‘Kai.’ Irene took a deep breath before she could snap at him. This was the third time he’d brought it up in the last three days. ‘I appreciate that you didn’t ask for your uncle to send Li Ming to Vale’s world. And I appreciate that Li Ming is only being courteous in offering to provide accommodation for you and your household. But I can’t – not won’t, can’t – move in and live under his protection.’
‘You won’t be under his protection,’ Kai protested. ‘You’d be under mine!’ He seemed to realize that he’d said the wrong thing. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t be protection as such. It’s just that he’d be paying for it. And you’d still be keeping up your duties as Librarian-in-Residence.’
‘No,’ Irene said. She looked out at the endless flows and patterns of colour. It was enough to make anyone feel insignificant. Dragons must be immune, however, which probably said a lot about dragons and their inbuilt feelings of extreme significance. ‘I can’t compromise the Library’s interests by living in accommodation that’s being paid for by a servant of your uncle.’ o;The British Library,’ Irene said firmly. ‘You can land on the roof and I’ll handle any guards while you change back. And then we can use the gate to the Library from there.’
‘That seems reasonable.’ Kai hesitated, the gesture more normal for a human than a dragon. ‘Irene, what happened back there?’
‘I don’t know.’ It was easy to admit ignorance, but more worrisome when it came to speculating about it. ‘If there’s a problem with that world’s access, I wasn’t warned about it. And if it’s a recent problem, then I need to warn other people. Urgently. I haven’t heard of anything like this happening before, and other Librarians could be at risk.’ Her grip tightened. ‘Take us home, Kai. Before the people here invent a rocket ship to come up after us.’
Kai rumbled a laugh, and she could feel the shiver in his body underneath her. Well, I’m glad one of us is enjoying this.
Then he dipped, losing altitude, his body curving through the air but not disturbing her, leaving her as well balanced as though she was sitting on a chair in her own study. The wind was only moderate, ruffling her hair around her face, but they were moving faster now – fast enough that the air was shrieking as they sliced through it.
The air gaped open ahead of them, luminous and shimmering, a rip in reality. The roaring wind sounded like chanting voices, the words indecipherable, but the tone ominous and warning. Irene’s stomach twisted in suppressed panic. She’d always been the one in control of travel between worlds. Of course she trusted Kai, of course she was sure he could handle it if he said so, and of course she wasn’t going to admit to being afraid, but the terror of the unknown was a cold shadow on her heart. Yet curiosity kept her eyes open. This was, after all, something she’d never done before . . .
Kai flew straight ahead, into the rift.
CHAPTER THREE
They plunged into an atmosphere that was as thick and dense as syrup. Irene could still breathe, after the first moment’s panic, but the air flowed around them like water, and tendrils of her hair drifted round her face as though she was submerged. There was no sun, no moon or stars or any obvious source of light, but she could see herself and Kai with a vague dawn-like clarity.
They were gliding through an ocean of air, in a thousand shades of blue and green. There was no obvious end or beginning to it, and no clear solid objects or real things except for the two of them. The only differentiation Irene could see was in the shadings and temperatures of the currents that constantly moved and shifted through the air, like vast streams of smoke or rivers entering the sea. And perhaps Kai could perceive even more than she could.
‘Where are we?’ she asked.
‘Behind,’ Kai said. He didn’t change his steady pace, gliding through the flux of watery air. ‘Outside. Travelling.’
‘Is it that you can’t explain – or shouldn’t explain?’ Irene asked. Either would make sense.
‘More the first than the second.’ He winged a long, casual turn. ‘I’m seeking the river that leads to Vale’s world. I can’t explain it any better than you can explain the Language to someone who doesn’t have the Library brand.’
‘Fair enough.’ She patted his back reassuringly, then hoped that dragons didn’t object to that sort of thing from passengers. ‘You won’t get into any sort of trouble for this from your relatives, will you?’
‘For protecting you? Hardly. They’re still considering how best to reward you for your meritorious actions.’
Kai sounded smug, but Irene didn’t have quite so rosy a view of matters. Yes, she had helped rescue Kai, but tracking his kidnappers had meant leaving her post as Librarian-in-Residence and going AWOL and provoking a large number of Fae. This might have raised her stock with the dragons – or at least with Kai’s family, who were after all kings among the dragons – but it had left her on probation in the Library. She was lucky she hadn’t been exiled. Whether that was fair or unfair was something that wasn’t worth arguing, and would only mark her as a troublemaker if she tried. Irene wasn’t sure that she wanted to raise her stock with the dragons at the Library’s expense. She was a Librarian, sworn to the Library, and that had to come first.
‘That reminds me,’ Kai went on, a little too casually. ‘Have you considered Li Ming’s suggestion?’
‘Kai.’ Irene took a deep breath before she could snap at him. This was the third time he’d brought it up in the last three days. ‘I appreciate that you didn’t ask for your uncle to send Li Ming to Vale’s world. And I appreciate that Li Ming is only being courteous in offering to provide accommodation for you and your household. But I can’t – not won’t, can’t – move in and live under his protection.’
‘You won’t be under his protection,’ Kai protested. ‘You’d be under mine!’ He seemed to realize that he’d said the wrong thing. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t be protection as such. It’s just that he’d be paying for it. And you’d still be keeping up your duties as Librarian-in-Residence.’
‘No,’ Irene said. She looked out at the endless flows and patterns of colour. It was enough to make anyone feel insignificant. Dragons must be immune, however, which probably said a lot about dragons and their inbuilt feelings of extreme significance. ‘I can’t compromise the Library’s interests by living in accommodation that’s being paid for by a servant of your uncle.’ That was the diplomatic way of putting it. The Library was neutral and stayed out of the way of both dragons and Fae, unless their interests came into direct conflict – usually over the ownership of a book, or an immediate life-or-death situation. They certainly weren’t going to formally ally themselves with either side. It would be highly inappropriate for a Librarian to be living as a paid dependant of one of the dragon kings.
Irene’s immediate reaction was a bit more visceral. She didn’t object to Li Ming in person. He was always courteous and diplomatic, and while he was here to watch over Kai, he did so very discreetly and didn’t stop Kai going on jobs like the current one. But Irene was absolutely certain that in the long run Li Ming wanted Kai away from the Library and going back to his previous role as dragon princeling, with Irene either installed as a favoured servant or out of the picture. Which was fair enough. But in the end, it was going to be Kai’s choice.
Kai was silent for ten minutes, probably reviewing his strategy. ‘What if I was paying for it?’ he suggested.
‘With money you got from Li Ming? Sorry, that won’t wash.’
‘You’re treating this as a major issue.’ Kai curved downwards: there was enough gravity to make it perceptible as ‘down’ rather than ‘up’, and Irene was grateful for that, since she was having enough trouble as it was in reconciling her perceptions with reality. ‘I just want to protect you. So does Li Ming. So does my uncle. He views you as a suitable friend for me. Why can’t you understand that?’
‘As your friend, I’m grateful for that.’ It would have been too blatant a kick in the teeth to say I don’t need your protection or Last time I was the one protecting you. Plus there was the fact that Kai was the one who’d just rescued her, less than an hour ago. ‘But as a Librarian, I can’t accept it. Not in that way.’
Kai growled, and Irene felt the vibration underneath her, down the length of his body. ‘You aren’t making this easy!’
‘I’m sure I’m not,’ Irene said. ‘Have you asked Vale about any of this?’