Bookworm III (18 page)

“I believe Elaine intended to explain everything, once we were out of the city,” Johan said, before the two women could start arguing again. “There are too many listening ears here.”

“I’ll wait,” Daria said, although she didn’t sound happy about it. “And you’re poking and prodding the wrong part of the wall.”

Cass turned to stare at her. “How do you know?”

Daria smirked. “Only one person has been in this room over the past month, apart from us,” she said. “Their scent is strongest in the chair, but she paced a lot and came in and out of the room there.”

She jabbed a finger at the closest bookshelf. “You’ll find the passageway there.”

Johan stared at her. “You can tell everything so perfectly?”

“Everyone has their own unique scent,” Daria said. “And a born werewolf can track a single person through a morass of different scents, if necessary. This” – she waved her hand to indicate the room – “isn’t very hard at all.”

“Oh,” Johan said. “And what do I smell off?”

“Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails,” Daria said, mischievously.

Cass laughed, not unkindly. “You walked right into that one,” she said, as she started to wave her wand at the bookshelf. “But I wouldn’t take it too seriously, if I were you.”

“But you’re not me,” Daria said. “You smell differently.”

There was a click from the bookshelf, followed by a low whine as it moved to one side, revealing a darkened passageway leading down into the bowels of the earth. Cass held up a hand in warning, then stepped forward, wand raised. There was a flash of light, then a sense of sudden emptiness and despair that was almost overwhelming. If Johan hadn’t struggled with feelings of worthlessness for his entire life, it might have killed him. Daria snapped back into wolf form and howled, mournfully. Johan hesitated, then knelt beside the small wolf and wrapped his arms around her.

“Careful she doesn’t bite you,” Cass warned, as she snapped the final ward. “Being a made werewolf isn’t much fun, I’m afraid. Most of the horror stories about werewolves come from made werewolves who go mad after the change.”

Johan shivered. “How bad is it?”

“Some go feral and bite as many others as possible,” Cass said. “Some kill themselves, or are driven away by their families; some just try to live a normal life, hiding in iron cages when the full moon rises. The lucky ones are adopted by a werewolf pack, but their lives will never be the same. And almost none of them will manage to climb the ladder and become one of the alpha pair.”

Daria shivered again, then snapped back into human form. Johan let go of her hastily, then looked away as she adjusted her robe. It was the closest he’d ever been to a naked girl ... he felt his cheeks flame as he rose to his feet, knowing she would pick up on the changes in his scent. He would be lucky if she didn’t rip his throat out.

“A nasty little protective hex,” Cass said. She shot Johan an unreadable look. “I’m surprised you weren’t badly affected.”

“I’ve felt worthless for most of my life,” Johan snarled. He scowled as he rose and peered into the darkened corridor. “What does another bout of worthlessness matter to me?”

“I’ve often felt that people like you were treated poorly,” Cass commented. She turned and started to step into the passageway. “You deserved better.”

Johan glared at her back. “Then where were you?”

“It is never easy to take a child from his parents,” Cass said. There was a dark note in her voice. “I’ve seen parents who used dark magic as a lazy way to discipline their children, or to teach them obedience. But bloodlines are sacred and parents have ultimate authority over their children. We can only ever intervene in the worst possible cases.”

“And by that point, the child might be dead,” Johan said, bitterly. “I think I hate the system.”

“Most people do, when they think about it,” Cass said, evenly. “But the alternative is total chaos. We learn to live with it.”

Johan made a disgusted face, then stepped back to walk close to Daria. The werewolf looked uneasy, her teeth bared in a permanent scowl, her hands flexing as if they were claws. Johan had felt worthless enough in the past, but what did it mean for a werewolf to feel worthless, particularly one who had been raised by a pack? Had Daria felt completely alone ... or worse? There was no way to know ... and no way he dared ask. She might be furious at him for daring to open his mouth.

“Thank you,” Daria said, quietly. “I wasn’t expecting a hex.”

“You’re welcome,” Johan said. He reached out, greatly daring, and took her hand. Her fingers felt cold and clammy in his, despite the thin line of hair. “I felt bad too.”

