The genie swears as he floats back to form a line beside me.
“How settled are they?” Hart asks. “Like they are passing through?”
“They have moved giant beds into the library, and have a revolving line of servants pandering to their every whim. Also, the Key Librarian has vacated his quarters,” Eron replies. “He has moved himself and his family into the Living Library. But he has declared he’s in his element.”
That tracks disturbingly well. Knowledge is the Idol he prays to, and now he’s inside the inner sanctum.
“And the All Knowing agreed?” I ask.
“Reluctantly.”
Which means simmering resentment wrapped in parchment and restraint. He’ll get over it.
Four Idols in the library, but not in my library. That’s something. How long until they sacrifice people to get what they want? They don’t strike me as a patient bunch.
“What are they doing?” Malachi asks.
Eron’s expression shifts, and the water ripples as if he’s checking. “They’re reorganizing.”
A chill creeps across my shoulders. “Reorganizing what?”
“The classification system.”
I don’t see an issue that these idiots are busy trying to fix a system that makes no sense to me. It’s not like they can break it any more.
The genie makes a low sound in the back of his throat. “No,” he murmurs. “I thought we had more time.”
“Yes,” Eron says. “And as I already stated, time is running out.”
“What am I missing?” I wonder.
“They’re consolidating narratives. Streamlining redundancies. Merging archetypes.”
Replacement.Phase two.The words from earlier echo with a ripple of unease in my veins. “They’re rewriting,” I whisper.
“They’re positioning,” Eron corrects. “The rewrite comes after.”
I step closer to the lake. The cool water laps over my feet, and the surface trembles with the proximity as I reach for the part of my soul tethered to my dragon. Time has indeed run out. I need him. Now.
“How is Gwyneth dealing with this?”
“Holding the Hallows together.”
Of course, she is. I break things; she fixes. No, I can’t think like that. I write the stories, and the power to unwrite them is now in my hands. Gwyneth makes sense of the world and records it in a way that others understand.
“She told you to hurry,” he adds. “Not because of chaos.”
Because of siege. Because of strategy. Because if four Idols decide to align?—
“Can they overwrite architects?” The genie whispers the fear just made known in my mind.
Eron goes silent and a frown forms. “I do not know.”
“Let’s not find out,” Nash snaps.
I blink at him. Where did that anger come from? I skim my gaze up and down. He seems on edge, more so than usual. What’s going on in his head?
“You need to rescue your dragon,” Eron says. “You are weaker divided.”
