Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 141

                I let Windermere inside. She walks with the confidence of a woman who belongs anywhere she goes. She gazes at the endless piles of books in the hallway with an unreadable expression on her face. Awe? Confusion?

                ‘How do you know about Teague?’

                ‘It’s hard not to know when you get someone so noisy.’

                ‘What do you mean noisy?’

                ‘Well, the man’s atoms nearly blew up a house, I don’t know how much more noisy you can get. It’s rare that spirits can cause devastation on both plains.’

                ‘How do you know all this?’ I ask.

                ‘We’re human,’ Windermere explains. ‘Did you really think that of everyone who’s ever died in history, no one would continue to research why we stayed this way.’

                ‘Have you found out why?’ I ask.

                ‘It turns out, that humans are particularly difficult to properly kill,’ Windermere says. ‘One part of us dies and the most important bits live on.’

                ‘So is there a group of you?’ I ask. ‘A ghost government?’

                Windermere laughs. ‘No, no. That would be so difficult to control. There are groups of us. We collect together and our numbers always change. I met a group of people a long time ago who wanted to make sure people like Teague didn’t cause trouble. We studied the spirit world, the shadows when you close your eyes, we’re in tune with it. Someone like Teague explodes, we see it and we’re following him. We could never quite catch up to you.’

                ‘Is that what you call it? The spirit world?’ I say. ‘We call it the Edge.’

                She smiles. The sort of smile where you try something new and you like the feel of it. ‘The Edge. Not bad,’ she says.

                There’s some movement on the stairs. Elle and Yates appear and poke their heads around the corner.

                ‘Hello,’ says Elle. ‘Easton, who’s this?’

                ‘Let me introduce Windermere,’ I say, waving my hand. ‘Windermere, this is Elle and Yates.’

                ‘I know you all,’ Windermere says with a nod. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

                ‘You are aware that’s a lake,’ Elle says.

                Windermere smiles, but it doesn’t last long. She must get it all the time.

                ‘How do you know who we are?’ Yates asks.

                Windermere quickly explains everything she just explained to me. Elle’s eyebrows travel upwards until they near her hairline.

                ‘You know I’ve always wondered,’ she says, as Windermere finishes. ‘If ghosts had collected together anyway. I guess I was just unlucky.’