Page 206 of The Bone Season

Warden was studying me. ‘You trust none of the other performers, Paige?’

‘Not enough to give them specifics yet. Maybe Guy, at a push. Jos, too, but he’s young. I don’t think it’s fair to put that on him.’

‘He may be useful as a courier.’

Michael signalled his agreement – probably vouching for a fellow polyglot.

‘I don’t think we should trust any of the red-jackets. Most of them are too indoctrinated. They’ve benefited from this system, unlike the performers,’ I said. ‘Was the traitor one of them, last time?’

‘Yes.’

‘So let’s not repeat that cock-up.’

‘How do you propose they are handled, then?’

‘There are guns in the House, but they look antique, and Thuban clearly has them counted. We don’t want to raise the alarm too early.’

‘Hm. Terebell may be able to conceal any unavoidable theft.’

‘Good to know, but we could avoid fighting them at all. I thought we could either drug or poison them. That way, Nashira will see they weren’t involved in the rebellion. Even if we leave them behind, I don’t want to condemn them to death,’ I said. ‘Liss should be able to find herbs that will make them sick, or we could use white or purple aster. Duckett grows it in the physic garden.’

‘An admirably devious idea, Paige.’ Warden seemed to consider it. ‘The weapons in the House would not be effective against us.’

‘Oh, really?’

I put my air pistol and acid darts on the table.

‘Fluoroantimonic acid injures the Emim, but it only slows us,’ Warden said. ‘Since it is an earthly substance, our bodies purge it quickly.’

‘You’re telling me that if I hit you with one of these,nothingwould happen?’

‘It would hurt considerably, but I would be able to remain standing.’

‘What about fire?’

‘As above.’

‘Fucking hell.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Okay, next scheme. What if we made projectiles that contain the pollen?’

‘A sound idea, but our resources are limited.’

‘If you have the right ones, I do know how to improvise crude guns and bullets. Even if we can only make a few, it could be worth it. If not, we could use our existing resources – replace the acid or flux in these with our own mixture. Does the pollen still work if it’s diluted?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then we can just switch the contents. With care, obviously.’ I patted the pistol. ‘How many Rephs would be willing to fight the Sargas?’

‘Not all of them who share our sentiments can – one, in particular, has a trusted position we do not want to risk,’ Warden said. ‘I will be able to muster six of them to your defence. Other than Terebell, I will not share their names.’

‘That’s a lot better than none. Something else did occur to me,’ I said. ‘First, I assume there’s no phone reception here.’

‘No.’

‘Good. The emissaries won’t be able to call for help unless they have a satellite phone. But Nashira must have a way to contact London.’

‘Balliol has electricity and a single computer with access to the Scionet. It is heavily guarded.’

‘We need to cut the power. If not, Nashira will be able to alert LondonandWinterbrook to the rebellion. Even if we got away from the Vigiles, Scion would either stop the train, or we’d be killed at the other end,’ I said. ‘Do you have any allies at Balliol?’

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