Shadowcry - By Jenna Burtenshaw Page 0,55

asked the first man. “Isn’t he meant to be here?”

A woman’s voice rose above the rest. “I think Edgar may be lost to us,” she said, moving around to stand in the light. Something about her was familiar to Kate. Her hair was short and flecked with gray, and her eyes were pitch black, edged with blue, like shining drops of oil.

“It’s you,” said Kate, remembering her at once. “I saw you. At the bookshop.”

The woman smiled kindly. “If you are who we think you are, then it has been many years since we last met,” she said. “Perhaps if we introduce ourselves, you will understand why we are here.”

The woman reached out for Kate’s hand and this time Kate did not resist. A gentle warmth spread across her fingers and, for the first time since Artemis had been taken, for no reason she could explain, Kate felt safe.

“She is the right one,” said the woman. “She is scared, understandably, but she is no threat to us.”

“Tell that to my nose,” grunted one of the men, whose face was swelling quickly after taking a full punch.

The woman ignored him, never taking her eyes off Kate. “We are going to let you go now,” she said. “We have a lot to talk about, so please do not try to run.”

The men released their grip, letting Kate stand by herself.

“Who are you?” she demanded, glaring at them in the light of the lantern.

“You have no reason to fear us,” said the woman. “We are just like you, Kate. We are the Skilled.”

Chapter 13

The City Below

Ever since Kate had first learned about the Skilled, she had expected them to look different from most people in some way. Not one of the people standing around her was extraordinary, but the one feature they shared was unnaturally dark eyes. Kate had heard that the more time the Skilled spent looking into the veil, the darker their eyes became, and even in the brightness of the lantern light their eyes looked as though their pupils had leaked out to overtake everything else, leaving just a faint line of true colors circling the edges.

Kate realized she was staring and looked away.

“My name is Mina,” said the woman. “Edgar asked us to wait for you both here. Do you know where he is?”

“No,” said Kate. “We got separated.”

“He was worried that might happen. We have no choice but to go on without him. Here, he left this for you.” Mina handed her a tiny roll of paper tied with string.

Kate recognized Edgar’s handwriting on the outside of the roll. “But . . . how do you know Edgar?” she asked.

“We have known him since he was a boy,” said Mina.

The men all nodded. “He’s a good lad,” said one of them. “He’s had no kind of life. No kind of life at all.”

Kate was confused. Was there anyone in Albion who didn’t know Edgar?

“There is no time to read the letter now,” said Mina. “But soon. When we are safe. The council will not find you where we are going. This way.”

Kate held the little letter tightly as the Skilled led her down into the house’s cellar. One by one they stepped through a door disguised as a stack of shelves and came out upon an underground path that was very different from the tunnels Kate had seen beneath Morvane. This path was not just an ordinary tunnel; it looked as though it had once been above the ground. Its walls were the fronts of two rows of houses facing one another, light came from candles propped on outside windowsills, and the path was wide and cobbled, with worn wheelmarks where carriages had once run.

The few windows that had survived the years reflected the group’s lanterns as they walked past, but the houses had only bricked-up arches marking where doors had once been, and the rooms inside had long since been buried under fallen earth.

“Will Edgar be able to find us down here?” asked Kate.

“He knows the way,” said Mina. “But I do not hold much hope for his safe return. It will not take long for the wardens to see through his lie. We all told him it was foolish to go back.”

“Back? Back where?”

“I will explain everything soon. For now, we must walk.”

The understreets seemed to wind on forever, linked together by staircases and bridges that spanned deep chasms sliced into the earth. Looking over the sides of those bridges was like looking down into the