“Well, then, he’d have to include me, too,” Brendan said, and pointed at his face. “If your face is on a wanted poster, we’re easily mistaken for each other, and I’d hate to end up on the bad end of a lion with poor eyesight.”
The girl, Neksa, brought a tray with small cups of coffee—three cups, not two. She put one each in front of Jess and Brendan, then put one at an empty spot beside Brendan and sat down. “Oh, don’t bother,” she said when Brendan started to speak. “He already knows I’m not a servant.” She offered her hand across the table to Jess, and he took it. She had a remarkably firm handshake. “Neksa Darzi.” She was wearing a Library bracelet, Jess realized, and it was a silver one—which outranked his by a considerable, easy margin. Not the gold band of a Scholar with a lifetime appointment and all her needs supplied, but a silver contract guaranteeing a comfortable career ahead of her. “I am a Librarian here in the city. This is actually my house; I inherited it from an uncle. I have no real use for it, so I’ve rented it to your brother.”
Jess couldn’t get his bearings for a moment. Brendan, who was a born-in-blood book thief, was snuggling up to . . . a Librarian?
“So you’re his . . . landlady?”
She laughed and took a sip of her coffee as she gave his brother a sidelong look, and there was no mistaking Brendan’s smile or the sudden light in his eyes. “Among other things.”
He wanted to ask if she knew what it was his brother did for a living, but he couldn’t, seeing that silver bracelet on her arm. Either she knew and was playing an extremely dangerous game for which she couldn’t possibly be prepared, or else she didn’t know at all, which . . . was worse. Maybe this really is why he’s stayed so long, Jess thought. Because of her. And that was a tragedy waiting to happen.
“I see,” Jess said, and managed a good impersonation of a smile. “Always happy to meet someone my brother likes so well. Better than he likes me, anyway. He can’t stand being around me for more than a day or two.”
“Damn well true,” Brendan said, and drained his coffee in a gulp. “Neksa, I’m sorry, but private family matters. You understand?”
She finished her coffee, sighed, and rose to put a slender hand on Brendan’s shoulder. He reached up to cover it with his own, and didn’t meet Jess’s stare. “I’ll see you in bed,” she said, and bent to kiss him very lightly and sweetly. “Don’t stay up all night. Jess, you are welcome here anytime, of course.”
“Thank you, Neksa,” he said, and watched as she disappeared through the doorway. Jess stood quietly and moved to the hallway.
Empty. She was gone.
He closed the door with as much care as he could before rounding on his brother to say, “Are you mad? She’s wearing a silver band!”
Brendan grabbed his wrist and twisted it up to put Jess’s copper bracelet at eye level between them. “I don’t think you’ve got much cause to throw stones at me!”
Jess pulled free. It wasn’t hard. “Does she know?”
“About what?” Brendan’s bland denial was maddening. Jess outright glared at him this time, until his brother finally shook his head. “She knows I’m a trader. Nothing more.”
“You understand that this”—Jess gestured at the fine house, at the girl who’d left the room—“this is why our parents keep writing to me! You’re going to drag her down with you. There’s no possibility she comes out of this unhurt, and if you really care about her—”
“Who says I do care about her?”
That stopped Jess cold. He stared at his brother with an unpleasant churn in his stomach. “What in the hell are you doing?”
“My job,” Brendan said. “Unlike you. Father pinned his hopes and a large part of his fortune on you coming here and excelling, and instead you’re just a spear carrier. A nothing, dead in battle a year from now. What use are you to us?”
“What use is she to us?”
“We need someone inside, in a position of real authority and access. It obviously won’t be you. So she’s a present to Father to salve the vast fortune I lost here—a direct way into the highest levels of the Library.”
“You’re not planning to abduct the girl!”
“Of course not!” Brendan seemed to be honestly puzzled why Jess would think of it. “She’s in love with me. Through her I can gain access to information you never could.”
It was a cold plan, and it felt dishonest in ways that had nothing to do with mere theft. His brother had always been a schemer, but Jess didn’t think he’d ever been this bitter cold before. “Brendan,” he said. “Where does Neksa work?”
His brother gave him a slow, cold smile. “She works for the Archivist. Oh, not a trusted adviser, obviously; merely a clerk. But she sees things. Knows things that could be of huge benefit to the Brightwell business.”
“I don’t—” Hard to believe he was saying this. “I don’t think you should do this.”
“Why not?”