Page 20 of The Bone Season

This was ridiculous. Scion was trying to make us think we had lost our marbles. Either that, or Jaxon had paid all these people to play some elaborate trick on me. I wouldn’t have put it past him.

‘London is our primary source of clairvoyants,’ Nashira said. ‘Scion ensures that you are recognised, relocated and rehabilitated, away from the amaurotics, who despise you. This is the truth behind the anchor.’

I forced myself to consider the possibility that all of this was real. I understood almost none of it, but if Nashira Sargaswastelling the truth, Scion was no more than a puppet government.

The girl behind me cracked. With a desperate sob, she made a break for the door.

She stood no chance against the bullet.

Screams erupted everywhere. In the chaos, one of the Rephaim thundered, ‘SILENCE.’

His pipes would have put an organ to shame. The hall fell silent at once.

The killer was human, wearing red. He holstered his revolver and clasped his hands behind his back. Two other guards took the body by the arms and towed it outside, leaving a smear of blood.

‘If any more of you wish to run, now is the time,’ Nashira said. ‘Be assured, we can make room in the grave.’

Nobody moved an inch. If there had been any suspicion left that this was a game or hallucination, that bullet had shattered it.

In the fraught silence that followed, I risked a glance at the other Rephaim.

One of them was looking at me.

He must have been examining me for some time. His gaze cleaved straight to mine, as if he had been waiting for me to look, watching for a flicker of dissent.

Like Nashira, he wore a livery collar. His skin was a warm dark gold, setting off his flaming eyes. He was the tallest of the Rephaim, with brown hair, short and roughly cut. A strange aura enfolded him, overshadowed by the others in the room.

He was the single most beautiful and terrible thing I had ever laid eyes on.

I snapped my gaze back to the floor, shaken. Distantly, I realised Nashira was still talking.

‘Clairvoyants have developed great strength over the last two centuries. You have learned to endure Scion,’ she said. ‘Over ten years, we select a certain number of you for enrolment in for our penal colony. We call these decadal harvests Bone Seasons. Yours is the twentieth.

‘The clairvoyants among you will now be assigned an identification number and a Rephaite keeper. Seven of my companions will welcome humans into their residences this Bone Season.

‘Your keeper will be your master in all things. Their duty is to train you for your tests, during which your value to our cause will be judged,’ Nashira said. ‘Should you disobey or displease your keeper, you will receive the yellow tunic of a craven.’

I know it isn’t my place – you’ve told me so – but I think you should consider the University.

My lips quaked into a smile. This might not be the University of Scion London, but it sounded like I would be taking exams.

‘Those of you who are amaurotic – that is, the few of you who have no idea what I am talking about – will be put to work in our residences,’ Nashira said. ‘Since amaurotics reap the greatest benefits from Scion, it is only right that some of you should join our long campaign against the Emim. You are here to serve.’

Seb was starting to look very unwell.

‘If you do not pass your first test, or if you should thrice earn the yellow tunic, you will be sent to Beltrame the Overseer, who will mould you into a performer,’ Nashira continued. ‘Performers exist for our entertainment, and the entertainment of those loyal to us.’

I soon understood. Those people on the stage had been the cowards, the failures.

A few people were crying now; others stood in rapt horror. Nashira didn’t appear to notice.

‘Those of you who adapt to this system will be rewarded. Those who do not will be punished,’ she said. ‘This is your life now.’

This proved too much for Seb, who fainted. Julian sidled around me to help me prop him up, but he was still a dead weight.

Seven of the Rephaim stepped down from the platform. ‘These Rephaim have offered their services as keepers,’ Nashira said. ‘They will now decide which of you to take under their wings.’

The giants began to survey the room, walking between the rows. The tallest – the one whose gaze I had met – stayed on the platform with Nashira and the others, who must be there as observers.

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