The Myst Reader (71 page)

IT WAS VERY LATE WHEN HE CAME BACK THAT
night. Anna waited up, listening as his footsteps came up the stairs. As he made to pass her room, she opened the door and stepped out.

“Aitrus?” she whispered.

Aitrus turned. He looked weary.

“Is everything all right now?”

He stared at her, then, “You had better come to my study, Ah-na. We need to talk.”

The words seemed ominous. Anna nodded, then followed him down the long corridor and into his room.

“Well?” she asked, as she took a chair, facing him.

Aitrus shrugged. “I am afraid Veovis is intractable.”

“Intractable? In what way? You are friends again, are you not?”

“Perhaps. But he will not bend on one important matter.”

“And that is?”

Aitrus looked down glumly. “He says that as you are not D’ni, he will not countenance you going into an Age, no, nor of learning
anything
about D’ni books. He claims it is not right.”

“Then you said nothing of our visit to Ko’ah?”

Aitrus hesitated, then shook his head.

“Can I ask why? It is unlike you to be so indirect.”

“Maybe. But I had no will to fight Veovis a second time.”

“So did you promise him anything?”

“No. I said only that I would consider what he said.”

“And was that enough for him?”

“For now.”

She stared at him a moment, then, “So what
have
you decided?”

His eyes met hers again. “Can I hide nothing from you, Ah-na?”

“No. But then you have had little practice in hiding what you feel from people, Aitrus.”

Aitrus stared at her for a long time, then sighed. “So you think I should abandon my plan?”

“Your plan?”

In answer, he opened the top right-hand drawer of his desk and took out a big, leather-bound book. It was a
book
—a D’ni book—she could see that at a glance. But when he opened it, there was no box on the front right-hand page, and the inside pages were blank.

She stared at it. “What is it?”

“It is a
Kortee’nea
,” he said. “A blank book, waiting to be written.”

Anna looked up, her mouth falling open slightly.

“I have had it for a year now,” he answered. “I have been making notes toward an Age. One I myself am writing. And I thought … well, I thought that perhaps you might like to help me. But now …”

She saw what he meant. There was a choice. Defy Veovis and lie about what they were doing, or go along with Veovis’s wishes and deny themselves this.

“And what do you want, Aitrus?” she asked quietly, her dark eyes probing his. “What do you
really
want?”

“I want to teach you everything,” he said. “Everything I know.”

IN THE MONTHS THAT FOLLOWED, THE RELATIONSHIP
between Aitrus and Veovis was strained. As if both sensed that all was not well between them, they kept much to themselves. It was a situation that could not last long, however, and a chance remark to Veovis by a young man from the Guild of Maintainers brought things to a head once more.

Aitrus was in his rooms at the Guild Hall, when Veovis burst in upon him unannounced.

“Is it true?” Veovis demanded, leaning across the desk.

Aitrus stared at his old friend in amazement. Veovis’s face was suffused with anger. The muscles stood out at his neck.

“Is
what
true?

“The girl … the outsider … are you teaching her to Write? How could you, Aitrus! After all you promised!”

“I promised nothing. I said only that I would consider your words.”

“That’s pure sophistry, and you know it! You lied to me, Aitrus. You lied and deceived me. And not only me, but D’ni itself!”

“Now come,” Aitrus said, standing.

“You are a traitor, Aitrus! And you can be sure I shall be taking this matter before the Council!”

And with that Veovis turned and stormed from the room. Aitrus stood there a moment, half in shock, staring at the open doorway. Since the Maintainers inspection two weeks back he had feared this moment. Veovis wouldn’t go to the Council, surely? But he knew Veovis. His friend was not one to make idle threats.

ANNA SAT IN THE WINDOW OF HER ROOM, THE
tiny reekoo asleep in her lap as she gazed out over the ancient city and the harbor far below.

They had come that morning—six uniformed guards from the Guild of Maintainers and the great Lord R’hira himself. Kahlis and Aitrus had greeted them at the door, then stood back as Guild Master Sijarun walked through and opened the door to the Book Room, removing both the Book of Ko’ah and the new, uncompleted book that had no name.

The decision of the Council had been unanimous—Kahlis and his son were given no voice in the matter. It had been ruled that there had been a serious breach of protocol. In future, no one who was not of D’ni blood would be allowed to see a Book or visit an Age. It was, Veovis had argued, important that they set a precedent. And so they had.

