by Rae Else
‘I trust my dogs didn’t get any of you,’ she said softly, a slight curve to her lips. Her cool eyes were fixed on El.
This must be Helena Carras. El imagined her as she must have been some minutes ago: stood up on the clifftop, an unearthly figure looking down on them, summoning her watery creatures from beneath.
‘Please accept our gratitude, Helena, for your assistance,’ Janos said, ‘and thank you for receiving us.’
‘Is it not too late for pleasantries, Janos? Besides, I didn’t do it for you,’ Helena replied, smirking and turning her gaze on El.
Helena seemed to deliberate, then smiled. ‘Come ashore – warm yourselves by the fire. There is plenty of food and wine.’ She looked back at her party assembled on the beach. ‘Everyone, keep our guests entertained whilst Helena Devereux and I go up to the house.’
El’s legs turned to jelly. She was going to have to talk to this formidable woman alone. She thought about all the things that Janos had told her. This woman valued family but not as much as the power she gained from it. El’s palms grew clammy as her nerves mounted. Their safety rested on her saying the right thing.
Her thoughts churned as if the whirlpool they had escaped was in her head, whipping up everything. Her gaze darted to Alex, who nodded as if to say that they’d all be fine. She examined the folded arms of the four unfamiliar arete standing in the glow of the campfire. The firelight was the only warmth on their blank faces. Helena beckoned to El and she followed.
Along the shore, white crags loomed out of the darkness. Sunken lights along the cliff’s base illuminated the way: a rough-hewn staircase, its steps smooth from wear and weather, led upwards. They climbed until they reached a squat building on the crag’s edge. The cross adorning its rooftop identified it as a ruined church.
When the land plateaued, the tops of another building appeared ahead. The house spanned three storeys; square towers and long verandas were dotted throughout its mass.
They passed through a few courtyards, gently lit and lined with palms and ferns. Mosaics depicting marine life decorated the walls and floor: dolphins, turtles, as well as sea serpents. El wanted to study them but proceeded, afraid to keep Helena waiting. The inner courtyard had a vast terrace and infinity pool which swept the curve of the cliff.
A set of huge doors were thrown wide open into the house. Within, the spacious room was decorated in white like the exterior of the building. The walls, ceiling, rafters and fireplace: all the same pale hue.
Helena sat down on a couch, crossed her ankles and let the hem of her dress fall over her dainty feet. Despite her white dress, she didn’t blend into her surroundings. The walls and furniture were modern and Mediterranean, all bathed in the harsh white light of electric lamps. Helena, her hair in a thick chignon, her dress high necked, with long sleeves and skirt, looked antiquated in the setting.
‘Close the doors,’ Helena said.
As instructed, El turned back to the heavy doors. They weren’t glass but were fashioned from thick metal. No doubt, they shut out every sound … as well as securing the ones within. El pushed them shut. She tried to magnify the sounds beyond, but the walls were thick too, and lead lined. Dread stole through her. She wondered if this room, although on the surface a living room, would turn out to be a dungeon.
A faint smile rested on Helena’s lips. ‘Come. Sit.’ As she gestured, the jewellery she wore caught the light. Her fingers were adorned with rings, all of a serpentine theme. One ring was a snake devouring its tail, the others clasped gemstones in their jaws. The most dominant ring was on her right forefinger. The snake wound almost to the tip of her finger. It looked awkward to wear, preventing her from bending her finger. The back of Helena’s hands bore a few age spots.
El sat down next to her, angled so that she almost faced her. She wondered what lurked beneath this woman’s dignified composure. She noticed the minute lines at the corner of her lips and eyes.
‘I am very pleased to make your acquaintance,’ Helena said. ‘You may call me Helena or, as most of the family does, Yia Yia.’
El felt like she was in an elocution lesson at a finishing school from last century. She felt shabby in her shorts, hoody and boots. ‘I’m El,’ she said. ‘I mean Helena like you, but everyone calls me El.’
‘Yes, we have too many Helenas in the family.’
An awkward silence descended.
