Jacob Stone wanted a drink.
He didn't get that feeling often, but if any day required a drink, today did.
First, they'd stolen a pearl from a dragon's lair. Then he - not they, he - had caused enough of a scene in the Lorenzo Museum that they - not just he - were banned from ever returning.
Then, and most disturbing, Cassandra had set up a cascading failure of Europe's power grid that would've killed some three quarters of a million people, if she'd succeeded. That she hadn't succeeded was a happy accident resulting from her mathematical gift, and Jacob's own habit of scanning every scrap of the written word that he saw.
"… Did you say six?"
Cassandra collapsed, and Jacob caught her before she could hit the floor. She had enough headaches thanks to her tumor - she didn't need another one.
"Euler was the off switch, not pi." Flynn sounded both surprised and impressed.
Jacob shrugged one shoulder - all he could manage while he was still holding Cassandra. "She writes a lot in this little notebook. I pay attention."
Then Cassandra was recovering, asking where her clothes were. Jacob had grabbed her dress somewhere along the trail they'd followed to find her, and now offered it to her, only then realizing that Flynn and Eve were both chasing the apple Cassandra had dropped when she passed out, following it across the control room.
"Don't touch it," Jacob started, but they were already reaching for it.
Then Parker appeared - where had she gone? And when? Jacob didn't know - with the chest that had held the apple, and with a move that would have done a lacrosse player proud, caught the apple on the lid of the chest, swinging the chest so the apple fell inside. She snapped the lid shut with a bang that echoed throughout the room.
"You almost broke my fingers!" Flynn exclaimed.
"You almost touched it," Parker countered.
"Instinct," Eve said, but Jacob heard the question in her tone.
"Well." Flynn surveyed the rest of the group. "Cassandra, you okay? Okay enough? All right, then, give me the box, and let's go home."
Flynn held out his hand, but Parker stepped back.
"You tried to touch it," she said.
"I won't touch it," Flynn told her. "Just the box. And just until we get it back to the Annex, where it'll be safe."
"I'll take it," Parker said, her lips set at a determined tilt.
Flynn looked ready to argue some more, so Jacob took a step forward. "Shouldn't we get back to the Annex, make sure Jones hasn't gotten himself fried while we're gone?"
"That would be a serious breach of protocol," Flynn said. "It would take a lot to provoke even Mr. Drake to that level."
"If anyone can provoke a lot, it's Jones," Eve said. "Stone's right. We should get back."
With a last look at the box Parker clutched, Flynn said, "Let's go."
#
"I'm new to this world of magic," Eliot said into the silence that followed the appearance of the ostrich feather over his head. "But I'm not new to people. I've seen the best of them and the worst of them. Hell," he added with rueful honesty, "I've been the worst of them. And that's why the Library is a good thing. It can balance the best and the worst of us."
"You speak idealistically," Drake said.
"Yeah, I do," Eliot admitted easily. "Thing is, it's the ideals we choose that make us who we are. We don't always live up to them, but trying to - that's a good thing, and that makes us better people."
"How does that support retaining the Library and Librarians?" Lady Sylalandra asked.
So that's where the conspiracy came from, Eliot thought. The speakers were too calculated - too angry in Drake's case, too curious in Sylalandra's - to be genuine.
He'd have to thank Sophie for her instruction in grifting. After he dealt with this.
"It doesn't," Eliot said and bit back a grin at the shocked expression on the Arbiter's face. "If you don't believe the same way, nothing will support retaining the Library. But if you believe that having neutral ground, a place to meet to resolve your differences, is a good thing, then I submit the Library already serves that purpose."
"But it hasn't." The objection came from Dabra, and this one sounded genuine. Plus, Eliot knew Dabra to be an opportunist. If Dabra saw some chance at gain, he'd take it. "The Lady Benwick reminded us that the Librarian hasn't been dealing with those differences."
"How many of you have brought issues before the Librarian?" Eliot asked. He didn't know the answer, but he was betting that - yes, he was right. No one spoke.
"Uh-huh. So you're blaming the Librarian for - what? Not knowing that you have a problem because you didn't tell him? Seems to me the failure's with you, not them."
Eliot let the point sink in, then turned to the Arbiter. "Let the record show that Benwick stands with the Library and the Librarians."
Without waiting for a reply, Eliot gave Lamia a look that had her swallowing nervously and moving to join him as he turned for the exit.
Good. They needed to talk. Preferably before Jake got back from wherever he was and all hell broke loose.
#
It wasn't just Mr. Drake that had come for a visit.
When he stepped through the back door into the Annex, Jacob heard several voices raised in what could be called enthusiastic discussion - the kind that often preceded a bar fight.
"Oh, no," Flynn said. "No no no no no no."
Then he was gone, almost as quickly as Parker could disappear, and after a questioning glance at Eve, whose puzzled frown showed she had no more idea what that meant than he did, Jacob started after Flynn.
Flynn had stopped in the entry to the main room and was staring at the gathering when Jacob caught up to him. Then Jacob, too, stared.
Besides Mr. Drake, ten others - men and women of different races, including one woman with … pointed ears? - had joined them and were now bickering among themselves.
Flynn, apparently, had picked out the topic, and stepped forward.
