“I’m trying to help!” Morgan said. “And you know I never wanted this! I never wanted to be—”

“Whatever you wanted, you’re one of them. Doing this proves it more than anything else you’ve ever done,” Glain said. “And that’s why we shouldn’t trust you. How hard would it be for you to give us away?”

“She won’t,” Jess said, and got the full, scorching weight of Glain’s scorn.

“Says someone who can’t ever be rational on the subject of Morgan Hault. We shouldn’t do this. What if some other Obscurist rewrites this creature into a killer again?”

“It can’t be done without the same process I went through,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t work that way. You can order them to do a limited number of things by Codex commands, but not change their loyalty—”

“I don’t trust you,” Glain said flatly, and looked Morgan right in the eyes. “I have no idea what happened to you in that tower. What might have been done to you. All I know is, you’ve shown up here and we’ve all just accepted that you’re safe, like this lion. You aren’t. You’re even more dangerous.”

Santi stepped in the way, facing Glain, and said, “Glain. She’s given you no reason to distrust her, has she?”

Glain didn’t want to answer that, but she finally muttered, “Not as yet.”

“Then the matter’s settled. Keep your eyes open and not just on Morgan, all right? We have enough enemies without inventing more.” She nodded but didn’t change her position from the door. “Go introduce yourself to the lion. That’s an order.”

She looked at him for so long, Jess was afraid she’d refuse, but then she pushed past him and stood in front of Frauke to be nudged and cataloged like the rest of them. She didn’t touch the lion. Didn’t stand it for one second longer than she was forced to before she stalked away.

Frauke tried to follow, then checked herself as Thomas said, “Frauke. Stay.” She padded back to Thomas’s side and sat down, as obedient as a dog on a leash. “Frauke, you obey our commands now, yes?”

Hard to tell if she understood that, but Thomas had been right: there was an eerie simulation of thought in these creatures. Even intention. It was impossible, looking at Frauke now, to see the relentless killing machine she’d been before. Glain was also right: Morgan had, with a few simple, powerful strokes of the pen, made a killer into a pet. That kind of power shouldn’t exist, and it made him cold to think what could be done with it in the service of the Archivist. This is how they’ve kept power. Frighten us with monsters. Kill us when all else fails.

Maybe that was the nature of power. Jess didn’t know, but he didn’t like to think of himself as being part of it.

He held to one thought: if they could change Frauke, maybe . . . maybe they could also, eventually, change the Library.