The Burning Page

by Genevieve Cogman

  ‘Singh has the right of it,’ Vale agreed. He paused to knock aside a cobra with the remains of the table. ‘I suggest we retreat and call the fire brigade.’

  ‘That sounds good to me,’ Irene said quickly, before anyone could change their minds. The sooner she was away from flames, snakes, insects and whatever – and able to question Zayanna – the better. ‘And then we can get some answers.’

  Half an hour later they were in the upper room of a nearby pub. The fire brigade had been called (and had been in time to save the rest of the neighbourhood), Zayanna’s minions were in custody at Scotland Yard, and Zayanna herself was sitting up and demanding gin.

  Irene had searched the room and dumped any printed paper in the corridor outside. She hoped that would cut down on the risk of Alberich interfering. She hoped even more fervently that he wouldn’t be trying to find her, and that he’d assume she was still in prison back in St Petersburg.

  Vale had turned up the ether-lights and drawn the curtains, cutting out the light from the warehouse-fire outside. The sound of fire engines and crowds drifted through the window. Zayanna had draped herself over one of the rickety chairs in the centre of the room and sat there smoothing her skirts, her new brand scarlet on her neck. Irene sat facing her, while Kai stood by the door and Singh and Vale hovered watchfully.

  Zayanna had completely recovered her good mood, in spite of having lost her pets and probably her cash reserves. No doubt it was because she was the centre of attention. No Fae could resist that. ‘I suppose I could tentatively surrender, darling,’ she suggested. ‘It’d be difficult for me to manage to kill you now.’

  ‘You did try your best,’ Irene agreed. ‘I’ll give you extra points for effort. And I did just save your life.’

  ‘It was only in danger because you’d captured me anyhow. So what now?’ Zayanna tilted her head enquiringly. ‘Do I get imprisoned?’

  ‘“Killed” sounds more appropriate,’ Kai said coldly. Irene had agreed with him that he’d be the bad cop to her good cop. But from the tone of his voice she was worried that he’d be an extremely homicidal cop.

  Zayanna batted her eyelashes. ‘Are you threatening to kill me in cold blood? In front of an officer of the law? Isn’t that illegal?’

  ‘You’re right, madam,’ Singh said. ‘I’m absolutely shocked to hear those sorts of threats. Mr Strongrock, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I should go and check on the firemen. Let me know when I should come back in.’

  ‘Don’t bother,’ Zayanna said sourly. ‘You’ve made your point. So, Irene. You said you wanted me to surrender. I’m surrendering. What happens now?’

  ‘Tell me about Alberich,’ Irene said. The name was bitter in her mouth. ‘What’s he doing?’

  ‘Trying to destroy the Library, darling,’ Zayanna said. Then, after a pause, ‘. . . oh, you want details?’

  ‘Yes.’ Irene kept her voice patient. ‘And, Zayanna, let me be clear about this. I’m saving your life. In return I want the full truth, and I want you to be helpful about giving it to me.’

  ‘Saving my life?’ Zayanna pouted. ‘I know that you did destroy Alberich’s curse, and that I did cause you a few problems and everything, but would you really kill me?’

  ‘Yes,’ Irene said. The word came out with difficulty. She looked Zayanna squarely in the eyes. ‘Listen to me, because I am being absolutely truthful. The Library is more important to me than you are. If I have to, I will give you to the dragons, or I will sell you to Lord Silver, or I will shoot you in person. That’s three things that could kill you. I’m the only person in this room who’s actually interested in keeping you alive.’ She saw doubt in Zayanna’s eyes and shifted to the Language, making the words a promise and a truth. ‘If you don’t tell me what I want to know about Alberich, then I am going to kill you.’

  Zayanna flinched back against her chair, as if Irene was the poisonous snake and she was the threatened victim. Perhaps it was the Language. Or perhaps it was something in Irene’s face. ‘Don’t!’ she cried out. ‘Please!’

  ‘Vale.’ Irene extended her hand. ‘Your gun, please.’

  Vale slapped his pistol into her hand without a word.

  He doesn’t think I’d really do it. He thinks I’m bluffing to convince her.

