underworld. Some of the chasms had people working in them, hanging from long rope harnesses and chipping away at the rock, while others were abandoned and so deep that it was impossible to see all the way to the bottom.
“Grave robbers,” said Mina. “In the bonemen’s time, the Night Train carried coffins here, and they laid the bodies to rest in long tombs that run deep beneath our feet. Fume’s towers were built as memorials to the families laid to rest beneath them, but since the High Council took it as their capital they have made it a place to be feared, not respected. The bonemen are gone and the Night Train carries the living into slavery, war, and death. That is not the way things are meant to be.”
Kate dared to lean out a little farther over the side.
“Do not let them see you!” whispered Mina. “The wardens are the grave robbers’ enemies as well as ours, but the grave robbers would not hesitate to report us if they decided it was worth something to them.”
Mina’s group did its best to stay out of sight and headed down a narrow tunnel that had been cut into an old rock fall. Mina unlocked a green door hidden behind a flap of cloth and Kate followed her into a beautiful street lit by tiny lanterns hanging down from its ceiling. It was an arched cavern lined with red bricks and metal frames that protected the houses underneath from collapse. Every one of them was as perfect as the day they were built. There was even a working fountain in the very center and lanterns edging the paths, giving the street a warm, friendly glow.
“This is where some of the bonemen used to live,” said Mina. “If your uncle had listened to me years ago, you would already call this place home. I am only sorry we could not bring you here sooner. You will be safe here. My home is close by. We will talk inside.”
Mina took Kate into a small well-kept house and sent the others away, but some refused to leave.
“She could be dangerous!” said one. “The High Council kept her alive. What do you think she gave them to deserve that?”
“I think she gave them hope,” said Mina. “Something none of us have had in a long time.”
“Look at her eyes! They are already half dark, and she is too young for them to have colored so quickly. Da’ru has forced her too deeply into the veil. If she was not guided there properly, shades may have followed her spirit back out. She may be corrupted.”
“This girl is too strong for that,” said Mina. “As you can see, she is one of us and she needs our help.”
Kate tried to listen to what else was being said, but they lowered their voices too much for her to hear. Whatever Mina said to them, it worked. The group left her and Kate alone. Mina locked the front door and, noticing Kate’s uneasiness at being locked in, immediately pressed the key into her hand.
“You are not a prisoner here,” she said. “This street is the safest in the City Below. Edgar hid here with us when he first escaped the High Council. Did he tell you about that?”
“He didn’t tell me anything,” said Kate. “Edgar escaped from the council?”
Mina regarded her carefully.
“He says we can trust you, and he is not a boy who trusts easily. He must think a great deal of you to go back to the chambers after all this time.”
“I didn’t even know he’d been to Fume before,” admitted Kate.
Mina took her into a small room where two comfortable chairs sat on either side of a table spread with a deck of picture cards. “Edgar left this place three years ago,” she said, gesturing for Kate to sit down. “He always was a good boy. Cunning and quick. Never frightened of danger.”
“That doesn’t sound much like Edgar,” said Kate.
Mina gathered up the picture cards and shuffled them as she talked. “We all change in order to survive,” she said. “Edgar was taken from his family at a very young age. The councilwoman Da’ru Marr bought him and his brother Tom from the Night Train. Edgar was one of her servants for more than four years. As far as most of the wardens in the chambers know, he still is.”
“He worked for Da’ru?”
“Not by choice, you understand. When Edgar was thirteen he escaped from the chambers. He