Page 184 of The Bone Season

Kraz had thrown me with ease. It shook me that I had trained for three years to run and fight, and it all meant nothing to the Rephs. They must be able to move through the world without any fear of harm.

Except, apparently, from a bit of pollen. That had been one extreme bout of hay fever. I clapped a hand over my lips to stop a laugh.

Keep it together, Paige.

I sat in the hot water, up to my collarbone. A fresh cake of honey soap had been left. As fast as I could, I scrubbed away the pollen, using a brush to clean it from under my nails. I washed my hair twice, just to be sure. Only once the water had drained and I had rinsed the bath did I start to calm down.

The evidence was gone. Wrapped in my nightshirt and robe, I sat down on the daybed, waiting.

Warden returned at midnight. By that point, I was as tense as a piano wire.

‘You were gone for hours,’ I said.

‘I was keeping watch for any sign of a disturbance in the city,’ he said. ‘I also wanted to ensure I was seen on the Broad, and in the Residence of Queens, so no one would suspect that I had visited the House.’

‘Is there any disturbance?’

‘Not so far. Kraz will likely not be discovered for a day or two. Even when he is, Nashira will not want any word of this to spread. Our immortality must not be questioned.’ He sat opposite me, looked me in the eye. ‘Paige, did anyone see you?’

‘Terebell,’ I said. ‘Thuban suspected an intruder, but he didn’t catch me.’

‘Terebell will keep your secret. She is one of us. If she was the only one, we have nothing to fear.’ Pause. ‘Your wrist is swollen.’

‘Kraz was going to torture me for information about Jaxon.’

Warden clenched his jaw. There was something in his eyes that struck me: a brewing darkness, a resolve.

‘Michael will bring another splint,’ he said. ‘He and Gail will swear that you were here all night, if they are questioned. Since I am the sole oneiromancer in this city, only I would be able to contradict their testimonies.’

‘You definitely trust both of them.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you’re happy to conceal the fact I just killed your heir to the empire.’

‘I do not recognise the legitimacy of tyrants.’

His face held all the shadows in the room.

‘There’s something deeper here,’ I said. ‘It goes beyond how this city is managed, doesn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I’ve been a criminal long enough to know that it doesn’t pay to get involved in other voyants’ grudges, so you can keep that to yourself,’ I said. ‘I would like to know more about the pollen, though.’

‘It is the pollen of the poppy anemone, also known as the windflower,’ Warden said. ‘Why it harms us, I cannot tell you, but I do know a human tale about its origins. Have you heard of Adonis?’

That rang a bell. The year before, Eliza had found a book of Greek myths on the black market and used some of her earnings to buy it for us. I had been about halfway through it when I was detained.

‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Was he a god?’

It had been years since anyone had last told me a story. My grandfather, whispering of mighty Aoife, who had transformed her stepchildren into swans. Warden had a tough act to follow.

‘Adonis was a mortal hunter, beloved of Aphrodite,’ he said. ‘The goddess of beauty was so taken with him, she preferred his company even to that of the other gods. As the myth goes, her paramour, the war god Ares, grew so jealous of the pair that he slaughtered Adonis.’

He was a fine storyteller. His voice was slow and deep, calming.

‘Aphrodite wept over her beloved. Her tears mingled with his blood, and from that mingling sprang the windflower, as red as the drops on the earth. Adonis died in her arms, and was sent, like all spirits, to languish in the underworld.’

---