  Irene thought of the darkened corridors and rooms in the Library, of the gate going up in flames and of the list of dead Librarians. She raised the gun to point it directly at Zayanna.

  Zayanna stared at the gun. She wasn’t doing her usual trick of playing with her ringlets. Her hands tightened on the sides of the chair, and her breath was fast and panicked. ‘I—’ She swallowed. ‘All right!’ She flung herself from her chair, going on her knees in front of Irene. ‘I’ll tell you what I know, and I swear I’ll tell you the truth. I surrender. I really do surrender.’

  Irene handed the gun back to Vale, trying to calm her racing heartbeat. That had been too close. She had never thought of herself as the sort of person who was genuinely ready to kill for information. She’d manage a few convincing threats, maybe, but those would just be bluffs. It was an unpleasant surprise to find out that she was ready for lethal action, and that she’d go through with it so easily, so unhesitatingly. ‘Get up,’ she said wearily. ‘Back in your chair, please. I accept your surrender, but you have to tell me the whole truth.’

  Zayanna picked herself off the floor and slid back into her chair, her stockings miraculously unladdered. ‘What he’s doing is—’

  There was a banging at the door. ‘Gentleman for Mr Strongrock!’ the barmaid from downstairs shouted.

  Irene turned – well, everyone turned – to stare at Kai. Even Zayanna looked interested, though possibly because the interruption took the pressure off her.

  Kai himself looked dumbfounded. ‘I didn’t tell anyone to meet me here,’ he protested. ‘How could I have? I didn’t know we were going to be here.’

  This could be a cunning ploy to get into the room and kill them all. Or it could be a genuine message for Kai, in which case it was almost certainly from his family or Li Ming. And in that case, Irene needed to hear it. ‘Let’s see who it is,’ she suggested.

  It was Li Ming, led by a curious barmaid, dapper in his usual grey and with an attaché case in one hand. While he didn’t actually look around the room and sniff in disgust, clearly it was only because he was far too polite to do so. ‘Your highness,’ he addressed Kai. ‘I hope that I have not come at an inconvenient time.’

  ‘Your presence is always welcome,’ Kai said, court-trained manners coming to his rescue as he closed the door and shut out the barmaid. ‘We were just interrogating this Fae.’

  ‘May I be of assistance?’ Li Ming enquired.

  Irene watched Zayanna out of the corner of her eye. She could see the Fae reassessing the situation and slumping even further in her chair. ‘Actually, Lord Li Ming, Zayanna here was about to tell us more about Alberich’s plan.’ Would it be a good thing for the dragons to know what was going on? Irene couldn’t see any way in which it was a particularly bad thing. They’d never cooperate with Alberich, which made them allies in the current situation. ‘If your message for Kai could wait a few moments, would you permit her to speak first?’

  ‘I would be glad to,’ Li Ming said. ‘Might this have something to do with a world that your highness was investigating recently – I heard there were some disturbances?’

  ‘Ah yes, I was going to speak with you about that,’ Kai said, a little too quickly. ‘Perhaps after we have dealt with the current problem?’

  Li Ming nodded. He stood beside Kai, an inch taller than him and currently much better dressed. They might have been part of a matched set of statues, frozen in marble but ready to break free at any moment, their power chained and controlled, but always present.

  Irene turned her attention back to Zayanna. If Kai was in trouble because of their Russian mission, she’d handle that later. ‘What’s Alberich doing?’ she asked bluntly.

  ‘It’s sort of a c
osmological thing, darling. Please hear me out – I’m not sure how to explain this properly. I know your Library’s connected to spheres all over, isn’t it?’

  Irene knew that ‘spheres’ was the Fae term for alternate worlds. ‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘So?’

  ‘Well, the spheres that are more comfortable for my people – the ones that Aunt Isra would have said were ones of high virtue . . . do you remember her?’ Zayanna waited for Irene’s nod. ‘There’s a point at which they become really unstable. They’re dangerous even for us. I admit I don’t know for sure, but I suppose it’s the same thing at the other end of the scale, too?’ She looked at Kai and Li Ming. ‘Are there places which are so rigidly ordered that even you can’t exist there, without losing your personality?’

