The Uncommoners #3 by Jennifer Bell

Author:Jennifer Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Ivy understood from the snippets of conversation why they were arguing. Some of the souls within Mr. Punch wanted to be reunited with their soulmates so they could become Departed, while others didn’t. It sounded like they weren’t even sure what would happen if one of them did depart. Perhaps the conflict between them explained the strange featherlight Mr. Punch had sent Ivy, the one that had looked like it had been written by multiple people.

“Mr. Punch, sir? Can you hear or see us?” Valian asked.

The quartermaster appeared again. His top hat sat off-kilter, his red beard was ruffled and there were dark circles under his swirly green-blue eyes. “I don’t have long,” he warned. “At the moment, it takes a lot of persuasion for my other friends to allow me to talk to you.”

Ivy imagined what it might be like to share her body with several broken souls. You would all have to compromise with one another in order for one of you to assume control. It would need to be a relationship based on trust and understanding.

Valian asked hurriedly, “Do you know anything about Mr. Rife? Why did you give me the invitation to the auction house?”

“For the same reason I gave Amos Stirling’s journal to Ivy. Because fate decided you should have it.” He looked over his shoulder, as if expecting someone to sneak up behind him. “A powerful uncommon clock foretold to me that you and Mr. Rife would meet. The invitation was to point you in the right direction.”

Valian gritted his teeth. “Mr. Rife lied to us. We know he shook hands with Rosie on the day she went missing, but he said he’d never seen her before.”

“He is not your enemy,” Mr. Punch said firmly. “The vision I had was of you two embracing as friends.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Valian said. “I don’t even know him.”

“I received another premonition yesterday morning,” Mr. Punch continued, urgently. “I sent you a featherlight to explain—” His words were cut short as his face widened into that of the beefy man with the stubbly chin. Before he could say anything, the quartermaster returned for a split second. “It was a warning—”

Ivy grew more and more frustrated as the quartermaster continued to vanish and then reappear briefly, struggling against his colleagues. On each occasion he managed to utter a single word or short phrase.

“…Great Gates…Blackheath…using the sword…commoners in danger,” Valian repeated. “The sword must be the Sword of Wills; and Lundinor lies under Blackheath in London. Any idea what the rest of it could mean?”

“It’s got to be something to do with New Dawn,” Ivy decided. “Perhaps that’s what Mr. Punch saw a prophecy about; he said it was a warning.”

Valian shivered. “ ‘Commoners in danger’…That would fit with all that rubbish Octavius Wrench said in Central Park—about commoners being inferior and their numbers needing to be controlled.”

The door behind them thudded open. Ivy spun around to see a red-faced underguard officer standing in the opening. “Out,” he barked.

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