Shadowcry

by Jenna Burtenshaw

  “Back? Back where?”

  “I will explain everything soon. For now, we must walk.”

  The understreets seemed to wind on forever, linked together by staircases and bridges that spanned deep chasms sliced into the earth. Looking over the sides of those bridges was like looking down into the underworld. Some of the chasms had people working in them, hanging from long rope harnesses and chipping away at the rock, while others were abandoned and so deep that it was impossible to see all the way to the bottom.

  “Grave robbers,” said Mina. “In the bonemen’s time, the Night Train carried coffins here, and they laid the bodies to rest in long tombs that run deep beneath our feet. Fume’s towers were built as memorials to the families laid to rest beneath them, but since the High Council took it as their capital they have made it a place to be feared, not respected. The bonemen are gone and the Night Train carries the living into slavery, war, and death. That is not the way things are meant to be.”

  Kate dared to lean out a little farther over the side.

  “Do not let them see you!” whispered Mina. “The wardens are the grave robbers’ enemies as well as ours, but the grave robbers would not hesitate to report us if they decided it was worth something to them.”

  Mina’s group did its best to stay out of sight and headed down a narrow tunnel that had been cut into an old rock fall. Mina unlocked a green door hidden behind a flap of cloth and Kate followed her into a beautiful street lit by tiny lanterns hanging down from its ceiling. It was an arched cavern lined with red bricks and metal frames that protected the houses underneath from collapse. Every one of them was as perfect as the day they were built. There was even a working fountain in the very center and lanterns edging the paths, giving the street a warm, friendly glow.

  “This is where some of the bonemen used to live,” said Mina. “If your uncle had listened to me years ago, you would already call this place home. I am only sorry we could not bring you here sooner. You will be safe here. My home is close by. We will talk inside.”

  Mina took Kate into a small well-kept house and sent the others away, but some refused to leave.

  “She could be dangerous!” said one. “The High Council kept her alive. What do you think she gave them to deserve that?”

  “I think she gave them hope,” said Mina. “Something none of us have had in a long time.”

  “Look at her eyes! They are already half dark, and she is too young for them to have colored so quickly. Da’ru has forced her too deeply into the veil. If she was not guided there properly, shades may have followed her spirit back out. She may be corrupted.”

  “This girl is too strong for that,” said Mina. “As you can see, she is one of us and she needs our help.”

  Kate tried to listen to what else was being said, but they lowered their voices too much for her to hear. Whatever Mina said to them, it worked. The group left her and Kate alone. Mina locked the front door and, noticing Kate’s uneasiness at being locked in, immediately pressed the key into her hand.

  “You are not a prisoner here,” she said. “This street is the safest in the City Below. Edgar hid here with us when he first escaped the High Council. Did he tell you about that?”

  “He didn’t tell me anything,” said Kate. “Edgar escaped from the council?”

  Mina regarded her carefully.

  “He says we can trust you, and he is not a boy who trusts easily. He must think a great deal of you to go back to the chambers after all this time.”

  “I didn’t even know he’d been to Fume before,” admitted Kate.

  Mina took her into a small room where two comfortable chairs sat on either side of a table spread with a deck of picture cards. “Edgar left this place three years ago,” she said, gesturing for Kate to sit down. “He always was a good boy. Cunning and quick. Never frightened of danger.”

  “That doesn’t sound much like Edgar,” said Kate.

  Mina gathered up the picture cards and shuffled them as she talked. “We all change in order to survive,” she said. “Edgar was taken from his family at a very young age. The councilwoman Da’ru Marr bought him and his brother Tom from the Night Train. Edgar was one of her servants for more than four years. As far as most of the wardens in the chambers know, he still is.”

  “He worked for Da’ru?”

  “Not by choice, you understand. When Edgar was thirteen he escaped from the chambers. He tried to take his brother with him, but Tom was not where he was meant to be that night and Edgar had to leave him behind. Da’ru knows he will come back for his brother one day, so she always keeps Tom close, hoping to draw Edgar out. There is nothing she dislikes more than a traitor.”

  “Edgar walked right past the wardens outside my room,” said Kate. “If they knew who he was, why didn’t they just arrest him then?”

