blade again.
“I’m not with them!” Edgar said.
“You were once,” growled Silas.
“So were you.” Edgar held up his sooty hands in peace. “I promise you, I have nothing to do with this. Why would I lie?”
Silas pulled his sword back, letting Edgar sit up. “What did the wardens want here?”
“I don’t know. A book, I think, but I don’t reckon they found it. When I heard them heading down here I hid up the chimney, but . . .” Edgar stopped himself, looking as if he wished he had kept quiet.
“What?”
“That bird of yours. The crow. I think it was in here, following me. There were wardens in the corridor and I heard noises as if it was attacking someone. Two of the wardens were laughing about it. I think they took it with them.”
Silas did not need to hear any more. Da’ru knew of his treachery and the wardens had captured his crow. It was only a matter of time before she used the veil to find him. He had to enter death. He had to break the bond binding him to the half-life and he had to do it now.
“Bring him with us,” he said to Kate, sheathing his sword and heading for the door. “It is time.”
“Time for what?” asked Edgar, as Silas swept out of the room. “Kate, what’s going on? What are you doing with him?” His sooty nose wrinkled as she helped him up. “And what is that smell?”
“You’re not too fresh yourself, you know,” said Kate.
“I think I can guess why the dogs haven’t sniffed you out yet,” said Edgar. “I’ve been squashed up a chimney for who knows how long. I’ve got an excuse. What did you do? Go swimming in a sewer?”
“Close enough.”
Kate glanced at the door and, deciding she had some time, pulled Edgar’s letter out of her pocket. The paper had dried out since being soaked in the underground river but the ink had run, making what he had written barely readable.
“Ah . . . right,” said Edgar, shifting uncomfortably as Kate handed it to him. “I can explain this. What did, er, Mina say about it?”
“She didn’t have much of a chance to say about anything,” said Kate. “Silas soon saw to that.”
“What? He didn’t . . . ?”
“Mina is dead,” said Kate, her voice colder than she meant it to be. “The Skilled found me outside the council chambers, right where you apparently told them I would be. Silas followed me, and now Mina is dead. What’s going on, Edgar?”
“I don’t—”
“Mina told me about your time with the High Council. I know you have connections with the Skilled. I’ve just found out that Artemis has been getting letters from them for years, and for some reason three years ago you just happened to move to Morvane and start working in our bookshop. It doesn’t make sense. You’re linked to everything somehow and I want to know how.”
“I don’t know anything about any letters to your uncle,” said Edgar.
“Were you spying on him?”
“No! I wasn’t spying!”
“They sent you to Morvane, though, didn’t they? They told you to come to our town, so you could watch us for some reason. Was that all part of some plan? Did they know I was one of them? Did they know then that Silas was going to come after me?”
Edgar held up his hands. “Now look,” he said. “No one knew exactly what was going to happen. Mina saw things inside the veil and, as usual, everything went wrong.”
“What kind of things?” demanded Kate. “What did she see?”
“You might not know it, but your family was well known in this city,” said Edgar. “Your father was one of the best healers the Skilled knew and your mother was one of the Pinnetts. The Pinnett family came from a long line of true seers. Did Artemis ever tell you that?”
“No,” said Kate. “He told me her family were bakers.”
“Well, they weren’t,” said Edgar. “Your mother told Mina that she was going to marry your father right after the first time the two of them met. She said the veil had shown her that he had a responsibility to carry on his family’s legacy and that she was supposed to help him do it. She knew she was going to die young and that her child was going to be in danger and would need Mina’s help. This was after only one meeting, remember, long before you were even born, but she was certain it