‘Allow me to give my condolences, on your grandmother and mother’s passing,’ Helena said.
El had expected Helena to question her about her involvement with the Opposition straight away. She was thrown by the sincerity of Helena’s tone.
Finally, El replied, ‘They didn’t die. They were murdered.’
For the first time, Helena’s eyes sought El’s. They were a deep hazel, but El didn’t think of Louisa as she felt their cold sting. Instead their effect and colour made her think of her grandma.
‘From what I understand,’ Helena said, ‘your mother’s death was ordained by the Triad, which even a head of line has no power to question. And of course, your grandmother’s death, although I mourned it, was also sanctioned by the Order due to her desertion years ago.’
The night of her grandma’s death flashed through El’s mind. She remembered Louisa’s vindictiveness in the way she’d force-fed her grandma the empousa blood, relishing in her pain as the nerves knitted themselves back together.
‘And do you know about Louisa?’ El asked. ‘Was she sanctioned to use empousa blood to torture my grandma – to inflict pain on her as her eyes grew back, bit by bit?’
‘That is a serious allegation, you understand? Not simply because of Louisa’s disobedience but because it is against the Order’s law to use empousa blood in the way you speak.’ Helena’s eyes darkened.
‘It wasn’t the first time Louisa did it either … the night she killed my grandma, she boasted that she did the same thing, years ago, when my grandma was the Order’s prisoner.’
‘Did anyone else witness Louisa’s actions?’ Helena asked.
El nodded. ‘Luke Laukas, the hydra who is here with me.’
‘I will speak to him later.’ Helena paused. ‘To a degree, I am pleased by your words. You did not mean to take up arms against the Order. Your dispute is with Louisa, correct?’
‘Louisa came after me, tricked me into using my power, knowing my mum would try to hide me with graeae blood. She set me up so that I would be condemned by the Order too. Louisa wasn’t just carrying out the commands of the Order. She wanted my grandma, my mum and me dead.’
Helena was quiet, considering El’s words. Her voice was calm but certain. ‘Your words about Louisa have the ring of truth. An old grudge existed between your grandma and her. Louisa is of my line, so to hear of her using empousa blood in this manner concerns me greatly. Rest assured, I will summon her and investigate your allegation.
‘What truly interests me presently, is to hear of your own reasons for coming here.’
This was it. El felt Helena scrutinising her, her gaze prickling over her skin like slivers of ice. She thought about what Janos had said: Your grief and regrets will dominate the conversation … let your emotions lead you.
Helena’s hazel eyes, marbled with green were so familiar. The resemblance to her grandma was uncanny. The only moment that El had studied her grandma’s eyes had been just before she’d died while trying to escape from Louisa. Staring into Helena’s eyes now, it was as if she were back there with another chance to confide in her.
‘I’m not sure exactly,’ El said. ‘When my grandma and mum died, my trust did too. For most of my life, they kept the whole arete world from me. My mum, without my knowledge, used me to further the Opposition’s fight against the Order. How am I meant to know what to say or who to trust … and whether anything I say makes any difference?’ El fell silent, wondering if she’d allowed her emotions to govern her too much.
A crease appeared between Helena’s brows as she regarded El. ‘Let me say, El. You are
not quite … what I expected.’
El couldn’t tell if this was a good thing. ‘You’re kind of different to what I was expecting too.’
‘Oh, how so?’
‘I suppose I expected someone more like Louisa. Someone … volatile.’
‘I quite agree. Louisa is tempestuous.’
The more El sat with Helena, the more her composure made El think of Anna too. El thought she detected a gentleness in Helena. Or was it just how softly spoken she was?
‘Your candour, my dear, is what has surprised me,’ Helena said. ‘Perhaps you will indulge me with it a little longer?’
El swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.
‘You fought a hydra, Pallis, in the London Olympia, in the final arena, the Elysium.’
El was startled by Helena’s knowledge of her past but shook her surprise away.
‘She cast you into the pit,’ Helena continued, ‘but before you fell, you looked into her eyes. At that moment, what did you feel?’
