He didn’t like it. She watched the blind fury struggle against his good sense, and finally he slammed the heel of his hand hard into the steel bulkhead beside her and wheeled away to put his back to her. When he finally faced her again, he was more composed. “Jess is in Alexandria? Posing as his brother?”
“Yes,” she said. “I believe so.”
“He’d better have a care when I see him again,” he said. “But that can wait. Why tell me this now?”
“Because the plan that Jess and Dario concocted was for Anit to betray her father and convey us to Spain, where Dario has allies who will help us. But she’s lost her courage, it seems. We’re headed straight for Alexandria. I think you know that if we’re handed over in chains . . .”
He nodded sharply. “If we reach Alexandria, we’re dead,” he finished. “Most of us, in any case. They’ll execute me and Glain out of hand. And you, along with your relatives they already have, to keep your country in line. Dario . . . he might escape. Thomas, they’ll keep. He’s valuable to them.” It was a quick, concise analysis, and deadly accurate. It matched precisely her own.
“We need to take this ship,” Khalila said. “And we need all of us to do it. Including you, Captain.”
“Just the five of us against the entire crew?”
“Four,” she said. “Considering Dario’s condition. We are outnumbered. Yet Anit has left us free, and I find myself wondering why on earth she would do that, knowing how dangerous we can be. I think she can’t disobey her father—no doubt the captain and his men would report her in an instant if she tried—but, at the same time, I think she wouldn’t be disappointed if we are able to force the issue.”
Unlike Wolfe, who would have snarled at her and called her a fool, Santi gave that serious thought. She knew he was doing what she’d already done: analyzing each of the points of vulnerability, and the fortifications and arms that protected them. “Obviously, if we take the bridge, we can steer the ship,” he said. “But we can’t take the bridge.”
“We can take Anit.”
“She’s a child.”
“Old enough to run her father’s operations and command the hundred or so sailors who crew this vessel,” Khalila replied. “Which is, to me, old enough to be taken hostage. I’m not saying we hurt her, but since she conspired in the first place with Jess and Dario, and changed her mind . . .”
“Fine. We take the girl hostage and force the ship to Cadiz. What does that get us, precisely, besides a safe haven? I’m High Garda. I’m telling you that Alexandria has never been taken.”
“In the last thousand years, who’s tried? The last serious threat was the Mongols, and they were defeated by the Ottomans before they ever came close. Tell me, Captain: have the real, physical defenses of the Library ever been tested? Truly tested?”
“There are always four full companies inside the city, with the Elite unit stationed at the Serapeum. That’s not even counting the automata. No one is taking that city without tremendous losses on both sides. Which I would have told you if you had consulted me before embarking on this plan!”
“Morgan’s job is to take care of the automata,” Khalila said. “Why do you think Jess included her? From inside the Iron Tower, she can take down a great many of the defenses the Obscurists have always maintained . . . And you, Captain, you know the other captains. Three out of four commanders around Philadelphia agreed with you. There’s a very real possibility of a High Garda rebellion, isn’t there? If the opportunity for reform seems real?”
“The difference is that those three commanders stood aside for us in the field. They would never do that in what we consider home. They’ll defend it. No matter whether they like me or agree with me, they will fight for the Library.”
“The battle is coming to Alexandria. Whether we do it, or the massed armies of the kingdoms already denying treaties do, or it happens in twenty years when Thomas’s press has eroded the power of the Library beyond repair . . . the Library will fall. We are talking about how to protect what is true and good about it before that happens. If you love the Library as I do, we must gain control of it and begin to make it what it truly should be: not a tyrant kingdom, but a spiritual and intellectual leader. That is its truest purpose.”
She needed him to believe it. Captain Santi was their best hope to achieve military victory in Alexandria; with any luck, it could be done with a minimum loss of life. But to save Alexandria, they first had to take it. She had to make Santi believe it was at least possible, or his heart would break before they ever made landfall. Captain Santi was the strong, quiet center of their group. If he broke now, they would all shatter. This was a thing, she believed, that Jess and Dario did not understand.
But she did. And so it fell to her.
She watched him think through it, step by step. He knew the risks. The points of failure. The slim odds they could ever be successful.
But he also had to know that if they wanted the Great Library of Alexandria to survive and uphold its beautiful ideals . . . then those who truly loved it would have to take these risks.
We are not destroying the Library, she wanted to say to him. We are saving it.
But he would have to reach that conclusion himself. Without Santi, they would not find the strength. Without Jess, no inspiration. Without Thomas, there was no real future. Without Glain, no protection. Without Morgan, no audacity. Without Wolfe, no challenge to do better, be better.
Without Dario, no subtlety.
Without her . . . but she didn’t see her role. It would have been prideful to imagine she could not be spared, but she knew she could not spare even one of these others.
Santi said, “You have the gift, you know.”
“What gift?”
“Silence,” he said. “You let people think. And yet, you also lead from silence. I’ve met a few like you.”
She felt a slight heat in her cheeks and raised her chin against the urge to deny what he’d said. “Were they worthy of your trust?” she asked.
“Oh yes,” Santi told her. “Every one of them.” He sighed. “The path to Alexandria leads through allies, connections, and communications with those I can trust. I make no guarantees that we’ll ever see the city, or survive it if we do. But you’re right. We need to land in Cadiz and build allies.”
“Then we take the ship?”
“We take the ship,” he said. “God help us.” He nodded at the small bunk. “Sit down. It’s too suspicious if we gather in numbers, so I’ll need you to memorize plans, timing, all of it. You’ll set everyone in the right place and time.”