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‘Now the brother had never troubled to look at the ht he sought aon his skin, and what he read there sent him mad He left the Library then and he colluded with its eneainst his sister, for she had spoken the words that set him on this path A hundred years later, his sister returned to the Library following a quest that she had been set, and she ith child’

‘A hundred years?’ Vale said

‘It can happen,’ Irene said ‘If she’d been in an alternate where there was soh sorcery But the pregnancy would be the problereat trouble, for there could be no birth nor death within the Library Yet she feared to set foot outside it lest her brother should find her So in pain she begged them to cut open her belly and take the child out and they did so, and she was delivered of a child They sewed up her belly with silver thread and hid her a the deepest vaults for fear that her brother should seek her again’

Irene could feel her stomach clench inside her in cold fear, very slowly and deliberately ‘So that’s why he wanted this book,’ she whispered ‘It wasn’t because he could use it to gain power over this world It was because’ She wasn’t sure how to say it Because someone knew this about his secrets? If this was Grio But ti as someone stayed there And Alberich waswell, nobody kne old Alberich was But how old would his sister be? And was she still there?

‘A sister,’ Kai ht ‘And his sister’s child How does it finish?’

‘That is how it finishes’ Bradamant slapped the book shut, hesitated, then slid it back under Irene’s arain ‘There Noe must be out of here at once Mr Vale, I hope we can rely on you’

‘I don’t think it would do any good to make the matter public,’ Vale said wryly ‘I am sure I can find someone to blame for all this – the Iron Brotherhood, perhaps, or Lord Silver He will be most unhappy to find hiht made him sain ether ‘That depends on our superiors’ A nagging honesty pulled at her ‘Butif we get the opportunity, I would like that too But for the moment – ’

‘Quite,’ Bradamant said She walked across to the far door ‘Kai, carry her if she can’t walk’

‘Some brandy would have helped,’ Irene complained as Kai steered her across the slippery floor She hoped that Vale wouldn’t get any stupid ideas about trying to pursue the without being dragged’

‘Allow rowled in her ear ‘After throwingyourself quite this badly hurt, I must insist on it’

Bradauage, and the air shivered The door swung open to shos of shelves beyond

‘They do tell us not to get into arguments that we can’t win,’ Irene whispered She eary now, and her hands were alive with pain