  Kai and Li Ming exchanged glances. Finally Li Ming spoke, and he was clearly choosing his words with care. ‘It’s true that human life requires at least a very small amount of chaos, to be recognizable as human. But there are worlds that are entirely static. They are necessary to the functioning of reality, but they are not places where humans or dragons can live. They are indeed too rigid.’ He fell silent again – though it wasn’t clear if it was because of some obscure embarrassment at the idea one could have too much order, or because he didn’t want to reveal anything more.

  ‘I can accept that both ends of reality are dangerous,’ Irene said. ‘So how are these unstable spheres relevant to Alberich?’

  Zayanna ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I really wish you’d captured someone who understood this properly. What I took from Alberich’s explanation, darling, is that he’s somehow linking one of the really unstable spheres to other spheres, more stable ones. And he’s doing it by using unique books from those stable spheres, which he stole before your Library could get them.’

  She waved her hands in the air, trying to find the right words. ‘Imagine your Library’s a sphere at the centre of a web of chains. All the worlds it influences are linked to it by these chains. And the chains are created through the power of special books, unique books. And I know how much you love your books, darling. So if a book is taken from a world, then kept in the Library, this forges a connection and brings the chain into being. You know these chains as gates to your Library. “Traverses”, isn’t that what you call them?’

  Zayanna waited for Irene to nod, then went on. ‘So the more books the Library holds from a particular world, the stronger the connection will be. But then Alberich brings along his own sphere, the unstable one. He steals a book from one of the Library’s existing “satellite worlds”, if you like, but instead of it going to the Library, he links it with his chaotic world. And he does this time and time again – no, I don’t know how often, but I did get the impression it was one of those gloriously long-term plans.’

  Zayanna took a breath. ‘But the universe won’t allow a world to be linked to two centres of influence; it just doesn’t work that way. So the problem for your Library is that these new linkages are pulling the unstable sphere into the same place as your Library. Now Alberich’s unstable domain is actually replacing your Library in a metaphysical sort of way. And the more other worlds start synchronizing with the unstable sphere, the stronger this replacement effect becomes. So, in time, it blows up your Library’s gates to other worlds entirely – even where Alberich hasn’t hijacked any linking books. The sphere he’s using is taking over all the links instead.’

  Irene could feel the blood leaving her cheeks. ‘Surely that can’t be possible.’

  ‘Well, you tell me, darling.’ Zayanna shrugged. ‘How should I know what’s possible and what isn’t? It does sound plausible, though. Isn’t there some sort of law about how two things can’t occupy the same space at the same time? Inspector?’

  Singh frowned. ‘I believe that’s more of a scientific principle than a legal one, madam.’

  ‘But if this is an ongoing process,’ Irene said, ‘then what happens if—’

  ‘When, darling,’ Zayanna corrected her. ‘The way he talked about it, it’s definitely when.’

  ‘When it reaches . . . full synchronization,’ Irene finished. Her mouth was dry.

  ‘Well, he said there were two possibilities.’ Zayanna frowned, with the air of someone trying to remember the exact words. ‘Either the unstable sphere would shunt the Library out of time and space, by usurping all its links to other worlds. Alberich’s new domain would knock the Library completely out of touch and make it completely impossible to reach, and so on. Or the process would just blow up both the Library and the unstable sphere. He was really very conflicted about it, because the second idea sounded more effective – in terms of utterly destroying the Library. But it’d mean that he’d lose all his books.’

  ‘A few more questions,’ Irene said, still trying to process the magnitude of this potential destruction. ‘Did Alberich say how the process could be stopped?’

  ‘Darling, he’s not that stupid. Granted, we’d all sworn to obey him and carry out his plan, and he’d threatened us with fates worse than death if we disobeyed. He’d also put that binding on me and all the others, so we’d die if we were captured or betrayed him, and so on – but even so, he wasn’t going to tell us everything.’

  Irene nodded regretfully. ‘And the fact that I broke that binding on you means that now you’re free to disobey him?’

