The Thief of Chalices by John French

Author:John French
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-09T13:33:33+00:00

FOUR

‘You had a thief,’ said Cleander.

‘No one steals from our archives,’ snarled Sardus. ‘Not in part, not in whole.’

‘They do, actually,’ said Cleander mildly, ‘but I will admit that very few are successful. Most you catch, and most die, and those that attempt and fail, you send down into the Dead Archives, and most of them die down there of something hideous, and those that live never get to leave.’ He paused and picked at the skin beside a nail on his left hand. ‘I have done my research, you see.’

He looked up at Sardus and Ki, and folded his hands on his lap.

‘Go on,’ said Ki carefully.

‘The thing about thieves is that they rarely steal from just one person. A decade ago, a very subtle, very clever thief stole from me. She stole something very dear to me and the theft cost me more in pride and reputation than it would ever have been worth in coin.’

Sardus broke into a laugh then, the sound hovering between a wheezing rattle and a cough.

‘And where she eluded you, we caught her, is that it?’ he asked.

‘She is here on your world,’ said Cleander, ‘and she is still alive.’

‘How do you know?’ asked Ki.

‘I know,’ said Cleander, his voice soft and dangerous. ‘Time and wealth open all paths and all doors.’

‘So you are here for vengeance on a thief?’ asked Ki, frowning.

‘I am not a man given to forgiveness,’ he said.

‘Neither are we,’ said Ki. ‘But I am not…’

‘I want your prisoner.’

‘If she is here and if she lives,’ said Sardus, ‘then she will be one of the walkers of the Dead Archives. We do not track their kind, and we do not go beyond the doors of those realms.’

‘I do not want you to deliver her to me,’ said Cleander. ‘I simply want to know where she might be – one simple bit of knowledge, remember. The rest is up to me.’

The silence stretched for long seconds. Cleander could hear the buzz and thrum of Josef’s armour.

‘We do not let those who walk the Dead Archives back beyond the doors,’ said Ki, at last.

Cleander looked around at Josef, who gave a nod of acknowledgement and lifted a heavy metal box into the space before the Master Archivists. The lid released and hinged back with a buzz of static. A smell like frost and metal filled the room. The space within glimmered cold blue with the light of the stasis field wrapping the open book within. Faded script marched across foxed pages beside curling illuminations of beasts, angels and fire. Sardus began to tremble.

‘That…’ he began.

‘The Testament of Tertia, follower of Sebastian Thor, compiled in his lifetime on Terra itself.’

Ki looked pale.

‘So,’ said Cleander, ‘can you give me what I want?’

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