Her stomach somersaulted as she remembered the fall into the abyss. Helena had investigated El’s past thoroughly, probably through graeae but she didn’t seem content with that alone. What she wanted was a guided tour through its worst moments.
‘I felt cold,’ El said slowly. ‘I was close enough to see that Pallis’ eyes were pale, I could feel their chill, and her desire to kill me. I felt desperate. Then the water rose up and took me.’
Helena nodded. ‘When you were looking at Pallis, did you feel any spark within you? Any heat or perhaps a disruption of light across your vision?’
El frowned. Were these symptoms of the full power that Helena was quizzing her about? El thought back, trying to remember what she’d experienced that night. Her manipulation always felt like heat, like heartburn in her chest, coursing through her and into her eyes. But she didn’t recall feeling that when she’d tried to summon the full power.
‘No,’ El said, ‘nothing like that.’
‘I hope it’s not too indelicate a question to ask but, I wonder, on the night that Louisa killed your grandmother, she had her eyes restored. Your grandmother bore the full power. Do you know why she didn’t use it on Louisa?’
Pain and loss twisted through El, but she forced herself to answer. ‘Just before Louisa killed her, my grandma said to me that she couldn’t bring herself to use it again. She was overcome by guilt because of what happened with her sister, Maria.’
Helena looked thoughtful as if trying to fit a puzzle together before a neutral expression fell back into place. ‘Thank you. I am sorry to make you relive such things.’
El simply nodded, knowing that she was at Helena’s mercy and would answer any question she posed. Her chest tightened. She wondered whether Helena was going to ask about her own attempt at using the full power on Louisa. She remembered the malevolence and hate filling her. The memory made her grimace as if tasting smoke.
Helena watched her intently before she finally said, ‘Thank you for your honesty, my dear.’
‘What happens now? Will you listen to what Janos has to say?’
Helena laid her hand on El’s. ‘I will. The fact that he has brought you, one of my line safely to me, will not be overlooked. Louisa will be investigated. Considering her history, and in light of your honesty tonight, you have nothing to fear. That is enough talk though. I would have you rest. Your friend Luke is very welcome here too. I will send him up directly.’
Helena drew back the heavy metal doors. The unimpeded view of the outside world sent a wash of relief over El.
‘Unfortunately,’ Helena added, ‘it is tradition that no human stay on this island. Alex will have to stay on the boat. I will see to it that he is comfortable. Now, I must go and speak to Janos.’
Helena gestured to the inner door. ‘Please choose any of the rooms on this corridor. I will send your luggage up. We will talk more in the morning and, should you rise early, use this room and the terrace but please don’t venture further. Goodnight.’
Helena had already moved across the courtyard before El could do anything but stand up.
‘Thank you,’ El called.
She had expected Helena to ask her outright about the full power. But she hadn’t. Why? Doubts started to cycle around her head. Had she missed something in their exchange? Perhaps it was all an act and Helena had gone to dispose of Janos and the others. El trembled, wondering if she should dash after her but it was Helena’s demeanour that kept her from doing so. Her poise and self-control didn’t indicate that she was about to unleash trouble.
El thought of the detailed knowledge Helena possessed about everything that had happened to her. A shiver ran down her spine: Janos clearly hadn’t been the only graeae watching her.
She turned down the corridor. The first bedroom she wandered into was decorated similarly to the living room, from the whitewashed walls, down to the linen on the beds. The only other colour present was blue: the ceiling and rafters were painted in a pale shade.
The exception to the minimalism was the artwork. There were photographs of the sea which had been developed with layered kerykeion. El was reminded of the tattoo that one of Luke’s friends had, in which a flock of birds had seemed to move on his skin. In these pictures, the waves moved. It made El feel as if the room were rocking, as if she were still on the boat. She began to feel queasy.
The same white met her in the next room until her eyes feasted on the feature wall behind the bed. After all the white and blue, the striking colours were like sighting land after a long sea voyage. At first, El thought the design was a tangle of plants and flowers alone. Green, yellows and oranges repeated, some tendrils ending in budding flowers, others in full bloom. When El took a closer look, she saw that there were sections of snake within the tangle. In fact, the segments were what the vines and flowers sprung from. She liked the greenery. It made her think of the fields and woods around the manor.
