Just being there, looking out across all those people, reminded Kate of the life she used to have, when her days had been spent behind a bookshop counter, looking out through a window on to a market much like this one. She had never realised how safe she had felt back in her home town. Life had been easier then. Everything had changed so quickly she had barely had time to miss what she had lost. The bookshop had burned. Her home was gone and her only family had turned against her. She could never go back to that previous existence and she wished she had known just how precious it was.
She tested the sturdiness of each ladder she came to, hoping to find a safe way down, but did not trust any of them. Most were hung on rusted nails, and she had no intention of trusting her or Edgar’s life to something that could give way beneath them. Edgar stayed unusually quiet as they walked, until at last her hand found a ladder that felt sturdy enough to use.
Kate made her way on to the rungs and then stopped, hearing people whispering beneath her. She edged down slowly, signalling for Edgar to stay where he was. They were not the only ones in that cavern trying not to be seen. She was just close enough to make out two old women clinging to the shadows, cupping tiny candle flames in their hands and arguing under their breath. They had large bags slung over their arms and looked around the cavern for several minutes before finally settling on a direction and scuttling off, taking whatever they were carrying with them. Kate waited until they had passed, then waved Edgar down and took the last few rungs to the floor.
The smell of dried tea leaves wafted from the nearest stall and Kate tugged up the hood of her coat. ‘There are no barrows over here,’ she whispered. ‘The closest one’s next to that vegetable seller. It’s too exposed. We’ll be seen.’
Edgar suddenly pulled Kate back into a hollow in the wall, hiding her from view as two people walked slowly by. Kate recognised one of them as Greta, the Skilled magistrate, and the determination on her face was chilling. Neither of them dared to move until Greta was well out of sight.
‘That was close,’ said Edgar. ‘I think we can safely say they’re not using the veil right now. They’d have sensed you in a second, wouldn’t they?’
Kate nodded silently.
‘At least they didn’t see us,’ said Edgar. ‘One of the exits is right there. We should go unnoticed if we’re quick. The Skilled can’t be everywhere.’
Kate kept one hand on the cavern wall as she followed Edgar towards the larger of the two exits, where a long line of traders were waiting to push their barrows out and make their way home.
‘Look,’ she said, peering past a clothes stall that had already closed up. ‘What about those two?’ She pointed to two large carts that were both stuffed with rolled-up blankets. They each had two large wheels at the back, two wooden legs to stand on, and thin bars pointing out of the front, allowing them to be tilted back and pulled along. Each one was so big and heavy that it needed to be pulled by two men, making them an excellent place to hide.
Kate dared to move out among the closed stalls, where most of the lanterns had already been blown out. The line was moving slowly and the carts kept stopping and starting, giving plenty of time for stowaways to climb on board.
‘That apple seller behind them might see us,’ said Edgar.
‘Not if we distract him.’
The floor around the closed-up stalls was littered with loose pieces of wood. Kate picked up a long thin stick and held it like a spear.
‘Now I know you’re crazy,’ said Edgar.
‘If we can get this in his wheel, he’ll think it’s jammed. What’s your aim like?’
‘Lousy,’ said Edgar.
Kate brought her arm back, preparing to throw. ‘Get ready to run as soon as he’s looking the other way. Three . . . two . . . one.’ She threw the stick hard through the air, aiming for the spokes in the apple cart’s front wheel. The shot missed. The stick speared awkwardly between the side wheels and skidded beneath the cart. The apple seller kept walking, until the back wheel thumped against the fallen stick and the cart bounced, sending a sack of fruit toppling off the back and scattering apples out across the floor.
‘Ha!’ said Edgar. ‘That’ll do.’
It wasn’t exactly what Kate had planned to happen, but it was good enough. Traders behind the seller helped him to rescue his fallen fruit while Kate and Edgar bolted for the blanket-filled carts.
‘You go in that one,’ Kate whispered. ‘Split up. Less weight.’
Edgar did as he was told. The two of them climbed into separate carts and buried themselves between the blanket rolls. When the line started moving again, no one noticed the extra cargo nestled in among the rest. Kate tugged the end of one of the blankets over herself as the cart edged closer to the exit and she heard people arguing up ahead.
‘You’re not searching through anything of mine!’ said one of the traders. ‘I’ve got fine linens amongst this lot. You’re not putting your filthy hands all over them . . . and you’re definitely not doing anything with that.’
‘Out of my way.’ That was Baltin’s voice. Kate felt the cart jolt as someone climbed up on to the side.
‘You’ll put filthy great holes in everything!’
‘No one passes through this gate without being checked.’
