The Invisible Library (38 page)

‘Let Vale go and we can talk,’ Kai snarled. There was something in his voice which Irene hadn’t heard before. For want of a better word, it sounded like possessiveness.
A
draconic emotion?

‘Silence, boy,’ Alberich said. He very deliberately moved the knife in a fraction of an inch, and a trickle of blood ran down Vale’s neck to mark his white collar. ‘Stay
where you are, don’t try to jump me, and let your superior do the talking. Well. Do you have the book, Irene?’

Surely he’d noticed the book in the in-tray? If he hadn’t, then she wasn’t going to draw his attention to it. ‘I can get hold of it,’ she offered. ‘Is that
the price?’

‘I want more than that.’ There was a glitter behind his eyes, and
that
she would recognize if she ever saw it again. A rapacious hunger, an endless emptiness that would never
be filled, with all the madness that went with it. ‘I have a number of questions. You can even sit down, if you like.’

‘We’d really rather stand,’ Irene said quickly.

‘Suit yourself.’ His lips curved in a smile that was somehow more a man’s than a woman’s. ‘Shall I go through the usual literary conventions? First I tell you that
you’ve been told slanders about me, and you nod understandingly while not believing a word of it. Then I promise that you can go free if you hand over the book and you lie and give me a
forged copy. Then I kill you.’ He shrugged. The knife stayed in place. ‘Or shall we break from the usual tropes and actually do something different? Something that might mean you
survive this?’

Irene thought about how many other Librarians must have been in this position. There was a reason why he was an urban legend.

Though if they all get killed, who comes back to tell the stories
, an irritating part of her mind pointed out. She ignored it.

‘I don’t see how you can use both the Language and Fae magic,’ she blurted out, her mouth running on automatic while she tried to think. It wasn’t hard to sound vaguely
admiring, even if he’d see right through it.

‘I’ll give you that one for free,’ Alberich said generously, and Irene mentally lowered the odds on him letting them live even further. ‘Once a person can use the
Language, that can’t be taken away. I’ve learned to use chaos since then. It involves a certain amount of personal redefinition. Difficult, but not impossible. One doesn’t have to
die. Something to take into account in your future career, perhaps? There are far more opportunities open to you than you might think.’

Opportunities . . . What opportunities did she have right now? Kai might be able to use amazing dragon powers to stop Alberich entering an area, but that wasn’t much use when he was
already inside it. And she might be able to force Alberich out of an area using Language, but again that wasn’t much help if he could simply wait outside its boundaries . . .

Boundaries. A half-plausible thought moved through the back of her mind. She wished she’d had more time to ask Kai about his capabilities. When he warded an area, did the warding simply
follow the track that he left? Or was it a more metaphysical sort of thing, with the boundaries of his warding being linked to whatever he
intended
to ward?

‘Let’s reduce the potential hostages,’ she said briskly, ignoring Kai’s intake of breath from behind her. If this was going to work, she needed him outside and free to
act. ‘I’m the one you want. As you said, I’m Kai’s superior. Having him stand here and maybe lose his temper won’t help either of us.’ She tried to look
gullible. Impressionable. As if she believed Alberich when he said she might survive this. ‘You’ve already got one hostage, and you know I’m concerned about his well-being. If I
wasn’t, we’d already be attacking or running away. Let’s clear the ground. Let Kai here go as a start to the negotiations.’

Alberich surveyed her thoughtfully, and again there was that flash of hunger in his eyes. ‘It’s true that my questions concern you, not him,’ he said slowly. ‘And
he’s no initiate. I needn’t fear him trying to open a door to the Library behind my back. Very well. I’ll be reasonable. In return for a similar concession from you.’

Irene remembered to breathe. ‘Such as?’ she said.

‘Your birth name,’ Alberich said quickly, and she realized this had been his plan all along.

Magic had never been Irene’s field of expertise. It still wasn’t. But she didn’t need to be an expert to know that Alberich’s Fae magic, with knowledge of her true name,
could be very bad news for her.

‘Hah!’ Kai said. She suspected he was sneering.

