Page 74 of The Bone Season

‘Like a dog?’

David huffed a mirthless laugh. ‘I feel like one here, trained to obey.’ He stood. ‘If anyone asks, we’re researching the Emim.’

‘I got the same instruction.’

‘I think we can assume the second test has something to do with them.’

‘I’m surprised they’re shoving us through them so quickly. I thought they would give us more time,’ I said. ‘If only to fight among ourselves.’

‘What I’m about to show you may help you understand.’

‘I didn’t realise this was a walking tour.’

‘Unless you’re a red-jacket, we have to make our own fun here, Paige.’

The Old Library was sealed on all sides, every window and door boarded. We left its shadow, needled by cold rain. I was going to have to find something to pad my clothes in the Rookery.

David gave me enough space that our auras never touched. He was about two inches taller than me, long in the arms and thick in the torso.

‘We’ll match our auras soon.’ He tapped his tunic. ‘Strange to have you around. I’m used to being the interesting one.’

‘I’d prefer not to be this interesting sometimes.’

We walked down Catte Street, entering the deserted Radcliffe Square. Through the fog, I saw its centrepiece, the large drumlike building with a leaded dome, which stood opposite the Residence of the Suzerain. A dim and tawny light shone through its windows.

‘That’s the Camera, if you didn’t know,’ David said. ‘The Overseer told me the harlies train at height in there – tightrope, trapeze, that sort of thing.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know how they stand it.’

‘Whywereyou with the Overseer?’

‘He waylaid me after my test and invited me for dinner at Kettell Hall. Pleione let me go,’ he said. ‘Beltrame seems to hold the highest rank among humans. Better to keep him on side, isn’t it?’

I frowned. ‘Why would he invite you for dinner?’

‘I imagine I looked like I needed it.’ He indicated the back of his shoulder. ‘He’s probably just unwinding, now the Bone Season is over for a decade. And he likes us. Me and you, I mean.’

‘I doubt that. He detained me himself.’

‘Exactly. He’s been trying to root out rare voyants, but he hadn’t found many before we appeared.’

‘So he’s a procurer.’

‘He curates the voyants the Vigiles put in the Tower,’ David said. ‘He’s trying to live up to the legacy of the previous Overseer.’

‘What happened to the previous one?’

‘Not sure, but he lived in London, not Oxford. Beltrame is on a tighter leash. He’s usually only allowed to visit London a couple of days a year, to liaise with the Vigiles.’

‘What, and we just happened to run into him on the two days he was in town?’

‘No. Nashira let him stay there for the final month of the hunt. Guess he was desperate by that point. He thinks the syndicate is protecting the rarest voyants, making them harder to find.’

Beltrame was right. If I had been on my own turf when I was arrested, Jaxon could have saved me.

‘That’s why he likes us,’ David said. ‘He netted two jumpers, including a dreamwalker, at the eleventh hour. We saved his reputation.’

Ours was the seventh order of clairvoyance – the highest, according toOn the Merits of Unnaturalness. Jaxon prized our abilities even above his own.

I finished the skilly. ‘You’re not part of the syndicate, then?’

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