Kate heard a dull thud as something stabbed into the fabric beside her. The blanket traders yelled in protest and Kate tucked her knees up, making herself as small as possible before Baltin slashed at the fabric with what sounded like a blade. She stayed deathly still, afraid to breathe in case he heard her. The traders shouted at him to stop, and he dragged two rolls down from the cart, threatening to send the rest of the stock toppling to the floor.
Kate heard sounds of a tussle as the two traders pulled Baltin off the cart, telling him that there was no one inside it and if he wanted to take his anger out on something he should go and find someone else’s stock to destroy. The traders were tough, hefty types, and Baltin was wise enough to decide that he was satisfied with his search.
‘Next!’
The traders threw the fallen rolls back on to the cart, and as they pulled away Kate caught a glimpse of Baltin behind her, stopping the apple seller and demanding to look inside his sacks. Her view was limited to objects directly behind the cart and she could not see Edgar’s barrow anywhere; she could only hope that it had been checked and passed at the same time as hers by one of Baltin’s men. She dared not risk raising her head out of her hiding place to look. Baltin had sounded desperate enough to do anything. If he had found her, Kate had no doubt that he would have used that sword on her there and then. She had been lucky, and now all she could do was lie still as the traders pulled the cart out of the Shadowmarket and into the tunnels of the City Below.
Once they were out of the market cavern most of the traders began heading different ways. Conversations were struck up between those who shared the same tunnels and the only things any of them really talked about were the sickness, Baltin’s behaviour, and the sudden interest so many people had in the whereabouts of a missing girl.
Kate closed her eyes and tried to let the gentle movement of the cart relax her after the madness of the cavern, but all she saw when she closed them were the warnings given to her by the spirit wheel: the bird, the dagger and the mask. She wondered where Silas was and if the High Council was still hunting him.
She watched the ceiling go by as the traders carried her deep into tunnels she did not know, and was glad to see that they were heading upwards at last. The paths the traders chose curled gently uphill. They walked through old arched doors, past branching junctions and over a narrow bridge that rattled and creaked as they crossed it. Kate could feel that they were high up, at the top of a dizzyingly high drop, and the carts took it in turns to cross carefully one by one. She wrapped herself in one of the blankets and dared to look out over the side.
The first thing she saw was light. Thousands of bright firelights shining from spaces cut into the walls. The bridge hung perilou
sly over a huge cavern sliced through by what looked like a river surging far below. The floor of the cavern was too dark to see, but the walls were alive with life. People were living there. Staircases had been built in zigzags between the many levels and there were at least twenty or thirty floors, reaching higher than the bridge and down beneath it. She could see rooms cut into the earth, with small fires burning within them for warmth, and there were families there; armies of children who ran up and down the staircases like excitable mice. As the cart neared the end of the crossing, Kate could hear music echoing gently from the cavern walls and the sounds of people talking carrying from the stones.
Kate had thought the tunnels and smaller caverns were all that made up what people knew as the City Below, but now she realised she was wrong. This was a true city. What she was looking at was a settlement all of its own. A place large enough to hold several thousand people and still not feel crowded. It was a world beneath the earth; an existence completely separate from the world outside.
The pathways were neat and clean. The air was clear and Kate heard the throbbing heartbeat of spinning fan blades high above her, drawing cool air down from vents cut into the ceiling. She half expected to see starlight twinkling through them when she looked up, but all she saw was the solidness of rock.
Kate had forgotten all about trying to hide. She could not help staring at the immensity of what was hidden beneath Fume’s feet. People were not just surviving, they were happy down here. They were living.
Soon the cart left the bridge and began rolling gently down a winding slope, stopping and starting a few times. A quick glance up ahead showed Kate why. They were coming to a checkpoint. Three men and three women were talking to the traders pulling a metalworking barrow just ahead. Behind her, more traders were joining the line and at last she spotted Edgar’s blanket-filled cart a short distance away. She hid beneath some loose blankets as the line moved and her cart came up to the barrier.
‘Residents,’ one of the blanket traders said brightly. ‘Back from the market.’
‘Make any good sales?’ asked one of the women.
‘Good enough. The rest of the stock got ripped up by some idiot at the door.’
‘We heard something about that,’ said the woman. ‘You’re not the only one who has complained. Make sure you salvage what you can.’
‘Will do.’
The cart lurched and drove on without anyone looking into the back. Kate moved the blanket from one of her eyes and peered out again as it headed across a second small bridge and trundled right up to the front of the lowest houses. She had to get Edgar’s attention somehow. They had to get out of the carts before they stopped or they would risk being found. Edgar did not look up. Kate waited as long as she dared, then – as they approached the middle point between a pair of lanterns hanging over the road – she crawled along the blankets, waited for her moment, and jumped.
14
Within the Walls
Kate ran for the shadows, staying out of sight as the second blanket cart rolled by. Edgar was still not moving, so she picked up a stone and lobbed it into the blankets. Edgar looked up, confused, and Kate waved to get his attention. As soon as he saw her he scrambled down from the cart and scuttled over to her hiding place.
