Mollisher: [noun] A clairvoyant associated with a mime-lord or mime-queen. Usually presumed to be [a] the mime-lords or mime-queen’s lover, and [b] heir to his or her section, though the former may not always be the case. The Underlords or Underqueen’s heir is known as mollisher supreme and is the only mollisher permitted to be a member of the Unnatural Assembly. Paige Mahoney is the first syndicate leader in many years to take two mollishers.
Mudlarks and toshers: [noun] Amaurotic outcasts. Mudlarks scavenge for valuables on the banks of the Thames, while toshers forage in the sewers of London. The two communities, while distinct, are closely intertwined and share a leader, who almost always takes the name Styx upon election.
Muse: [noun] The spirit of a deceased writer or artist.
Netherworld: [noun] Also known as She’ol or the half-realm, the Netherworld is the original domain of the Rephaim. It acts as a middle ground between Earth and the æther, but has not served its original purpose since the Waning of the Veils, during which it fell into decay.
Nightwalker: [noun] One who sells his or her clairvoyant knowledge as part of a sexual bargain.
Novembertide: [noun] The annual celebration of Scion London’s official foundation in November 1929.
Numen: [noun] [plural numa, originally numina] An object or material used by a soothsayer or augur to connect with the æther, e.g. fire, cards, blood.
Ranthen, the: [noun] Also known as the scarred ones. An alliance of Rephaim, led by Terebellum Sheratan, who oppose the rule of the Sargas family and believe in the eventual restoration of the Netherworld. Some of the Ranthen’s members are currently allied with the clairvoyant syndicate of London (see Mime Order).
Rephaite: [noun] [plural Rephaim] [a] A biologically immortal, humanoid inhabitant of the Netherworld. Rephaim feed on the auras of clairvoyant humans. [adjective] [b] The state of being a Rephaite; to be Rephaite.
Saloop: [noun] A hot, starchy drink made from orchid root, seasoned with rosewater or orange blossom.
Sarx: [noun] The incorruptible flesh of Rephaim and other creatures of the Netherworld (called sarx-beings or sarx-creatures). It has a slightly metallic sheen.
ScionIDE: [noun] Scion: International Defence Executive, the armed forces of the Republic of Scion. The First Inquisitorial Division is responsible for national security; the Second Inquisitorial Division is used for invasions; the Third Inquisitorial Division – the largest – is used to defend and keep control of Scion’s conquered territories.
SciORE: [noun] Scion: Organisation for Robotics and Engineering.
Scrimmage: [noun] A battle for the position of Underlord or Underqueen. A scrimmage is usually triggered by the death of the Underlord or Underqueen in the absence of a mollisher supreme to take over. Paige Mahoney was the victor in the last scrimmage after the murders of her predecessor, Haymarket Hector, and his mollisher, Cutmouth.
Scrying: [noun] the art of seeing into and gaining insight from the æther through numa. A querent may be used.
Séance: [noun] [a] For voyants, a group communion with the æther; [b] for Rephaim, transmitting a message between members of a group.
Senshield: [noun] The brand name for Radiesthesic Detection Technology. At the beginning of The Song Rising, Senshield scanners can detect the first three of the Seven Orders of Clairvoyance.
Seven Orders of Clairvoyance: [noun] A system for categorising clairvoyants, first proposed by Jaxon Hall in his pamphlet On the Merits of Unnaturalness. The seven orders are the soothsayers, the augurs, the mediums, the sensors, the guardians, the furies, and the jumpers. The system was controversial due to its assertion that the ‘higher’ orders are superior to the ‘lower’, but was nonetheless adopted as the official form of categorisation in the London underworld and elsewhere.
Seven Seals, the: [noun] Previously the dominant gang in I Cohort, Section 1-4, based in the district of Seven Dials. The gang was led by Jaxon Hall, with Paige Mahoney as his mollisher.
Silver cord: [noun] A permanent link between the body and the spirit. It allows a person to dwell for many years in one physical form. Particularly important to dreamwalkers, who use the cord to leave their bodies temporarily. The silver cord wears down over the years, and once broken cannot be repaired.
Spool: [noun] [a] A group of spirits. [verb] [b] To gather several spirits into a group.
Syndicate: [noun] A criminal organisation of clairvoyants, based in the Scion Citadel of London. Active since the early 1960s. Governed by the Underlord and the Unnatural Assembly. Members specialise in mime-craft for financial profit.
Threnody: [noun] A series of words used to banish spirits to the outer darkness.
Underlord or Underqueen: [noun] Head of the Unnatural Assembly and mob boss of the clairvoyant syndicate in London. Equivalent terms in the voyant communities of Manchester and Edinburgh are Scuttling King or Queen and Spaewife respectively.
Unnatural Assembly: [noun] A collective term for all of the mime-lords and mime-queens in London’s clairvoyant syndicate.
Vigiles: [noun] Also Gillies. Scion’s police force, split into two main divisions: the clairvoyant Night Vigilance Division (NVD) and the amaurotic Sunlight Vigilance Division (SVD). NVD officers are guaranteed thirty years of immunity from justice before being executed for their unnaturalness.
Voyant: [noun] Clairvoyant.
