Bookworm III (6 page)

Beyond the old textbooks, there was a collection of romance novels someone had sent in, probably as a joke. Elaine sighed – the Great Library stored magical books, not
all
books – and then picked up the first one and glanced at it. The lurid cover made no bones about the content; it showed a smiling woman, naked from the waist up, standing on the beach, while a nude man approached her. Elaine had read a couple of similar books when she’d been very – very – bored at the Peerless School, where the female students had passed them around as if they were forbidden fruit. And yet, they tended to follow the same basic formula. A tiny amount of setting, a pair of characters ... and then chapter after chapter of steamy sex, followed by misunderstandings and fights, and then more sex. She snorted, then put the book back down on the table. The set would probably end up being passed to a cheap bookshop for disposal.

She walked through the next door and stepped into the warding chamber itself. Magic crackled around her, then fell back once it had verified her identity. No one, apart from the Head Librarian and the Grand Sorcerer could enter the chamber without permission, at the risk of their lives. The wards that protected the Great Library were ancient, dating from the days before the First Necromantic War. And that had been thousands of years ago.

“I won’t be here again,” Elaine said, out loud. She hadn’t been the Head Librarian for long, yet it was hard to remember a time when she
hadn’t
carried the library’s wards in her mind, when she had only been a mere worker in the building. “If I return, I will be ... what?”

It wasn’t a pleasant thought. The post of Head Librarian had been ideal, as far as she’d been concerned; she would have happily given up her seat on the Privy Council, if it had meant she could spend more time in the library. Vane could handle the face-to-face issues, Elaine knew, while she could hide in the stacks or inspect new material brought into the library. It wasn’t as if she
had
to show herself ... she could happily have lost herself in the labyrinth under the public floors, using the magic to sustain herself. No one would ever have to see her again.

Daria would have dragged you out, eventually
, her thoughts mocked her.
And you already have too many problems facing people
.

“I know,” she said, answering herself. “But I would have been happy.”

She pushed the thought aside, then walked up to the crystal orb resting in the exact centre of the chamber. The designers had known how to build wards in ways their successors had forgotten, ensuring that nothing short of a truly staggering level of force could destroy the Great Library. There were so many protections worked into the defences that even Elaine had trouble seeing how they all interacted, from the ones that shielded the books from harm to the ones that prevented decay. No matter how dusty a tome was when it entered the library, it was unable to decay further until the librarians had inspected the damage and decided how best to handle it.

Bracing herself, she stepped up to the orb and touched it lightly. Instantly, the magic solidified around her and peered into her mind, leaving her feeling naked as it inspected her on a very intimate level. Long seconds passed before the feeling retreated, allowing her to inspect the innermost workings of the Great Library’s wards. From here, she could make all the changes she wanted and none but the Grand Sorceress could gainsay her. And, with her knowledge of how the wards actually worked, she might well be able to seal the building off from everyone. But it would leave her trapped inside ...

She pushed the temptation aside and started to work. Vane was already added to the wards, of course, as her deputy. All she really had to do was prime the system, then add Vane once she arrived in the chamber. And then Vane could carry the wards until the Grand Sorceress appointed Elaine’s successor. Vane had thought that Elaine would be back, sooner or later, but Elaine had told her otherwise. Even if they succeeded in finding the Witch-King and destroying him for good, they would still have to worry about Johan’s true nature being revealed. It would be better if they found a place to stay out of the way and hid there, indefinitely.

And
, her thoughts mocked her,
would Johan want to stay with you for the rest of his life
?

The wards shimmered, suddenly, as a message was sent through them to her. “My Lady,” the desk attendant said, “there are two Inquisitors here to see you.”

Elaine sucked in her breath, then glanced at her watch. The Travellers were punctual to the extreme; if they said they would leave in two hours, they meant it. They weren’t parked very far from the Great Library – the Golden City was tiny, hemmed in by the mountains – but the task of handing the wards to Vane would take nearly an hour. She would have to help Vane through the early stages of the transition, after all ...

