The All-Seeing Eye

by Rae Else

  A car careened up the drive, around the trees and towards the house. Luke pulled it up beside them with Dan in the passenger seat. There really must be a need to hurry if they’d chosen to ride up to the house together. El’s tension dissipated as she saw that Luke was unharmed. Then she noticed the purplish bruise beneath his eye as he and Dan got out of the car.

  ‘What happened?’ El asked, staring at it.

  Luke shook his head. ‘Oh, nothing, just my brother’s way of saying hello.’

  Janos interrupted, ‘The Order’s on its way.’

  Alex appeared with El’s suitcase and lifted it into the boot of his jeep, along with Anna’s urn.

  ‘Let’s get to Braintree then,’ Luke said.

  ‘No,’ Janos said. ‘I have seen that, for the time being, there’s no clear route out from any airfield. I want you all to go to the Camden safe house.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ El asked.

  ‘To Southend Airport. I’ll get the next flight to Greece. From there, I’ll be able to keep watch. I’ll contact you when I see an opportunity to get you out.’

  ‘Can’t we get a flight from there too?’ El insisted. His lack of explanation was irksome, especially as he’d not told them what he’d been doing for the last few hours.

  Dan’s brow furrowed. ‘El, Janos has been overseeing this operation for years. If he sees this as the best move—’

  ‘Then what? We should just do it?’

  Dan flushed but fell silent.

  Alex held a needle and syringe: Janos’ blood. He must have drawn some so that they could disappear from the Order while they travelled. He gave Luke a dose and went over to Dan.

  ‘If you expect us to work with you,’ El continued, looking at Janos, ‘you’re going to have to be more open.’

  ‘I understand,’ he said. ‘I will answer your questions at the right time, but for now, this is adieu.’ He strode to his car and opened the door, retrieving a piece of paper from the glove compartment, and handed it to Dan. ‘I will send word to that address on the dark web as soon as I see a clear route to Greece open to you. And remember: with time, precision is everything.’

  As Alex prepared another dose of blood for El, his expression was solemn. She knew him well enough to notice that he was troubled by Janos’ abrupt change of plans. She wished he’d say something.

  With a sigh, El pushed her sleeve up to let Alex inject the blood.

  Luke spoke up, ‘Can’t you stay here and come to the safe house with us?’

  Janos shook his head. ‘Once I’m in Greece, I can focus entirely on watching the future. I’ll stay concealed and monitor the future timeline, only coming back to the present to give you information. Communication will be limited. Time is a precious commodity and I have cheapened it by lingering too long.’

  El gawped. Whose fault was that? He’d been the one sitting around for the last few hours. Something told her that he wasn’t referring to the hours he’d spent out of this time, but the meagre few minutes he’d spent talking to them.

  ‘Do you want me to drive you?’ Dan asked.

  ‘No,’ Janos said. ‘I can deviate my route if necessary. Besides, you will be needed at the safe house to ensure everyone entry.’

  For the first time, El noticed that Janos wasn’t entirely here: his hands were transparent. Any movement caused them to flicker as if a mild breeze might carry their particles away. They were still physical enough to interact with objects, and after opening the car door and getting in, he slammed it shut. The engine revved and with a quick manoeuvre, he hurtled away.

  They stood for a moment in silence. El trotted to the boot of Alex’s jeep and threw the walking stick on top of her bag. She checked that her real weapon was stashed in her pocket: a cylindrical camping lighter.

  She and Luke took the backseat, while Dan climbed in the front. Alex pulled away and they were soon racing down the drive.

  El peered back. She wondered when she’d see the manor again. The Medieval section of the house drew her eye, with the smoother Victorian renovation tacked onto the side. Ivy ran over its body, binding the composite parts. Despite the foliage, the house looked disjointed: its sections infused with the spirit of different ages. Just like Janos. She pictured his impassive expression, blurring, fading away to … who knew where … or when. As the building vanished behind the trees, El reflected that nothing stayed the same. Everything, whether flesh or stone, was here one moment, and changed the next.

