Wintercraft: Blackwatch Read Online Free Page B

she had to say. For the last few weeks Kate had been free to move about the Skilled’s underground street, but she was not allowed to leave. The vast tunnels of the City Below were off limits to her, it had been a whole month since she had seen the sun, and she was forbidden from using her abilities to enter the veil at any time.
     
    What the Skilled did not know was that she was a Walker, and the world between life and death was open to her all the time. Walkers did not simply look into the veil as the Skilled could, they entered it, sending their spirits deep into the half-life – the realm between life and death. For the Skilled, dealing with the veil was like looking through a window that kept them safe and separate from what was going on around them. Walkers were different. When they connected with the half-life, frost spread across their skin and their consciousness separated from the living world, throwing their spirits completely into the unknown.
     
    None of the Skilled was willing to teach Kate more about her connection with the veil. They had not even questioned why her silver-sheened eyes looked different from theirs. They had simply cut her off, refusing to do anything except ignore her. Edgar and Tom were the only people who really spoke to her. Even Artemis – who rarely bothered to hide his dislike of the Skilled – was strangely distant, and seemed to spend more time with them than with her.
     
    ‘What do you think the verdict will be?’ she asked.
     
    ‘They’ll have to admit you didn’t do it,’ said Edgar. ‘This is all just for show. You’ve lived with them for a whole month now and you haven’t had the urge to go around stabbing anyone, have you?’ He lowered his voice and raised his eyebrows deviously. ‘There are a few of them I wouldn’t mind seeing off if the opportunity presented itself. I think spending all that time with Silas has rubbed off on me.’
     
    ‘I’m serious,’ said Kate. ‘This isn’t a joke.’
     
    Edgar shrugged. ‘Don’t let them get to you,’ he said. ‘It has to go your way. You’ll see. Where are you supposed to be while the meeting’s on?’
     
    ‘Someone’s meant to be watching me. I heard a couple of women arguing over whose turn it is tonight. I don’t think either of them wanted to be left alone with me.’
     
    Kate’s eyes flashed with silver as she looked down and Edgar stared at her secretly. He still wasn’t used to seeing her eyes do that, and it usually meant trouble.
     
    ‘It’s happening again, isn’t it?’ he said.
     
    ‘It’s not too bad.’ Kate glanced at the ceiling. ‘It’s those pictures. They attract the shades sometimes. It makes it harder to shut everything out, but it’s OK.’
     
    ‘The Skilled should be helping you with this stuff,’ said Edgar. ‘Not treating you like a criminal.’
     
    ‘They think I was working for Silas,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t think anything’s going to make them change their minds now.’
     
    A door creaked open at the side of the stage, on which three chairs had been set facing out towards the rest.
     
    ‘Watch out!’ whispered Edgar.
     
    The two of them slid off their chairs and on to their knees as a man’s voice carried across the hall.
     
    ‘… it is not only a matter of our laws, of course. It is the message it would be sending. On that we must be perfectly clear …’
     
    ‘Quick!’ said Edgar. ‘Head left!’
     
    Kate crawled between the chair legs as quietly as she could and Edgar scrambled after her, heading towards an antechamber with an old stone tomb sitting in the centre of it, separated from the main hall by an open door.
     
    ‘I do not have to tell you how dangerous this situation is,’ continued the man, as Kate ducked round the door and Edgar pressed in against the other wall, crouching out of sight. ‘From what I have heard, the great majority of votes are going to lean the same way. If today goes the way I expect, you may find that