Irene nodded to Alberich, then turned to Kai. As she had thought, he was sneering. ‘Kai,’ she said. ‘I want you to do something very straightforward for me. I want you to go
outside and stay outside. I don’t want you setting one foot inside this library.’ How to convey to him
I want you to set up that warding you talked about and do it as fast as
possible
? ‘I’ll handle this.’

Kai blinked at her, totally blindsided. ‘But—’ he started.

‘But me no buts,’ Irene snapped. ‘It’s as Alberich said. You’re not a Librarian and there’s
nothing
you can do in this situation. You don’t have
the Language and you can’t fight him. I’m not going to endanger yet another person. Now are you going to obey my orders and get
out
,’ she could hear her voice rising,
‘or am I going to have to worry about you as well as Vale here?’

Kai gave her a long stare. It felt like a reproach. It was a reproach. She didn’t want to do this to him, but Alberich wasn’t stupid. The slightest hint of collusion would get Vale
killed, and she could only hope that Kai understood that. ‘You know perfectly well there’s nothing I can do if I’m outside these walls,’ he said. Could he have grasped what
she wanted? ‘I’m supposed to be your colleague, not your brain-damaged dependent! At least let me stay nearby.’

‘It’s all one to me,’ Alberich said blandly.

Irene jerked her thumb at the door. ‘These are your orders, Kai. Out, and stay outside, and I don’t want to see your face until we’re done.’ She glanced up at the window
for a moment. ‘And don’t get any ideas about flying around on the zeppelins.’

Kai’s eyes narrowed fractionally, and she could only hope that he’d grasped the idea. ‘Don’t think I’m happy about this,’ he said, shoulders slumping to the
very angle of their first meeting. It had looked better in a leather jacket.

Irene nodded and turned back to Alberich. ‘The door, please.’

‘Your name, please,’ he said, with the same intonation that she had just used.

‘
I give you my word that I will give you my birth name the moment Kai stands safely outside that closed door,
’ Irene said in the Language.

‘Neat,’ Alberich commented. ‘You think quickly.
Room door, open.
’

The door swung open, squashing silverfish in its wake, and thudded against the wall. There was nobody in the room beyond – at least, there was nobody alive. Just the huddled mounds of the
few unfortunate bodies caught in the silverfish attack. Irene hoped queasily that they were just unconscious, overcome by ultrasonic waves or something like that. She couldn’t handle more
deaths.

‘If you hurt her,’ Kai said softly, ‘I swear by my father and his brothers, and by the bones of my grandfathers, that you shall pay for this.’

Alberich regarded him thoughtfully. ‘What a curious way of putting it. I’m sure I’ve heard that somewhere before . . . oh, never mind, I daresay I can dissect you later if
it’s absolutely necessary. Out of here now, before I change my mind.’

Irene didn’t say anything, in case Alberich did change his mind. She gestured Kai towards the door, and wondered how long it would take him to set up a barrier. And also how long she had
before Alberich was finished with her.

Kai hunched his shoulders angrily and stalked out of the office.

‘
Close, room door,
’ Alberich said, and it slammed shut with another squelch of splattered silverfish, leaving the three of them alone together.

Irene felt the compulsion of her own oath like a noose around her neck. ‘My parents gave me the name of Ray,’ she said, quickly choosing her words, before it could force out even
more detail. The phrasing was more convoluted than it might have been, but it was true enough. ‘I don’t know their birth names, so I can’t give you a family name.’

‘Ray.’ Alberich looked as if he was about to laugh. ‘And did they call you their little ray of sunshine?’

Actually, yes, they had
. Irene raised her brows. ‘Is that relevant?’

‘Not particularly, but I have always been a curious man.’ His hand didn’t move, and the knife at Vale’s throat stayed steady. ‘Why don’t you know their birth
names?’

There was no way she was telling him they were Librarians too. And now she’d answered, she wasn’t bound and could lie as much as she wanted. ‘They always kept secrets from
me,’ she invented. ‘I’m answering your question as best I can.’

Alberich narrowed his eyes, and she suspected with a chill that he didn’t believe her. ‘Relevant questions, then. What precisely has been going on?’

She hadn’t expected that one. ‘Er, in what sort of detail?’

‘There have been far too many people interfering in what might otherwise have been a perfectly straightforward extraction. Believe me, Ray –’

She knew he saw her twitch when he used her name. She couldn’t help it. She hadn’t heard anyone use it to her for
years
. It was a childhood name and she wasn’t a child
any longer.

