5
Wintercraft
Edgar ran through the
Southern Quarter, keeping to the shadows, trying not to be seen.
His hands were sweaty and his heart was racing. He hadn’t run this
fast since … No. He wasn’t going to think about that. He felt like
a coward. A collector had Kate and he was running in the opposite
direction. Any ordinary person would have tried facing Silas, tried
to fight him and force him to give her back. But this was not the
first time Edgar had run from Silas Dane. Fighting him would get
him nowhere. He knew what he had to do.
He kept running,
ignoring the shouts of a few townspeople who were standing on
doorsteps or leaning out of windows pointing at plumes of smoke
rising from nearby fires. They must not have seen the wardens yet,
but they were making enough noise to attract every one of them for
a mile around.
Dark clouds brought
heavy flurries of snow from the north, darkening the sky and
filling the air with falling flakes of white. Edgar dodged between
the houses, looking for somewhere to hide, somewhere to plan,
whilst above him, soaring high in the air, Silas’s crow followed
silently behind.
No one noticed the
bird’s wide wings outstretched above the rooftops as it kept pace,
following Edgar until he was forced to take shelter from the heavy
snow in a decrepit old house. It watched him force his way in
through a boarded window, then it settled on the corner-stone of a
bakery roof like a perfect gargoyle, waiting for him to make his
next move. And as it sat there, the town of Morvane
changed.
The snow lay like a
blanket across the run-down streets of the Southern Quarter. Ruined
roofs became beautiful again, dirty roads were given a fresh new
mask of white, and everything sparkled in the rare patches of
morning sun. The crow sat patiently, watching the door of the house
until a smart carriage, pulled by two grey horses, rolled into
sight, drawing its attention away. It stood, suddenly alert, cocked
its head and shook its feathers dry. The crow knew who was inside
that carriage. It could sense the unwelcome presence of an enemy.
Someone it had learned to fear.
Instinct told it to
fly, but duty to its master kept it locked to its post until the
carriage rolled by, oblivious to both the bird and the boy hiding
in the house. Only when it had passed safely out of sight could the
crow settle again and return obediently to its silent
watch.
Across town, the
carriage Kate was in was travelling fast. The windows were blacked
out with thick cloth, so she could only catch tiny glimpses of the
streets that raced by, but she saw enough to know that they were
heading towards the Western Quarter - Morvane’s oldest and most
dangerous district. She tugged secretly at her wrist cuff, trying
to force it up over her thumb joint, but it would not
budge.
A broken hatch at the
front of the carriage looked out on to the driver’s back and biting
wind surged through it, blasting snow into Kate’s face and forcing
her to huddle deeper into her coat. Silas did not move. He had not
spoken since they had boarded the carriage. The snow churned around
him, sending flakes drifting across his face, but while the flakes
melted instantly against the warmth of Kate’s skin, they clung to
Silas’s face far longer before melting away. When they landed upon
his eyeballs they clustered together in tiny drifts along his
eyelids. He did not even blink.
By the time the high
archway marking the change of quarter came into sight Kate’s cheeks
were so cold she could not feel them any more. The carriage’s
wheels bounced and jolted so hard along uneven roads that she had
to grab hold of her seat to stop herself falling off and, without
even glancing at his window, Silas gave an order to the driver.
‘Here.’
The carriage came to
a gentle stop in front of a rough-looking boarding house. Silas
unlatched his door and pulled Kate out into the open, where the
chill of the snow made her ears burn. The boarding house was easily
the tallest building in the quarter, with three floors of square
windows reaching up to a cracked circular window tucked beneath the
distant eaves. Silas did not bother to knock. He wrenched at the
door handle and pushed Kate inside.
‘What are we doing
here?’ she asked.
‘I have an
appointment to keep and I cannot risk leaving you with anyone
else,’ said Silas. ‘If you have any sense, you will keep your ears
sharp and your mouth shut.’
The door led into a
long corridor that was dark except for a single candle glowing at
the end. A shadow moved in front of the light and a small man
hurried up to meet them. He was old and plainly dressed, but Kate
could not miss the gleam of a gold and ruby ring on his right hand.
A ring like that could only belong to a man with powerful friends,
so it did not surprise her when he greeted Silas by
name.
‘Mr Dane,’ he said,
casting half a glance at the ruined door behind him.
‘Has she arrived?’
asked Silas.
‘No,
sir.’
‘Then I will come
down the moment she does. As far as you are concerned, this girl is
not here. She does not exist. Do you understand?’
‘Yes,
sir.’
