Wintercraft: Legacy (20 page)

He spoke quietly as they reached the ladder, so Edgar was not certain whether he was talking to him or not.

‘No one deserved to be sealed in this place,’ said Silas. ‘No one.’

Silas’ crow ruffled its feathers against the cold and looked down from the jagged point of the Winters memorial tower. The outer walls were all that was left of the old structure, and the lower floor was exposed to the sky through a surround of stones that reached high enough to be among the tallest structures in Fume.

With wintry wind and brief flurries of snow swathing the city, that tower was not the most pleasant of places for a bird to be. It was not interested in the distant fires, or the sounds of human battle. Its attention was fixed solely upon two figures that were approaching the tower: one tall and strong, the other slow and uncertain. The crow’s feathers bristled at the sight of the taller woman and it lowered its head, remaining still. It knew the girl who was walking behind, but there was something unusual about her.

The taller woman disturbed the veil as she walked, driving back any souls that passed her way. The girl’s energies were very different. The veil around her was usually calm and controlled, attracting the dead rather than repelling them. That night, Kate Winters’ energies had much in common with those the crow usually saw around Silas. She was a tightly held bundle of energy just waiting to find a release. Silas often found that release through aggression, violence and death. Kate’s spirit looked ready to do the very same thing.

The crow cocked its head, uncertain. It had the uneasy feeling that it had followed the wrong girl, but beneath the volatile haze of anger and hate the crow still sensed the human it knew underneath. She was preparing for something. She was closing herself off from everything around her, losing herself within her own thoughts. The crow had seen Silas do the same, but only during his darkest times. There was nothing to do until its master arrived, so the crow settled down to watch and wait.

Kate hung a few steps back from the other woman. She seemed reluctant to approach the tower, yet still maintained a determined pace. The crow shifted a little, attracting the girl’s attention when it knew the other woman could not see. Kate glanced upwards. The crow had no reason to hide from her, but when she noticed it her energies changed. Her spirit crept momentarily from the dark place it had sunk into and directed all of its concentration towards the crow.

If Kate had been anyone else, the crow would have swooped as far away from those eyes as it could get. This
was a girl of great interest to his master, a girl who had saved the crow’s own life more than once, but something had changed inside her. Something dangerous lurked where a peaceful soul had once been. This was no projection from the woman beside her. Kate was creating it all herself. The crow lowered its head again, sinking its beak out of sight.

Silas pushed a fallen stack of wood aside and forced his way out of a hidden passageway into a tumbledown house. Edgar was right behind him, and the two of them stepped out into Fume together, both sensing the same thing at once.

‘Fire arrows,’ said Edgar, recognising the smell of black powder. ‘Burning wood. Lots of it.’

‘There.’ Silas pointed between the closely packed buildings to a patch of orange sky where sparks leapt up to puncture the perfect black of the clouds.

‘Do you think they’ll breach the walls?’ asked Edgar.

‘They would not have attacked if they were not confident of victory.’

Silas turned away from the ongoing battle, following a quiet instinct that was drawing him in the opposite direction. His crow was afraid. Fear was the most potent emotion to carry through the veil and it reached Silas as clearly as if the crow had screeched from the rooftops. Silas’ eyes still flickered between the living world and his soul’s prison, but when he concentrated upon his crow he became aware of two living creatures that existed within both worlds. Dalliah Grey’s soul was trapped in the black,
just as his was, that he already knew. But there was another soul close by, sinking more deeply into the darkness surrounding Dalliah with every passing second.

Silas’ palms seared with old pain and the scar Kate had once healed felt exposed once again. His hands felt blistered, his skin tight and raw, as if it had been slashed with knives. He looked at his scarred palm, expecting to see the old wound open and sore, but nothing had changed. The skin was still intact, and when he pulled away from Kate’s consciousness the pain faded away.

‘Silas?’

Silas had carried on walking, but Edgar’s voice came from a few steps behind him, where Edgar had stopped and was staring at something in an alleyway that joined the street where they were walking.

When Silas followed his eyes, he saw that Edgar had good reason to stop. Shades were pouring out of the alleyway, hundreds of them, moving swiftly across the street between him and Edgar. Some bore the human forms they had taken in life, while most moved like solid shadows, their silvery eyes betraying the secret suffering of their drifting souls. They spread silently between the buildings, each still captured in the half-life, yet visible to the living eye. It was a fast-flowing river of souls. A spiritual stampede.

Edgar would not have minded being so close to so many souls if they were just passing through, but the way their eyes lingered on him a little too long made him feel vulnerable. They were not simply going about their business and moving on. They were watching him. Instead
of continuing on towards the centre of the city, he caught glimpses of them gathering in the buildings nearby, surrounding him.

Silas had never seen shades behave in that way. Edgar should have been of no interest to them, yet they were close enough to give Silas cause for concern.

‘Stay still,’ he ordered.

The shades were behaving more like predators than wandering souls. Silas’ presence should have been enough to drive them away, but their attraction to Edgar was greater than any fear they had of him.

‘What’s happening?’ asked Edgar. ‘What are they doing?’

The flow of souls settled into a quiet mist, keeping a short distance between themselves and Edgar. Shades gathering together often showed a pack instinct, acting upon the movements of more dominant souls among them. All it would take was one soul to make its move and the rest would follow.

