20
Blood
Kate tried to run to
Artemis but Silas kept her chain held tight. She was about to shout
at him to let her go, when Silas’s eyes met hers and he glanced at
the floor.
Kate looked down. The
ground she was standing on was carved with thousands of tiny
symbols, some of them so small that they looked like little
scratches in the stone, all written in the same language she had
seen on the floor of the museum. Together they made up a circle far
bigger than the one she had seen there, and this one was not just
surrounded by a ring of symbols, it was covered with them. The four
staircases leading up from it matched the points of a compass
perfectly and Kate was willing to guess that the upper level had
its own row of smaller symbols running around its edge, just like
the ones that she had seen around the museum’s hall.
Silas nodded to her
secretly.
They were standing in
the heart of an enormous listening circle.
The crowd were still
chanting ominously. If any of them were against the idea of a
public execution on a day meant for celebrating the dead, none of
them spoke up. A few people were trying to slip quietly towards the
tunnels, but the doors were locked and wardens stood guard,
refusing to let them out. Da’ru clearly wanted witnesses to what
she was about to do, whether they wanted to witness it or
not.
Artemis struggled
against the guards as they tied him tightly to the table. Da’ru
opened Wintercraft and an icy wind
swept around the circle as she began opening it to the veil. The
carved symbols closest to her feet began to flicker and glow, the
horses harnessed to the carriages whinnied and stamped, and blue
light spread out across the ground, flooding the circle and
creeping steadily up the staircases, parting the crowds as it
went.
Then Kate had a
terrifying thought.
She, Silas, Da’ru,
Artemis, the wardens and the councilmen were all inside the central
circle, a place of protection. If this circle behaved in the same
way as the one in the museum, in a few moments the entire city
square would shift into the half-life and the mist of the veil
would spread around the galleries, exposing hundreds of living
people to a place they were not meant to see. Every one of their
souls would be vulnerable to the pull of the half-life, and Edgar
was nowhere to be seen.
‘This circle will not
open fully for Da’ru,’ said Silas, speaking quietly beside her.
‘This is the oldest and most powerful listening circle in Albion,
capable of channelling many thousands of souls. Da’ru does not have
the ability to command it herself. She will need you to complete
it.’
‘But, those people
…’
‘Are about to see
what the Night of Souls is truly about,’ said Silas. ‘Do what Da’ru
says, and leave the rest to me.’
‘You, girl,’ said
Da’ru. ‘Here.’
Silas allowed Kate
enough loose chain for her to walk over to the councilwoman, who
was standing beside Artemis with her glass dagger by her
side.
‘I am told this man
means something to you,’ she said. ‘If you want me to restore his
life, you will do exactly as I say. If all goes well, Wintercraft will confer upon him a life free from
injury and death. He will be the first of many soldiers and will
serve Albion faithfully, as every man and woman should. If you
choose to do nothing, his death will be permanent and you will
never see him again. Do you understand?’
One of the wardens
had tied a cloth gag over Artemis’s mouth but he tried to shout
through it, glaring at Kate and shaking his head.
‘Answer!’
Kate did not want to
watch Artemis die, but she could not let his spirit be torn apart,
cursing him to live a life of pain at the hands of the High
Council. Even death would be better than that. She looked away from
him as she made her choice. Silas had a plan. She had to trust him
to do his part. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I understand.’
Da’ru clasped hold of
Kate’s hand. ‘A wise decision,’ she said quietly. ‘Together, the
two of us are about to create history.’
Kate felt Da’ru’s
energies connect with her own. It was a sickening feeling that
began at her fingertips and felt as if spiders were crawling inside
her, burrowing beneath her skin. She let it happen, allowing the
cold grip of the veil to creep over her as the mist descended and
moonlight streamed down across the square. Da’ru’s eyes were
bloodshot, her body quickly becoming exhausted by the effort of
opening the circle, but Kate found it easy this time. She knew what
to expect, she knew what she had to do and when the blue light
blazed into silver across the square, she and Silas were the only
ones who did not close their eyes.
The blaze of energy
surged into the crowd, slamming them all back in their seats. The
high walls of the surrounding buildings absorbed the greater force
of it, shuddering in their foundations as the energy of the circle
took hold, the light sank back slowly into the symbols on the
ground and the air filled with blue. Nervous talk spread around the
galleries as the mist settled. And then, from a shadowy place high
above the crowd, the shades rushed in.
