Someone was watching their conversation from a distance. He had arrived outside the library early and waited. When Gene appeared, he joined the line several people behind him. After passing the admission examination, he deliberately went elsewhere, then came to the third-floor public reading room a little later. A citizen who was not a scholar would end up here sooner or later, wherever else he went.
Spotting Gene talking to a librarian, the man entered the law shelves a short distance away. Pretending to choose a book, he watched Gene continuously through the gaps. At that distance, he could not hear the conversation, but he did not mind.
A little later, Gene accepted something from the librarian and left the reading room. The man went to the railing overlooking the first floor. Only after making sure Gene was leaving the library did he turn away. Outside, one of the men who had been sitting in the square before the main entrance since morning stood and began following Gene.
The man who remained in the library went up to the fourth floor. There was a large antiquities room displaying relics excavated in various regions, arranged by period, and smaller rooms displaying objects donated by successive kings and queens. At the entrance to the “Idraphon V Antiquities Room,” he met another man and reported something. The man receiving the report nodded and went inside.
A broad platform stood at the center of the Idraphon V Antiquities Room. It had not originally been intended as a bench, but the object meant to occupy it had been repeatedly delayed. In the meantime, it served admirably to relieve visitors’ tired feet. A few people were scattered along it now. Among them was the person the man had been watching earlier: Rosa.
While the man hid in the shadows, Rosa stared straight ahead without moving. Before her, Idraphon V’s staff lay in a glass case. Its head was gold. The shaft bore an inscription in Ipnish, “the bestower of grace,” and the handle was set with red, blue, yellow, and green jewels representing his four territories.
But Rosa was not looking at any of those things. Her gaze was fixed on the great white feather decorating the staff’s head. It was almost half as long as the staff itself.
No bird in this world was that large. There was not even one in Birkeon’s Natural History. Birkeon, who had lived three hundred years ago, was Delphinad’s greatest naturalist. His Natural History was said to cover every animal and plant on the continent, yet it contained no such bird. Rosa knew that well. As a child, she had read the book so voraciously that she had learned it line by line. And she knew all too well that the enormous feather before her was merely a tail feather.
People passed. They glanced sideways at the relics and walked on, chatting. Their shadows appeared and disappeared across the glass. Someone sat beside her, then stood and left. Rosa remained as motionless as one of the exhibits.
The sun began to sink. Red light entered obliquely through the windows and slid across the glass. Then it fell onto the display stand and lit the ground at Rosa’s feet. When the visitors grew few, Rosa spoke quietly.
“Come out.”
No one answered. Nothing moved.
“Come on. I know you’re here.”
From the curtained corner on the left side of the quiet antiquities room came a cough. Rosa waited without looking over. When silence returned, she spoke again.
“I finally made it here. You don’t know how hard it was, do you? Do you know how often I saw this place in my dreams? Come out. You promised me. Whatever anyone else does, you should keep that promise.”
Her steady voice began to tremble a little toward the end. Another cough sounded, this time from the passageway. Footsteps approached across the marble floor and stopped behind her. Rosa turned.
“Kyprosa Daeior.”
The man spoke her name. He looked about forty and wore a silver pallium of the kind only rich men wore. Rosa stared through him. For nearly a minute she glared fiercely, as though she would kill him with her eyes alone. At first he looked back down at her, but as time passed, he began to look a little disconcerted. Rosa narrowed her eyes.
“Who are you?”
The man laughed, though the corners of his mouth twisted slightly.
“I’m afraid I’m not the person you were begging so earnestly to come out.”
“I know that. Anything to say? No? Then get lost.”
Rosa turned back. The man stepped around to stand before her.
“I do have something to say. At least I know who you are, and I’m concerned about you.”
Rosa raised her head and glared at him again. Her lips trembled.
“I don’t care about my name, even if you’ve chiseled it into stone at the library entrance. I told you plainly to get lost. Don’t test my patience. If you stay, I may decide to make you disappear with my own hands.”
Only then did the man smile naturally.