The boarding-house
owner smiled creepily at Kate as Silas took her up the worn stairs
to the upper floors. They climbed two dog-legged flights and then a
third that led right up to the attic floor. A doorway, to which
Silas already had the key, stood upon a landing at the very top and
the room beyond was small and neat, with a narrow bed, an unlit
fire and a wooden desk inside. Silas locked the door behind them
and went at once to the circular window, swinging it open so he
could lean out over the street.
‘What’s going on?’
asked Kate. ‘Who are you meeting here?’
‘Someone who has been
looking for your family for a long time,’ said Silas, crossing the
room and locking one end of Kate’s silver chain to the desk. ‘As
far as she knows there is only one Winters rumoured to live in this
town. I will tell her that your uncle is useless, just like the
rest. If you stay quiet, there is a chance this day may not end
badly for you.’
‘What does that
mean?’ asked Kate.
‘Your parents never
mentioned they had a child when the wardens took them,’ said Silas.
‘They were wise enough to know when to keep quiet and when to
speak. A lesson you would do well to learn.’
‘What do you know
about them?’ demanded Kate, but a look from Silas was enough to
silence her.
‘What I know is
irrelevant,’ he said. ‘All that matters now is what you know, and
what you can do.’
A long silence
followed.
Silas stood beside
the open window, not caring that Kate was left shivering in the
dark. She sat down at the desk, trying to prise her wrist cuff open
on the corner of the wood, and was just about to ask Silas for the
woman’s name, when a sudden pain burst between her eyes, like
needles piercing the skin. A bright light flashed in front of her:
pure white light, there and gone again in an instant. She blinked
it away and had gone back to the wrist cuff when it happened again.
The light shone more intensely this time, lasting for a few seconds
and never weakening, even when she closed her eyes.
Silas glared at her
with suspicion. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Nothing. It’s
nothing. I—’
‘The Skilled have far
greater senses than ordinary people,’ he said. ‘Those senses can
create visions of things the eyes cannot normally see. Tell me what
you saw.’
The pain stabbed
again and the light flashed once more, sharpening into a vision of
something that Kate knew should have been impossible.
She was looking out of a carriage window towards the arch
that divided the Western Quarter from the south. It was the same
route that Silas’s carriage had taken, but she was not looking at a
memory of her own journey. The window was arched not square, and
the curtains were pulled wide open.
‘What do you see?’
Silas demanded.
Kate did not know
what was happening. Icy cold surrounded her hands, chilling them
until they were so cold that it felt as if her bones might snap.
She tried to stand up, but she could not move. She tried to speak,
but her throat made no sound. She could only sit staring at the
same point on the black wall, eyes fixed in silent terror as her
body refused to obey her.
Her first thought was
that she had been poisoned, but Silas had not given her anything to
eat or drink. She had not felt the prick of a needle or smelled gas
in the air. The cold spread along her arms, numbing them completely
as a thin layer of frost traced across her fingers. After that, all
she saw was darkness. Deep blackness, more complete than any
darkness she had ever known. She felt lost within it. Held tightly
in one place. Unable to move or speak or scream. All she had was
the pulse of her blood racing through her veins to let her know she
was alive, but even that was slowing down. Becoming fainter.
Weaker.
Silas’s voice spoke
close by. ‘All Skilled have the ability to see into the veil,’ he
said. ‘The boundary between this world and the next is opening
around you. Let it happen. It will become as easy as breathing,
given time.’
Kate could not have
stopped it if she tried. The cold was so intense that she became
numb to it. Then the vision returned and this time she was glad of
it. Anything to force the terrifying darkness away.
She was back inside the carriage travelling swiftly
beneath the quarter arch. She tried to look around, but her view
was fixed upon the window as the dark stones that made up the
archway blackened the glass, forming a mirror-like reflection
within it. Kate focused upon it and found herself looking at a
face. A woman’s face that was not her own.
Then everything stopped.
The vision froze around her and everything was still
except for the face: the face of a woman who had sensed something
other than herself inside that carriage. The cold eyes within the
glass began to smile and the finely painted mouth whispered a word.
‘Kate.’
The shock of hearing
her own name made Kate heave in a sudden breath. The vision broke
and she was back in the boarding house with Silas standing right
beside her. The frost melted quickly on her warming skin and she
stared as her hands slowly regained their colour, still shivering
with cold.
‘She’s coming,’ she
said, as soon as she was able to say the words. ‘I think I saw her.
She said my name. What … What happened?’
‘You used the veil to
see through the spirit of another,’ said Silas. For a moment, he
sounded surprised, but his cold eyes gave nothing away. ‘She is the
hunter and you are her prey. Given the right conditions, the veil
can link two Skilled minds if they are focused enough upon each
other, but it normally takes a tremendous strength of will to make
such a connection possible. What did you do?’
