Page 231 of The Bone Season

I nodded, stoking the lingering ache in my temples. My best weapon against Rephs, and I would have to keep it holstered. Just my luck.

‘Quite an entrance you made there,’ I said to Nadine, who huffed a laugh.

‘You know Jaxon loves theatre. And he didn’t take kindly to Scion using you as a soldier.’ She leaned out to shoot a Vigile. ‘Ready to go?’

‘Absolutely.’

Nadine lobbed a second grenade before she came after me, followed by some of the performers from the masque. Zeke joined us, grasping my arm in a wordless greeting. Liss landed on the chandelier.

‘Liss,’ I shouted up to her. ‘Liss, come on, let’s go!’

‘I still need to get Lotte,’ Liss called back. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

Before I could answer, a Vigile fired at us from the entrance. Zeke slammed me to the floor just in time. As we took cover behind a mecks fountain, bullets chipped at the floor and walls, and shattered a few glasses.

Liss saw. Using her silks like a trapeze, she soared down and kicked the Vigile in the chest, hard enough that he fell back in surprise, even with his armour. Seizing her chance, Nell abandoned her own silks and dashed after us, clearly exhausted. I pushed her after the others.

At the entrance to the trap room, Warden held the heavy drape so we could all pass. Jaxon shoved a dazed Cyril aside to go down the steps first. I ushered Cyril in front of me before I went myself, with Warden and Pleione bringing up the rear.

We filed after Danica, who had a headlamp on. I caught up with her.

‘Dani,’ I said. ‘I hear I owe you for this rescue.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You know, none of this would have happened if you had not insisted on taking a weekend off.’ She checked her watch. ‘The train will leave at midnight. There is no way to delay it. Can you make it?’

‘I can try.’

As we crossed the trap room, Terebell arrived, back from guiding another group. She showed us to a gap in a wall, one I would never have seen in the dark. Nadine went first, turning sideways to edge through.

Jaxon went next. Just as I was following, Lotte caught up with us. She tripped on her bootlaces, still in her bloody skirts from the masque.

‘Lotte, over here.’ I flashed a torch. ‘Where’s Liss?’

‘She covered me.’ Lotte reached us, breathless. ‘She’s coming, Paige.’

‘She’ll be fine. She always is,’ Nell said. ‘Just show us where to go.’

But now I was concentrating on the æther, and my blood was turning cold. Every remaining dreamscape in the main hall had just disappeared.

All except for Liss, and she was very still.

I ran back to the steps. Jaxon called after me: ‘And you are goingwhere, darling?’

‘Just get to the train, Jaxon,’ I snapped.

At the top of the stairs, I stopped, chills racing up my arms. The Vigiles had retreated, leaving the doors wide open, letting in an icy wind from outside. More of the candles had blown out. By the light of the very few that remained, I saw the shape on the floor.

‘No.’

The word escaped me before I accepted what I was sensing. I rushed towards the heap of fabric, using her dreamscape as my guide, and sank to my knees beside it.

This could not be Liss.

Liss never fell.

Yet these were her silks, recognisable by their rich soothsayer purple. The only pride they had ever allowed her. With shaking hands, I searched the silks until I uncovered her face.

Liss lay quiet. As I lifted her lolling head into the crook of my arm, my fingers sank into her wet and tangled hair.

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