Page 99 of The Bone Season

Just one more impossibility.

‘You look better than when I saw you last, 40,’ Suhail said. I took off my threadbare disguise. ‘I understand I almost deprived you of a leg. Even with both intact, it appears you cannot find your way back to your residence. Where were you?’

‘I’ll tell Warden,’ I said. ‘He’s my keeper.’

‘Arcturus has waited since sunrise. I am confident he can wait longer.’

He stepped towards me. I stepped back.

‘Aludra is my cousin. You dared to walk in her dreamscape,’ Suhail said. ‘I intend to answer this insult to my family.’

‘You already punished me for that. As you’ve pointed out, I almost lost my leg.’

‘That was for your insolence to the blood-sovereign.’

‘Yes, and I hear she was pissed off about it.’ I kept backing away. ‘I was taking a test, Suhail. Warden didn’t punish me.’

‘Perhaps Arcturus has grown tired of you. He has not trained you in weeks, to my knowledge. I suspect he intends to evict you from Magdalen,’ Suhail said. ‘I would be happy to relieve him of you. Clearly you require a stronger master.’

Just then, a group of red-jackets came sprinting down Magdalen Walk. They must have seen me from Exeter. Julian followed with Guy and a sober Tilda, who wore a yellow tunic.

‘Paige,’ Julian called. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Don’t interfere.’ A red-jacket lifted her baton in warning. ‘No names.’

Suhail considered the small crowd before fixing his gaze on me again. I willed him to let it go.

‘Perhaps it is well that we have witnesses.’ Suhail raised his voice to the others: ‘Hours since the day bell, and none of you could locate 40. Exeter Company, how do you explain yourselves?’

‘We came as soon as we saw her,’ one of the red-jackets said. ‘Forgive us, my lord.’

‘Not yet. Observe as I deal her punishment now,’ Suhail said. ‘You will meet the same fate soon, when I inform your keepers of your failure.’

He turned to strike me. Like a blade on a spring, I snapped out to meet him.

Suhail had not expected me to attack him in broad daylight. Aludra must have described her experience to him, butknowingsomething – that was different fromfeelingmy spirit coming towards him, colliding with his dreamscape. I had the element of surprise.

It had been too long since I had dreamwalked on Port Meadow. I couldn’t hold out. Jolting back to myself, I found my back cushioned by a chest, strong arms steadying me. Julian had managed to break through the line of red-jackets and catch my body.

I blinked away a storm of flashing lights, grasping my chest. My heart kicked at my palm. When my vision cleared, I stared.

Suhail Chertan had fallen to the ground.

The other humans stood in silence, frozen in shock. As we all gaped at him, Suhail rose and towered over us, his eyes flickering like fire.

‘Now you’ve really done it,’ Julian croaked.

I nodded, swallowing.

The red-jackets leapt back to life. They wrestled Julian away from me, abandoning me to my fate. Tilda and Guy both shouted in protest as Suhail bore down on me and gripped me hard by the nape.

‘You,’ he said, his eyes turning red, ‘have just made your last mistake, 40.’

He wrenched me into Magdalen.

DEATH WISH

24 April 2059

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