‘A shadow,’ said Violet.
The air was colder, she could feel it. Was it also getting darker? Inside the gatekeep, the shadows seemed to thicken until they were tangible. As if they were responding to a presence outside.
She looked at Cyprian. The last shadow who had attacked the Hall had been his brother. She remembered the hollow look in his eyes as he had stared at the burned imprint of Marcus in the Tree Chamber. He had the same hollowed-out look now.
‘We’re safe in here,’ said Cyprian. ‘It can’t get through the wards.’
‘Marcus got through.’
‘Marcus was a Steward,’ said Cyprian. ‘He didn’t break through the wards; they opened for him. They recognised his Steward blood even though he was a shadow. Nothing else can get through. We’re safe as long as they hold.’
The terrifying, uncanny scream rang out again. Outside, something was rending at the Hall’s protections, trying to get in. Violet imagined a swirl of pure black in the archway of the gate, hungry for entry.
‘Safe from what?’ Elizabeth’s two small hands were clenched.
Violet looked down at her and felt sick. What could she tell a child? That there were things in this world darker and more terrifying than she could imagine? Things that could slaughter your friends?
‘Safe from what?’ Elizabeth said again.
Violet drew in a breath. ‘Simon wants to hurt Will, and has sent a creature here to attack him. I won’t lie to you. It is dangerous, with unnatural powers. But this Hall was built to keep things like it out.’
‘A “shadow”，’ said Elizabeth.
Violet nodded, and tried to look calm, even as a part of her knew it was worse than that. Because if Simon had released it from the Shadow Stone, then—
She looked around at the gatekeep, built centuries ago by a civilisation that they knew so little about, and a new thought turned her utterly cold.
Because what was at the gate was worse than a shadow.
She took Cyprian by the shoulder and led him off to one side, keeping her voice low, and out of earshot of the others.
‘Are you sure it can’t get in?’
‘As long as the wards hold—’
‘This was their Hall,’ said Violet. ‘Before it was the Hall of the Stewards, it was the Hall of Kings.’
Cyprian went pale.
As that unnatural scream shattered the silence, she felt the true horror of what lay outside. This place is theirs, thought Violet with a shiver. More than it was ever yours.
A Shadow King.
Far deadlier than Marcus, it had laid waste to forts far greater than this one. It couldn’t be stopped by force or by magic; it was a Shadow King, a commander of armies, forged into darkness by the Dark King himself. And now it was coming home.
Violet forced herself to think. ‘Cyprian, go and get Grace and Katherine. We can’t stay here in the gatekeep. We retreat to the inner fort.’
Cyprian nodded and went at once.
‘We thought we could run from it,’ said Sarah, in a too-loud voice. ‘We went to the inner fort too. And when we came out, they were all dead, Stewards, janissaries, horses, dead just like we’ll be—’
There was the scrape of wood on stone as Elizabeth pulled up a chair, stood on it, and, with the benefit of this extra height, slapped Sarah hard across the face. Sarah stared back at her, shocked into silence, clutching her cheek as Elizabeth said, ‘Shut up. Shut up or you’ll bring it. And then you’ll be dead first because you’re the loud one.’
Violet blinked, grateful for the sudden ringing lack of sound.
‘All right. Listen. The wards are holding for now. Get food and water. We’re going to take whatever we can carry to the inner fort. It’s safer there. It has extra protections, and there are places where we can hide.’
Elizabeth nodded, scurrying to gather up what she could, with Sarah glassy-eyed. Violet packed up all the provisions she could carry, folding them up in a blanket. But as the awful, echoing shriek of the shadow rang out, there was only one thought in her mind.
Will.
If Simon had released the Shadow Kings—
‘It doesn’t mean he’s dead,’ said Violet to herself, a hope, a desperate wish, ‘it just means that Simon found the blood.’
Grabbing up packs and provisions, Elizabeth and Sarah were ready in a few minutes, and Violet led them out into the courtyard. There she stopped, and looked up in horror.
The wards were like red fire across the sky. Coruscating like flame, like the tails of dead comets. They lit everything with a strange red light, reflecting against everyone’s faces. They were coming down. They were all coming down. It was like the end of the world.