Power Conspiracy

by Pedro Urvi

  “Why do they paint those enormous eyes?” Nilsa asked. “As if they weren’t sinister enough already.”

  “I think they represent each area of study. Sonea mentioned that red is the color of those who study war. The librarians’ tunics have the eye on their chests, and then they each have a sash in a different color. I think it represents their own area of study.”

  “Well then, what color’s the eye on the door we’re looking for?”

  Egil scratched his temple as he stared at the doors.

  “It’s the one that has no color.”

  “What?”

  “We’re looking for the eye without a color.”

  Chapter 36

  “What do you mean, the one without a color?” said Nilsa blankly.

  “We’re looking for the Grand Master’s room. He can’t belong to any of the schools, because he represents all of them. That means we have to find the door without any color.”

  “It could just as well have all the colors, because he represents all of them.”

  “That too, but it’s easier to eliminate them than to paint them all. They’re scholars, so I’d imagine they’re looking for efficiency, and they’ll opt for the simplest choice.”

  “We’ll see …” Nilsa tilted her head doubtfully.

  At the final door, they found a carved eye without any color. She rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t you get tired of always being right?”

  Egil smiled. “Actually, no.”

  “Yeah, I guessed as much.”

  “And now, absolute silence.”

  He tried the handle of the door, but it was locked. He took out his picklock and handed it to Nilsa, who began to work on the lock with her ear glued to the door and the tip of her tongue showing at the side of her mouth. Egil meanwhile kept a watchful eye on things, afraid that they were going to be found out.

  It seemed that the Master Archivists and the Grand Master himself locked their bedroom doors even when they were asleep in them. Probably to protect the treasures of wisdom inside which they had borrowed from the grand library. For most Tremians, the written works the scholars kept in their rooms were completely useless. Only the Erudites would consider them treasures that needed to be kept under lock and key.

  Suddenly they heard a noise behind them, and Egil spun round. Someone was unlocking a door, and it was not them. There came a strident creak as a door opened. Egil urged Nilsa to hurry with a desperate gesture, and she looked back in horror. She could not manage to open the door. This particular lock was one of the good ones, not like those in the other service areas.

  A slipper appeared in the corridor. Egil shook Nilsa’s arm in a desperate attempt to make her aware of the urgency. They were about to be discovered at any moment!

  Nilsa made a final, desperate attempt to force the lock.

  The slipper was followed by a leg covered by a robe. The Master Archivist was about to come out. At the same moment there came a metallic click. The Grand Master’s door opened, and they both tumbled inside.

  The Master Archivist of Arcane Knowledge came out into the corridor. He looked in one direction, then in the other, toward the Grand Master’s door, which was just closing. He stared at it vaguely for a moment longer with sleepy eyes, then shrugged and set off slowly down the corridor.

  Inside the Grand Master’s rooms Nilsa and Egil, sitting on the floor and panting, stared at each other in horror. They had escaped by a hair’s breadth. The room, which was huge and in complete darkness, was the antechamber to the Grand Master’s bedroom. The Grand Master himself seemed to be resting behind a curtained door which opened into what must be the bedroom itself. They crept over to the curtains and heard the Grand Master snoring on the other side.

  Egil indicated the bedroom. “Search over there. I’ll do the same inside.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. They both began to feel their way around, since they could see nothing. In the antechamber Nilsa found two armchairs and a desk with a mass of parchments on it. On several shelves were tomes which must be priceless, but that was not what they were there for. They needed something that would open the door to the information they were searching for. Literally. Nilsa searched the drawers in the table in vain. She found two robes hanging on a clothes rack, which she also checked. Nothing.

  Egil crawled along the bedroom floor as far as the dresser. He felt carefully along the top: nothing. He went on searching, taking enormous care to avoid waking the Grand Master. This mission would have been the easiest thing in the world for Viggo, but for him it was turning out to be extremely difficult. He did not have the skill and dexterity which would have enabled his friend to move among the shadows and half-light, unheard. He was afraid that at any moment the Grand Master would wake up and catch him in the act of robbing his bedroom like a common pickpocket.

  Nilsa searched all the drawers, shelves and items of clothing she could find in the ante-chamber amid the snoring from the bedroom, which muffled any sound she might have made. Egil found a clothes-rack and began to search the three tunics hanging on it. He could not make out the colors in the darkness, but they were of good quality and finely embroidered, as his fingers told him. When he found pockets he put his hand inside, feeling like a real pickpocket.

  The tips of his fingers met something cold and metallic. There was a clink he was forced to muffle by closing his fist over it. He glanced in the direction of the bed, his heart in his mouth. Had the Grand Master woken up? With his right hand clenched inside his pocket and his left covering his mouth to muffle any exclamation, he waited to see whether he had been found out. If the light went on, it would mean that the sleeper had heard the noise.

  A resonant snore was all he heard. The Grand Master was snoring as if he were enjoying the dream of his life. Egil snorted in relief, with his hand over his mouth. He took his other hand out of the pocket of the Grand Master’s tunic and felt the metal objects. There was no room for doubt any longer.

  He had found the keys to the Elder Archivists’ studies.