Acknowledgements
This book has been a long time coming. Two-and-a-bit years coming. First and foremost, I’d like to thank you, the reader, for being so patient in waiting for it. Every hour I spent working on this book made it stronger, and the extra time I took to polish it means that I’m truly proud of the story you now hold in your hands. I hope you enjoyed Paige’s third adventure, and that it was worth the wait. Onward to the fourth one . . .
The next acknowledgements go to my wonderful editors, Alexa von Hirschberg and Genevieve Herr. I can’t express how grateful I am to you both for your patience, wisdom and enthusiasm. I couldn’t have pulled The Song Rising out of the bag without you.
Thank you to everyone at DGA – most of all to my agent, the incomparable David Godwin, who always has my back – and to Heather Godwin, Lisette Verhagen and Philippa Sitters. Thank you for always championing my writing, and for eating cake with me on that day when I got really overwhelmed.
Thank you to everyone at the Imaginarium Studios for your continued support, especially Chloe Sizer and Will Tennant, whose insight and encouragement has once again been invaluable.
To Alexandra Pringle, Amanda Shipp, Anurima Roy, Ben Turner, Brendan Fredericks, Callum Kenny, Cristina Gilbert, Diya Kar Hazra, Faiza Khan, George Gibson, Hermione Lawton, Imogen Denny, Isabel Blake, Jack Birch, Kathleen Farrar, Laura Keefe, Lea Beresford, Madeleine Feeny, Marie Coolman, Nancy Miller, Nicole Jarvis, Philippa Cotton, Rachel Mannheimer, Sara Mercurio, Trâm-Anh Doan, and everyone else at Bloomsbury for your dedication to this series. I wake up every day feeling so lucky to be working with you.
Thank you to Sarah-Jane Forder for the thorough copyediting, and to David Mann and Emily Faccini for making The Song Rising look just as gorgeous as the previous two books.
Thank you to my translators and publishers worldwide, who work so hard to get my books into the hands of readers who I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach.
As an author, it’s sometimes necessary to write about places you haven’t lived in. While I visited Manchester and Edinburgh during the process of writing this book, I am a Londoner to the core, and I knew I could never re-create these two great cities without some help. Thank you to Ciarán Collins, who has once again patiently answered my many questions about Irish; Louise O’Neill for giving the Ancoats scene the once-over; Moss Freed for his insight into Manchester; and Stuart Kelly for being kind enough to be my guide in Edinburgh.
Some other lovely folks whose knowledge has contributed to this book are Melissa Harrison, for bird and tree-related assistance; Paul Talling, of Derelict London, for the tour of the Fleet; Richard Andrew Vince
nt Smith, whose knowledge of trains is surely unparalleled, or at the very least, far superior to my own – thank you for taking the time to check the Stoke-on-Trent part when you were in the midst of revising; and Sara Bergmark Elfgren, for helping with the Swedish again. Thank you, as well, to the many kind strangers on Twitter who have replied so quickly and willingly when I’ve asked for help with languages and dialect – you are the people who make the Internet great.
Ilana Fernandes-Lassman and Vickie Morrish – you are the kind of friends everyone deserves. Thank you for always being there whenever I emerge from the tunnel of drafting edits, to eat pizza and laugh ourselves silly.
I’ve historically been a solitary creature when it comes to my creative process, but over the last couple of years I’ve learned how much of a lifesaver it can be to share the journey with people who are also experiencing the ups and downs of conveying a story from imagination to page. Thank you to Alwyn Hamilton, Laure Eve and Melinda Salisbury, and to Team Maleficent – Claire Donnelly, Leiana Leatutufu, Lisa Lueddecke, Katherine Webber and Krystal Sutherland – for being such great friends over the past year. You are all seriously talented ladies, and it’s truly an honour to know you.
Thank you to the booksellers, book bloggers, Bookstagrammers, Booktubers, reviewers, librarians and other book-loving people who have done so much to support and talk about the Bone Season series.
Finally, thank you to my family for putting up with me in my moments of self-doubt as well as my moments of triumph. I might have flown the nest this year, but I wouldn’t have been able to start writing these books in the first place if I hadn’t had you there to support me following my dream.
A Note on the Author
Samantha Shannon was born in west London in 1991. She started writing at the age of fifteen. Between 2010 and 2013 she studied English Language and Literature at St Anne’s College, Oxford. In 2013 she published The Bone Season, the first in a seven-book series. The Bone Season was a New York Times, a Sunday Times and an Asian Age bestseller, was picked as a Book of the Year by the Daily Mail, Stylist and Huffington Post, and was named one of Amazon’s 2013 Best Books of the Year. It has been translated into twenty-six languages and the film rights have been acquired by The Imaginarium Studios and 20th Century Fox. In 2014, Samantha Shannon was included on the Evening Standard’s Power 1000 list. The Song Rising is her third novel.
samanthashannon.co.uk / @say_shannon
Also by Samantha Shannon
First published in Great Britain 2017
This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
© Samantha Shannon-Jones, 2017
Map copyright © by Emily Faccini 2017
Samantha Shannon-Jones has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.
THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1965 by Mary L. Hampson.
This is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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