The Masked City (The Invisible Library 2)

‘And did both of them wear gloves?’ Irene asked.

‘Yes,’ Vale said slowly. ‘Both of them did. Though, to be fair, most well-off men and women would wear gloves.’

Irene nodded. That was true. But it still felt significant somehow. ‘Where did they take Kai?’ she asked.

‘That’s the problem, Winters.’ Vale looked annoyed. ‘The woman was escorted to a cab waiting nearby. I have the address to which she directed it, and I intend to investigate. But the man - apparently he left London by some Fae route. And he took Kai with him.’

Irene’s hands clenched in her lap, rumpling the folds of her skirt. ‘You should have said that sooner,’ she said. Her mind ran in circles. How to trace where he had gone? How to follow and rescue him?

Vale sighed. ‘Winters, let us leave the blame for some other occasion. What I need to know now is how fast you can find him and retrieve him. We cannot leave him in their hands for any longer than we must.’

For Vale, this was high emotion, and the urgency in his voice would have indicated standing up and stamping around the room in any other man. Irene had known that Kai considered himself to be Vale’s friend. She hadn’t realized quite as much that Vale considered Kai to be his friend.

Then again, she was the last person to judge people for keeping their feelings under control. ‘We have three main routes of enquiry that I can see,’ she offered, after pausing to think. ‘One is to trace the Guantes within London, here. Even if Lord Guantes has taken Kai elsewhere, we may learn something from the woman. The second route is for me to look for more information within the Library - and, if all else fails, I can approach Kai’s own family.’

‘How?’ Vale asked.

‘I can find out where his uncle, who was his guardian, is based - in the world where Kai was originally recruited - and go and ask for information.’ Irene didn’t like the idea. Nobody liked getting bad news, and she suspected that dragons liked it even less than most. But if anyone could find a lost dragon, then it might be another dragon.

Vale nodded, accepting her words. ‘I take it that your third idea is to ask Silver?’ ‘It’s not an idea I like,’ Irene said ruefully. ‘Unless you can think of some way to apply pressure?’

‘It’s a matter worth considering.’ Vale rose from his chair to stroll restlessly around the room. ‘For him to be so vague in his warnings earlier might indicate that he is already under pressure from some other direction. Another matter worth investigation. But—’

There was a knock at the door. ‘Mr Vale?’ It was the housekeeper’s voice. ‘There’s a letter for you.’

Vale sighed. ‘Probably some futile request for my assistance. Excuse me a moment, please.’

Irene frowned at her hands, considering options while Vale’s steps rattled down the stairs. Being a Librarian didn’t give her any inherent abilities to track people across alternate worlds. She could travel from one world to another by going through the Library itself, but she would need to know where Kai had been taken.

There was an exclamation from downstairs. ‘Winters! Here, now!’ Vale shouted.

Irene caught up her skirts and stampeded down the stairs after him. He was standing in the doorway, an envelope and paper held carefully between his fingers. A sandy-haired messenger boy in a hotel uniform was cringing in front of him, clearly wishing he’d got away faster. ‘This fellow has news.’

‘What news?’ Irene demanded.

‘Tell us where you got this note.’ Vale’s hands were tight with tension, the lines of his knuckles and tendons showing - but he held the paper delicately, his fingertips barely brushing the edge.

The messenger boy wetted his lips nervously. ‘I work at the Savoy, sir. Gentleman guest there wanted it delivered to you.’

Vale nodded. ‘His name and appearance?’

‘He didn’t give his name, sir,’ the boy said. Vale bit back a sigh. ‘He was a gentleman, though. Had a beard.’

Vale sighed. ‘Very well. Here.’ He fished out a half-crown and tossed it to the boy. ‘For your time and effort. You may go.’

‘Should we be letting him walk away?’ Irene queried softly as the boy dashed off.

‘I can find him if I need to,’ Vale said confidently. ‘You saw how that uniform fitted him exactly? It was his own, not some stolen disguise. And the five buttons on his sleeve? He’s one of the senior boys at the Savoy, with a possible promotion to valet in the near future. His gloves were clean this morning, and his shoes were freshly polished. But he wasn’t able to give us any description, besides that the fellow had a beard and acted like a gentleman, which is probably why he’s still at the messenger-boy level. A higher-ranking employee would be expected to notice more than that, even if he didn’t talk about it.’

Irene nodded. ‘What’s in the letter?’ she asked.

Vale held it so that she could see it. ‘Don’t touch it,’ he advised her. ‘I am still examining it.’

It was clearly expensive paper. The slanting italic handwriting was in black ink:

Kai has returned to his own family. Make no attempt to see him again. This is the only warning that will be given.

Vale held it up to the light. ‘No watermark,’ he said. ‘The same paper as the envelope. I need better light to examine these.’ He was already heading up the stairs again to his room.