  “Da’ru would never admit that one of her servants had tricked his way into freedom,” said Mina. “Most wardens would assume Edgar had been working in one of the other towns on her behalf and that now he had come back. The men stationed on the Night Train were mostly new, so they would not have recognized him, but the High Council rarely change their chamber guards. Edgar was counting on them to recognize his face. That was how he planned to get you out. The moment Da’ru learns he is back, she will hunt him down. No one enjoys being deceived, which is also why my people are so reluctant to have you here. They think you have been corrupted and that bringing you here will invite danger into our homes.”

  “I’m not dangerous,” said Kate.

  Mina did not look convinced. She laid three cards face- down on the table. “You may believe that now,” she said, “but they do have good reason to be afraid. Last night there was a shift in the veil, and the minds of the Skilled were blinded to it for a short time. That only happens when a powerful soul connects with the veil, an event so rare that none of us here have experienced it in our lifetimes. Even the shades were agitated by it. Do you know what a shade is?”

  “Spirits?” said Kate. “I’ve read about them. Spirits of the dead who have not been able to leave this world behind.”

  “But you do not believe in shades, do you?” Mina turned the first card faceup. It had a painted picture of a tree upon it—an enormous tree with wide branches spreading out across mountains, rivers, and groups of tiny people.

  “I don’t really know what to believe anymore,” said Kate.

  “That is often the first step on the path to knowledge. You do not have to understand what life shows you, you only need to be open to it.”

  “What are those?” asked Kate, pointing to the cards as Mina turned the second one faceup. Its design was much simpler than the first: its two halves painted in black and white, with a gray silhouette of a person standing half in one side, half in the other.

  “They are windows,” said Mina. “Sometimes the cards reveal truths that we cannot yet see within ourselves or others. I am using them to learn more about you.”

  Kate did not know if she liked the idea of that. “What do they say?”

  Mina pushed the two cards toward her. “Sometimes the veil likes to keep its secrets,” she said. “You are a mystery, it seems. Even to the cards. There is nothing definite here. Only possibilities. Your path is not yet clear.”

  Kate saw a look of worry cross Mina’s face. “What about the third one?” she asked.

  Mina slid the last card off the table and put it in her pocket. “This one is not for your eyes,” she said. “I already know what it will say.” She gathered up the rest of her picture cards and smiled. “The shades are very interested in you,” she said brightly, trying to lighten the mood. “Do not be afraid of them. They can be troublemakers, but they cannot do any real harm. There is a lot for you to learn and the Skilled will help you if we can.”

  Mina looked at Kate sadly, and the room slipped into silence.

  “Well then,” Mina said, standing up. “First things first. There is a room you can use while you are staying here. I will show it
to you now so you have time to read your letter. After that, when you are ready, there are important matters we need to discuss.” She left her picture cards stacked on the table, and Kate could not help looking back at them as Mina led her out into the corridor.

  Mina’s spare room was right at the back of her single-story house, set deep into the wall of the cavern. There were no windows, but it was still airy enough to be comfortable, and Kate was glad to have somewhere she could be alone.

  “I’ll cook us some food,” Mina said on her way out. “You can’t have eaten well since you left home. Take as long as you need here and come along to the front room whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thank you,” said Kate. “For bringing me here and telling me about Edgar. I don’t know if he would ever have told me himself.”

  “You don’t have to thank me, child. I am sure he would have told you everything, given time. The boy is quite taken with you. Though I am not certain even he knows it yet.”

  Mina smiled as she left and Kate made sure that the door was propped open before sitting down on a cushioned chair. Edgar’s letter was still in her hand. She unthreaded the string, unrolled the page, and began to read.

  Kate,

  I know you’ll have questions, but if you’re reading this it means I can’t answer them yet. There are things you don’t know about me. Mina will explain if you still want to know, but believe me, you have more important things to think about right now.

  Mina says she knows where Artemis is! One of Da’ru’s men bought him from the wardens at the station. She’s making him work for her now. The Skilled know how to get to him and Mina’s promised to take you there whenever you want to go.

  You can trust these people, Kate. They’re my friends.

  I hope you’re okay. Stay safe, and don’t worry about me. These wardens aren’t as smart as they think. I’m sure I’ll think of something.

