Wintercraft (16 page)
Kate put down her plate, unable to stomach the food any more, and the crow fluttered down, stole what was left of the cheese and scuttled under the table to finish it off.
‘Why did you bring me here?’ she asked.
Silas sat back in his chair, studying her face. ‘Do you know what began the war that has made Albion what it is today?’ he asked.
Kate did not answer.
‘For generations the leaders on the Continent have tried to cross our borders,’ said Silas. ‘And every battle that has been fought - every death, every kill - was caused by one single secret. That secret was the Skilled. The High Council are not the only ones who recognise the value of your kind. As a people, the Skilled are unique to Albion. There are no reports of anyone on the Continent having access to the veil. No one knows why, but while the Skilled have thrived here, other countries have long lived in the peaceful ignorance that this world is the only world there is.’
‘That’s because it
is
the only one,’ said Kate.
is
the only one,’ said Kate.
‘Really?’ said Silas, looking genuinely surprised. ‘Are you sure about that?’
‘Of course I am.’
‘Then you have far more to learn than I realised.’
Silas stared at Kate, letting the silence grow between them until she was forced to look away. ‘Believing in a lie can be a comfort,’ he said. ‘But continuing to believe it when you have already seen the truth can be dangerous if people decide to use that lie against you. You cannot deny what you have already seen. The High Council has always known about the Skilled, but it has been many centuries since they have shared the same goals. Almost four centuries ago, at the beginning of the last era, the High Council were tempted by science and turned against the old ways of the Skilled. They wanted to study them. Understand them. Pick apart their minds to find out exactly how they can do what they do. Their greed for knowledge drove the Skilled into secrecy and the council still hunt them to this day, believing that they are the weapon that will win this war once and for all, even though they were the ones who caused it.’
‘The Skilled didn’t start the war,’ said Kate.
‘No, the High Council did that by bragging to every Continental leader who would listen about how the Skilled can see into the world of the dead, heal the sick and see the future. The Continent wanted a share of that knowledge. They wanted the Skilled and the High Council refused to part with them. Curiously, to those who cannot enter the veil themselves, the secrets of death are a prize worth dying for. Tensions grew between Albion and the Continent over many years until eventually war began.’
‘Why would anyone go to war over something like that?’ asked Kate. ‘Most people don’t even believe in the veil.’
‘Believing is not the issue,’ said Silas. ‘The Skilled can prove the existence of life beyond this world. Knowledge like that is without price.’
Kate did not know whether to believe Silas or not. No one in Albion really knew what the war was about. It had been a part of life for so long that no one even questioned it any more.
‘The existence of the Skilled caused the war that generations have lived with every day,’ said Silas. ‘The promise of their knowledge was enough to throw our world into chaos, but instead of standing up beside our soldiers to fight, the Skilled went underground, leaving the rest of Albion to fight its enemies alone. I have no love for the Skilled, Miss Winters. It is because of them that I have seen the veil for myself. I have seen the path of death and it has turned me away.’
Silas drew the silver dagger he had stolen from Kalen’s body, held out his hand and drew the point of the blade across his palm, slicing it open so a trail of blood shone like a string of beads in the light. Kate watched in disbelief as his skin began knitting together before he had even finished the cut and the blood upon it dried to a faint red dust.
‘That’s impossible!’
‘That is what the High Council believed,’ said Silas. ‘Before they were proven wrong.’
‘How did you do that?’
‘Twelve years ago a member of the High Council uncovered a rare book in an old grave not far from here. The grave belonged to a long dead member of the Winters family.
Your
family. And within that book, she discovered a way for the Skilled to harness the power of the veil more deeply than just looking into it or using its energies to heal.’
Your
family. And within that book, she discovered a way for the Skilled to harness the power of the veil more deeply than just looking into it or using its energies to heal.’
‘Was that Da’ru?’ asked Kate.
Silas nodded once. ‘Da’ru believed she could use the book’s techniques to alter the link between a person’s body and their spirit, and I was part of an experiment to prove that theory. Dozens of other subjects had already died from their exposure to the veil. I was the unfortunate one. I survived. Because of this, my blood does not flow like that of normal men. My injuries heal as quickly as they are made. My lungs breathe, but I have no need for air. Poison cannot kill me and fire does not burn.’
Kate looked at Silas and saw the man in front of her clearly for the first time. There was something not quite right about him. Something beyond the fear that he instilled in people with his presence. Anyone could do that with practice. What Silas possessed was deeper than that. That cold feeling that Kate always felt around him; the way his grey eyes reflected nothing of the man behind them. He felt empty to her. It felt as if he was already dead.
‘Imagine then a thousand more men like me,’ continued Silas. ‘An army like that would be unstoppable, making Albion more feared than any other nation. That is the power the Continent wishes to claim for itself. The High Council are working towards the same goal, but the force of Wintercraft almost killed Da’ru the night she made me what I am. She would not survive a second attempt. For that, she needs someone who possesses a greater natural ability than herself, someone whose family possesses an instinctive connection to the veil. That is why she needs you.’
Artemis had always taught Kate to trust only what she could see and feel. To him, the veil was a fantasy created by people who could not face the finality of death. But sitting there with Silas, the line between what was true and what was not blurred suddenly. Kate had never fully shared her uncle’s scepticism of the world and she could not help believing that at least part of what Silas was telling her was the truth.
