8
Feathers & Bones
Fume was a city of
darkness. The buildings were tall and angular, built from black
stone and dark wood, each one reaching up to six floors high,
casting shadows across the winding streets. Kate was standing upon
a wide balcony at the top of the northern wall, alongside a spiral
staircase leading down into the city itself. From that vantage
point she could see the rest of the city’s outer walls circling
round like encompassing arms reaching far beyond the horizon, and
the pointed roofs of the tower-like buildings scratching at a layer
of fog that balanced across them like a sickly
blanket.
Every building was an
exaggeration of what a building should have been. Where Morvane had
ordinary houses, Fume had clusters of tall towers huddled together
like whispering old men and streets of grand homes with black slate
roofs all shimmering with frost. It was powerful, aggressive and
magnificent all at once, all built upon the bones of Albion’s
ancestors. Kate had expected to see riches, but nothing like
this.
She looked behind
her. The wardens had to be close, so she grabbed the handrail of
the curling staircase that wound in upon itself impossibly tight
and headed down.
The metal steps
creaked and wobbled beneath her, but she kept going, clinging on to
the central post for balance and hitting the ground at a run, not
daring to catch her breath as the staircase swayed with the weight
of someone following behind her. The towers looked even taller now
she was underneath them: immovable monuments to the dead that not
even the High Council would dare to strip away. She ran between
them on to the nearest street, past railings that circled the
towers like iron skirts, and squeezed through the first gate she
could find, ducking down behind a neatly-trimmed hedge and trusting
it to keep her hidden as she spied on the road.
Carriages trundled
leisurely past her hiding place, but no wardens came and she was
just about to creep out and risk checking the staircase when she
heard a familiar voice close by.
‘One more sound out
of you, and I will slice you ear to ear.’
Kate peered round the
side of the hedge. Standing there as ominous as the city around him
was Silas, with Edgar by his side, bound to him by a wrist
chain.
‘I should have killed
you when I had the chance,’ said Silas, raising a hand to the sky
and letting his crow flutter down to land proudly upon it. ‘You
always were trouble.’
‘She won’t follow us,
you know,’ said Edgar, his nervous voice a little higher than
usual. The crow glared down at him, watching his every move. ‘Kate
doesn’t even know her way around the city. She won’t know where we
are.’
‘She’ll know.’ Silas
stopped for a moment, making Kate retreat further into her hiding
place. ‘I would have stripped that station bare in search of her if
it would not have attracted unwanted questions,’ he said. ‘Perhaps
this way is for the best. I have you
now, Mr Rill. The Winters family have always looked after each
other and you are as good as family to that girl from what I have
seen. Wherever I take you, your friend will not be far
behind.’
‘Don’t count on it,’
said Edgar. ‘Kate’s a lot smarter than you think.’
‘We shall see.’ Silas
reached his hand into the street and a horse-drawn carriage with a
blue crest on its door pulled up to the pathside. ‘The Museum of
History,’ he said to the driver. ‘And don’t spare the whip.’ Silas
carried his crow inside and tugged Edgar in behind him like a
disobedient dog. The reins snapped hard and the grey horse trotted
forward.
Kate didn’t have to
think about what to do next. If she lost Edgar now, she could lose
him for good. She darted out from her hiding place, ran straight
for the carriage and grabbed hold of the luggage rack hooked on to
the back. But the horse gained speed more quickly than she
expected. Her boots caught on the cobbles and she tripped,
wrenching her arms as she tried to hang on. Her fingers clamped
tight, letting her feet drag painfully along the ground until the
horse slowed to take a corner and she was able to keep up with it
again. With her legs back under her control she managed to jump up,
hooking her left foot into a twisted loop of ornamental metal that
caged the carriage’s rear axle.
The whip cracked, the
horse sped to a gallop and the carriage wheels spun at a racing
pace until it was cutting through the streets faster than a wolf
could run. Kate’s right leg hung down painfully as she clung to the
rack’s cold metal, and she forced most of her weight into her left
leg, trying to keep her balance. No one paid her any attention.
There were dozens of carriages on the streets, many of them with
people tucked into the luggage racks or riding on the roof -
servants, she guessed from their bedraggled states - but none of
them were travelling as fast as the one under Silas’s
command.
