Page 6 of The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season #5)

6

CITY OF MASKS

The rest of the night was a merciless slog. The collapse of the bridge would have drawn every Italian drone and patrol in the area, which gave us a chance to get clear of the Alps without being detected. Ver?a supported Maria, while Ducos led us onward, keeping to cover as much as possible. Two burning spirits lit our way, sticking close to Maria.

Ducos refused to answer questions (‘Just walk, please, Flora’), so I fell back to check on Maria, plodding over rocks and snow with a combat knife in her upper arm. I had draped my jacket over her shoulders to warm her.

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘How are you holding up?’

‘I’ve had worse.’ She gave me a wan smile. ‘You’re usually the one with the dire injury.’

The smile didn’t reach her eyes. She had ruled her section of London with an iron fist, but she had never relished bloodshed. Now she had been forced to kill two people in one night.

‘I’ll let you steal the spotlight just this once,’ I said. ‘Are you all right, Ver?a?’

‘I’m fine, thanks to you,’ Ver?a said. ‘I can’t believe you hung off the bridge, all to separate me from Harald.’

‘Oh, Paige has done bolder things in her time. She possesses the loyalty of a beagle and the chaotic abandon of a headless chicken,’ Maria said. ‘It’s a dangerous marriage.’

‘You’re a riot, Hazurova,’ I said.

‘I know.’

‘Less talking,’ Ducos called from some way ahead. ‘More movement, please.’

Maria sent an exasperated look after her. ‘Yes. Movement is easy.’ She sucked in a deep breath before taking another step. ‘How do you know this mysterious sharpshooter, Paige?’

‘Ducos was my supervisor.’

‘The one who kicked you out?’

‘She’s sound. Just takes a while to warm up to people. And doesn’t like arson.’

‘We’ll get on like a house on fire, then.’

‘Please.’

‘She must have come looking for you, Paige,’ Ver?a said. ‘Domino supervisors often go to great lengths to find agents or associates who disappear.’

I looked after Ducos, wondering.

Morning soon lit the summits of the Alps. At last, we stepped over the brow of a hill to see a wide green valley, most of it still cast into the shadow of the mountains. This must be the end of the pass. Ducos looked through a pair of binoculars, hair ruffling in the wind.

‘Please, terrifying saviour,’ Maria said, ‘tell me we’ve reached Italy.’

‘Fortunately for you.’ Ducos tucked the binoculars back into her body warmer. ‘Let’s keep moving.’

Ver?a looked with concern at Maria, who was pouring sweat. ‘How much farther?’

‘Half an hour.’ Ducos nodded to where our path thinned into a steep trail, winding down the slopes like thread. ‘I would let you rest, but we need to get clear of this pass as soon as possible, for reasons I presume are apparent.’

She started down the trail, her rifle protruding from its holster on her back. Maria nodded to Ver?a.

‘Harald made you drink something,’ Maria said to me as we pressed on. ‘What was it?’

‘It was alysoplasm. Buzzer blood,’ I said. ‘It cuts you off from the ?ther for a while.’

‘Of course it does. There is no end to the misery.’ She sighed. ‘I really can’t wait for today to be over.’

Pine trees flanked the lower stretches of the trail. As soon as we had that cover, I could breathe a little easier. Ducos and I had shoved two bodies into the lake, but it wouldn’t be long until the patrols found Harald. His surviving associates would have alerted Grapevine.

I was already out of my depth out here. Two groups had come after me in the space of a week, and I’d never heard of either of them.

Ducos led us to a black vehicle in a car park for hikers. She unpacked some emergency medical supplies while Ver?a helped Maria into the back.

‘Try not to let her fall asleep,’ Ducos said. Maria was now almost white in the face, hair stuck to her brow. ‘Lie her across the seats, and maintain pressure on either side of the knife. We’ll need to keep her stable until we get to headquarters.’

Ducos did as much as she could for Maria, bandaging around the knife. Once the blade was secure and the wound padded, she drove out of the valley and on to a long motorway, which stretched beneath a sun-bleached sky. Ver?a applied pressure and fought to keep Maria awake, but despite her best efforts, Maria drifted into a fitful sleep.

