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Irene sat down next to him and patted his hand. Her chains clanked unmusically. Both their sets of shackles were overwritten with complicated runes and embossed with gold and lead. No doubt they’d completely annul the magic of this world. But they couldn’t bind the Language. ‘Kai, I intend for us to be well out of here by the time anyone comes to investigate.’
‘You’re in a damned good mood,’ Kai muttered.
‘And you’re in an unusually bad one.’
‘Given the last half-hour, I have reason.’ Even though their bodies weren’t touching, she could feel the tension in him like a vibrating wire. ‘How am I supposed to keep you safe when you keep on—’
‘No,’ Irene said, cutting in. ‘This is not the time.’ She was distracted. An idea was bubbling through her mind, trying to take shape and concrete form. In comparison, Kai’s little fit of temper was unimportant. ‘I’m trying to work something out.’
‘It never is the time,’ Kai muttered. Then, curious, he asked, ‘What?’
‘Let me ask you some questions.’ It would clarify her own thinking, and there were a few points she wanted to be certain about. ‘This is a high-order world, so the power of chaos is hindered. Alberich in particular couldn’t use much of his strength here, since he’s made himself a creature of chaos.’
Kai nodded. ‘That’s correct. I think he must have been shielded by his stolen skin. When the Empress and her servants attacked him, it shredded away and he had to escape into the void.’
‘Were they the ones that closed the hole into chaos, then?’
‘No, that was the world’s natural stability. Humans couldn’t affect something like that.’ The thought seemed to cheer him for some reason. ‘What they did was basically to keep him in the void with their spells, until it closed. It wasn’t very efficient, of course, but they threw enough raw power at him to hold him back, and the hole closed on its own. Though they probably don’t realize that.’
Irene nodded. ‘So, since Alberich was severely weakened by being in this world, we can assume that if he had had a less dangerous method of achieving his goals, he would have taken it.’
Kai frowned, then relaxed. ‘Ah, you mean that he can’t have any allies among the dragons! Yes, that’s a relief.’
‘Not exactly,’ Irene said. ‘Or at least, that’s not the point I’m making here.’
‘Then what is your point?’ The candle cast huge shadows on the wall as he leaned forward.
‘Alberich told me he traced us here because of the disturbances we caused. The mess at the sleigh-port, the storm you raised. He was waiting in the Great Hall and watching for us to show up.’ Irene saw Kai frowning in thought, and decided to jump straight to the conclusion. ‘If he had known which book we were after, then he’d have gone straight there and laid a trap for us. He wouldn’t have needed to chase us down.’ ‘That’s logical,’ Kai agreed. ‘So?’
‘So he didn’t know which book we’re after.’ Irene held up a finger. ‘But he did know which world I was coming to. He even quoted the Library designation, he was so busy trying to impress me.’
Kai shrugged. ‘So he knew some things, but not others. That in itself isn’t—’ He broke off, making the connection. ‘Wait. Someone from the Library would have had access to the records to report our destination and would have known the book you’d been assigned to collect.’
Irene nodded. ‘Which suggests that whoever passed Alberich the information wasn’t a Librarian. But he discovered the world’s designation from someone.’
‘The werewolves who stole your folder?’ Kai suggested. ‘If they saw your mission papers?’
‘Possible, but unlikely. The documents in the folder were in the Language, remember. Anyone who read them would have read them in their native tongue. If one of them passed on the information, why just the world’s designation? Why not the name of the book as well, and the place where it was located?’
‘I’ll allow that. But that means—’
‘Yes,’ Irene interrupted. ‘Exactly! The only people who’d know the world’s designation, but not the book, are the ones who saw the outside of the folder, but not the inside. Which means the people who were waiting in Vale’s rooms when I arrived.’ As she said it, the theory became near-certainty. However, her pleasure at the logical construction drained away as she accepted the conclusion. ‘Which means one of them is working for Alberich.’
‘Not Li Ming,’ Kai said at once.
‘Hopefully not.’ Irene didn’t necessarily share Kai’s faith in the other dragon, but she’d really prefer it if Alberich didn’t have dragon allies as well as Fae ones. ‘And surely not Vale, either.’
‘Of course not,’ Kai said. ‘And there’s no reason for it to be Singh. Which leaves Zayanna.’ Obviously, his tone added.
Irene nodded reluctantly. ‘I didn’t want . . .’ she started, then fell silent, trying to think what she had wanted. There had never been a reason to trust Zayanna.
‘She’s Fae,’ Kai said dismissively. ‘It’s all a game to them. Probably her patron did throw her out, like she said, and Alberich offered her a better deal.’
‘If her patron did throw her out, it was because she helped rescue you,’ Irene said quietly.
‘For her own reasons.’ Kai jingled his chains. ‘And speaking of rescues, how about our own?’
Irene pulled herself together. ‘Yes. We need to get out of here, and get back to Vale’s world. If Zayanna’s been communicating with Alberich, then she can tell us how to find him.’ And then they could work out what to do next.
