Page 16 of The Dark Mirror

Seeing us, she stood, a smile crinkling the corners of her dark eyes. Her thick hair was the brown of molasses and drawn into an elegant tuck, showing a pair of hoop earrings.

‘Hello, you.’

‘Hello.’ Maria kissed her. ‘Verca, meet Paige Mahoney. Paige, this is Veronika Norlenghi.’

‘At last,’ Verca said warmly. Freckles peppered her tanned olive skin, dusting her cheeks and neckline. ‘Paige, welcome. I’ve heard so much about you. How are you feeling?’

‘Better than I did,’ I said. ‘Thanks for helping me, Verca.’

‘It was the least I could do, after everything you’ve done to prevent Scion moving any farther into Europe.’ Verca took the measure of me. ‘Have you remembered anything at all?’

‘Not yet.’

‘I am confident we can work on it.’ She folded the roses into brown paper. ‘Thank you for meeting me here. My friend had a surgery this week, so I thought I would collect these for him.’

‘She says this like she doesn’t spend most of every day helping people,’ Maria said to me.

Verca gave her a soft look as she taped the paper. ‘I understand this is your first time outside Scion in a decade, Paige,’ she said. ‘Prague is the perfect city to reacquaint yourself with the world.’

‘You must love it here,’ I said. ‘It’s beautiful.’

‘Yes, it is. I’m glad to be back. I was born in Prague, but I lived for many years in Italy.’

I nodded at the flowers. ‘Are these just a gift, or does your friend need them as numa?’

‘Numa?’

‘I don’t know the Czech word,’ Maria mused. ‘You know, love, like my fire.’

‘Oh, yes. Juraj uses flowers for divination. I persuaded the mayor to set this garden aside for that purpose,’ Verca said. ‘Now anyone with that gift can apply for a key and take flowers.’

The idea that a local authority would accommodate voyants – give something to us for nothing, to help us connect with the æther – left me speechless. I had woken to a world inverted.

‘They don’t use the Seven Orders here,’ Maria said to me. ‘Or anywhere beyond Scion, really.’

‘Fortunately.’ Verca made a sound of disapproval. ‘That pamphlet was translated into Czech, but it’s considered an academic curiosity, at best. Most of us just call ourselvesjasnovidci, and don’t bother so much with the small categories. Maru, would you carry these?’ she said to Maria, holding out the bunch of roses. ‘I’ll drive them to Juraj after dinner.’

‘Where is dinner?’ Maria asked her. ‘Prekousnout?’

‘Yes. A bar that Domino uses for meetings,’ Verca told me. ‘It’s near Prague Castle.’

‘Does Czechia have a monarchy?’ I asked.

‘Not any more, but we have leftovers. There is much here that you would not see in London.’

‘Frank Weaver would pass out in Old Town,’ Maria said with a chuckle.

‘It would all be closed down under Scion,’ Verca agreed. ‘There is the Orloj, the astronomical clock, our reminder of the inevitability of death. The synagogues of Josefov, and Týn, the church in the Staromák – and of course, there are many, many absinthe shops.’

Even if Jaxon would be fuming over the lack of respect forOn the Merits of Unnaturalness, he would be in his element here. A city of macabre clocks, where absinthe flowed on every street, would appeal to his particular tastes. As for Arcturus, he would spend months exploring this place, with its opera houses and art galleries, museums and pleasure gardens. Prague was a monument to human imagination, its cobbles steeped in centuries of talent. I could see him drinking it all in, walking through it at my side.

The thought of him weighted my chest again. The golden cord refused to move.

Verca led us down a narrow street, where cakes were being dusted with sugar and snapped up by tourists. Most held their own cameras, or used their phones to take pictures. Another shock for the collection. No denizen was allowed a camera for personal use in Scion.

‘Keep your head down,’ Maria muttered. ‘Scion may not be in Czechia, but if your face ends up on Protean, I’m sure they will find a way to come after you.’

I nodded, adjusting my cap.

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