Page 41 of The Song Rising

I was suddenly conscious of the æther; my sixth sense swamped the others. Nick touched my arm, jolting me back.

“Paige?”

“Wait,” I said, and ran from the control room.

Scaffolding had been left to rot on one side of the power station where property developers had been defeated by its age. I clambered up it, ignoring their calls for me to wait. A mass of dreamscapes was approaching from the south, moving past us at a steady pace. Regimented.

Nick was in pursuit, navigating the vertical labyrinth. When I reached the top, I ran to the base of one of the four chimneys and grasped the rungs of a ladder. Behind me, Nick heaved himself off the scaffolding.

“What are you doing?”

“I need to see.” I tested the ladder with my boot. “Something’s coming.”

“Paige, that thing has to be three hundred feet.”

“I know. Can I use your binoculars?”

His lips pressed together, but he handed them over. I slung them around my neck and climbed.

I moved like clockwork past concrete scabbed with paint. When I thought I was high enough, I turned to behold the starfield of blue streetlamps—London in the dead of night. I could see the illuminated skyscrapers of I Cohort in the distance and the bridges closest to the power station, two of many that reached over the river. The nearest was for trains, but the one beyond would normally be weighed down with traffic, even in the small hours. I took one hand off the ladder and lifted the binoculars.

A convoy of black, armored vehicles was thundering across the bridge, coming from a main road close to here. I almost stopped breathing when I saw the tanks among them. Each vehicle was flanked by armed foot-soldiers. I couldn’t see the end or the beginning of the convoy; there must have been hundreds, thousands of them on their way into the heart of the capital.

My heart climbed into my throat. I pressed myself against the ladder when a helicopter rushed over. A helicopter emblazoned withSCIONIDE.

I descended as quickly as I could. When he saw my face, Nick didn’t need to ask. Wordlessly, we scrambled back down the scaffolding. The others were waiting for us at the bottom.

“They’re here,” I said. Minty lifted a hand to her mouth. “A massive convoy. We need all of our voyants from the first four orders evacuated now—into every available hideout—maybe some of the abandoned Underground stations—”

“Jaxon knows those places.” Eliza was holding her own arms. “We need somewhere he’s never been.”

“Damn it,think,” Maria barked. “Where can we go?”

“There’s always the Beneath.”

It was Wynn who had spoken. She was standing by the window, her hands in the pockets of her coat. As one, we all turned to look at her.

“The underground rivers. The deepest tunnels. The storm drains and the sewers,” she said. “The lost parts of London.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Wynn, don’t be an idiot,” Maria burst out. Wynn raised her eyebrows. “The Beneath is the mudlarks’ and the toshers’ territory. We all know the sewer-hunters have no interest in dealing with syndies. They protect their kingdom of shit like it’s a river of gold. Any time we’ve ever tried to push too far underground, they’ve driven us off with spears.”

“Ruffians,” the Pearl Queen said.

“Can we not force our way in?” Tom asked.

“Fighting them would end in deaths. I’m not going to slaughter one community to protect another,” I said sharply. Yet going deep underground could protect us from Senshield, and from Vance.

Minty raised an unsteady hand. “I’m afraid force isn’t an option,” she said. “The Beneath is the territory of the mudlarks and the toshers, beyond debate. It was agreed in 1978 that the deep parts of London would be theirs, and theirs alone. Their right to the Beneath is enshrined in syndicate law. And as you say, Maria, they protect it fiercely.”

“Theremustbe some way to convince them,” I snapped. “It’s our only way out of this. ScionIDE won’t think to look there; even Jaxon will have no inkling. If we stay below the streets, we can move around the citadel without activating the scanners. If the Mime Order can go where Vance’s soldiers can’t follow—”

Wynn cleared her throat.

“If I might finish speaking,” she said, “I happen to know how we can access the Beneath, without force and with the toshers’ permission.”

Every head turned in her direction. Maria was good enough to look slightly embarrassed.

“Several years ago, the toshers came to us—the vile augurs—with a plea,” Wynn went on. “They needed access to a lost river, the Neckinger; I believe there was treasure there. The entrance sat on Jacob’s Island, our land. We allowed them access and to plunder the treasure. In return, their king promised each vile augur a favor. It so happens,” she said, “that I never claimed mine.”

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