The Bone Season

At her father’s apartment, terrified of being arrested, she showers to wash off the sweat and the stench of murder. She considers her options, but they all lead down the same path eventually—arrest and execution. Her father, a research scientist, questions her life choices—he thinks she works at an oxygen bar—and urges her to go back to school. Still unnerved by her psychic encounter, she goes to bed early. In her room, she calls Jaxon and confesses; far from being upset, he is ecstatic that she has learned to use her power as a weapon. He proposes to send Nick, his colleague, to “extract” her before the authorities can find her. She gathers a backpack and a pistol and tries to sleep.

She awakens, alerted to the presence of a government “collection unit.” Grabbing her backpack and pistol, she flees through the window but soon finds herself cornered on a rooftop by a powerful medium and his team. She leaps from rooftops to gutters to fire escapes with the medium in hot pursuit. He finally fires a drug-laced dart into her back, and she falls, losing consciousness.

In custody, Paige is tortured for what feels like an eternity. Her captors finally stop, saying, “We need this one alive” (34). She falls asleep and wakes up in a prison cell, naked and shivering. She takes a cold shower, and a woman—a voyant with eerie yellow eyes—enters the cell. The woman—Pleione Sualocin—gives her clothes and escorts her out of her cell. As they walk through the stone corridors, Pleione gathers a group of other captive voyants with the intention of conducting their “orientation” for a place called “Sheol I,” but when one voyant protests, she kills him instantly with her mind. Paige and the other captive voyants are locked in a room where she meets Julian, a seer. The voyants discuss their possible fates—death, torture, or perhaps some other purpose.

Pleione returns and orders them to follow, leading them outside to an unusually wide street where an audience watches masked performers dance on an outdoor stage. Everyone—audience members and performers—is voyant. Judging by the ancient look of the place—gas lamps, cobbled streets, old, timbered homes—Paige reasons that they are in Oxford, a city whose very existence has been disavowed by the Scion government. Pleione ushers them into a long room with other captive voyants, where she takes her place on a raised dais with others of her kind (“Rephaites”). One of them begins to speak.

Nashira Sargas, the “blood-sovereign of the race of Rephaim” (48) addresses the captive voyants. Oxford, she says, has been the home of the Rephaim for two centuries. She claims that Earth’s ethereal plane has become overpopulated with wandering spirits and has broken its “ethereal threshold,” opening a rift into the Netherworld, where the Rephaites dwell. Furthermore, she claims that the Rephaim have been forced to share the Netherworld with a “bestial race” (the Emim) who would have devoured humanity if not for the Rephaim’s protection. She invites the voyants to join their human security force of “red jackets,” whose job is to seek out the Emim and destroy them. With the Scion government funneling voyants to Oxford, she explains, the Rephaim have vowed to take control of Earth rather than destroying it. Panicked by this information, a voyant tries to run but is shot dead before she can escape.

Nashira continues her explanation. Every 10 years, the Rephaim recruit the strongest voyants to train as red-jackets; each “decadal” period is called a “Bone Season.” Nashira finishes her speech, and the Rephaim circulate through the crowd, selecting voyants as their trainees. Paige is chosen last. Her “keeper” is “the blood-consort: Arcturus” (55). The keepers lead their charges away. The six left unchosen are “amaurotics,” or non-voyant humans, who will become servants to the Rephaim. Arcturus—whom Paige must address as “Warden”—leads her to his residence, an old stone structure with towers and arched windows. Once inside, Warden instructs her to take certain “medicinal substances” every night but does not explain why. He also notes that she is “spirit-blind” and cannot actually see the spirits within the aether, only sense them—a disadvantage he hopes that she can overcome. Finally, he informs her of the rules—sleep during the day, train at night, address him only as “Warden”—and locks her in.

Paige wakes at dusk and tries to formulate a plan. Warden is away, so she has the day free, and she resolves to gather as much information as she can. After flushing her medicinals down the sink, she goes downstairs. She is greeted by the night porter who tells her where to get food and what boundaries not to cross. She exits the residence and finds her way to the “Broad,” a shantytown in the heart of Oxford. She finds a food stall and is handed a plate of meat. One of the shantytown’s denizens—“Harlies,” or performers who have failed their Rephaim tests—pulls her aside for a chat. The woman, Liss Rymore, says that Paige is already famous inside the city for being the first voyant Warden has ever kept. Liss explains the layout of the city and what lies beyond its walls (a wasteland filled with mines). When she realizes that Paige is a “dreamwalker,” she warns her to beware Nashira, who “has never found a walker, and […] really wants one” (72). Paige learns that all captive voyants must undergo a series of tests to prove their abilities and loyalty, but also that she risks losing her aura (her unique voyant talent) to Nashira if she cooperates with the tests.

Liss and Paige are discovered by a Rephaite who orders Liss to perform her talent immediately for his entertainment. When he leaves, Paige notices blood; the Rephaite has fed on Liss’s aura, demonstrating the eventual fate of all voyants who fail their tests. Next, to help Liss, Paige searches for Seb, a young amaurotic who has been wrongfully incarcerated with the voyants. The guard at the amaurotic residence sends her away, but she sees Seb through a barred window; he has been badly abused. She gives him food and promises to try to help. With nothing more to do for him, she heads back to her residence, Magdalen.