Max was halfway to the top when he looked down and saw Phillip pulling on her. Victoria didn't seem to be struggling; she seemed frozen, hung suspended in the air, the heavy satchel pressed to her chest. Phillip had her foot and had angled her out of the light. He was nearly climbing up her legs to pull her back down, adding his weight and strength to the burden Kritanu struggled to raise.
"Victoria!" Max shouted. He couldn't go back; they were pulling him up, and he couldn't climb down.
She wasn't fighting; she wasn't struggling.
Phillip reached the rope around her waist, tugging on it, and Max watched in disbelief as the rope he'd just tied loosened and Victoria fell to the floor, half in the light and half in the dark.
The rope dangled uselessly from the dome.
"Phillip," Max heard Victoria say. She was not moving, just looking up at him. Her husband looked down at her, then at Lilith, as if asking for permission.
"Put me back. Now!" Max shouted up to Kritanu, but the rope continued to rise inexorably. Kritanu's face was no longer looking down from the dome; he had moved away in order to pull up the heavy weight. "Kritanu!" He struggled to loosen the knot, his fingers digging into the rough hemp around his waist.
Phillip pulled Victoria to her feet, and she was no longer in the sun. The rope hung behind her, still swaying.
"You can't save him!" Max shouted, trying to untie the rope around his waist so he could drop back down and help her. But his weight and the pull of gravity had tightened the knot so that he couldn't pull it apart. He was nearly to the top of the dome and was just beginning to notice the smoke.
The room was so large that the smoke, which should have been clogging and choking them, dissipated and hung near the tall ceiling; the fire was a greater danger than the smoke.
He saw movement as Lilith swept her arm in permission. Phillip fell on Victoria, and her head tipped back as though he'd commanded it. Max could almost hear the groan of need from him as he bent toward her open neck.
"The book, Lilith! He will destroy it!" Max shouted, swinging more wildly with his agitation. He could see the wall of flame moving toward the circle of vampires; but they were unconcerned. Fire would not harm them. Only Victoria.
"Stop!" shouted Lilith, extending her arm and reaching for Phillip through the air.
Phillip stiffened as though she had grabbed his neck, whimpering, but he did not move. Max could hear his labored breathing, and, thank God, Lilith's power released her and Victoria came to herself. She pulled away.
She fell back into the sunlight, and Phillip did not stop her. She lay back, sprawling in a much smaller circle of light than had been there moments before.
"If you want the book," she said, her voice steadier than Max would have expected it, "you let me go. I will give it to you. "
Max looked down, tried to see what was happening below. And then, as his rope spun him in a gentle circle, he saw the line next to him move, tighten. "Pull!" he shouted above. "She's ready! Go!"
/> As Victoria rose through the smoke, he could hear her. "The Book of Antwartha. Lilith, the book is yours! You will search for it no longer!"
"No! Victoria, no!" Max shouted, and then heard the dull thud as the book hit the ground far below. And then, through the faint haze of smoke, he saw the manuscript, sitting in its circle of glowing yellow, waiting to be snatched up by the vampires.
Then he could see no more.
From below a woman screamed, shrieking in pain and rage, and suddenly Max was being dragged out of the smoky air into the fresh, beautiful sunlight.
He scrambled aside and set to helping Kritanu and Briyani raise Victoria.
When she finally reached the top, her face smudged with black, he helped pull her over the glass edges, careful not to cut her. But that didn't stop him from lighting into her in another way.
"You gave her the book?" he shouted. "Victoria!"
"What is left of it," she replied calmly, as if she'd just stopped by for tea. "I dropped it, and the Book turned to dust. It is gone forever. "
Max stepped back, planting his foot firmly on the sloping roof. "I presume…" He paused, because if he didn't measure his words carefully, he might kill her. "I presume you did that knowing it would be the effect. "
"Of course. As soon as the sunlight touched it, it crumbled, just as Wayren planned. " She turned to follow Kritanu and Briyani off the roof of the burning building, leaving Max to follow behind.
He had several other things to say to her, but they would have to wait. Though she'd tried to hide them, he had seen the tears.
Chapter Twenty-eight
In Which Eustacia Makes a Confession