  - Chapter Two -

  Civilian

  They hadn’t been on the road long, before Dan asked, ‘Luke, what did your brother say?’

  ‘The Order’s set a date for the election of a new Triad,’ Luke explained. ‘It’s in a month.’

  ‘Damn it.’ Dan thumped the dashboard in front of him. ‘We need as much time as we can to gather support from the heads of line and being stuck in London won’t help.’

  ‘Is that what my great-great-grandmother is then? A head of line?’ El asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Luke, ‘Helena Carras is the head of the water line. It was, until recently, the most powerful of the four arete lines, one for each of the elements. And the Carras family are the most powerful water manipulators.’

  ‘But why does Janos think Helena will help us?’

  ‘You saw the effect the rumour had in the Gymnasium at the Olympia, when arete thought you had the full power. The full power – it’s generally this abstract concept, a scary legend. Your grandma, the last person to have it, disappeared half a century ago. My dad used to tell me and Josh stories about her when we were kids.’ He glanced out of the window. ‘Most serpents would have been told similar stories…’

  El raised her eyebrows, both surprised and sickened by her grandma’s fame. The memory of Louisa’s voice in the catacombs came back to her. She was the most powerful arete in the Order and was the favourite of the Triad. She served for fourteen years and killed hundreds of arete at the behest of the Order.

  ‘What I mean,’ Luke continued, ‘is in the Gymnasium, no one knew who you were. The name Devereux is unknown in the arete world. But now the Order know that you are the granddaughter of Helena Carras, the last serpent to have the full power. And before your grandma, others in the Carras family were said to have it. Helena Carras will be interested in you because of the possibility that you might have it too ... and bring it back into the Carras line.’

  El bit her lip. Janos had lied about seeing her coming into the full power. She’d assumed that she didn’t have it. Now Luke’s words planted a sliver of doubt again. If more Carrases, besides her grandma had possessed it, was it possible that she would too? She wished that Janos hadn’t left and she could quiz him about these things.

  Dan turned around in his seat and looked Luke straight in the eye. ‘What other updates did your brother give?’

  ‘There’s already been some unrest,’ Luke said. ‘Arete are starting to fight among themselves. There were ladon battling in Dover. A large stretch of the cliff collapsed, injuring some humans. Five dead.’

  El grimaced.

  ‘I know,’ Luke said, mirroring her disgust. ‘And in the lead up to the summit, my dad reckons the number of battles will increase. There are bound to be other fights between arete lines.’

  ‘What about the humans?’ El asked. ‘Won’t they realise something’s up if these incidents continue?’

  ‘I listened to the radio on the way back. The Order have manipulated the human scientists and media to think that it was an earthquake,’ Luke said. ‘Something about the cliffs being so badly affected because of erosion. Apparently, other battles elsewhere in the world have been similarly covered up – natural disasters, with a high risk of more to come because of climate change.’

  El shook her head. The gravity of the situation started to settle on her. People had been killed. There was no going back. By attacking an Olympia and destroying the Triad, the Opposition had set off a chain of events.

  ‘Why is this happeni
ng?’ El asked despairingly.

  ‘Without the Triad, the Order is in disarray,’ Luke explained. ‘When the graeae get voted in to form the Triad, each member inhabits a sphere of time. One of them sees the past, one the present and the other, the future. It’s why they’re called the All-Seeing Eye. Without the Triad, there is no one to guide the actions of the Order. The arete families will try to intimidate one another, to prevent them from putting forward their graeae candidates to the heads of line.’

  El frowned. ‘But a graeae doesn’t have any elemental power…’

  ‘No,’ Luke said, ‘but the element that’s predominant in their family determines which head of line they present themselves to. It also dictates which sphere of time they are best at seeing. For instance, in my family, water is dominant, and graeae from the water line are best at seeing the future. Any graeae from the Laukas line would, therefore, submit themselves to—’

  ‘Helena Carras,’ El finished.

  ‘Yep,’ Luke said. ‘But the only graeae in my family is Uncle Al. And he can’t even predict the outcome of a poker game.’ He smiled.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this last night?’ El asked.

