Read Wintercraft Online

Authors: Jenna Burtenshaw

Tags: #Fantasy

Wintercraft (23 page)

BOOK: Wintercraft
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Silas ducked through the low tunnels and strode across underground bridges. He moved so fast, Kate found it hard to keep up, and when she lagged behind he dragged her along until they were far enough away from the red-bricked cavern for her to be impossibly lost.
 
‘You look weak,’ he said, leading her through the dark. ‘Weaker than I expected.’
 
‘You didn’t have to kill that man.’
 
‘I am an honourable man and honourable men do not lie. You were warned of what would happen if you drew attention to yourself. The consequences are yours to bear.’
 
‘What about Mina?’
 
‘Her life was unimportant and her death was convenient. She knew her time had come.’
 
Silas stopped at a crossroads with nothing but darkness on every side and he stood there, listening for something, before pulling Kate up a steep staircase to a pair of arched metal doors. ‘Do you know where you are?’ he asked.
 
Kate could barely see anything up there, but a thin strip of daylight filtered in through the gap between the doors and Silas let her step forward to take a look.
 
‘We’re on the surface,’ she said.
 
Kate recognised the smoky smell of the streets, and the doors looked straight out on to an alleyway with a cluster of tall black towers gathered at its furthest end. They could have been anywhere in the city. She had only seen a small part of it and it had all looked the same to her. There was no way she could know where they were about to come out.
 
‘And this?’ said Silas. ‘What do you make of this?’
 
Kate turned, and when her eyes became used to the shadows again she saw a carving set into the wall. It was a stone circle, measuring about one foot across, with a row of circular tiles sunk into a channel around its outer edge. Each small tile carried a different symbol, and the large circle in the centre was carved with the shape of a crescent moon. She had never seen anything like it before in her life.
 
‘This is a spirit wheel,’ said Silas. ‘Part of an ancient system that the bonemen once used to help people find their way around Fume and the City Below. Place your hand on the moon and ask it where we are.’
 
‘It’s a wall,’ said Kate. ‘It can’t tell us that.’
 
‘This is far more than just a wall,’ said Silas. ‘There are thirteen of these circles in the City Below, seven in the City Above and four that have yet to be uncovered, though they certainly exist. Each one of them can remember more than a single person could experience in ten lifetimes, and inside each of their hearts is a soul locked away for eternity to serve the needs of the living. Most of these circles have gone unused for centuries, the souls within them knowing nothing but silence. For that alone they deserve your respect. Now, do it.’
 
Silas pushed Kate towards the wall. Her hands went out in front of her, her right palm touched the moon, and the symbols around the circle began to move. She tried to step back, but she could not pull away. Her hand was stuck fast.
 
‘Stop struggling,’ said Silas. ‘It will only take longer.’
 
Kate watched as the stone tiles ground steadily around the circle, sinking back into the wall one by one, switching places and rearranging themselves, all of them moving at once. Kate recognised many of the symbols easily: a book, a bird, a skull, a snake, a flame, an eye, an arrow, the sun. Then the air rippled gently in front of the stones and some of them flipped over to reveal secondary symbols on their undersides, mostly numbers and arrows, as well as more complicated carvings that she did not understand.
 
The tiles began to slow. Kate’s hand still would not come away from the wall and, when they stopped, one symbol glowed very gently at the top. It looked as if a tiny flame was flickering behind it, drawing her attention to a tile carved with a single flake of snow.
 
‘It recognises you,’ said Silas. ‘That same symbol was found on the coffin where Da’ru first found
Wintercraft
. It knows you are a Winters. And here,’ he pointed to a second symbol illuminated a quarter of the way around the wheel. ‘A crescent moon. The wheels use their central carvings as reference points. Simply put, it is telling you that a Winters is standing by the wheel marked by the crescent moon. It appears the spirit inside it is still reliable.’
 
‘How do you know about these wheels?’ asked Kate.
 
‘They are well known to anyone who has lived in Fume for any length of time,’ said Silas. ‘When people first moved into the city, they saw them as wonders and used them almost every day. The technique is very simple. You interpret the symbols in terms of your question. Each tile can have many meanings, but the simplest is usually correct.’
 
‘So, there is a spirit trapped somewhere inside there,’ said Kate. ‘How does it know my name?’
 
‘Fume has many secrets, Miss Winters. It is no concern of mine that you are ignorant of most of them. Now, ask it if it knows where to find your uncle.’
 
‘Artemis? Why?’
 
‘Da’ru has sent many servants and wardens into the City Below these last few days,’ said Silas. ‘Your uncle was bought at the station and sent down among them. I believe Da’ru has those people working on something and I intend to find out what. Ask.’
 
The tiles moved immediately without Kate even thinking about it and one illuminated near the bottom of the wheel: a single open eye.
 
‘That means “yes”,’ said Silas. ‘If not, the closed eye would have been chosen. Where is he?’
 
Kate hesitated, torn between the danger of leading Silas to Artemis and the need she had to find him herself. Some of the tiles around the wheel tapped together but did not move, as if sensing her indecision.
 
‘I will not ask you again.’
 
Kate had no choice. Her thoughts cleared and the wheel moved at once. The tiles rattled and scraped for a lot longer this time, and Kate and Silas watched as four bright symbols settled together in a group at the top. The snowflake, a book, a doorway and a key.
 
‘What does it mean when they’re together like that?’ asked Kate. ‘Where is Artemis?’
 
