‘Because normally that effect lasts for longer.’
‘I assumed it was just bad luck.’
‘No. I think it was the high-order nature of this world. It was harder to get it to work, too.’
‘Oh.’ Kai frowned. ‘Normally I’d have loved to take you to a high-order world, but this might make things inconvenient. I never expected to be actually stealing a book with you on one of them. And why did those guards come in just then? They seemed very prepared for action. I thought that sort of thing only happened on high-chaos worlds.’
‘Life has a tendency to be awkward,’ Irene said with deep bitterness. ‘All right. Let’s try and find the exit before they come back.’
Some very cautious exploration brought them to the more public areas of the building, and they were able to slip into the general comings and goings without attracting attention. Most of the visitors seemed to be students or scholars, and very few of them looked well off. Battered overcoats and an air of genteel poverty were the norm.
The guard at the door demanded to see Irene’s pass, but was willing to take a gold coin and her apology for having ‘forgotten’ it instead. Probably there would be trouble, once he and the guards who’d been chasing her compared notes, but Irene planned to be well out of the city by that time.
She and Kai found a cafe several streets away, collecting newspapers as they went, and settled down in a corner with a pot of tea and a plate of fried cakes stuffed with plum jam. For half an hour or so they were silent, except for occasional requests to pass a newspaper. Irene took the Polish papers, as she had at least a basic grasp of the language, while Kai read the international ones, since his Polish was non-existent.
Finally Irene put down the last paper and signalled for a new pot of tea. ‘This is going to be inconvenient,’ she said. ‘I don’t like trying to steal books in the middle of secessions and revolutions.’
‘Maybe not as inconvenient as it might have been.’ Kai tapped the French newspaper Le Monde. ‘According to this one, the troubles are in the outlying countries, not Russia itself. Once we’re in St Petersburg we’ll be safe.’ He thought about that. ‘Well, safer than we are here, at least.’
‘Maybe, maybe not.’ Irene stacked the papers thoughtfully. ‘They’re using terms like “terrorism” and “foreign agents” and “fifth column”. I’ve found that when that starts happening, homeland citizens get suspicious of any oddly-behaving foreigners. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.’ ‘Do you think it’ll have made the security around the Hermitage any heavier?’ Kai asked. ‘Given how out of date the rest of our information is . . .’
‘No way of knowing, unfortunately. That’s the problem with not having a Librarian-in-Residence.’ She remembered his earlier comment. ‘By the way, what did you mean when you said there were dragons here?’
‘Not here in Poland,’ Kai said, a little too quickly.
‘No, in this world,’ Irene said.
‘I can tell they’re in this world. I don’t know where, without trying to find them. I’m just not sure that trying to find them would be a good idea.’
‘Why not?’ Irene asked, genuinely surprised. She’d thought Kai would be only too pleased to spend time with other dragons.
‘Well. You know.’ It was never a good sign when Kai went monosyllabic. He fiddled with the cakes. ‘Questions.’
‘Kai, we’ve talked about keeping dangerous secrets before,’ Irene said patiently. To be more precise, she’d talked and he’d listened. ‘Is this something I should know about?’
‘I’m worried about my father.’ Kai’s voice was quiet and uncertain. ‘I’ve already caused him inconvenience by being kidnapped and needing rescue. I don’t want him to be embarrassed by any further shameful behaviour on my part. What I do in private is one thing, but . . . Well, I know you understand what court intrigues can be like, Irene. Nobody’s going to actually challenge my father, but there are other things they can do.’
‘Delayed taxes and tributes?’ Irene guessed. ‘Orders getting accidentally lost en route? Polite semi-public insubordination? Negotiating with other monarchs?’ She’d learned earlier that there were four dragon kings, and Kai’s father was one of them. However, Kai himself was one son among many, by far the youngest and lowest down the scale of inheritance. ‘Long-term consequences on the grounds that misconduct in the son can imply weakness in the father?’
‘You do understand,’ Kai said with relief. ‘My uncle’s loyal to him, of course, and Li Ming’s loyal to my uncle, so it doesn’t matter if they know about my affiliation with the Library. But I don’t know which other dragons are actually here. It might even be representatives from one of the queens’ courts. I don’t want to be accused of intruding on someone else’s territory.’
Irene knew she should be getting on with the job, but Kai so rarely discussed dragon politics that she couldn’t resist the urge to ask a few more questions. ‘Are the queens enemies of the kings?’
‘Oh no,’ Kai said, sounding a little shocked that he might have given that impression. ‘But they’re established in the more secure worlds, the ones that you call high-order. The kings go there to visit them on state occasions, or for mating contracts.’
‘Were you brought up in your mother’s court, or your father’s?’ Irene asked.
‘My father’s. Male children are given to the father, and female ones to the mother. At least, with royal matings. Dragons of lower rank may have different arrangements.’ He caught the look in her eye. ‘Oh, you shouldn’t think that I grew up without any female dragons around. My royal father has many female courtiers and servants, and female lords under his command. It’s just that the royal households themselves are of the same gender.’
‘Why?’
Kai shrugged. ‘That’s how it is.’
Irene would have liked more detail, but the current urgent situation was more important. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘To get back to matters at hand, are any dragons who are here likely to interfere with us stealing a book?’
‘Not interfere as such,’ Kai said carefully. ‘But they would certainly be curious.’
‘In that case, we’ll be discreet and hope they don’t notice.’ She saw the relief in his eyes. ‘Next step: we need to get to St Petersburg, possibly with a stop to obtain clothing first.’