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“Because I was searching for it. Not that spell specifically but anything old that might have survived. I didn’t have high hopes—the place had been burnt by the Romans during their Druid-killing sprees, and what was left was plundered by the Saxons a few centuries later. But no one had thought an old scroll to be of much use, especially one in a language none of them could read, and it somehow survived. Languages have always been a specialty of mine. And I pounced on it.”
“For what?”
“For curiosity partly. For the rest…I was so proud of myself, thought I’d found my life’s work, before I understood how long that life might be. It seemed an utter good—cataloging and preserving the old knowledge at a time in which the whole world seemed to be coming down around our ears. I had no way of knowing that what I recorded might well bring that to pass much more efficiently than the damn Saxons ever could!”
“But what does it do?” I thought I was going to go crazy if he didn’t just tell me.
“The Ephesian Letters is a spell and a counterspell in one, depending on voice, inflection and which way it is read. One way closes a door; the other opens it.”
“What door?”
“The door between worlds. Rosier fears that if the spell is found, someone might reverse it, opening a gateway to rivals his kind have not had to face in—” He had been sorting through the pile of pages at his elbow and had picked one out of the group. It must have been the translation Nick was working on, unless ancient Ephesian priests used lined notebook paper. His breath caught. “What is this?”
I glanced at it. “Nick was translating the counterspell for me, for the geis.”
“This isn’t the counterspell,” Pritkin said, his face draining of color as I watched. I glanced down at the paper, but it didn’t make much sense.
ASKION: Shadowless ones. Where gods once ruled,
KATASKION: Shadowy. Humans now do.
LIX: Earth. Earth is blocked
TETRAX: Time. To Time’s Guardian.
DAMNAMENEUS: Sun overpowered. With this, the sun is overpowered.
AISION: True Voice. And the oracle speaks with a true voice.
Pritkin grabbed me by the arms. “Take us back, quickly!”
“Back where?”
“To the moment Nick got up to leave! I have to catch him!”
“Why, what did he—”
“There’s no time to explain. Just do it!”
I pushed a limp strand of hair out of my eyes and tried to focus. God, I was so tired. “I can’t shift right now. Maybe tomorrow—”
Pritkin swore. “If I don’t find him, there won’t be a tomorrow!” And he was gone. I didn’t even see him leave, just the door slamming shut behind him.
Chapter 26
And then the lights went out. I sat there in the dark and seriously thought about putting my head down and going to sleep. It was nice and quiet down here, and maybe no one would find me until morning.
If there was a morning.
I groaned and got up. As I’d always suspected, being in charge sucked. Especially when no one even realized you were.
I felt around until I was sure I had the entire Codex, rolled it all, including the translation of the spell I didn’t need, into a tube and wrapped a rubber band around it. Then I shoved the whole thing down my bodice. Mircea hadn’t laced it as tightly as Sal, but it still fit snugly, and with the tube down there taking up what little room there was, breathing once more became an issue. But at least no one was budging that thing. Now if I didn’t pass out from lack of air, everything would be fine.
I eased out into the corridor and tried to remember how far it was to the fire stairs. But it’s not the sort of thing you really notice when the lights are on. I’d covered what I thought was about the right distance when someone grabbed me.
I screamed and somebody yelled and then I was slammed up against the wall. It hurt and I was already in a foul mood. I didn’t hold back at all when I kneed whoever-it-was in the groin.
“You’d better hope that doesn’t scar!” Casanova hissed.