‘Da’ru has opened it,’ Silas said quietly.
 
‘Opened what?’ said Kate. ‘Where is Artemis?’
 
Before Silas could answer, something sharp pierced Kate’s palm from inside the wall, and the circle released its hold on her. She snatched her hand away and a bead of blood gathered on the surface of her skin as a tiny glass point sank back into the centre of the moon, taking some of her blood with it.
 
‘What was that?’
 
‘A spirit wheel only tests a person’s blood when they ask about areas restricted to the bonemen,’ said Silas. ‘A group of tiles are meant to be read together. The snowflake represents your uncle, the book and doorway indicate a place of books, and the key means a secret or a lock. If this is correct, Da’ru has somehow found her way into the bonemen’s ancient library, one so well hidden that it has proved impossible to find for centuries. It was said that only the bonemen could ask the spirit wheels for its location. Da’ru makes every one of her new servants use one of the wheels, just in case they carry the right blood to be shown the way. I doubt it is a coincidence that she found the library the very day your uncle was sold into her service. And if he carries the blood of the bonemen …’ The wheel sprang into action and Silas smiled ‘… that means you carry it too.’
 
This time it was not only the outer symbols that moved. The central moon sank back as well, turning on its axis to reveal a reverse side carved with a perfect spiral.
 
‘The blood of the bonemen is the key to more knowledge than you can imagine,’ said Silas. ‘Da’ru has been searching for their library for years. It is no secret that the Skilled already know its location and she believes they have hidden
Wintercraft
inside. I need that book, Miss Winters. We must find it first. Ask the wheel to show you the way.’
 
Kate pushed her hand warily against the stone and the tiles settled into place at once. Silas studied them closely, but Kate already knew what they would say. If she was going to hide something important, there was only one place it would be. In the deepest place, the darkest place. Four tiles were illuminated: a skull, an ornate number three, a horizontal line and an arrow pointing down.
 
Silas translated them out loud. ‘Third tomb cavern. Lowest level. This way.’
 
 
The City Below Fume was even larger than the one above. Hidden beneath the foundations of its tall black towers were staircases that curled impossibly far down into the darkness and paths so narrow they were no more than cracks in the earth. As they went deeper, those narrow ways widened into vast chambers linked together by corridors like beads on a string. More stone bridges hung over dizzying drops and from them Kate caught glimpses of eerie streets and buildings flecked with distant lantern light.
 
‘The Skilled are not the only people who hide down here,’ said Silas. ‘Keep moving.’
 
Silas did not seem to mind the darkness and the dank that closed in around them. He moved like a shadow, with a stolen lantern in one hand and his blue-black sword sheathed at his side; Kate wondered again why a man as strong and ruthless as him would want to deliberately end his life.
 
Kate’s reflection followed her along the windows of a sunken street and twice she jumped, thinking that the face she could see in the ancient windows was not her own. She began to sense movement everywhere, in every shadow, every window, and she could hear strange sounds whispering on the air. Each time she heard something it became harder to dismiss it as pure imagination, and when she reached a corner filled with black windows she heard a shade’s voice clearly for the first time.
 
‘
Winters
.’
 
Kate felt something break, as if a barrier had fallen, and a wave of cold wrapped around her, drowning out everything except the presence of hundreds of spirits that she could not see. She sensed them as they had been in life, their stories flashing through her thoughts as one.
 
‘…
she is listening
…’
 
‘…
travelling with him
…’
 
‘…
Silas
…’
 
Some of the voices shrank back in fear as Kate stood still, not knowing what to do.
 
‘…
he cannot hear us
…’
 
‘…
find the book
…’
 
‘…
keep it safe
…’
 
‘…
she can release us
…’
 
‘…
prisoners
…’
 
‘…
bound by blood
…’
 
Silas stopped up ahead and looked back at her with suspicion. Kate forced herself to catch up, her heart racing as she ran. Ghostly forms gathered in every window around her, whispering to her, watching her, but she dared not look back.
 
‘…
guard the book
…’
 
‘…
return for us
…’
 
The voices faded as she left the windows behind, stepping at last into the safe glow of Silas’s lantern light. ‘You look pale,’ he said.
 
‘Just tired,’ lied Kate.
 
Silas looked back down the tunnel and saw nothing but the dark. ‘Stay in the light,’ he said. ‘This is no place to be lost on your own.’
 
After what had happened in that tunnel, Kate found herself wanting to stay close to Silas for protection and became worried every time he walked too far ahead. There was no way to know how long they had been underground. Other than giving her directions on how to negotiate difficult steps and corners, Silas did not speak and the silence was so complete that she could hear her pulse rushing in her ears as she walked.
 
‘There,’ Silas said at last, pointing towards a distant light. ‘We are close.’
 
Kate’s heart lifted. Her only thought was of Artemis being somewhere nearby, and she followed Silas to the very edge of the tunnel mouth, overlooking the wide gulf that was the third tomb cavern.
 
The tunnel emerged halfway down the side of the cavern and it was so deep that Kate could not see the bottom or the top. A few graverobbers clung to ladders and harnesses on the opposite side, dodging swinging oil lamps and falling rocks as they grabbed on to tiny ledges and scraped their way into the sealed tombs that had been hollowed out of its walls. Each one of them looked filthy and wild, and they crept like spiders through cracked openings in the rock, stripping them of everything that the dead people possessed and sending them up in wire baskets to the top.
BOOK: Wintercraft
11.44Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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