‘Don’t panic,’ Ducos said. ‘There is no point in panicking.’

Ver?a nodded, swallowing. ‘How long before we reach headquarters?’

‘Three hours. She’ll be fine,’ Ducos said, seeing our faces. ‘Keep her warm, and don’t pull the knife out.’

‘She isn’t a fugitive in Italy,’ I said. ‘Can we not take her to a hospital?’

‘I wouldn’t risk it.’

Ducos drove over a river. Maria made a sound of discomfort, her eyes restless beneath their lids.

I watched the mountains from a safe distance. My body was cold and bruised from the hike. After a while, I nodded off, which was clearly going to be a regular occurrence for a while. It was only when Ducos opened her window that I woke to the sound of blustering wind. Now we were out of the Alps, she had taken off her bodywarmer and sweater.

The ?ther prickled at my perception, like sensation returning to a dead arm. I sat up.

‘You had an eventful night,’ Ducos said. ‘What happened?’

‘You first,’ I said. ‘Why aren’t you in Paris?’

The wind blew her dark hair, showing a recent scar near her temple.

‘After the airstrikes, I believed Stéphane and I were the only surviving members of Mannequin. We were pulled out of Scion, and the sub-network was classified as non-operational. Given my years of long service, I was promoted to Command, despite the loss of three agents,’ she said. ‘But I couldn’t stop thinking about Paris. At first, I presumed it was your auxiliary who betrayed us, but your underworld contacts remained safe in their usual hideouts. Warden knew about those places. Why didn’t he tell Scion?’

We had been thinking along the same lines.

‘I began to suspect he wasn’t the leak,’ she said, ‘but someone was. I started combing through every record, every detail, leaving no stone unturned. It wasn’t until late August that I noticed a clue I had missed for months. Cordier had once requested a tracking unit to monitor an informant, which I had approved. I checked if the unit had ever been activated.’

‘Had it?’

‘A week before the airstrikes. After her sudden disappearance.’ She changed lanes. ‘I assembled a team to analyse its available data. It had been in several countries. I watched it move to Poland, and then to Czechia. It arrived there on the tenth of September.’

‘It’s … in me?’

Ducos nodded. ‘Cordier must have implanted it when she drained your lung in Paris. This abduction was plotted with care. Most likely, she betrayed your safe house to separate you from Warden.’

‘Even before that, she gave him her number. I thought she was just flirting with him.’

‘She was. We have a term for it, in the trade – honey trapping. It was one of her specialities. I imagine she wanted to get rid of him quietly, without any risk of endangering you. When that failed, she had no choice but to expose the safe house while you were gone, so Scion could deal with him.’

I had given her that opportunity. I had left, when Arcturus was tired and weak, to hammer out my differences with Léandre. Cordier must have been keeping watch on the apartment.

‘No doubt she received a reward,’ Ducos said. ‘To fund whatever she was planning.’

Her tone was stiff. She and Cordier must have built a great deal of trust, working together in Scion.

‘So you went to intercept the tracking unit,’ I said. ‘Did you know it was me at that point?’

‘I was nearly certain. By then, Radomír Dole?ek had informed Command of your arrival,’ Ducos said. ‘I gave him orders to send you to Italy.’ She stopped at a red light. ‘I decided to await you on the other side of the Alps. All day, I kept an eye on the tracking unit. You took a long diversion from the path. When you stopped moving at dusk, I assumed that you were resting at the cabin, but my instincts told me to head in your direction in case you needed assistance. Around one in the morning, however, your signal vanished.’

Harald had either known or guessed. He had given me that shock to fry the tracking unit.

‘Fortunately,’ Ducos said, ‘I was close enough to your location that I could still find you.’ She tilted the mirror. ‘I take it your companions are Nina Aprilova and Veronika Norlenghi.’

‘Yes.’

‘At least you all survived the night.’ She kept driving. ‘What happened to you after the airstrikes?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Cordier gave me white aster.’

‘As much as you remember, then.’

Fighting the urge to sleep again, I recounted what little I had. By the time I had finished, her grip on the wheel had tightened several times.

‘Grapevine is a Scion espionage network,’ she said. ‘I’ll need you to repeat all of this to Command.’