  ‘You had enough on your plate,’ Luke said. ‘Deciding whether to go into hiding or continue helping the Opposition.’

  Once again, El felt the gaping hole in her knowledge about the arete world. The anger that she’d expelled outside the crypt, threatened to bubble up again.

  ‘Next time you know something important tell me, okay? I need to know everything.’

  Luke’s eyes widened at her sharpness, but he nodded. ‘Well, my dad will support us if we succeed in getting Helena on our side.’

  He fell silent and stared out the window. El supposed he was dwelling on the breach between him and his father, Andreas. She wondered what his brother had said. As an Order member, Andreas probably wasn’t thrilled about his son running off with the Opposition.

  She thought about what Luke had said, wondering how Janos could expect to find help from someone like Helena, someone so high up in the Order. Janos himself had been one of the three highest-ranking officials but that was before he’d betrayed the Order.

  ‘So what’s the plan, Dan?’ Alex exclaimed from the driver’s seat. ‘People are getting hurt and it’s because of us.’

  ‘Janos has a plan.’

  ‘Oh yeah, and what’s that?’ Frustration rippled through Alex’s voice.

  ‘I don’t know the details, but I trust him. And you should too – you all should. Janos says that knowledge is power. Knowledge changes one’s intentions, informs one’s actions and affects the future. That’s why the information he shares is scant. For graeae, keeping secrets is part of their nature.’

  ‘Well that’s just great,’ El said. ‘That’s what we need … more secrets.’

  She realised Dan was watching her. As she met his gaze, her cheeks flushed, not because of the heat emanating from his eyes but the intensity of feeling that rested in them.

  ‘Look,’ Dan said, ‘you know that he’s given the Opposition his blood for the last six years, to dissolve kerykeion and conceal Opposition members. The thing is, while his blood hides us from other graeae, it establishes a connection with him. If he’d ever wanted to betray us and turn us into the Order, he could have.’

  She nodded. ‘I still don’t understand why he’s been helping the Opposition all this time?’

  ‘Imagine heading this circus for hundreds of years,’ Dan replied. ‘I’m sure you’d get sick of it.’

  Her lips twitched; she resolved that, when she next saw Janos, she would make him talk and explain why he’d allied with the Opposition.

  ‘So, you’re saying that Janos can track us, wherever we go?’ Luke asked. ‘That sounds just like the Order.’

  ‘It’s not like that,’ Dan said. ‘Janos uses the connection to keep us safe.’

  Dan’s phone pinged. El leaned forwards, trying to see his expression. She spied a frown and wondered if it was part of his ordinary gloominess or denoted something worse. She didn’t need to wait long for an answer.

  ‘Speak of the Devil – Alex, take the next left to Highbury. Janos says the other way’s being watched.’

  Alex turned off the main road and the tension mounted. The traffic and pedestrians set El’s nerves on edge.

  They passed Holloway Station and Dan indicated to the right. ‘Take the backstreets.’

  He was looking at his phone, either at Janos’ instructions or at a map to navigate. El kept quiet in the back, watching the grey façade of a school slip past, its three storeys towering over the road. High fences shut in concrete playgrounds, eerily empty in the sunshine. With sudden clarity, she realised that it was the weekend – of course they were empty. They drove past another set of buildings, some of the older mullioned windows and doorways bricked-up.

  As boxy flats gave way to modern high-rises, the architecture reminded her of Clerkenwell, of the close in which the catacombs were located. She remembered the street filled with Order guards. They were nearing a park and a crowd came into view. Men and women, dressed in black suits and skirts, congregated. El gripped the edge of her seat. Had the Order found them?

  Luke clasped her hand. ‘It’s okay – just some event.’

  Her eyes leapt to the crowd at the park gate. Sure enough, the well-turned-out group were picking up ID badges, amidst an eddy of chatter.

  ‘I thought it was the Order,’ she said, her voice quavering.

  ‘I know, but not every corporation’s evil,’ Luke said.

  She smiled weakly. Whenever a large group of people appeared, she tensed. At the catacombs, those arete had wanted to guard her and get her to the Olympia. Now, if they ran into them, they’d be aiming to kill.

