Binding Shadows Page 2

  “He’s so exotic.” Pavlina smacked her lips. “I heard his mother is American. He was raised here. You can’t tell except for he’s so tan and it’s the end of winter.”

  Barbara cringed, her eyes on the plastic figurine in her hand. She knew whispers of speculation about her own background, despite her name, often fixated on her looks.

  Pavlina’s voice settled into a purr. “We’re lucky to have someone of his capability.”

  “As though we had a choice,” Honza grumbled. “Novak lobbied hard for Tesarik and, as glad as we all are that failed, I heard the assignment came down from the liaison to the Necromancer Azrael.”

  Amazing how a room this cold could still lose a degree or two at the word.

  No one knew how many necromancers existed, but when the war had broken out between human populations wielding the power of gods against one another, necromancers were the ones who prevented an apocalypse. An alliance of the most powerful eight had divided the world between them into territories. Now they regulated human interaction with the gods and, under the Peace in Humanity codes, any material deemed a threat by relation to magic was under their strict control.

  The Godswar and the Allegiance takeover cast a long shadow over the decades that followed. And though Barbara and the others were too young to remember, they were raised knowing the primary rule by heart: stay away from anything magical. Objects, books, people—anything with the hint of connection to the supernatural had a way of disappearing under the necromancers rule.

  Edita tucked her scarf around her throat and lifted her gaze heavenward. “Superstitious git. Azrael’s funding is the reason we have renovations…and jobs. His patronage—”

  “Ownership.” Honza lifted a finger.

  “—Has been a boon,” Edita snapped. The Necromancer controlling Europe chose Prague as his seat, and the city was the uneasy beneficiary of his interest. “Costs money to keep these old buildings up. And if it brings quality professors here, isn’t that our good fortune?”

  Honza scoffed. “Have you seen the undead?”

  “Zombies?” Pavlina managed both thrill and alarm in a single gasp.

  “Undead.” Edita sounded the word out as though to a small, stubborn child. “Don’t let anyone hear you call them such.”

  “This Visiting Professor Vogel has two on his team.” As the senior assistant, Honza had been the only one of them invited to attend the department briefing where the team assigned to catalog and prepare an exhibit of the newly found items had been introduced. “Spies. They don’t breathe. They… volunteered to be turned.”

  Barbara replaced the dancing pineapple at the front of her desk. Edita’s eyes settled on her. “And what do you think of all this, Bara…Bara?”

  The Czech diminutive of her name reminded Barbara of her mother. Barbara had been raised on stories of her time at Žižkov University. How much joy would it have given her to see Barbara give her academic pledge?

  We’ll teach, you and I. The larger hand, tight on her own and chilled with failing circulation. The words slurred through morphine. Share an office.

  That part of dream may have died with her, but at least Barbara could recite her pledge at the graduation ceremony as her mother had taught her. She no longer believed in heaven, but maybe her mother would know, somehow.

  She fought the urge to burst into tears—or to look at the envelope again.

  “What’s happened?” Edita paced to her desk, eyes narrowed. Like some Slavic goddess of hearth and home, a solidness in her presence and features always reassured Barbara. Dependable, unflappable, nurturing, but fierce.

  Barbara grabbed a tissue and faked a cough. “Perhaps a cold coming on. You should stay back. I don’t want you to get sick.”

  Edita spotted the ragged edge of the envelope Barbara had torn in her hurry to get it open. She snagged the corner from under the keyboard before Barbara’s hand could cover it.

  “Is this what I think?” she said as Barbara made one last grab for it. “Why didn’t you tell us? We wanted to celebrate with you—oh, dear…”

  Barbara snatched another tissue as the tears returned, swiveling back to her computer with a sniffle. “I told you not to get your hopes up.”

  Edita headed Pavlina off before she began circling Barbara’s desk, drawn by the sight of tears like a shark to blood in the water. “Get her a coffee from the machine. There are crowns in the top drawer of my desk. Go.”

