The next morning, as promised, when Mags met Bear and Lena for breakfast, the other two told him with great excitement that they had been told if they appeared at the Guard Archives their names would be on the list of those allowed in. Mags couldn’t help but enjoy their enthusiasm, and filled his plate with flatcakes, buttering them and adding honey. “Well, there we go, then,” he said with a decided nod. “You’ll both get t’ root around in there whenever ye want now. You two reckon it’ll take long fer me t’ find out what I want?”

Lena shook her head. “It shouldn’t. We know the time period we are looking for, and we know the location, right? It should be fairly straightforward. I can go with you and show you how to do archival research right after breakfast if you have the time.”

Bear looked disappointed. “I have a class,” he said reluctantly. “Hang it! I wanted to help!” Then he made a face. “And aye, I wanted to go looking for herb lore, too . . . nobody ever thinks to tell anyone about local herb lore. But the Guard does a lot of their own rough-medicine, and I know they use whatever they can get locally.”

Lena patted his hand sympathetically. “It’s all right, Bear, we understand. Once we find what Mags wants to know, we can plan on afternoons or evening when we just hunt out references to medicines and we all three go together.”

Bear had to be satisfied with that. Mags was both on fire with impatience and a little sick with apprehension. No matter what Nikolas or anyone else had said to him, it was still there, that horrible feeling. To find out for certain that Cole Pieters was right, right about him, right about his parents . . .

He and Lena hurried over to the Guard Archives as soon as they finished eating. This time the stern individual on guard at the desk looked over his list when they gave him their names. He nodded, and waved them into a short hallway behind him without a word. They opened a door at the end of that hallway, and stepped into what was for Mags a very strange room indeed.

He had expected something like the library. This was nothing like the library.