Kai stepped between her and the void and went down on one knee, seizing the tentacle in both hands. Irene could see the scale-patterns showing on his skin in the flaring light of the shuddering chandeliers, as his nails lengthened into claws. The great choir of massed voices spoke again, and their force beat against the air like hammers in a foundry. Kai’s features were frozen in concentration, and his hands tensed with the effort as he wrenched them ferociously apart.
The tentacle spasmed between his hands, then snapped in a burst of shadow.
Kai dropped it, ignoring it, and swept Irene up in his arms. He swung her away from the rapidly closing abyss, carrying her effortlessly back towards the surrounding line of robed sorcerers. Irene didn’t have the strength to do more than hang onto him as her mind raced. She was aware that they needed to get out of here before attention shifted to them, but what about the book in the Empress’ quarters? And was there something useful in her conversation with Alberich that she’d missed?
The hole closed with a snap; and the howling of air, which had become a background noise, abruptly ceased. Irene took a shuddering breath of relief. The air suddenly seemed to taste so much cleaner. The room was still full of the gabble of voices and the shrieks of panicked civilians – but it was a human noise, and less apocalyptic. Kai backed a few paces towards the door, Irene still in his arms, then came to a stop as several military types shouldered into his path.
‘I believe Her Imperial Majesty would like a word,’ the oldest of them said. His hair and beard might be snow-white with age, but he had the build and muscle of a serving officer. And there was nothing elderly about his attitude. ‘This way, young man, if you please.’
Irene tugged at Kai’s arm. ‘Put me down, please.’ Her voice was cracked and dry. She coughed, and her next words were more audible. ‘Please. I can walk.’
And she would rather face the Undying Empress on her own two feet.
The gentlemen escorting them up to the steps of the dais were polite, but she and Kai were still prisoners, under guard. The crowd was beginning to settle down now, and more and more interest was focusing on them.
The Empress herself barely had a hair out of place. A maid had appeared from somewhere and was restoring the varnish on the nails of her left hand, while to her right an anonymous-looking man in plain black, possibly Oprichniki himself, was delivering answers to her rapid-fire questions. As Kai, Irene and their escort arrived and respectively bowed or curtseyed, the Empress turned to them, waving her servants away. The light seemed to cling to her, flowing over her silver dress and crown. Physical details, such as her white hair or heavy build, seemed unimportant in comparison with the power at her command.
The crowd fell silent, not wanting to miss any of this.
Irene attempted to think of a good excuse for what had just happened. She’d been trying for the last few minutes, but her best idea so far – we’re loyal subjects who wanted to expose an evil impostor – wouldn’t stand up to much investigation. This was why she liked to get away before anyone could start asking questions.
‘If she speaks,’ the Empress said, pointing at Irene, ‘knock her unconscious.’
Irene mentally cursed, while plastering on her best politely-confused-but-helpful expression. And that was the problem with hanging around, after using the Language to affect people’s perceptions. They remembered what you’d done to them.
‘Your Imperial Majesty—’ Kai began.
‘Him too, for safety’s sake,’ the Empress said.
Kai shut his mouth.
The Empress looked at them both critically. ‘Young woman, young man, you may both have done me a service, but I cannot be sure until I have fully investigated the matter. It is clear that some foul entity possessed my loyal servant Nicolai. You will be interrogated later and will give me your full story then. In the meantime—’ She turned to the elderly man in charge of the escort. ‘Maximum security, the cell with the highest wardings, and shackles.’
Kai’s arm stiffened under Irene’s hand, and she knew without looking that his face would be showing every one of his feelings, and none of them good. She squeezed his arm reassuringly. As long as it wasn’t Alberich organizing their accommodation, they should be able simply to walk out of any cell, once she had her voice back.
The Empress turned back to a man delivering his report, and Irene and Kai were marched out of the Great Hall in dead silence. The sub-basements they were led to weren’t on Irene’s maps of the Winter Palace. And the heavy shackles on their wrists were applied with the utmost politeness. The guards were clearly aware that Irene and Kai were accused but not convicted, and might still come out of the affair smelling of roses. The prison cell even had beds. And candles. And a heavily locked door, of course.
