The Myst Reader (89 page)

Veovis was just beyond the door. She had heard him stop and sniff the air.

“Strange,” she heard him say. “Very strange.”

She closed her eyes. At any moment he would pull back the door and see her there. And then …

His footsteps went on. She heard the door to the corridor creak open, then close behind him, his footsteps receding.

Anna took a long breath, then pushed the door ajar. The outer room was empty now, filled with the strange mauve light from the sky. She was about to step outside again when she glimpsed, just to her right, two shelves, cut deep into the wall. She had not noticed them before, but now she stepped across, amazed by what was on them.

Books! Linking Books! Dozens of them! She took one down and examined it. D’ni! This linked to D’ni! Quickly she examined another. That, too, appeared to link to D’ni. One after another she flicked through them.

All of them on the top shelf—every last one—seemed to link back to D’ni; each at a separate location: in a specific room in a Guild Hall, or in the cellar of a house; in storerooms and servants’ quarters; and one, audaciously, direct into the great Council chamber of the Guild House.

So
this
was how they did it! Veovis was behind the spate of incidents these past few weeks.

Veovis, yes … and A’Gaeris.

The Books on the bottom shelf were blanks, waiting to be used. She counted them. There were forty-eight.

Anna stared at them, perplexed. How had they managed to get hold of so many blank Books? Had Suahrnir provided them? And what of Suahrnir? He had disappeared five years ago, presumed dead, but was he here, too?

When she had linked through she had not been quite sure what she meant to do. To take a peek and then get back? But now that she had seen the Books …

I have to stop this
, she thought.
Fifteen dead. That’s what the guard said. And more will die, for certain, unless I act. Unless I stop this now.

But how?

Anna stared at the Books, then nodded to herself, a plan beginning to form in her head.

VEOVIS STOOD AT THE END OF THE STONE
jetty, his left hand resting lightly on the plinth as he looked out over the glutinously bright green sea toward a nearby rock that jutted, purest white like an enameled tooth, from its surface. A circular platform rested on that rock, as if fused onto its jagged crown, its gray-blue surface level with where Veovis stood.

Veovis glanced at the timer on his wrist, then slowly turned the dial beneath his fingers, clockwise, then counterclockwise, then clockwise again. He waited a moment, listening as the massive cogs fell into place beneath his feet, then pressed down on the dial.

Slowly a metal walkway slid from the stone beneath his feet, bridging the narrow channel, linking the jetty to the platform. There was a resounding
chunk!
as it locked in place.

Veovis waited, tense now, resisting the temptation to glance at his timer again. Then, shimmering into view, a figure formed in the air above the platform. It was A’Gaeris.

The Philosopher blinked and glanced up at the sky, as if disoriented, then looked across at Veovis and grinned, holding up the Linking Book that both Anna and Veovis had used; that, until five minutes ago, had rested in the study back in the boarded-up house in D’ni.

The two men met in the middle of the walkway, clasping each other about the shoulders like the dearest of friends, while behind them a third figure shimmered into being on the platform.

It was Suahrnir.

HIGH ABOVE THEM, FROM WHERE SHE STOOD
at the north window of the tower, Anna looked on, watching the three men greet each other then turn and walk back along the jetty, Veovis and A’Gaeris side by side, Suahrnir following a pace or two behind.

She had been thinking all along of the Linking Book back on D’ni—asking herself why they should leave the back door to this Age open like that. But now she understood. A’Gaeris had come along behind Veovis and gathered up the Book, then used a second Linking Book, hidden elsewhere, no doubt, to link back to the rock.

The walkway had been retracted. If anyone now tried to link through to this Age they would be trapped on the rock, unable to get across to the island.

She stepped back, away from the window, then turned, looking about her. The big circular room seemed to be used as a laboratory of some kind. Three long wooden benches were formed into an H at the center, their surfaces scattered with gleaming brass equipment. Broad shelves on the long, curving walls contained endless glass bottles and stoppered jars of chemicals and powders, and, on a separate set of shelves, Books.
Guild
Books, she realized, stolen from the libraries of D’ni.

Anna walked across, picking things up and examining them. Coming to the window on the south side of the room, she looked out. The sea went flat to the horizon, its dark green shading into black, so that at the point where the sea met the pale mauve sky there seemed to be a gap in reality.

Just below the tower, the land dipped steeply away to meet the sea, but in one place it had been built up slightly so that a buttress of dark, polished rock thrust out into the sea. A kind of tunnel extended a little way from the end of that buttress, at the end of which was a cage; a big, man-sized cage, partly submerged.

