to reach for Fairfax and alert her to the floating fortress when she said, “Shhh.”
Kashkari immediately closed the door. Titus listened, his head bent. A bed creaked somewhere in the apartment. Footsteps, then the sound of a commode being used. More shuffling steps, and a body of seemingly considerable weight fell into a mattress, making the bed groan just a little.
Titus exhaled.
“Here, look at this,” Aramia whispered, even though they had a sound circle in place.
She had turned a coat hanging on the back of the door inside out. On the lining was sewn a label that said, If found, please return to Professor Pelias Pelion, 25 Halcyons Boulevard, University District, Lucidias.
“I think I can guess what happened,” continued Aramia. “The book was in the grand library. But even books in a grand library can be loaned out, especially to those with academic credentials. Professor Pelion borrowed the Crucible, and that’s why we are in his home.”
This was a problem. In the library they could expect to wait undisturbed until morning before venturing out, to avoid running afoul of the curfew. But in a private home, with a restless sleeper . . .
“What about the option Miss Tiberius mentioned?” said Haywood. “That of bribing a night worker?”
Kashkari frowned. “Where do we find a night worker?”
“Shouldn’t there be one in such a building?” asked Haywood. “If only to make sure no one slips out during the curfew hours?”
“I can go down and have a look,” said Kashkari.
Fairfax held up her hand. Titus heard it too: someone had bumped into something, and that sound came from the opposite end of the apartment from the professor’s bedroom.
It was easy enough for a careful mage to stop a door or a floor from creaking, but an accidental collision still made sounds.
Was it the professor’s adolescent child sneaking back home after a wild night out? Or perhaps even his servant? Or was that too benign a direction of thought? Had the Bane somehow already discovered the exact place to capture those who had come for his downfall?
They took up positions on either side of the door. Outside the wind howled. The professor coughed in his bedroom, an explosive noise in the quiet of the night.
The door opened, slowly, soundlessly. A short, squat, masked figure tiptoed inside, closed the door—and crumpled sideways.
Kashkari sprang forward, caught the intruder, and laid the mage on the rug before the professor’s desk. Titus sneaked a look into the corridor to make sure no one else was coming.
Then he closed the door again and nodded at Kashkari, who peeled back the mask from the intruder’s face.
He, Kashkari, and Fairfax sucked in a collective breath.
Mrs. Hancock.
CHAPTER 17
KASHKARI HAD USED A FAIRLY mild stunning spell. It was not long before they brought Mrs. Hancock around.
Fear flooded her eyes as she found herself surrounded, but she relaxed somewhat once she recognized the faces closest to her. “You are already here,” she whispered.
“Sorry for striking you unconscious,” said Kashkari, the volume of his voice just as low.
The professor, on his bed, coughed again.
“Go back into the book,” said Mrs. Hancock. “Let me take you to my place. We’ll be safer there.”
Titus hesitated. If Mrs. Hancock was now acting on Atlantis’s behalf, then they were doomed. But then he recalled that Mrs. Hancock was bound by a blood oath not to harm either him or Fairfax. “All right, but let me close the book and reopen it, so that it will be safer inside.”
He had come out of the Crucible with a brooch he had picked up from the top of Helgira’s ivory-inlaid chest. When the Crucible was used as a portal and something was brought out, then the book did not “close,” and one could quickly return.
But the inside of the Crucible became increasingly dangerous if it was left “open” for too long. “I’ll come with you,” said Fairfax.
They returned to the Crucible with wands drawn. No shower of swords and maces rained down upon them, but strange creatures were emerging from the woods west of the meadow, skulking toward Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
At the sight of a band of ogres, Titus quickly dropped the brooch to the ground and said, holding on to Fairfax’s hand, “And they lived happily ever after.”
Three minutes later, the entire company that had come to Atlantis was once again on the meadow, which looked peaceful enough for the moment.
“What could possibly draw so many characters from so many tales this way?” asked Fairfax.