And now that they were theoretically restrained from working magic, and theoretically alone – except for the person probably listening on the other side of the wall, of course – they could talk.
Kai sat down heavily on the bed, his shackled hands between his knees. ‘What language?’ he asked. He’d deduced the probability of a listener, too.
‘English,’ Irene said. After all, in this alternate world the British Isles were a small country that had never risen to empire. If there was someone eavesdropping, it’d take a little while to find a translator.
‘Well, you spoke to Alberich, and I hope you’re satisfied.’ He stared at his chains. ‘I suppose my relatives will get us out of here. They’re certain to investigate a chaos incursion like that one. But they’ll ask questions . . .’
Irene sat down next to him and patted his hand. Her chains clanked unmusically. Both their sets of shackles were overwritten with complicated runes and embossed with gold and lead. No doubt they’d completely annul the magic of this world. But they couldn’t bind the Language. ‘Kai, I intend for us to be well out of here by the time anyone comes to investigate.’
‘You’re in a damned good mood,’ Kai muttered.
‘And you’re in an unusually bad one.’
‘Given the last half-hour, I have reason.’ Even though their bodies weren’t touching, she could feel the tension in him like a vibrating wire. ‘How am I supposed to keep you safe when you keep on—’
‘No,’ Irene said, cutting in. ‘This is not the time.’ She was distracted. An idea was bubbling through her mind, trying to take shape and concrete form. In comparison, Kai’s little fit of temper was unimportant. ‘I’m trying to work something out.’
‘It never is the time,’ Kai muttered. Then, curious, he asked, ‘What?’
‘Let me ask you some questions.’ It would clarify her own thinking, and there were a few points she wanted to be certain about. ‘This is a high-order world, so the power of chaos is hindered. Alberich in particular couldn’t use much of his strength here, since he’s made himself a creature of chaos.’
Kai nodded. ‘That’s correct. I think he must have been shielded by his stolen skin. When the Empress and her servants attacked him, it shredded away and he had to escape into the void.’
‘Were they the ones that closed the hole into chaos, then?’
‘No, that was the world’s natural stability. Humans couldn’t affect something like that.’ The thought seemed to cheer him for some reason. ‘What they did was basically to keep him in the void with their spells, until it closed. It wasn’t very efficient, of course, but they threw enough raw power at him to hold him back, and the hole closed on its own. Though they probably don’t realize that.’
Irene nodded. ‘So, since Alberich was severely weakened by being in this world, we can assume that if he had had a less dangerous method of achieving his goals, he would have taken it.’
Kai frowned, then relaxed. ‘Ah, you mean that he can’t have any allies among the dragons! Yes, that’s a relief.’
‘Not exactly,’ Irene said. ‘Or at least, that’s not the point I’m making here.’
‘Then what is your point?’ The candle cast huge shadows on the wall as he
leaned forward.
‘Alberich told me he traced us here because of the disturbances we caused. The mess at the sleigh-port, the storm you raised. He was waiting in the Great Hall and watching for us to show up.’ Irene saw Kai frowning in thought, and decided to jump straight to the conclusion. ‘If he had known which book we were after, then he’d have gone straight there and laid a trap for us. He wouldn’t have needed to chase us down.’
‘That’s logical,’ Kai agreed. ‘So?’
‘So he didn’t know which book we’re after.’ Irene held up a finger. ‘But he did know which world I was coming to. He even quoted the Library designation, he was so busy trying to impress me.’
Kai shrugged. ‘So he knew some things, but not others. That in itself isn’t—’ He broke off, making the connection. ‘Wait. Someone from the Library would have had access to the records to report our destination and would have known the book you’d been assigned to collect.’
Irene nodded. ‘Which suggests that whoever passed Alberich the information wasn’t a Librarian. But he discovered the world’s designation from someone.’
