Clash placed his hand on Naif’s shoulder. ‘Suki will show you where we eat. Grab some food and give me a few moments to get ready.’
He and Eve strode out.
Suki and Naif followed them to the mouth of the cave.
‘They’re making their own food here?’ Naif asked.
‘Since the Ripers divided, Brand has been patrolling the kafes. It’s not safe for members of the League to eat in there now.’
‘So how are they getting supplies?’
‘We steal them.’
‘We?’
‘I’m one of them now. After Danskoi, it had to be.’
Naif didn’t react to the news. After Danskoi, she wasn’t surprised. ‘But the Ripers must know you’re here, in this camp. Why don’t they just come in and . . .’
‘Take us?’
Naif nodded.
‘I think Brand likes us being in one place, where she can watch, but we have tunnels they don’t know about. We use them to sneak out and rob the kafes. And we still have friends among the young ones. Eve is revered and the Ripers can’t control that.’
‘It’s risky for those helping you, though,’ said Naif.
‘Yes, but Ixion’s changed. Can you feel it? There’s not the same order anymore. The other gangs have been fighting, and Goa . . .’ She shook her head. ‘Bad stuff is happening in that church.’
‘What about Lenoir?’
Suki gave her a narrow-eyed look. ‘I thought you would know that.’
‘I don’t,’ Naif said. ‘I cut our . . . connection while I was on Grave.’
‘He’s on the run from Brand. Moving every night or two from what we can tell. That’s keeping Brand busy as well.’
Suki stepped out into the night and turned sharply to the left. Naif followed and they walked single file along a narrow ledge. A short distance from the cave mouth, low in the granite wall, was a smaller opening – more like a tunnel. When they reached it, Suki stopped.
‘They’ll hunt you,’ she said. ‘One way or another they’ll take you. I won’t be able to stop them.’
Naif almost smiled. ‘I don’t need you to worry for me, Suki.’
‘And yet I must, it seems.’
There was no lightness in her tone. Her friend seemed so angry and bleak, Naif thought. What had the past weeks done to her? To them all? ‘Eve told me about Tanel, the Riper in the Grotto.’
Suki became very still. ‘She had no business speaking of that.’
‘I’m s-sorry. You haven’t mentioned Rollo,’ said Naif softly, changing the subject. ‘Where is he?’
She shrugged Naif’s arm away. ‘He comes and goes. He’s been back at the clubs, taking beads. Frossing his brains out.’
Naif couldn’t see her face properly but she sounded disgusted and disappointed.
‘You’re no longer friends?’
‘Ixion’s not a place for friends. They die or they leave. On Ixion you need allies.’
‘But some of them come back,’ said Naif. ‘Suki, there’s something you should –’
‘Rollo should have stayed here with the League,’ said Suki, cutting her off.
‘He’s probably scared. Like all of us.’
‘Eve and Clash aren’t scared,’ Suki retorted.
‘Then they should be.’
‘Fear is a waste.’ Suki turned and bent down to crawl inside the tunnel.
Like the main cave, it opened into a space wide enough to stand. Rough tables, stools and odd, cobbled-together cupboards furnished it.
‘We eat here in shifts. Not enough room for everyone at once. And sometimes not enough food,’ Suki told Naif as she straightened up and looked around.
Right now people sat at one candlelit table, leaning over a platter of fried starchies. She recognised Markes, Emilia and two others, Schel and the guard Brenny.
Markes’s leg was wrapped tight with a knotted bandage made from torn clothes. He had on a fresh shirt and pants and sipped from a mug while the others devoured the food. He looked exhausted.
Suki marched straight to the table, cutting across their conversation.
‘Brenny, grab your kit. We’re going to the Grotto. Schel, pack us some food. Starchies and some sugar-water.’ They all stared up at her.
‘Hello, Suki,’ said Markes.
Suki nodded. ‘Markes.’
‘This is Emilia,’ he said.
Suki glanced at the girl and her eyes narrowed. Naif knew that look. Her friend was making a quick judgement and it wasn’t favourable.
‘You should stay here. We’re going to meet Charlonge. Grotto’s dangerous and you’re in no shape to walk,’ Suki told him and then turned to Emilia. ‘You too. You look dead on your feet.’
Emilia didn’t argue with the decision but Markes glanced to Naif. ‘I should come,’ he said.
‘No,’ said Naif bluntly. ‘We have to hurry and you’ll slow us down.’
He stared at the table. She’d been too blunt. But there wasn’t time for argument.
Brenny got up and left, accompanied by Schel.
Suki turned to follow but then stopped and pulled a knife from her belt. Before Naif could speak, she’d darted into a hollow in the wall and dragged someone from the shadows.
Once she had him in the light, she froze.
‘Liam?’
The boy lifted his arm, uncurled a tentacle and gently took the knife from her hand. He blinked and uttered words in a language Naif had never heard.
Naif held her breath as Suki listened and stared at his deformity.
When he’d finished speaking, Suki began to tremble and she closed her eyes. Tears escaped from under her eyelids, trickling down her face and onto her tunic. They looked like blood against the worn leather.
Naif wanted to break the silence but this was not her moment to intrude.
‘Soueta?’ said Liam in a strangled voice. ‘Please.’
The girl took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She reached out to the boy she’d crossed blood with, and laid her wrist against his. A formal gesture.
After a moment, he unfurled his tentacle again and placed it in her hand. She lifted it to her face and held it against her cheek. Not a kiss but an intimacy that made Naif look away.
‘Suki! Naif!’ called Clash from the tunnel mouth. ‘We’re ready.’
Suki kept hold of Liam. ‘So are we.’
Clash led them swiftly and surely, shaving time off their trip with his knowledge of the Lesser Paths. Suki and Liam followed him and then Naif and Brenny came last. The Leaguers carried crude bows and arrows slung across their shoulders and knives in their belts. To see Suki in fighting garb both frightened Naif and gave her comfort. She sensed conflict coming as surely as she put one foot in front of the other on the rutted Ixion hillside. And the Ripers would prevail. Unless she could find another way.
As gently as she could, she probed her connection with Lenoir, allowing the throb that she’d come to know as his presence to return slowly. At first there was nothing but as she reached out to him with more assertion her body tingled.
You are home, little bat.
His reply was like a husky whisper in her ear, causing her to stumble.
This is not my home, Lenoir. It will never be.
You shut me out and yet you’ve returned.
I did not return for you.
Naif felt a wave of weariness and sadness from him.
For your brother and his friends then?
Yes.
Yet you know the dangers.
Yes.
She felt a caress this time, which she pictured as a smile. Not an expression of warmth but an acknowledgement that he had expected such loyalty from her, tinged, perhaps, with regret.
It was not my intention for your people to suffer, Naif.
Then release us all. Revoke the badges.
If I do that, my kind will die. And even if I could, Brand would oppose me.
She opposes you now and you defy her. How would it be different?
/>
I can still regain control. Return things to how they were.
Ixion will never be the same. I will not let it be!
She paused on the path and looked ahead. In the distance she thought she saw movement. Or did her eyes trick her? She glanced forward and back. No one else had noticed.
Perhaps, but I can still rule.
Not without Varonessa.
So astute, little bat. I’ve missed you.
Naif pictured his pale, beautiful face framed by silken hair. She remembered his lips on her skin, the exhilaration of his touch as she lay in his carriage craving more.
Then came the glimpse of the beast that lay beneath when passion had overwhelmed him; his face had distorted into something terrible.
Where is the uther queen, Lenoir?
He was silent for so long that only the throb of his presence reassured her he was still there.
I don’t know.
You lie to me!
Test our bond, little bat. You will know that I tell the truth.
His words came to her with such clarity and honesty that they carried a scent: moonflower perfume, pure and gleaming.
But you are the one who took their queen. You forced them to serve you.
I did what I had to in order to survive.
Are you excusing yourself?
I have no need for pardons. It is what it is. Survive or die. I’m not paralysed by the web of guilt and confusion that besets your kind. The choice was simple.
My kind?
Humans.
What are you then?
Come to me and I will explain.
Naif tasted his desire for her as an explosion of sweetness in her mouth. First, tell me where the uther queen is.
I cannot. Brand has since moved her from the Dominion. Even Varonessa is not privy to where.
You know Brand. You must be able to guess.
Perhaps.
Will you help me?
Only if you come to me. Only . . . if you stay with me. Let me see you, N-a-i-f . . .
He said her name so slowly and with so much longing that it tugged at her stomach and tingled her skin.
