CHAPTER 8

To Tyen’s relief, Professor Kilraker sent for him that evening, after dinner. Tyen was eager to explain his idea, and had hoped he wouldn’t have to wait days, even weeks, to get the chance. His relief evaporated, however, when the servant sent to fetch him led him to the Academy Director’s office.

Sudden anxiety closed Tyen’s throat and he croaked out a thank you as the man held open the door for him. Though the room was large the scrutiny of the five men watching him enter, the warmth from a roaring fire and the smoke from their pipes made it feel close and airless. Kilraker gave him a nod and smile of reassurance as he approached. Another history professor, Cutter, stood beside him, along with Delly and a professor of sorcery, Hapen, who taught final-year students. Those two regarded Tyen with disapproving frowns.

“Tyen Ironsmelter,” Director Ophen boomed from behind his desk. “Come here.” His hand did not stop beckoning until Tyen stood a few inches from the desk’s edge, then it dropped and picked up a small, familiar object. “Is this the book you found in the tomb in Mailand?”

“I believe so.” Tyen reached out to take the book, but the Director lowered it to the desk again, his fingertips resting on the cover.

“Tell us how you came by it.”

“It was in the tomb I found. In the sarcophagus, in the corpse’s hands and wrapped in a covering.”

“The tomb you went to great lengths to ascertain the location of, I hear. Did you go to such effort because you were looking for anything in particular?”

“No. I had no clue that the tomb would be any different from the others. I only wished to save myself some digging.”

The Director smiled. “Applying scholarly thought to make a task more efficient is a commendable approach. When did you discover the book’s magical nature?”

“After I removed the covering. I was surprised to find the pages unmarked, but then words appeared.”

“What did they say?”

“From what I recall … ‘Hello, my name is Vella’.”

“In what language were these words?”

“Leratian.”

One of Ophen’s eyebrows rose and his mouth twisted to one side. “How is that possible, if this book has been entombed for six hundred years? Even if the words were Leratian, they would be an early, almost indecipherable form. Can you read early Leratian?”

“No. But Vella – the book – is able to adopt the language known by the man who holds her.”

The Director frowned. “How does she – it – do that?”

“She links to their mind. That is how she collects information.”

Ophen quickly withdrew his hand from Vella. He stared at her, then looked up at Kilraker.

“You didn’t tell me that.”

“I did not know. I did warn you against—”

“Yes, yes. I haven’t opened it,” the Director said, scowling.

Tyen opened his mouth to tell them that Vella did not need to be opened to read their minds, then thought better of it. They seemed too suspicious of her, and at any rate the damage – if any – was already done. Kilraker, Delly and Ophen had already touched her.

The Director looked up at Tyen. “You have examined it several times since you found it. What did you learn?”

“She is over a thousand years old and from another world. She was created from a person – a woman – and is only conscious when touched by a living human. Her purpose was to collect and spread information. Ask her a question and she will answer it to the best of her knowledge – and she can only tell the truth.”

“Ingenious,” Kilraker breathed, then he turned to look at Tyen with narrowed eyes. “And you didn’t think she was valuable enough to hand over to the Academy?”

Tyen winced. “Not at first.”

“At what point did you realise she was valuable?”

“When I … Though actually…” Tyen sighed. “At the same time that I realised she wasn’t ready for the Academy.”

The Director leaned back and crossed his arms. “What do you mean?”

Tyen met the man’s gaze. “She had been locked away in that tomb for six hundred years, so her store of information was out of date. Some of the ideas she had needed disproving.”

“Such as?”

Taking a deep breath, Tyen forced himself to tell them what they would discover soon anyway. “Such as the belief that creativity generates magic.”

Professor Delly chuckled. “Hard to disprove, when nobody has yet proven where magic comes from.”

Hapen’s expression was serious. “If she – if it contains such superstitions and is so out of date, why would you trust the rest of the information contained within?” he asked.

“I didn’t. Not until I had checked it against other sources,” Tyen explained. “Not all of her knowledge is incorrect. Just as a great deal of our knowledge is built on the wisdom of the past, so is hers. Just as we are constantly reassessing our knowledge, so is she. Like the Academy library, she is only as useful as the information stored inside her, but because she is more portable it is easier to expand that store and … and perhaps educate people beyond the Academy walls.”

“Because sharing our secrets with the rest of the world would be of great benefit to all,” Ophen said, his scowl and tone suggesting otherwise.

“We need only take care that we do not fill it with our secrets,” Kilraker said in a low voice.

This time Tyen did wince. He should tell them that Vella had already read their minds, but still he hesitated. They will find out as soon as anyone reads her. Though if they don’t know she can then perhaps nobody has tried yet. Perhaps they all have secrets they fear will be revealed. Perhaps if I offer to do it for them – yes! That way he could continue to talk to her, and the Academy would have the benefit of using her for her true purpose.

“You don’t have to read her yourself to use her,” he told them. “Roporien used to have someone else do it for him.”

Five heads turned to stare at him and he cursed silently as he realised his mistake.

“Roporien,” Delly gasped, his eyes wide.

“You didn’t say—” Kilraker began.

“Well, who else could have made such a thing,” Hapen said. He gave a low laugh. “Out of a poor, innocent woman, too.”

Director Ophen’s hands were now braced against the desk, as if to push himself as far back in his chair and away from Vella as possible. But his gaze was avid, as if he was both attracted and repelled.

“How do you know that she must tell the truth?” he asked. His gaze lifted to Tyen. “Have you tested her?”

“No. I haven’t had time to think of a method to do so, but so far I have not found an instance where she has lied to me. Even when doing so would have been in her best interests.”

The Director slowly turned his head from side to side in a shudder of denial. “No,” he said. “No, no and no. It is too dangerous. If this got into the hands of the radicals…” He rose, picked Vella up and handed her to Delly. “Lock it away.”

Tyen’s stomach swooped down to his knees. “But she’s only conscious when—”

“But Director—” Kilraker said at the same time.

“No,” Ophen said firmly, fixing first the professor then Tyen with a direct stare. “Nobody is to read it or even touch it without my permission.” Then his attention returned to Kilraker. “Or discuss the uses to which it could be put.”

Delly carefully slipped the book into a pocket. “I will take it to the Librarian.”

The Director nodded and sat down again. “Tell him to come and see me, once it is in the vault.” He looked up at Tyen. “As for you, I am satisfied that your intentions were good, but it is not up to you to judge when an artefact owned by the Academy is ready to be possessed by it. You should have delivered the book to us as soon as you arrived. No, in fact you should have given her to Kilraker as soon as you’d found her.”

Tyen bowed his head. “You are right. I apologise.”

The man exhaled, then waved a hand. “Kilraker can decide the appropriate punishment, since it was he who you should have deferred to. Now, with that sorted out, you may all go.”

All four professors hesitated, as if they were not used to such a dismissal, then stepped away from the table and headed for the door. Tyen forced himself to follow. If Kilraker wasn’t willing to argue with the Director, then Tyen certainly would gain nothing but the man’s ire by lingering.

I didn’t even get close to explaining Gowel’s theory and how we could use Vella to prove it, he thought. Maybe if I come back when he is in a better mood he’ll listen. Especially if I point out a way Vella could be used for the good of the Academy. And if I can get Kilraker to support me …

As if hearing his name in Tyen’s thoughts, the professor turned around and smiled apologetically.

“I’m afraid I will have to make sure you are seen to be appropriately disciplined,” he said.

Tyen nodded. “I know,” he replied. But he doubted anything could be as awful as knowing he might have condemned Vella to oblivion for the rest of her existence.