‘The werewolves who stole your folder?’ Kai suggested. ‘If they saw your mission papers?’
‘Possible, but unlikely. The documents in the folder were in the Language, remember. Anyone who read them would have read them in their native tongue. If one of them passed on the information, why just the world’s designation? Why not the name of the book as well, and the place where it was located?’
‘I’ll allow that. But that means—’
‘Yes,’ Irene interrupted. ‘Exactly! The only people who’d know the world’s designation, but not the book, are the ones who saw the outside of the folder, but not the inside. Which means the people who were waiting in Vale’s rooms when I arrived.’ As she said it, the theory became near-certainty. However, her pleasure at the logical construction drained away as she accepted the conclusion. ‘Which means one of them is working for Alberich.’
‘Not Li Ming,’ Kai said at once.
‘Hopefully not.’ Irene didn’t necessarily share Kai’s faith in the other dragon, but she’d really prefer it if Alberich didn’t have dragon allies as well as Fae ones. ‘And surely not Vale, either.’
‘Of course not,’ Kai said. ‘And there’s no reason for it to be Singh. Which leaves Zayanna.’ Obviously, his tone added.
Irene nodded reluctantly. ‘I didn’t want . . .’ she started, then fell silent, trying to think what she had wanted. There had never been a reason to trust Zayanna.
‘She’s Fae,’ Kai said dismissively. ‘It’s all a game to them. Probably her patron did throw her out, like she said, and Alberich offered her a better deal.’
‘If her patron did throw her out, it was because she helped rescue you,’ Irene said quietly.
‘For her own reasons.’ Kai jingled his chains. ‘And speaking of rescues, how about our own?’
Irene pulled herself together. ‘Yes. We need to get out of here, and get back to Vale’s world. If Zayanna’s been communicating with Alberich, then she can tell us how to find him.’ And then they could work out what to do next.
Irene had never had a reason to trust Zayanna. But she’d wanted to. She’d felt sorry for her. She’d chosen to trust someone whom she’d been warned against by Kai, by the Library’s own guidelines, by simple common sense . . .
And now everyone she’d left behind might be in mortal danger.
A sullen swell of anger built inside her. This was a personal betrayal. She’d never really appreciated how much worse this felt than professional treachery. Perhaps because she’d never faced quite so personal a betrayal before, and certainly never with such high stakes.
‘All right,’ she said, bringing her hands firmly together. She could feel a solid strength growing in the back of her mind, which had been lacking earlier: the power to use the Language, and the force of will to command it. She’d exhausted herself against the Empress, but now her strength had returned, like rainwater collecting after a drought. ‘Kai, once we’re out of this cell, I’ll need you to find the shortest path towards the waterfront.’
‘Certainly,’ Kai said. ‘Is that how we’re leaving?’
‘Eventually. I’m assuming that you can command the waters, or the water-spirits, in the way you’ve done before. This world being a high-order world won’t stop you?’
‘It’ll make it easier, if anything. I won’t need to summon the local spirits.’ He sounded quite definite about that, and Irene wondered if they’d report on him to the local dragons. ‘But what about the book? It’ll be difficult getting up to the Empress’ bedroom, as security is bound to be on high alert . . .’
‘We’re leaving it behind.’
Kai stared at her, shocked. ‘But it was your mission. We have to get it—’
‘It’s even more important to find the link to Alberich,’ Irene said. She hated abandoning a mission, and hated abandoning a book even more, but the real threat was Alberich. If they went to grab the book and lost the chance of finding Alberich himself, then they’d have treated the symptom, but died of the underlying disease. ‘Our priority is getting out of here and finding Alberich’s accomplice – whether it’s Zayanna or anyone else – and using them to stop Alberich.’
‘Using them how, precisely? Alberich doesn’t seem the type to stop attacking the Library just to keep someone else safe. Shouldn’t we actually do our assigned job first?’
