This was it, Will realised with an awed shiver as he looked around at the giant ancient columns and the four empty thrones. Still standing centuries later, when its people were dust and silence, and its stories were forgotten.
But if this was the last stronghold, that meant all that Justice had said was true, and he was standing in a hall that had seen the final battle. The one place the Dark King couldn’t conquer. That thought flickered through him.
‘It feels familiar to you, doesn’t it,’ said the Elder Steward. ‘As if you’ve been here before.’
‘How did you know that?’
‘New Stewards feel like that sometimes too,’ she said. ‘But Stewards are not the only ones who have walked these halls.’
Will felt again the overwhelming sense that he was surrounded by the ghost of a place he knew but that no longer existed, as if he looked upon the bones of a great ancient beast that would never roam this world again.
‘Why do I recognise it?’ he said, the crowding of his mind with half memory almost painful. ‘The Lady with the medallion – who is she? It has something to do with my mother, doesn’t it? Why was Simon chasing us – chasing me?’
The Elder Steward’s eyes were on him. ‘Your mother never told you?’ His heart was pounding, as though he were back at Bowhill with his mother’s eyes staring at him. Will, promise.
‘She told me we left London because she was tired of it. Each time we left a place she said it was just time to move on. She never told me about magic or a Lady.’
‘Then you don’t know what you are.’
The Elder Steward was looking at him with such a searching gaze that he felt as if she could see into him. As if she could see everything. As if she could see Bowhill, his stumbling run through the mud, the accident on the docks in London, Matthew giving him the medallion, and the moment on the ship when he had reached for the Corrupted Blade.
When he had entered the great hall, Will had felt as if he was on trial. Now it was as though his very self was being weighed by the Elder Steward, and he was suddenly desperate not to be found wanting.
Please, he thought, not even certain what he was pleading for, only knowing that her approval was important to him.
Finally, the Elder Steward sat back on her stool.
‘We have not taken in an outsider since magic first warded the Hall,’ said the Elder Steward, seeming to make a decision. ‘But I offer you sanctuary here if you wish to take it. If you stay with us, you will find the answers you seek … though you will have much to learn, and you may come to wish you had never sought the truth. Dark times lie ahead.’ And then, after another long look, her eyes warmed. ‘But even in the darkest night, there is a star.’
Will looked at the grandeur of the Hall around him, with its honour guard of snowy Stewards. Outside, Simon waited, the relentless chase, the howling dark, no person to be trusted, no hiding place safe. Will looked up at Violet, who was standing tense and nervous, with her hands still bound. And he drew in a breath.
‘My friend too?’ said Will.
‘Your friend too,’ said the Elder Steward, with a half smile.
‘Elder Steward, you cannot believe that this boy may be – that he is—’ The High Janissary had stepped forward in protest, but the Elder Steward held up a hand and stopped him.
‘Whatever he is, he is just a boy. The rest can wait until he’s rested.’ ‘This is a mistake,’ said the High Janissary.
‘Kindness is never a mistake,’ said the Elder Steward. ‘Somewhere in the heart it is always remembered.’
Violet scrambled up as Will approached, and he found himself looking at her and Justice, their familiar faces in this unfamiliar place.
‘I’m glad you made it,’ said Violet.
‘You too,’ said Will.
‘Justice almost sprained something trying to get to the Hall after you.’ In all the time Will had been running, there had never been anyone who cared if he made it. He looked at Violet’s boyish face, her young man’s clothes, and the new tense way she held herself.
There was so much he wanted to ask her, about her own escape with Justice and how it was to be here so far away from her family. But he couldn’t do that with Justice himself standing beside her. She seemed to understand that, glancing briefly at Justice and then back at Will, and nodding slightly. Will turned his own gaze to Justice, to whom he owed so much.
‘Thank you,’ said Will, ‘for arguing for me.’
‘I told you that you would find welcome here,’ said Justice, with a small smile. ‘The Elder Steward has asked the janissaries to escort you to your rooms.’