‘If that is true,’ she said, ‘why isn’t Artemis one of the Skilled? He is a Winters, just like me.’
‘As I told you before, the Skilled are a dying breed,’ said Silas. ‘The ability is not always passed down through blood, and fewer are born with every generation. Your father had the ability to see the veil, your uncle does not. It is not unusual to see a difference within families.’
Silas’s crow shook its feathers and flapped up on to the fireplace, where it stood pecking at its claws.
‘Are you one of the Skilled?’ she asked.
‘I was an ordinary man once,’ said Silas. ‘Now I am something else.’
‘But … when you send your crow after people … you can talk to it, can’t you?’
‘My relationship with the veil is very different from that of the Skilled,’ said Silas. ‘Animals use the veil far more than any of us. They understand it. All I have to do is listen.’
‘Then … you can hear what it says?’
‘No. But there are ways to communicate that go far beyond the basic senses. You experienced that yourself when you saw through Da’ru’s eyes at the boarding house. You were not using your own eyes at that time, you were using the veil. That is what I do. The crow’s eyes become mine. We hunt together.’
Kate tried to imagine how such a link could be possible, but after what she had already experienced of the veil, she realised that she was in no place to judge what was possible and what was not any more. ‘If Da’ru almost died doing what she did to you, what makes her think that I won’t?’ she asked.
Silas leaned forward in his chair, his eyes meeting hers, as if this was the question he had been waiting to answer all along. ‘Because the book of
Wintercraft
was never meant for someone like her,’ he said. ‘Each person has their own level of potential and Da’ru reached hers long ago. However much she might deny it, her level of Skill is accomplished but not extraordinary. Her ambition far outweighs her talent and it has taken her a long time to accept that.
Wintercraft
was written by your ancestors and was meant to be used by people with a far greater level of Skill than Da’ru. Your parents both came from families with strong Skilled abilities and you may well be the last of a pure Winters bloodline. Generations of potential exists within you. You are Da’ru’s best chance of using
Wintercraft
to get what she wants. She does not care if it will kill you or not, but she intends to make you try.’
Wintercraft
was never meant for someone like her,’ he said. ‘Each person has their own level of potential and Da’ru reached hers long ago. However much she might deny it, her level of Skill is accomplished but not extraordinary. Her ambition far outweighs her talent and it has taken her a long time to accept that.
Wintercraft
was written by your ancestors and was meant to be used by people with a far greater level of Skill than Da’ru. Your parents both came from families with strong Skilled abilities and you may well be the last of a pure Winters bloodline. Generations of potential exists within you. You are Da’ru’s best chance of using
Wintercraft
to get what she wants. She does not care if it will kill you or not, but she intends to make you try.’
‘But … I don’t know anything about any of this,’ said Kate. ‘The Skilled … the veil. And if you are one of Da’ru’s men, why didn’t you hand me over to her? What do you want me to do?’
Silas stared at her as if the answer should be obvious. ‘I had to judge your abilities for myself,’ he said. ‘You may be the most vital part of my preparations; the key to something I have looked forward to for twelve long years. You, Miss Winters, are going to help me to die.’
10
Memories
Kate was sure she had misheard him. ‘You want me to … what?’
Silas’s frown deepened. ‘It is not as simple as it sounds,’ he said. ‘This body can no longer die by any ordinary means. What I need is something extraordinary. Someone capable of reaching beyond this world to the place where the real damage was done. What I need is you.’
‘But if you can live like that, why would you want to die?’ asked Kate. ‘Surely for you … for
anyone
… not being able to get hurt would be a good thing.’
anyone
… not being able to get hurt would be a good thing.’
‘My body may heal quickly from the cut of a blade, but I still feel it,’ said Silas. ‘The tearing of metal against flesh, the hot smell of blood … Life is pain, Miss Winters. I am simply forced to endure it longer than ordinary men, and that is not acceptable to me. There is no cure for being human.
Why
I am looking for death is not the question you should be asking. For now all you should be concerned with is
how
.’
Why
I am looking for death is not the question you should be asking. For now all you should be concerned with is
how
.’
‘But … I can’t. That’s not—’
‘Your ability is not in question,’ said Silas. ‘Once we have
Wintercraft
, everything will fall into place.’
Wintercraft
, everything will fall into place.’
‘I’ve already told you. I don’t know anything about that book!’
‘Just because you do not remember it, does not mean you have not seen it. I think you know more about it than you realise. The answer is already there inside your mind. And together, we are going to find it.’
Silas moved before Kate knew what was happening, pressing his fingers to the sides of her head and bringing his face up close to hers. His grey eyes locked on to her own bright blues and then all of her energy was sapped away, drained so completely that it was an effort even to blink.
It felt as though a hood of ice had been pulled over her head. Her forehead prickled with cold and a deep chill spread through her bones, moving down through her spine and trickling into every muscle until she could not move. Her fingertips burned as frost spread across her skin, icing her eyelashes and making her lips turn blue. Her heartbeat slowed, unable to fight against the cold. Her lungs fought hard for every breath … tightening … slowing …
Silas slid Kalen’s silver dagger from his belt, pushed up Kate’s left sleeve and traced a shallow cut across the inside of her arm. Kate felt nothing except the cold as Silas captured drops of her blood in a thin vial and held it up to the light.
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