Silas stepped towards them, remembering a conversation he had shared with Dalliah Grey during his time upon the Continent. Dalliah had spoken of a connection between Kate and Edgar that transcended the living world and crossed into the next. If Kate’s soul was suffering, it would send tremors of energy throughout the already highly charged city. Her anguish would be magnified and spread to every soul for miles around. To save itself, Kate’s spirit would seek out the one person who had kept it grounded in the past. Edgar. That made him a danger: to Kate, and to himself.

Kate’s spiritual connection with Edgar was confusing the shades. Hundreds of souls were being drawn to that place and the proximity of the half-life was bolstering their energy, giving them strength. If they overwhelmed Edgar in their desperation to find release, his soul did not have a chance.

‘These souls cannot reach Kate,’ said Silas. ‘They believe you are the next best thing.’

‘Me? But I’m not even Skilled! What do they want?’

‘You are close to Kate. She has used you to anchor her spirit to the living world more than once. She may be trying to do the same thing again.’

‘What?’ Edgar struggled to keep the fear from his voice. ‘She’s never done that. I can’t feel anything.’

‘Only because you are used to it,’ said Silas. ‘Think of yourself as a living listening circle. Circles are used to create and stabilise tears in the veil. Kate may not have done it consciously, but the same thing is happening inside you. She is channelling her own energy towards you.’

‘That . . . doesn’t sound good.’

‘Kate’s connection to you may be the only thing that is keeping her sane,’ said Silas. ‘You are descended from a Skilled bloodline with no natural ability of your own. Your blood has always been ready to accept the energies of the veil, but you have never known how to make the connection. Kate has torn the veil too deeply this time. She has done something new.’

‘So do I have to stand here until she is finished?’ asked Edgar. ‘I don’t think these people want me to go anywhere.’

‘Most shades are confused by their time in the veil. They do not see the living world the way you do. To their eyes, you are a potential doorway into death.’

‘I’m not though, am I?’

‘That will not matter very soon.’

Silas stepped through the crowd of souls as if they did not exist. Only those he threatened to contact directly moved out of his way. The rest were transfixed upon Edgar, who remained standing in the very centre of them all.

Silas looked up. Churning swathes of grey were descending quickly across the rooftops, smothering everything in a fog of souls.

Edgar did not dare move more than his eyes. ‘I’m not in a listening circle,’ he said, recognising the danger he was in. ‘I’m not protected, am I?’ His palms began to sweat with nerves. ‘What should I do?’

‘You must break the link with Kate.’

‘I can’t
feel
any link! Even if there is one, you said it was helping her.’

‘If you do not break the link, those souls will do it for you. Forget about her. Focus upon a memory from your past, before you had ever heard Kate’s name. Think of anything except her.’

‘I can’t do that.’

‘If you do not listen to me, you will die,’ said Silas. ‘The city is awakening and the shades do not yet know their own strength. Normally, they would have no effect, but things have changed. If they move, they will overwhelm you and drive your soul from your skin. I have
seen it happen during the council’s experiments into the half-life. It is no way to die.’

‘Shades can’t harm people,’ said Edgar. ‘The Skilled always said that.’

‘The Skilled also killed their own people to drain energy from their blood,’ said Silas. ‘Are they the kind of people you want to trust?’

Two shades moved closer to Edgar, testing the air between them and drawing the others a few steps towards him. Silas stood beside him like a wolf guarding a kill but the dominant souls stood their ground.

‘Edgar,’ he said. ‘Break the link.’

‘What will happen to Kate if I do?’

‘Far less than what will happen to you if you do not.’

One shade broke away from the rest and darted through the air, heading straight towards Edgar. It moved lightning-fast, but Silas saw it coming and pulled Edgar out of its path, forcing it to collide with him instead. The moment the shade made contact, Silas’ consciousness plunged straight into the heart of the veil, dragging the shade down with him.

Darkness swamped completely over Silas. The shade twisted around him like a frightened snake and he saw the city as it appeared to the shade’s eyes. Walls became shadows, windows became shimmering shapes and the souls of every being – living and dead – appeared as specks of silver light within the black. The city had become a galaxy and the spirits were its stars. They were all around him, spreading out to the distant walls and filling the ground beneath his feet.
Thousands upon thousands of Albion lives, abandoned and forgotten in a place living eyes could not see
.

Beside him, Edgar’s energy was duller than most. Silas could see tiny trails of light leading away from the boy, towards a bright distant soul that was growing dimmer by the moment. He looked down at his own hands and saw them as they were in life, except that his fingertips were touched by the same silver light. His veins shimmered with it
.

The energy spread through the air and wrapped around Edgar like tiny silver chains, encircling his body and reaching all the way up to his neck, but with Silas the connection lived inside him, carried within his blood. Kate Winters’ soul echoed within him, sharing the void his own soul had left behind. It acted as a reminder of Kate’s presence, connecting him to her when she was in spiritual distress, but Kate’s link with Edgar was very different. Her soul had latched on to his life energy, and it was draining him
.

The only thing preventing Silas from losing his connection to the living world and falling completely into the black was the shade that he had carried there with him. It was pulling back towards the upper levels of the veil through sheer will, fleeing from the terrors screeching in the dark. Silas resisted the pull. He knew what it was like to stare into the black for the first time. Kate’s soul was on the very brink of that place. If there was any chance her spirit could be saved, Silas had to try
.

Moving through the lowest levels of the veil was like moving through a nightmare where everything was familiar, yet horrifically altered. Silas’ mind forced what he could sense into the most logical explanation it could create. It gave
the formless solid form, and emptiness became a cage that seared against the soul. In that place nightmares were given a voice and the living world became a doubted memory. It stripped away everything that made a person who they were. Kate did not belong there
.