‘Nothing!’ said Kate,
tugging on her wrist cuff in frustration. ‘I was just sitting here,
trying to get this thing off.’
‘For her to know your
name, she must have been aware of the link between you,’ said
Silas. ‘When two minds join within the veil, it is possible for
them to share memories. You will not let it happen again. I am
surprised the Skilled did not find you long before I did. Your
potential is even greater than I expected. How long have you been
one of them?’
‘I’m not one of
them.’
‘Who taught you the
ways of Wintercraft?’
‘Winter-what?’
‘Where is the book
being kept? Did you read from it yourself?’
‘What book? I don’t
know anything about any of this!’ Kate was tired, confused and
angry. Her head still hurt from whatever had just happened, but
already logic was starting to take over. There was no way she could
have actually seen that woman in the carriage. She couldn’t have
been real. Her imagination could have created her by piecing
together what had already happened that day with what Silas had
told her. And as for the frost on her hands … there wasn’t even a
trace of it left now. Perhaps it had never even been there at
all.
‘Da’ru will arrive
soon,’ said Silas. ‘She must not find out that you are up here. Do
you understand?’
Da’ru? Kate
remembered the name. Kalen had called Edgar ‘Da’ru’s boy’, but she
was sure she had also heard it somewhere else before. ‘Why is she
looking for me?’ she asked.
‘The Skilled are a
dying breed,’ said Silas. ‘She has her plans for you. I have mine.
You are going to help me find the book of Wintercraft and with it you will help me do
something that most people believe to be impossible. That is all
you need to know for now.’
‘This is wrong,’ said
Kate. ‘I don’t know anything about the Skilled. I don’t know why
this is happening!’
‘Few people are able
to choose their own fate,’ Silas said coolly. ‘Even fewer learn to
accept the path that they are given.’ He returned to the window and
looked down on to the street.
‘She is here,’ he
said, as the rattle of carriage wheels carried up from below. ‘Stay
quiet and do nothing. If you are found here with me, there will be
consequences for both of us. You will not leave this
room.’
Silas stepped out on
to the landing and closed the door. Kate waited until his footsteps
were far enough away before sneaking over to it, letting her chain
snake silently across the floor behind her. The metal handle
clicked dully in her hand. Locked. She bent down to look through
the keyhole and saw something dark sitting in the lock. The key was
still there.
Kate crossed the room
as quietly as she could and creaked open some of the desk drawers,
hunting through them for something long and thin to push the key
out. The few ink pens she found were too wide to fit in the lock.
All that was left was a few loose sheets of paper. They would have
to do.
Kate grabbed two
pieces, tore one of them in half and rolled it tightly into a
narrow strip that was thin enough to reach the key but strong
enough not to bend against it. She returned to the door, knelt down
and pushed the second piece under it to catch the key when it fell.
Then she slid the rolled strip carefully into the lock, pushing the
key gently, hoping it would not make too much noise when it hit the
floor.
Gradually, the key
worked loose. Kate tensed when it dropped, and the metal rang out
hard against the wooden boards. She froze, waiting for someone to
come up to investigate the sound. No one came. Once she was sure it
was safe, she pulled the slice of paper back into the room with her
fingertips, with the weight of the door key balanced precariously
on one of the corners. She snatched it up as soon as it was in
sight and dug it into the lock. The handle clicked and the door
creaked open.
The length of her
chain gave Kate just enough room to allow her to step out on to the
landing, where she could hear distant voices talking at the bottom
of the stairs. There was a woman’s voice and a louder one belonging
to the boarding-house owner, but she could only make out his half
of the conversation.
‘There has been no
talk of the Skilled in this town for ten years or more,’ she heard
him say as she edged closer to the top of the staircase. ‘If there
was a Skilled girl, she has not come this way. The people here have
been more careful than in the south. No. No meetings. If any of
them had passed through this town, you can be sure I would
know.’
‘Very well,’ came the
woman’s voice, clearer now as Kate leaned out over the
steps.
‘We will call you if
we require you again,’ said Silas. ‘Leave us.’
Kate heard shuffling
steps as the boarding-house owner walked away and a door closed
somewhere down below.
‘These people are
hiding something,’ said Da’ru. ‘What news do you have about the
girl? Do we have her yet?’
‘It appears Kalen’s
information was incorrect,’ said Silas. ‘The only Winters we found
here was a bookseller with no family. He is already in custody and
shows no aptitude for the Skill. This could all have been merely a
futile effort in the hope of regaining your trust. Kalen is known
to be a desperate man, but the harvest is proceeding well
nonetheless. Our presence here may yet prove
worthwhile.’
