Page 167 of The Bone Season

‘It’s not possible,’ he breathed.

Carter spun into a kick that sent Tertius straight into the column. I stared. Situla landed a blow, but it rolled off Carter like water from steel.

And then, with no warning, she took off. Warden swept his gaze across the square, seeing that most of his soldiers were down. Only I was left.

‘Stop her,’ he called.

The Vigiles were approaching the square. I had to divide their forces and lead the chase away from Jaxon and Nick, so they could get to Eliza.

I let go of Jaxon and sprinted after Carter.

A Vigile let me go past when he saw my uniform. Carter was heading down Whitehall, straight for the Westminster Archon. She was off the cot to go in that direction, but I didn’t care. That was the very edge of the containment zone. I needed to keep forcing her there, so she would no longer be my responsibility. She could get away.

Carter had noticed me. I was fast, but she forged ahead. Her battle trance seemed to have fuelled her pace. Situla overtook me, then Tertius. I tried to keep their auras in range as I wove between people and cars.

Whitehall was always busy, even in the small hours. Some way in front of me, a white taxi braked in front of Carter as she crossed the street. She and Situla split around it. I took the straightest course, running up the front of the car and on to the roof, sliding down the other side.

Carter went through a crowd of pedestrians, all waiting for a night bus. Seconds behind her, Situla sliced through the human obstacles. They screamed; I felt one of them die. This would leave quite a mess for the Vigiles.

My legs pumped. If I let up for a moment, Carter and Situla would be out of range. I shed my jacket, then my armour, dropping as much weight as I could. Just when I thought my lungs would burst, we reached the very end of Whitehall.

Westminster. We avoided this area like the plague, so heavy was its contingent of Vigiles. I looked with utter loathing at the Archon, the heart and seat of the Republic of Scion. Had I been in a less life-threatening situation, I would have liked to leave some choice graffiti on those walls.

This was where the puppets danced. Only Haymarket Hector would dare to live so close to it, for the Underlord was the shadow of the Grand Inquisitor. One ruled the surface, and one ruled the underworld.

Situla was only just ahead of me now. When she reached Westminster Bridge, Antoinette Carter turned to face her pursuers. Her skin looked stretched across her bones, like a thin layer of white paint.

‘No farther.’ Tertius drew a blade. ‘Surrender, Antoinette Carter.’

‘Do you know what I am, creature?’

The æther quaked.

‘I am the voice that heralds the ages,’ Carter told him. ‘My sisters were the bestowers of truth in ancient times. I warn you not to hinder me.’

Her lips were now as dark as mine, as if her words had stained them.

‘Use your spirit, 40,’ Situla ordered me.

I stepped forward. Behind me, I could hear sirens and distant cries.

Carter watched me. ‘Do I know you?’

She spoke with a richer accent than mine. I wanted to tell her that she didn’t know me, but I knew her. That we had both cheated death in Dublin.

Situla lost her patience and sent a flux dart at Carter. It shattered before it could touch her. I tensed as a spirit appeared in front of her, spreading its protection wide, like wings.

A breacher. I concentrated on the æther, trying to identify it. It was something like a guardian angel, but older. This had to be an archangel – a breacher that remained with one bloodline for generations. They weakened over the years, but remained notoriously difficult to banish.

Carter stood her ground. This might be the most powerful voyant I had ever seen. A devastating giftandan archangel at her command. I had never imagined that a human could give the Rephs this much trouble.

Situla reached for the nearest spirits, lacing them all together. When Jaxon had first taught me about spooling, he had compared a spool to a rat king – a knot of rodents, entangled by their own tails, stuck together with hair or sap. The more rats in the king, the harder it was to separate them without killing them. And the more spirits in a spool, the harder it often was to deflect.

The Rephs could make spools more intricate than any I had ever seen. Beside me, Situla bound hers as if with mortar, just as Warden had.

Before she could finish the spool, Carter cut her arm towards us, and the archangel rushed forward. Situla flung me in front of her.

A breacher was incorporeal, but it could affect the physical world. I had the sensation of being lifted off the ground by nothing, as if I had taken flight. The archangel launched me towards the Westminster Archon.

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