Shadowcry (11 page)

“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
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 afterward,” 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 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.

“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. “First, I am a man of my word. I keep my promises and do not make them without fully intending to carry them out. And second, 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.”

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 onto his shoulder, and Silas stood over her as unconsciousness carried her senses away.

“This could have all been much easier,” he said.

Chapter 11
The High Council

K
ate 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 anymore. She was in the center 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 hatred. “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 the way they did to the others.”

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 girl looks like yet another pointless waste of our time.”

“Excellence takes time,” said Da'ru. “Manipulating the subjects' connections 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.

“Bring in the body,” Da'ru commanded the moment he was done. “And be quick!”

The boy 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 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, the boy 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, gray 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.

“This body is all I want you to concentrate upon now,” Da'ru said, as the boy 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 toward 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.”

“Not for you.”

Da'ru moved toward her like a snake ready to strike. Kate thought she was going to hit her, but instead Da'ru smiled calmly, snatched hold of Kate's hand, and pressed it hard onto Kalen's chest. Kate immediately felt dizzy, as if she had been spun around too fast, her head pounding as the coldness of the veil closed in around her again. But this time was different. She felt like she was falling forward, falling
into
the dead man himself. The veil descended quickly, swamping her senses before she had a chance to fight against it, and the twelve councilmen all watched with anticipation.

Whatever Da'ru had done, it felt as if something had broken within Kate. She tried to fight back, but she didn't know how. Then her mind lifted and, instead of a flood of memories, she saw something she had never seen before.

She was standing within a vast hanging mist of silvery light, as if time had stopped in the middle of a moonlit rainstorm. The air shimmered with tiny lights, but when she held out her hand, she could feel nothing except the cold. At first, she was sure she was alone, but if she concentrated she could hear faint voices all around her, gentle sounds that whispered and moved.

“Who's there?” Her voice was swallowed by the mist, carrying much farther than she would have thought possible, until it reflected off something in the distance and returned to her as a tiny echo. Then something answered, whispering her name as the mist closed in.

“She has passed into the second level of the veil!” said Da'ru. “Silas. Do you see her?”

Kate did not hear Silas answer, but Da'ru's voice reassured her that—wherever she was—she was not completely lost. She started walking through the mist, concentrating on Da'ru's voice as the only connection she had back to her life. But the farther she walked, the less anything seemed to matter. She felt so peaceful in that place, so content and relaxed, that she was tempted to give in: to let go of the testing room, the High Council, and Silas, and to let the veil claim her completely. But then she thought of Artemis and Edgar, of Morvane and home, and she knew that somehow, she had to get back.

Kate stopped walking and focused on picturing Kalen's body on the table in front of her, ignoring the overwhelming feeling that was desperately trying to pull her on, so close and so beautiful
. . .
and then something changed. The tiny lights faded to a distant glow and Kate no longer felt as if she was being drawn along. Something like water lapped gently over her feet, the whispers died away, and Kate had the feeling she had done something very wrong.

The silver mist cleared a little around her feet and she looked down at a reflection of herself cast upon shallow water. Her boots were submerged—and she then looked out across the perfect waters of a wide blue lake. She listened for Da'ru's voice again but heard nothing. Even the water was silent.

All she could do was stand there, stunned by the complete beauty of what she could see, until she sensed something moving beside her. In any other place, perhaps she would have been afraid, but instead she reached out, calmly brushing her fingertips through a surging current of invisible energy that felt ready to snatch her up if she got too close. She knew at once she was looking at the way into death, the only safe path leading directly through the veil to whatever lay on the other side. All she had to do was let it take her.

Kate did not know how long she stood there mesmerized by the gentle call of death, and she only stepped away from it when she sensed the air around her shift and become heavier, distracting her from its presence long enough to break its hold upon her. Something had moved beside the energy current: a pocket of dark energy that disrupted everything around it like a stone in a fast-flowing river. The water shrank back away from it, and even death moved aside as something stepped out of the rippling void.