‘What are you doing out here?’ he whispered.
Kate pointed to the ceiling. ‘Do you see those vents?’
‘Yes . . .’ Edgar said slowly. ‘If you’re thinking of using them as a way out, I don’t think either of us can climb well enough to even get up there.’
‘I know we can’t reach the vents,’ said Kate. ‘But what about chimneys?’
‘Narrow dark things with fires burning away at the bottom? That’s an even worse idea.’
‘At least we know they go upwards.’
‘And most of them are lit by the look of it.’
‘Most of them. Not all,’ said Kate.
She stared at the lantern lights of the carts still moving along the other side of the cavern. Something was happening on the bridge.
A few of the carts had stopped. Kate could hear traders shouting. They were pointing at something, trying to get the attention of the people manning the checkpoint, but no one was listening.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Edgar.
It was hard to tell from so far away, but they did see a small baker’s cart tilting precariously to one side at the far end of the bridge. The baker who was pushing it tried to stop it from falling but gravity took hold. The right wheel gave way and the cart plunged over the edge of the bridge, plummeting down into the distant river. At first it looked like an accident. The baker was shouting, other traders were holding her back from the edge, and then Kate saw a rope dangling from the ceiling with someone dressed in black clambering up it towards one of the vents.
‘Look at that!’ she said, pointing up at the disappearing man.
‘Did he just pull that cart off the bridge?’ said Edgar. ‘Why would anyone . . . Look! There’s another one!’
A second man was clinging to the wall on the opposite side of the cavern. He waited there for a short time, then let go, sliding down a long rope all the way to the ground. The more Kate and Edgar looked for them, the more men they could see taking up positions around the cavern.
‘Blackwatch?’ said Edgar.
‘I hope not.’
‘They’re tricky enough for Blackwatch. And I’ve never seen a warden do anything like that. What is that? Over there on the bridge.’
The traders were moving again, but instead of heading forward the carts were rolling carefully to one side to allow something else to pass through. Seven men dressed in long red coats strode across the wooden bridge. All of them were armed with bows, daggers or swords and they advanced right through the traders without being challenged. The guards at the checkpoint looked up. One of the women reached for her weapon, but before the others could react arrows cut through the air from the men on ropes and all six guards fell dead to the floor.
‘Definitely Blackwatch,’ said Edgar, already backing away. ‘What were you saying about chimneys?’
‘They can’t know we’re here,’ said Kate.
‘They must be stepping up the search,’ said Edgar.
Kate’s thoughts went immediately to Artemis and Tom. ‘Do you think they’ve already been back to the Skilled’s cavern?’
‘No,’ Edgar said quickly, already thinking the same thing. ‘Tom and Artemis will be fine. They’ll look after each other. Look out. They’re coming this way.’
The seven men moved swiftly across the second bridge, and the few people who dared to stand in their way were taken down by the wall scouts, leaving the path clear for them to reach the main rock face. There was nowhere to go. Kate and Edgar hid in a darkened corner behind a stack of heavy crates as the Blackwatch made their way past. Then their boots stopped, and voices carried from somewhere nearby.
‘You have had you chance,’ said one of them. ‘Enough warnings have been given. The girl was seen in the Shadowmarket just a few hours ago. It would be unwise to hide her from us. Hand her over, or more of your people will die.’
A woman’s voice answered. ‘You have made a mistake by threatening my people,’ she said. ‘We have told you everything we know about the girl, yet you have returned to us and spilled blood simply to hear the same answer. Order your men to leave or we will be forced to defend ourselves. My people far outnumber yours. Your men cannot cling to our walls forever.’
‘We will search this cavern,’ said the Blackwatch officer. ‘Your people will not stand in our way. My men have every door, sewer and rat hole under guard.’
‘You will find nothing.’
‘If you do not deliver the girl, you will no longer be of use to us. I find people become most co-operative once their leaders are dead.’
Kate heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed and the woman’s voice became tinged with fear. ‘Search all you want,’ she said. ‘She is not here.’
‘Find her.’
Kate left the safety of the crates and crept into the first doorway she could see. She did not know where she was going. She did not care, so long as the Blackwatch did not see her. It took a few seconds for Edgar to realise she had gone and he hurried to catch up with her.
The room Kate found her way into was empty, but there was a fire burning in the hearth, making the chimney too hot and dangerous to climb even if she put the flames out. She moved through the house and climbed back out through a small window on to the cavern’s main street. The children who had been playing on the staircases were gone, replaced instead by people who were curious to see what was going on down below. Many of them were armed with whatever they had to hand and looked ready for a fight.
Wintercraft: Blackwatch Page 16
