Page 6 of The Dark Mirror

‘Kazik.’ Tobiasz grasped his shoulder. ‘This is Cora. She thinks you can help her with something.’

‘Okay.’ Kazik kept looking at the screen. ‘And is this why we are speaking English?’

I lowered my hood. When Kazik glanced up from his laptop, he went very still.

‘Sorry to disturb you,’ I said. ‘I just need some information, and I’ll be on my way.’ As Kazik closed the laptop and breathed out, I stepped closer, scrutinising him. ‘You’re clairvoyant.’

‘As you would call it,’ he said. ‘But we never thought you would visit us here, Underqueen.’

Now it was my turn to tense. Tobiasz looked between us.

‘You know Cora?’

‘We have not met.’ Kazik glanced at him, a muscle flinching in his cheek. ‘Underqueen, where did you come from?’

‘Wroclaw, I think,’ I said. ‘I woke up in a hotel, but I really have no idea why I’m here.’

‘That makes all of us.’

‘You didn’t say this before,’ Tobiasz said, frowning. ‘You were in a hotel and don’t remember why?’ Shaking his head, he took a phone from his pocket. ‘I do not like this. Someone could have been hurting you, like trafficking. I think we should call to the police, to—’

‘No police,’ Kazik and I shouted in unison.

‘Okay, but please, someone tell me what’s going on.’

‘Cora, as you call her, is Paige Mahoney,’ Kazik said. ‘You remember I told you about her, Tobiasz. The one who is organising a resistance to Scion in London.’

Tobiasz knitted his brows. ‘You mean the woman they’re looking for,’ he said. ‘The fugitive?’

‘I’m sorry I lied,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know who I could trust with my real name.’

‘You are … like Kazik, then,’ Tobiasz said, a question in his tone. After a moment, I nodded, wondering how much Kazik had told him about clairvoyance. ‘Then you are welcome.’

‘Thank you. I need to contact the syndicates of London and Paris,’ I said to Kazik. ‘Are clairvoyants organised here?’

Kazik shook his head. ‘Not so much in Legnica, but a number of jasnowidze – clairvoyants – were asked to keep watch for you in this region. There is also a reward for your capture and return to Scion.’

‘Who told you to look out for me?’

‘I think it is better that you don’t know. I will send a message in the morning. You can stay here until then.’

‘I appreciate that, but there are other people trying to find me. I don’t want to put either of you in danger.’

‘Who?’

‘I don’t know. They sounded American.’

‘How can you not know who is following you, or how you got to Legnica?’ Kazik said, exasperated. ‘Do you even know how long you were gone?’ Then he landed the blow: ‘Six months, Underqueen. You disappeared for half a year.’

2

THE SESTRA

LEGNICA

10September 2060

I gazed at a water stain on the ceiling. Tobiasz had left me a bowl of homemade soup, which cooled while I lay on the couch, trying to accept the hole that had been ripped through my life.

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