‘Hold on,’ said Edgar. ‘That’s a bit steep, isn’t it?’
‘If we had recognised Kate’s ability when she was younger, things might have been different. As it is, her mind has been opened to the veil without proper training or care. With ancestry like hers that is disastrous. When we thought Kate had not inherited her parents’ Skill, we were relieved. The Winters family’s abilities are legendary. As Walkers, their spirits can enter the veil directly, but their link can become so strong that they do not just step into it, they attract it. If their spirit is powerful enough, the veil can become unstable around them, and bleed freely into the living world. When that happens, just being close to them can send the souls of people around them into death.’
‘You think Kate can kill people, just by standing next to them?’
‘Given the right conditions, yes,’ said Baltin. ‘It has happened before. The Skilled have tried to prevent the Winters blood from being passed on for generations. Now Kate is the only Skilled Winters left. Exposing her mind to the veil unprotected was like pouring oil on a flame. Silas Dane ignited something inside Kate that will never stop burning. If she is not controlled, she could well be the death of us all.’ Baltine turned to Kate. ‘Why do you think Artemis never told you the truth about your family? He knew this could happen. Silas Dane ruined you, Kate. He made you dangerous and uncontrollable, just like him. It amazes me that you do not see that.’
‘I know what I can see,’ said Edgar, trying his best not to look as unnerved as he felt. ‘You’re scared.’
‘Of course I’m scared. I’m scared for all of us,’ said Baltin. ‘You might not have seen what Kate really is, but we are not fools. We know the signs. The silver in her eyes, the way the veil changes when she is nearby. We know what she is. Kate’s kind can be dangerous as much for what they don’t know as for what they do. All it takes is one mistake and people will die, just like Mina.’
‘Mina was stabbed,’ said Edgar. ‘The veil had nothing to do with it.’
‘If Kate were allowed to explore her abilities and develop them, she would eventually use them,’ said Baltin. ‘That must not happen. If she is kept in the dark there is at least a chance that the veil will draw back from her permanently. Her link with it may simply . . . wear off.’
‘Wear off?’ said Kate. ‘That is what you’re all hoping for?’
‘If it doesn’t, people like these Blackwatch will keep hunting you,’ said Baltin. ‘They will force you to influence the veil in the way they want and that will put us all in danger. You could be a brutal weapon. We cannot let that happen.’
‘So, I’m meant to stay down here in that room until I’m “cured”. That’s what you’re saying?’
‘I wish it was,’ said Baltin. ‘This attack changes things. We do not have time to wait any more.’
He moved before Kate realised what was happening. Ducking behind her, he pressed a short blade up against her throat.
‘What are you doing?’ Edgar demanded.
‘Making sure I have your attention. I never wanted it to come to this, but I have a responsibility. I have to do what’s right. Now, step inside.’
Edgar did not move. Baltin’s hand was shaking, the blade brushing against Kate’s skin. He did not look like the kind of man who had hurt anyone before, but he was nervous enough to make a mistake and cut her without meaning to if things got out of hand.
‘All right,’ said Edgar. ‘Let her go.’
‘Get inside!’
Edgar raised his hands and started to walk. ‘What are you going to do?’ he asked.
‘What someone should have done weeks ago.’
‘Does Artemis know about this?’
‘Move!’
‘He doesn’t, does he?’
‘I said move!’ Baltin pointed the dagger at Edgar in anger, and Kate got away from him as soon as the weapon left her skin.
Baltin faltered, not knowing what to do, or whom to threaten next. Edgar threw himself at him and tackled him to the floor, pinning him on his side and forcing him to stay still as Kate prised the dagger from his fingers.
‘Guar—’ Baltin tried to shout for help, but the struggle had stirred dirt up from the floor and he choked on it, his shout becoming a hacking cough.
‘Is he all right?’ asked Kate.
‘He’s fine. Help me put him in the room.’
‘Wait,’ Baltin wheezed as the two of them took an arm each and dragged him along. ‘Think about what you’re doing.’
‘I’ve thought about it,’ said Edgar, lifting a bunch of keys from the pocket of Baltin’s dressing gown. ‘You attacked us. We defended ourselves. Sounds fair enough to me.’
‘Kate can’t leave this cavern. She can’t!’
Edgar closed the door, sealing Baltin inside.
‘You don’t understand!’ Baltin’s fist hammered on the other side of the door and Edgar left the key hanging in the middle lock.
Kate looked in through the upper keyhole. ‘You turned Artemis against me,’ she said. ‘What did you say to him?’
Baltin’s eye appeared at the lock. ‘I told him the truth,’ he said. ‘He did not believe it at first until we showed him what we knew. But Artemis is a logical man. He could not deny what he had seen with his own eyes.’
‘What did you show him?’ asked Kate.