... But she couldn’t refuse to see the Inquisitors.

“I’m on my way,” she said. “Show them to my office” – she paused, trying to think if she’d left anything incriminating in plain view – “and offer them drinks, if they want it.”

“Yes, My Lady,” the desk attendant said.

Elaine sighed, then pulled back from the orb. As always, there was a sense of disorientation whenever she let go of the supervisory wards, as if she’d been staring into a bright light that had suddenly blinked out of existence. There were stories of people who built themselves elaborate wards and had then been unable to disengage their minds, as if the wards were so much a part of them that they just couldn’t let go. The Great Library wasn’t that personal – the building was over a thousand years old, far older than Elaine herself – but if it had been, Elaine suspected she would have found it impossible to go. Even now, the thought of permanently separating herself from the library was horrific.

Muttering curses under her breath, she turned and walked out of the chamber, stepping through the labyrinth as though it wasn’t there. Vane was waiting outside, her pretty face torn between anticipation and fear. If she served well enough as Head Librarian, she might inherit the job permanently, but it would destroy any hopes she had of a career outside the Great Library. But then, as a younger daughter of a lesser house, she couldn’t reasonably expect anything greater.

And I became Head Librarian
, Elaine thought. There was no requirement for aristocratic birth to serve in the Great Library. Compared to Elaine, or her predecessor, Vane looked ideal for the job.
I was a no-kin orphan and Miss Prim was a thief
.

“My Lady,” Vane said. “What do you think they
want
?”

“The Inquisitors?” Elaine asked. “I have no idea.”

She shrugged, expressively. Inquisitors were hardly uncommon visitors to the Great Library, either investigating reports of magic being misused or researching precedents for court cases in the Watchtower. And Inquisitor Dread, at least, was a friend, insofar as Inquisitors could have friends. She’d come to rely on him more than she cared to admit.

“I’ll speak to them, then meet you back here,” she said. Hopefully, she could dismiss the Inquisitors quickly. Otherwise, she would have to send a message asking Johan to come back to the library, leaving them to find some other way to leave the city. “Just wait for me here.”

“Of course, My Lady,” Vane said.

Elaine sighed inwardly – Vane was the kind of girl she’d always envied and hated at the Peerless School, even if she
was
a decent person – and then turned and walked up the corridor, back towards her office. The passageways were empty now, not entirely to her surprise; no one, not even an innocent student, wanted to be anywhere near an Inquisitor. Their black robes brought back memories of crimes long forgotten, crimes that were objectively minor, but subjectively terrible. And if an Inquisitor felt like interrogating someone, he could ...

... And only the Grand Sorceress, his ultimate superior, could say no.

She sighed, again. Memories that weren’t hers – memories that were really composites from a thousand books – rose up within her mind, mocking her. There were good reasons for the Inquisitors to exist, she knew, reasons that could not be taken lightly. And yet she’d resented her first meeting with Dread, knowing that he could have made it a great deal worse. In truth, she’d managed to escape very lightly.

And you practically lied to him
, her thoughts reminded her.
He could have arrested or killed you for that, couldn’t he
?

Someone had stuck a ward on her office door, warning all and sundry to keep out unless they had permission to enter. Elaine braced herself, then pushed against the ward. Unsurprisingly, it yielded at once. Someone had keyed it specifically to allow her to enter the room, without resistance. A quick check revealed that the ward was also keyed to prevent her from leaving the room, at least without an Inquisitor. She was growing to be an expert at dismantling wards, but it would take her several minutes and her wand to remove the ward to the point she could make her escape. By then, the Inquisitors would catch her.

Bracing herself, feeling a cold trickle of uncertainty prickling down the back of her spine, Elaine walked forward, into her office.

“Gentlemen,” she said.

She’d hoped to see Dread or one of the other Inquisitors she knew personally. Instead, both of them were unfamiliar, their faces half-hidden behind glamours. She would have known who they were, if she’d known them personally; instead, their faces were blurred slightly, just enough to make identification impossible. They were both strongly muscular men, wearing black hooded robes and carrying staffs; one of them was standing in front of her desk, while the other was standing against the far wall. It looked faintly absurd to her, but she kept that thought off her face with an effort. This was clearly more serious than she had realised.