‘No. There is someone
in this town,’ said Da’ru. ‘A girl. I have sensed
her.’
‘If so, then you can
be sure she will be found,’ said Silas. ‘My men are scouring every
street and the town gates are locked. No one will get
out.’
Da’ru’s voice fell
quiet, and Kate had to strain to hear her words. ‘This is the
closest we have ever been, Silas,’ she said, her words dark and
dangerous. ‘I am certain the book is hidden somewhere in Fume. We
will find it soon and with a Winters to use it … I do not have to
tell you what that would mean. The book is mine. That girl’s family stole it from me and if it
takes the rest of my life, I will discover its secrets. Do not
leave this town until your men are certain there are no Skilled
left. Check empty houses, cellars, everything. I want that girl,
Silas. Find her for me.’
Kate backed slowly
into the attic room, lifting up the silver chain so it did not
scrape across the floor. Even if she could remove it somehow, Silas
was right, there was nowhere to go - and as much as she feared him,
instinct told her that she should fear that woman even
more.
Kate locked herself
in the attic room and pushed the key back under the door where
Silas would find it. There was nothing she could do to help
herself, not with so many people in the house. She stood in the
shadows at the side of the attic window, forcing herself to
concentrate upon anything other than the woman downstairs. From her
viewpoint just above the rooftops, Morvane looked large enough to
hide anyone. Anyone except her. She had been careless. After
everything Artemis had taught her, she had allowed herself to get
caught.
Thin pillars of smoke
rose up from faraway buildings that had fallen prey to the wardens’
flames, and somewhere in the distance a crow was circling in the
grey, snow-filled sky.
‘Edgar,’ she
whispered. ‘Where are you?’
Two streets to the
south of the boarding house, Edgar was lost. He had seen the
carriage pass outside his hiding place and, just like the crow, he
too had recognised it at once. Da’ru was in town. And if she was
there, so was someone else who might be able to help both him and
Kate.
He trudged through
the snow, checking every street sign and house name, wearing a pair
of stolen gloves and a stolen hat to keep him warm. Three years of
living in Morvane had taught him enough to stay away from the
Western Quarter. But with news of the wardens’ arrival travelling
fast, the streets were empty, and there was no one around to ask
for directions.
The Black Fox
Boarding House. He knew the name well enough. The owner was known
to be a whisperer - an information monger - willing to share any
secret for a price. Most whisperers were loyal to their towns and
refused to have dealings with wardens and their kind, but this one
was known to be both reliable and indiscriminate in his choice of
contacts, some of whom came from as far away as Fume. If anything
important was happening in Morvane, the owner of the Black Fox knew
about it. Da’ru was sure to stop there for information, if she had
not been and gone already. But where was it?
At last, he spotted
something familiar.
A gap between the
houses gave Edgar a glimpse of a tall building with a circular
window on its top floor. He squeezed down a narrow path and ran
straight out in front of two grey carriage horses standing in the
middle of the street.
He had found
it.
He ducked back so the
driver did not see him and spotted a boy a few years younger than
him sitting alone on the boarding-house step, hugging himself
against the wind with a holey blanket pulled tight around his
shoulders. Edgar crept up to him. ‘Tom!’ he whispered.
The boy looked up,
his face brightening at once. ‘Ed?’
Edgar dared to take a
few steps closer.
‘Ed! What are you
doing here?’ The boy scrabbled to his feet, still clutching his
freezing hands beneath the blanket.
‘Shh!’ Edgar ran the
short distance left between them and clutched the younger boy’s
shoulders tight. He checked him over quickly, making sure he was in
good health, then he scuffed his hair as both of their faces
widened into matching grins.
‘Where is Da’ru?’
asked Edgar.
Tom pointed back at
the boarding house. ‘If she sees you here, she’ll put the knife in
you,’ he said. ‘She hasn’t forgotten what you did.’
‘I don’t care about
that. It’s you I need, Tom. I need some information.’ Edgar quickly
told him what had happened to Kate, but Tom just kept shivering and
looking back at the boarding-house door, cringing whenever his
voice raised above a whisper.
‘You shouldn’t have
come here, Ed,’ he said at last. ‘Da’ru’s just in there. She’ll
know.’
‘Just tell me, which
way are they taking the prisoners out this time?’
‘She’ll know that I
told you. She always does.’
‘I’ll be long gone
before then.’
‘I won’t be.’
Edgar’s face fell.
‘You know I can’t take you yet,’ he said. ‘There are wardens
crawling all over this town. Da’ru would catch us both before we
were two streets away. One day … soon, I promise, but not now. I
can’t risk you getting hurt. You do understand that, don’t
you?’
