Wintercraft: Blackwatch (27 page)
The dark-haired guard threw two anchoring lines over the sides of the boat, slowing it down and preventing the current from hurling it into the metal at speed. Chains creaked and the boat shuddered as the second guard jumped out on to the bank and worked at the padlocks holding the bars in place.
Kate and Edgar did not care what he was doing. They were too busy looking out at the beauty of a blue-black sky, feeling the cool touch of fresh air upon their faces and staring up at the silver moon when it peered out between the fast-moving clouds.
‘I never thought I’d be so happy to see the moon,’ said Kate.
The guard finished his work with the locks and the bars creaked open. The other waited for him to jump back on board and then the two anchor lines were unhitched. The current lifted the boat and sent it speeding out of the city’s lower walls into clear air. The river left the city swiftly behind, carrying Kate and Edgar away from Fume, away from the Skilled and the wardens and the many nameless people who had been so happy to see them captured at last. There was nothing else for them to do but look up at the stars as the rain clouds cleared overhead and the river carried them between its darkened banks, away from the confines of the City Below and out into the open world.
17
Behind the Mask
Silas sat in silence, watching Bandermain’s health deteriorating swiftly right in front of his eyes. The creeping lung was normally a slow, crippling disease, but without Dalliah’s efforts to stem its course Bandermain’s sickness was clearly making up for lost time. Soon he could do little more than sit and glare across the room, clenching his fists as he concentrated on his slow thin breaths. The sicker he became, the closer the veil drew in around the room, rejuvenating Silas’s own body as Bandermain’s gave way, and allowing him to connect with his crow far across the water once again.
Silas caught a glimpse of Kate and Edgar, both filthy and covered in black soot. He saw the Blackwatch’s boat, the river and eventually the moon as the boat passed quietly beneath it. He could feel the gentle threads of the veil reaching down to Kate, curling around her but unable to fully connect, then he saw her hand resting within Edgar’s and began to consider whether what Dalliah had said about the two of them could actually be possible.
The air felt different there in Albion, heavy and familiar, as if a blanket had been laid across the world. The Continent was bare and empty in comparison, but even though Silas recognised the feeling of home there was something not quite right about it. He allowed his concentration to lift and wander and then he sensed something else within the veil: a presence that hummed in his mind like a beetle caught within his ear.
It felt as if his mind was passing through clear air that was slowly being devoured by thick black smoke. The source of it came from somewhere in the east. The boundary between the veil and the living world was being worn away. The difference between the two was no longer so easy to sense. Silas could see gatherings of shades congregating at points where the veil was at its thinnest. He could feel their excitement, sense their anticipation as the living world moved nearer and nearer to their grasp.
Silas opened his eyes to the sound of the door opening as Dalliah walked into the room. Outside, the storm had passed, and the land beyond the uncurtained window was already shrouded in night. The veil had made him lose time. He had left himself vulnerable. He stood up at once, but Bandermain remained slumped in his chair.
‘We are ready,’ said Dalliah. ‘Silas, please follow me. And help Bandermain to walk if he cannot manage alone.’
Silas did not want to help Bandermain and Bandermain had no intention of accepting any help. He heaved himself up off his chair and slung his heavy sword stubbornly across his back. Silas stood aside to let him hobble out of the room first and Bandermain was too ill to protest.
Curiosity carried Silas out of the house and back into Dalliah’s overgrown land. High walls surrounded it on all sides, each one covered with the skeletal stems of climbing plants that spidered across the stones, and the ground was cobbled between patches of frozen grass.
Dalliah walked quickly towards a small building in the centre of the grounds, and Bandermain stopped twice to cough and compose himself, forcing Silas to stop too.
‘Keep moving,’ he said, drawing his sword and jabbing his back with the blade. ‘You are wasting time.’
Bandermain looked up at Silas, clutching his shivering chest. ‘Do not ruin this,’ he said. ‘I
need
this.’
need
this.’
Dalliah was too far away to hear Bandermain’s words. Silas pulled him up and pushed him forward. He had no intention of letting an enemy walk behind him. ‘Move,’ he said.
‘I know you don’t want to be here,’ said Bandermain. ‘Do you think
I
chose this?’
I
chose this?’
‘I know you think you’re getting something out of it,’ said Silas, forcing him on. ‘But you’re wrong. You are dying. Get used to it.’
Bandermain laughed quietly. ‘You do not have to think about death,’ he said. ‘And soon, neither will I. I won’t let you destroy this for me. Let it happen. We will both be better off.’
Silas kept walking.
‘When I first found out what my leaders wanted from your country I thought they were insane,’ said Bandermain, his words breaking with each breath. ‘They think your High Council can communicate with the dead. They told me they wanted to learn the secret for themselves, but I did not believe in the veil then. I was not interested in the Skilled. I thought they were witches, fools and liars. Then I met Dalliah and I knew that I had been wrong. When she told me about you … what had happened to you … I thought it was all just Albion propaganda. “The soldier who could not die.” But you weren’t a soldier any more. You were never sent into battle again. The High Council made you return to the ranks of the wardens. They were keeping you close by.’
‘I was doing my duty,’ said Silas.
‘And now you are a traitor.’ Bandermain laughed, forcing his lungs to spasm. His knees buckled. His hands grasped for Silas’s arm but Silas stepped away and let Bandermain hit the ground. His body twitched, but Silas did nothing. Dalliah stopped and turned.
