‘Worst-case scenario, they’re clearing the museum before coming down on us in force,’ he said. ‘Can you open a door to the Library from here?’
Evariste frowned, looking round at their surroundings with an assessing eye. ‘Probably. There are enough books. You’re saying we should run for it?’
‘No, that’s not it,’ Kai said. ‘We – that is, you – open a door to the Library, take the books through and leave them there, then you come back and close the door. The books are safe, we retrieve them when we have the opportunity, and in the meantime we’ve still got them and they haven’t.’ He could hear running feet and slamming doors as the few remaining people evacuated the archive section. ‘Then we get out of here and contact Irene.’ And Irene can decide how we handle the next step, he thought with relief.
Evariste nodded. He gathered the stack of half a dozen volumes into his arms, staggering slightly from the weight, and kicked the nearest door shut. His forehead drew into lines as he focused. ‘Open to the Library,’ he said, his voice taking on a sharp tone of authority, deep with the harmonics of the Language.
He reached out to open the door, struggling to keep the books balanced. The door opened to reveal a different room beyond, high and arched, shelved and walled in pale wood. Electric candelabra filled the chamber with light. The smell of graciously old books drifted through to mingle with the archive’s odours of dust and chemical preservation.
‘Hold the door open,’ Evariste ordered. He staggered into the Library with the books and across to the nearest table, putting them down with a gasp of relief, then grabbed paper and pen to scribble a quick note.
Kai took hold of the door’s handle and inserted his foot in the gap, just in case. He could feel the wood of the door trembling under his hands, shuddering with the tension of being forced to hold open a gap between worlds. He’d seen Irene keep a door like this open before for a couple of minutes. But Kai wasn’t sure Evariste had the same deep-rooted strength that Irene did. And maybe it would be better if he stayed in the Library . . .
Evariste was an uncertain factor. He was unreliable. If Kai just shut the door and broke the temporary link between this world and the Library, it could take hours for Evariste to find his way back again. It would be easier to handle things without him.
And would you prevent him from trying to save his daughter? a voice as cold and firm as Kai’s own father’s said at the back of his mind. Would you deny him the right to make amends for his mistakes?
Then Evariste came barrelling back through the door, pushed Kai out of the way and slammed it shut. ‘Library designation B-349, French nineteenth-century science fiction,’ he reported. ‘In case you need to tell Irene. Now can we get out of here?’
The fire alarm was still whooping in the background, but Kai spared a moment to look over the other books that Judge Pemberton had included in his bequest. ‘Here,’ he said, selecting a few of them. ‘You carry these. I may need my hands free.’
‘Why the hell are we taking The Dream of the Red Chamber?’ Evariste asked. ‘Light reading, if we get stuck on the subway?’
‘No, in case we get stopped by some of Qing Song’s minions who can’t read Chinese,’ Kai said cheerfully.
‘Oh. Right. Hey, that’s not a bad thought.’ Evariste paused. ‘Though if we’re going to be throwing them away anyhow, why not take The Investiture of the Gods . . .’
‘Because I like The Investiture of the Gods,’ Kai said firmly, ‘and I don’t like The Dream of the Red Chamber.’
‘Typical dragon idealization of heroes and divinities in order to justify divine mandate,’ Evariste muttered under his breath. ‘Let’s try and find a bag on our way out of here, right? Rather than carrying these round like little babies in my arms for the rest of the day.’
‘Right,’ Kai agreed.
The place was already deserted as they made their way out through the blank white twisting corridors, past cupboards groaning with the weight of their contents, and crates as yet unsorted. Kai turned his head from side to side, listening, but the constant shriek of the fire alarm drowned out any lesser sounds. In the distance, with a sense other than hearing, he could feel the slow pulse of the rivers that cut through the city of New York. But they were too far away to be of any use.
He and Evariste passed the desk where the clerk had been sitting – he must have been the one who sounded the alarm – and came to the elevator just as the alarm cut off.
The elevator wasn’t working.
Kai eyed the stairwell next to it. It would make too convenient an ambush.
‘Bloody safety regulations and turning off the elevators during fire alarms,’ Evariste muttered. ‘What do we do if they’re waiting at the top of the stairs?’
Kai considered. ‘There are multiple stairs up to the ground level from the basement, right?’ When Evariste nodded, he went on, ‘So they can’t have people waiting at the top of all of them.’
‘Want to bet?’ Evariste asked sourly.
‘Pull yourself together!’ Kai tried to will backbone into Evariste. ‘We got in here, we secured the target book – we can do this. If we can just get up to the ground floor, we don’t have to worry about the main entrance. There are plenty of windows.’
‘I thought you were supposed to have military training,’ Evariste snapped back. ‘We can’t fight our way upstairs past opponents with guns when we aren’t even armed. It’s just stupid. We’ll get shot! The Language doesn’t stop bullets!’
‘Who told you I’d had military training?’ Kai asked, diverted.
‘Don’t all dragons? Qing Song was all about this battle and that battle—’
‘Hey there,’ a voice called down to them from higher up the stairs.
Kai turned to look, stepping between Evariste and the stairwell. There were two men on a landing, where the stairs bent back on themselves to ascend to the ground floor. Both of them were openly carrying tommy-guns. But the guns weren’t actually pointed at Kai and Evariste – yet. That was something.
‘That’s right,’ the man who’d spoken earlier said. ‘Now put your hands on your heads, boys, and come up the stairs in single file. Don’t give us any trouble, and we won’t give you any.’
‘What about these books?’ Evariste asked, jerking his chin towards the four volumes in his arms.
The first speaker paused, frowning, trying to work out how to handle this breach in what was clearly a Standard Speech to Kidnap Victims.
His fellow sighed. ‘You don’t put your hands on your head. You hang onto your books. Your friend does put his hands on his head. Now can we get the hell on with this before the boss loses his temper?’
Kai raised his hands slowly, turning to Evariste. ‘Are you sure we’re the people these men are looking for?’ he said meaningfully.