"Library," Ty said. It occurred to Kit that Ty never used five words when one would do. He was standing in front of the door to a hexagonal room, the walls beside him hung with paintings of ships. Some were cocked at odd angles as if they were plunging up or down waves.
The library walls were painted dark blue, the only art in the room a marble statue of a man's head and shoulders sitting atop a stone column. There was a massive desk with multiple drawers that turned out to be disappointingly empty. Forays behind the bookshelves and under the rug also turned up nothing but dust balls.
"Maybe we should try another room," Kit said, emerging from under an escritoire with dust in his blond hair.
Ty shook his head, looking frustrated. "There's something in here. I have a feeling."
Kit wasn't sure Sherlock Holmes operated on feelings, but he didn't say anything, just straightened up. As he did, he caught sight of a piece of paper sticking out of the edge of the small writing desk. He pulled at it, and it came away.
It was old paper, worn almost to transparency. Kit blinked. On it was written his name-not his name, but his last name, Herondale, over and over, entwined with another name, so that the two words formed looping patterns.
The other word was Blackthorn.
A deep sense of unease shot through him. He tucked the paper quickly into his jeans pocket just as Ty said, "Move, Kit. I want to get a closer look at that bust."
To Kit, bust only meant one thing, but since the only breasts in the room belonged to Ty's sister, he stepped aside with alacrity. Ty strode over to the small statue on the marble column. He'd pulled his hood down, and his hair stood up around his head, soft as the downy feathers of a black swan.
Ty touched a small placard below the carving. " 'The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for,' " he said.
"Homer," said Livvy. Whatever kind of education the Shadowhunters got, Kit had to admit, it was thorough.
"Apparently," said Ty, pulling a dagger out of his belt. A second later he'd driven the blade into the carved eye socket of the statue. Livvy yelped.
"Ty, what-?"
Her brother yanked the blade back out and repeated the action on the statue's second eye socket. This time something round and glimmering popped out of the hole in the plaster with an audible crack. Ty caught it in his left hand.
He grinned, and the grin changed his face completely. Ty when he was still and expressionless had an intensity that fascinated Kit; when he was smiling, he was extraordinary.
"What did you find?" Livvy darted across the room and they gathered around Tiberius, who was holding out a many-faceted crystal, the size of a child's hand. "And how'd you know it was in there?"
"When you said Homer's name," said Ty, "I recalled that he was blind. He's almost always depicted with his eyes shut or with a cloth blindfold. But this statue had open eyes. I looked a little closer and saw that the bust was marble but the eyes were plaster. After that, it was . . ."
"Elementary?" said Kit.
"You know, Holmes never says, 'Elementary, my dear Watson,' in the books," said Ty.
"I swear I've seen it in the movies," Kit said. "Or maybe on TV."
"Who would ever want movies or TV when there are books?" said Ty with disdain.
"Could someone here pay attention?" Livvy demanded, her ponytail swinging in exasperation. "What is that thing you found, Ty?"
"An aletheia crystal." He held it up so that it caught the glow of his sister's witchlight. "Look."
Kit glanced at the faceted surface of the stone. To his surprise, a face flashed across it, like an image seen in a dream-a woman's face, clouded around with long dark hair.
"Oh!" Livvy clapped her hand over her mouth. "She looks a little like me. But how-?"
"An aletheia crystal is a way of capturing or transporting memories. I think this one is of Annabel," said Ty.
"Aletheia is Greek," Livvy said.
"She was the Greek goddess of truth," said Kit. He shrugged when they stared at him. "Ninth-grade book report."
Ty's mouth crooked at the corner. "Very good, Watson."
"Don't call me Watson," said Kit.
Ty ignored this. "We need to figure out how to access what's trapped in this crystal," he said. "As quickly as possible. It could help Julian and Emma."
"You don't know how to get into it?" Kit asked.
Ty shook his head, clearly disgruntled. "It's not Shadowhunter magic. We don't learn other kinds. It's forbidden."
This struck Kit as a stupid rule. How were you ever supposed to know how your enemies operated if you made it forbidden to learn about them?