The Grand Sorceress must have sent them
, Elaine thought. It was the only explanation that made sense.
But why
?

“Gentlemen,” she said. “I’m afraid this will have to be a short conversation.”

“It will,” one of the Inquisitors said. “Lady Elaine No-Kin?”

Elaine nodded, although she was only a Lady by courtesy. And, while she knew who her father was now, it wasn’t something she wanted to acknowledge. Technically, there should have been a reference to Johan in her name too, but she hadn’t added it officially. Too many people would have wondered why she bothered when Johan was supposed to be dead.

“Yes,” she said, clearly. “Might I ask ...”

The Inquisitor took a step forward, tapping his staff against the floor. “By direct order of His Majesty the Emperor,” he said, “you are under arrest.”

Elaine stared at him, dimly aware that the other Inquisitor was moving up and around behind her. The Emperor? There was no Emperor – and there hadn’t been an Emperor for over a thousand years. But the Inquisitors seemed perfectly serious – she glanced at their hands, just to check they were wearing the skull-rings of
real
Inquisitors – and then back up at the leader’s face. There was no hint of humour or amusement in his cold stare. He genuinely believed what he was saying.

She finally managed to speak. “There is
no
Emperor.”

“The Emperor has returned and assumed his Throne,” the second Inquisitor said. His voice was completely flat, revealing nothing of his thoughts or feelings. But if he was telling the truth, Elaine knew, what he felt was immaterial. Inquisitors were sworn to obey the Emperor before all else, even the Grand Sorceress. “And he has ordered your arrest.”

The Witch-King
, Elaine thought, mutely. Rumour had given the last Emperor thousands upon thousands of royal bastards, although – as that
had
been over a thousand years ago – the tales had probably grown in the telling. Anyone who actually shared the Imperial Bloodline probably wouldn’t know it, unless they sat in the Golden Throne ... and, as the Throne killed anyone who
didn’t
share the bloodline, there were few people willing to risk their lives on the slight chance of becoming supreme ruler of the world. But the Witch-King, with his genius for plans that stretched over millennia, could have preserved some of the bloodline in a remote part of the world ...

... And then brought a distant descendant forward to claim his birthright.

“I see,” she said, hopelessly stunned. She tried desperately to play for time, utterly unsure of what to do. What had happened to Light Spinner? Surely
she
would not tamely surrender power to a
faux
Emperor. “And the Grand Sorceress?”

“The Grand Sorceress has been removed from power,” the Inquisitor said, firmly. “She is no longer any of your concern.”

He made a simple gesture with his hand. Elaine’s wand leapt from her belt and into his hand; he glanced down at it for a long moment, then dropped it into a pocket on his robes. She took a step backwards, only to walk right into the Inquisitor behind her. He caught her arms and tugged them behind her back, holding her firmly in place. His protections shimmered against her magic, making it impossible for her to cast any spells. She wanted to struggle, but he was holding her too tightly to escape.

The first Inquisitor removed a wand from his belt and pointed it at Elaine’s face. It glinted silver, which set off alarm bells in Elaine’s head. There were spells – nasty spells – that could only be cast with a silver wand. Panic shot through her mind as she realised what he intended to do, but she was held too tightly to allow her to break free. There was a sudden flare of magic ...

... And a spell crashed right into her mind.

Chapter Five

Elaine almost lost the fight within the first five seconds.

The spell would have beaten her if she’d been a normal magician, the reflective part of her mind noted, even as she fought desperately to ward it away from her soul. Any normal magician, faced with a compulsion and obedience spell, would attempt to push it back, focusing their mind on the intruder until it was forced out of their thoughts. But
this
spell, known only to Inquisitors – and Elaine – actually took advantage of standard countermeasures. Concentrating on the spell would only make it more powerful and dangerous.