Crewel

ordered me to have an escort at all times,’ I say, willing my voice not to quaver.
    ‘I should clear it—’
    ‘Look, man,’ Jost says with a groan, pulling away from me. ‘I’d like to get to bed, so the sooner we can get Her Majesty upstairs the better.’
    The guard grins; he must be used to the night shift himself.
    ‘She’s clear, so keep close to her,’ he orders him.
    Jost nods and rolls his eyes a little to seal their camaraderie.
    Once we’re through the door, I elbow him. ‘You can go to bed any time.’
    ‘Surest way to get around in here,’ he says with a wink. ‘Act annoyed with a Spinster.’
    I feign a wounded expression, and his hand tightens around mine.
    ‘You are the least annoying Spinster I’ve met,’ he says in mock solemnity.
    ‘Watch yourself, Josten Bell,’ I warn him.
    He follows me up the spiral staircase, but he keeps looking over his shoulder and nearly tripping into me.
    ‘We’ll never get anywhere if you don’t hurry up,’ I hiss at him.
    ‘Sorry, Your Majesty,’ he says, grinning.
    When we reach the top, I duck into the studio, half expecting Loricel to be sitting there, but it’s empty. Motioning for Jost to join me, I move to the loom and pull out the digifile.
    ‘What are you doing?’ he asks, watching over my shoulder.
    ‘I learned a new trick,’ I tell him.
    The piece of the compound flows gracefully onto the loom, and I turn to Jost to gauge his reaction. ‘Isn’t it beautiful?’
    ‘What?’ he asks, frowning.
    ‘The mantle,’ I say, running my finger along the weave.
    ‘I can’t see anything,’ he admits sheepishly.
    ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—’
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he stops me. ‘This is your area of expertise.’
    I turn my attention to the section on the loom and carefully pull out some of the strands of the repository again. Jost stands behind me quietly, but he moves closer to me when I stand to make the rift between rooms.
    With Jost here, I have to focus harder on the room’s weave before it comes into focus, but when it does I slip the strands in my hand into it, creating the opening. The repository, silent and dark, stretches out before us.
    ‘How . . .’ Jost asks behind me.
    ‘Good trick, huh?’ I can’t help enjoying his shock a little. ‘I took a piece of weave from the loom and inserted it into the weave of the room. I transplanted it to create a passage. It’s like when we rebound and a Spinster moves our weave from one spot to another, except I did that with a room.’
    ‘Okay, I think I get it,’ he says. ‘So we go in there and look?’
    I bite my lip and then shake my head. ‘I want you to stay here and keep guard. If anyone comes, warn me.’
    And if I get caught, run, I add to myself, hoping he will if the moment arises.
    ‘We should stick together,’ he says in a firm voice.
    ‘I know how it’s organised in there,’ I tell him. ‘It will only take me a moment, and I’m quieter than you.’
    ‘Not in those,’ he says, pointing to my feet.
    I grimace and slip my heels off my feet. I take a few hops in my stockings to prove my light-footedness, and he squares his shoulders and gives a reluctant nod. Handing him my shoes, I kiss his cheek lightly and slip through the opening.
    The room is silent without the hum of lamps, and I hold the digifile in front of me for light. Just in time, because I almost run into the first unit. Skidding past it, I’m suddenly thankful for the slippery stockings. I make my way to the front of the shelves where I found Sebrina’s file and begin searching for Amie. The individual units are organised by date according to geographic location. I have to find the Cypress files.
    I comb swiftly through this aisle and move on to the next until I find the sequences that include E , for the Eastern Sector, and start searching for Cypress. I’m hoping it’s not more than that when my finger drifts onto a unit with her date. The rest of the data, including my mother’s initials, matches, and I pull out the card and scan the code. I hold my breath while the loading image blinks. And there she is: Amie Lewys.
    I can’t bear to look at the information pertaining to why she was rewoven, even if I know it’s mostly lies. I save her dataset to the digifile and carefully slide the card back into storage. I wonder for a moment if taking the files would slow the Coventry down if they went after Sebrina or Amie, but if they have backup files it would be a red