Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2)(84)

It is what I told you from the beginning: there is no compromise with rebellion. You coddled Wolfe for Keria’s sake, and now it has led to this.

We have no choice. This is a threat we must deal with, quickly and decisively, whatever it costs.


Reply from the Archivist Magister, marked URGENT


You were right from the beginning, and I regret I was too cautious.

Kill them all.





CHAPTER TWELVE





The delay in the arrival of Santi’s party had simply been caution; they’d stayed well away from any areas where they might have been noticed, and ate a long lunch instead—a fact that made Jess realize he was starving. Glain silently passed out rations and water, and let Thomas have three times as much as anyone else; it wasn’t as good as the cold meats and cheeses that the others had enjoyed, but it’d do for now.

Glaudino, clearly out of patience with his confinement—understandably; he and his workers had been locked in a small space for better than three hours now, and even with the food and water Glain gave them, they were likely miserable—began banging on the door again and threatening them with dire punishment. Frauke, crouching in the corner, swung her head that direction and growled. Despite knowing it was wrong, Jess felt a guilty spike of pleasure. Nice having something deadly on their side. “So, what about them?” Glain asked Santi.

“Tie them, but leave them without gags. They can yell for help as much as they like once they wake up.”

“Wake up— Oh.” Glain nodded. He walked with her to the closet door, aimed, and gestured for her to open it. He dropped Glaudino first with a well-placed stun shot, then the other two, and dragged them out to tie their limp arms and ankles together. He and Glain settled the prisoners against the wall, and while they were at it, Jess turned to Wolfe.

“We still don’t have an exit plan,” he said. “Do we?”

“You do,” Morgan said, and moved to stand beside him. She put her hand on Frauke’s stiff metal mane. “If you get me to Rome’s Translation Chamber, I can send you where you want to go. Let me help you. This is why I came, to make sure you could get away safely.”

“And to run away from the Iron Tower,” Wolfe said. She gave him a look, and he shrugged. “I am not blaming you. I, of all people, understand.”

“There’s a problem with that plan: no doubt the High Garda will be thick as fleas in the Translation Chamber by now, not to mention on every road leading to it. They’ll know that’s our best escape,” Dario said. “We’d be playing right into their hands. Maybe Jess’s illegal cousins would be a better idea, grubby criminals that they are. I’d rather have a long, tiring ride in the back of a wagon than a cell under the basilica.”

“It’s too late for that,” Jess said. “My cousins generally aren’t in the business of being heroes. Our code is: Get caught, count yourself dead.”

“Pleasant folk you come from,” Dario observed. “All right. Maybe we can buy our way out of the city. There must be someone who wants a fat purse and no questions asked.”

“There’s another option,” Santi said, rising from where he’d finished tying up their unconscious captives. “We can go where they don’t expect us. Rome doesn’t just have one Translation Chamber. It has two. Morgan? You came in that way. So did Wolfe. Did you destroy it or only disable it?”

Santi was right: they had a decent chance, if all of the basilica guards were out looking, of walking right into the heart of the enemy’s stronghold and using it for escape.

“And what then?” Khalila asked. “Say we get away. Where do we go? Where’s our safe haven? What chance do we have of staying free of the Library for any length of time at all?”

“None,” Dario said. “Not unless we find allies, quickly. Jess isn’t willing to put his neck on the block, so someone has to.” He looked across at Santi, and nodded toward the men unconscious on the floor. “How long are they good for?”

“An hour, at most,” Santi said. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t want to explain. Give me half that time,” Dario said. “If I’m not back, then let Jess try to enlist his criminal brethren or run for the basilica. But I might be able to help with allies and a safe haven.”

“Dario!” Khalila grabbed for him, but he was quick, the arrogant Spaniard. He grabbed her hand instead, raised it to his lips, and then pressed the back of it to his forehead as he bowed. “Don’t go.”

“Why should Jess always be the one to run off on his adventures?” Dario sent Jess a wide, confident grin. “Half an hour, scrubber. Start the clock.”

Then he was gone.

“We can’t—” Khalila looked at Santi, then Wolfe. “We can’t just let him go!”

But they did.

Dario Santiago didn’t come back.




The hour slipped away, and they waited as long as they could. Glain quietly suggested stunning Glaudino and his workers again, but Santi shook his head. Another shot risked real injury, possibly even death, and he didn’t intend to leave bodies in his wake today unless they had no choice in the matter.

“He knows the plan,” Santi said. “We head for the basilica. Twilight is our best time; people will be heading home or out to take the evening air. It’ll be harder to recognize us.”