Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2)(64)

She looked back at him with an impatient raise of her eyebrows, and he had to grin. Not a ghost. Though a terrible death is still on the table, some dour part of him said. He tried to ignore it.

Khalila led him down the hall to a closed door, which she opened with a key. It led to a small, enclosed atrium, open to the night sky, crowded with clipped hedges and a spreading olive tree. In the center of the tiny garden, a graceful statue of a winged woman balanced on one foot with her drapes flowing in an invisible wind and a hand holding up a laurel wreath—Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. Not an automaton, thankfully.

In the shadow of Victoria sat Dario, Captain Santi, and Glain. A pitifully small crew, Jess thought, to go to war with the Library.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Khalila said, and gave Jess a quick embrace. “We had to be careful.”

“Of course you did.” He nodded to Dario. “I’d say it was an impressive display of arrogance you put on, but—”

Dario laughed, stood, and gave him an embrace as well—a quick one, with a heavy slap on his back that stung hard enough to remove any sentimentality from it. “But it comes naturally, of course.”

“Did the Artifex force you to come, or was it your own idea to ride along?”

Dario and Khalila exchanged a quick look, and she said softly, “Something of both, I’m afraid. We did apply to be on his staff, you remember. But he rejected us as applicants.”

“Until yesterday,” Dario added. “When suddenly our presence was not just desired, but required.”

“He means to kill us here,” Glain said. “That’s why he brought us all. Death, or we join Thomas in the cells under here. Why else would he do this?”

Santi, Jess noticed, hadn’t spoken. His head was bowed, as if he were lost in thought. “Captain?” Jess asked. “Do you agree?”

“I think he means this as a show of strength,” he said. “And as intimidation. I don’t think he’d quite dare to make all of us vanish at once.”

“He couldn’t make you disappear. You’re too prominent.”

“You think too small, Jess. High Garda soldiers die in combat. A nicely staged Burner attack, some conveniently destroyed bodies, and no one but Christopher will ever doubt the story.” His hands, which had been resting on the bench on either side of him, clenched the lip of the marble and tightened, until his knuckles were almost the same pale shade. “We’re hostages for Wolfe’s good behavior, at best. And through him, his mother’s. I don’t think this is so much about us or him as it is a power struggle between those two.”

Wolfe’s mother, the Obscurist Magnus, was a formidable woman, but trapped by her own power. Her influence didn’t extend to freeing herself or those locked away with her. At the same time, the Obscurists had a fragile hold over the Library; without them, the essential components—the Codex, the Blanks, even the automata—ceased to operate properly.

The Artifex would use Wolfe to keep her in check—and the rest of them as leverage against Wolfe.

“I suppose you were assigned the honor of escorting the Artifex at the last minute, too,” Khalila said to Santi. He nodded. “I’m sorry. I know it’s difficult for you.”

“I’ve defended Scholars I loved and Scholars I hated. Just part of the job,” he said. “I defend an idea, not an individual.”

“None of that matters now,” Dario said. “The Artifex sees us as chess pieces he can move as he wishes, and, eventually, he’ll knock us off the board one by one, if not all at once. Are we just waiting to be killed?”

Santi said nothing. Did nothing. Jess stayed quiet as he watched him; he could see the man thinking, weighing, calculating odds and tactics. This was Santi’s specialty, the art of war. Surprise and defense.

“No,” he finally said. “We can’t wait. Dario’s correct. We’re in a position of great weakness—away from home, easily disposed of. I think bringing us here was a demonstration of his power. He can’t know we’ve found out anything.”

“We haven’t,” Khalila murmured. “Not for certain.”

“We have,” Jess said. He took a deep breath and told them about the information he’d received from Anit. “Thomas is here. He is definitely here. Now.”

“Do you trust her?” Khalila asked.

“She wouldn’t have any reason to betray me,” Jess said. “Our families are old trading partners. Throw me to the lions, and she has the Brightwell clan to deal with after. Her father wouldn’t want that.”

Santi nodded slowly. He looked up at them, and the anger in his face was chilling. “Then we can’t wait. We must get Thomas and get out of here. I’ll send word to Christopher to join us, and we’ll have to go into hiding, immediately. Jess? Can you arrange that with your family?”

Leave the Library. He saw Khalila and Dario exchange looks. They’d had to know this was coming, but it was all happening—and Jess surely felt it, too—so fast. “Not Khalila,” Dario said. “Surely no one would suspect her of anything. She could go back afterward . . .”

Khalila cut him off. “Dario. You don’t decide on my behalf. I love the Library. I grew up believing I would spend my life serving it. But that ideal, the one they made us believe, it doesn’t exist. I would rather spend my life fighting to change it. I can’t continue to pretend to be loyal to it, not if all of you are gone!”