  ‘Or you’re playing for time,’ Kai suggested.

  ‘I admit it would solve all my problems if he blew up the Library right here and now. No more conflicts of interest!’ Zayanna smiled at Irene cheerfully.

  Irene’s stomach lurched at the thought. ‘How much time do we have?’ she asked bluntly.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Zayanna said. ‘I honestly don’t know – my word on it. But I don’t think you’ve got long.’ Her expression was friendly, even sympathetic, but there was no genuine understanding of Irene’s emotions behind it.

  She grasps that it would hurt me if the Library was destroyed, Irene thought. She just doesn’t really perceive why it would hurt me, or how much.

  The nearby fire had been put out by now, and the sounds of conflagration and fire engines alike had died away. The street hadn’t yet begun to stir with morning activity. For the moment everything was quiet, as Irene considered how to frame her next question.

  ‘Can you take people to his unstable sphere?’ she finally asked.

  Zayanna’s smile vanished. ‘Darling, that’s a terribly, terribly bad idea.’

  ‘But you aren’t saying no.’

  Zayanna chewed on her lower lip. ‘I’m saying let me think about it. I’m not playing for time. I suppose it might be possible . . .’

  Irene nodded. ‘Good.’ They could take in a strike team of Librarians, disable whatever Alberich had done and hopefully dispose of Alberich while they were at it. Problem sorted. Admittedly it was a very sketchy plan, but it was one hundred per cent more of a plan than she’d had half an hour ago. She turned to Li Ming. ‘I apologize for the delay. You have a message for Kai?’

  ‘For his highness, and for you by implication. My lord knew that his highness would pass you the information anyway.’ Li Ming favoured Irene with a quick, understanding smile. He put his attaché case on the battered table, opening it and exposing the written documents inside. The black ink of the writing seemed to draw the light, as if the fact that they could see it now gave it an unhealthy significance. ‘We have a proposal—’

  Then the air pulsed as though it was the surface of a drum struck by a careless hand, and the buzz of chaos-tainted Library power washed through the room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Li Ming’s attaché case sprang fully open, as though an unseen hand had flipped back the lid. The writing on the papers inside writhed and coalesced, shifting and re-forming in unstable patterns. Li Ming recoiled from it, and behind him Kai was flinching as well, similar expressions of sheer disgust on their faces. The papers rustled against each other, humming like a nest of wasps.

  Irene kn
ew the taste of Alberich’s power by now, and the power was building to dangerous levels.

  ‘Open a window!’ she shouted.

  This had happened in the werewolf caves, when three ingredients had been present: some form of writing, a Librarian and Alberich’s will at work. Alberich had again zeroed in on where she was – and this time Li Ming’s documents had given his corruption a focus. If this was a message, it was the sort that left people dead.

  Vale fumbled with the window latch, but it was rusted in position. ‘It’s stuck,’ he reported calmly. But then he couldn’t feel the mounting power in the same way Irene did, and he didn’t have the same revulsion to it that the dragons had. ‘Singh, try yours—’

  ‘No time. Stand back, gentlemen. Windows, open!’

  Both windows in the room flew open, dragging their latches out of the sockets. They were sash windows, the up-and-down vertical sort, and they rose to their full height, hitting their upper limits with enough of a bang to crack the panes. Glass came tinkling down on the windowsills and fell into the room, as the cold morning fog washed in.

  The writing on the papers had dissolved into a constant wash of words in the Language: tangled, nonsensical vocabulary but no actual sentences, not even coherent phrases. The attaché case was shuddering where it lay on the table, jerking in place as though it had been electrified, and the rising buzz of power was clear enough now that even Vale and Singh could hear it.

  Irene sheathed her hands in the battered folds of her skirt in an attempt to protect them, and flipped the lid of the attaché case shut. There was a jolt as she touched it, a painful vibration that echoed in her bones and made her grateful that the contact was only momentary. ‘Kai,’ she ordered, ‘help me with the table!’

  Fortunately Kai caught her meaning instantly. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed one side of the table as she caught the other. They ran across to the window together, pitching the case and its papers into the empty street outside.