But she did dare. She dared so quickly it astonished her, closing her thumb and forefinger on the thing’s hard, cold edge and withdrawing it quickly, so quickly that she was turning it in both her hands within seconds, feeling its embossed metallic texture, which was sumptuous beyond belief, and toying with the golden ribbons that served as a bookmarks. For that’s precisely what this new thing was: a book, the Caveam Cristallum. And before she knew it she had opened it to one of his marks and the green-white quasar had popped up and the voice of Montair said, ‘‘Would you step from your cage if you knew the door was ajar?”
She shut it immediately, her heart suddenly racing, pressing her hand upon its cover as though the book had a will and sentience of its own and would fly open and consum
