The Myst Reader

by Rand; Robyn Miller; David Wingrove

  Her luck held. They were still there inside the study. She could hear their voices murmuring behind the door.

  “All right,” a voice, Suahrnir’s, said angrily. “But I do not know why we cannot just kill him and be done with it!”

  Anna stepped back. At any moment the door might open and she would be discovered, yet she stayed there, listening.

  “I’ll go right now,” Veovis said clearly. “Unless you have any further objections?”

  “Not I,” A’Gaeris said. “But hurry back. There’s much to do before the morning.”

  “Do not worry,” Veovis answered sardonically. “I know how best to hook our friend. I shall take no longer than I must.”

  §

  Aitrus sat at his desk in his rooms at the Guild Hall, in despair, his head in his hands. There was no sign of Anna. A search of the upper city had not found her. All inquiries had drawn a blank. And though Master Jadaris had agreed to make a more thorough search, Aitrus knew that they would not find her. Not in D’ni, anyway.

  No, Veovis was somehow behind this. He had to be. And this was his revenge—to take Anna.

  But what had he done with her?

  Aitrus looked up, staring into the air, trying to think.

  If he were Veovis, what would he want? Justice? No. It was far too late for justice. Vengeance? Yes, but not simply vengeance; at least, not the blind, uncaring kind that madmen seek, unless the isolation of the prison rock had sent Veovis mad.

  No. He could not believe that. Veovis was stronger than that.

  Perhaps, but what of A’Gaeris? What was his role in all this? And how had he persuaded Veovis to ally with him against the Guilds?

  Betrayal. That was the seed A’Gaeris had planted in Veovis’s mind. Betrayal. The guilds had betrayed Veovis, as they had once betrayed A’Gaeris. And now the guilds had to be punished.

  Punished…or destroyed?

  Aitrus stood, realizing that there was only one thing to do. They would have to search every inch of D’ni for Linking Books.

  “If we can find out where he is linking back to…”

  Aitrus looked up. Footsteps. There were footsteps farther down the hall.

  He went out into the hallway.

  “Ti’ana?...Ti’ana, is that you?”

  Aitrus had barely gone two or three steps when the door at the far end of the hall swung open. He stopped dead.

  “Veovis?”

  Veovis stood there, smiling, a Linking Book held open in one hand.

  “Yes, Aitrus, dearest friend. I have your wife. If you want her back, you had better follow me. And no tricks, or Ti’ana will die.”

  “No! Wait!”

  Aitrus started toward him, yet even as he did, Veovis brought his other hand across, touching the glowing panel.

  “Veovis!”

  The Book fell to the floor.

  So it was true. His darkest thoughts were thus confirmed. Walking across, he bent down and picked up the Book.

  Help. Common sense told him he ought to get help.

  But what if Veovis meant what he said?

  Then common sense would kill his beloved wife.

  “No choice,” he said, as if to excuse himself. Then, sensing that only ill could come of it, he lay his hand upon the panel and linked.

  §

  Downstairs the door slammed shut. There were footsteps on the stairs. A moment later A’Gaeris appeared at the top of the stairs, looking about him. Seeing the Linking Book he smiled, then he went across and bent, picking it up. For a moment he studied the glowing panel, his smile broadening; pocketing the Book, he turned and went back down the stairs.

  It was time to link back to the island.

  §

  Anna slipped through the open doorway and into the dimly lit chamber. To her right was the study. Through its thin, wooden walls she could hear the low murmur of two voices—those of A’Gaeris and Suahrnir.

  She sighed. It looked as if she was never going to get the chance to search the study.

  Anna turned, looking about her. There was a narrow bed in one corner of the room. Beside it, against the back wall, were a small desk and chair. A worn silk coverlet lay over the bed. On the desk were a number of thin, coverless books, like child’s exercise books. She picked one up and opened it. It was one of A’Gaeris’s pamphlets—one of his endless ranting tirades against the guilds that had won him notoriety, mainly in the lower city.