Someone moved inside
the building. Tom threw off the blanket and tugged at his torn
clothes to make himself look presentable. ‘Go on!’ he whispered.
‘She’ll kill you if she sees you, Ed. She swore she
would.’
Edgar took off his
hat and planted it on to Tom’s cold head. ‘That is not going to happen,’ he said. ‘Now, are we
brothers or not? Which way are they taking the
prisoners?’
Tom looked nervous,
pulled off the hat and stuffed it into his pocket. ‘They’re going
to stop the night train,’ he said quickly. ‘It’ll pass through at
sunset on its way back to Fume. But don’t go out there, Ed. You
don’t know what’s happening. Silas is out there!’
‘We’ve already met,’
said Edgar, pulling off his gloves and pressing them and some of
his matches into his brother’s hands. ‘Look after yourself. Stay
warm. I’ll come back for you. You know I will.’
Tom clutched the
gifts in his shivering hands. ‘Wait! Ed!’
Edgar looked back at
the boy in the snow and then a door latch clicked, forcing him to
dive into the darkness between two houses.
The shadows swallowed
him completely as a well-dressed woman stepped out into the street;
she could not have looked more out of place if she had tried. There
Edgar was, crouching in one of Morvane’s poorest streets at one of
its most desperate times, and there she was, pristine and perfect,
her silvery dress snaking across the ground, her boots jet black
and delicately heeled, her elegant shoulders poised and relaxed
beneath a hooded shawl of grey and brown fur. Wolf fur. Only one
woman in Albion chose to wear wolf fur, such was her low regard for
any life other than her own. Her long black hair was tied back and
pinned with a pointed bone, her cuffs were edged with tiny rubies
and her lips were painted grey. The owner of the boarding house
stood behind her, looking like a well-used penny next to a freshly
minted coin.
Da’ru ignored him,
raised the fur hood and let her perfect face disappear beneath its
shadow, while Tom tucked his blanket into the back of his trousers,
trying not to look over to where Edgar was hiding. Da’ru stepped
aboard the carriage and Tom clung on to the luggage rack at the
back, squeezing himself in like a lumpy travelling bag and tugging
on his gloves as soon as his mistress was out of
sight.
Edgar did not want to
let his brother go with her, but there was nothing he could do. The
horses pulled forward, and silently he watched them
leave.
Anyone who saw that
carriage would probably not notice anything different about it. The
horses were standard greys, the wheels were plain and the doors
were unmarked, giving no hint to the real identity of its
passenger. But Edgar knew very well who she was. Da’ru Marr: the
only female member of Albion’s High Council, and the only one who
counted herself as one of the Skilled. Wherever she went she always
brought trouble.
Edgar dug his bare
hands into his pockets and tried to get his bearings. If the
wardens were putting the prisoners on the night train, Silas would
be with them and he would definitely be keeping Kate close by. The
train station was on the opposite side of town, so he had some
time. It would take the wardens a while to move everyone there,
even in those cages, and the train would not arrive until after
dark. If he kept moving, he should be able to make it.
It was risky. The
last thing Edgar wanted to do was go up against a town full of
wardens. It would have been a lot easier for him to just sneak out
of Morvane and try to disappear again, or at least find somewhere
safe to hide until it was all over. But Kate was far too important
to him for that. He wasn’t about to just leave her
behind.
His mind was
set.
He had outsmarted the
wardens once before. Now it looked like he would have to do it
again.
Edgar was
concentrating so hard on what he had to do that he did not realise
that he was not the only one who had watched Da’ru leave. Silas
stood at the circular window, watching him disappear into the
falling snow. He had to admire the boy. He was even more daring
than he had expected. He ran his thumb across a deep scar on the
palm of his right hand. A curling brand made by searing hot iron
into flesh, the same brand that had once brought him back to life
from the furthest reaches of death. It had never healed. After
twelve years it was still as raw as the moment it was made and
sometimes he thought he could still see a few sparks of fire
smouldering inside the wound, burrowing down a little deeper year
after year.
He lurked by the
window like a wolf in the shadows, waiting for the boarding-house
owner to climb the stairs and, when the old man finally made it up
to the landing, he opened the door before his knuckles had even
touched the wood to knock.
The man smiled
nervously on the other side.
‘Good work,’ said
Silas, tossing a small coin pouch into his hands.
‘Thank you, sir. And
… will there be anything else today?’
‘No,’ said Silas.
Outside, the snow was easing and Kate was watching him warily from
the desk chair. ‘It is time for us to leave,’ he said. ‘The girl
and I have a train to catch.’