The Masked City (The Invisible Library #2)(87)
‘We’re almost there,’ Irene gasped reassuringly, not bothering to check if this was true. ‘Just hold on a bit longer.’
‘No,’ Kai said, a little more clearly now. There was genuine pain in his voice. ‘My feet …’
Both Irene and Vale stopped, Vale jostling her to look down. The paving was rising around Kai’s shoes, seemingly grasping at his feet as it bubbled in an unwholesome way in the near-darkness. Irene looked nervously at her own feet, but it didn’t seem to be affecting her or Vale.
Vale took a deep breath. ‘Let go of him, Winters,’ he instructed. ‘And be ready to clear our way.’ With a grunt of effort, he bent over and swung Kai up onto his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. More blood stained the bandage on his arm.
Right. That might work. If Kai’s feet weren’t actually touching the ground … They were nearly at the Train. Perhaps five minutes. If they could just make it.
She ploughed her way through the crowd, using her shoulders and elbows to force a passage for herself and the men. Behind her, the shouting seemed louder and more directed, and she tried not to think what would happen when Guantes realized they weren’t actually heading for the library at all. They had to make that train - and Lord Guantes was entirely capable of working that out. And where is Lady Guantes? Irene hoped not knowing wouldn’t prove fatal.
The bracelets that Silver had given her seemed to be vibrating against her wrists, throbbing with their own heat, and her mask pressed against her face like a suffocating hand. Is it a sign that the Ten are looking for me, too? she wondered. They could be looking for anything that’s not native to this place. And there’s only me and Kai here who aren’t Fae or normal humans …
She shoved onwards through the crowd and stumbled into a sudden emptiness as she reached the waterside. Even the crowd had more sense than to push all the way to the edge, where the darkness of the sea stretched into the distance, wave-tops catching the light of lanterns in pale ruffles of foam. The lights of the island beyond were visible as distantly glowing pinpoints, breaking up the long stretch of shadow where night sky was indistinguishable from sea. The Train was a harsh line of light against the darkness, with the bright squares of lit windows shining like an invitation. But, more practically, it was a good hundred yards further along the quay. At least.
The noise of the crowd was changing, and Irene turned to look behind her as a chill of apprehension ran down her wet back. There was something about the way that they were moving - and speaking …
They were all acting in unison. Like a pack of dogs, all slowly raising their hackles as they focused on an intruder, the crowd was staring at them as if one intelligence animated them all. The Venetians’ eyes shone like cats’ eyes in the gloom and they were even breathing together - in an audible whisper that was louder than the shifting water. The air was full of an inhuman attention, a presence that curdled the blood and froze the mind in panic. The Ten. The Ten have found us.
‘Winters …’ Vale said, very quietly, as though afraid that any louder sound would set off an explosion of violence. Do something went unspoken.
Irene quickly rejected multiple possibilities in her head. The Language could freeze water, but she couldn’t freeze the whole lagoon, or even enough to get across to the Train. And confusing the perception of so many people was beyond her abilities.
Even the boatmen in the gondolas were turning to stare …
She was moving before she could think twice, pulling up her skirts and jumping into the nearest gondola. The gondolier wasn’t expecting it, and she rammed her shoulder into his stomach, shoving him overboard while he tottered and struggled for breath. Vale was right behind her and was already hauling Kai into the gondola.
The entire crowd was still staring at them in dead silence. It was paralysing. Irene choked, trying to get her mouth and tongue to work as she struggled with adrenaline mingled with fear, but the words finally came. ‘Mooring rope, undo. Gondola in which I am standing, move towards the Train.’
The gondola was moving before the rope (and all other ropes within earshot) came fully undone. For one terrifying moment it strained against its moorings, still tied to the quay as the crowd came rushing forward with a single, multi-voiced scream of fury. She could see the whites of their wide, expressionless eyes. Seagulls rose shrieking from the rooftops and eaves, bursting into motion in a flurry of pale wings in the darkness.
Then the rope snapped, lashing free as it broke, and the boat jolted into motion. Vale collapsed in a pile with the semi-conscious Kai, and Irene went down on her hands and knees, as the gondola cut through the water like a motorboat towards the Train, the impression so convincing that she could almost believe she smelled smoke.
A nasty suspicion flared in her mind, and she turned to look at Kai. The wood of the gondola was indeed charring and smoking where his flesh touched it, and a matching discoloration was spreading like a rash on his skin. He’s as allergic to this place as it’s allergic to him. There was no way I could have hidden him here and escaped later. She turned back to the approaching Train, with a feeling of mingled dread and irritation at yet one more obstacle - how were they actually going to get into the thing? Still, climbing into a train from a burning gondola, at sea level, was a minor problem, considering what they were leaving behind.
The gondola crashed into the side of the Train and bobbed there crazily, pitching up and down. In mute invitation, the nearest Train door immediately swung open and Vale caught hold of it, steadying the gondola against the side of the Train while Irene scrambled into the carriage. Other gondolas, full of wild-eyed Venetians, were surging through the water towards them, in a dead silence that was almost more horrifying than screams or threats. She pulled Kai by the shoulders as Vale pushed, dragging him into the Train with adrenaline-fuelled strength. She’d barely levered him partway in, when the burned gondola gave way under Vale. He threw himself forward, clutching at the lip of the doorway as the planks sank beneath him.