  Putting the pamphlet aside, Anna quickly examined what else was on the surface. There was a small notebook, locked, she noted, with a tiny silver clasp. A D’ni symbol—a simplification of A’Gaeris’s name—was burned into the leather of the cover. She picked it up and pocketed it. Beneath it, to her surprise, was a tiny picture in a gilded frame. It showed a young woman, barely Anna’s own age by the look of her, her dark hair swept back from a stunningly beautiful face.

  That, too, she pocketed.

  Anna turned, looking about her once more, checking that there was nothing else—no hidden panels and no hatches in the floor. Satisfied, she hurried back across the room again, meaning to make her way back to the tower.

  She had delayed too long. Every moment now increased the chance of her being discovered. Best, then, to cut her losses: to go back to the room at the top of the tower and burn the Linking Books she had.

  It would be a start. Besides, she knew much now about their plans. If she could reach Master Jadaris with that knowledge…

  There was a sudden noise behind her, a buzz of voices from the central room. Veovis had returned. She heard his voice giving hasty orders. Then there was a strange grunt and the thud of a body falling to the floor.

  There were other noises—scraping and scratching noises that she could make no sense of—and then Veovis spoke again, much louder this time.

  “Take him down into the cellar. We’ll put him in the cage. I’ll use him as bait for another, much more tasty fish.”

  There was laughter, unwholesome laughter, and then the sound of a body being dragged across the room.

  So they had taken another guildsman.

  The corridor that led to the cellar was on the other side. For the moment she was in no danger of discovery. But time was running out. It was time to prepare things. Time to bait her own trap.

  §

  Back in the top room of the tower, Anna began to search the shelves. She knew what she wanted: potassium nitrate, sulphur, carbon; some liquid paraffin, a length of wick; a tinderbox.

  The bottles were labeled, each with a handwritten D’ni symbol, but she glanced at these only to confirm what her eyes already told her. She took the tiny bottles down, one after another, setting them side by side on the worktop, then took a mixing dish and a metal spoon from the side.

  There were wicks in a drawer, and a polished silver tinderbox.

  “What else?” she asked, her heart pumping quickly in her chest.

  One bottle, set aside from all the others on the worktop, had no label. She had noticed it earlier. Its contents were clear, with a faint bluish tinge. Now, curious, she picked it up and unstoppered it, sniffing its contents.

  Sputtering, Anna jerked her head back and replaced the stopper, her eyes watering. It was a horrible, noxious mixture; clearly a sleeping draught of some kind. Even a small sniff of it had taken her breath and made her head go woozy.

  Anna shivered, then slipped it into her left-hand pocket, knowing that it might have a use.

  A heavy iron file lay on one of the trays nearby. She took that too, tucking it into her belt. It would be useful to have a weapon of some kind.

  Just in case…

  Anna returned to the desk and picked up one of the jars, unstoppering it; yet even as she did, she heard noises from below—a single cry and a splash.

  Hurrying to the south window, she looked out. Far below, at the end of the great stone buttress, the cage was now occupied. A man was struggling, spluttering in the water momentarily; then he went still, looking about him, as if coming to a sud
den realization of his fate.

  As he turned toward her, Anna caught her breath, horrified.

  It was Aitrus.

  §

  Veovis glanced at A’Gaeris and smiled.

  “Did you hide the Book?”

  A’Gaeris pulled the Linking Book from his pocket. “You mean this?”

  The two men were halfway along the tunnel that led from the cage. They had left Suahrnir on the platform, overlooking the cage. Now it was time to carry out the next part of their scheme.

  “Are you sure she will come?” A’Gaeris asked, his eyes half-hooded.

  “I am certain of it,” Veovis said.

  They walked on. Turning a corner, they came to the narrow steps that led up to the gallery. Here they had to go single file.

  “Can I ask you something?” A’Gaeris said, as he followed Veovis up.

