‘This records all transit to and from that world,’ Melusine explained. She didn’t command Irene to stand back or look away, to Irene’s relief. ‘If a Librarian has been visiting the place, then it’ll show on the records here.’
Irene watched as Melusine flipped through the thin pages. The entries were somewhat like a passport stamp, showing the name of the Librarian involved and the internal Library date when they used the Traverse. It was fascinating to have this highlight on Library history. While Irene had a reasonable grasp of the history of a number of alternate worlds – all right, a vague grasp – she knew very little about the Library itself. It had always been there, and presumably it always would, and nobody had more than speculation about how or why it was first created. And junior Librarians were not encouraged to ask questions.
Alberich might have known more, but Alberich was dead.
Probably. Hopefully.
‘Here.’ Melusine ran her finger down the list of names. ‘Evariste. Now that is interesting.’ But her tone suggested she’d just discovered a nest of bookworms in a favourite novel.
‘He entered that world a month ago,’ Irene noted. The previous entry caught her eye and she frowned. ‘But . . .’
‘Yes, precisely,’ Melusine said. ‘Evariste entered that world from the Library a month ago. That was two days after he entered the Library from that world, going in the reverse direction. But there’s nothing in the record here about how he got into that world in the first place.’
‘Which means that he reached that world through either Fae or dragon transport,’ Irene said slowly, thinking it through. ‘So Jin Zhi might have told the truth and he was working for Qing Song. If so, Qing Song could have brought him to that world, but then Evariste would have needed to enter the Library through that world’s Traverse – in order to work out what the world’s designation was. Then he could research the book, before going back there—’
‘Yes, quite so,’ Melusine agreed, cutting off Irene’s increasingly long string of speculation. She passed the book to Irene. ‘Put that back on the shelf. I’m about to look up Evariste’s record, and this time you don’t get to lean over my shoulder.’
Irene re-shelved the book, feeling a frisson of excitement. She shouldn’t feel pleased at the growing mass of evidence – quite the opposite – but at the same time there was a certain satisfaction that she hadn’t been wasting her efforts.
Melusine grunted softly to herself. ‘Oh, did he now . . . All right, Irene, we have some more information. Evariste is on compassionate leave. The Librarian who recruited him died last month due to a heart attack, and Evariste was allowed some time off to sort out the man’s affairs and so on. No record on where he was going to spend his leave, though one would assume it would be his recruiter’s assigned world, G-14. No reason to assume anything odd there.’
Something about the time factor was nagging at Irene. ‘Who was his recruiter?’
‘Julian. Librarian-in-Residence to G-14.’
And now the nagging was turning into a full-blown alarm bell. ‘Not the Julian who,’ Irene pulled out her notes and checked them, ‘made a comment in the Library Encyclopaedia about the Winter Forest family of dragons, Qing Song’s family – saying that they were reliable and consistent and open to negotiation?’
Melusine tapped some more keys and then stopped. ‘The very same,’ she said softly. ‘The very, very same. And now we have Minister Zhao assassinated, the Queen of the Southern Lands scrambling to fill her position, and the Fae testing their boundaries. And the Library may be about to be dragged into the middle of the whole conflict zone. While Julian’s protégé has wandered off-course, and is possibly playing very dangerous games with one of the Winter Forest’s most aggressive scions.’
‘I thought you’d said you didn’t know anything about him,’ Irene commented.
‘Barely anything,’ Melusine said, brushing it off. ‘Your Kai already told you he was dangerous. I’m telling you that both Qing Song and Jin Zhi are dangerous. No dragon is safe. And Evariste doesn’t even have your experience with dragons. He’s an extremely good researcher, but he hasn’t your level of exposure to practical field operations.’ She turned the computer screen so that Irene could see it. The dark-skinned young man in the photo had perhaps been photographed at a graduation, given the gown and hood he was wearing over a neat suit and tie. He had an air of dazzled disbelief and triumph, and was smiling at the camera. ‘He was due to be seconded to other Librarians for the next few years, for seasoning. I can easily believe that he’s out of his depth.’
The theoretical mouse that Irene had smelled earlier had become a full-blown rat. No, make that a plague rat. ‘What do we do?’
‘You brought this one to my attention, which means that you’re first in line to sort it out.’ Melusine swivelled round smoothly, and again Irene had the sense she was being inspected and assessed. ‘You’re ideally qualified for the job. You’re used to operating without backup or support, and you have a reputation as a rogue agent. If things go badly wrong, we may need to claim that you were acting on your own, and cut you off.’
‘Forgive me if I’m not exactly jumping at this chance,’ Irene said, with a growing feeling of dismay. ‘Phrases like we may need to cut you off sound rather final. I’d like some support. I’d like some backup. I’d like some guidance.’
‘That’s part of the problem,’ Melusine said. ‘We have no idea what the situation is. As you suggested, it might even be a complicated lure meant to trap us into doing something that can be used against us later. I’m not trying to flatter you, but you are good at assessing a situation and deciding on the most appropriate course of action. It’s possible – but highly unlikely – that this situation has an innocent explanation. We won’t know until we’ve spoken to Evariste. But we need an agent on the scene who can determine whether or not we’re compromised, and take action if we are. And with things being as possibly catastrophic as they are, it also needs to be an agent whom we can claim acted on their own initiative and cut loose. If necessary.’
Irene swallowed. ‘This is not reassuring.’
‘The door’s behind you,’ Melusine said with a shrug. ‘If you aren’t prepared to take this risk, this mission, then I can’t force you. I will just have to give the job to someone else. Probably someone not as well qualified. Without your background knowledge. And with several hours’ delay while I find them and brief them. It’s entirely up to you.’
Irene stared at her in combined admiration and disgust. ‘Have I told you that I hate emotional blackmail?’
‘I’ll add it to your record.’