‘We showed him the veil,’ said Baltin. ‘We gave him proof. He knows that you are not a simple girl any longer. He know how dangerous you will become.’
‘Why didn’t you show me this?’
‘Because the veil would never show you what we can see,’ said Baltin. ‘You cannot witness your own future, Kate. We can.’
‘Don’t listen to him,’ said Edgar. ‘We can go, right now, before anyone realises he is gone.’
‘What did you see?’ asked Kate.
‘We know you can never leave this cavern,’ said Baltin. ‘We cannot protect you if you do. We gave you a chance, Kate. If you run now, we will have no choice but to hunt you down, for your own safety and to protect the future of Albion.’
‘Why?’
‘I cannot tell you that.’
‘You were going to kill me.’
‘I was willing to do what must be done.’
‘I will never trust any of the Skilled again,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t know what you saw in my future, but I know I won’t be spending it here, however long it lasts. Goodbye, Baltin. Tell Artemis he’ll never have to worry about “protecting” me again.’
‘Wait!’ Baltin shouted as Kate turned away from the lockhouse. ‘Guards!’
Kate kept her eyes straight ahead, walking along a street she had once thought was safe, not wanting Edgar to see the tears on her face. ‘There is no place for me here,’ she said. ‘They can keep the veil and Artemis to themselves. I don’t want anything to do with them any more.’
She could hear the dull thuds of Baltin’s fists hammering on the inside of the lockhouse door as she and Edgar hurried away. It wouldn’t be long before one of the guards heard him, and when they found him locked inside and their only prisoner missing there would be no convincing them that she was not a threat. Any safety that had existed in that place was gone now.
‘Are you serious about leaving Artemis behind?’ asked Edgar, following Kate along a path between two houses and emerging in a small rock garden on the other side.
‘He’ll turn me over to them the moment he sees me,’ said Kate. ‘And you can’t come either. What about Tom?’
‘He likes it here,’ said Edgar. ‘He’ll be safe enough. And I’m not letting you go out there alone.’
Kate did not say anything. No words would be enough to say how grateful she was to have at least one person left whom she could trust. Edgar hoisted his bag on to his shoulder and Kate hurried along with her head down as the guards’ warning bell sounded behind them.
‘They’ve found him,’ said Edgar. ‘Let’s go.’
6
Allegiance
When t
he Blackwatch had gone Silas tried to free himself from his chair, but his body had other ideas. Going for Bandermain’s throat had hurt him more than he wanted to admit. His muscles screamed out whenever he tried to move them and his broken bones grated together, forcing him to stay still. He should have been able to loosen his ropes and break his way out of that place easily. Instead he was stuck to the chair like an animal caught in a trap.
The room he was in was an ordinary cellar. The floor was thick with decades’ worth of coal dust and dirt but there were clear spaces round the edge of the floor where boxes or old pieces of furniture had been sitting until recently. Bandermain’s men must have emptied it in a hurry, and it was clearly not meant for holding someone securely.
For years, the worst fate for any soldier of the Albion army was thought to be finding themselves in the hands of the Blackwatch. He had heard stories about the mistreatment of prisoners under Blackwatch guard during past campaigns into Continental territory, and had known dozens of men who had been taken by their agents. Only two of them ever found their way back, carrying gruesome stories that helped to make the Blackwatch legendary among those who were sent out to face them.
Silas was not worried for himself – the Blackwatch were no threat to him – but he was concerned about what they planned to do with Kate. If the Continental leaders finally got their hands on a powerful member of the Skilled it could turn the tide of the war spectacularly against Albion. They knew Kate’s name. They wanted mastery of the veil and now they knew exactly whom to hunt to get it. What greater prize could Bandermain present to his masters than a girl able to demonstrate the power of the veil and a traitor to Albion who could not die? The Blackwatch would not stop until they had what they set out to collect. Trouble was heading into the heart of Albion, and Kate was going to be right in the middle of it.
Silas tried to reach out for the veil, but again he felt nothing. Kate was a weapon just waiting to be found and he could not do anything to help Albion so long as he was tied up in someone’s worthless cellar.
Blackwatch voices filtered down from the room above. A door slammed shut and Silas could hear harsh coughs and a conversation unfolding through the floorboards overhead. Bandermain and his men were close by. He stayed still and listened.
‘Send in more men,’ said Bandermain. ‘Call them back from border patrols. Use the ship and tell them not to return until they have the girl in custody. We are close enough to the attack to risk a few lives. Concentrate our efforts upon the capital, but do not neglect the northern cities. Send men everywhere we have the manpower to reach and make sure all agents are aware of their responsibilities well ahead of time.’
‘They have already been informed,’ said another voice.
‘Have they found their way into Fume’s understreets?’
