But the way they were both looking at him was new – wary, as though he were something dangerous and they didn’t know what he might do. It sent him right back to that night at Bowhill. The attack, his mother’s desperate words to him as she died, being hunted by those men every waking moment since and not knowing why. Not knowing why anyone would try to kill him – only seeing that look as the knife drove towards him—
Will pushed himself up on the bed, ignoring the blanching pain, the dizzy spin of the floor. ‘I need to leave.’
The door was to his right. It was the only way out. The windows were all closed, each black-lacquered shutter locked with a heavy wooden latch. The thick plaster walls muffled most of the sound, but he could hear murmurs drifting up from beneath the wooden floor. This was almost certainly the upstairs room of an inn – his heart started to pound with the old fear.
The first rule, hard learned, was to stay away from inns, because the roads and public houses were watched.
‘It’s all right. We made it off the ship,’ said Violet. ‘You’re safe.’
‘None of us are safe,’ said Justice.
He was coming forward – it was all Will could do not to flinch. Justice came so close he felt the air stir as Justice’s brown cloak swirled and settled. His eyes on Will were searching, tracking over the marks and bruises on his hands and face, then looking into his eyes.
‘But I think you know that better than any of us,’ said Justice quietly. ‘Don’t you?’
Will felt exposed. He felt seen, as he had not since he started running. These two, they knew Simon wanted him. They might know more … might know the answer to the question that gnawed at him. Why? Why did he kill my mother? Why is he after me?
After all, they were part of it: part of the world of the mirror, the medallion and the terrifying burst of black flame. Justice’s physical feats on the ship had not been natural. He had thrown a young man from one end of the ship’s hold to the other, as impossibly strong as Violet, who had wrenched chains apart.
Either one of them was strong enough to tear him in half. But what scared Will was not their strength, but the idea of what they might know about him.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’ He kept his voice steady.
‘Here,’ said Justice, instead of answering. ‘Drink this.’
Justice unhooked a thin silver chain that hung from his waist where a monk might wear a rosary. It was a single piece of white chalcedony, set at the end of a chain, and it was worn smooth like a beach pebble.
‘It’s a relic of my Order,’ said Justice. ‘It helps those who are hurt.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Will, but Justice was taking the battered tin cup from the table along with a pitcher of water. Dangling the chain, Justice poured the water so that it ran down the chain over the stone, into the tin cup.
‘They say that after the Battle of Oridhes, our founder used this stone to tend the wounded. Their number was so great that its jagged edges were worn smooth by the water – as happens with every use, and perhaps its power diminishes as well. Yet it is still a marvel to those who know nothing of the old world.’
When the water hit the stone, it sparked and glittered like the clearest spring water gleaming with new sunlight. Will felt the same prickling that he’d had when he’d looked into the mirror. A marvel, Justice had called it. Justice handed him the cup, with the stone at the bottom and the silver chain hanging over the side, and Will found himself taking it, even though he had meant to turn it aside. The glints from the stone reflected up onto his face like sunlight.
He lifted it to his lips, cool and perfect. His dizziness receded, as did the bone-deep weariness he had felt since the ship. And though there was no miraculous knitting of cuts, the worst of the pains from the beatings seemed to fade a little, so that breathing was easier.
‘These are rooms at the White Hart,’ Justice said. ‘And you’re right. We can’t stay here long. Simon will be searching every lodging house, and he has more than one way to find a person.’
‘I told you. I need to go.’ Will tried to rise. Justice shook his head.
‘You can barely walk. And you’re mistaken if you think the streets of London are safe. Simon’s eyes are everywhere. Only the Hall is beyond his reach. We must wait until nightfall and then find a way to cross.’
‘The Hall?’ said Will.
Justice said, ‘I don’t think the two of you have any idea what you’re caught up in.’