Wintercraft (18 page)
‘It is unfortunate that it has come to this,’ she said. ‘There was nothing anyone could do.’
The woman would have easily passed unnoticed in any crowd, but Kate remembered her eyes clearly enough. They were dark and strange, like black puddles of oil with rims of bright blue tracing around their edges.
‘Then … it’s true?’ Artemis looked at the woman, willing her not to give him the news he was dreading.
‘I am sorry, Artemis. They are dead.’
‘No.’
‘You have my word. We did everything we could.’
‘No! How? How could this happen?’
‘Anna was carrying the book of
Wintercraft
. She passed it to one of our people when the wardens moved her from the train, but she was seen. Da’ru Marr heard about what she had done and had her executed as a traitor. Jonathan tried to stop them. He stole a key and freed himself from his cell, but it was too late. Anna was already dead. He attacked the first two wardens that he saw, unarmed, and was killed that same night.’
Wintercraft
. She passed it to one of our people when the wardens moved her from the train, but she was seen. Da’ru Marr heard about what she had done and had her executed as a traitor. Jonathan tried to stop them. He stole a key and freed himself from his cell, but it was too late. Anna was already dead. He attacked the first two wardens that he saw, unarmed, and was killed that same night.’
Artemis walked blindly over to a chair by the bookshop fire and dropped down into it with his head in his hands.
‘What do I tell Kate?’ he said quietly. ‘How do I tell a five-year-old girl that her parents are gone?’
‘Tell her that they did what they set out to do,’ said the woman. ‘The book is safe. We will make a place for it in the ancient library, somewhere it will never be found.’ She walked to Artemis and placed a broken silver chain with a gemstone pendant gently in his hand. ‘We found this afterwards,’ she said. ‘It belongs to Kate now.’
Artemis’s fingers closed around the chain, but he did not raise his head.
‘It is not too late. You can still join us. We can protect you. Both of you.’
Artemis looked up, his eyes damp with tears. ‘Just like you protected Jonathan and Anna?’ he said bitterly. ‘We do not need your kind of protection.’
‘Artemis …’
‘Get out,’ he whispered.
‘Perhaps, one day, you will change your mind,’ said the woman. ‘You will see that it is for the best.’
Artemis laughed coldly, and the woman turned to leave.
‘Tell Kate her parents carried the name of Winters well,’ she said. ‘Da’ru only learned who they were after their deaths. If she had known whom she had captured, I believe their lives would have been a lot worse. Death may well be a blessing for both of them.’
‘Get out!’
The woman nodded once, then swept out of the door as smoothly as the breeze, leaving Artemis hunched in front of the fire, weeping in the dark.
Kate opened her eyes.
‘What is it?’ demanded Silas. ‘What did you see?’
Kate was sure now of one thing. Her parents had died trying to protect
Wintercraft
. Artemis had warned them the book was dangerous, but they had protected it just the same.
Wintercraft
. Artemis had warned them the book was dangerous, but they had protected it just the same.
‘Well?’
‘It’s gone,’ said Kate. ‘The book is gone.’
‘You are lying.’
‘We kept a box … inside the cellar fireplace. Artemis hid the book in there when he heard the wardens coming. You destroyed the book. When you burned the bookshop, it burned too.’
The lie came easily to Kate, but Silas was not fooled. ‘There are two vital facts you should know before you lie to me again,’ he said calmly. ‘Firstly, I am a man of my word. I keep my promises and do not make them without fully intending to carry them out. And secondly, there is no secret you can keep from me, now that I know how to enter your mind.’
Kate felt the veil creeping around the very edges of her consciousness and she stepped back from Silas, trying to blink the feeling away.
‘If the book could be destroyed so easily, do you not think someone would have rid the world of it long before now? And do you really believe I would have burned your shop if I had not been absolutely certain
Wintercraft
was not inside? If it was there, I would have known. I would have seized it, found you and we would not be having this pleasant conversation. Your work would already be done.’
Wintercraft
was not inside? If it was there, I would have known. I would have seized it, found you and we would not be having this pleasant conversation. Your work would already be done.’
Silas’s growing anger smothered the room. Kate’s back reached the wall. There was nowhere else to go.
‘We have no more time,’ said Silas. He grabbed her arm, pulled her along the wall and snatched something down from a high shelf. ‘Remember, it is your fault that we have come to this.’
The point of a needle shone in the firelight and a vial attached to it glowed a deep dangerous blue as Silas stabbed it down into Kate’s arm, releasing a trickle of poison into her blood. She tried to pull away, but the liquid spread like fire through her veins. Sounds became distant, her limbs felt heavy and her knees weakened under her, sending her crumpling to the floor.
Silas’s crow fluttered up on to his shoulder and Silas stood over her as unconsciousness carried her senses away.
‘This could have all been much easier,’ he said.
11
The High Council
Kate woke to a dull thumping sound. She was underwater, but she was breathing somehow. Her hands went quickly to her face, where a mask covered her mouth and nose, feeding air into her lungs. She panicked, dragged the mask off and thrashed her arms, fighting her way to the safety of the surface, only there was no surface to reach, just a hard barrier closed tightly over her head, sealing her in. Kate slammed her hands uselessly against the glass as a face appeared behind it: a face that was not Silas.