There were many more
there than Kate had seen before. Thousands of them, travelling
through the mist, all moving together as one. The bonfire crackled
and died in a cough of black smoke and every candle in the
galleries blew out at once. The crowd did not know what to do and
most just sat there, transfixed by the eerie sight of the spirits
swirling around them.
Da’ru smiled in
triumph, laid Wintercraft open on the
table and held her dagger high above Artemis’s chest, shouting out
so everyone around her could hear. ‘With the blood of a traitor,’
she cried, “I shall conquer death!’
Kate felt movement
behind her and saw a flash of blue as Silas drew his blade and
swept its edge up against Da’ru’s neck. He held it there, perfectly
still, savouring the look of surprise on her face.
‘You will not do
anything here tonight,’ he said. ‘The girl has already told you
your fate. You should have listened to her, Da’ru.’
The wardens swarmed
around Silas, then they hesitated, caught between their duty to the
councilwoman and their fear of the man standing before them. Da’ru
signalled to them to stand back, then lowered her dagger and
pressed her throat up against the sword, deliberately making a tiny
thread of blood appear on her skin.
‘You cannot harm me,
Silas,’ she said smoothly. ‘You have just made a very grave
mistake.’
Silas turned to Kate,
his face fierce and cold as the wardens backed away. ‘Kate,’ he
said, throwing a tiny key towards her. ‘Unlock your chain. Take the
book.’
Kate freed herself
quickly and snatched Wintercraft from
the table beside Artemis.
‘As you can see,’
Silas said to Da’ru, ‘our situation has changed.’
‘You will rot in the
darkest cell for this,’ said Da’ru, her face seared with anger at
his betrayal. ‘When I am finished here, history will remember me as
Albion’s greatest protector. But you? You are nothing, Silas. Even
death does not want you. I could have used Wintercraft to give you peace, but I shall make you
suffer for what you have done.’
‘More lies,’ said
Silas. ‘Your words mean nothing to me. They are poison. Venom. You
have used them as weapons against me for too long, Da’ru. I know
the truth. I know what you have done. Your words are worthless.
Just like you.’
‘Seize the girl!’
Da’ru shouted to her guards. ‘Seize her and take this traitor
away!’
Faced with a direct
order, the wardens had no choice but to obey.
Four of them rounded
the table at once, heading straight for Kate; she ducked beneath
the slab of stone, crawling quickly over to the other side. Artemis
tried to squirm free to help her, but he was bound fast. When
another warden blocked Kate’s escape, Silas snatched Da’ru’s dagger
and ended the man’s life with one perfect throw to the heart. The
warden was dead before he touched the ground. Kate stared at the
body for a moment, then clutched Wintercraft to her chest and pushed past him. More
wardens were closing in.
Any doubts the
wardens had about attacking Silas vanished completely with the
death of their first man. They fell upon Silas like ants. His sword
flashed and swung. Bodies fell and Da’ru backed away, untouched by
it all, her eyes set firmly on Kate.
People in the
galleries shouted and screamed at the sight of a battle being
fought below them. Some were cheering for Silas, others were
backing the wardens, but most of them had left their seats and were
busy fighting their way to the exits. Some tripped on the steps and
no one stopped to help them up. All any of them could care about
was escape. The four upper doors being guarded by wardens were
swiftly overrun, but they were all sealed fast by the circle’s
outer boundary. The doors would not open. No one could get
out.
A wave of panic
rolled like thunder across the crowd and Kate ran towards the black
carriages that were gathered together within the circle of
protection. She ducked behind a pair of frightened horses and ran
past five carriages lined up behind them, until a door swung open
further down and a head of wild black hair leaned out.
‘Edgar?’
‘Quick!’ Edgar
shouted, reaching out an arm to help her up. ‘Get in.’
Kate grabbed his hand
and climbed inside. Tom was in there with them, huddled on one of
the seats with his knees pulled up to his chest, trying to block
out everything that was going on.
‘He’ll be OK,’ Edgar
said quickly. ‘What about Artemis? What’s happening out
there?’
The gruesome sounds
of Silas’s battle carried into the carriage and Kate let the horror
of what they were hearing speak for itself.
‘I have to close the
circle,’ she said, opening Wintercraft
and turning desperately through its pages. ‘There are wardens
behind me. Da’ru too. I don’t have much time.’
‘Wait … wait!’ said
Edgar. ‘Think about this. You closed that circle in the museum, you
can just do it again.’
