All's Fair (Fair Folk Chronicles Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

very old volume with consternation.
    “That's German. Basically 'About Some Jerk Named Dracula from Wallachia.”
    “Okay,” said Megan. “' A True & Faithful RELATION OF What passed for many Yeers Between Dr. JOHN DEE (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. ELIZ. And King JAMES their Reignes) and Some Spirits. ' Yeers. Seriously. Well, Justin says they weren't wrong: we just invented new ways of being right and making other people wrong.”
    “He's got a point,” Ashling said. “People always do, if you give them time enough.”
    “' Malleus Maleficarum ,'” Megan said.
    “He wouldn't put a good bookmark in there,” Ashling said. “It gets too boring.”
    “I think this next one is Ann Coulter's autobiography.”
    “Now that one's really scary,” said Ashling.
    After enough time, Megan gave up, and just focused on trying not to guess at the tragic stories behind the various bookmarks, or how they might connect to the particular books, and focused entirely on trying to find a fragment of a Botticelli.
    It was on the third shelf she checked: a strip of canvas with verdigris pigment and one torn, charred edge.
    “See?” said Ashling. “I was right.”
    Megan ignored her and took the leather-bound book to one of the comfortable chairs set haphazardly about the room to start reading. There was no title, just a single snowflake-like image branded into the front of the heavy book.
    At first, all she got from it was that it was written in ancient Gaelic. She could piece through a little bit, from her studies and working with the music book, but not enough to make the words make sense. As she was about to ask for Ashling's help in figuring out why her father pointed her towards this book, though, more of it started to make sense. It was less that the letters changed, and more like her perceptions of them altered.
    The word here and there turned to sentences, and then those formed paragraphs—stories of war. She connected the names of some of the Gods and some of the Fomoire. Eventually, enough made sense that she started recognizing the narrator: this was one of her father's journals. As she realized that, the reading became faster still, hearing whispers of her father's rich voice reading the passages to her.
    She startled a little when she felt Ashling crawling up onto her chair and over her shoulder. "You need help with the reading?" Ashling asked.
    "I've got it,” Megan said. “Something weird with this book."
    "Huh, your Dad must have enchanted it with you in mind."
    "So, it's not doing the weird translating thing for you?"
    "Why would it? I read Gaelic just fine."
    "Are there any languages you don't know? I mean, we know you know Gaelic..."
    "All of the Celtic languages, actually."
    "All right, those, and Klingon, German, Spanish, Corvid, Japanese, Squirrel..."
    "Sure, I have a gift for languages. But my C++ is pretty weak, and then there's whatever Ozzy Osbourne speaks."
    "Okay, got it. So, you've never seen this book before?"
    "Your father kept a lot of journals."
    "So you don't know what's in this one?"
    "I'm almost positive that it's full of words. You can keep reading to find out."
    Megan looked back to the book, and resumed reading. As she did, she noticed that, as the book continued, there was a shift in tone that suggested to her, along with the events being described, that it was one of the oldest in the room, held together by faerie magic across the centuries.
    Rather than being a reflection on old wars, or theories, much of it was a firsthand account of the time period around the Battle of Mag Tuired. She read early encounters with Orlaith and Inwar, impressions of the distant Gods, and more direct experiences with their children. She read about allies and friends dying, or going on to victory and glory.
    She skipped ahead to the description of Lugh killing Balor, finding herself feeling smug enough about it to read it five or six times. There was more, but she skimmed over that, going back to read