The carriage raced
along streets decorated with sinister stone statues, past low
buildings topped with staring gargoyles that spat meltwater down on
to the paths below. The driver was definitely taking Silas at his
word. The whip cracked hard every few seconds and the horse sped
on, forcing well-dressed men and women to move aside to let it
speed through. Most of the streets looked much the same as the
rest, built to match perfectly the architecture of the old ages
that made up the oldest parts of Fume. Kate was starting to think
they were going around in circles when one of the wheels hit a
stone on a tight turn and the carriage lurched sharply, almost
sending her catapulting out on to the road. She clung on as it
bounced along into a wide street lined with huge grey buildings
until, with a snort of relief, the horse finally slowed to a
stop.
They were at the
bottom of a high curve of shallow steps, looking up at the
once-grand face of what had to be the Museum of History. If people
had ever used that place as a museum, they were nowhere to be seen
now. Its windows were tall and thin, tinted with green glass, every
one of them still intact. A strange feeling hung around that
building. The same quiet stillness that settled over cemeteries, as
if the dead were standing on those steps still watching the living.
Kate was willing to guess that housing a museum was not the only
way that building had spent its many years of life.
The carriage door
swung open before Kate had a chance to move. Silas stepped out and
pushed Edgar up the steps, heading for a door at the top while Kate
unhooked her foot and dropped down from the luggage rack. Her left
leg stung as the carriage rolled away and she limped up the steps,
sneaking into the museum through an unlocked side door once Silas
and Edgar had walked in through the front.
The door led into a
short corridor and through to a narrow room lined with glass cases.
There was no one around. From the look of the cobwebs hanging
thickly from the ceiling, the museum had been abandoned for a very
long time. Every case was empty, each one lined with faded fabric
that bore the dark shadows of necklaces, rings and gemstones that
had once been held inside.
There were six doors
leading out of the room, not including the one she came in through,
and all of them were shut tight. The first one she tried opened to
an odd chemical smell. It was dark in there and there was no sign
of Edgar, so she tried the second, which opened on to a staircase
leading down to a lower floor. Kate thought she heard noises
echoing below: sharp footsteps heading the opposite way, but her
experiences with cellars were bad enough to make her hesitate on
the top step.
‘Silas.’ A woman’s voice carried from behind a door
to Kate’s right, taking her by surprise.
The voice was strong
and commanding and Kate matched a face to it at once. It was the
woman she had seen in her vision at the boarding house. The one
Silas had gone to meet there. The woman called Da’ru.
Kate opened the third
door as silently as she could and peered through the gap, hearing
Silas’s voice on the other side. ‘Be careful, my lady. Remember
where you are. Your voice is loud enough to call the
dead.’
Da’ru was standing
beneath enormous skeletons of long-dead creatures that were hanging
down from the ceiling and Silas walked towards her, his expression
caught somewhere between obedience and hate. Kate could see most of
the hall from where she stood, but Edgar was not there. The chain
was no longer in Silas’s hand. There was no sign of him
anywhere.
‘You have had long
enough,’ said Da’ru. ‘Where is the girl? My officers informed me
that you kept one prisoner separate from the rest on the night
train and yet she has not been delivered to the High Council.
Why?’
‘There was a
commotion at the station,’ said Silas. ‘A boy was causing trouble
and I had to deal with him.’
Kate pushed the door
a little further and stopped when it creaked slightly. No one
noticed, so she stuck her head round to get a good look at what was
going on.
‘And the prisoner?’
said Da’ru. ‘Where is she now?’
Silas hesitated, his
eyes narrowing as he chose whether to lie to her or not. ‘Secure,’
he said at last.
‘Then you do have
her?’
Silas nodded firmly,
and his jaw twitched with anger as he waited for Da’ru to
speak.
‘I should not have to
come looking for you,’ she said. ‘Your first duty is to me. The
only reason you are not locked away beneath the council chambers is
because you have proved yourself useful. My name is feared for good
reason, Silas. And you above all others should fear me the
most.’
Silas took another
step towards her. ‘I fear nothing,’ he said.
‘Then I suggest you
pay closer attention to your work, or that will soon change.’ Da’ru
locked eyes with Silas without a hint of fear and Kate did not
doubt the seriousness of her threat.
‘Boy!’ Da’ru’s voice echoed around the
hall.
Footsteps rattled
along the upper level of the building and a young boy’s face
appeared on a gallery encircling the main hall. ‘I haven’t found
anyone yet, my lady,’ he said, bowing as he spoke. ‘I’ll keep
looking.’
Da’ru turned back to
Silas. ‘Where is she?’
Silas glared and said
nothing.
‘You would not be
here if the girl was not close by,’ said Da’ru. ‘You will hand her
over immediately, or I will have you thrown into a cell and charged
with treachery.’
