Wintercraft (21 page)
Whatever Edgar’s plan had been, there was no time for it to work now. She could not risk leading Silas to him again. They had to separate. She had to find her own way out.
Kate did not see Edgar’s look of fear as she left without him, or see him crawl around a low hedge to avoid a warden that was heading his way. But Silas saw it all. He was on his way down from the testing room tower, carrying a stolen vial of what was left of Kate’s blood in his hand. He had no intention of allowing Da’ru to use that blood in her work. The councilwoman may have lost the book of
Wintercraft
, but she had learned enough from it to make that blood a very dangerous tool in her hands. He could not risk her using it against Kate, not until his work was done.
Wintercraft
, but she had learned enough from it to make that blood a very dangerous tool in her hands. He could not risk her using it against Kate, not until his work was done.
Silas did not know how Kate had escaped from the holding room and he did not care. He took the steps two at a time, his coat trailing through the stone dust as he slid the vial into the pocket at his chest and swept out into the open air.
She was out and she was his.
Kate ran into a quiet wing of the immense council chambers and raced along corridors and through empty rooms, checking every window to find some way out. All she saw were more buildings, more courtyards and endless grassy squares. The place was a maze and the wardens were everywhere.
Most of the doors she found were locked, so she was forced to cut through a dining room where two long tables were already laid out for breakfast. A door hung open at its furthest end: a servants’ door, meant to blend in with the rest of the wall. She ran straight for it and found herself inside a network of passageways built right into the walls.
The cramped pathways were dusty and tight, with passing places sunk into them at regular points wherever the thicker walls allowed. Kate often had to duck inside to let busy people pass, but no one questioned her. Many of the servants she saw there looked as bedraggled as she did, heading off to build fires, serve breakfasts, lay tables, polish floors and do a hundred other tasks that kept the council chambers running smoothly.
Suddenly the passageway came to an end and Kate squeezed out into a busy kitchen filled with steam and smells and shouts. Most of the workers were younger than her, boys and girls stolen from their own home towns, stirring, baking, boiling and frying under the keen eyes of three older cooks. Kate was not sure where to go next, until a young girl carrying a bowl of potatoes looked her way, glanced at the nearest cook and then changed direction, heading straight for her.
‘You’re one of them, aren’t you?’ she whispered. ‘Your eyes are different. I can tell. Edgar told me you might come this way.’
‘Edgar was here?’
‘He was looking for you a while ago. He said if you came here without him, I had to show you the door.’ The girl pointed to an iron hoop halfway along the wall. The door behind it was so well disguised that Kate never would have spotted it on her own.
‘Is Edgar coming back?’ asked the girl.
‘I hope so,’ said Kate, trying to smile. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘Good luck.’
Kate left the girl behind and stepped through the door into a short hallway that led straight outside. The fresh air chilled her skin and she ran out on to a path edged by an iron fence that was far too tall to climb. Beyond that fence, the city rose like a black forest and a carriage path led from the council chambers right down into the city itself.
Kate followed the fence until she found a missing railing that left a wide space between the bars. She squeezed through and set off running down the edge of the path towards the safety of the nearest street. She was so busy worrying about what might be behind her that she did not spot the man waiting up ahead until it was too late.
He stepped out in front of her, snatched her up in his arms and pulled her into the hallway of a narrow old house. Whoever he was, Kate was not ready to be taken without a fight. She bit and scratched and punched and squirmed until the man cried out in pain and two more hands grabbed her in the dark.
Lanterns gathered around her and five dirty faces glowed in their light.
‘Is she the one?’ asked a man behind her, holding a light close to her face before she managed to free her arm and knock it away.
‘She fits the description.’
‘And she’s right where Edgar said she would be.’
‘What’s your name, girl?’
‘Do you really expect her to tell us that?’
‘If it is her, then where’s Edgar?’ asked the first man. ‘Isn’t he meant to be here?’
A woman’s voice rose above the rest. ‘I think Edgar may be lost to us,’ she said, moving round to stand in the light. Something about her was familiar to Kate. Her hair was short and flecked with grey, and her eyes were pitch black, edged with blue, like shining drops of oil.
‘It’s you,’ said Kate, remembering her at once. ‘I saw you. At the bookshop.’
The woman smiled kindly. ‘If you are who we think you are, then it has been many years since we last met,’ she said. ‘Perhaps if we introduce ourselves, you will understand why we are here.’
The woman reached out for Kate’s hand and this time she did not resist. A gentle warmth spread across her fingers and, for the first time since Artemis had been taken, for no reason she could explain, Kate felt safe.
‘It is her,’ said the woman. ‘She is scared, understandably, but she is no threat to us.’
‘Tell that to my nose,’ grunted one of the men, whose face was swelling quickly after taking a full punch.