“Is that a threat? Bold of you. You’re hardly in a position for it. Surely you aren’t relying on the kindness of a young patrol captain you met the day before yesterday? Such fellows are fickle. I wouldn’t take a pretty little sister somewhere crawling with low men like that. Who knows when they’ll reach for her?”
The anger left Rosa’s face, replaced by coldness. This man knew everything she had experienced during the last two days. And he had described Nana precisely. In her anger at being interrupted during something important, Rosa had ignored it earlier, but the fact that he had spoken her real name was no simple matter.
Rosa did not know a single person in Delphinad. Apart from Gene, Tahyang, and the “Brothers of the Hawk,” whom she had met since the day before yesterday, he was none of the people she knew. That left only one other group she had encountered: her enemies. The people who had prevented her from entering the library as soon as she arrived, deceived her with lies, and kidnapped Nana.
“Really? Then it’s all right for that filthy lecher, General Nikephoros or whatever he’s called, to go after my young, pretty sister? Advice should come from someone fit to give it. How dare shameless child-snatchers sneer at me? Perhaps I should grind that brazen face of yours against the stone floor.”
The man was visibly flustered. Apparently, he had not expected a young woman with no particular power or place to turn to lash out so fiercely. Rosa even stood and faced him. She was not short, so their eyes were roughly level.
“You said you had something to say? Good timing. So do I. When that fellow Hoan kidnapped my sister and vanished, I decided to kill the bastard. Where is he? I’m not the sort to suffer at the hands of an empty-headed fool and put up with it. You could not have misjudged me more badly. Answer me. Quickly!”
The man’s expression grew increasingly incredulous. At last, he interrupted her with a laugh.
“Heh. What gives you the confidence to attack like this? Who do you think you’re interrogating? Hoan? How should I know a fellow like that? Such impudent meddling is what brings it on you. That fellow, or what was it? Never mind. You should be worrying about yourself. If you’re caught forging identification papers, you’ll be expelled on the spot. Watching you carry on with nothing but a back-alley patrol captain to trust, I see that family has always been…”
The man abruptly stopped. It seemed he had realized he had said something he should not. Arms folded and head tilted at an insolent angle, Rosa watched him. He composed his expression and tried to speak again, but she went first.
“Why so flustered? I have no interest in who you are. I know almost no one here, so it’s easy to tell people apart. People who aren’t enemies. And enemies.”
The man did not reply. He was occupied with finding a way to recover his words. Rosa sneered.
“Enemies always want something. My purse is empty, so it must be me you aren’t satisfied with. Go on, then. What grudge have you got against the people of Daeior? Not that your kind could have much of a grudge. You’ve never even seen Daeior. Could you hate it as much as I do? Are you jealous because it doesn’t snow in Delphinad? Perhaps I should bury you in three days and four nights’ worth of snow.”
The occasional passerby glanced at them. The man was furious, but in the library he could do no more than argue. If there were even a physical scuffle, both would be barred forever. Presently, he leaned his face toward Rosa and spoke low.
“Very well. Since you know now, I’ll tell you plainly. Kyprosa Daeior. You owe us a debt. The day of repayment is close. Purify yourself and wait. Whatever struggles you make, in the end you will come before us. It will probably be a glorious day.”
Rosa’s eyebrows rose.
“Oh, is that so? Then bathe and cleanse yourselves too, and wait. Lay a hand on my sister one more time, and I’ll give you a truly glorious day, you perverts. Do you even have names? If we meet again and you won’t tell me, I might have to call you sewer rats who stink of the lustful general. Do you like that? No? Then tell me quickly.”
The man took a step back. Anger showed in his eyes, but more and more people were glancing over. Just before turning away, he spoke.
“The king will tear you to pieces, swallow you, and rise. You vermin of the world. Rot and decay. The abyss watches beneath your feet.”
Rosa watched the man retreat. His loud footsteps drowned out a cough from near the place where he had first emerged. Behind the curtain, a shadow flickered, then everything fell quiet again.
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