There. Now, no matter what happened when they confronted Leo’s father, at least she would be able to find out if Veldana had survived the fire. She did not dare to hope for it, but perhaps she and her mother would soon be returning home together.
Elsa brought the editbook back to her real-world study, where she discovered that dawn had come and gone while she’d been working. She hurried into her bedroom to wash up. There, on the bed, the outfit Porzia had made for her was carefully laid out, and a little handmaid bot stood idle off to one side, waiting to help her change. She still felt resistant about the trousers, as if that one small detail would mean she’d turned her back entirely on the traditions of her people. But she had to admit her current dress was in need of changing—dirty and torn in a few places from her mishap with the chasm—and if recent experience was any indication, dresses weren’t the wisest choice of clothing to begin with.
She quickly wriggled out of the old clothes with the bot’s help and scrubbed her hands and face at the basin. Then it was time for the gray trousers, linen shirt, leather bustier with all its attachments. She was buckling the tall boots when Leo knocked twice and let himself in.
“Elsa, are you ready? We—” Leo’s eyes went wide as he took in her new outfit. “Wow, you look … uh…”
“I’m not trying to look pretty,” Elsa interrupted, feeling acutely self-conscious about the trousers. “I’ve done just about all the running in skirts that one person can stand to do. Porzia’s right—it’s time I dress the part.”
“I was only going to say that you look different. Good different. More like yourself.” His cheeks turned a little bit pink.
Finished with the boots, Elsa scraped her damp palms against her thighs and stood. “You were about to say we need to talk about what we’re going to do. Right? Does that mean you don’t like Porzia’s plan?”
Leo grimaced, as if his next words pained him. “Elsa … what if we just … gave my father what he wanted?”
“We can’t,” Elsa said, looking away. “Jumi created the editbook. It’s a part of my inheritance. This book confers a great and terrible power, and if Garibaldi were to misuse that power, as he almost certainly would, I would be responsible.”
Leo shook his head. “He was a madman long before you came along, Elsa. It isn’t your job to police his actions. You should take your mother and escape his sphere of influence while you still have the chance to.”
She took a deep breath and let it out, wondering how to explain it to him. “I have always despised Earth and its people—mostly for their sense of superiority over Veldanese,” she began. “I resented the idea that because our world is scribed, it isn’t real. So when I came here, nothing mattered to me but Veldana, and I would have happily scorched the Earth in return for Jumi’s freedom and Veldana’s safety. But don’t you see? Protecting Veldana is a duty I claim for myself, not a task I am obliged to, for I did not scribe Veldana and neither did my mother. Protecting your world from the editbook is a responsibility I cannot shirk, because that is Jumi’s creation.”
The conflict cleared from Leo’s expression, and he gazed at her with respect. He nodded once and said, “Of course you’re right.”
“Good,” she said. “Now that that’s settled, let me just grab the book—”
“Elsa, wait,” he said, stepping closer. “There’s … there’s something I have to tell you.”
“Yes?” she breathed. His proximity was distracting. She could see the faint line between his drawn-together brows, and the way a tense muscle pulled at the corner of his mouth.
His lips parted as if to speak, but the words caught in his throat, and instead of saying whatever it was he wanted to say he leaned in and kissed her. Cautiously at first, but when she reached for the back of his neck, his arms snuck around her waist and pulled her in. She closed her eyes and the world faded away to nothing but the heat of their bodies touching, like the void between portals, only warmer, infinitely warmer. And she smiled against his mouth, because it was funny that she’d just finished fastening all those buckles and laces, and now he’d have to unfasten them again.
But Leo pulled away too soon for that, and he stared at her breathlessly. Up close in the light, his eyes had the color and depth of amber. “We have to … There’s no time, but I…” He looked away, raked a hand through his already mussed hair. “I needed you to know.”
His other hand was still on her waist, and the warmth of his touch only worsened the temptation to fall back together like a pair of magnets. Softly, she said, “We need to go. They’ll be waiting on us.”
Elsa pulled away, breaking contact, and busied herself with fetching the editbook from her study. Her hands were still shaking a little from the exhilaration of kissing Leo, and she laughed at herself. Who would have thought, Jumi da Veldana’s daughter quivering like a lovestruck girl? But then, perhaps it was time to acknowledge that her mother might not be the best authority on love.
When they left her rooms to rejoin Porzia and Faraz, Leo hesitated in the hall. “What’s wrong?” she said over her shoulder.
“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Elsa searched his face for clues, but his expression was well schooled. If something was bothering him, he chose to hide it. Reluctantly, she nodded, and carried the editbook downstairs alone.
Porzia and Faraz were waiting in the foyer. Porzia cradled a little glass bottle of ink in her hands, and Faraz was attending to Skandar.
Elsa joined them, the editbook propped against one hip. To Skandar and Faraz, she said, “What are you two doing?”
Skandar raised its tentacles cheerfully in response to her attentions. It was holding five little vials of Faraz’s gooey sleeping potion.
Elsa laughed. “Don’t drop those, or you’ll find yourself without your favorite perch.”
The beast solemnly blinked its one enormous eye at her, as if to assure her of how seriously it took its new responsibilities. Elsa pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh again.
Porzia seemed less amused. “Apparently we’re arming the tentacle monster now,” she said sourly. “Not that it’s going to solve our new problem.”
Elsa knew what she meant. “Getting away when Aris can track our portals wherever we go.”
Leo finally came down the stairs behind her, at which Porzia said, “Nice of you to join us. Now—what are we going to do about Aris?”
Elsa said, “I’ve been thinking about that. Once we have Jumi, we can open a portal to my laboratory”—she took a deep breath, steeling herself for Porzia’s reaction—“and carry the laboratory worldbook through with us.”
“Have you gone insane?” Porzia screeched. “That would sever our connection to Earth! We’d be stranded in your laboratory world with no way back.”
“In theory, the doorbook should still be able to link back to Earth. The core text of the doorbook references Earth specifically, in a manner not unlike that of the editbook.”