  When the youngest member of their team had gone, Honza rose from his chair and strolled over. He leaned a hip on Barbara’s desk and sent another pineapple figurine—this one a spinner on a stationary base—rocking with the flick of a finger.

  He sighed. “Terrible news, Barbara.”

  Barbara struggled against more tears and waved away their concern. After acceptance into the doctoral program, she’d blazed through the coursework portion of her assignment— but after the mess at the Christmas party, she’d become untouchable. Without a fellowship or a reliable advisor, she couldn’t begin her dissertation. No dissertation to defend meant no degree.

  When she looked up, Edita’s mouth formed a hard line.

  “This is because of that jackass Tesarik,” Edita muttered, glancing at Honza.

  Barbara lifted one shoulder. “If I had just slept with him, it might have been easier.”

  “You need to file a formal complaint.” Honza shook his head.

  “And be formally blacklisted by the department?” Barbara frowned. “At least this way they will forget—eventually.”

  Edita set her lips. Honza looked like he wanted to speak, but at the sound of the door opening and the mute plea in Barbara’s eyes, he hesitated. He sucked in a deep breath anyway as Pavlina entered.

  “Honza,” Edita snapped, sending him back to his desk.

  Pavlina presented a cup of lukewarm coffee with the flourish of a queen’s bauble at court. “Can we still do our English lesson at lunch? My interview at BioGen is next week, and I want to practice as often as possible.”

  Pavlina was graduating at the end of the year and was already applying to positions outside of academia. The men are too boring here, she informed Barbara as they reviewed job postings.

  Barbara nodded, accepting the cup, and Pavlina retreated to her desk. Edita turned her back on the room, putting herself between Barbara and the others. “Bara.”

  Barbara looked at her ruefully.

  “You are too good to that girl.” Edita shook her head. “You should be charging for lessons.”

  Barbara’s mouth tilted up of its own volition. She reached for the letter in Edita’s hand. “I don’t mind. I’m good with languages.”

  “And you are too good to be held back forever,” Edita said, handing it over. “One day, you’ll get your assignment.”

  Barbara looked down, unable to sustain eye contact as she smoothed the envelope shut. She returned it to the spot under her keyboard and nodded.

  Barbara glanced at the row of little pineapple figurines on her desk. Most of the paint had been rubbed off the oldest ones. Unlike Pavlina, she didn’t have a backup plan. Those three little letters behind her name would make all the difference in her chances to get a position doing conservation work. She couldn’t afford to feel sorry for herself or to wallow.

  Two new department requests for item retrieval waited in her inbox. The last was forwarded from Honza with a note: I tried, but this is a job for the superwoman.

  The nickname was as good as an apology. Barbara checked the submitting department and winced. Speak of the devil: Visiting Professor Vogel.

  At the beginning of the term, an old wall had been knocked down as part of the library renovations and revealed a hidden chamber full of materials several centuries old. This kind of discovery would make careers. The role of leading the team to catalog and prepare an exhibit had been the subject of contentious politicking among the faculty and staff.

  The announcement of Visiting Professor Vogel’s assignment was met with a wary pl
easure. His particular period of focus, the Bohemian empire during the northern Renaissance, only served to validate the importance of the find. His dissertation had become the book on post-Godswar rare human materials collection and curation.

  Then the man himself had arrived and made his list of requirements, and the surprise had become consternation. A special climate-controlled room with limited security-based access, strict cataloging, rigorous materials handling standards. It might have all been common stuff from his time at Oxford, but it just served to highlight how far behind Žižkov University was in meeting the latest international standards. Nobody liked to be reminded of their flaws, and Vogel identified each with surgical precision and not an ounce of diplomacy.

  Overnight, he’d gone from being a sensation to being tolerated when he could not be avoided entirely. Office gossip expounded Vogel’s reputation as difficult and demanding. A small, selfish part of Barbara hoped the fuss would be enough to take the attention off her and that blasted Christmas party. In any case, she was sure her current status as a pariah would keep her entirely beneath his notice.

