Page 215 of The Bone Season

Bell watched me with constricted pupils. I walked away.

The Overseer had been preparing this night for months. Surely the performance had to begin soon. Liss and Nell were just the opening act. I needed a distraction to stop me going back to gut Bell.

‘40.’

Apparently, I had one.

‘Come here,’ Nashira said. ‘I would like you to meet these emissaries.’

Somehow I had almost walked straight into her. The emissaries in question all jostled for a look at me, equally intrigued and repulsed.

‘This is Aloïs Mynatt, the Grand Raconteur of France. He is here to represent its Grand Inquisitor, Benoît Ménard,’ Nashira said to me. ‘And this is Birgitta Tjäder, Chief of Vigilance in the Scion Citadel of Stockholm. I imagine you are familiar with their faces.’

‘Very,’ I said coolly.

Mynatt was a small man, stiff in posture, with no distinguishing features. Tjäder returned my contemptuous look. She was in her fifties, with thick blonde hair and eyes like olive oil.

Nick called this woman the Magpie. To her, every voyant life was a glinting prize she meant to take.

This was his archenemy, his reason for joining Scion. Tjäder had enforced such a cruel regime in Stockholm that even minor infractions had been punished with death. Her soldiers had killed his sister and several others for sharing a bottle of wine on the sly.

Tjäder looked tense. Her pale lips were pulled tight over her teeth, as if she was about to bite. I wasn’t exactly relishing her presence, either.

‘I don’t want her near me,’ Tjäder said. ‘I work hard to clean my surroundings of filth.’

‘That is precisely why 40 is here,’ Nashira said. ‘We contain their unnaturalness in our colony, Commander Tjäder. Once Tuonela III is established, you will start the gradual process of cleansing your citadels.’

Tuonela III. That had to be a third colony – possibly with the Magpie as its procurer, and a different name for a new region of Scion. Stockholm was officially Scion North; the other two were Scion West.

Nick was going to lose his mind when he found out about this.

‘Inquisitor Lindberg will consider this proposal,’ Tjäder said. ‘The day there are no unnaturals in Stockholm will be a happy one, Suzerain.’

The performer at the piano stopped playing, prompting a round of applause. Nashira glanced up towards a large clock.

‘The hour draws near.’

‘Excuse me,’ Tjäder said. ‘I should rejoin my party.’

She turned and marched towards a group of Swedish emissaries.

The pianist started a new piece, accompanied by a fellow whisperer. Together, they sang a duet I recognised, even if I had forgotten its name. This song was thought to have been written by a voyant, to banish a spirit – the ghost of her lover – in the days before the threnody.

Nashira observed the performance. For the first time, I noticed an object on the piano. It was the bell jar from the Residence of the Suzerain. With Nashira distracted, I took the opportunity to return to the shadows under the gallery, where I watched the two whisperers sing a few songs.

At some point, Terebell Sheratan came to my side. I gave her a wary look.

‘Most spirits in this city are confined to Port Meadow,’ she said, ‘but the victims of the Novembertide rebellion will be with you tonight.’ Her voice too low for anyone but me to hear. ‘They serve us, not Nashira.’

She left before I could utter a word.

The music drifted to a close, and applause rang out, an overpowering din. I put my glass down to join in. Above, Liss had made a hammock from her silks and sat in it. Nell swung to one of the chandeliers.

Nashira now stepped up to the stage, to continued applause from her audience. A Reph with a livery collar stood on her left, and Alsafi on her right.

‘Honoured guests,’ she said, ‘I bid you welcome to Sheol I, formerly known as the University of Oxford. Thank you for joining us for this celebration – the bicentennial anniversary of our arrival in England, and the forging of our friendship with the late Lord Palmerston.’

I glanced around. The emissaries must have been informed of what they were going to see before their arrival. Most were nodding along.

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