different colored bottles and rough sacks, but for every bottle and sack lined up along the walls, at least two lay smashed or torn open on the floor. Dark brown liquid seeped through islands of bread rolls, fresh meat, and squashed vegetables, and the warm tang of alcohol thickened the air.
“Smells like ale,” said Edgar, crunching through a scattering of broken glass. “I think we’re under an inn.”
“It looks like the wardens have already been here,” said Kate. “We should be all right, so long as they’ve gone.”
Kate made her way over to a wooden staircase at the back of the cellar and listened for any sound coming from above.
“Hear anything?” asked Edgar.
“No. I think we can risk it.”
The tunnel door rattled hard with a loud bang, sending one of the bolt’s screws bouncing across the floor.
“You first,” said Edgar. “Better he gets me than you.”
Kate didn’t have time to argue. She grabbed the handrail and threw herself up the staircase, heading for the sunlight that was seeping in under a door. She flung it open and burst through, emerging in the main room of the inn behind a long thin bar. Sunlight streamed in through a row of small arched windows decorated with stained-glass shooting stars.
“We’re in the Falling Star,” said Edgar, panting up behind her. “We’re on the other side of the market square.”
“So where is everyone?”
The inn was deserted. Most of the tables were crushed or upturned and some of the spindles were snapped on the banister of the staircase leading to the rented rooms above. They could still hear the thump-thump of the old man smashing something against the cellar door, but other than that, the whole place was horribly silent.
“All right,” said Edgar. “We’ve got wardens on the loose and a creepy old guy in the cellar. Now are you ready to run?”
“I’m not going anywhere without Artemis.”
“They think he’s one of the Skilled, Kate! They think he was the one who brought that bird to life. They’re not going to just hand him over. You know what that means, right?”
Kate didn’t want to think about what it meant. All she knew was that her uncle was in trouble because of her. She was not going to leave him behind.
“That man we saw back at the shop, he’s trouble,” said Edgar. “Have you ever heard of Silas Dane?”
Kate shook her head.
“He’s a collector. One of the best. Whatever the High Council wants, he goes out and gets it for them. And if he’s got your uncle—”
A shout from outside cut him off, and Kate ran to the window, rubbing grime away from a blue pane to look out across the square.
The market square was not a market any longer. Clustered among the squat wooden stalls were dozens of metal cages, each one mounted on wheels, with two horses at the front and big enough for four or five people to be squeezed inside. There were wardens out there. Kate counted at least thirty, with more arriving all the time, all pacing around the square in their black robes, surrounding groups of people like vultures circling a kill.
The wardens shouted orders as they walked, dragging people out of the crowd and forcing them into the cages, ready to be sent off to war. Every one of the wardens was armed, but the town had been taken by surprise and there had been no resistance strong enough to require bloodshed yet. The town would be harvested, and the wardens would be gone as suddenly as they had arrived. Everyone knew what to expect. Morvane was beaten, and there was nothing anybody could do.
The sun was shining brightly now and the air was crisp and cold, tainted by the smell of smoke. Kate looked across the square to the bookshop. The little building was completely ablaze. Its windows were smashed, the lower floor was engulfed in flames, and smoke was pouring from the upstairs rooms, snaking up into the sky, taking everything she had ever known with it.
“Look,” said Edgar. “Over there.”
Something was going on in the northeastern corner of the square, where a tall man was standing next to the town’s memorial stone. Kate recognized him at once. The man with gray eyes. Silas Dane.
She pressed her cheek against the window to get a better view and saw a group of prisoners standing near him with their hands tied. One of them was being supported by one of the others, unable to put his weight upon an