Ink, Iron, and Glass (Ink, Iron, and Glass #1)(90)

When they left her rooms to rejoin Porzia and Faraz, Leo hesitated in the hall. “What’s wrong?” she said over her shoulder.

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing. I’ll be down in a minute.”

Elsa searched his face for clues, but his expression was well schooled. If something was bothering him, he chose to hide it. Reluctantly, she nodded, and carried the editbook downstairs alone.

Porzia and Faraz were waiting in the foyer. Porzia cradled a little glass bottle of ink in her hands, and Faraz was attending to Skandar.

Elsa joined them, the editbook propped against one hip. To Skandar and Faraz, she said, “What are you two doing?”

Skandar raised its tentacles cheerfully in response to her attentions. It was holding five little vials of Faraz’s gooey sleeping potion.

Elsa laughed. “Don’t drop those, or you’ll find yourself without your favorite perch.”

The beast solemnly blinked its one enormous eye at her, as if to assure her of how seriously it took its new responsibilities. Elsa pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh again.

Porzia seemed less amused. “Apparently we’re arming the tentacle monster now,” she said sourly. “Not that it’s going to solve our new problem.”

Elsa knew what she meant. “Getting away when Aris can track our portals wherever we go.”

Leo finally came down the stairs behind her, at which Porzia said, “Nice of you to join us. Now—what are we going to do about Aris?”

Elsa said, “I’ve been thinking about that. Once we have Jumi, we can open a portal to my laboratory”—she took a deep breath, steeling herself for Porzia’s reaction—“and carry the laboratory worldbook through with us.”

“Have you gone insane?” Porzia screeched. “That would sever our connection to Earth! We’d be stranded in your laboratory world with no way back.”

“In theory, the doorbook should still be able to link back to Earth. The core text of the doorbook references Earth specifically, in a manner not unlike that of the editbook.”

“In theory?” Leo said.

“See? Aren’t qualifications just infuriating?” Elsa smirked at him. “In any case, we have to take the chance. If we port somewhere on Earth, Aris will be able to trace our destination. But if we wait off-world for a while, we can slip back undetected.”

Leo frowned. “You think that’ll work?”

“His device may be able to detect the energy signatures of portals, but they all look the same. He can find us only if he knows the precise time a portal opens, or if he keeps an eye on a particular location, like Casa della Pazzia. But we won’t be going there. We’ll be lost in the background noise of all the other scriptologists porting back to Earth.”

Porzia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “We’ll have to hide the editbook somewhere before returning here.”

Elsa nodded. “I was thinking of the old castle near Corniglia. It’s well hidden.” She paused. “If that’s all right with you, of course.”

Porzia gave her a thin smile. “We don’t have the luxury of time. Let’s use the ruins for now, until we can come up with something more secure. I’ll grab the keys.”

When everything they would need was collected together, they took a minute to shuffle the objects. One portal device was set for Nizza and the other for Elsa’s laboratory, and Porzia took the doorbook. Leo drew his rapier and held it at the ready. Elsa opened the editbook to the early pages—the most critical part of the core text—and Porzia pressed the bottle of ink into Elsa’s other hand.

“Ready?” Porzia made eye contact with each of them in turn before flipping the switch on her portal device.

Faraz and Leo stepped through first, with Elsa and Porzia quickly following. The portal opened directly into the room where Jumi was being kept. Elsa had only a second to absorb the scene—Jumi lying prone inside the machine, one guard leaning in the corner—before it started.

“Skandar, quick—the guard,” Faraz urged.

The beast launched into the air on a collision trajectory with the guard’s face. At the last moment, Skandar released one of the vials and angled sharply upward, skimming over the guard’s head with mere inches to spare. The vial, however, met its mark, shattering on contact to coat the guard in bluish ooze. He made a surprised noise and then collapsed, unconscious.

The sound of a grown man hitting the floor was enough commotion to draw attention from the other room, but they were ready. Skandar hovered over the doorway and hit another two of Garibaldi’s highly trained ex-Carbonari guards with sleeping bombs dropped from above. The third person through the door—Aris—ducked to the side, narrowly missing his own dose of blue ooze. Aris, glowering up at Skandar, reached for his rapier, and at that point the beast had the good sense to retreat back to Faraz’s shoulder.

“Don’t!” Leo said to his brother. His own rapier was already free of its sheath and aimed in Aris’s direction. “Leave it.”

Aris released the hilt and held his hand open in a show of compliance, though he grinned as if the situation amused him.

At last Garibaldi stormed through the door, nearly tripping over the prone forms of his men. “What in hell is going on here?”

“Not a step closer,” Elsa said, holding up the clear glass bottle of scriptological ink. “Make one move, and I’ll ruin the editbook.”