  He went back to Nilsa and whispered in her ear: “I’ve got the keys!”

  She clenched her fists and waved them in a victory sign. “Fantastic!”

  “Now let’s get out of here.”

  “Quick as we can. My heart’s racing.”

  With all the patience they could manage, they made their way back, very slowly and very carefully. Crossing the whole building again seemed to take forever. If they made a mistake, now that they had the keys it would be a disaster. Finally, they managed to reach the service door at the other end of the building and get out on to the street.

  Once outside, they both gasped in relief.

  “Phew, that was intense…” said Nilsa.

  “That’s an understatement,” Egil said, looking aghast.” The life of a thief isn’t for me.”

  “Well, what can I say? I nearly pushed over three vases and four figurines.”

  “But you grabbed them before they fell on to the floor and broke. That was a neat bit of work.”

  She was mopping the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. “Too close for my taste!”

  “Well, think how proud you’ll be when you can tell Viggo about it.”

  “He won’t believe me.”

  “All the more reason to be proud of yourself.”

  She smiled. “You’re right. I’ll rub it in.”

  “And now it’s time for the second stage of the plan.”

  “You and your stages and plans!” she said, and elbowed him gently.

  When they reached the back of the long building, they looked carefully at the Grand Library, which abutted it. Behind it they could see two soldiers on duty, chatting.

  From the corner they could see the guards, together with Valeria and Gerd, who were both waiting for his signal. Egil took out a silver scarf, held it up and then moved it down. Valeria and Gerd saw the glimmer of light one of the oil lamps cast on the scarf, and began to move.

&n
bsp; Valeria raced to the door of the Library, while Gerd went to the back, with Egil and Nilsa watching. The street was deserted, and they were free to act.

  When Valeria reached the two guards at the front door, they stared at her in puzzlement. Her hood was down and her cloak open, showing all the Norghanian beauty of her neck, face and body with each step she took toward them. Both soldiers were now utterly enthralled. They were not used to seeing girls as beautiful as that.

  She gave them a wide smile. “Hi there, soldiers,” she murmured seductively.

  “Hi there. What’s a beautiful girl like you doing around here at this time of night?” one of them asked her.

  “Are you lost?” the other asked.

  “Me not of Erenal,” she said. This was one of the four things Egil had taught her to say in the local language.

  “We can see that all right, beautiful,” the taller guard said with a leer.

  Valeria swished her hair to one side with a twist of her head which left the two soldiers spellbound.

  “Where high area? Me inn, sleep,” she said with an alluring smile.

  “You’re going to the inn at this hour of the night?” the younger soldier asked. “So where have you come from?”

  She had no idea what they were asking her. “Me inn, sleep,” she repeated.

  “I think this foreign beauty’s completely lost,” the tall soldier commented to his comrade.

  “What’s she doing wandering about the city at this time of night? And alone too.”

  “She’s a real looker,” the soldier said. He smiled at her, and she smiled playfully back.

  “She’s gorgeous, no doubt about that, but she’s foreign and she’s lost.”

  The other soldier was unable to take his eyes off her. “All the better for us,” he commented. He reached out to touch her, but she slapped his hand away.

  “No …” she said with a smile.

  “Hey, she’s nothing if not feisty,” the tall soldier said eagerly.

  “I don’t know whether we really ought …” the young one began.

  “What d’you mean? When have you seen a girl as beautiful as this – and with legs like those?”

  “She’s really lovely, that’s right,” the young one agreed. He was drooling at the sight of Valeria, who was smiling both charmingly and seductively at them.

  As the tall soldier made another attempt to put his hand on her waist, she pointed behind them and said the last of the words in the language of Erenal which Egil had taught her:

  “Danger!”

  The two soldiers spun round, turning their backs on her as they did so. She reached under her cloak for two elemental half-arrows, then with a sharp blow she stabbed both arrows in the backs of both soldiers’ necks simultaneously. The arrows had no tips, only an explosive charge, which detonated with the impact. Valeria opened her gloved hands the moment she felt the explosion. Two elemental discharges struck the heads and necks of the two soldiers as the chemicals combined, and they fell to the ground instantly.

  Valeria shook her head as she stared at them on the ground. “Men … how simple they are … they just lose it over a pretty face,” she said disdainfully, and hid among the shadows of the entrance.

  The two guards at the back of the building heard the discharges of the Air Arrows and the metallic clang as the soldiers fell, which echoed through the quiet street.

  “Something’s going on!” said one of them.

  “It’s in front! Let’s go see!”

  Suddenly, from one of the arches they were racing past, there appeared an outstretched arm. The first soldier had no time to see it and ran straight into it. His head was thrown backwards while the body carried on, and he fell unconscious. The second guard deflected the blow, trying to stop before he reached the spot where the now-invisible arm had appeared, and managed to stop just in time.

  “What the heck …?” he began, but never finished the sentence. Gerd appeared from behind the outer arch of the library and delivered a tremendous right punch to his chin. The soldier’s head lashed backwards, his knees failed, and he collapsed unconscious. Gerd bent over and tied both soldiers up, then gagged them and hid them behind the arch.