Looking at it, Anna frowned.

She turned, looking back across the room. There was only one doorway into the room, only one stairway down. The strong wooden door had a single bolt, high up, which could be drawn from inside.

“Perfect,” she said quietly, smiling to herself. “Absolutely perfect.”

BACK INSIDE THE STUDY, VEOVIS SHUT THE
door, then walked across. A’Gaeris and Suahrnir were already deep in conversation, pointing to locations on the map and debating which to strike at next.

Veovis stared at them a moment, then walked around past them and picked up one of the two bags he had brought with him from D’ni.

“Here,” he said, handing it to A’Gaeris, “I brought you a few things back this time.”

A’Gaeris looked inside the bag, then laughed. Taking out the cloak, he held it up. It was a guild cloak, edged in the dark red of the Guild of Writers.

“To think I once valued this above all else!”

A’Gaeris shook his head, making a noise of disgust, then threw the cloak about his shoulders casually, preening himself in a mocking fashion and looking to Veovis as he did.

“So how
are
things in D’ni?”

Veovis smiled. “You were right, Philosopher. The destruction of the Ink-Works has unnerved them. Before now they were able to keep things close. Now all of D’ni knows there is a problem.”

“That may be so,” Suahrnir said, “but there is another problem: They now know that you are no longer on the Prison Age.”

Veovis turned to him. “They
know
?”

Suahrnir nodded. “I overheard two guards talking. It seems Master Jadaris himself took an expedition in to check that you were still there. Finding you gone, they will know that someone had to have sprung you.” He turned to A’Gaeris and grinned. “And they will not have far to look, will they?”

A’Gaeris turned back to Veovis, concerned. “Then we must escalate our campaign. Until now we have had the advantage of surprise, but they will be vigilant from here on. We must identify our prime targets and hit them.”

“Lord R’hira,” Suahrnir suggested.

“Naturally,” Veovis agreed. “But not first. First we deal with my meddlesome friend.”

“Your friend?” A’Gaeris looked puzzled.

“My ex-friend, then. Guild Master Aitrus.”

“Aitrus?” Suahrnir frowned. “But surely we can deal with him later?”

“No,” A’Gaeris said. “What Veovis suggests makes sense. Cut off the head and the body cannot fight on. And who are the men whom we might call the ‘head’ of D’ni? Why, the Emergency Council, of course! Aitrus, Jadaris, Yf’Jerrej, R’hira. These are the four who are really running things right now, and so they must be our primary targets. Thus far we have unnerved the guilds. Now we must destabilize them.”

“I agree,” Veovis said. “But you will leave Aitrus to me.”

A’Gaeris smiled. “If you want him, he is yours, my friend. But make no mistakes. And show no pity. Remember that he showed you none.”

Veovis nodded. “I will not forget that easily. But come, let us formulate our plans.”

ANNA TIPTOED PARTWAY ALONG THE CORRIDOR
, then stopped. She could hear the faint murmur of their voices through the door. There was brief laughter, and then the talk went on.

Good. While they were occupied, she would move the Linking Books.

Returning to the room, she gathered up all she could carry at one go, then hurried up the tower steps. Three trips saw all of the Books removed to the big room at the top of the tower. Satisfied, Anna cleared the surface of one of the benches, then began to pile the Books up in a heap, leaving only one aside.

That done, Anna picked up the Book she had set aside and returned to the door.

The easiest and quickest way was to burn the Books—to set fire to them, then link straight back to D’ni—but the easiest was not always the best. If she was to be sure of damaging their plans, she would need to make certain that there were no more Linking Books elsewhere on the island.

Anna listened a moment, then, satisfied that there was no one on the stairs, slipped out and hurried down. She had been depending on surprise so far, but she would need luck now, too, if she was to succeed.

Her luck held. They were still there inside the study. She could hear their voices murmuring behind the door.

“All right,” a voice, Suahrnir’s, said angrily. “But I do not know why we cannot just kill him and be done with it!”

Anna stepped back. At any moment the door might open and she would be discovered, yet she stayed there, listening.

“I’ll go right now,” Veovis said clearly. “Unless you have any further objections?”

“Not I,” A’Gaeris said. “But hurry back. There’s much to do before the morning.”

“Do not worry,” Veovis answered sardonically. “I know how best to hook our friend. I shall take no longer than I must.”