good long while.
“And then something changed. A chill crept in. The Bane was no longer just revered, but both revered and feared. Perhaps ordinary Atlanteans weren’t exactly aware of this fear, but they knew they didn’t want to hold their weddings on the grounds of Royalis, even if the venue was magnificent and practically free.
“By the time I was working at the library in Royalis, it had few visitors—sometimes out-of-town tourists still wanted to see the place, but not too many others. When the Bane stayed at Royalis, its administrators strong-armed local schools into sending their pupils for educational visits, and various branches of government would hold award ceremonies and annual dinners at which attendance was compulsory, so that the Bane would still be under the impression that Royalis, the symbol of his generosity to his people, remained a popular and well-loved destination.
“As a result, when Icarus and I used to meet, the garden we most preferred was almost always deserted. No one knew of our association, and while the Bane might think it odd that Icarus named me to Eton, he probably thought it no more odd than any other oracular statement the significance of which had yet to be borne out by time.
“So there I was, once again sitting on our bench in that beautifully kept but lifeless garden, and it came to me out of the blue what the oracle in the prince’s book had meant when she said, And yes, you have seen it before.
“At the time I thought she’d meant the copy of the Crucible in the prince’s room, and I said that of course I’d seen it before—it had been there for years. That was truly spectacularly dense of me. A few months before, the Acting Inquisitor had held up a copy of such a book and asked whether the prince had used it as a portal—I should have realized then that multiple copies of this book existed. But you must understand that the prince had never remotely been my priority—to me he was largely incidental, someone who was involved only because I needed an excuse to be waiting at Eton when the Bane walked in, after the great comet had come and gone.
“On that fateful day, after agents of Atlantis walked out of the prince’s room with the Crucible, it finally dawned on me that the Acting Inquisitor had not been spouting nonsense, that the book truly was a portal. And it was while I sat on the bench in Icarus’s and my favorite garden that I realized where exactly I had seen it, on that very bench, near the beginning of our friendship.
“And then I remembered that Icarus had said he’d borrowed the book from the library and had intended to return it later that afternoon. The present-day me jumped up from the bench and rushed into the library. Because the library is so vast, most patrons made their requests at the help desk. But since I was a former librarian, I knew where the catalogue room was and headed directly there.
“The cataloguing system we had was somewhat old-fashioned, but still enough to let me know that the book had been checked out for the entire academic term by Professor Pelion of the Grand Conservatory of Lucidias. I broke into the professor’s office at the university last night but couldn’t find the book. Tonight I went to his home and, well, found you.”
A kettle sang somewhere in the house. Mrs. Hancock disappeared for a minute, came back with a large tea tray, and poured for everyone.
“Well, we’re here, against all odds—or as preordained,” said Kashkari. “What do you advise, ma’am? What’s the best way to get to the Commander’s Palace?”
“You mean, the least terrible way? I have been thinking about it for years and I’m still not quite sure how.”
Mrs. Hancock handed the first cup of tea to Titus, out of deference to his position. Titus handed the cup to Fairfax, who in turn gave it to her guardian.
“So how did the Bane commute between the uplands and the capital city?” asked Kashkari, bringing the discussion back on topic.
“A griffin-drawn cavalcade.”
“No portals or other translocators?”
“Icarus never found any such thing at the Commander’s Palace—any portal that could be the Bane’s easy transport elsewhere could turn around and become someone else’s easy way into the Commander’s Palace. And the no-vaulting zone around the palace is said to extend a hundred miles in any direction.”
“How is that possible?” Amara exclaimed. “The amount of work