"Ladies, gentlemen, others - we need to put all this foolishness behind us before things get out of hand," Flynn said. "Unrestrained magic can be dangerous. I mean, all it really takes is one lunatic, one Pol Pot, one Nero, even one usually nice guy having a really bad day who has access to that kind of power to make it all go away. And it can all go away, unless and this is really the takeaway here we have a Library. And that is why we need a Librarian, right? To protect us. To protect us all."
Jacob had always liked Flynn - the senior Librarian was a likeable kind of guy, even when he was driving everyone around him batshit crazy thanks to his kangaroo-like leaps of logic - but it was in that moment that Jacob learned to respect him.
"Librarians aren't perfect," Flynn continued. "None of us are. But somebody needs to hold the line. Somebody needs to keep it on an even keel. And that being said, Mr. Arbiter, I believe we have a motion on the floor."
Jones cleared his throat. "All in favor of replacing the Library or whatever?"
The silence was welcome.
"All opposed?" Jones asked.
A chorus of "Nay!" echoed through the Annex.
"Sounds pretty unanimous to me," Jones said.
"No! We don't agree." Mr. Drake rose to his feet, anger limning his features. "Our business is not done. You have not returned the stolen pearl of the Fei Lung. You have not fulfilled your duties as arbiter. And for that, the Fei Lung will wreak horrible vengeance. They will -"
"But we have the pearl," Jacob said. He turned to Parker, who stepped forward and opened the chest that she still carried.
"What I want to know," Jones broke in, "is why you're still here. Shouldn't you have bolted the minute this turned up, mate? You see, ladies, gents, the minute I heard the story of the stolen pearl, my very good thief brain began thinking, who had access? Who do the Eastern dragons trust? Any idea who that could be, Mr. Drake?"
Jacob knew he wasn't the only one staring at Drake, but Drake didn't say anything in answer to Jones' question. Instead, he simply bowed, not quite briefly enough to be an insult, and turned to stalk away.
Jones turned back to face the others. "And that, my dear friends, is how you arbit." Then he frowned. "Arbit? Arbitrize."
Jacob could've told him the proper verb was arbitrate, but Jones had taken this job on himself, so he could figure it out for himself.
Apparently, Jones gave up after that one, half-hearted try. "Right! Conclave over! Everybody out!"
Within minutes, the Annex was empty except for the Librarians and Parker.
Jenkins took a step toward Parker. "If you'll give me that, Miss, I'll see it's secured."
Parker hesitated, and Jacob was surprised when she looked to him for confirmation.
"Jenkins knows what to do with it," Jacob told her.
Parker looked at Jenkins. "Don't touch it."
"I assure you, I won't."
Parker hesitated a moment longer, then surrendered the chest. Jenkins took it with a slight bow, and disappeared into the depths of the Annex.
"Thanks for your help," Jacob told her.
"It was fun, stealing from a dragon," Parker said. "I'm going to do it again."
"Again?" Jacob figured his expression, like his question, echoed the others'.
"See if I can get in and out without waking them up."
Flynn cleared his throat. "You realize that dragons don't take kindly to people stealing from them."
"Oh, it's okay," Parker said with a smile. "The one we talked to said so, as long as I put everything back."
"You'll put everything back?" Ezekiel said, disbelief evident in his tone.
"Uh-huh. Just stealing's boring."
"Boring?" Where Ezekiel had been stunned before, now he looked ready to explode. Jacob bit back a grin, saw that Eve, too, was struggling to contain a grin. Cassandra stared wide-eyed between the two thieves, and Flynn looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.
"Stealing with a purpose is much more interesting," Parker said casually.
"Spoken like someone who's never really stolen anything worth stealing," Ezekiel said.
Jacob couldn't resist. "You mean besides the Apple of Discord, otherwise known as the Pearl of Zhou?"
"Yeah, but you were with her," Ezekiel countered. "Not that you're a lot of help, but you're some."
"That one," Parker stabbed a finger at Flynn, and Jacob double-checked to be sure she wasn't holding a dart from the trap room, "almost got me killed. Some help."
"So what's the most valuable thing you ever stole, without help?"
"Ezekiel," Cassandra began, but Parker was already answering.
"Does it count if I put it back? Because I put the Hope Diamond back."
"No, it doesn't count if you put it back," Ezekiel almost shouted.
"Oh." Parker thought for a moment. "The Lion of Gilgamesh. Or maybe the Gem of Gibraltar."
Ezekiel had no immediate response other than to stare at Parker in almost open-mouthed shock, and Parker looked at Jacob, a question in her eyes. He nodded, once, and that seemed to be all she needed, because she gave him a quick smile and a nod in return. He'd call if they needed her skills again, but given Ezekiel, they both knew that wasn't likely.
Parker turned toward the Annex's main entrance, but before she could take more than a step, Ezekiel called after her.
"What's your name?"
"Parker," she called over her shoulder.
Ezekiel could only stare after her until they heard the main door closing. Then he turned his stare on Jacob.
"You - you have Parker on speed dial?"
Jacob just grinned. That wasn't exactly the case, but if it helped take Ezekiel's ego down a peg, he'd let the other man think so. It made the successful completion of a mission all the more satisfying.
Jacob turned to head back into the stacks. He'd left several books on classical architecture opened when he and the others had been summoned to deal with the dragons, and he was eager to get back to them. An article was taking shape in his mind, but he needed a little more research before he was ready to write.
"One last thing, mate."
Ezekiel's voice made Jacob pause, but not turn.
"Why didn't you tell us you have a twin brother?"