Shutting the door, she explored the room. There was an en-suite bathroom. It was like being back at the hotel in Giza: fresh towels and tiny bottles of toiletries sat on gleaming countertops, as well as a robe on a hook.
She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, gazing at her reflection. Her heart-shaped face, pale skin and blue eyes looked back. She didn’t look much like Helena at all. She swept her fingers through her short hair, missing its length and colour, so like her mum’s. As she stared at the jagged strands, she realised why she missed her long locks: they’d made her look more like her mum. Her eyes watered as she stroked the tufts, as if trying to coax them back.
A knock sounded at the door and she dashed the moisture from her eyes. It was Luke. As she opened it, he looked left and right as if expecting to find the source of her consternation.
‘Are you alright?’ He stepped into the room and set down the bags, closing the door behind him. ‘Helena’s still down on the beach.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s fine. Sorry, I…’ She bit her lip. Now she felt stupid, but she could see that her hesitation was increasing his worry. ‘It’s nothing – I got upset again about my … hair…’
He failed to suppress a smile. ‘It suits you. The colour brings out your eyes.’
‘Chat-up lines about eyes don’t work on serpents,’ El quipped.
He looked abashed. ‘It could be worse – you could have snakes.’
She smiled, feeling awkward for knocking him back. Is that what she was doing? She definitely didn’t have room in her life for another romantic attachment. She’d just survived her interrogation with the head of her line and secured their preservation … for the time being. She strained to hear any sounds from the terrace, checking that Luke was right. He was. There was no one around.
‘Did Alex get back to the boat?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. He and Zoe went back when I came up.’
El nodded. She wondered if she should have insisted on staying on the boat too but reckoned Helena wouldn’t have liked that. Their meeting may have gone alright but El su
ssed that it was probably wise to make as few demands as possible.
‘When I came up,’ Luke said, ‘only Helena and Janos were left on the beach. She seemed alright, I think, even … friendly.’
He didn’t sound sure. El hadn’t been certain whether to trust Helena’s civility either. She still didn’t know.
El whispered, ‘She didn’t ask outright about my full power, only about how I’d felt in the Elysium when I’d looked into the hydra’s eyes. She also asked why my grandma hadn’t used her power on Louisa.’
He was quiet for a moment. ‘Janos told you to listen to your emotions, I’m sure you said the right thing. Besides, it’s a lucky break that she didn’t just come out and ask. I mean, no offence, but you’re a terrible liar.’
She laughed nervously. He was right. She hadn’t managed to win a single game of Bullshit against him. She wondered how much longer her luck would last. The fact that they were both up at the house and Alex ensconced on the boat seemed positive. She felt a pang of worry, thinking of Janos being interrogated, but he’d said that he only wanted to be heard.
‘Helena said she’d hear Janos’ side of things tonight,’ El explained, ‘and that we’ll talk more tomorrow. Then I guess it’s a matter of waiting for Dan and the others to get back.’
Luke picked up his bag and opened the door. ‘I’m next door if you need me.’
‘The moving waves – your brother would love it.’
Luke smiled. ‘That he would.’
After shutting the door, El went to get her pyjama shorts and T-shirt from her rucksack and found the velvet box from Dan. It hit her that it was the early hours of the morning: her birthday. She’d survived to see her eighteenth. Quite an achievement given everything.
She opened the box. A fine silver chain rested on a cushion. Delicate, white jewels were encrusted along three silver lines. As she traced the shape she realised it was the Perseus Constellation, each of the sparkling gems symbolising a star. It was stunning.
It took her back to nights spent stargazing with her granddad. The manor and its grounds had provided a flawless blanket for watching the heavens. This was the perfect gift. How did Dan know her so well? She’d probably mentioned stargazing back at the flat in London. She’d tried to do a little in Egypt but there’d been too much light pollution. Besides, the stars hadn’t held their usual position or given her the same comfort as back home.