  He reached the entrance to the library at a run. Nilsa and Valeria were hauling the two guards away, while Egil struggled to open the great double door.

  “Hurry up, they’re going to see us!” Gerd muttered the moment he arrived.

  “I’m trying, but the Grand Master of Knowledge had about thirty keys with him. I don’t know which one opens these doors.”

  “Going by the size of the door, it should be the biggest one.”

  “It can’t be as simple as that.”

  “Try what Gerd says, ’cause this guy weighs a ton,” Nilsa complained.

  “That’s nothing to what this one does,” Valeria pointed out.

  All of a sudden there came a clank, and the door slid open.

  “You’re not going to believe this …”

  “It was the biggest key,” Valeria said.

  “Well, yes…” Egil had to admit.

  “Everyone inside,” Gerd said urgently.

  They shut the door behind them once they were inside, and Egil turned the key twice so that nobody could come in. Nilsa and Valeria left the two soldiers lying on the floor.

  “I’ll deal with them,” Gerd said. He began to manacle and then gag them so that they would not be a problem later on.

  “Those two won’t be getting up all day,” Valeria said. “I used a double charge.”

  “Better safe than sorry,” Gerd said with a smile.

  “Any trouble with the other two?” Nilsa asked him.

  “None. They ran away just as Egil said they would, and they ran into this.” He flexed his powerful right arm.

  Nilsa giggled. “That must have been quite a punch.”

  “Yeah, it was a good one,” Gerd said proudly.

  “You have muscles of iron,” Valeria said. She squeezed his forearm with a suggestive smile, and the giant blushed.

  “And you have all the irresistible wiles of a seductress,” he shot back. The look he gave her said: ‘and you don’t fool me’.

  Valeria laughed. “Very true. I’m glad you’re not as simple as those two.” She waved at the two unconscious soldiers.

  “We’re in,” said Egil. He was staring at the tomes, his eyes full of envy. “What wouldn’t I give to be able to stay here among all this knowledge, and learn!”

  “When you retire from your life as a Ranger, you’ll know where to come,” Nilsa told him.

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  Nilsa’s face took on a look of horror. “You’ll have to wear one of those horrible tunics with the great eye on them.”

  “True, they are rather ugly,” Egil admitted with a shrug,

  “What do we do now?” Gerd asked.

  “Now we go for the information. It’s on the third sub-level, at the end.”

  “Of course, why would it be right here?” Nilsa protested bitterly.

  Egil smiled. “Life is never easy.”

  Valeria nodded. “You can put that in writing and sign it.”

  Egil led the way along the corridor of the colossal nave. They did not find anybody at work, but a couple of oil lamps told them that someone had been working there until recently.

  “Are there scholars locked up inside here?” Valeria asked. She too had noticed the oil lamps.

  “Yes,” Egil explained, “some of them stay working here all night instead of going back to their chambers.”

  Valeria was looking around her. All she could see were thousands of tomes and scrolls around them. “And where are they?”

  “If my assumption is correct, they’ll probably be working in the halls underground.”

  “Underground?” she repeated in disbelief. “Studying at night?”

  “Yeah, they’re a bunch of weirdos, these Librarians,” Nilsa said.

  “You can say that again,” Valer
ia agreed.

  “They’re very devoted,” Egil explained as they followed the corridor toward the stairs which led to the lower floors at the end. “They’ve given themselves up to knowledge, to the search for absolute wisdom.”

  Nilsa and Valeria glanced at one another, looking horrified. Gerd noticed this and smiled.

  “I’ll get a lamp,” Egil said. “I’m afraid the lower floors’ll be very dark.”

  They set off down the stone stairs, and as he had predicted, it was totally dark. They were grateful for the lamp which lit their way. Suddenly Egil stopped.

  “What’s the matter?” Nilsa asked.

  Egil turned to Gerd. “Hmm. I think it would be best if you went back to keep an eye on the main door.”

  “Why’s that?” Gerd asked him in puzzlement.

  “Because if any of the librarians or the archivists spots us and runs off to sound the alarm, he can only go out by the front door. If that happens, stop him.”

  “No problem.”

  “Don’t kill him, he’s only a scholar …”

  “Rest easy, I won’t harm him.”

  “Thanks, Gerd.”

  The giant nodded and went to the door.

  “Right, let’s go on down,” Egil said to Nilsa and Valeria.

  The corridor on the first level was clear. On both sides of the corridor, every ten paces, was a door which led to one of the study halls. Egil beckoned them on down. On the second level they found another corridor, also flanked by a multitude of study halls.

  “One more level,” he said.

  “Thank goodness,” grumbled Nilsa, who did not seem in the least happy about being underground.

  The corridor on the third sub-level was not lit, so Egil led the way with the lamp. There seemed to be nobody down here. The corridor was wide, hung with tapestries in rich blue shades. As they went on along it, they passed great double doors of oak behind which the Masters and Archivists of Knowledge sought to decipher the enigmas of Tremia. All of them were shut.

  At the end of the corridor the doors of the halls were marked with great eyes, each of a different color.

  “The young library apprentice told us the door of Knowledge of History was marked in blue,” Egil said. He indicated the door he had just located.