“If anyone’s pilfered any books—” Mercy began. It looked as though the façade would be reparable, but only just. She turned to Mareritt. “When I saw you lying in the sleigh, you know what? You looked a lot like my mother Greya.”
“Did I, dear? How odd.”
“I spoke to a man named Aelrich Salt some days ago. He knew my mum. And he told me a couple of rather strange family stories about our ancestors.”
“Did he, dear? How interesting. Now, I’d like my book back.” She raised a hand and beckoned. A small leather bound volume flew out through the gap in the Library wall, its pages flapping like wings. It soared down to Mareritt’s waiting hand.
“Oh!” the heads said, in unison. “Now we can find out what happens at the end!”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Mercy told them. The geas pinged apart in her head.
Mareritt snapped the whip. “Someone’s calling me. I’m sure I’ll see you again, dear.”
The sleigh spiralled up into the growing morning light.
“What happens to the Court, now?” Shadow said.
“I don’t know. Hopefully it will be too preoccupied with setting its own house to rights to worry about the rest of the city. Although I might have to say the same for the Library. What will you do now, Shadow?” Mercy bent to pick up a stray page, caught by a breeze.
“I ought to find Mariam, and—” Shadow broke off.
“Shadow?”
The sun was coming up, but the sky above the square was darkening. Something was coming over the rooftops: part behemoth, part dreadnought, part airship. Its metal sides were pitted as though it had been scored with meteor strikes and one of the great flanking vanes had been broken and hung loose, strapped to the side of the vessel by what looked like grappling hooks. It hissed through the air, heading east-west across the Quarter, and even a passing golem raised its round head and stared incuriously upwards.
The
Barquess
had come back.
The End . . . for Now
About the Author
Liz Williams is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in Glastonbury, England, where she is co-director of a witchcraft supply business. She is currently published by Bantam Spectra (US) and Tor Macmillan (UK), also Night Shade Press and appears regularly in
Realms of Fantasy,
Asimov’s,
and other magazines. She is the secretary of the Milford SF Writers’ Workshop, and also teaches creative writing and the history of Science Fiction.