Page 132 of The Bone Season

Jos looked at me, then at Liss, then at Kath. His stare became defiant.

‘I’m going to get the Warden,’ he said.

‘You little traitor,’ Emil bellowed as Jos bolted. ‘Suhail will deal with all of you!’

Kath lunged at me. Still disconcerted from using my spirit against her, I buckled under her furious charge. Liss came rushing to help, but Kath lashed out with her knife, making Liss yelp. My chest jolted. I shoved myself straight up off the floor, intending to disarm Kath.

‘Hurry up, Kath,’ Emil snarled, still wrestling with Julian. ‘Just do it!’

But Kath had frozen, staring at Liss, whose arm was bleeding. Oliver moved instead, taking me down at the waist. His weight crushed the breath from my chest. As I wrestled against him, a yellow glow flared in the corner of my eye.

The stove. Someone had knocked it over, and flames were racing across the floor.

Liss saw, her eyes widening. Julian and Emil fought in a fury, teeth bared. Unless we could stop this, we were all about to burn to death together. Desperate, I grabbed at Oliver, finding his hand on my shoulder; I tried to roll out from under him, but he was thick with muscle.

A grey haze of smoke was filling the shack. Liss scrambled to gather her cards, scraping the deck back together. Kath got to one of them first.

‘Oh, look.’ She waved it at me with a laugh. ‘I think this one’s for you, 40.’

The card showed a man lying flat on his front, staked to the ground by ten swords.

‘No,’ Liss said hotly, trying to snatch it back. ‘That wasn’t the last—’

‘Shut your trap,’ Kath shouted at her. Oliver had me in a headlock, which I writhed and kicked to escape. ‘Useless shitsayer. You think it’s so hard to dance for your keep while we’re out there getting eaten alive?’

‘You didn’t have to go back. We had a life here,’ Liss said, tears springing. ‘Kathy—’

‘Shut up!’ Kath was beyond anger now, heedless of the spreading fire. ‘Every night I’m out in the woods, trying to stop the Buzzers ripping out your worthless throat, all so you can sit on your nancy and play with cards and ribbons. I’ll never be like you again, you hear me?’

I used to share this place with a friend, but she couldn’t bear the shame of being a performer. After a bad winter, she convinced her keeper to give her one more chance. My eyes stung from the smoke, the frustration.She’s been a bone-grubber ever since …

Julian hauled Emil outside. ‘Paige,’ he shouted at me. ‘Paige, the fire!’

It was raging now, licking up the walls, the bed erupting into flame. This place was about to go up like a tinderbox.

I risked using my spirit again. Oliver let me go with a scream, as if I had scalded him. I dived for the cards, but Kath got there first. Her boot clipped the side of my head. She seized the deck and let out a joyless laugh. Liss watched her in absolute terror, the fire reflecting in her eyes.

‘We are not the same,’ Kath hissed at her. ‘We will never be the same, Liss Rymore.’

She flung the entire deck into the fire.

Liss let out a gut-wrenching scream. Every hair on my nape stood on end.

The cards burned up like dry leaves. As the images curled, the æther strained. As Liss lunged for them, I finally reached her, catching her wrists.

‘It’s too late, Liss—’

She had already plunged her fingers into the fire. Weeping in denial, she watched the cards blacken, one numen consuming another.

‘Liss, come on,’ I said, coughing. ‘Come on!’

Kath had frozen again. Liss stared up at her, tears on her cheeks. I pulled her limp arm over my shoulders and towed her out of the shack.

In the Rookery, half the performers were saving their meagre supplies, while others were running for water. Eyes raw from the smoke, I tried to carry Liss, whose strength was already failing. Julian met us in the food shack and lifted her. We shouldered and shoved our way from the settlement and ran towards the Townsend.

‘Paige,’ Julian called over the din, ‘what happened to Liss?’

‘Kath torched her cards.’

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