‘Your new friend is dying,’ said Silas. ‘Now is as good a time as any to let him get on with it.’
Dalliah hurried back to Bandermain’s side, crouched down beside him and laid her hand upon his throat. ‘I cannot help him here,’ she said. ‘Carry him.’
‘Why? Why is he so important?’
‘He isn’t. His orders are,’ said Dalliah. ‘Help him up.’ Bandermain’s eyes were wide and his mouth hung open as he gasped for breath. ‘Pick him up.’
‘No,’ said Silas.
Dalliah glared at him in fury, but when she spoke she sounded calm, managing to keep her temper under control. ‘This is very simple,’ she said. ‘Bandermain is no fool. If the Blackwatch return with the girl and find him dead, they have orders to kill her before she even sets foot within my walls.’
‘If he passes the creeping lung to her she will be dead anyway,’ said Silas.
‘We need her alive, and we need him,’ said Dalliah. ‘Some of Bandermain’s men are not as amenable as he has been. They will not hesitate to kill the girl and I will not be able to stop them before they do.’
‘I will stop them,’ said Silas. ‘We do not need to appease the Blackwatch.’
‘That is not your decision,’ said Dalliah. ‘You have spent barely twelve years without your spirit and already you believe you know everything. When you have lived a handful of centuries more perhaps you will understand that there are sacrifices to be made if you are to live any kind of meaningful life. Why do you think I am here and not in Albion? I lived on my home soil for two hundred years before they tried to hunt me. You lasted not much more than a decade. Do you not think the Blackwatch came looking for me when I arrived here just as they were sent looking for you? News travels swiftly over the water, Silas. Our presence terrifies those who are not like us and I too have been forced to make many sacrifices in my life. I have been forced to trade secrets, to find allies, to associate with people I would much rather see with their heads on sticks than sipping from a wine glass beside me. Bandermain is such an ally. If he dies now neither of us will get what we want.’
Silas looked down at Bandermain. His lips were tinged with blue, his wheezing had stopped and his body had fallen limp.
‘I can slow his death but I cannot prevent it,’ said Dalliah. ‘Carry him.’
Silas grabbed Bandermain’s arm and slung the dying man over his shoulder.
The walls of the building glinted as they walked towards it. Quartz-flecked cobblestones had been spread across the entire dome-shaped structure, making it look as if something was rising out of the courtyard, forcing up the cobbles like a whale breaking the surface of the ocean. Its door was made of swirls of iron and delicate panes of thin glass that shone blue in the rising moonlight. Dalliah unlocked it and stepped back, letting Silas carry Bandermain in first.
Inside the building was one single room; circular and small, but with the kind of atmosphere that set hairs prickling on the back of the neck. To Silas, the difference between that ominous room and the outside world was as clear as the difference between air and water.
‘Put him down in the centre,’ said Dalliah.
Silas walked forward slowly, carefully analysing his surroundings. The wall had no windows and its bare wooden frame was layered thickly with rows of yellowed bones. Some of the bones were decades old and others were boiled white and fresh. They were tied vertically to the wall, creating what looked like a gruesome fence, and hanging down from the ceiling in front of them were long cords holding thin candles and oil lamps, along with narrow-necked bottles and vials filled with what could only be blood.
‘What is this?’ demanded Silas. ‘This is not true veil work.’
‘It is the way
I
work,’ said Dalliah. ‘Lay him down.’
I
work,’ said Dalliah. ‘Lay him down.’
‘Whose blood is this?’
‘That is not important,’ said Dalliah. ‘Your blood is in here somewhere, if that is what you are asking. The Blackwatch had plenty of time to take it while you were in their hands.’
‘Take them down,’ said Silas. ‘All of them.’
‘Why? I thought you were a soldier. I expect you have spilled more than your share of blood in your time. This is no different.’
Silas dropped Bandermain unceremoniously to the floor. ‘It is very different.’
‘Why? Because you don’t understand it? If everyone condemned everything they did not understand there would be very little else for them to do in this world.’
Dalliah knelt down beside Bandermain and once more pressed her hand against his throat. This time the veil answered her. Bandermain breathed in suddenly, rolled on to his side and spat blood across the floor.
‘How many times have you done that to him?’ asked Silas.
‘More than I thought I would need to,’ replied Dalliah. ‘This time will be the last.’
Silas looked round at the hundreds of glass containers swinging gently with the movement of air in the room.
‘Da’ru wore a necklace filled with blood when she worked the listening circles,’ he said. ‘Is this where she learned to do it?’
‘I taught her a little of what time had taught me,’ said Dalliah. ‘She was my hand across the ocean. She could attempt techniques in Albion that I could never achieve here. She was a useful tool. I learned a lot from her mistakes … and from her successes.’ Dalliah stood up and looked straight at Silas, daring him to say the words that were already on his lips.
‘You told her how to use the circles,’ he said. ‘You told her where the book of Wintercraft was buried and you told her to experiment on the veil. On
me
.’
me
.’
‘As we can see, it worked very well,’ said Dalliah. ‘You should thank me. You have been able to see into a world that few people have ever known. You know the truth about the ways of the spirit. Perhaps you have suffered, but that is a small price to pay for what you have experienced. You have looked beyond the boundaries of our world. It has made you more powerful than your enemies and carried you beyond the limits of humankind.’
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