He looked up at the walls as they walked further into the darkness. They were carved stone, marked with runes and symbols he barely recognised. A handful were jokes, if his father had been telling the truth, puns that could only be expressed in the runic alphabet. Others were written in a language he could read, calling on the blessings of the gods. The workmen had clearly had fun, he decided. Leaving hidden jokes and snide asides carved into the stonework was an ancient tradition.

They stopped as they reached a crossroads, then Cass led them forward through another tunnel. Johan glanced down both sides of the crossroad, but saw nothing, apart from darkness. He couldn’t help wondering where the tunnels went ... the Peerless School? The Watchtower? Or, for that matter, who used them? He listened carefully, but all he could hear were his footsteps as he made his way up the tunnel. There was no hint that anyone else was using the tunnel network at the moment.

“You said kids got into the network,” he said, suddenly. “What happens to them?”

“Some are never seen again,” Cass said. “Some are pulled out by us, soundly smacked and then sent home. Some plot out enough of the tunnels to use them to get from place to place without being seen. And some find work living down in the tunnel network. There’s quite a few things under the city that are never seen by anyone on the surface.”

“There are legends of children living under the city,” Daria said, suddenly. Her voice was stronger now. “They ran from workhouses and orphanages and built their own little community.”

“It would be nice if that were true,” Cass said. “But runaways rarely find happiness at the end of their journey.”

Johan swallowed. His father had told him all sorts of horror stories about the world outside his walls, in the hopes of convincing Johan to stay inside, out of sight and out of mind. There were predators out there, men and women who prayed on the Powerless, who would do worse than kill him if he fell into their hands. The stories hadn’t made him want to stay, if only because his family had treated him poorly, but had there been some basis in truth?

Daria squeezed his hand, then let go of him. “How much further,” she asked, “do we have to walk?”

“Not much further,” Cass said. “We’re underneath the Imperial Palace now.”

Johan glanced up, but saw nothing apart from bare stone.

“I thought the Imperial Palace was the most heavily warded building in the city,” Daria said, suspiciously. “How can you just take us through the wards?”

“The wardcrafters didn’t include the secret passageways in their protections,” Cass explained, “although we may have to break another ward or two when we enter the palace itself. They were never told the passageways existed, you see. A chink in the building’s defences known only to the Grand Sorcerers and their most trusted allies. And even if someone has taken the Golden Throne, they won’t know about the passageways.”

“You make it sound as though someone was planning to overthrow the Emperor right from the start,” Daria observed.

Cass shrugged. “I believe there were times, back then, when everyone knew there were quite a few potential heirs to the Golden Throne,” she said. “And I believe the Grand Sorcerers of that time weren’t too keen on the idea of handing power to someone who just walked in and sat down on the Throne. They would have taken precautions, relying on the newcomer being largely ignorant of how the protections actually
worked
.”

She shrugged, again. “But as time went by,” she added, “the threat of a newcomer taking power receded almost to nothingness.”

Johan felt a sudden glimmer of sympathy for the long-gone heirs, deprived of their birthright by a simple accident of fate, then shook his head savagely. The new Emperor, whoever he was, had arrested and tortured Johan’s mistress, then threatened her with a fate worse than death ...

“Ah,” Cass said. The passageway twisted, then came to a dead end. “There’s a vision spell here.”

She poked it. Part of the wall suddenly turned transparent, revealing a line of occupied beds and mattresses on the floor. They were crammed with soldiers wearing light armour, catching up on their sleep ... Johan felt his blood run cold as he looked at them, counting nearly a hundred crammed into the small room alone. The coup – and coup it was – had been planned for a very long time.

“That room normally houses the maids,” Cass said. She sounded more than a little disturbed by the sight. “Did the Grand Sorcerers of the past spy on the maids as they undressed and prepared for bed?”

“Why not?” Johan asked, more savagely than he’d intended. “Jamal certainly spied on them whenever he could.”

Daria had a more practical question. “Can they hear us?”

“I doubt it,” Cass said. She waved her wand, casting a handful of spells into the air. “No, the entire passageway is heavily warded. They can’t hear a word we say.”