  El couldn’t believe they’d made it when Alex finally reversed into the driveway of the safe house. She looked along the tree-lined street and inspected the other houses. Most of them looked derelict but she knew that could be a ruse: they could be arete residences with veilings too.

  ‘You and El go in first,’ Dan said to Alex, ‘there’s more coverage on your side. Hood up, El. Keep your back to the road. We mustn’t be seen – or word could get out to the Order of our whereabouts. Luke and I will come out once the veiling’s activated.’

  El drew up her hood and slipped out from the jeep. She tried to keep her movements casual, stopping herself from running up the steps as the building warped and changed. She barely noticed the barred and boarded windows transforming. Nor did she look back at the greenery thickening around them, as if winter were melding into summer. The kerykeion was still visible on the shifting walls when she knocked.

  A stranger opened the door. The woman’s deep-set eyes narrowed. ‘You’re with Dan?’ She peered at the jeep.

  El nodded, feeling stiff under the weight of the ladon’s gaze. With a cursory look at Alex, the ladon took a few steps aside to let them in. They passed a stocky man whose stare quickened El’s breath: a typhon. He looked familiar but she couldn’t place where she’d seen him before.

  Wandering down the hall, they came into the kitchen. It wasn’t as tidy as when she’d last been here: a stack of unwashed plates, pots and pans occupied the surfaces. There were a few arete she didn’t recognise having a hushed conversation, falling silent when she and Alex entered.

  Yet the arete in the kitchen didn’t prepare El for those in the living room. At first, the gauzy draperies falling between the trees obscured those gathered throughout the room. The last time she was here, the soft hangings and cushions had imbued the room with an intimate atmosphere. Now they muffled the voices, lending an ominous air to the murmurings, a feeling further fuelled when everyone stopped talking at once.

  There were yet more arete sitting about the room on fold down seats – giving the place a camp-like feel. The sheer volume assembled was too much for the room, despite its high ceiling and airiness. She thought she recognised some as Opposition members who were at the Ol
ympia but couldn’t be sure.

  With the abrupt silence, it was like she’d gatecrashed the proceedings of a secret society.

  A shout rang from the hall.

  ‘Hey! Hey!’ It was Dan’s voice.

  There was scuffling, then something was slammed against the wall. El pitched back out the door, Alex following.

  Dan and the ladon were arguing while the typhon had Luke against the wall.

  El marched along the corridor. ‘What are you doing?’ The typhon didn’t look at her and kept a hold of Luke. ‘What are you doing?’ she repeated.

  ‘Our job,’ the ladon said. She cocked her head at Luke. ‘I recognise him, from the Olympia – seen him compete. He’s the son of an Order member, Laukas. What were you thinking, bringing him here?’

  El hadn’t even considered that others might question Luke’s loyalty. He’d come to the manor to help save her grandma and saved her own life from Louisa. She barely connected him to the Order at all now.

  ‘Luke was with us at the Olympia,’ El said.

  ‘He’s in as much danger from the Order as we are,’ Alex agreed.

  A look passed between the typhon and ladon.

  Dan moved towards them, his voice calm but his stance intimidating. ‘Stand down.’

  The typhon reluctantly let go of his captive. Luke straightened his T-shirt, not taking his eyes off the typhon.

  The ladon’s eyes bulged at Luke. ‘Well, if you’re here, you’re here to stay. No leaving the house.’

  ‘So I’m a prisoner?’ Luke said.

  ‘Damn right you are. Can’t have you going walkabout.’ The ladon wore racing green leathers and heavy-looking motorcycle boots. With her aggressive tone and get-up, El thought she looked like the sort of arete it would be unwise to mess with.

  Sudden footsteps resounded down the stairs and they all turned to see who it was.

  El smiled. Tia was a sight for sore eyes. The nymph must have come to tell these sentries to chill out. If there was anyone that could calm things down it would be her. El couldn’t help but feel calmer just looking at her. The smile Tia offered was short-lived though and she quickly looked past at Dan.