stories to go around.
Some said the circles allowed the restless souls of the dead to enter a body and take physical form. Others said that by standing within one of the circles, people opened their minds to the voices of the dead, which would follow them until the day that they died. And a few even speculated that the circles had somehow been responsible for the bonemen’s disappearance, through a death ritual that had gone horribly wrong.
The only aspect of the circles that most people agreed upon was that they were carved in places where the veil between life and death was at its thinnest, and that they were made to pierce through the veil and let the Skilled see deeper into the world of death itself. Standing next to a real one for the very first time, Kate sincerely hoped that every story she had ever heard about them was untrue.
If she had known what they were uncovering she would never have begun, but most of the work was already done. Many of the floorboards were heaped up against the walls, revealing the full span of the circle, which looked completely intact. It was at least thirty feet wide, with four narrow lines radiating out from it at the points of the compass, and where the lines reached the walls a further row of smaller symbols circled around the edges of the room. Kate did not know what those outer symbols were for, but she stepped into the central circle and read a curve of words carved neatly along its northern edge.
A Circle Made of Blood and Stone,
To Bind the Worlds of Soul and Bone.
A Meeting Place for Those Who Seek
The Spirit Sleeping Underneath.
Wintercraft suddenly felt heavy in her pocket, as if the circle was trying to pull it down toward the floor. Kate pressed her hand against it and a gentle vibration thrummed along her palm.
“I don’t like this,” said Edgar. “I don’t like this at all.”
“This is Da’ru’s work,” said Silas, standing on the other side of the circle. “She found this circle, restored it, and put it to use in some of her earliest experiments. You are going to finish what she started in this room.”
“What is he talking about?” Edgar whispered, as Kate pulled the book out into the light. “Is that . . . ? That’s the book Da’ru’s after, isn’t it? It’s Wintercraft!”
Kate did not answer him.
“This is bad, Kate. Silas being part of some experiment definitely explains a few things, but that book is serious trouble. Da’ru talked about it all of the time. It should be kept hidden. If the wardens, or even the Skilled, find us with it, and Silas here too—”
“They won’t,” said Kate, opening the book.
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s why I’m here. Silas wants me to kill him.”
“You!” Edgar tried to keep his voice down. “Silas could stand in front of the Night Train going at full speed and it would come off worst!”
Kate did not know what she was looking for, but she was drawn to Wintercraft’s final section, the only part she had not yet read, and she looked at Edgar with the same cold expression he knew from Silas’s face. Her eyes were no longer the bright blue he knew so well. A thin shadow of black lay across them as the effects of the veil started to close in around her, magnified by the presence of the circle.
“Maybe I can’t do it,” she said, feeling the energies tingling in the air around her. “But Wintercraft will.”
“Oh n-no. That can’t be good,” said Edgar, backing away and pointing to her eyes. “What just happened there? What’s going on?”
“The spirit has to be sent back. Just stay out of my way.”
“The spirit what? Listen to me, Kate. This is a very bad plan. Maybe you should think about this. You’re not yourself. I don’t think you know what you’re doing!”
Silas squeezed Edgar’s shoulder, silencing him at once. “If anyone comes through that door, shout a warning before they kill you,” he said. “You do remember how to take orders, don’t you, servant?”
“Kate, please don’t do this.” Edgar had heard enough about the veil to be glad that he had never shown even the slightest hint of being able to see into any world other than his own. He had enough to contend with in life without worrying about what came after it. But as much as he wanted to avoid the listening circle, he needed