  Since each member of Vogel’s team had been handpicked, she hadn’t bothered to submit her proposal for research project to him. The most she’d hoped was that a previously occupied position in the conservation department would open up in the shuffle and she could quietly slip into a fellowship. After today’s rejection, even that hope waned.

  Well, back to work. She called up a chat window to Edita.

  I’ve got a hi-pri for Vogel.

  Edita looked up from her monitor across the room, with wide eyes and gritted teeth. Words appeared on the screen a moment later. Bad luck, that, but if anyone can do it you can.

  Barbara sighed. Can you take one of my others? I’ll give the boring one to Pavlina.

  Send it over.

  The University was still a long way from being fully digitized, but she had to start somewhere. Barbara lost herself in department records first.

  Most library patrons went through the help desk on the main floor for research requests, where a rotating team of graduate assistants helped with first level needs. Whatever they could not handle was escalated to the Reference Librarians. But requests from faculty working on special projects and department heads were sent directly to this smaller team, hand-picked for their ability to handle more complex assignments. It was a prestigious appointment, which made Barbara’s inability to advance beyond it even more frustrating. With her grades, and the time logged in the special assistance office, she should have had her pick of projects.

  Pavlina dragged her away from her desk at lunch. They visited their usual haunt, a basement restaurant that served cheap, starchy meals. She spent lunch picking at the plate of mashed parsnips and cream sauce bathing her cooling chicken, while Pavlina practiced tenses in English by telling Barbara every sordid detail of her previous weekend’s conquest.

  Usually, Barbara found her colleague's exploits amusing, if a bit outlandish, but today they served to remind her of one more area in which her life was deficient. She had no time for relationships, and the few times she’d been out she’d come home early, and alone. After that, it just hadn’t seemed worth the effort.

  She didn’t notice the end of the day until Edita’s shadow fell over her desk.

  “You’ll find it tomorrow,” Edita insisted. “Come, let me buy you a drink.”

  Barbara shook her head. Mustering up a smile took more effort than she expected. “You know how I am.”

  “You already have a lead?” Honza laughed in amazement as he wound the light scarf around his neck.

  It thrilled her to find the unfindable. It was her specialty, and everyone knew it. The one moment that she felt most herself was when she laid hands a missing item—something of value. No matter how chaotic life got, how many opportunities slipped between her fingers, she always had this.

  Still, she shrugged. It would do no good to attract more attention than her reputation already warranted. “Want me to lock up?”

  “If you would,” Honza said as Pavlina trotted to his side. She threw her arms around his waist and chanted for a beer.

  Someone cleared their throat in the doorway, and they all looked up as the head of their department tugged at his lapels. His watery blue eyes swept the room. A tidy man in his mid-sixties, the way he looked at everything, but no one directly, always set Barbara on edge. She couldn’t recall if he’d ever made eye contact with her, in spite of conducting her interview for the research assistant position. “Students.”

  Pavlina sprang back, and Honza rose to his full height.

  “Professor Novak, sir.” He cleared his throat.

  Their boss’s gaze skated over Honza. Barbara took small comfort in knowing everybody got that treatment. Barbara rose, she’d volunteered to lock up, so she might as well deal with whatever Novak wanted. “Can I help you with something, sir?”

  He frowned. “It’s come to my attention that Visiting Professor Vogel is not receiving his requests in a timely manner. Who has been assigned the latest?”

  Honza flushed to the tips of his ears, but Barbara spoke first. “I have, sir.”

  For a flicker of a moment, his gaze alighted on her before drifting over her shoulder. He huffed. “Miss Svobodová. That’s surprising, given your… reputation.”

  Was he referring to her ability to find things, or the drama at Christmas party and the subsequent gossip? She kept her voice even. “The volume Professor Vogel requested is missing. I’ve been in communication with both reference and archives. I’ll have it recovered, sir.”