  “Ask,” Veovis said, glancing back over his shoulder as he climbed out through the hatch.

  “Why do you want her? I mean, she will never love you. Not while you keep Aitrus prisoner. And if you kill him…”

  “Vengeance,” Veovis said, as A’Gaeris ducked out under the rim of the hatch and joined him in the strangely lit gallery.

  “Why not simply kill them both?”

  “Because I want them to suffer the way I suffered.” Veovis’s face was hard now, much harder than A’Gaeris had ever seen it. “I dreamed of it, when I was on the Prison Age, night after night. I want them to be tormented the way I was tormented. I want them to feel betrayed the way I felt betrayed.”

  Behind the thick glass of the gallery windows, strange fish swam slowly, menacingly, their pale red eyes unblinking.

  A’Gaeris nodded. “I understand.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes, friend. It was not just my guild membership I lost. I was betrothed. Betrothed to the most beautiful young woman you have ever seen.”

  “Ah…” Veovis had been about to move on, to return straight to the study, but now he changed his mind. “What do you want, A’Gaeris? I mean, what do you really want?”

  A’Gaeris did not hesitate. “To destroy it all. That is my dream.”

  “Then the Guilds…?”

  “Are only the start. I want to destroy D’ni the way D’ni tried to destroy me.” A’Gaeris’s whole frame seemed to shudder with indignation. “There! Does that frighten you, Veovis?”

  Veovis shook his head. “No. I know now how you feel.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. Come…”

  §

  A’Gaeris had thought it was a storage cupboard of some kind, but inside was a long, high-ceilinged room, and lining the walls of that long room were rack after rack of guns and swords. Enough to start a small war.

  Veovis turned, staring at the Philosopher thoughtfully. “You once wrote that it is fortunate that the common people are unarmed, for if they were armed, D’ni would fall overnight. Do you still believe that?”

  A’Gaeris reached out, taking down one of the swords and examining it. He nodded, impressed. “I do,” he said finally, looking to Veovis with a smile.

  “Then will this do?”

  A’Gaeris grinned. “I see I badly misjudged you, Lord Veovis.”

  §

  Anna stood at the door, listening, then opened it and slipped out, into the adjacent room. There were voices coming from just down the corridor. Was there another chamber down there, one she had not noticed?

  It seemed so. Recessed into the wall, partway along, was a door. It was open the slightest crack and she could hear Veovis and A’Gaeris talking within. Realizing that she might have only one chance, she hurried past and on into the gallery. To her surprise the hatch halfway down on her left was wide open. She edged over to it and listened, then peeked her head around. A flight of steps went down.

  She went inside, hastening down the steps, then stopped. Ahead of her, just around a turn, she could hear Suahrnir murmuring something.

  The bottle containing the sleeping draught was still in her pocket, the iron file in her right hand. Taking a cloth handkerchief from her pocket, Anna wrapped it about her mouth, then took the bottle from her pocket.

  With more confidence than she felt, she stepped out around the corner. Suahrnir was sitting on a platform at the end of the tunnel, overlooking the cage. He had his back to her. Calming herself, she walked on, trying not to make any noise.

  She was right beneath Suahrnir when he turned, realizing that she was there. Yet even as he turned, Anna hit him hard over the head with the file. As he collapsed, she pulled the cloth up over her nose and, unstoppering the bottle, poured its contents over his face.

  A cloud of thick, white fumes rose from the platform.

  Anna blinked, her eyes stinging furiously, then, closing them tight, she edged around Suahrnir and climbed up onto the cage, not daring to take a breath.

  The cage swayed from side to side as she moved around the outside of it, as far as she could get from the stinging white cloud. As the cage steadied, she leaned out and raised the silk, taking in a lungful of air.

  “Ti’ana? Is that you?”

