Page 180 of The Bone Season

Something caught my eye on Port Meadow. The printed letters next to it were faded, but I made them out.

OXFORD TRAIN STATION

It hadn’t even crossed my mind.

We had all been brought here by train. Why couldn’t we leave on it, too? It would take us under Gallows Wood. The average Scion train could hold nearly four hundred people, more if they were standing. I could get every single prisoner out of this city and still have room for more.

Even as the plan formed in my mind, I forced myself to take a steadying breath. The entrance to the station could be locked or booby-trapped. Even if we got past it, the Rephs would make sure Scion was ready at the other end.

We definitely needed weapons.

I searched the room. There were multiple net guns and air rifles, with boxes of acid and flux darts, as well as old horse pistols, which had to be more for comfort than anything. The air rifles would be handy, but I imagined they were counted with care, and I had no way to carry one. Still, I could probably filch a few small items. I took a sheathed knife and an air pistol, along with a case of acid darts.

In a metal case, I found boxes of ammo. Nick had tried to shoot Warden and Tertius, to no avail, but firearms would get rid of loyal red-jackets.

The sound of footsteps drifted to my ears. Without pausing, I shut myself into one of the gun cabinets, just as the creak of hinges came.

Two Rephs walked into the room. I could have kicked myself for not paying closer attention to the æther. Now my exit was blocked. The cabinet also had no room for a human. I had to suck in my stomach to fit.

Thuban Sargas was first in the room, drawling in Gloss. I pressed back, eyes closed.

That was when the cabinet doors opened.

Terebell Sheratan stared at me. I stared back, paralysed.

Neither of us moved. I waited for her to alert Thuban. My fingers strayed towards the pollen around my neck, but I thought better of it. Even if this vial did somehow hurt Terebell, Thuban would disembowel me.

But Terebell surprised me. Giving me a scathing look, she shut me back into the cabinet.

‘Amaurotic weaponry is unsettling,’ she said in English. ‘Small wonder they destroy one another so often, with minds that can devise such things.’

‘Are we speaking the fell tongue now?’

‘Gomeisa told us to maintain our fluency in English and French. I see no harm in practice.’

‘If you insist upon fouling our mouths.’ Thuban walked across the room, making the floorboards strain. ‘Count the weapons.’

My throat closed.

The pair stayed for a while, taking stock. Terebell either missed that I had taken the knife and the pistol, or simply chose not to remark upon it.

‘I wonder that you would stoop to this work,’ Terebell said. ‘I have not heard of humans stealing from the House in a very long time. What is your fear?’

‘The dreamwalker has sown the first seeds of unrest in our city. It is clear she is a criminal by nature. Suhail foolishly allowed her to overpower him. Next, she burned the Rookery,’ Thuban said, disdain in his tone. ‘You should know better than most that a lack of order is the root of dissent, Terebell. The scars on your back should remind you of that.’

My heart was pounding.

Terebell was one of them.

‘It must be very hard for you to come here,’ Thuban said, softer. ‘Does the bell in Tom Tower ring in your memories?’

Nashira had the perpetrators tortured in the House.

‘I hear you took the palmist there earlier.’ Terebell was good at concealing her emotions, if she had any. ‘You take her there often, Thuban.’

‘What of it?’

‘If she displeases you, there is room for her in Oriel.’

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