“Lucky,” Johan muttered. He winced as he felt a sudden burst of
... something
coming down the link from Elaine, but the feeling faded before he could get a grip on it. “Very lucky.”

Daria caught his arm. “What are you feeling?”

“I’m not sure,” Johan confessed. “But I think we should hurry.”

Cass nodded. “Follow me,” she ordered. “And run.”

The passageway twisted twice, then stopped dead. Johan stared at the stone, then cursed himself for a fool. There had to be a way through, perhaps hidden by magic. Cass poked and prodded at it for a long moment, then swore out loud, just before a flare of magic lashed out at them. Johan responded instinctively and told the magic to go away. There was a flash of light, then the magic was gone.

“Well,” Cass said. “You got rid of the ward.”

“Good,” Johan said.

“But you probably set off all the alarms too,” Cass added, as a dull gonging echoed through the palace. “They might not understand
what
happened, but they will know that
something
did. I think we had definitely better hurry.”

Daria snapped into wolf form, moved out of her robe and sniffed the air. “This way,” she said, as she shifted back into human form. “I can smell her!”

“Then lead us there,” Cass ordered, as Daria became a wolf again. Johan scooped up the robe and tucked it under his arm. “Hurry!”

Chapter Fifteen

The first door she came to was locked, but not warded. Elaine frowned, then used a simple spell to unlock the door, and peered inside. It was a smaller room than the one they’d given her, with a comfortable bed, a nightlight and a small table and chair. A child was sleeping in the room, lying so still that she knew he was under the influence of a spell. Elaine knew little about children, but she thought he was about seven years old.

A hostage
, she thought. There were definite traces of protective magic surrounding him, although clearly not enough to fight off even a simple sleep charm.
But why would Deferens want hostages
?

She considered the possibilities, none of them good, as she closed the door and then looked up and down the corridor. Deferens was the Emperor and, more importantly, he had the servitude of the Inquisitors. He could easily have maintained the
status quo
, at least for the time being, without alienating the Great Houses by demanding hostages. But he’d felt it was nevertheless important to bring the children into the Imperial Palace.

There were at least thirty such rooms in the corridor – and perhaps more, elsewhere in the palace. If they each held a child, she calculated, it meant that Deferens had secured thirty children from the Great Houses – and probably from the traders and other wealthy mundanes as well. It would give him clout, she suspected, at the risk of making new enemies. He didn’t have hostages to offer
them
, after all. And probably wouldn’t, even if he had had them to offer. She gritted her teeth, wondering if there was a way she could get the children out of the palace without being detected, but she couldn’t think of one. It would be hard enough to get herself out of the building.

She slipped down the corridor, trying desperately to summon the strength for a single spell or two, but nothing worked. Her magic was so badly depleted she could barely sense the flickers of magic moving through the air, let alone actually
do
anything. It wouldn’t be long, she suspected, before she simply collapsed of exhaustion. If Deferens and his men found her while she was helpless, it would be the end.

Need to keep moving
, she told herself. She reached out to Johan, but even after their first successful link she couldn’t even get a hint of his presence.
I have to keep moving ...

She paused as she heard people moving ahead of her and ducked into a sideroom before they came into view. They had once been servants and maids, she realised, as they walked past the room, but now they were slaves. Collars sat on their necks, glimmering with magic, rendering them hopelessly obedient to their new master. Elaine had worn one once, after depleting the magic, and it had nearly overwhelmed her. A handful of mundanes didn’t stand a chance. They would be slaves for the rest of their lives, unless their master chose to liberate them. And Deferens would no more do that than Elaine would burn the Great Library to the ground.

Poor bastards
, she thought. But there was nothing she could do for them.

She braced herself, then ran out of the room and down the corridor as soon as the servants were out of sight. One room held a couple of men sitting at desks, but neither of them looked up and saw her as she ran past; another held a handful of guards, playing cards or trying to catch up on their sleep. Elaine felt a sudden flicker of magic running through the palace, followed by a series of dongs. The palace was under attack! She tried to slip into the nearest room as she heard the soldiers snap to their feet, but the door was locked. And, before she could summon the strength to open it, the soldiers saw her.