that bird they’ll find us in a second,” he said.
Edgar sneezed and wiped his nose along a filthy sleeve. “Best start running then,” he said. “Better that than be trapped down here. Right, Kate?”
Kate didn’t know what to think.
“I’m not giving either of you a choice,” said Artemis, swinging the lamp as he headed toward the back of the cellar. “We have to hide. The wardens can’t take what they can’t see.”
Artemis heaved aside two boxes of old books that were stacked in the corner furthest from the door. He held the light up to the wall, revealing a tiny door sunk into the stone, just wide enough for a person to crawl into. He scraped his fingers around the dusty edges and searched his pockets for the key. Kate knew that place. She had hidden behind that little door before and she never wanted to go near it again.
“I—I can’t,” she said.
Something clicked and creaked above them.
Slow footsteps crossed the shop floor.
“Come on, Kate.” Edgar held out his hand, and Artemis blew out the lamp, unsticking the old door as quickly as he could.
Kate knew she had no choice. She crept forward through a cloud of dust knocked down from the floorboards above and crawled into the secret hiding place. An old blanket was bunched on the floor, giving a soft place for her knees to rest, but the little hollow behind the wall was a lot smaller than she remembered. She shuffled forward a few knee-steps and scrabbled around, making room for Edgar to squeeze in behind her.
“Move up,” he whispered.
“There’s no more room.”
“What about Artemis?”
But Artemis had already tucked the blown-out lamp behind the door and he made no attempt to follow them inside. “Whatever happens, you two stay in here until they are gone,” he said. “After that, I want you both to leave Morvane, and don’t look back. Do you understand?”
“But—”
“It’ll be all right, Kate. Do you remember how to get out?”
Kate nodded nervously.
“Good. When it is safe, go. Don’t worry about me. Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise.”
Kate could not see Artemis’s face when he closed the door, but she heard the scratchy sound of a key turning in the lock and suddenly she was afraid. The tiny room felt a lot smaller, its walls pressing closer around her body as she knelt in the dark. She was touching the wall in front of her, reassuring herself that there was still plenty of air to breathe, when a quiet whimpering sound started beside her.
“Edgar? What’s wrong?”
“We’re locked in,” said Edgar, sounding even more terrified than Kate felt. “I don’t like this. We have to get out. We have to. Artemis!”
Edgar thumped his fist against the door and Kate grabbed his hands, forcing her own fear aside as she tried to calm him down. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “Listen to me. You have to be quiet. If they hear us—”
“I can’t breathe. Kate . . . I can’t . . .”
“Shh. Yes, you can.” She held his hand and pressed it against her chest. “You feel that? I’m breathing. You’re breathing. We’re going to be all right.”
Edgar fell quiet and small scraping noises bumped against the door as Artemis quickly stacked boxes against it. Then Kate heard the sound of metal rattling against stone and a cold key fell into her hands. The eyeholes! Her fingers reached up to feel out the thin spaces in the wall. How could she have forgotten the eyeholes?
“Stay quiet and don’t come out,” said Artemis. “I love you, Kate. Remember that.”
Kate walked her fingers along the stones and found a flap of leather pinned a little way below the ceiling. It was dry and curled with age, but when she pushed it aside, she could see through a carefully cut slit between the mortar of the wall and one of the old stones. She moved Edgar’s hand up to a second leather strip and together they looked out.
At first they couldn’t see anything, just deep darkness. Then there were voices, quick footsteps, and a loud slam as someone forced open the cellar door. Two black-robed men burst onto the staircase, flooding the room with light from a lantern that cracked hard against the wall.
One of the men had a crossbow trained carefully down the cellar steps and the other held the lantern high, straining to keep hold of a long leather leash with a vicious dog panting at the end of it. Kate’s mind threw up