“Then what is the purpose of the Library?” Vale asked.
“To save books,” Irene said firmly. The words were so automatic that she didn’t even need to think about them. She’d spent all her life with the idea. But the words had never sounded hollow to her before. She made herself focus on the familiar justification. “To save created works. In time, if their original alternate loses them, we can give them back copies, so that they aren’t lost. And in the meantime, the Library exists and endures.”
“So why did Alberich leave?” Vale asked.
Irene swallowed. She hadn’t expected him to get to that point quite that fast. The little that she knew about Alberich was bad enough that she had been happy to write him off as a myth. She didn’t really want to think of him as a real person with potentially terrifying motivations. Then she blinked. “Wait. How did you know that?”
Vale waved a hand dismissively. “Simple enough. The fellow is clearly a deserter from your own organization. Given what I know about it from you, his possible motives are either personal advantage, or he has overarching principles that conflict with your own stated mission—which is to save books and not interfere in the workings of other worlds. But if it were a question of personal advantage, why bother to hunt down and assassinate other Librarians? If he wanted more fame or adventure, presumably other Librarians wouldn’t get in his way, as long as he didn’t obstruct your searches for specific books. And what specific book would be that important to him, if he were pursuing personal gain? So perhaps he has a larger plan, one that requires your non-interference. This would require him to be motivated by personal power or have some goal which he believes is more important than your Library’s search for books. Your own response confirms this—why else would Library agents feel such a sense of dread towards a mere rogue agent?”
Irene reminded herself bitterly not to underestimate Vale again. She also ignored Kai, who was twiddling his fingers in his lap with an air of smug unconcern. Fine. I suppose I should be glad his mood’s improving. “Alberich left the Library a while ago,” she said reluctantly. “I lack the clearance for full information on why.” Or any information beyond the bare minimum.
“So—this Alberich is a continual threat. Has he crossed your path before?”
Irene shook her head. “No. Thank heavens. I had heard about him, of course; everyone hears about him—”
“Even I’d heard about him,” Kai put in, not very helpfully.
“Kai is my junior,” Irene said before Vale could ask for clarification of that statement. “And I know that the idea of an evil rogue Librarian must sound like some kind of rumour. The sort of rumour which gets passed down through the years to frighten the novices. But there were stories about things happening to people one actually knew.”
“Things?” Vale asked.
“People dying,” Irene said bluntly. “With pieces of them being sent back.”
Kai started. “Was that why Dominic—,” he began, then stopped a fraction too late.
“I don’t know,” Irene said. She turned to Vale again. “What Kai is trying to say is that the Librarian who was supposed to be stationed locally, in this alternate world, has apparently been killed and mutilated. We found out just before I triggered the trap I mentioned—a trap set using chaos forces. These—forces—are something that Alberich uses.” She couldn’t keep the distaste out of her voice.
Vale nodded. “So chaos . . . Is that what we would term ‘magic’?”
Irene tried to think how to explain it. She’d been planning to side-step this part as much as possible, given Vale’s apparent dislike of magic. “Not exactly. According to our cosmological model”—there, that was tactful and avoided saying, This is how things really work—“there are lawful and chaotic forces active in all worlds. Sometimes they take on a physical form, appearing as entities—or personifications of law or disorder if you like. The lawful forces support reason and natural laws. The chaotic forces support impossibility and things that are blatantly irrational or disorderly. For example, dragons are lawful forces and the Fae support chaos. Fact versus fiction, if you like.”
Vale stiffened like a hound catching the scent. “So Lord Silver is a supporter of chaos itself?”
Irene nodded. “This alternate is strongly affected by chaos. Silver is certainly at least one of the lesser Fae, who are usually confined inside a single alternate. I don’t know if he is one of the greater ones, but I sincerely hope not. Such creatures even have the power to move between worlds. But they have nothing to do with the Library.” She wanted to make this extremely clear. “We do not associate with them.”
“Except when obtaining party invitations,” Vale said drily.
“I want that book,” Irene said flatly. “So does he, it seems. And so does Alberich. I need to know who has it. If Silver or Alberich already had it, they wouldn’t be looking for it. Once I have it, Mr. Strongrock and I will be out of this alternate and won’t need to bother you again.”
Vale nodded. “Very well.” Again there was the feeling of a confrontation being postponed until he had sufficient ammunition. Perhaps he wanted to bring her to justice as well. Or perhaps he simply wanted to visit the Library. “So, tell me,” he went on, “when was the Librarian stationed here murdered, where, and how?”
Irene glanced at Kai. “Well, it must have been somewhere between yesterday afternoon and this morning, because we first met him yesterday afternoon when we came through from the Library proper. The entrance is in the British Library,” she added, a little reluctantly.
“Really,” Vale said thoughtfully.
“And when we came back this morning to speak with him . . .” Irene