She choked in a mouthful of water and snatched at the bubbling mask again, terrified she was going to drown. Then the face stepped back, a deep grating sound rumbled around her and the water level plunged, draining away quickly through a metal grille beneath her feet. Kate dropped to the floor, choking and gasping for breath as Da’ru peered in through the glass.
‘That was your first failure,’ she said, her voice echoing around the tank. ‘As a Skilled, you should have been able to see me and speak with me inside the veil without returning to full consciousness. I am disappointed in you, Kate.’
The room outside the tank was lit by dozens of candles and Kate saw a group of people gathered in the light. She was not in the museum’s cellars any more. She was in the centre of a grand room, surrounded by twelve men in formal clothes seated behind a curved table draped in green cloth. The vial of blood Silas had drawn from her lay half-empty at the very end of the table, and the man closest to it was hunched over a pile of papers, writing notes. Silas had taken her to the High Council. The experiments had already begun.
‘She did not even enter the first level of the veil,’ said Da’ru, turning away. Kate watched her through the glass, glaring at her with pure hate. ‘I should have let her drown.’
‘That would have been a mistake.’
A dark shape moved in one of the corners and Silas stepped into the light of the room. He blended into the shadows so perfectly, Kate had not even seen him.
‘Immersing the girl was pointless,’ he said. ‘The elements do not react to her in the same way as the rest.’
Da’ru ignored him as if he had not spoken at all. ‘We shall attempt a more direct approach,’ she said. ‘The bloodbane dispersed extremely quickly in her blood. That is a small sign of potential at the very least. She may yet prove interesting. Release her.’
The boy from the museum scuttled out of an alcove in the wall at his mistress’s word and unclipped four heavy clamps that kept the tank fixed to the floor. The glass shuddered, and with a sudden creak of wheels and rope the tank’s walls rose up into the air, leaving Kate standing clothed and dripping wet on the round grate. She could not remember anything that had happened between the museum and where she was now, but whatever danger she had been in with Silas, her situation had clearly become much worse.
‘You promised us results,’ said one of the councilmen. ‘This child looks like yet another pointless waste of our time.’
‘Excellence takes time,’ said Da’ru. ‘Manipulating a subject’s connection to the veil is a delicate procedure. It cannot be rushed without forcing them too far into death. If my studies are correct, this girl may be able to manipulate the veil in ways we have not yet seen, even without the tools and careful conditions usually employed by the Skilled. If she is useful to us, you can be sure I will discover it.’
Da’ru gave the boy a signal and he darted forward again, clipping one end of a short chain to Kate’s ankle and the other to the grate in the floor.
‘Name’s Tom,’ he whispered, keeping his head down and his voice so quiet Kate almost didn’t hear it. ‘Edgar’s brother.’
Kate’s confusion must have showed upon her face. She didn’t even know Edgar
had
a brother.
had
a brother.
The boy sniffed. ‘Guess he didn’t tell you about me, eh? Doesn’t matter. Ed said to tell you he’s out of the cell. He knows you’re here.’
‘Faster, boy!’
Tom tightened the last lock as slowly as he could. ‘He knows where your uncle is, too. But there’s a problem …’
Before Tom could tell Kate any more, Da’ru ordered him away. ‘Bring in the body,’ she commanded. ‘And be quick!’
Tom scrambled to obey and disappeared into the next room, emerging moments later pulling a low table behind him. A dark red cloth covered whatever was on top of it and Kate stared at the body-shaped bulge, expecting the worst. What if it was Artemis under there? What if that was the problem? What if he was dead? She tried to prepare herself for the worst, determined not to react too strongly if it was true. Then Da’ru nodded, Tom pulled back the cloth and the dead person’s identity was revealed.
Kalen’s body looked almost exactly the same as the last time Kate had seen it, grey and cold and still, except that his sunken chest was bare and the wound Silas’s sword had made had been stitched together with crosses of thick black thread. The sight of him laid there made bile rise up in Kate’s throat, but a deeper part of her was glad to see him again. There was the man who had stolen her parents, laid out, dead and cold. The manner of his death no longer mattered to her. Silas was right, Kalen
had
earned his death. All that mattered was that he was gone.
had
earned his death. All that mattered was that he was gone.
‘This body is all I want you to concentrate upon now,’ Da’ru said, as Tom wheeled the table right up in front of Kate. ‘One of your townspeople stole this man’s life and now you will return it to him.’
‘The townspeople?’ Kate’s eyes flashed towards Silas.
‘Quiet!’ Silas said firmly. ‘The councilwoman did not order you to speak.’ He glared at Kate with such fury that she did not dare say any more.
‘You are here to work, girl. Not to talk,’ said Da’ru. ‘You will show the High Council exactly what a Skilled mind can do. Now, return this man’s soul.’
‘I can’t,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t know how to do that. And even if I could, I wouldn’t.’
Da’ru’s back straightened, her eyes bristling at Kate’s brazen challenge to her authority. ‘You will.’
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