The Mime Order (The Bone Season Book 2)

by Samantha Shannon

‘We can also provide natural resources from the Netherworld – alysoplasm and amaranth.’ ‘What’s alysoplasm?’ ‘Emite blood,’ Warden said. ‘A single drop will corrupt the aura for a time, so its nature cannot be known. A larger dose conceals the dreamscape.’ That explained a few things. More than once, I had failed to notice Rephs approaching, even with my heightened ability to sense the æther.

‘Once you drink alysoplasm, you will not be able to use your gift until it wears off. You will be hidden, but defenceless.’

‘Who’s this singer?’ ‘Maria Tănase. A Romanian actress from the twentieth century.’

‘Know that I may not always understand you,’ Warden said, ‘but I will always try.

But fear and understanding were kindred things. Both involved the loss of the familiar, the need for knowledge, the danger of uncharted waters.

I was getting ahead of myself. He hadn’t even told me if he was looking for a fling or a committed relationship.

Really, Paige?

These days end with red flowers on a tomb.

give it a butcher’s.

During the later years of the Molly Riots, Scion had unleashed an experimental nerve agent, with devastating results. I had never learned its English name, but the Irish had called it an lámh ghorm – the blue hand – after the distinctive marks it left on those who survived it.

‘The grey—’ Her chest fell and rose again. ‘Grey market. Her and Rags, selling us to—’ The æther strained. ‘The rawhand. She still has it.’

‘Chelsea Neves,’ she said quietly, ‘fly into the æther, now. All suffering is past. All deeds are done. You need not linger among the living.’ A different threnody to ours.

Once, when I was very small, my grandfather had told me about bogs – the deep ones that kept hold of you, no matter how you fought. The ones that held on to corpses for centuries, keeping them whole in defiance of time. The strange lights that might lead you into them. The Buzzer could be immortal. It would live for ever, with me trapped inside it. Perhaps it would feel my last desperate flutters. I was a moth inside a jar, unheard by the walls I could never escape. I was a body lost to the earth, and I would not have the mercy of death as I decayed. I wondered what would vanish first: memory, awareness, feeling.

Rephs rarely showed emotion, but they seemed to make an exception for annoyance.

Even if we fought to stay together, I didn’t know how long this could last, but that was true of my whole life.

‘Thank you, Nick,’ Danica said, her voice muffled. ‘What?’ ‘I’ve been searching for a long time for someone who is more boring than me. I’m so glad to have found you.’

‘You dare besmirch my dreamwalker with your foul paws,’

‘How does it repel poltergeists?’ ‘The metal is sublimed – that is, imbued with ectoplasm. It belonged to Azha Mothallath,’

‘Is hope enough?’ ‘Hope is the lifeblood of revolution. Without it, we are nothing but ash, waiting for the wind to take us.’

Rags didn’t tell Scion I had been involved in the grey market, but after I broke out of Corpus, Thuban guessed I was a syndie. He tortured me for information. He asked me about you.’

Even though we’re voyant – even though we know there’s something more – we’re still afraid of death.’ ‘None of us know what waits in the last light.