away. “Steady there!” he said, trying to calm it down.
The bird pecked at its reflection in the glass and freed one of its wings, fluttering hard. Edgar’s boots slid on an icy cobblestone and he fell onto his back, keeping tight hold of the bird until its other wing flapped loose, smacking him full in the face.
Kate wasn’t about to stand and watch her best friend wrestling on the ground. She dropped the dead blackbird into her coat pocket and pushed past her uncle, ignoring his shouts as she threw back the bolt and swung open the door. “Edgar, come on!”
“Look out!” cried Artemis.
The bird flapped hard and Edgar let go, sending it fluttering up past Kate’s face to join the others in the air. Kate helped Edgar up and pulled him into the shop.
“Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” he said, holding out his arms as if his coat sleeves might bite. A sticky green residue had stained one of the cuffs. “I rubbed that off its beak,” he said. “Bloodbane. Very poisonous. If I was a bird, I wouldn’t want to eat any of that.” He sniffed it experimentally. “And it’s fresh.”
“The wardens are responsible for this,” said Artemis. “Both of you, get down into the cellar.”
“Are you nuts?” said Edgar, taking off his coat and kicking it across the floor. “If there are wardens about, we have to run. Hiding won’t do us any good.”
“Did you see any of them out there?” asked Kate.
“No, but they’re not exactly going to walk up and start a conversation, are they? Hey! What are you doing?”
Artemis had grabbed hold of Edgar’s arm and was marching him and Kate over to the cellar door. The three of them squeezed onto the cellar steps, and Artemis locked them in. A flame flickered in the darkness as he lit a match from his pocket and fed it to an oil lamp that swelled with light, revealing an underground room packed with shelves, books, and dozens of storage boxes.
“Down to the bottom,” he said.
Kate and Edgar followed him into the middle of the cellar and stood there listening to thud after thud as the birds slammed into the windows above.
“Those birds are here as a test,” he said, in as loud a whisper as he could manage. “We can’t let them in. We can’t even look at them. Do you understand?”
“A test for what?” asked Kate.
“You wanted to know what else my friends told me? They told me about this. This exact same thing has happened many times in the south over the last few years. Hordings were witnessed in six towns in just six days right before the wardens went quiet. It seems the High Council aren’t happy collecting just anyone anymore. They want a specific kind of person. I think they’re looking for the Skilled.” Artemis was trying his best to put on a brave face, but his hands were shaking and his fear was infectious.
Kate gently lifted the blackbird’s body out of her pocket. She only knew a little about the Skilled, from rumors, mostly. They were people with abilities that most ordinary people did not possess. No one knew exactly what they could do, but most of them were healers, or seers who believed they could see into the future or communicate with the dead. Many of them lived in hiding, and by the time anyone realized they had met one of the Skilled, they would already be gone, never to be heard from again.
“Those birds will have been bred for this,” said Artemis. “The wardens have used the same technique for years. Whenever they want to find the Skilled, they poison hundreds of blackbirds and set them loose. The birds die, the wardens make their move, and when a Skilled eventually comes into contact with one, the bird is healed. No one knows how. All the wardens have to do is find one of their birds alive and hunt close by for the person who healed it. Most of the Skilled are wise to the trap, but there are always some who don’t yet know that they have the ability. Those are the ones in real danger.”
Kate felt a small stirring in her hands. Had she imagined it? Had the bird moved?
“If there are wardens here, there will be very little left of this town by nightfall,” said Artemis. “The hording is only the beginning. I’m sorry, Kate. I should have taken you away from here sooner.”
Kate