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She could s That would be her dress Fabric was so flaasped If only she could break the physical link that held her to the padlock, or the forces powering it, thatherself

Kai closed a hand round her wrist and pulled He didn’t try touching the padlock

The padlock was stuck to her hand She couldn’t even shift the grip that she had on it; her fingers were locked round as left of it in a spasnized this as a chaos-fuelled trap A nor, one not sealed to the Library, would already have been warped to soe of possible Or they would have been accelerated all the way into soht destroyed Though a norered the trap

She felt her grip slipping

For theher, but it couldn’t last The two coth fuse if she couldn’t break the connection somehow

‘Irene!’ Kai yelled in her ear, as if voluet you into the Library? Will that help?’

She jerked her head in a shake ‘No,’ she gasped She couldn’t enter the Library in this state ‘I’m polluted – can’t –’ She tried to think of any teachings covering this, but could only remember it was called the ‘Babelfish Principle’, which was no use And it was hurting, it was hurting

Then a solution came to her But if the Library door wasn’t the trap’s power-source, she was so screwed ‘Break ht,’ Kai said as he pulled the chain taut, trying to wrench out the fli it to the wall by brute force It shifted, but not nearly enough, and he slipped a knife fro to prise open the links One parted with a sudden snap, weakened by the forces flowing to the lock Then the chain whipped free, and he yanked it through what reone, the power circuit broke – and the padlock clicked open to fall fro in deep sobbing gasps, unable to quite look at her hand yet and see what dae had been done

‘Irene?’ Kai said ‘What the hell was that? Are you all right? How did you get it loose?’

She looked up at him Her vision was a little blurry Maybe that hy he aying ‘It was a trap,’ she tried to explain ‘Set to react to the Language and bind to the user, using the Library door as an energy source That hy it stopped functioning when you broke the chain It was very energy-efficient’ There was a buzzing in her ears ‘Kai? Can you hear so? Is it the silverfish?’

‘Irene,’ Kai said He went down on one knee beside her ‘Are you all right?’