies they'd used to win. Or why the battles had occurred in the first place.

Why did the different kinds of monsters do what they did? Zombie 007 wanted world domination, maybe. Vampires, too, possibly. But what about the other freaks of nature?

All in all, I learned that gargoyles' history wasn't much different than humans. There had been kings and queens, wars with neighbors over territories and resources, wars with creatures threatening lives on the ground. Days of prosperity and days of hunger, years with high mortality among humans on the homeclouds and their children...

All the babies came with wings and tails. I guess they always took after their fathers.

I closed the last history scroll and put a hand over my abdomen. What if my one night with Xan had gotten me pregnant? I had forgotten about that entirely today, and it was a pretty big thing to forget about. And pretty darn possible, after the way he hadn't withdrawn from me before the... explosive ending–

God, what if I was pregnant and he didn't come back?

When that idea led to a sharp pain in my chest, I decided it was time for a distraction. Scroll on gargoylish traditions, here I come!

A few drawings in, my eyes drifted towards the far end of the table. The scroll on erogenous zones could actually be useful... In a strictly scientific kind of way, of course. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick peek inside.

An hour or so later, Samuin found me still examining the erogenous zones scroll, wondering how some of the positions depicted were physically possible.

By the time we got to the dining garden downstairs, however, all my worries about Xan had come back to haunt me.

Samuin had no news for me. He assured me that it was still early for the soldiers to return, regardless of whether they were successful or not. But that didn't put my mind at ease.

At least I wasn't acting completely out of character today: the moment I saw the food on the long table, I went right at it. I took in my marvelous surroundings only after I had emptied the plate with rabbit meat and roasted potatoes.

The dining garden was called that way for a reason: all the furniture in here had plants growing on them. Think chair legs covered in vines, table legs wrapped in delicate stems with red blossoms here and there, and grapes hanging from the vine attached to the high ceiling. Light was seeping through it in a way I couldn't comprehend.

Beautiful.

"Will my Queen return to her reading?" Samuin asked once I finished with my dessert - a cake with sweet lemons and oranges. An entire cake.

"I think so."

I didn't have much left to read in the culture scroll, but what else could I do to occupy my mind? I didn't feel like a touristy stroll through this museum-worthy palace would distract me from my thoughts of Xan.

Actually, there was also that scroll on the mate myth...

"Yes, Samuin, I will read some more. You let me know if the scouts see the king returning, okay?"

"Immediately, my Queen. Your presence outside upon my liege's return will be much needed."

I didn't ask him what he meant by that. I would find the answer in the Mating Bond Scroll soon enough.