‘Your presence here
threatens everything I have set in place,’ said Silas. ‘Leave.
Now.’
Da’ru smiled, raising
her chin to expose her bare neck, and Kate saw something cruel and
terrifying behind the beauty of her face. ‘Do not test me,’ she
said. ‘You are nothing but a dog on a lead to me, Silas. The rest
of the council may still trust you, but I know how much you would
like to kill me if you could. You could take your revenge against
me, right here and now, but you know what will happen if you do.
Without me, the blood within your veins will slow and die. Your
body will wither and what is left of your soul will be sealed
inside your rotting bones, unable to live and forbidden to die.
Your world will be silent. Your name forgotten. My wardens will
bury your worthless body where it will never be found and the only
battle left for you to fight will be against the worms as they
slither upon your skull and feast upon your eyes.’
Silas stood
unflinchingly before her, neither of them willing to give the other
an inch.
‘You already know
that there are far worse punishments than a simple death,’ said
Da’ru. ‘The half-life of the veil is a torturous place and
immortality lasts a long, long time.’
Silas glanced in
Kate’s direction, just once, so quickly that she might not have
noticed it. He relaxed his shoulders a little and the tension in
the room lifted as it looked like he was about to back
down.
‘Return to the
chambers,’ he said to Da’ru. ‘I will deliver the girl. Assemble the
council and tell them we shall perform the first procedure
tonight.’
‘The council does not
waste its time upon empty promises. She should be ours
already.’
‘Leave her to me,’
said Silas, bowing his head a little and taking a small step back.
‘Trust me, my lady. Everything is going to plan.’
Kate backed away from
the door. Silas knew she was there! But she couldn’t leave. Not
with Edgar still in there somewhere. She ran as softly as she could
back between the display cases. The boy was searching upstairs, he
mustn’t have found Edgar up there. Then she remembered the
footsteps in the cellar. The second door was still hanging open,
waiting for her.
The steps beyond were
tight and cramped, leading down into a huge dark space broken only
by pillars that held the main floors up. Sunlight crept in through
flat windows squashed against the ceiling, but it was still too
dark to see anything near the middle of the room. Kate followed the
wall, staying close to the light, and walked past high tables
stacked with specimen jars; some empty, but most sickeningly full.
There were birds, frogs, fish, spiders, beetles and flies, all
dried and pinned to stands inside the green glass, or drowned in
thick choking liquid that kept them preserved against
time.
Something rattled on
the other side of the enormous room.
Kate
froze.
‘Edgar?’ Her whisper
was lost in the darkness.
Stuffed birds hung
down from the ceiling and old feathers covered the floor, their
spines crunching beneath her feet as she followed the edge of the
table towards the noise. Then the sound came again.
A line of doors were
set into one of the longest walls and one of them rattled hard as
she made her way towards it. They looked like storage cupboards,
but the one that was moving still had a key sitting in its
lock.
Kate crept cautiously
to the door and whispered through the keyhole. ‘Edgar? Is that
you?’
‘Kate?’
Kate turned the key
quickly, the door swung open and Edgar - who had leaned against it
to listen to her voice - flopped straight out on to the
floor.
‘Ow! You could’ve
warned me!’ he moaned, trying to stand up. His wrists were tied
behind his back and Kate knelt down to free them. ‘How did you know
where I was?’
‘Shhh! They’ll hear
you.’
‘Silas … he just left
me in there!’ said Edgar. ‘I was almost out though. One of my
thumbs was loose, and that door would’ve given in eventually. Not
bad, I’d say.’
‘We have to get out
of here,’ said Kate, helping him up once she was done. ‘It’s not
just him any more. There’s a woman here. I think it’s the
councilwoman. She’s right upstairs.’
‘Da’ru is
here?’
Kate clamped a hand
over his mouth. ‘Yes. Not so loud. I know the way out. So just
follow me and keep quiet.’
Edgar nodded and she
let him go. ‘Lead the way,’ he whispered.
Kate followed the
tables back towards the cellar steps, trying to ignore the eerie
faces of the dead creatures glaring out at her from the jars. The
silence was frightening and she was just about to say something to
break it when Edgar grabbed her arm.
‘Kate,’ he breathed.
‘Stay still.’ But it was too late. Kate looked over to where the
steps began and saw a tall figure standing there. Silas. His grey
eyes shone with an eerie light. His voice echoed powerfully around
the cellar.
‘There is no way out,
Miss Winters,’ he said, stepping into the dappled sunlight. ‘The
rules have changed. You are in my world now.’