here to find us.”
“If we need a place to hide, we should go to the Skilled,” said Edgar. “Tom and I know the way. They trust us.”
“No!” said Kate. “I can’t go back there. Silas killed two people while I was with them. They’ll think I did it!”
“Then we’ll just have to put them right, won’t we? Those eyes of yours will definitely give them something to think about. They won’t turn us away.”
“The Skilled it is, then,” said Artemis, nodding with the wariness of someone not used to making big decisions.
“Kate?” Edgar said carefully. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Kate was looking up at the galleries as the last few people trickled out of the city square. Even though it was no longer active, she could see the symbols around the edge of the enormous listening circle as clearly as when it was linked to the veil. She could see traces of hidden energy sealed within its central stones and as she walked over the symbols she could feel it, too, like gentle vibrations beneath her feet. If this was what Silas had been talking about, he was right, it was definitely going to take some getting used to.
The moon hid briefly behind a bank of purple clouds and the stars shone down upon the glowing circle. The energy was so clear, Kate did not know how she could have missed it before. And she was not the only one attracted to its light. A large black bird flew smoothly across the empty square, soaring powerfully over her head and swooping down to land upon the bloodstained table.
“Can you see that?” she asked, as the bird perched beside the body of the dead crow.
“See what?” asked Edgar.
Kate walked slowly up to the bird, not wanting to scare it away, and when she got closer she realized that she could see right through it. Its feathers had no substance, and it flickered in and out of her sight, watching her all the time.
“It’s Silas’s bird,” she said.
“Yeah, I know,” said Edgar, thinking she was talking about the body on the table. “It’s a shame, I suppose. Who wouldn’t want a crazy feathered thing flying around taking orders from a madman? If you ask me, it got off lightly. Who’d want to spend all their time with someone like Silas? It’s probably relieved to be free of him. I know I am.”
Kate stood beside the crow’s body and watched its bloodied feathers ruffling in the wind. Silas had saved her life. He had spared Edgar and saved Artemis, and that bird meant something to him. If its spirit was there, maybe it had not yet gone fully over into death. If there was any way to thank Silas for what he had done, surely this was it.
Gently, she picked up the body—it was lighter than she had expected—and balanced it carefully between her hands, concentrating upon healing the wound, just as she had done with the man in the river. Nothing happened, and she was worried the bird might have been dead too long. But then, like a subtle heat growing from her bones, she felt the energy of the veil pass softly through her hands, spread into the crow’s delicate body and out across its skin, healing the muscles and binding the flesh until the faint throb of a heartbeat fluttered against her palm.
The crow’s spirit gathered into a thin gray wisp and sank like smoke back down into its body. Kate waited, hoping that the heartbeat would last . . . until one limp wing flapped back into life, then the other, striking the air and sending the crow tumbling out of her hands and onto the table. It scrabbled drunkenly up onto its feet and shook its feathers before screeching out a call that echoed loudly across the city square.
“Go to your master,” said Kate, picking up the crow and holding it high in the air. “Go to Silas!”
The bird took flight, swooping across the square and soaring out over the city, calling out victoriously into the night.
“It’s more than he deserves,” said Artemis, climbing into a carriage as everyone else watched the bird fly away. “Come on. We’re wasting time here.”
With everyone safely on board, Tom steered the horses expertly through the square’s lower doors and out into the streets. The roads outside were littered with the remains of the night’s celebrations, and despite what had happened in the city square, there were still hundreds of people dancing