The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(41)
“Where’s the General?” she asked the Guard. “How long have I been asleep?”
“A few hours,” said the Guard, wary. “General’s busy now.”
“Tell him I’m leaving,” said Eliza, striding off down the hall.
“Hold up, hold up!” the soldier called after her. “You can’t just walk out. I’ll get the General. You wait in his room.”
Eliza hesitated. She didn’t want to have to get out the way she’d come in but neither did she want to waste time here.
“I need to see him in ten minutes, aye, or I’m leaving,” she said, folding her arms and facing the Guard. The Guard gave her an incredulous look.
“Is that right?” he said.
“I can walk through walls,” Eliza told him. “Have you nay heard?”
The Guard gave a little shake of the head. “Just wait,” he said, pointing at the bedroom.
Eliza went back in and sat down on the bed. It was half an hour before the General arrived.
“Planes are on their way,” he told her. “They’ll take care of this thing. But we can’t hold off all of Tian Xia. We need the Mancers.”
“I’ll do my best to turn them back,” said Eliza.
“I have a daughter your age,” The General said, and he smiled a bit sadly. “I don’t know what to think of you, Eliza. Your life is mighty strange.”
Eliza nodded. “It really is, aye,” she said.
The soldiers watched as the General escorted the girl to the edge of the plateau in his private car around midday. She climbed down to the valley by herself and headed for the foothills to find Ka’s dragon. In spite of having slept and eaten, she was bone-weary. The most important task for her now, if she was to undo anything Nia had done, was to discover exactly what Magic the Sorceress had wrought. This she could discover by Deep Seeing. The wall of the Library would show her what had been done to Foss. If the dragon that had gone north was successful and found the Book of Barriers in the Arctic, she ought also to be able to find how Nia performed the spell of Making. She did not trust that she would be strong enough to break Nia’s spells or even to perform the Deep Seeing without Foss’s help but she had to try.
The dragon Nia’s creature had mauled lay in the grounds of the Citadel, glaring about with furious eyes. Ka’s dragon landed near it, screaming out its greeting, and the hurt dragon released a piercing cry in reply. Eliza saw the symbol for wood branded into its neck. So this was Anargul’s dragon, then. Eliza made straight for the Library in the north wing, her legs stiff and aching from the long, cold flight. She did not think Nia would still be here but her heart quickened nonetheless.
Nia was gone, but the Citadel was far from deserted. Word had spread rapidly through Tian Xia that the Great Sorceress Nia was free and the Mancer Citadel unguarded. A great many greedy giants, who more than any beings in the worlds loved to rule over the weak, had come to Di Shang to divide it into kingdoms among themselves. Cra had poured over the Crossing in great numbers, giving various treasures and powers to the Boatman in exchange, thinking to stay forever. Harrowghasters and half-hunters came – seeking easy prey – as well as curious or adventurous witches and such. The Mancer Citadel housed great treasures and objects of power. Unprotected by barriers, it drew all those that could scale its vast walls. Almost as soon as she entered the north wing, Eliza stumbled upon a cluster of mountain womi, muttering together and touching the wall in the hopes of finding a way into the Library. They were cloaked in heavy robes, hoods so large their faces were barely visible. When they saw her they leaped against the wall, first alarmed, then curious. Eliza did not pause. She was not going to worry about mountain womi at a time like this. Their bright little eyes peered at her as she passed them by and one made as if to grab her, but she drew her dagger and he jumped back. They muttered and followed her a little way, then lost interest and turned back to continue their futile assault on the Library wall. Nia had broken the barriers that surrounded the Citadel but the walls around the Library and the Treasuries were still full of their own Magic, which held fast against the intruders.
As she ran up the broad marble stairs she spotted one of the Cra further up, tearing his nails along the carpet in an apparently random act of destruction. As soon as the thing saw her it emitted a hideous shriek and made away fast down the hallway on long black wings.
The Old Library was much as Eliza had last seen it. The great bookcases stood half empty, several of them toppled against their neighbours. She could not cross the Library without walking on the sea of books emptied by Nia that covered the floor. A chilly breeze came through the shattered window at the far end, the one Nia’s creature had leaped through. A being no taller than Eliza, frizzle-haired and snaggle-toothed, with a nose like a little squashed turnip and brilliant deep blue eyes, was tapping Foss’s stone arm in a curious way with a long knobby staff. Under his arm he clutched a tattered notebook.
“Who are you?” Eliza demanded in the common language of Tian Xia, approaching him with her dagger drawn. He squealed and stepped away from Foss. Eliza could not bring herself to look again at the stone figure of her teacher shielding his face. It was too painful. She turned her upwelling anger instead towards this intruder.
“I am Uri Mon Lil,” he stammered, backing away from her as books slipped and slid beneath his feet. “I am the wizard of Lil. I intend no harm to...anybody, least of all you, whoever you might be...?”