The musician really did have a beautiful voice, a kind of wispy falsetto. It brought on another vague surge of recognition. “My companions and I performed a séance last night,” Warden said, his voice barely audible. “There will be spirits to command. Human spirits, the victims of Bone Season XVIII. They will side with you before the Rephaim.”

“What about the NVD? Are they here?”

“They are not permitted in the Guildhall unless they are called. They are stationed by the bridge.”

“How many?”

“Thirty.”

I nodded again. The emissaries all had at least one bodyguard, but they were SVD. They didn’t want unnaturals protecting them. Fortunately for us, the SVD couldn’t use spirit combat.

Warden looked up to the ceiling, where Liss was climbing the silks. “Liss seems to have recovered.”

“Yes.”

“Then we are even. All is settled.”

“All debts are paid,” I said. The threnody. It made me think of what was still to come. What if Nashira succeeded in killing me?

“All will go to plan, Paige. You should not give up hope.” He looked at the stage. “Hope is the one thing that might still save us all.”

I followed his gaze. The bell jar and the lifeless flower stood on a covered plinth. “Hope for what?”

“Change.”

The music drifted to a close, and applause rang out from the edges of the dance floor. I wanted to look, to find out who had been playing, but I couldn’t see over the heads of the emissaries.

A red-jacket stepped onto the stage. 22. His lopsided gait said just how much of Duckett’s mix he’d had. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “the—the great Suzerain, Nashira Sargas, blood-sovereign of—the Race of Rephaim.”

He staggered down. I bit back a smile. That was at least one less red-jacket less to deal with.

Nashira stepped up to the podium, to continued applause from her audience. She looked at us. Warden looked back at her.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, never breaking his gaze, “welcome to the Scion capital of Sheol I. I would like to extend our thanks for your attendance at our celebration tonight.

“It has been two hundred years since our arrival to Britain. We have come a long, long way since 1859. As you can see, we have done our utmost to make our first control city into a place of beauty, respect, and above all, compassion. Our rehabilitation system allows young clairvoyants to enter our city and receive the best possible quality of life.” Like animals in a menagerie. “Clairvoyance, as we know, is not the fault of its victims. Like a disease, it preys on the innocent. It afflicts them with unnaturalness.