Gabriella Poole - Divided Souls (Darke Academy)

mechanism’s keyhole start to shift, glowing through the red filter of her vision. Curiously, she stretched out a hand, but that wasn’t

necessary – she could feel the incandescent heat of the lock at her fingertips, stinging her skin. Clenching her fist and concentrating

harder, the lock clicked open with a satisfying thunk.

Smiling, Cassie pushed open the door. The office was in semi-darkness, but there was the light of the moon, and she moved quickly

across the room to switch on that pretty desk lamp. Letting the red fade from her eyes as they adjusted to the dim light, she turned a slow

circle, examining the room.

It wasn’t as if she was going to steal anything – she wouldn’t take anything she didn’t have a right to – but seeing as he was clearly not

telling the Few everything, she’d have to figure things out for herself. She had a sense of honour, after all. Unlike Sir Alric Darke, she

thought bitterly.

But he did protect you, he did save you from the Council, whispered a small inner voice that wasn’t Estelle’s. Maybe there’s a reason he’s

hiding things?

That was her conscience, presumably. Cassie chose to ignore it. Can’t afford you any more, she thought. Instead she stood in the centre

of the room, glaring around as if her eyes could bore a hole in the wall. Maybe she should try it? No. She’d have to do this the old-

fashioned way. She began to hunt through drawers and cabinets.

Her search was methodical, systematic, thorough. When she’d finished with the most obvious places, she began to pull books from the

shelves, one by one. She was on the third shelf down when she felt it.

‘Ow!’

It was like electricity, the little jolt of power that surged into her finger. Cassie jumped back, startled, then reached up to that point on the

bookshelves again, bumping her fingertip along the spines until she felt that little jolt once again.

Excitement rising inside her, mingling with trepidation, she pulled books from the shelf and piled them on the floor. There, behind them, a

small safe was set into the wall.

Wow, she was getting good at this.

No, Cassandra, we mustn’t …

‘Yes, Estelle,’ Cassie muttered, concentrating hard. It was the work of moments this time to manipulate the mechanisms of the safe’s

locks, and when she swung open the heavy door and reached inside, she found the cavity was quite deep. Deep enough to hold a green

leather folder, old and worn, with that familiar Few symbol embossed in gold on its cover.

Fascinated, she stroked its cover, then sat down in Sir Alric’s chair and laid it on his desk beneath the glow of the ornate lamp.

With a deep breath, she opened it, and then froze.

These were no thin, laser-printed pages; this was the original manuscript. Not only did Darke have the pages she’d found on Ranjit’s

computer – and the illustrations were inked in beautiful colours, the engravings on the real thing being even more elaborate and beautiful –

but he had the second half of the manuscript, too. Cassie swallowed hard, and then quickly began to read.

Here were the things that hadn’t been explained. Of course, the Elders had hidden the two parts separately, so afraid were they of the

artefacts being discovered. A reasonable precaution, but pretty pointless in the days of computerised archives and instantly accessible

information. Smart they might have been, those Elders, but they hadn’t foreseen the internet … Cassie couldn’t help smiling bitterly. The

manuscript could never have been found by an ordinary researching historian, she’d bet her life on that, but a modern Few, technically

literate, who knew what he was looking for? Hardly a problem at all.

Cassie lifted the bound pages delicately, laying each one down with care. Yes, here in the second part of the manuscript was the precise

location of the Pendant: a basilica in the Hagia Sophia. Ranjit’s having only the first part of the document obviously meant he hadn’t

known its location though; he could been searching all over Istanbul for the symbol that was mentioned in his part of the manuscript, and

perhaps it had been sheer bloody luck that he’d spotted the carved emblem that day on their school trip. In any case, Ranjit must have, at

some point, had this original of the first half in his possession. How else could he have scanned the pages and saved them on his

computer? He may have been mysterious but Ranjit was also fiercely intelligent. The scans must have been a precaution. In case … in case

someone like Sir Alric came snooping around and took them …

That small pleasure of Ranjit getting one up on Darke died almost immediately. Cassie’s mind whirled. If Sir Alric had the whole

manuscript, both parts, then it was always possible that he had also got to the Pendant first.

‘Maybe Ranjit was too late?’ Cassie mumbled, half hoping but not fully believing. She stared at the new page she’d turned, so smooth