they can do what they do. Their greed for knowledge drove the Skilled into secrecy and the council still hunt them to this day, believing that they are the weapon that will win this war once and for all, even though they were the ones who caused it.”
“The Skilled didn’t start the war,” said Kate.
“No, the High Council did that by bragging to every Continental leader who would listen about how the Skilled can see into the world of the dead, heal the sick, and see the future. The Continent wanted a share of that knowledge. They wanted the Skilled, and the High Council refused to part with them. Curiously, to those who cannot enter the veil themselves, the secrets of death are a prize worth dying for. Tensions grew between Albion and the Continent over many years until eventually war began.”
“Why would anyone go to war over something like that?” asked Kate. “Most people don’t even believe in the veil.”
“Believing is not the issue,” said Silas. “The Skilled can prove the existence of life beyond this world. Knowledge like that is without price.”
Kate did not know whether to believe Silas or not. No one in Albion really knew what the war was about. It had been a part of life for so long that no one even questioned it anymore.
“The existence of the Skilled caused the war that generations have lived with every day,” said Silas. “The promise of their knowledge was enough to throw our world into chaos, but instead of standing up beside our soldiers to fight, the Skilled went underground, leaving the rest of Albion to fight its enemies alone. I have no love for the Skilled, Miss Winters. It is because of them that I have seen the veil for myself. I have seen the path of death and it has turned me away.”
Silas drew the silver dagger he had stolen from Kalen’s body, held out his hand, and drew the point of the blade across his palm, slicing it open so a trail of blood shone like a string of beads in the light. Kate watched in disbelief as his skin began knitting together before he had even finished the cut, and the blood upon it dried to a faint red dust.
“That’s impossible!”
“That is what the High Council believed,” said Silas. “Before they were proved wrong.”
“How did you do that?”
“Twelve years ago a member of the High Council uncovered a rare book in an old grave not far from here. The grave belonged to a long-dead member of the Winters family. Your family. And within that book, she discovered a way for the Skilled to harness the power of the veil more deeply than just looking into it or using its energies to heal.”
“Was that Da’ru?” asked Kate.
Silas nodded once. “Da’ru believed she could use the book’s techniques to alter the link between a person’s body and their spirit, and I was part of an experiment to prove that theory. Dozens of other subjects had already died from their exposure to the veil. I was the unfortunate one. I survived. Because of this, my blood does not flow like that of normal men. My injuries heal as quickly as they are made. My lungs breathe, but I have no need for air. Poison cannot kill me and fire does not burn.”
Kate looked at Silas and saw the man in front of her clearly for the first time. There was something not quite right about him. Something beyond the fear that he instilled in people with his presence. Anyone could do that with practice. What Silas possessed was deeper than that. That cold feeling that Kate always felt around him; the way his gray eyes reflected nothing of the man behind them. He felt empty to her. It felt as if he was already dead.
“Imagine, then, a thousand more men like me,” continued Silas. “An army like that would be unstoppable, making Albion more feared than any other nation. That is the power the Continent wishes to claim for itself. The High Council are working toward the same goal, but the force of Wintercraft almost killed Da’ru the night she made me what I am. She would not survive a second attempt. For that, she needs someone who possesses a greater natural ability than herself, someone whose family possesses an instinctive connection to the veil. That is why she needs you.”
Artemis had always taught Kate to trust only what she could see and feel. To