‘I thought you were Command?’

‘Command is made up of twelve individuals. Two of us are based in Italy. You’ll be speaking to one of the founding members.’ Ducos glanced at me. ‘You look drained. Is it the aster?’

‘I’m worried about Warden.’

‘You’re doubting his betrayal, too.’

‘I need to be sure.’

‘I did my best to locate everyone after the airstrikes, including Warden. There was no trace,’ Ducos said, ‘but Italy is where our intelligence pools. You may not find all the answers you need, but perhaps we can make a start.’

At some point, the mountains shallowed into hills, and then we were driving past olive groves, vineyards and cornfields, kissed by the golds of early autumn. Ducos passed me a pair of sunglasses from the glove compartment, and I leaned out of the window, wind roaring through my hair.

So far, Italy reminded me of the southern France I had once dreamed of visiting, the place in the glossy brochures. My father had brought them home for me sometimes, so I could imagine being elsewhere.

About an hour into the journey, Ducos parked in a garage and got out to make a call, while a man changed the registration plates. She checked on Maria, who was in and out of consciousness, but hadn’t gone into shock. Soon we were on the road again, and I drifted back to sleep.

And then there was bright water on either side of us, sunlight rolling off its waves. I blinked against the glare.

‘Venezia,’ Ver?a murmured. ‘Of course. Domino is a game, but also a kind of mask, for Carnevale.’

I worked the ache from my neck. ‘We’re in Venice?’

‘Yes,’ Ducos said. ‘Welcome to the Floating City.’

At the end of the bridge, a guard motioned for Ducos to stop the car. She showed him a pass and spoke to him in Italian. After a few nods, he waved us through.

Ducos drove into the outskirts of Venice, under a brick archway and down a slope, to where three other vehicles sat in a courtyard, beneath a trellis dripping pink roses. A woman emerged to deal with the plates, while another hooked the car up to a charging station.

‘Domino has dispatched a boat,’ Ducos said. ‘Stay with her,’ she told Ver?a, who nodded. Maria looked worse than ever. ‘Flora, come with me.’

I followed her back into the sun, to a row of roofed jetties marked taxi , which prodded into a broad waterway.

‘Stay alert,’ Ducos advised me, standing at the end of one. ‘Venice should be safe, but I’ll get you a dissimulator. Scion is offering a reward for your capture.’

‘I know. I thought you said I’d had my last dissimulator?’

‘I can make an exception. Try not to lose or damage this one,’ she said. ‘In the meantime, keep the sunglasses.’

Of all the places I had visited so far, it was most surreal to be in Venice – a city held in high regard in the syndicate, whose traders I had met before. A city I had never imagined I would see.

‘You’re quiet. Unusual for you,’ Ducos remarked. ‘Though I’m pleased to hear you’re not coughing any longer.’ She folded her arms. ‘It must be strange, to be out of Scion.’

‘How long did you work there?’

‘Fifteen years. I was older than you when I went in.’

‘Since we’re out of Scion, do I get to know your real name?’

‘Ducos will suffice.’

A motorboat approached us. Three people hopped off it, then lifted Maria from the car and into its cabin. Once we were all on board, the skipper pulled away from the jetty.

The Grand Canal was creamy green, lined with buildings. Most of the facades were painted in shades of pink and peach, with glimpses of crimson or harvest gold. Some looked timeworn, if not derelict: paint cracking off stone, windows boarded, shutters loose and rotten. Somehow they enhanced the charm.

I should have been afraid on that boat. This city was floating on my worst fear, but I wanted to make use of my time here. I didn’t want to break down every time I stepped outside. So I took measured breaths, and I searched for beauty. The way the water glittered where it broke, the sunlight dancing on the waves. As we moved along the Grand Canal, it became easier, as more wonders unfolded. Engoldened by the sun, Venice was as stunning as Prague.

Mooring posts rose from the canal, striped like candy canes. Our boat forged under bridges and past other vessels – rowboats, barges, a water ambulance – before drawing up by a wedding cake of a building, adorned with intricate rope-work. We stepped on to a shaded quay and into a courtyard with a floor covered in black and white tiles.

