Osidian brought him other reels. More campaigns. They studied the dates. The days they spoke of were more than a thousand years dead.
'So much carnage,' Carnelian said at last. The beads were becoming shapeless, their voices muffled.
'Even barbarians cannot be brought under a yoke by persuasion,' said Osidian. 'Anciently, they were proud. We broke their will with terror. Once, through fear of the Twin Gods, all the world paid us tribute.'
'Of children?' Carnelian asked, bringing his knees up to his chest, hugging them, seeing Ebeny.
'Not just children, all the fruits of the Three Lands.'
'Is this necessary?'
'If beasts are allowed to come into a garden will they not trample it?'
Carnelian forced himself to consider this.
'Do you wish to read more?'
'No. My fingers can no longer hear the beads.'
'Perhaps it is best. My blood afflicts me.'
'It burns?' asked Carnelian.
'In my bones.'
Carnelian worried that he had never felt it. 'Rewind the cord.'
Carnelian slipped his feet down to the treadle. There was a rattle and a quivering in the chair and then silence. He waited. He could hear nothing. His eyes were making shapes in the dark.
'Come, I will take you back to the door.'
The voice speaking suddenly beside Carnelian made him start. He grew angry. 'How do you see in the dark?'
'See?'
'You find your way-'
The darkness chuckled. There was a fumbling. Sudden light daggered Carnelian's eyes and made him wince. 'You could have warned me.'
'Sssh!'
Carnelian saw Osidian's eyes were the purest jade.
Take off your shoes, he signed.
What? Carnelian chopped back.
'If my Lord pleases, his shoes…'
Grumbling, Carnelian stooped and took them off.
Osidian urged him off the chair. The light receded as he walked away, backwards, still hooking his finger at Carnelian to follow.
Carnelian did so, grinding his teeth, wanting to hit him.
And?
Carnelian opened his hands, not understanding.
Your feet. Do you feel nothing under your feet?
Carnelian became aware the floor was textured. He looked down, crouched. Bring the light closer, he signed. As the floor brightened, he saw it was carved. He touched the embossed surfaces. Osidian's white hand strayed across some patterns.
'All of these are paths,' he whispered. 'You follow them with your feet. North Door, South Door.' He stroked one pattern after another. 'East Door, West.' Still crouching, he rocked himself a little way off and pointed down. Carnelian followed his finger, touched the eye carved into the floor.
The path to the moon-eyed door.'
'Exactly.' Osidian stood up. 'Will my Lord care to try for himself, this seeing in the dark?'
Carnelian straightened, smiling even as the light went out. He found the eye with his toe. He took a step and after sliding his foot around a bit found another eye. He took another step.
'Like stepping stones,' he muttered, finding the measure of the stride that took him smoothly from one eye to the next.
He followed the path, at first certain that he was about to walk into a bench or a wall. After a while he grew more confident and soon was moving comfortably through the darkness.
He seemed to have been walking for ever when suddenly he stepped forward and there was no eye under his foot. He stopped and Osidian walked into him. Carnelian clutched him to avoid falling. The body under his fingers was like wood. He could smell Osidian's skin. 'My Lord, forgive me.' He stepped back.
'Hide your eyes,' Osidian said.
Light flared. Carnelian squinted till his eyes were able to see again. Looking round, he saw they were standing near the silver door. He began putting on his shoes.
'Will you come again?' Osidian asked.
Carnelian looked up at him, nodded.
As he walked back, Carnelian caught a scent coming off his shoulder that he recognized was Osidian's.
Carnelian smiled when he saw Osidian waiting for him.
'Will we be able to go together in darkness?' he asked.
Osidian shook his head. He pointed at the floor. 'Which path would you follow?'
Carnelian looked. The stone was as marked with trails as mud at a market.
There are paths here leading to various points in the library but none going to the chamber I want to go to.'
Carnelian deflated. Then one must know where the chamber lies in the library maze?'
Osidian lifted his hand in the affirmative. 'A labyrinth can be a better defence than the strongest gate. Still, we can go through the darkness like children.' He offered Carnelian his hand.
Carnelian looked at it, embarrassed, shook his head. 'It would be easier to use the lantern.'
Osidian took back his hand and frowned. 'As you will.' He strode off stiff-shouldered.
Cursing himself, Carnelian followed.
All that day Carnelian read the annals of God Emperors whose column sepulchres, Osidian told him, were some of the first put up in the Labyrinth. Carnelian came to realize that once the Labyrinth had been only a processional way. He was reading faster and hardly had to ask Osidian to help him.
Later, when he had grown weary of the interminable descriptions of conquest, he told the darkness that he wanted to leave. He found Osidian's hands as they fumbled with the lantern and gripped them. There is no need for light, no need for you to come. I will make my way back to the door myself.'
'And tomorrow?' said the darkness.
Carnelian felt as if he were in a dream haunted by the voice in the beads.
'We could try something different tomorrow, if you want.'
'Like what?'
'Well, there are chambers filled with the reels of the Law and its commentaries, with the "Ilkaya" and other mystical works. There are technical treatises on just about any topic you could imagine. The records of the flesh tithe, tribute, taxation of the cities, censuses of the barbarian tribes. The Books of Blood-'
'Where the blood-taints of the Chosen are kept?'
'Every Chosen who has ever lived.'
The Books of Blood then,' whispered Carnelian, and, taking the unlit lantern, he strode off along the path of eyes.
The following day, Osidian was waiting for him. The walk through the library seemed longer than usual. They reached a chamber that smelled of freshly spilled blood. Uneasy, Carnelian lifted his lantern. It was a chamber larger than the others with many benches. All the bead-cord he could see was dull and black. The reels were only as thick as his wrist. He took the lantern close to one, ran his fingers over its beads, then smelled them. It was as he had suspected. 'Iron.'
These are the Books of Blood,' said Osidian.
Carnelian looked round, trying to calculate the value of such treasure.
'Look here,' said Osidian, touching the tip of a spindle.
Carnelian came to look. Carved into its top was the cypher of a Chosen House.
'Your reels will be over there somewhere, with the rest of the Great,' Osidian whispered near his ear.
Carnelian walked away in the direction indicated. Spindle by spindle they searched for the chameleon, moving from one bench to the next.