The Masked City Read Online Free PDF

complexities of working with the Library,’ Kai admitted reluctantly. ‘I believe they think it’s just a job of researching and purchasing books.’
    Irene wanted to swear at the waste of time. They needed to be on their way to see Vale about the woman, or get to the Library to get rid of the Stoker. Having to persuade Kai to confess his family problems was like pulling teeth while standing in front of an oncoming train. Though admittedly with less screaming. ‘When you were recruited for the Library, weren’t you hanging around with criminals and street thugs? Didn’t your uncle know about that?’
    Kai’s back went absolutely rigid and a high flush flared on his cheekbones. ‘Irene, if you were not my superior, you would regret saying that!’
    ‘But you
were
hanging out with criminals and street thugs,’ Irene said, confused, but admiring his precise grammar under stress. That was the sort of thing you had to learn when you were young and impressionable.
    ‘That may be true,’ Kai said grudgingly. ‘But it was without my guardian’s knowledge. He is above such things.’
    Irene rubbed her forehead in exasperation. ‘But you were staying with him …’
    ‘He encouraged me to sample local literature and art,’ Kai said, losing a little of his anger. ‘The fact that I became involved with local criminals was entirely beside the point.’
    Irene mentally raised the draconic capacity for hypocrisy by several thousand points and took a deep breath. ‘We are wandering from the point. Kai, you
will
be attending that family gathering. It would be rude not to, and they might suspect I was teaching you bad manners and relocate you.’ She saw his face twitch. He hadn’t thought of that.
    Kai sighed. ‘You talk like my elder.’
    ‘I probably am,’ Irene said. She’d lived more than twenty-five years outside the Library, in alternate worlds where she aged normally. But at least a dozen more had been spent inside the Library at various intervals, and people didn’t age within its walls. ‘Even if you’re a dragon.’
    ‘But how do you suppose they found me here?’ Kai asked, returning to the point in question like a cat with a favourite toy.
    ‘At a wild guess, my supervisor Coppelia had word passed to your people, so that they wouldn’t worry about you.’ Irene rose to her feet and began looking for her coat. She wasn’t wild about Kai’s family possibly turning up on her doorstep, but she could understand the political necessity of being able to account for where he was. ‘You won’t have any problems getting to your uncle when you visit, will you?’
    Kai twitched a shoulder in a deliberately casual way. ‘Irene, I
am
a dragon. I don’t require the Library to travel between worlds. I can do so quite easily myself.’
    She had to concede him that bit of smugness. It was quite justified. Librarians needed props and protocols; she couldn’t simply stroll from one world to another, as Kai could. ‘Can all dragons do that?’ she asked, trying not to sound jealous.
    ‘All royal ones,’ Kai said. ‘Lesser dragons can make smaller journeys - it doesn’t really translate into physical terms,’ he added hastily, when she raised a hand to ask what he meant by ‘smaller journeys’. ‘Or they can follow in a royal dragon’s wake, if he is leading the way.’
    ‘I see.’ She found her coat and started to button it. ‘Now we should be moving. It’s nearly ten o’clock.’
    ‘Irene …’ Kai hesitated. ‘You don’t want to get rid of me, do you?’
    She simply gaped at him for a second. ‘What?’
    ‘You’re sending me off to my family. You’re treating me like any other apprentice. You don’t seem to care that they might order me to leave. You don’t …’ He looked at her, his face full of yearning and uncertainty. ‘If you want me to go, then I will go, but …’
    It wasn’t some sort of emotional blackmail. It was sincere and it was honest, and it made her heart clench in her