Kate's first thought was of Kalen—she did not want to see him, dead or not—and then the shape took on a more solid form, moving toward her until it was real enough
to reach out and touch.

“Impressive,” said Silas, stepping out of the mist as casually as someone walking across a room. “To come this far yourself
. . .
even Da'ru did not expect that.”

“I didn't do anything,” said Kate. “What's going on? How did I get here?”

“You resisted death. By connecting you with Kalen's body, Da'ru exploited a weakness in the veil, allowing your spirit to be drawn through to this place. But there is more to do if you are going to save yourself. My plans do not involve your death, so you must do as you were instructed. Return Kalen's soul to his body, before Da'ru decides you cannot control your skill enough to be of use to her.”

Kate's consciousness switched briefly back to the testing room, where she saw her hand still pressed to Kalen's stitched wound.

“Find him,” said Silas.

“No,” Kate said firmly. “He deserves to be dead.”

“And do you want to join him? Da'ru will do it without hesitation. She will sever your spirit from this life at the first sign of failure. Her ruthlessness has led many of the Skilled to their deaths. Do not let your stubbornness lead you to yours. There is a time for everything, and this is not the time to fight her.”

Kate did not see Silas step behind her. He moved as if he was a part of the veil, not caught within it, and he reached around and held his hand against her forehead, forcing her to focus upon what she had to do. She did not feel the touch of his skin, only a brush of cold air. There was energy within it: a force that intensified slowly, radiating out from his palm.

“Do not fight against the veil,” he said. “Embrace it.”

The silvery mist flooded all of Kate's senses at once. Suddenly she could smell the water, feel the touch of the wind, and hear whispered voices drifting close to her again; only now she could also see the whisperers themselves, shadowed forms caught within beautiful flashes of dancing color, filling the surface of the lake like patches of floating moonlight.

“These are the lucky ones,” said Silas. “Each one of these souls has a chance to enter death when they are ready for it. Kalen's death was a clean one. He should be here.”

“I can see him,” said Kate, her eyes drawn to an energy drifting alone near the center of the lake. A bubble of hate rose up inside her, but she forced it back down.

“Good,” said Silas. “Allow him to see you.”

Silas helped Kate bring Kalen's spirit closer. The soft shape gathered form as it moved toward her, becoming more solid, more human, its face twisted into a dark, mocking smile. Silas sensed her anger growing as Kalen drew near enough for her to touch, and in the moment when Kalen's cold soul connected with hers that anger flared up against him, fierce and uncontrollable.

Silas let go of her and shouted, “Now!”

Kate's consciousness plunged back into the testing room as energy burst through her hand and struck Kalen's chest like a lightning bolt. Kalen's body heaved in an impossible breath, and his eyes glared wide and furious as his spirit settled back into life.

Kate's hand sprang away from him. Silas was standing right beside Da'ru, looking as though he had not moved an inch, and the twelve councilmen were completely transfixed by the man on the table: the man Kate had managed to bring back from the dead.

“It is not possible!” said one of them, daring to stand up, before Kalen's arm snapped out and clutched Kate's throat in a deadly grip.

“Gotcha now, girly,” he grinned, poisoning the air with a glut of rotten breath. “Thought you'd got away from me, did ya?”

Silas rounded the table and Kalen's mouth drew back into a snarl.
“You!”

Silas struck instantly, plunging Kalen's silver blade straight down through his neck, ending his life before he could say another word.

“Silas!” Da'ru's face contorted with rage. “How dare you interfere!”

Silas left the dagger where it stood, the silver
K
still shining in the candlelight. “My duty, as always, is to the High Council,” he said. “This man's mind was gone. He would have killed the girl and without intervention he could have easily turned upon you or any number of the councilmen in this room. I could not take that chance. The girl has proven her worth, but the subject's actions made him a threat. I was forced to eliminate him.”