go.
“We have no more time,” said Silas. He grabbed her arm, pulled her along the wall, and snatched something down from a high shelf. “Remember, it is your fault that we have come to this.”
The point of a needle shone in the firelight and a vial attached to it glowed a deep, dangerous blue as Silas stabbed it down into Kate’s arm, releasing a trickle of poison into her blood. She tried to pull away, but the liquid spread like fire through her veins. Sounds became distant, her limbs felt heavy and her knees weakened under her, sending her crumpling to the floor.
Silas’s crow fluttered up onto his shoulder, and Silas stood over her as unconsciousness carried her senses away.
“This could have all been much easier,” he said.
Chapter 11
The High Council
Kate woke to a dull thumping sound. She was underwater, but she was breathing somehow. Her hands went quickly to her face, where a mask covered her mouth and nose, feeding air into her lungs. She panicked, dragged the mask off, and thrashed her arms, fighting her way to the safety of the surface, only there was no surface to reach, just a hard barrier closed tightly over her head, sealing her in. Kate slammed her hands uselessly against the glass as a face appeared behind it: a face that was not Silas.
She choked in a mouthful of water and snatched at the bubbling mask again, terrified she was going to drown. Then the face stepped back, a deep grating sound rumbled around her and the water level plunged, draining away quickly through a metal grille beneath her feet. Kate dropped to the floor, choking and gasping for breath as Da’ru peered in through the glass.
“That was your first failure,” she said, her voice echoing around the tank. “As a Skilled, you should have been able to see me and speak with me inside the veil without returning to full consciousness. I am disappointed in you, Kate.”
The room outside the tank was lit by dozens of candles and Kate saw a group of people gathered in the light. She was not in the museum’s cellars anymore. She was in the center of a grand room, surrounded by twelve men in formal clothes seated behind a curved table draped in green cloth. The vial of blood Silas had drawn from her lay half empty at the very end of the table, and the man closest to it was hunched over a pile of papers, writing notes. Silas had taken her to the High Council. The experiments had already begun.
“She did not even enter the first level of the veil,” said Da’ru, turning away. Kate watched her through the glass, glaring at her with pure hatred. “I should have let her drown.”
“That would have been a mistake.”
A dark shape moved in one of the corners, and Silas stepped into the light of the room. He blended into the shadows so perfectly, Kate had not even seen him.
“Immersing the girl was pointless,” he said. “The elements do not react to her the way they did to the others.”
Da’ru ignored him as if he had not spoken at all. “We shall attempt a more direct approach,” she said. “The bloodbane dispersed extremely quickly in her blood. That is a small sign of potential, at the very least. She may yet prove interesting. Release her.”
The boy from the museum scuttled out of an alcove in the wall at his mistress’s word and unclipped four heavy clamps that kept the tank fixed to the floor. The glass shuddered, and with a sudden creak of wheels and rope the tank’s walls rose up into the air, leaving Kate standing clothed and dripping wet on the round grate. She could not remember anything that had happened between the museum and where she was now, but whatever danger she had been in with Silas, her situation had clearly become much worse.
“You promised us results,” said one of the councilmen. “This girl looks like yet another pointless waste of our time.”
“Excellence takes time,” said Da’ru. “Manipulating the subjects’ connections to the veil is a delicate procedure. It cannot be rushed without forcing them too far into death. If my studies are correct, this girl may be able to manipulate the veil in ways we have not yet seen, even without the tools and careful conditions usually employed by the Skilled. If she is useful to us, you can be sure I will discover it.”
Da’ru gave the boy a signal and