The Burning Page

‘How would that help?’

‘It’d set his nature.’ Coppelia shrugged. ‘Again, if he survived. He’d acclimatize to being the same chaos level as other denizens of that world. Of course there would probably be some personality changes, and he’d be more vulnerable to Fae influence, but he’d live. You might do best just to take care of him as he is, and hope that he can ride it out. Eventually his body will resettle to a more normal level for his world.’

Her Library branding had shielded Irene, of course. But that wasn’t an option for Vale. He’d gone to that high-chaos Venice of his own will, in spite of all the warnings, to save Kai. Even though he’d known he would be risking his life. Even though he might have suspected he’d be risking his sanity. Irene found herself turning cold at the thought that she might lose him. Vale wasn’t simply a civilian casualty. He was someone she cared about, someone who had a place in her life.

There had to be a way to save him. She would not accept otherwise.

Irene rose to her feet with a nod. ‘Thank you for the information,’ she said. ‘I’ll be back with the book as soon as possible.’

‘Irene . . .’ Coppelia looked for words, then spread her hands again. ‘Be careful, girl.’

‘You too,’ Irene said. ‘After all, if nowhere’s safe . . .’ She gestured at the walls, at the wider Library around them. ‘Then this isn’t safe, either.’

Coppelia’s mouth quirked into a smile. She nodded, and Irene left, making her way through a new group of Librarians waiting to be briefed.

She fretted all the way through the transfer shift and back to the portal to Vale’s world, trying to think how best to handle matters. Assuming that this gate remained stable – and should she set up some sort of warning system, in case it caught fire? – she needed to ask those Fae she knew about Alberich. Zayanna. Silver. Anyone else she could find. Perhaps Vale could suggest a few names, if only from his local list of Dangerous Fae Malefactors. And she needed to watch out for any further messages from Alberich. She also needed to talk with Kai about Vale, and discuss where to take him, and if he’d agree to go. Oh, and she needed to find out who left those spiders. Though when compared with everything else, someone trying to murder her so inefficiently was a minor concern.

And she needed to go and steal a book.

She left the British Library in the middle of a jostling group of young students, mentally preparing an argument for Silver. He had to believe that it was in his interests to cooperate. But the sudden pain of a needle stabbing her hand broke her concentration. She looked up in shock to see one man sliding the hypodermic back in his coat, as another slipped an arm round her waist, gathering her to him as she began to sag. She opened her mouth, trying to speak, but she couldn’t focus and her sight was darkening. She choked on the smell of sweat and hair and dogs.

Oh yes. And I was going to be more careful about travelling through a portal known to my enemies, wasn’t I?

Whoops.

She sagged forward into sleep.

CHAPTER NINE

When Irene woke, she was in darkness.

She lay unmoving with her eyes closed, waiting for any reaction, trying to get a sense of where she was. She was lying on a hard floor, brick or stone. But it was warm and dry, rather than cold and leeching the heat out of her. She wasn’t bound or restrained in any way, but the folder she’d been given by Coppelia had been taken.

There were no sounds of anyone else breathing. She cautiously let one eye flutter open.

Near-total darkness, but faint lights in the distance. Irene sat up, her head spinning. Her hand ached from the needle, but not enough to stop her using it. She was in an arched cavity set into the wall of a long brick tunnel. The lights burning in the distance in both directions were lamps. The corridor was thick with dust, too: she didn’t have to see it, she could feel it where her fingers touched the floor, and she had to work not to cough.

What the hell was going on? If someone was going to kidnap her, why just leave her like a sack of potatoes, without even tying her up or taking away the knife in her boot?

Paranoia whispered reminders about Alberich and the other missing Librarians, but a more immediate and practical concern was Kai. Irene herself might just have been knocked out and dumped down here in order to get her out of the way while something worse happened to him.

She pushed herself to her feet and shook some of the dust off her skirt. Now that her eyes were getting used to the semi-darkness, she could see there was a faint trail down the centre of the passage, where the dust was less thick than at the edges. There were occasional footprints – some looked like heavy boots, but others were bare feet. Vale would no doubt have been able to identify the shoe; or, in the case of the bare feet, comment on the originator’s height, weight and posture. All Irene could deduce was that this was a frequent route for whoever came down here.

And the next big question was: who was that?

The tunnel shook. A deep shuddering, grinding roar vibrated through the walls, making Irene jump and steady herself. For a moment she just wanted to run for it, in any direction whatsoever as long as it was away.

She controlled herself. Panic wouldn’t help. The rumbling was dying away now, in a long clatter of motion that seemed somehow familiar. She began to head to her right, choosing the direction at random, keeping her pace as quiet as possible as she listened for pursuers.

The silence was complete again and the dust had begun to settle, when a wolf’s howl came echoing down the passage. It would have been frightening enough on the moors by moonlight. In this confined space, in the near-dark, given her total lack of knowledge about where she was, it made Irene’s spine curdle and her legs twitch as she restrained herself from running. It wasn’t even a normal wolf’s howl, if one could use such a term. It had the full-bodied weight and impact that came from a larger-than-normal set of lungs.