Ducos strode past an old well and across an alley, into the garden of the next building, where insects chirped in the trees. High above the alley, an enclosed bridge connected the buildings.

Inside, people crisscrossed a magnificent foyer. A grand staircase went up several floors, and sunlight poured through a mirrored glass ceiling.

This was the heart of Domino. If there was any whisper in the world of Arcturus, it would be here.

The people from the boat got a sweating Maria up the stairs. Ver?a went after them. I was about to follow when a bearded man emerged from an archway to the right, face set in determination. He wore a collared white shirt and beige trousers. Seeing me, he stopped.

Nine months had passed since our parting on the docks of Dover. Those months had changed him. Once a pale blond, his hair was now sandy brown, and his face and arms had tanned. If not for his dreamscape, I might have walked right past him in a crowd.

‘Nick,’ I whispered.

We both started to grin. A moment later, Nick Nyg?rd ran to meet me and scooped me into a crushing embrace. I threw my arms around his neck.

‘I knew you’d be here,’ I said, my voice muffled. ‘I knew it.’

‘Paige.’ He grasped the back of my head. ‘I thought you were gone. I thought you died in Paris.’

I gripped him just as hard. Nick was here, and he was alive, and we were together, the way it was supposed to be. ‘You grew a beard,’ I said, with a weak laugh.

‘Domino made me.’

It was only now I held my best friend that I understood how much I had missed him. When he put me down, he took my face between his hands.

‘I can’t believe you’re alive,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I grieved you, Paige.’ He traced the scars on my cheek. ‘I need to help the others, but I’ll take you for dinner. Will you be all right?’

‘I’ll be fine.’

Nick ran up the stairs. I watched him go, still with a fond smile on my face.

‘Ducos,’ I said, ‘did you know Nick was here?’

‘I thought you might enjoy the surprise,’ she said.

‘Who are you and what have you done with my supervisor?’

‘You may find me less tense outside Scion.’ Ducos started up the stairs, beckoning me to join her. ‘To most of the city, these buildings are offices. To us, they form the Palazzo del Domino. It’s supported by the Libu?e Institute of Prague and the Yerebatan Institute of Istanbul. I told you that Domino was created after the Balkan Incursion, which is what I believed, but I learned otherwise when I joined Command.’

‘So even you don’t know everything.’

‘I do now. Domino was founded here in 2015, but the network only grew after the Balkans, when Scion showed it had ambitions to conquer the world.’

Ducos led me up two flights of stairs, to a wide corridor with a polished floor and screened windows.

‘This building is the Palazzo della Notte. This is where we provide refuge for agents at risk, like you,’ she said. ‘The other side is the Palazzo del Giorno, where you’ll meet Command.’

My room was an elegant affair. The huge bed was upholstered in gold brocade, laden with pillows and silk cushions.

‘This will be yours for as long as you’re here.’ Ducos handed me a key. ‘Dinner is served in the bar from half past five, and breakfast from six in the morning. If you’d like a meal in your room at any time, call the concierge. You’ll find a gym on this floor, and a library above.’

‘When do I see Command?’

‘I’ll let you know. For now, get some rest. Oh, and if you could restrain yourself from destroying this building, I would be grateful,’ she said crisply. ‘I may not be your supervisor any longer, but as the person vouching for you, your actions do continue to reflect on me.’

She closed the door. I locked it and leaned against it, listening to the quiet in the room.

Another temporary home. A base while I explored my options.

Behind a sliding door, I found a bathroom with a clawfoot tub. I checked that I could feel the ?ther, sensing the many spirits of Venice. While the water ran, I undressed and sat on the bed, letting the air conditioning do its work. This was the sort of warmth that drew sweat even in the shade, in stillness. It worsened the unrelenting fatigue.

Hard to believe this was the fourth country I had entered in as many days. So much had happened to me in so little time. It had only been a year and a half since I had learned the truth behind Scion. Part of me had thrived in the fast lane, but I could tell that I was running on empty batteries, and I didn’t know how to recharge any more.

Even in this balmy weather, I needed the bathwater hot enough to steam. Once I had soaked the ache from my body, I wrapped myself in a thick fluffy towel, my hair dripping. While I was in the tub, someone had left a set of pyjamas on the bed, along with the dissimulator, rolled small in its airtight tube. Once I had changed, I took the tin of blue aster from my jacket. I was losing my patience with being so tired.

