until he gave the order.
“Very good,” he said firmly. “You have taken a fine ambush position. If I were an intruder I would not have detected your presence.” Silas sheathed his sword and the two wardens bowed again, putting away their daggers.
“Da’ru has sent another girl to aid the search,” he said, pushing Kate toward the two men. “I hear there was a bookseller brought here from the town of Morvane.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Put the girl to work alongside him. I have my own business here. I will not be disturbed.”
The wardens bowed together and one of them took hold of Kate’s arm, making the cut Silas had made there burn and sting. “Come with me,” he said.
Kate looked back at Silas, who was now holding on to the railings, looking out into the darkness like a captain on the deck of a ship. The railings made up part of a long balcony, and the warden took Kate over to a flight of stairs which curved down into an enormous room. She stopped at the very top and looked out at the view Silas had already seen.
The ancient library was not just a room, it was a vast chamber.
The staircase spiraled down to dozens of towering bookcases lined up in long rows beneath an arched red-brick roof, and there she could see people carrying lanterns and candles that created pools of orange light in the dark. Some were balancing on narrow platforms that ran around the uppermost shelves, and others were wheeling themselves on railed ladders that reached taller than a house, pulling handfuls of books out for inspection, leafing through them and forcing them back in again out of place. They were so far along the shelves that it was hard to believe they had only been searching the library for two days. There had to be thousands of old books down there. Wintercraft could be any one of them.
The warden followed Kate down the steps and when she reached the bottom she looked up and saw Silas watching her from the upper balcony. Loose pages littered the floor between the disordered bookshelves, and the warden took her to the row along the easternmost wall, the only place in the chamber that was still relatively neat and tidy.
“You will work here,” he said, pointing along the row. “The others will tell you what to do.”
The warden left her there without a light and Kate could feel the bookcases looming over her like sad sentries witnessing the destruction and disarray. The cavern was so huge that the voices of the other workers did not carry right to the edges, and a strange silence hung around her as she walked down the row, heading toward a candle propped at an angle upon the floor.
“No, no, no. I don’t need help. Go back. I’ll work faster alone.”
A figure was kneeling just outside the glow of candlelight and he struggled to his feet, leaning on a stick for support as Kate drew closer.
“Row sixteen needs another pair of hands. This one’s full of nothing but poetry and fairytales. No point wasting anyone else on it. I’m fine on my own. Go back.” The man gathered up a handful of open books from the floor and quickly pushed them back onto the shelves.
Kate quickened her step. She knew that voice. “Artemis?”
“I’m not moving. I don’t care what they say . . . What? How do you know my name?” Artemis picked up the candle and held it high, squinting to see who had spoken. His cheek was bruised and his right eye was swollen, but it was definitely him. He looked tired and nervous as he stood his ground, waiting for her to come into sight. “Oh!” He lowered his candle the moment he saw her face.
“It’s all right,” she said. “It’s me.”
“Kate? How . . . ? Kate!” Artemis abandoned his stick and limped toward her, reaching out his arms and pulling her into a hug.
“I hoped you would remember the way out . . . but when I saw the fire, I was worried that . . . Kate, I thought you were dead! What are you doing here? Is Edgar with you? Did the wardens get him, too?”
“I think he’s all right. He’s here in Fume, but we got separated.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Artemis, still clutching her tight. “The fire . . . I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t—”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I just wanted to keep you safe.”
“We don’t have much time,” said