saw it all. He was on his way down from the testing room tower, carrying a stolen vial of what was left of Kate’s blood. He had no intention of allowing Da’ru to use that blood in her work. The councilwoman may have lost Wintercraft, but she had learned enough from the book to make that blood a very dangerous tool. He could not risk her using it against Kate, not until his work was done.
Silas did not know how Kate had escaped from the holding room, and he did not care. He took the steps two at a time, his coat trailing through the stone dust as he slid the vial into the pocket at his chest and swept out into the open air.
She was out and she was his.
Kate ran into a quiet wing of the immense council chambers and raced along corridors and through empty rooms, checking every window to find some way out. All she saw were more buildings, more courtyards, and endless grassy squares. The place was a maze and the wardens were everywhere.
Most of the doors she found were locked, so she was forced to cut through a dining room where two long tables were already laid out for breakfast. A door hung open at its farthest end: a servants’ door, meant to blend in with the rest of the wall. She ran straight for it and found herself inside a network of passageways built right into the walls.
The cramped pathways were dusty and tight, with passing places sunk into them at regular points wherever the thicker walls allowed. Kate often had to duck inside to let busy people pass, but no one questioned her. Many of the servants she saw there looked as bedraggled as she did, heading off to build fires, serve breakfasts, lay tables, polish floors, and do a hundred other tasks that kept the council chambers running smoothly.
Suddenly the passageway came to an end and Kate squeezed out into a busy kitchen filled with steam and smells and shouts. Most of the workers were younger than she was, boys and girls stolen from their own hometowns, stirring, baking, boiling, and frying under the keen eyes of three older cooks. Kate was not sure where to go next, until a young girl carrying a bowl of potatoes looked her way, glanced at the nearest cook, and then changed direction, heading straight for her.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she whispered. “Your eyes are different. I can tell. Edgar told me you might come this way.”
“Edgar was here?”
“He was looking for you a while ago. He said if you came here without him, I had to show you the door.” The girl pointed to an iron hoop halfway along the wall. The door behind it was so well disguised that Kate never would have spotted it on her own.
“Is Edgar coming back?” asked the girl.
“I hope so,” said Kate, trying to smile. “Thank you so much.”
“Good luck.”
Kate left the girl behind and stepped through the door into a short hallway that led straight outside. The fresh air chilled her skin, and she ran out onto a path edged by an iron fence that was far too tall to climb. Beyond that fence, the city rose like a black forest, and a carriage path led from the council chambers right down into the city itself.
Kate followed the fence until she found a missing railing that left a wide space between the bars. She squeezed through and set off running down the edge of the path toward the safety of the nearest street. She was so busy worrying about what might be behind her that she did not spot the man waiting up ahead until it was too late.
He stepped out in front of her, snatched her up in his arms and pulled her into the hallway of a narrow old house. Whoever he was, Kate was not ready to be taken without a fight. She bit and scratched and punched and squirmed until the man cried out in pain and two more hands grabbed her in the dark.
Lanterns gathered around her, and five dirty faces glowed in their light.
“Is she the one?” asked a man behind her, holding a light close to her face before she managed to free her arm and knock it away.
“She fits the description.”
“And she’s right where Edgar said she would be.”
“What’s your name, girl?”
“Do you really expect her to tell us that?”
“If it is her, then where’s Edgar?”