together, sharing stories of what they had seen, determined to keep celebrating until the sun rose again.
Edgar sat next to Kate, his hands and face cut by the broken window during the warden attack, and Artemis sat opposite them, his injured leg stretched on the seat beside him, his forehead wrinkled with thought. Kate wanted to heal them both, but she knew she did not have the strength. Using the circles had left her weak and tired, and healing the bird had taken the very last piece of energy she had. All she could do was sit there, watching the city pass by, feeling the secret weight of Wintercraft hidden safely beneath her coat.
“Don’t worry,” said Edgar. “The Skilled will help us. I’m sure everything will be all right.”
After what had happened, Kate wasn’t so sure about that. All she had at that moment was the brief safety of the carriage and the rhythmic rumble of its wheels as it carried her on toward an uncertain future in an unfamiliar city.
“I hope you’re right,” she said.
Halfway across the city Silas and his stolen horse thundered along the streets, racing toward the southern gate and the freedom of the wild counties beyond. Silas knew every inch of that city and most of the City Below, but Fume was no longer his home. To him, its walls had been a cage for too long. Now he was free.
The gate guards saw him coming long before he reached them, his gray eyes gleaming fiercely in the dark. They unbolted the gate without waiting for his command, letting the horse and its rider gallop out into the wilds, leaving Fume and all its history behind. Silas carried with him questions the city could never answer and an ambition it could never help him reach. As a traitor he would be a hunted man, so he would find a ship and travel to the Continent, far away from Albion and the High Council, its laws, and its men. Kate Winters had allowed him to take revenge against his greatest enemy, and she had given him his freedom. The rest he was going to find on his own.
Silas followed a gravel road running alongside the red train’s tracks, and he came across an old signpost marking a trader’s path that was long overgrown. There, sitting on top of the sign, was a crow exactly like his own, except for a short line of white feathers running right down the center of its chest. A spark of familiar intelligence shone in its eyes, and Silas slowed his horse to a stop beneath it.
“Crow?”
The bird sat still, its eyes fixed upon the path.
Silas was about to snap the reins, cursing his mistake, when the crow looked at him, spread its wings, and circled him once before flying down to take its place upon his shoulder. Silas ran his fingers down the bird’s white feathers where the wound from Da’ru’s blade would have been.
“Well, Miss Winters,” he said, looking back at the city one last time. “It seems I do owe you something, after all.”
About the Author
JENNA BURTENSHAW has been writing since she was a child, and she divides her time between her writing, her three dogs, and two rescue rabbits. SHADOWCRY is her first novel. Jenna Burtenshaw lives in England. You can visit her online at jennaburtenshaw.blogspot.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Credits
Jacket art © 2011 by Jennifer Jill Radford
Jacket design by Sylvie Le Floc’h
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
Shadowcry
Copyright © 2011 by Jenna Burtenshaw
The right of Jenna Burtenshaw to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burtenshaw, Jenna. [Wintercraft]
Shadowcry / by Jenna Burtenshaw.
p. cm. — (The secrets of Wintercraft)
“Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: Pursued by two ruthless members of the High Council of Albion,
fifteen-year-old Kate Winters discovers that she is one of the Skilled, a rare person
who can see through the veil between the living and the dead.
ISBN 978-0-06-202642-2 (trade bdg.) [1. Fantasy. 2. Dead—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B94569Ni 2011 [Fic]—dc22 2010025823
EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062084583
11 12 13 14 15 LP/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au/ebooks
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 - Market Day
Chapter 2 - The Collector
Chapter 3 - The Warrens
Chapter 4 - Murder
Chapter 5 - Wintercraft
Chapter 6 - The Night Train
Chapter 7 - Fume
Chapter 8 - Feathers & Bones
Chapter 9 - The Collector’s Room
Chapter 10 - Memories
Chapter 11 - The High Council
Chapter 12 - Trapped
Chapter 13 - The City Below
Chapter 14 - The Spirit Wheel
Chapter 15 - The Ancient Library
Chapter 16 - The Thieves’ Way
Chapter 17 - The Secret Circle
Chapter 18 - The Half-Life
Chapter 19 - The Night of Souls
Chapter 20 - Blood
Chapter 21 - Death
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher