Storm of Ash

by Michelle Kenney

  ‘That way!’ Aelia panted urgently, pointing through the gloom to a narrow black recess just visible in the cave wall.

  I eyed it with blurred misgiving. At the moment there were a dozen strix closer than us, and even if we did get there before them, who knew if it led anywhere, or even if there were more strix inside. And yet, there was no going back either.

  The creature’s wolfish heads darted from left to right, clearly confused by the sudden choice in meals. Then it slunk low on its huge front paws, its heads lowering simultaneously, daring anyone to move. The strix squared up instantly, lifting their calcified beaks and shrieking in unison, their number of claws and beaks their defence. Desperately, I recalled how the Cerberus chased the strix at the last encounter with Unus, willing it to do the same now, but this wolfhound looked bigger, darker, more malevolent. My limbs tensed, and all I could think as it lifted its heads and howled its slathering excitement to the rock ceiling, was that this wasn’t the same Cerberus Unus and I faced at all.

  And then, pandemonium.

  There was a moment of chaotic frenzy as the Cerberus flew directly at the pack, snapping two sets of glistening jaws around the front screeching rat-owls, and shaking them until the air filled with hideous cracking noises. Then it hurled them across the dark space so their scrawny bodies smacked into the rock walls around us and slid to the floor. Each bone-splintering impact ricocheted through me, as though it were my bones being crushed for sport. The air thickened with the scent of blood and terror as we fought our way along the wall, surrounded on all sides. Thick black wings and claw-shaped beaks snapped and ripped at anything in their way, blinding us, while the Cerberus continued in its crazed killing frenzy. Then a pained scream split the cavern, forcing it into a moment’s shocked silence.

  ‘Aelia?’ I yelled, a white fear blazing through my veins.

  I couldn’t lose her, not here, not now.

  ‘Run,’ she croaked thickly.

  She was close – I shot a hand out in the thick, flapping, putrid-smelling black and somehow found hers. There was another groan about a metre in front as the bat lantern flew up into the air and rolled the centre of the space. Rajid?

  Then a sharp pain flew up my left arm as a beak made contact with my wound, digging in before retracting again. It was agony. They could smell my blood from the sabre-tooth injury. And it took everything I had not to yell as I battled and kicked the air repeatedly, my arms and legs impacting again and again on the creatures’ hard skeletal-muscular bodies, keeping them at bay for as long as I could. If I was going to be eaten alive, I was taking a few of them down with me.

  ‘Hold your wound … don’t panic,’ Aelia whispered unevenly. ‘They have an acute sense of smell but … I think they’re actually … blind …’

  I shuddered and clamped a hand over my arm wound. Blind? Like Cassius’s griffins? It made perfect sense of their incarceration in the tunnels of course – another living defect of his Biotechnical Programme, shut away where their imperfections wouldn’t be quite so problematic.

  I drew a deep breath and, lowering my head, crept as fast as I dared along the wall, pulling Aelia behind me. We were still knocked and clawed, but Aelia was right, without a noise prompt, the strix had no idea of our precise location.

  Rajid’s stealthy shadow was just ahead, and it looked as though he’d worked out the same. The abandoned bat lantern in the centre was throwing an eerie uplight across the heaps of broken rat-owl bodies, while their killer was chasing the remaining scattered groups with frenzied delight. And now the narrow black inset was no more than a short sprint ahead. I gritted my teeth. We could make it, I was sure we could. And then Aelia squeezed my hand so hard I felt sure she must break all the bones.

  ‘Tal …’

  It wasn’t so much what she said as how. I sucked in a hollow, jagged breath as I threw a reluctant darting look back.

  Six blood-infused wolf eyes levelled at us. Aware. Knowing we were making a bid for escape. And this new hellhound could see a million times better than its prey.

  It snarled viciously, tired of playing skittles with the strix, as it pulled its muscular body around, sending another group of rat-owls careering into the cavern wall, the dull thud of their bodies their last earthly sound.

  Then the three heads fused together to form a solid wall of wolf, as it lowered to level its fireball eyes with ours. Summoning every last scrap of feral will, I forced myself to meet its scrutiny, to look directly into the depths of its voided soul and face the shadows gathered there. It was the coldest place on earth.

  This was less a creature than a breathing weapon, moulded by Cassius’s darkest intent. Its synthesis was too complex, its nature too artificial, a myth that should never have stepped off the page. And perhaps that was what made Rajid step forward, softly whistling. That or his goddamned variable heart, which seemed to follow every fresh wind that blew.

  ‘Rajid,’ I hissed as the hound swung its heads towards the small wiry Prolet, barely visible in the stench-ridden air.

  He only smirked and threw a stone so it scuttled along the floor. The sound distracted the wolf momentarily until it rolled to a standstill, and then it snarled violently, swinging its heads back around to face Rajid, its six eyes flashing.

  ‘Beautiful doggy …’ Rajid soothed melodically, taking another stone and scuttling it across the floor littered with carcasses.

  Its only response was to lift one of its heads and release pure fury in a succession of spine-splintering howls … It was relentless. Where one set of wolf-lungs ceased, another other took over until the entire cavern was trembling.

  ‘It’s going to bring the roof down!’ Rajid muttered curiously, his black eyes glinting in the gloom.

  In the next second he was running out and around the Cerberus’ monstrous crouching haunches towards the other side of the cavern floor.

  ‘Here doggy doggy …! No! Over here … Y’know I’m kind of an admirer … no its not a chat-up line … Hey! Fido! I’m not standing around for ever, not with what’s left of your feathery mates eyeing me up like an aperitif.’

  Aelia and I could only watch in horror as the beast finally gave in and whipped its body around to face Rajid, distracted and furious.

  ‘Well you can either stand around waiting to be dessert, or you could take advantage of my last generous gesture and scram! And, Talia … get Lia out …’

  His tone was edged with a curious grit that left nothing to question. I stared for a millisecond, spell-bound by the thought that Rajid, of all people, should be the one to rescue us. That he actually had one noble instinct beneath his flippant skin.

  I didn’t need telling twice.

  Grabbing Aelia by the arm, I half stumbled, half sprinted the last few metres to the narrow inset we’d spied, and mercifully it seemed to be another access tunnel. It felt quiet and welcoming, and as soon as we were inside we spun around, desperate to do something, anything, to help. And the scene was astonishing.

  Rajid was dancing across the cavern floor, sidestepping and jumping to avoid the beast’s lunging, snapping mouths.

  ‘So you got three heads?? You’re different … I get it … but y’know I’m different too … in a different way … I like three heads … that makes us friends … sort of.’ He grinned, pausing to point to his neck.

  The Cerberus only fell into a chilling silence, trapping Rajid up against the opposite wall.

  ‘It doesn’t need to come between us,’ he cajoled, holding up his hands in mock submission, ‘and yours are definitely bigger than mine.’

  ‘Rajid, get ready to run!’ I yelled, grabbing a heavy rock and scuttling it along the cavern floor so it hit the beast on its back leg. It snarled but gave no ground, standing squarely between us and Rajid.

  Then Aelia and I reached down to the rocks and stones at our feet and started raining fury on its haunches, willing the beast to shift just a few centimetres and give Rajid a chance. Its two outlying heads snarled and snapped back in anger
, interspersed by a chorus of rough cawing as a few of the rocks impacted on the scattered vulturous strix, just waiting for the chance to finish whatever the Cerberus started.

  ‘Move! You ugly, goddamned son of an under …!’ I started as it suddenly rounded on us with a series of vociferous howls that made the rock walls crumble and fall.

  ‘Rajid, run!’ I yelled as the earth began to rain her wrath down around us.

  ‘Just remember what makes you special …’ came his faded response, only just reaching through the dust clouds billowing between us.

  And in that moment, I thought Hades himself had reached up through the heart of the earth. The disintegrating walls gave us no option but to stumble backwards, away from the cavern, and away from Rajid. But just before the tunnel entrance filled up entirely, I glimpsed a last haunting image.

  It was of fire-eyes, glowing like embers, and open, slathering jaws as they finally descended around a waiting figure.

  ***

  ‘It was his kind of recompense … for what happened before,’ I whispered.

  It was several hours later and we were beneath the laboratories, in the very same tunnel we’d explored with Rajid all those months ago before Ludi. The rockfall had been substantial, chasing us with debris and dust as we stumbled through the dark, until at last we reached a tunnel we recognized. The scent of the latrines brought back memories of chasing Rajid through endless bat-lit tunnels, and Max’s indignation when we landed in the decomposing waste. It would have raised a smile another time.

  I stared at Aelia’s dust-smeared face, and heavy faraway eyes. Max, August, now Rajid. Yet we were still alive, still here. She nodded barely perceptibly, but I could tell Rajid’s loss was costing her. They’d grown up together, and while his disloyalty had created pain, his courage was far worse. He was someone I’d never have expected to sacrifice his lunch, let alone his life. And yet he had. To save us.

  Tal … get Lia out. His last words stained my heart. I’d judged him because of his weakness in the face of adversity. But perhaps I’d been the weak one, for not understanding that one wrong choice didn’t make him wholly bad, and for letting his curiousness make me wary. I should have understood his weakness better than most, as an Outsider.

  ‘Do you think the strix were all in there? Cassius will be vexed if we’ve culled the entire downstairs menagerie.’

  Her hollow voice wobbled, betraying her wretchedness, and I reached my arm around her shoulders.

  ‘I imagine he has a few backups,’ I muttered drily, ‘but with any luck he’ll think we’ve escaped with Unus or been buried alive. Which gives us a small advantage,’ I added.

  Her eyes flickered past mine to the murky darkness beyond. This tunnel was filled with a friendlier type of silence, the one that accompanied emptiness. We both knew the only reason we were still here was because the strix had been caught up in the bloodbath, and whether marooned or dead, the result was the same.

  ‘Which lessens the disadvantage … a little,’ she corrected after a beat.

  I nodded, struggling with too many conflicting thoughts.

  Care for the seed and it will care for you, Talia.

  It’s not your fault.

  I swallowed hard as August’s face swam just above mine in the darkness.

  But perhaps it was?

  My gaze dropped as the thought nearly overwhelmed me. Because he’d given everything: defiance to his creators, defection from the only home he’d ever known, and a blind trust in a world he didn’t really know – even after discovering his own origins weren’t as pure as he’d been led to believe. And for what? Even if Aelia was right about the charioteer in the circus, the best scenario was that he was incarcerated here somewhere.

  I am the Commander General Augustus Aquila, Roman Equite of the Old Order.

  I wasn’t ignorant or naive enough to deny that most, if not all, of his decision-making was down to my feral existence. So perhaps it was all my fault?

  My chest felt leaden. I’d been so busy trying to protect my home and people, I’d denied August any place at all. Neither as one of them or one of us. He must have felt so ostracized, and I hadn’t given him any reason to hope.

  And what if, despite Aelia’s insistence, he was dead?

  For a moment I was grateful to the darkness, for its unerring ability to cover feelings and swallow shame. Then a slim hand slipped into my own. It was such a simple act; a nuance of kinship, a token of real sisterhood. Despite the odds, despite our differences, despite Cassius. I stood up.

  ‘Time to move.’

  Protect it with your life, Talia.

  I clung to the reedy fade of Grandpa’s voice as I looked over at the frayed rope ladder pinned against the rock wall. I’d been this way once before – with Rajid and Max. And though the ladder clearly needed repair, I’d scaled it in a heartbeat, my new determination giving me the fuel I needed to scramble into the dark space above. Aelia was beside me in seconds, and for a few moments we remained completely still, just listening.

  Silence.

  Your emotions make you weak, and predictable.

  A small smile broke across my lips.

  It was time to revisit a little science.

  ‘We leave no one behind bars,’ I whispered to Aelia.

  She stared, her small elfin face slowly lighting up with the thought of my proposal.

  And if you’re right about August, he might also be here, I added to myself.

  Cassius’s ego was too fragile to risk a resurgence in popularity for August, and yet I had the feeling he would keep him alive too, alive and close. A disgraced Commander General was an ultimate trophy after all. The question was, where would he hide him? There were any number of dungeons in Isca Pantheon, but it was far more likely that he would keep him where he could see him – which meant the laboratories, or his own apartment.

  I gritted my teeth and slid back the metallic sheet door, exposing the humming blue world of Pantheon’s main laboratory. It was just as I remembered: shadowy, reeking of formaldehyde and whirring with sounds that chilled my blood.

  No light or sound reached beneath the close-fitting doors of the internal laboratory. It had to be at least two or three hours since we left the arena, but the darkness of the tunnels was deceptive and without the sun I stood no chance of guessing the time of day. And yet there was no time to waste. Our split with Unus and the tunnel collapse would only distract Cassius until the excavations didn’t produce the right bodies. The clock was ticking.

  Holding my breath, I climbed out.

  Within seconds we were through the disinfection mist, and back inside the main laboratory. The lighting was pale blue, the same colour as my first visit with August, which meant it was still night-time. I exhaled. It was a small reprieve though. I doubted Cassius would let anyone sleep until he had confirmation of whether he was looking for bodies or escapees.

  For a moment we stood there, encircled by the bank of tall bleeping desks, level upon level of suspended tanks and cages stretching away as far as the eye could see.

  ‘This place always gave me the creeps,’ Aelia muttered.

  I rolled my eyes at her.

  You just escaped AWOL sabre-tooths, ravenous strix, a frenzied Cerberus and a near suffocating cave-in – and now this place gives you the creeps?

  She smiled, despite the trauma written into her dusty, exhausted face. We were such unlikely allies, and yet somehow fate had conspired to place us here. Facing Pantheon and its monsters, with no more than our wits and quick feet. And yet, I felt oddly empowered – as though finally I believed we could bring it all down, if we played the game and chose the right moment.

  ‘Dark to dark,’ I whispered, running my gaze around the impossibly high walls, looking for the telltale cameras.

  I’d been their victim too many times not to be aware of their existence now, and of Cassius’s particular skill for twisting the truth. There were two on this floor alone, and both were flashing a small red light. Seconds
later, each one sported a new leather boot, dangling right in the centre of their small screens. I smiled down at my naked Outsider feet, I hadn’t realized just how imprisoned the boots had made me feel.

  ‘Feral means free?’ Aelia quipped, her eyes gleaming.

  Impulsively, I threw an arm around her small shoulders and dragged her into a bear hug.

  ‘Ow, you still hug way too hard for a girl!’ she complained, detangling herself.

  ‘In Arafel, all hugs are equal,’ I returned pan-faced.

  ‘Yeah I know’ – she smirked – ‘eat when you’re hungry, sleep when you’re tired … Don’t you people get tired being so virtuous all the time?’

  I stared at her until we were both smothering laughter.

  ‘Guess there’s no point in doing things by halves,’ I managed when I could breathe, starting towards the waiting stairwell.

  ‘Hang on.’ She paused beside the circular desk and inspected it before reaching to flick a tiny switch.

  ‘Universal door release, better than struggling with retina codes,’ she reasoned.

  ‘Genius.’ I winked, as the hum of the security disappeared.

  We didn’t wait for an invitation.

  Together we flew up the floating stairwell, taking the rises two and three at a time, until we reached the first suspended cages.

  Aelia glanced back at me.

  ‘No one left behind bars,’ I said, glancing inside and remembering the little apricot monkey I’d freed months before.

  We both knew that once we started releasing there was no turning back. The chaos would likely bring the guard running, and Cassius would guess it was at our hand.

  ‘No one left behind bars,’ she agreed with a broad grin that said she was with me every step of the way.

  Come what may, nature finds a way.