The patches were small and round. Peeling the back off one, I smoothed it on to my upper arm and lay on the bed. No sooner had my head touched the pillow than I was asleep.

And when I woke up, I remembered.

Get out of my way. You’ve been poisoning me. My voice was shaking. I know something is wrong.

Paige, you’re in shock from the airstrikes. Eléonore Cordier stood in front of me, her hands slightly raised, her expression calm. I told you you’d have memory issues. I’m not the person you’re—

Where is Warden?

We’ve been over this. Warden betrayed you.

He wouldn’t. He would never do that. An indescribable ache in my chest, strong enough that I could barely speak, slicking my cheeks with tears. He’s in pain. They’re killing him. I have to find him, before—

You can’t leave, Paige. You’re in too much danger.

But the door was right behind her, and I had done more reckless things. I made a break for it.

Cordier grabbed my left wrist, the bad one. The familiar pain shot along my arm, but it was a shadow of the crushing force in my chest, which radiated through the golden cord. I fought her tooth and nail. A criminal against a spy. All the while, she kept hold of my wrist.

Get your fucking hands off me—

I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this. There was strained remorse in her voice. I promise this is almost over.

She twisted my wrist. In the blinding moment that followed, she plunged a syringe into my arm.

At any other time, the agony would have floored me, but no pain on Earth could stop me in that moment. Not when I needed to reach Arcturus; when I knew that failing him could be fatal. With my last ounce of strength, I took out the steak knife – the one I had concealed at dinner – and drove it into Cordier.

A scream rang in my ears. I sat up and removed the patch. It had left a round blue stain on my skin, like a bruise.

Arcturus had looked into my past in Oxford, but with such a soft touch that I hadn’t realised it was happening for a long time. There was a reason his gift was called oneiromancy – he could unfold a memory like an amaurotic dream, to be forgotten by morning.

Blue aster was different. It had brought my memory back with a jolt. That confrontation had been locked away, and now it no longer was.

Recent events will come back to you first.

That memory must have been the night before I woke up, alone and disoriented, in Poland.

Cordier had managed to inject me before I stabbed her. The syringe must have contained my dose of white aster, resetting my clock to March. She had left the hotel, presumably to patch herself up. I had driven the blade into her right side, which meant I could have hit her liver, or a kidney – a critical injury, but if anyone could have survived, it was a medical officer.

That was how the deception had ended. I had felt something from Arcturus, strong enough to nearly derange me. I would have fought anyone to leave that room, to get to him.

I gave the cord a tentative pull, trying to understand why it wasn’t moving. And then an older memory stirred.

I was four years old, living on my grandparents’ farm in Ireland. While I was out playing, I had found a mouse at the back of the cowshed, limp and silent. I had picked it up with care and carried it to my grandfather, who seemed to be able to fix anything.

Daideo, look, it’s poorly . I had stood on tiptoe to place it on his workbench. Can you wake it up?

With a kind smile, my grandfather had sat me on his knee and told me no one could. The mouse was dead, but it was at peace, and I wasn’t to worry. Nothing could ever hurt it now.

I had been told my mother was dead, but I had never seen a body. I had no physical evidence of her existence – not one keepsake or photograph – and so I had imagined death as the sudden and total erasure of a person, leaving no trace but a story. But when I saw that mouse, I began to understand that something could be there, but also gone.

That was how the cord felt now.

A distraction came in the form of a knock. I went to the door. Nick stood outside, wearing a fresh shirt.

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘How’s the patient?’

‘Sleeping off a cocktail of painkillers and antibiotics. She’ll have a scar, but the knife missed her axillary nerve,’ Nick said. ‘I can’t believe she managed to walk out of the Alps.’

‘You know Maria. Tough as nails.’ I stood aside. ‘Come in.’

He did, closing the door behind him. ‘Ver?a seems nice,’ he said. ‘She has the same kind of aura as Dani, doesn’t she?’

‘I think so.’ I stepped behind the folding screen and changed into the linen shorts and blouse that had been left for me. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve heard from Dani?’