‘All entrances to the City Below are being monitored, sir. Runners have been sent down into the tunnels, but our agents are holding back until the posters are distributed, as ordered. If our intelligence is correct, we should have control of the main gathering points by dusk tomorrow.’
‘ “Should” is not good enough,’ said Bandermain. ‘Those people live underground like ants. They will put up no significant resistance. I want to know the moment we have those gathering points.’
‘Yes, sir. There are birds in flight as we speak. We are expecting fresh reports very soon.’
‘Good work,’ said Bandermain. ‘Keep me informed.’
The situation was worse than Silas had realised. The Blackwatch were not just interested in acquiring Kate. Her capture was simply the first stage of a much larger plan. An invasion. He had to act. If he could do nothing else, he could at least try to slow them down.
‘You. Outside,’ he said loudly.
The cellar door opened and two Blackwatch officers who had been standing guard came in.
‘Bring Bandermain in here,’ he said. ‘Tell him I am ready to talk.’
Bandermain took his time answering the summons and when he finally returned he came alone. ‘I am here,’ he said. ‘So talk.’
‘How does it feel?’ asked Silas. ‘To be the one who captured me? Think of the glory that will be yours when you present me to your leaders.’
A flicker of pride crossed Bandermain’s face. There it was, thought Silas. There was the adversary he knew so well.
‘You and I both know that our leaders are more concerned with outdoing one another than with bringing an end to this war,’ said Bandermain. ‘I have no interest in earning the praise of fools any longer. There are greater battles to fight, and you are far more valuable to me than you could ever be to them. They would parade you through our towns in an iron cage and invite children to spit at you through the bars. You would be the freak of Albion, captured and weak. I have more respect for you than that.’
‘I can see that,’ said Silas. ‘Not many people have enough respect to crush me with a bridge. Perhaps I will return that “respect” to you one day.’
Bandermain smiled. ‘In normal circumstances, I doubt even a bridge would have been enough to stop you,’ he said. ‘I have learned that you are unusually weakened here. The veil does not favour my country as powerfully as it does your own. While you are here, you are disconnected from it, and whatever abilities you have acquired clearly rely upon the veil for their strength. You have left your home at a dangerous time, Silas. Albion’s connection to the veil is not what it once was. The veil is falling. The link your country has enjoyed for so long is decaying as we speak. You may not be able to hear your little spirit voices here, on my land, but imagine what will happen when the whole of Albion is plunged into the half-life. Your people will no longer be able to tell the difference between the living and the dead. Spirits will walk the land for every living soul to see. There will be chaos. Your people will fall into madness and turn upon each other. Albion will die, and the Blackwatch will be there watching while your country’s arrogance brings about its destruction.’
‘You know nothing about the half-life,’ said Silas.
‘You would be surprised,’ said Bandermain. ‘It is interesting what you learn when you have the right friends. If you have knowledge that can be of use to me, I suggest you share it with me now, while my patience lasts.’
Silas considered his options. Bandermain had always been sceptical of the veil. He had called those who believed in it ‘fools’ and ‘witches’, but now he was talking about the veil’s falling as some kind of inevitable event rather than an irrational fear or a fantasy. He had to know more. He had to earn Bandermain’s trust, and to do that he had to give him what he wanted. He had to make a sacrifice. ‘I know where Kate Winters is,’ he said.
‘Where?’
‘Somewhere your men will never find her. At least not on their own. If you want her, you will tell me exactly what is going on here. No lies.’ Silas sat back in his chair, sending a stab of pain needling along his spine. ‘Now, are we going to talk?’
‘You are in no position to make demands.’
‘I think I am in an excellent position,’ said Silas. ‘I have information you need. Tell me why you want her, and she is yours.’
Silas’s face was unreadable, and as his demeanour changed so did the atmosphere in the room. He did not need the veil to affect the environment he was in, and the threat from his words spread around the room like smoke, making it feel small and airless, as cold as a place cut deep underground. Bandermain reacted to the change at once. His eyes narrowed briefly. Fear, Silas knew, was a powerful weapon. ‘I did not need the veil to incapacitate your men,’ he said. ‘I did not need it to lead them across Grale on a chase through the night, and I will not need it to put an end to your life when the time comes.’
‘You cannot even stand up on your own,’ said Bandermain. ‘And even if you could, killing me would not help the girl.’
‘I do not doubt that,’ said Silas. ‘You are not that important, Celador. Your men are sworn to obey the orders of the Continental leaders, but I
doubt even they would waste so many of you scouting along the coast just in case one enemy were to swim ashore. You have already admitted that your goals are no longer the same as theirs, and you are not known for your ability to think for yourself. You are the sword, not the hand that wields it. You are a man who takes orders, which means that someone else sent you here. Who was it?’
‘Where is the girl?’
Wintercraft: Blackwatch Page 7