  See you soon.

  Edgar

  Kate read the letter twice.

  She had left him behind. Edgar had risked so much to help her and she had left him behind.

  Kate rolled up the letter and tucked it away. If Mina knew where Artemis was, she had to speak to her. If there was a chance she could find him, she had to know for herself.

  She caught her reflection in a mirror as she left the room. She looked tired. Her blue eyes were washed out and there were black veins appearing within the blue that had never been there before. She looked away from the glass, refusing to think about what those veins might mean, and walked out into the corridor.

  A muffled shout from the front room made her stop halfway.

  Kate froze. The window next to the front door was hanging open. She was sure it had not been like that before. She looked down the corridor. The entire back of the house was built into the ground. If something bad happened, that door was her only way out.

  She walked toward the front room, concentrating so hard on listening for Mina that she did not feel the floorboards flex beneath her as someone closed in from behind. She did not see a faint shadow pass across the wall, or smell the scent of blood upon the air.

  Kate peered into the front room and saw Mina lying still upon the floor.

  Too still.

  She bolted for the door, only to be grabbed before she could even push her key into the lock.

  “Very well done, Kate,” said Silas, pressing his hand over her mouth before she could shout for help. “I see your friend had something to do with your escape. Perhaps I underestimated his skills after all.”

  Kate squirmed in his arms but he would not let go.

  Silas pushed her into the front room, forcing her to step over the dead woman on the floor. Mina was lying on her side, her eyes wide and empty. In her hand was the third picture card, the one she would not let Kate see. On it was a picture of a skeleton laid out on a platform inside a tomb: a picture that could only represent one thing. Death.

  Instinct made Kate reach out a hand to try to touch the dead woman, desperate to recall her spirit to life as she had done with Kalen, but Silas held her back, refusing to let her try.

  “At least you are showing more confidence in your abilities,” he said, smiling at her as she struggled against him. “The Skilled will believe you did this. They will not protect you, now that you have murdered one of their own. None of them know that I am here and you will keep it that way, unless you think your new friend needs some company on her journey into death?”

  Silas tightened his grip so that it hurt, and Kate stopped struggling.

  “Good. Now . . . you will return to the tunnels. You will look at no one. You will speak to no one. Each time you disobey me, I will take a life, and the blood of those people will be on your hands. Do you understand me?”

  Silas bullied her to the front door and Kate looked out at a group of people talking by the fountain, each of them oblivious to what had just happened inside the house.

  “Now,” said Silas. “Walk.”

  Kate looked back to say something, but Silas was already out of sight.

  She knew she looked suspicious as she walked along that street; it was impossible not to, with a madman tracking her from the shadows. She could not see where Silas had gone, but some of the cavern’s buildings were set away from the walls and surrounded by fences, giving him plenty of opportunities to pass unseen. Soon the Skilled would go into the house to look for Mina, and any trust Edgar might have earned for her would be gone. She wanted to tell them what had happened. She wanted to warn them, but all she could do was walk.

  “Kate?”

  Kate’s eyes flickered up, just for a moment, and the man whose nose she had punched on the surface waved to get her attention from the other side of the street. Kate looked away quickly, concentrating on walking to the green door.

  “Kate!”

  She heard footsteps close in on her as the man jogged to catch up, but she did not turn around. Her hand went to the door handle, hoping that it was unlocked.

  “Hey! Where are you going?”

  The man pressed his hand lightly on her shoulder. Then it slid away, his throat squeaked quietly, and she heard his body drop to the ground.

  “I saw you look,” Silas whispered in her ear. “Step through.”

  The door opened easily against Kate’s shaking hand. The Skilled were right; she was dangerous. She had led a killer right into their sanctuary.

  Kate felt Silas’s presence move closer behind her. She was on her own now. No one was going to help her. She walked out into the tunnel, not daring to look back.

  Chapter 14

  The Spirit Wheel

  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 turned back and dragged her along until they were far enough away from Mina’s 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 honorable man and honorable 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, 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 recognized the smoky smell of the streets. The doors looked straight out onto an alleyway with a cluster of tall black towers gathered at its farthest 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 center 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 toward 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 recognized 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.