‘I don’t know how I
did that!’
‘But you still
did it.’ Edgar put his hands on the
book, stopping Kate from looking any further. ‘Look, I don’t know
much about this stuff, but I know what I’ve seen and I don’t think
this book is all it’s cracked up to be. I saw you help Silas at the
museum. You helped him, Kate! And I bet
this book didn’t tell you how, did it?’
‘Let go,’ demanded
Kate, trying to pull Wintercraft away
from him, but Edgar held on tight.
‘This book can’t make
people do things,’ he said. ‘It just points them in the right
direction. The people who wrote it didn’t need it to do what they
did. They just wrote about it all afterwards. Think about it, Kate.
I don’t know how it all works, but it
does. I think you already know what to do. You just need to trust
yourself. And you definitely don’t need this.’
Kate did not want to
let go of Wintercraft. There was too
much at stake to simply give in and trust that everything would be
all right, but she felt her fingers weaken and Edgar slid the book
away.
‘All right,’ he said
carefully. ‘That crowd are going to start trampling each other out
there soon. If you’re going to do something, now’s the
time.’
‘But it’s not my
circle,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t know how to stop it. Da’ru made it,
not me.’
‘Da’u can’t do what
you do. She used to spend hours trying to get a good circle going.
With you standing next to her it took seconds. What do you think
that means?’
Edgar ducked suddenly
as glass splintered across the carriage floor and the window
exploded against the force of a warden’s fist. A thick arm reached
in to grab hold of his neck and Edgar used the book as a weapon,
hitting it against the warden’s head to fend him off while Tom
leaped to his aid, punching and biting whatever part of the
attacker he could reach.
‘Run, Kate!’ Edgar
shouted. ‘Run!’
Kate burst out of the
carriage’s opposite door and saw Silas still locked in battle on
the other side of the circle. He had taken at least ten of his
attackers down already, leaving the ground around him stained with
blood, but not all of that blood belonged to the wardens. Silas was
wounded. His injuries were coming too quickly for his body to heal
itself before others took their place and the wardens were brutal,
surrounding him like a pack of dogs and challenging him all at
once, their daggers flashing in the night. Kate could see the pain
of every blow written across Silas’s tortured face. He would not be
able to keep them away from him for long.
Two of the wardens
tried to restrain Silas with ropes and chains, but he claimed the
chain as a new weapon and strangled them with it before they could
get close. His face was bloodied and twisted with rage and Kate was
worried that this was a battle he would not win. Then Da’ru rounded
the front of the carriage just a few steps away from her. She had
hesitated too long.
‘Give me the book,’
Da’ru said, as Kate backed towards the edge of the protected
circle. ‘Give it to me!’
Da’ru grabbed hold of
Kate’s arm before she could move and Kate felt the veil’s energy
crackle and snap beneath her skin. She sank into Da’ru’s memories,
unable to break the link the circle had created between them, and
the veil carried her back through time, letting Kate witness
firsthand what Da’ru had done.
Her life was filled with blood and anger, torture and
death. Kate saw the glass dagger and the faces of those whose lives
it had claimed. She saw Edgar as a boy, half-drowned in the testing
room water tank as she tested him for signs of the Skill, and then
a barred door slamming shut as she locked him in an underground
cell. Then she was outside Fume, joining the wardens in their
harvests as she hunted the Skilled just as she had tried to hunt
Kate, and in every town Da’ru went to she left her own trail of
death. Informants and whisperers fell to her blade. The Skilled she
discovered died within days and then there was Kalen
…
Kate saw Kalen in one of Da’ru’s tower rooms, retreating
from her as she raged about Wintercraft, ordering him to find the book and punish those who had
stolen it from him. Da’ru had been with him on the night Kate’s
parents were taken away, watching from the other side of the street
as they were forced into a warden’s cage. She had searched the
bookshop herself, desperate to find Wintercraft and unaware of the girl hiding in the cellar beneath her
feet. When she could not find it, Kalen was the one to suffer next.
A poisoned blade tainted with bloodbane gave him the scar Kate had
seen across his face, along with a dose of the poison large enough
to drive him into madness for ever.
Kate watched the experiment Da’ru had conducted upon Silas
through her own eyes and she saw the dozens more who had died
before him in the museum’s listening circle. She witnessed the
moment Da’ru found Wintercraft,
reaching down to lift it out of an open grave, and then the years
rolled back even further, to a meeting Da’ru had with the Skilled,
long before her time with the High Council. The Skilled had offered
to help her and protect her as one of their own, but Da’ru had no
intention of living her life below ground, hiding from the world.