  “I trust you will,” he said after a long moment of marking the air around her as though trying to determine what she was by the space she occupied.

  She didn’t allow herself to consider what his judgment would be. She had spent too long trying to be accepted. Some days she ached to tell everyone what she thought of the fact that although she had been raised by her Czech mother and Czech was her first language, they still treated her like an outsider because her father had been a foreigner.

  Today, she stuck to diplomacy. “Thank you for your confidence, sir.”

  He exhaled. “I don’t need to remind you how important the visiting professor’s work is for the University. His collection bears an enormous amount of attention from the government as well as the necromancer’s office. Professor Vogel has been judged the best for the job. So we must be the best for ours.”

  Honza’s voice deepened with gravity. “We understand sir.”

  After a moment of itchy silence, Honza’s eyes lit with an idea. Barbara fought the urge to throw a pineapple figurine across the room at him to shut him up.

  “May I suggest assigning Miss Svobodová to the collection team on a full-time basis, so that requests are attended to utilizing her superior retrieval skills?”

  Too late. The project timeline was intense leading up to the exhibit. Vogel’s requests were always challenging. They’d shared them in the past. What if another opportunity for a fellowship came up? Even if she was no stranger to the proposal process, writing each took time. When would she have time for the rest of her work?

  Barbara held her breath, praying Novak would dismiss the proposal.

  “A fine idea,” Novak said at last. “I’d like to avoid this unfortunate incident again. In the future, be sure all requests go to Miss Svobodová. Miss Svobodová, you will see my office if further delay is inevitable. For any reason.”

  When he finally departed, they all took a deep breath.

  Barbara sank into her chair and covered her face with her palms. Her nose was getting red again, she just knew it. Honza’s footsteps hurried across the floor toward her desk. She held up a hand to ward him off.

  He dropped to one knee at her side anyway. “I meant every word. You are the best of us.”

  “And you need someone else to see you work,” Edita conceded. “Someone outside the department, who doesn’t know about that godsdamned party…”


  “The party? The Christmas party? What happened at the party?” Pavlina asked.

  Honza and Edita ignored her.

  “You heard Novak,” Honza said. “He’s the best. And rumor says he’s seeking a permanent position on the faculty, gods help us all.”

  Pavlina bobbed her head eagerly. “And he’s not terrible to look at, for all that. He’s young.”

  “Enough both of you.” Edita scowled, pushing Honza aside to face Barbara. “We all know you didn’t start that business at Christmas. But blame always follows the woman. An ally would help you in the department, and maybe beyond. Getting on Vogel’s good side isn’t a bad idea.”

  Barbara took a deep, shaky breath. She blinked away the memory of Tesarik inviting her to his office down the hall from the party. His stale breath on her face, cornering her. He was old, but so much bigger than her. The distraction of Karel Broucek and another graduate appearing in the doorway as she slipped free. A few moments. Nothing had happened. And yet the trouble had started after.

  “Fine. Thank you, Honza.” She tried to imbue the words with a little gratitude, but came up short.

  Honza studied his wingtips.

  “Come on, now you need a drink.” Edita tugged at her arm. “You can start making yourself indispensable to Professor Vogel first thing in the morning.”

  The following morning, the paper trail for the missing book died in archives. She swore and pushed away from her desk. With various parts of the library under reconstruction, it was even more common for something to be misplaced.

  “I’m off.” She turned on her out-of-office message and headed down to archives.

  She checked in with security, affixed her temporary badge, and headed into the stacks. Sometimes an inattentive undergraduate shelved an item improperly, so she started where it should have been. The certainty that it wasn’t there pushed against her breastbone almost as soon as she moved into the collection.

  She found a secluded corner of the stacks and closed her eyes. It would have been easier if she had a visual to go with the catalog data, but she was used to finding books she had never seen. Instead, she held the title, author, and edition information in her mind.