‘Not a word. Ver?a said you ran into some trouble in the Alps,’ he added. ‘We’ll talk about it, but you need dinner and a few new clothes first. Italy can get hot in September.’

‘I noticed.’ I put my boots on. ‘Shopping and dinner in Venice. You’d think we were ordinary people.’

‘Out here, I think we almost are.’

I went up to the mirror to put on my dissimulator. My features changed as it bonded with my skin, pinching and tucking until a different woman looked back, one who bore only a passing resemblance to me.

‘Unsettling, aren’t they?’ Nick said. ‘I’ve been lax with mine, since I’m not on Incrida.’

‘Just me that got slapped with a red notice, then.’

‘You were always the one Nashira wanted most. There is a reward for my capture, but only in Scion. And not for half as much.’

We went down the staircase and through a side door, back into the alley. Nick led me out to a wide paved street, where people flocked in and out of shops and browsed at stalls. A white sign read strada nova , while two yellow ones read alla ferrovia and per rialto .

‘This is bizarre,’ I said to Nick. ‘This morning, I was freezing my face off in the Alps. Now I’m sweltering in Venice. At least my life is never dull.’ He chuckled. ‘Nice hair, by the way.’

‘Thanks. Domino asked me to dye it.’ He smoothed a hand over it. ‘Just as I got my first greys.’

‘Bit early, aren’t you?’

‘I was a child prodigy. I’ve always aged early. And you’re responsible for at least half of my grey hairs.’

‘Right, like working for Jax never turned your hair grey.’

‘That’s the other half.’

I smiled and put the sunglasses on. It felt good to have my best friend at my side again.

Despite it being late in the afternoon, the air was still thick and warm. I lingered by a shop with a rainbow of glass ornaments in the window, then followed Nick over a narrow canal. On the other side, a man paced back and forth on a rooftop, shouting at the top of his voice.

‘Abbracciate Scion! Non temetelo,’ he called. A few people laughed, while others ignored him. ‘A Venezia dimorano forze soprannaturali. Solo l’àncora può salvarvi tutti. Quando arriva in Italia, accoglietelo a braccia aperte!’

‘Va a remengo.’ An elderly woman gesticulated in disgust. ‘Ti xe drio dir monae!’

Nick ushered me on.

‘He mentioned Scion,’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘He’s urging Italy to embrace Scion when it comes. Apparently the anchorites are spreading across Europe.’ He steered me towards a shop. ‘Here. This place should have something you like.’

Fashion was the least of my concerns, but Nick was right. Most of the clothes and shoes in the shop were the sort of thing I would choose in London – though I usually dressed for the cold, not the melting point of iron. I couldn’t get used to being this warm in September.

Nick passed me a roll of banknotes and left me to it. When I emerged from the shop, I had three stuffed bags, which he insisted on taking. ‘From what Ver?a told me, your arms won’t cope with these for long,’ he said, giving me a look. ‘Did you hang off an old bridge?’

‘I hung off an old and rusty bridge.’

‘I’d scold you, but I did give you that particular itch. I only wish you’d make a normal entrance every once in a while.’

‘You think I don’t want the same?’

‘Not sure.’

I sat down to exchange my boots for the sturdy wedge sandals I had chosen. Nick had instructed me to buy a sun hat, which I donned. He took me to a pharmacy so I could buy and stock a washbag. As I browsed the shelves, I thought of my trusty old backpack, which contained almost everything I owned, including the gift Arcturus had fashioned me for my twentieth birthday. I had left it with the perdues in Paris.

My inheritance from my father was also in that backpack. An applewood box. Jaxon had stolen its contents, and now he could be anywhere, including the ?ther. I might never know what Colin had given me.

It was almost sunset by the time we got back to the Palazzo del Domino. Nick showed me into a magnificent bar, dominated by a huge carved fireplace (mercifully unlit), marble pillars and a glistening chandelier. Like the rest of the building, it was air-conditioned. A few people sat at polished tables, eating or working on laptops.

We chose a spot behind a folding screen. I kept my dissimulator on. Once Nick had ordered our food and returned to his seat, he clasped his hands on the table.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Tell me everything.’