‘I could be wrong,’ Irene said. Her anger was still burning, making her want to spit out every word, to shout at someone who deserved it, to hammer against the cell door. She controlled it. Kai’s objections were reasonable and deserved an answer, even if the answer was going to be a flat no. ‘In which case I will have weakened the Library by not obtaining a vitally important book. And in which case I will take full responsibility, and I will feel every damn bit of guilt that I deserve to feel. But I don’t think I am wrong. I think Zayanna is part of Alberich’s plan. I strongly believe that at this precise moment getting our hands on her, or whoever’s helping him, is the most important thing we can do.’
‘But what do we do when—’ Kai started.
‘We’ll work out the details when we’ve caught the accomplice,’ Irene said firmly. ‘Let’s do this in manageable stages. Are you ready?’
‘The sooner, the better,’ Kai said. He was still as tense as a stretched wire, his shoulders hunched and his expression guarded. Irene silently scolded herself as she became aware of at least part of the problem. He’d been imprisoned only a few months back, depending on others to rescue him. It was hardly surprising if being chained in a cell again left him on edge.
‘Right.’ She stood up, and he followed. ‘Shackles, unlock and fall off.’
The shackles were human magic, not Fae or dragon work, and they yielded to the Language like any other piece of mortal metalwork – falling to the ground in a clash of metal.
Irene stepped to one side of the door, leaving the path clear for Kai. ‘Door, unlock. Wards on door and entrance, fall. Door, open.’
Her head throbbed with the newly returned headache, which had apparently only left for a brief holiday. It had now come back with its friends to stay. But at least there was a convenient stone wall to lean on. She did that for a moment, while Kai exploded through the just-opened door and ‘reasoned’ with the guards on the other side. They didn’t even have time to level their crossbows.
When she followed him out into the guardroom, everyone was unconscious. This included a robed man, who was presumably the mage unfortunate enough to have been posted on guard duty. ‘A bit wholesale,’ she said mildly.
Kai shrugged. ‘None of them are dead. Besides, we don’t want them raising the alarm earlier than necessary.’
‘True,’ Irene admitted. She tugged at the mage’s heavy over-robes. ‘Give me a hand with these, please.’
Kai frowned for a moment, then looked at her bedraggled, bloodstained ballgown and nodded. When Irene had donne
d them she still looked badly dressed, but at least she might be a little less conspicuous.
‘The Neva river is that way,’ Kai said, pointing helpfully down the corridor.
Irene led the way, stalking along in a business-like manner and hoping that anyone they ran into would look at the robes and not at her face. Her personal worries drew her face into a scowl, and she saw no reason to attempt a smile. There was the threat to the Library. There was Alberich, who was an ongoing terror just as much as a current danger. There were all her friends and family who were in danger. And there was Zayanna who, barring a miracle and a very implausible explanation, had lied to her.
She’d liked Zayanna.
From the distance came the sound of running feet and a clanging bell. They were several corridors away from the cells by now, in a direction that Irene would have described as hopelessly lost, but which Kai claimed led straight towards the river. These passages, deep beneath the Winter Palace, were far from the glorious corridors of the upper levels – or even the prosaic but business-like archives beneath the cathedral. They were floored with flagstones, and walled with granite, clean but old. These passageways were cold with the deep bone-chill of freezing water seeping through earth and stone. Even the air felt damp.
‘The hunt’s up,’ Kai said concisely and obviously.
‘We knew it would be,’ Irene agreed. ‘Is it much further?’
‘A bit. I’m assuming that you want to get as close as possible?’
‘Right. The less wall and foundation I have to remove, the easier it’ll be.’
‘How are we leaving this world, after that?’
‘Through the closest library to the Library itself.’ She caught Kai’s frown. ‘I know it might be faster in some ways for you to carry us out as a dragon, but I need to leave word at the Library as soon as possible. If something does go wrong when we try to catch Zayanna, I don’t want to be the idiot who didn’t tell anyone where we were going or what we were up to—’
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