The woman ignored him, never taking her eyes off Kate. ‘We are going to let you go now,’ she said. ‘We have a lot to talk about, so please do not try to run.’
The men released their grip, letting Kate stand by herself.
‘Who are you?’ she demanded, glaring at them in the light.
‘You have no reason to fear us,’ said the woman. ‘We are just like you, Kate. We are the Skilled.’
13
The City Below
Ever since Kate had first learned about the Skilled she had always expected them to look different from most people in some way. Not one of the people standing around her was extraordinary, but the one feature they all shared was their unnaturally dark eyes. Kate had heard that the more time the Skilled spent looking into the veil the darker their eyes were meant to become, and even in the brightness of the lantern light their eyes looked as though their pupils had leaked out to overtake everything else, leaving just a faint line of their true colours circling around the edge.
Kate realised she was staring and looked away.
‘My name is Mina,’ said the woman. ‘Edgar asked us to wait for you both here. Do you know where he is?’
‘No,’ said Kate. ‘We got separated.’
‘He was worried that might happen. We have no choice but to go on without him. Here, he left this for you.’ Mina handed her a tiny roll of paper tied with string.
Kate recognised Edgar’s handwriting on the outside of the roll. ‘But … how do you know Edgar?’ she asked.
‘We have known him since he was a boy,’ said Mina.
The men all nodded together. ‘He’s a good lad,’ said one of them. ‘He’s had no kind of life. No kind of life at all.’
Kate was confused. Was there anyone in Albion who
didn’t
know Edgar?
didn’t
know Edgar?
‘There is no time to read the letter now,’ said Mina. ‘But soon. When we are safe. The council will not find you where we are going. This way.’
Kate held the little letter tightly as the Skilled led her down into the house’s cellar. One by one they stepped through a door disguised as a stack of shelves and came out upon an underground path that was very different from the tunnels Kate had seen beneath Morvane. This path was not just an ordinary tunnel, it looked like it had once been above the ground. Its walls were the fronts of two rows of houses facing one another, light came from candles propped on the outside of window sills and the path was wide and cobbled, with worn wheelmarks where carriages had once run.
The few windows that had survived the years reflected the group’s lanterns as they walked past, but the houses had no doors, only bricked-up arches where they had once been, and the rooms inside had long since been buried under fallen earth.
‘Will Edgar be able to find us down here?’ asked Kate.
‘He knows the way,’ said Mina. ‘But I do not hold much hope for his safe return. It will not take long for the wardens to see through his lie. We all told him it was foolish of him to go back.’
‘Back? Back where?’
‘I will explain everything soon. For now, we must walk.’
The understreets seemed to wind on forever, linked together by staircases and bridges that spanned deep chasms sliced into the earth. Looking over the side of those bridges was like looking down into the underworld. Some of the chasms had people working in them, hanging from long rope harnesses and chipping away at the rock, while others were abandoned and so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom of them in the dark.
‘Graverobbers,’ said Mina. ‘In the bonemen’s time, the Night Train carried coffins here, and they laid the bodies to rest in long tombs that run deep beneath our feet. Fume’s towers were built as memorials to the families laid to rest beneath them, but since the High Council took it as their capital they have made it a place to be feared, not respected. The bonemen are gone and the Night Train carries the living into slavery, war and death. That is not the way things are meant to be.’
Kate dared to lean out a little further over the side.
‘Do not let them see you!’ whispered Mina. ‘The wardens are the graverobbers’ enemies as well as ours, but they would not hesitate to report us if they decided it was worth something to them.’
Mina’s group did their best to stay out of sight and headed down a narrow tunnel that had been cut into an old rock fall. Mina unlocked a green door hidden behind a flap of cloth and Kate followed her into a beautiful street lit by tiny lanterns hanging down from its ceiling. It was an arched cavern lined with red bricks and metal frames that protected the houses underneath from collapse. Every one of them was as perfect as the day they were built. There was even a working fountain in the very centre and lanterns edging the paths, giving the street a warm friendly glow.
‘This is where some of the bonemen used to live,’ said Mina. ‘If your uncle had listened to me years ago, you would already call this place home. I am only sorry we could not bring you here sooner. You will be safe here. My home is close by. We will talk inside.’
Mina took Kate into a small well-kept house and sent the others away, but some refused to leave.
‘She could be dangerous!’ said one. ‘The High Council kept her alive. What do you think she gave them to deserve that?’
‘I think she gave them hope,’ said Mina. ‘Something none of us have had in a long time.’
‘Look at her eyes! They are already half-dark and she is too young for them to have coloured so quickly. Da’ru has forced her too deeply into the veil. If she was not guided there properly, shades may have followed her spirit back out. She may be corrupted.’
‘This girl is too strong for that,’ said Mina. ‘As you can see, she is one of us and she needs our help.’
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