The Mime Order (The Bone Season Book 2)

by Samantha Shannon

Run, little dreamer.

‘Sweetheart, look at me,’ he said, keeping his voice low. ‘None of this is your fault. Scion took you away from us. You did whatever you could to survive.’ He wrapped an arm around me. ‘If they’re alive, we’ll find the other prisoners. I promise.’

I believed it. Losing his prized dreamwalker would have been infuriating, even humiliating – but I still wouldn’t have expected him to risk everything to save me. That was the kind of sacrifice you made for people, not property.

Jaxon was capable of kindness, but he wasn’t kind. He could act like he cared, but it would always be an act. It had taken me years to wake up and see it.

‘Of course not. I did everything I could to ruin the assignment,’ I said. ‘After that, the game was up. But then I realised Warden had always been on my side.’

‘I called him a stretched weasel and told him to get fucked.

I had seen things in Jaxon I couldn’t unsee. I had spent three years craving his approval, forgetting I was anything but his creature, the Pale Dreamer. In Oxford, I had started to discover who I was without him. To him, you are nothing more than quick flesh grafted to a ghost; a priceless gift in human wrapping. Warden was right. Just from glimpsing a few of my memories, he had known.

Yet Jaxon might be my only hope of having a voice in the syndicate. The easiest choice was to swallow my pride and move back to Seven Dials.

But if there was one thing worse than having Jaxon as an employer, it could be having him as an enemy.

Nick waited for me, always patient.

For the first time in days, I reached for the golden cord. You needed me to start this, I thought. I need you to help me end it.

Oxford had changed me. For years, I had been happy with my position in the syndicate, able to close my eyes to the suffering it caused others. I wasn’t sure how long I could pretend to be that person again, but if I was going to keep the Pale Dreamer alive, she had to be convincing. We all do what we must, Liss had said. I held those words close. In the weeks to come, I was going to need them.

Suddenly I felt as if my head was in a noose. This had never happened with Warden.

There's a reason her power awakened with him...

the sundial pillar – the pillar I had loved and missed, welcoming me back.

Jaxon had tried everything to unlock my gift. In the end, only Warden had succeeded.

I lingered in the doorway, looking at it all. My old room, with its crimson walls, its ceiling painted with constellations. When I was in Magdalen, I had longed to be standing here. Now it represented a defeat.

When I woke, Jaxon Hall was sitting on the edge of my bed. ‘Well, well.’ His face was half in shadow. ‘The sun rises red, and a dreamer returns.’

We studied each other. For the first time in a fortnight, I was facing Jaxon Hall – the White Binder, the King of Wands. The man who had made me his sole heir, giving me unparalleled respect, when I was only sixteen years old. The man who had given me a chance, taken me into his home, and saved me from Scion. The man who demanded obedience. The man who would have gladly left the performers and amaurotics to die.

I didn’t want to admit that I had learned possession. First, because I had barely got the hang of it. It had taken months of training to control Nashira. Second, because he would force me to use it, to cow people into doing his bidding. Even before Oxford, I had known I didn’t want to be his weapon. Alfred might tell him the truth, but he wouldn’t hear it from me.

Warden, where are you?

And I wondered what Warden would think of me now, after everything we had done. He had risked everything to help me escape. He might have died so I could stand here, right back where I started. I had crawled back to my petty treasons with my tail between my legs – hawked stolen trinkets, submitted to Jaxon, and cursed Hector where he couldn’t hear me. Yellow-jacket, I thought to myself.

I tucked it into my pocket. Warden had given me this necklace for my protection, and I had a feeling he wouldn’t want me to sell it.

The longer I was away from Warden, the more I thought of the Guildhall. All those weeks of mutual distrust, and suddenly I had been wrapped in his arms, not wanting to leave him. I still didn’t quite

And somewhere, a god was in chains again, waiting for a golden thread to lead the dreamwalker to him.

Now I understood why he had bound the London Monster. So long as I was his Pale Dreamer, he would keep my wound from hurting. So long as I remained loyal to him, the syndicate would protect me. But if I ever challenged him, or tried to talk about the Rephs, he would expose the dirty secret underneath my sleeve. The scar kept me chained as fast as a boundling, preventing me from ever rising above him. He might as well have cut my name into his skin as well.

‘You six are my magnum opus,’ Jaxon said. ‘And despite your occasional – well, regular – blunders, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for your skill and loyalty.’

‘I have had it with people telling me I’m hallucinating!’ The shout erupted from me. ‘Why the hell didn’t you let me show anyone the Pentad Line, Jax?’ ‘Paige—’ ‘We could have shown the Abbess or Maria. Now it’s too late. You just wanted me to shut up, like the Rephs did,’ I said hotly. ‘Well, congratulations, you shut me up. Now they’re here, hunting us both. Do

they need to have a rope around your neck before you believe me?’ ‘This was never a matter of disbelief.’ Jaxon stared me down. ‘As you pointed out, my dear, I can hardly deny what I saw with my own eyes.’ ‘Then why aren’t you doing anything?’ ‘Paige, you don’t need to understand my actions. You need to do as you are told.’ ‘If I’d done as I was told in Oxford, I would be dead now.’ There was a long silence.

‘I protected you and Seven Dials. Nashira was after you, and I said nothing. They questioned me, they threatened me with torture, but I didn’t crack. You owe me, Jaxon.’

If you are not the Pale Dreamer, who are you? The Pale Dreamer had been there when I needed her. Now her time was ending. To transform the syndicate into an army that could stand against the Sargas, I would have to become not just a mollisher, not just a mime-queen, but the Underqueen of the Scion Citadel of London.

When you arrived in this city, I did not meet the Pale Dreamer. I met Paige Mahoney. The memory warmed me. And I think that she is a force to be reckoned with.

Wardennnn :((((

Words give wings even to those who have been stamped upon, broken beyond all hope of repair.

‘If we are ever to gain the upper hand, we must find Arcturus.’ I grasped the edge of the stage. ‘Warden,’ I said, softer. ‘He’s alive?’

Wherever you are, I will know where to seek you.

I briefly considered the possibility that one of the other survivors was involved, then dismissed it. I also wondered if Warden was hiding of his own free will, but I couldn’t think of any reason he would do that. He had come to London specifically to find me.

‘If you insist on going out, take a burner. I’ll stay awake and warm the car up, just in case. Call if you need me.’

We love Nick

‘Thank you. I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t important.’ ‘I believe you.’

As I circled my finger over it, it washed away, leaving my inner arm as smooth as buttermilk. And just like that, Jaxon could no longer tarnish my name before the Unnatural Assembly. He had no power over me.