Ash and Quill(9)

While contamination may be reversed in early stages, it nevertheless poses a grave threat not only to the Obscurist who carries it but also to all those nearby.

Power holds always the hidden edge of threat.





CHAPTER TWO





In the morning, well before sunrise, Jess woke and started a systematic inventory of the cell, down to the stones, mortar, and bars.

Thomas overflowed his narrow bunk, hands folded on his chest, and his breathing seemed even and calm, but in the dim light seeping through the high window, Jess saw he wasn't asleep. Thomas's blue eyes were open, staring at the ceiling-but not a blank stare. His mind was all too active.

"What are you thinking?" Jess asked quietly as he stood on his bunk and pulled at the iron bars on the cell window. He kept it to a neutral question, because it was likely that the other young man's thoughts were on the past. These cells were cleaner than the Library's, and thus far refreshingly free of torture devices, but the similarities still chilled. He couldn't imagine what being imprisoned dredged up for Thomas, who'd endured months in that hell. 

Thomas let two slow breaths pass in and out before he said, "I imagine they'll try to take Morgan first."

That was far from what he'd been expecting, and Jess swung down to the floor with an almost noiseless hop. "Why do you say that?"

"The Burners may hate the Library, but they're not stupid-at least, not this nest of them. They've resisted for more than a hundred years, and turned the American colonies into boiling pots of trouble on all fronts for the Library. Beck will fully understand the advantages of having a pet Obscurist. She could help them in their terrorist operations, repair their Translation Chamber, create their own Codex . . . They could build their own splinter version of the Great Library here in Philadelphia, but under their own control. They have original books, I imagine. What they need is an Obscurist. The rest of us . . ." Thomas shrugged. "We're only a bonus."

A new voice said, "We must use skills to our advantage." That was Khalila, who perched on the edge of her cot near her cell's door. "Our knowledge is our value. We have to make them see that."

"Did you not hear the part where they're likely to take Morgan by force?"

"Morgan is right here, and quite tired of being talked about as if she's some delicate treasure," Morgan said. "I'm in the least danger of all of you; Thomas just eloquently pointed that out."

"Is nobody asleep?" Jess asked in exasperation.

It drew a dry laugh from Dario's cell, though the Spaniard didn't bother to rise at all. "Have you tried finding a comfortable position on these devil's excuses for beds? Khalila's right. Work with the Burners, or escape. Those are our choices."

"There is no working with them," Scholar Wolfe said. Jess couldn't see him; he was on the other side of the stone wall to Jess's left. "There is appearing to work with them, and that is a means to a greater end than just survival. We need to have a goal of escaping not the cells, not the building, but the city. Even after, we must have a plan for what comes next. Make no move without knowing at least three ahead."

"I have a plan. Build my mechanical printer," Thomas said. "Use it to break the Library's hold on knowledge. That is a good plan."

"That isn't a plan, my poor engineer. That is a goal," Dario said. "A plan is steps we take to achieve the goal. You know, the boring part of being clever."

"I know how to build my part," Thomas replied. "Which is more than I can say of you, Dario."

"Gentlemen, didn't we agree we are family?" Khalila said.

"I argue with my family," Dario said. "But yes, desert flower. I will do better."

"Agreed," Thomas said. "I apologize. I'm sure Dario has some skill I'm not aware of."

Khalila almost laughed. "Then let's proceed. Beck isn't stupid, or overly fanatical, or he wouldn't have survived as their leader this long. So . . ."

"So we offer him something he won't find in the books he confiscated from us," Jess said. "As Thomas said. The press."



      ///
       
         
       
        
Dario made a rude noise. "Stupid idea. Once he has the plans, he has no need of us."

"You forget, he's got no need of us now," Wolfe said. His tone was as heavy and sharp as a guillotine blade. "The only one of us he actually needs is Morgan. The rest of us are-as Thomas so correctly put it-bonuses. He has to want us alive."