“Apparently everything there is to know about demons,” he said with barely contained excitement. “I consider myself a practiced Warlock; demons are my specialty. I know nothing!” He sat back. “There is more that I haven’t finished reading, but I have read enough to already know something incredible is under way.”

Pug glanced at Magnus. “Another minute, no more.”

Amirantha said, “We can talk in detail later.” He glanced at Jim. “After you steal the book.”

Jim shrugged as if that would be a trivial issue; the library was not the Imperial Treasury. He could be in and out in minutes and have the volume secreted within his baggage before departure. As a diplomat, he would be spared any search of his personal items, and once at sea, the three magicians could pore over it to their hearts’ content.

Amirantha said, “There is so much to consider.” He paused, knowing they would have to keep silent in a moment. “The demons are so much more than we thought.” He fell silent. “Much more,” he repeated, then Magnus raised his hand and loudly said, “I found a recounting of the sea battle off of Questor’s View, in the Fifteenth Year of the reign of Rodric the Third.” Forcing a mild laugh, he added, “This account is quite different than what we found in the Royal Library at Krondor.”

Talk turned to the mundane matters of academia and a few comments about the hospitality of the Quegans, all flattering, and each sat, quickly playing the role of innocent guest.

Jim considered the perfect timing to leave his quarters—without waking whoever was with him; he knew the Quegans would ensure he was not alone and whoever shared his bed was an agent. He could get out of his rooms, to the library, get the book once Amirantha gave him a precise description, and return in less than a half hour, perhaps as little as a quarter hour if he encountered no one along the short road from the place to the library.

Pug and Magnus shared the same thought: what had Amirantha found in that book?

And Amirantha sat silently, uncertain if he was even beginning to understand what he had uncovered and wondering if he was even capable of making sense out of it. For whatever he had imagined the demon realm to be like, if this book wasn’t the total fabrication of a deluded mind, it changed everything he had ever thought he knew about demons and what his people called the Fifth Hell.

Amirantha placed the huge volume down on the table. Jim quipped, “Stealing it wasn’t a problem. Getting it back without falling over was.”