– ‘I didn’t ask for any of this,’ he went on smoothly. ‘I would much rather have simply taken the book and left. No mess. No fuss. So I’m asking you, in a
perfectly reasonable way, to stand up straight, stop stammering, and give me a full report. Imagine I’m one of your superiors.’

He could have been one of her superiors too. It was easy to imagine. They were diverse enough – such as Coppelia with her clockwork limbs or Kostchei with his thousand-yard gaze. But all
had the same air of authority that Alberich was displaying. Other than that and the rumours, she knew
nothing
about him. She didn’t even know what he looked like. And he terrified
her.

‘Under the circumstances—’ Vale put in.

‘Remember that I can and will freeze your vocal cords too,’ Alberich said. ‘And your lungs. Unless you want to explain events yourself? In which case, Ray here becomes
worthless . . .’

‘I believe Miss Winters can handle this,’ Vale said. ‘I will only interrupt if I have something important to add.’

He was probably used to coping while people held knives at his throat, Irene reflected savagely. ‘Allow me,’ she put in. ‘I believe that the main factor here was that Wyndham
knew too much.’

‘Quite a claim, given how much Vale seems to know of Library business,’ Alberich said pleasantly.

Irene decided to ignore that as she wondered how long Kai would take. And would she know when he’d finished? She needed to spin this out as long as possible, weave all her guesswork into a
convincing narrative, and pray that Alberich would accept it. ‘Wyndham had connections with the Fae,’ she started confidently, ‘but he also knew that Dominic Aubrey was a
Librarian and, as such, opposed to the Fae. Wyndham knew the book was significant to Silver and thought that he could use it as a bargaining chip to gain something in return. Or he might have been
taking some sort of complicated revenge. It was one of those Fae relationships. He decided to make sure that the book was somewhere safe while he negotiated. So he sent it under cover of another
parcel to the Natural History Museum.’ Could she persuade Alberich to go there to look for it? ‘And then he was murdered.’

‘Oh yes,’ Alberich said. ‘I arranged his killing. My agents didn’t find the book while they were there, but that would be because Belphegor got there first. The Iron
Brotherhood were extremely useful. Vampire-killing assassins, automata to send after you, and other things too. It seemed the easiest way for me to get hold of the book. I didn’t feel like
dealing with Silver or the other local Fae. Some of my allies have issues with certain factions. But I won’t bore you with the details. I entered this alternate, took control of the Iron
Brotherhood, found the locally stationed Librarian, questioned him, and assumed his skin. Simple enough. Speaking of that, do you still have it?’

Irene abruptly wanted to be sick. She’d maintained some control during werewolf attacks, zeppelin near-crashes and silverfish fatalities, but this was different.
Questioned him. Assumed
his skin.
‘It was you, wasn’t it? The first time?’

He understood her question, ill-formed as it was. ‘Oh yes. I was the one who met you and your student when you first came through. To be honest, you’ve been rather a surprise to
me.’

‘Flattery will get you nowhere,’ Irene said primly, counting seconds in her head.

Something else was clearly ticking over behind Alberich’s eyes too. ‘If you’d found the book in the Natural History Museum, you could have gone straight back to the Library by
forcing a portal elsewhere. You wouldn’t have needed to come
here
. And you’ve admitted Wyndham knew that Aubrey was a Librarian. Answer me, Ray. Did Wyndham send the book
to
Aubrey?’

‘Yes,’ Irene said. The word came grating from her mouth in response to his question and his use of her name before she could waltz around the subject any further.

A high colour showed on Alberich’s cheeks. It must be some sort of anger-reaction transmuted by the skin he was wearing. ‘Are you telling me that the book came
here
?’

Irene could feel the response dragging at her throat, trying to say itself. Vale’s eyes met hers for a moment, as she weighed the benefit of distracting Alberich further against the risk
of his cutting Vale’s throat if he lost his temper. ‘Yes,’ she said quickly, giving in and letting the word out, before Alberich felt the need to make good on his threats.

‘And it’s the book on the desk?’

Irene opened her mouth to deny it, but couldn’t. The word dragged itself from her lips. ‘Yes.’