Wintercraft: Blackwatch by Jenna Burtenshaw Page A

making him snatch his hand back. ‘It still works,’ he said. ‘Why didn’t they uncover it the whole way?’
     
    ‘And why did someone wall it up in the first place?’ said Kate.
     
    There was something not right about that room. Edgar shivered, and Kate felt it too.
     
    ‘Maybe we should ask it something,’ he said. ‘We could ask it to tell us the quickest way out. Wasn’t that what these things were made for? To give directions?’
     
    ‘Not all spirit wheels can be trusted,’ said Kate. ‘This one has to have been bricked up for a reason.’
     
    ‘It’s got to be worth a try,’ said Edgar. ‘I’ve got enough food and water in my pack to last us a couple of days, but after that we’ll need more. If this thing can help us reach the surface, I say we give it a go.’
     
    Edgar pressed his palm against the centre of the circle. The hidden tiles rattled gently behind the wall, but other than that nothing happened. There was no movement, no illuminated symbols, or at least nothing either of them could see. ‘It’s broken,’ he said. Then a faint glow like gentle firelight spread along his outstretched arm and one of the tiles shone with a splutter of inner light before fading again. ‘Did you see it?’ he asked. ‘Which symbol was that?’
     
    ‘It was the closed eye,’ said Kate. ‘That means no. The open eye means yes.’
     
    ‘So that means it heard me! It’s saying it’s not broken, right?’
     
    ‘I still don’t think this is a good idea.’
     
    ‘I suppose we have to stick to yes and no,’ said Edgar. ‘Unless you know how to read the rest of these things.’ He kept his hand on the wheel and concentrated on his question, speaking the words slowly and clearly out loud. ‘Are we heading the right way to reach the surface?’ He waited a few seconds and looked at Kate expectantly. ‘Anything?’
     
    ‘Nothing.’
     
    The wall shuddered. Edgar snatched his hand away and the circle of tiles began grating slowly round in a clockwise direction. A handful of them sank back and rotated as they passed the cleared space in the wall, but they kept moving steadily, refusing to settle.
     
    ‘It’s not meant to work without someone’s hand on it,’ said Kate. ‘Why is it moving?’
     
    ‘ I don’t know,’ said Edgar. ‘What do we do now?’
     
    Old mortar sprinkled down from the spaces between the bricks as they rattled against the force of the vibration behind them. Kate and Edgar stepped back to a safe distance, knocking against one of the tables and sending one of the covered shapes rolling out from beneath the cloth and cracking on to the hard floor. It was a soft crack, as if whatever it was had offered little resistance, smashing instantly. Kate looked down. Beside her feet was an upturned skull, its empty eye sockets staring up at her.
     
    Edgar raised his lantern as the spirit wheel kept turning, and the light cast soft shadows from all of the cloth-covered shapes in the room. ‘They’re all skulls,’ he whispered. ‘Someone is collecting skulls down here!’
     
    Then the wheel stopped, Kate and Edgar looked back at the wall, and a dull light glowed behind the covering of bricks. Edgar walked up to it and pressed his cheek up against the tiles, trying to see where the light was coming from.
     
    ‘How do I read it?’ he asked.
     
    ‘The important symbols glow,’ said Kate. ‘What can you see?’
     
    ‘There’s only one,’ said Edgar. ‘It looks like … a snowflake, I think.’
     
    That got Kate’s attention. ‘Ask it something else.’
     
    ‘All right.’ Edgar pressed his palm against the wheel again and spoke out loud. ‘Where can we go where no one will find us? Where will we be safe?’
     
    The stones tiles trembled a little and then the wheel ground into action. The tiles turned heavily round their clockwise path, and the snowflake carving settled at the three o’clock position where Kate could see it clearly. All other movement