She had turned them away and chosen to experiment upon the veil
herself.
Finally, the memories carried Kate to a time when Da’ru
was only a few years younger than Kate was then, to the moment she
first recognised that she had the Skill. She was in a sunlit room,
lifting a dead mouse from the claws of a black cat. When the little
creature squirmed back to life within her hands Kate heard Da’ru
laugh as if she had found a new toy. The mouse tried to wriggle its
way to freedom, but Da’ru threw it back into the cat’s jaws,
waiting for it to die so she could revive it
again.
Silas may have been a killer, but Da’ru was something
worse. Kate could feel something dark inside that woman. She did
not care about Albion or anything else. She enjoyed the destruction
and uncertainty of an endless war. She wanted to damage people. She
wanted to see them suffer, using her position on the High Council
to wield the ultimate power of life and death.
Kate broke from
Da’ru’s memories, not wanting to see any more. It had all happened
in an instant. Da’ru had felt nothing and she twisted Kate’s arm
cruelly, dragging her out of the safety of the central circle, deep
into the wall of churning mist.
Silas watched the two
of them cross into the veil as he ended a warden’s life, then
another, and another. He watched the shades move apart to let the
two women pass through and then close behind them, swallowing them
completely into the darkness of the veil.
With the last man
lying dead at his feet, Silas turned to the councilmen, blood
smeared across his skin and dripping from his blade. ‘This is what
you all deserve,’ he said, his words breaking a little as a handful
of damaged ribs cracked suddenly back into place. ‘You let this
happen. This night rests on your heads, not mine.’
Silas fell to his
knees, all energy spent, but slowly and steadily his body healed.
His wounds sealed themselves, his bones reset and his torn muscles
knitted together again. The effort of it exhausted him. Pain
clouded his mind and so he did not notice a trickle of strange
blood creeping slowly down his injured chest.
The vial of Kate’s
blood that he had stolen from the testing room had smashed during
the battle, slicing his skin and spreading some of her blood into
his own. A thread of warmth raced through Silas’s veins and he slid
his hand into his coat, pulling out thin slivers of bloodstained
glass. There had been no ritual. Silas had never intended for it to
happen and yet he could sense Kate’s energy within him - a distant
echo reflected somewhere deep inside. Her blood had been bound to
his within the energies of an open listening circle. It connected
them. The pulse of Kate’s life reverberated alongside his own and
Silas could feel the potent rush of Kate’s fear as she walked
within the veil.
For ten years, echoes
of Da’ru’s spirit had crept inside him. She was arrogant, fearless
and malicious. Her influence had stripped away parts of Silas that
he had since learned to live without and he had fought against it
every day, holding back the overwhelming force that threatened to
engulf his identity fully in the dark. Silas had become used to
restraining the worst of Da’ru’s nature deep within himself, but it
had been a long time since he had felt true fear. Kate’s spirit did
not overwhelm him as Da’ru’s had done for so long; it glowed like a
hidden flame within his blood, and the fear he sensed from her was
not for herself, but for the foolish uncle she had come to save:
the man who was wriggling futilely against his bonds upon the stone
table, incapable of doing anything for himself.
The glass dagger
still sat inside the chest of Silas’s first kill. He struggled to
his feet and limped towards it, unsheathing it from the man’s ribs
while Artemis fought against his ropes.
‘Where is she?’
Artemis asked nervously. ‘Where is Kate?’
Silas left him bound
and turned away, carrying a blade in each hand. ‘Stay here,
bookseller,’ he said. ‘It will all be over soon.’
The shades gathered
around Kate as Da’ru pushed her into the veil. They were screeching
and screaming, their voices filling the half-life with desperate
words.
‘… free us! …’
‘… help us! …’
‘… release us! …’
The shades moved
gently around Kate, but when Da’ru stepped among them, everything
changed. The air filled with a low hiss. The shades’ hatred spread
like fire and Kate knew that Da’ru’s connection with the circle was
all that was protecting her from their wrath.
‘I did not believe
what Silas told me about you at first,’ said Da’ru, forcing Kate
deeper into the mist with strength Kate would not have guessed she
had. ‘Now I can see that he did not tell me everything. I had heard
about the Walkers, of course, but I never imagined that I would
meet one outside the pages of Wintercraft.’