  Aitrus was just beneath her, blinking up at her as if only half conscious. Only his head and shoulders were above the surface of the vile, dark green liquid and she could see that there was a large, dark bruise on the side of his forehead. Seeing him thus, Anna winced, her love for him making her forget her own danger. His hands were tightly bound. They had hooked them over the massive padlock to keep him from sinking down into the water. It was cruel, but it had also probably saved his life.

  “It’s all right, my love,” she said gently. “I’ll get you out. But you must be quiet. We must not alert the others.”

  “I was stupid,” he said, his eyes flickering closed, as if he could not keep them open. His voice was faint and fading. “Veovis said he had you prisoner. I should have known. I should have brought help.”

  “No,” Anna said, pained by the way he blamed himself for this. She took the file from her waist and, leaning across, began to try to force the lock. “You did what you thought best.”

  Aitrus coughed. Some of the sleeping gas was now drifting across from the tunnel. Anna could sense its stinging presence in the air. She grimaced then leaned back on the file once more, heaving at it, trying to force the lock, but it would not budge. She needed a longer piece of metal, something with more leverage.

  A sudden gust of wind, coming in off the surface of the sea, swept back the drift of noxious white gas.

  “Aitrus,” she said, reaching through the bars, trying to touch his brow, her fingers brushing air. “Aitrus…I shall not be long, I promise. I’ll come back for you. So hold on.”

  But he could not hear her. His eyes were closed, and whether it was the gas or whether he had slumped back into unconsciousness she could not tell.

  Time. Time was against her now.

  Taking a huge gulp of air, she pulled the cloth down over her mouth again, then turned and, scrambling back around the cage, ducked back inside the tunnel, her eyes tightly shut as she stumbled through the choking whiteness.

  §

  Veovis was sitting at a table at the end of the armory, fitting together an incendiary device. Five completed bombs lay in a row just by his elbow; long red tubes with bulbous silver ends filled with explosive chemicals. Nearby, A’Gaeris was still working his way through the racks, looking for the ideal weapon for himself.

  “We should only use guns when we need to,” Veovis said, looking up at him. “For what we plan, a poisoned dart is best.”

  “And the incendiaries?” A’Gaeris looked down the barrel of a hunting gun at Veovis, then set the gun aside. “I would have thought they would notice one of those going off.”

  Veovis continued to fit the device together. “These are not for use as weapons, my friend, these are to destroy the Linking Books after we have used them.”

  A’Gaeris stared at him. “And the Hidden Linking Books? The ones we already have in place? Did I
take those risks for nothing, Veovis?”

  “No, but it might be difficult to use them, now that the guilds are more vigilant. Besides, we have a whole store of Books we can use. If time were less pressing I would be less profligate, but as things are…”

  A’Gaeris nodded. “You are quite right. And it will, at least, allow us to slip in and slip out at will.” His eyes gleamed. “Think of it, Veovis! They will not know what has hit them!”

  Veovis smiled and nodded, then set the sixth bomb aside, next to the others. “We shall be like shadows,” he said, reaching out to take another of the incomplete incendiaries from the rack by his feet. As he set it down on the desk, he glanced across at A’Gaeris again. “Bring the map from the study. We can discuss things while we work.”

  §

  As A’Gaeris stepped into the room, he saw her. Ti’Ana, Aitrus’s wife. She was at the center of the room, beside the table, hunched forward slightly, her back to him. She was very still, as if concentrating on something: reading, perhaps, or studying something.

  The map of D’ni…

  Smiling, A’Gaeris drew his dagger and tiptoed across until he was no more than a couple of feet from her.

  “Do not move, Ti’ana,” he said, a quiet menace in his voice. “I have a knife and I will not hesitate to use it.”

  She froze, her shoulders tensed.

  “Turn slowly,” he said. “Very slowly. Make no sudden movements.”

  She began to turn, slowly at first, very slowly; then, in a sudden rush her arms came up.

  And something else. Something heavy and black that seemed to expand into his face, screeching as it did, its sharp claws digging in deeply.