Page 182 of The Bone Season

Kraz Sargas blocked the doorway. His orange eyes seemed to smoulder.

‘It has been twenty years,’ he said, ‘since there were traitors in the tower.’

I backed straight into a wall. His dreamscape was so faint, so hard to detect. The Rephs must have some way to cloak themselves in the æther.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said at once. ‘I was looking for medicine.’

‘Indeed, in a building reserved for your betters – though I wonder if you think yourself above us, dreamwalker. Suhail and Aludra certainly believe so.’ He gave me a mock bow. ‘Did Arcturus send you?’

‘No.’

‘So he lets his tenant go wandering off by itself. Nashira will not be pleased.’ He moved towards me. ‘Do sit, 40. I have been craving a word with you.’

‘Which chair?’

‘For now, the one without the spikes.’

With little choice, I did what I was told. Kraz took the opposite seat.

‘Nashira believes that you are the Pale Dreamer,’ he said. ‘Have you worked alongside the White Binder?’

‘I live in his section,’ I said. ‘But I just work as a waitron. Check my record.’

‘This act does not fool me. You chose to hinder the assignment in Trafalgar Square. Thanks to your interference, the Seven Seals escaped. We may never find them again,’ Kraz said. ‘Either you are incompetent, or you helped them leave.’ He leaned towards me. ‘Allow me to explain your situation. Since your keeper clearly has no idea you are here, I can do whatever I wish to you, without his interference.’

There were no spirits in here; nothing I could use to repel him. Kraz tapped the thumbscrews.

‘My cousin does not want us to put your life at risk,’ he said. ‘There are limits to what I can do. But even she would agree that you and your gift will survive a maimed hand.’

‘Arcturus might disagree,’ I said.

‘I do not answer to Arcturus.’

My fear was climbing by the moment. Kraz held out a hand for mine.

I moved without thinking, sprinting for the door.

Kraz caught me at the top of the steps. He picked me up by my coat and smashed me into the wall. My side and ribs screamed in protest; I crumpled to the floor in a heap. Chuckling in that nightmarish way, Kraz grabbed my hair and used it to drag me upright.

‘What do you think resistance will achieve here, dreamwalker?’

‘Don’t touch me,’ I snarled.

‘Arcturus cannot protect you now.’

My right arm was pinned, but my left was free. I stabbed Kraz straight in the eye with my finger. An irritated grunt escaped him, but he didn’t let go.

He shoved me across the room, towards the iron chair. If he forced me into it, all those spikes would cut into my back, my arms, my thighs. It would be agony. In panic, I mustered my gift and went for his dreamscape.

Kraz let go. I blinked away stars and crawled, but Kraz rallied, pinning me to the floor. He was enjoying this too much to remember his orders. His hand closed around my splinted wrist. A cry escaped me as he tightened his grip, making him laugh again. Desperate, I groped for the vial in my gilet. I twisted to face him and smashed it against his cheekbone.

Now it was his turn to scream. He let go of me, his eyes turning white. Gloss ground from his throat, incomprehensible to me, as he rose and made a wild swing. I ducked it.

My palms and face were slick. Even after what I had done to the Underguard on the train, the very crime that had landed me here, I had no idea if I could do this – but I had to try. Kraz would report me to Nashira. If that happened, I would be killed immediately, never mind the Bicentenary. I had got away with making Suhail look a fool, but now I had defied the heir, the sacred blood.

When Kraz pulled his hands away from his face, I knew he was beyond saving. I took out the air pistol and managed to load an acid dart.

I sent it straight into his brow.

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