Da’ru looked at the
shades in wonder, mesmerised by the presence of so many pressing
closely against her skin. She closed her eyes, absorbing the
experience of being able to step physically into the veil for the
very first time and her fingernails scratched deeply into Kate’s
skin. Kate realised that she was holding on to her far too tightly.
Da’ru was afraid of something.
As a Walker, Kate was
able to step into the veil without danger, but Da’ru did not
possess the level of ability to allow her to walk safely on her
own. She needed Kate beside her. Without a physical link to a
Walker, she risked endangering her spirit if she stayed within that
mist for too long.
The shades swirled
anxiously around them. Kate’s hair whipped up in the current made
by their frenzied movements and she looked through the mist towards
the frightened crowd. Every one of those people was in danger and
she had no idea what she was supposed to do to help them. The
circle belonged to Da’ru. Kate could not close it. Da’ru was its
master and she was completely in control.
‘Forget them,’ said
Da’ru, following her gaze. ‘Those people do not see the world the
way we do, Kate. They never truly believed in the veil. The Night
of Souls is just a joke to them, another excuse for a mindless
celebration. They have never once dared to try and understand it.
Now they can see the truth for themselves.’
Kate glanced back at
the central circle. She could see Silas standing at the very edge,
but he wasn’t doing anything. He was just standing there, watching
her. Da’ru’s hand went suddenly up to Kate’s throat and Kate could
feel her own energy draining down into the circle as Da’ru
channelled it out of her, weakening her. Soon it was hard to move …
hard to breathe.
‘Listen to me,’
demanded Da’ru. ‘Your life belongs to me now. Those people are
going to die and, when they do, you will use my blood and bind
every one of their souls to me. The council are watching. It is
time for me to claim my place in history and you are going to do
exactly as I say.’
Da’ru saw her looking
over to Silas, and she smiled darkly. ‘Silas is not your ally,
Kate. Men like him have no need for allies. You have witnessed the
terror he can create and the respect he commands. With an army of
people like Silas by my side, Albion will no longer need to hide in
the dark. We shall conquer our enemies, make every one of them
suffer, and then we shall crush them one by one. You will help me
do this, Kate. Together we will make this country live
again.’
Kate’s eyes felt
heavy and the screams of the dead spun deafeningly around her. She
could see Da’ru’s madness in her face and, struggling to take one
last full breath, Kate spoke as firmly as she could. ‘I won’t do
anything for you,’ she said. ‘Albion doesn’t need more soldiers or
more war. It needs to be protected from people like you.’
Da’ru’s face darkened
and she threw Kate to the ground.
Kate’s head struck
stone and pain exploded behind her eyes. Then, like a match being
struck inside her mind, her instincts took over. The mist of the
half-life lifted as her eyes were suddenly able to filter it out
and she saw something within it that Da’ru had not seen: the
current of death moving swiftly towards them, like a silvery
reflection flickering through the air.
‘You have two paths
ahead of you,’ said Da’ru, standing over Kate, oblivious to the
danger so close by. ‘You will join me. Or you will join
them.’
The shades screamed
again. Something moved behind Da’ru and a pair of solid, living
arms wrapped firmly around her neck.
‘Get away from
her!’
Edgar had left the
safety of the inner circle and was pulling on Da’ru as hard as he
could, trying to drag her away from Kate. He knew about the dangers
of the veil, but he was there anyway, refusing to let Kate fight
alone. The shades circled above him as Da’ru grabbed his hand and
twisted him away. Then she forced him to the ground and bent over
him, drawing a slim silver blade from her sleeve and pressing it
against his neck.
‘That is the last
time you will disturb me, boy,’ she said.
The current of death
was closing in. It was just a few inches away from Kate when she
gathered the very last of her weakening strength and grabbed hold
of Da’ru’s dress, pulling her from Edgar long enough for him to
roll out of her reach and back into the safety of the inner circle.
She dragged as hard as she could until Da’ru turned to face her,
and she managed to catch hold of her wrist instead.
‘What are you doing?’
cried Da’ru, but it was too late.
Her eyes widened as
the current of death washed over Kate and then came straight for
Da’ru, spreading through her body and rippling against her face.
Kate took one last look at Edgar as the warm touch of death spread
into her, making her body feel light, safe and free. Then she
closed her eyes and, with one final breath, she let the current
take her.