This was, Jess thought, a fair and interesting idea, but he put little faith in millennia-old records without a firsthand scouting expedition. That might be difficult, since anyone tinkering with an ancient statue of a god in the middle of the Forum might be noticed.

They wouldn’t notice at night, he thought. And not if I’m wearing a High Garda uniform. If I’m seen, I could just say that I noticed suspicious activity and went to check it.

“The prison itself has human guards, and three automata on patrol within,” Santi said. “Sphinxes and a Spartan. I’m not worried about the Garda. The automata . . .”

The automata were another matter altogether, and they all knew it. Glain had seen the ones surrounding Jess on the steps. They were already alert to him, ready to pounce in an instant. One wrong move and they would all be dead.

“We won’t solve that tonight. We’ve already been out too long,” Santi said. “Go back before someone discovers you’re missing. Especially you two.” He nodded at Dario and Khalila.

Dario laughed. “They won’t worry. I made sure they knew I wanted to show Scholar Seif the beauties of Rome in the moonlight.”

“Dario,” Khalila said, “tells everyone he’s trying to seduce me. It does make a very good cover story.”

“Not that it’s working,” he said gloomily. “The best I’ve managed is a kiss. Not even a long one.”

“It was long enough.”

“For what?”

“For me to tell if you knew what you were doing.”

“You see how she treats me?” Dario said to Jess. “I don’t know why I bother.”

“Then you’re even more of an idiot than I imagined,” Jess said. “Be careful. Both of you. This isn’t a game.”

“Spoken like someone who always loses when it is,” Dario said. “Cheer up, English. We’re survivors.”

Jess wished he hadn’t said it. It sounded like a bad omen.

Going back to bed was impossible now. He told Glain what he planned to do—she argued, of course—and exited silently down the hall and through a secured door that led out into the public space of the Basilica Julia: the daughter library, the Serapeum.

Like all similar institutions, it never closed, but just now it was utterly empty of visitors. It was flanked on all sides by steady rows of tall white columns and shelves upon shelves of Blanks. At regular intervals around the floor stood marble podiums, upon which large volumes of the Codex waited.

Nothing in the Codex will help me with automata, Jess thought. There might be other books, restricted from public view that would hold hints and pieces of a key. He’d need a Scholar like Khalila to gain access. Being just a copper-banded High Garda had its disadvantages.

He ran his fingers over the smooth leather spine of a book. It was more of a talisman than a comfort; he just needed to remind himself of why the Library was so important. Books had become a symbol of trust and libraries places of peace and stability. In all the chaos of the world that counted people as different levels of worthy, the Library served all equally. All genders, races, levels of ability. It was the one place they could all be safe.