Anna sighed. It was all her fault. And now Aitrus was in despair. Even now he sat in his study, wrestling with the question of whether to resign his seat on the Council.

She had seen Kahlis’s face, and Tasera’s. To lose a Book, Aitrus had once told her, was a matter of the gravest importance, but to have one taken forcibly, by order of the Council, was far, far worse. And she had brought that upon them. She groaned softly.

There was no way she might make amends. No way, unless …

THE OLD MAN LOOKED ACROSS AT ANNA, STARING
at her through half-lidded eyes, then, pulling his cloak about him, he answered her.

“I do not know,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “I really do not know. Even if we find something …”

“They will listen. They
have
to listen.”

Kedri, Master of the Guild of Legislators, lifted his shoulders in a shrug. Then, with a sad smile, “All right. I shall try my best, young Ah-na. For you, and for my dear friend Aitrus.”

He sat there for a long time after she had gone, staring straight ahead, as if in a trance. It was thus that his assistant, Haran, found him.

“Master? Are you all right?”

Kedri slowly lifted his head, his eyes focusing on the young man. “What? Oh, forgive me, Haran. I was far away. Remembering.”

Haran smiled and bowed his head. “I just came to say that the new intake of cadets is here. A dozen keen young students, fresh from the academy. What shall I do with them?”

Normally, Kedri would have found them some anodyne assignment—an exercise in dust-dry law, overseen by some bored assistant or other—but the arrival of this new intake coincided perfectly with his need.

If he
was
to search back through the records, he would need help—and what better help that a dozen keen young men, anxious to impress him? At the same time, he needed to be discreet. If word of his activities got back to the Council, who knew what fuss might ensue, particularly if young Lord Veovis got wind of it? By assigning these cadets to the Guild Age of Gadar—to search among the legal records stored in the Great Library there—he could split two rocks with a single blow, as the old saying went.

“Take them to the Book Room,” he said. “I’ll address them there. I have a task for them.”

Haran stared back at him a moment, surprised, then, recollecting himself, he bowed low and quickly hurried away.

It was strange that the girl, Ah-na, had come to him this morning, for only the evening before he had dreamt of the time he had spent with the Surveyors thirty years ago. It was then that he had first come to know young Aitrus. Aitrus had been assigned to him—to show him how things worked and answer his every query. They had got on well from the start and had been friends ever since.

As far as Ah-na was concerned, he had met her only once before, when Aitrus brought her to his house, but he had liked her instantly, and saw at once why Aitrus was fascinated by her. She had a sharp intelligence and an inquisitive mind that were the match of any guildsman. It had crossed his mind at once that, had she been D’ni, she would have made young Aitrus the perfect bride.

Even so, it surprised him still that she had come and not Aitrus, for he had half-expected Aitrus to pay him a call.

Kedri sat back, stretching his neck muscles and then turning his head from side to side, trying to relieve the tension he was feeling.

What he had agreed to do would not make him a popular man in certain circles, yet it had been a simple choice: to help his young friend Aitrus or abandon him.

Kedri sighed heavily. The Great Library of Legislation on Gadar contained a mass of information stretching back over six thousand years—the handwritten minutes of countless Council meetings and hearings, of guild committees and tribunals, not to speak of the endless shelves of private communications between Guild Masters. It would be like digging for one specific tiny crystal in the middle of a mountain.

And he had two weeks and a dozen keen young men to do it.

LORD ENEAH SAT AT HIS DESK. AITRUS’S
cloak of office lay folded on the desk before him. It had come that morning, along with that of Aitrus’s father, Kahlis. Eneah had dealt with Kahlis, sending the cloak back to the Grand Master of the Surveyors. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the issue, Kahlis was clearly not to blame. But Aitrus’s conduct was a different matter entirely.

It was fairly simple, really. Either he accepted Aitrus’s resignation now and ended the rumors and speculation, or he left matters to the Guild of Surveyors, who, so he understood, had already instigated investigations into the conduct of their representative.

Whatever happened now, the damage was already done. The vote in Council had betrayed the mood of the guilds. In teaching the outsider D’ni, and in showing her an Age, Aitrus had not merely exceeded his brief, but had shown poor judgment. Some even claimed that he had been bewitched by the young girl and had lost his senses, but Eneah doubted that. Those who said that did not know Aitrus.

Yet Aitrus had been injudicious.