But her dread countered his seduction, her mind at war with the sensations in her body. Lenoir was a beast, violent and ruthless. And yet only with him did she feel like . . . this.
‘Naif ?’ Suki nudged her. ‘What is it?’
Naif glanced around, confused for a moment. She’d stopped at the apex of the long, rocky stairway that led to the Grotto. Liam, Clash and Brenny were already halfway down.
‘I . . . I was remembering before . . . when we were here. So much has changed since then.’
‘No,’ said Suki, glancing down towards Liam. ‘We have changed.’
Naif looked at her friend’s stern expression in the light of the lantern she held. ‘Liam helped us on Grave. Without him we would have been lost,’ she said.
‘Of course. Liam is from Stra’Ha. He is strong and practical,’ said Suki.
‘Why did you cross your wrists like that in the cave?’
‘We undid our blood vow.’
‘I don’t understand. Does he . . . do the . . . tentacles repulse you?’
‘You think I am so shallow?’ Suki said fiercely, her head jerking back.
‘No. I mean . . . No. But then why?’
‘It’s our law. We don’t pledge to inferior males. It’s not permitted. Otherwise our gene pool would weaken.’
‘You mean that because of what the Ripers did, you can no longer be . . . together?’ Naif asked. ‘But we’re not on Stra’Ha. Does it matter anymore?’
‘To Liam, yes. He is shamed.’
‘Can’t you change his mind?’
‘Not on this, Naif. But someone will pay.’ She pumped her fist into her hand and then turned and began to descend with quick, determined steps.
Naif followed more slowly, taking care how she placed her feet. Suki meant that Lenoir would pay. Just thinking his name brought a new shiver and a pulsing of their bond.
Naif ?
Why did you send Liam and the others to Grave?
Liam?
Anger surged through Naif. Don’t you even know their names? The ones who you failed to withdraw properly – the humans who only half-changed.
Aaaah . . . the khalbas.
Why did you send them to Grave?
His sigh whispered around her in the dark. It is the way of our transformation that it is not always perfect. Just as some of your young die as babes at birth or are disfigured or blighted by wrongness.
If they are we don’t throw them away. We care for them. And Liam did not choose your transformation.
Your babes do not choose to be born. It is simply how your species survives.
His logic frustrated her. What did you want them to do for you in Grave? How could you leave them to live in drains?
Your Elders are untrustworthy.
On that, at least, they agreed. And so you used them as spies.
Yes. I would visit Grave on the new moon, and they’d tell me what they’d seen.
What you did was cruel!
They’re alive. If I had not intervened, they’d be dead. Brand does not see any use for khalbas.
There was no hint of guilt or remorse in him and for the first time Naif began to really understand the kind of creature he was. For Lenoir, choices that she would find difficult were simple. Perhaps that explained his fascination with her reactions; why he seemed so keen to study her emotions and the change that Enlightenment had brought to her.
To Lenoir, she spoke another language in every thought, deed and movement.
Why did you give us such freedom here? Why not just steal us from our homes and drain our lives away? The uthers, the clothes, the parties – why have you gone to such trouble?
Silence.
Lenoir. Tell me! Please.
My answer will anger you.
All your answers anger me.
A hint of amusement. Indeed.
You like to study my emotions. Then tell me and feel my response.
Their bond quivered as if she’d offered him a kiss. Or more.
You bargain well, little one. But you must let me closer if you wish for answers. Let me in.
Naif hesitated, knowing that surrender meant their bond would intensify. But she had promised Eve. Promised Clash.
Very well.
She took a breath and relaxed all the barriers in her mind.
Naif – Within an instant of thinking her name, he possessed her. Her back arched with the sensation and she lost feeling in her legs, causing her to stumble. She sat down abruptly. His pleasure engulfed her, as if his tongue licked at every dark corner of her being.
Tell me, Lenoir.
He sighed and the devouring pleasure receded a little.
The distilling process works best when the young ones’ body chemistry is a certain composition. We use the beads and pods to help achieve that state.
You alter our bodies to make us suit you?
Yes. The badges you wear tell us when you are ready. Then you are withdrawn. Charlonge took very few beads or pods. Her chemistry was never quite right.
That’s why she has lasted so long without being taken?
Yes. You would have been the same. You stopped using them almost immediately. But I had your badge revoked.
It was you?
Yes.
Naif felt sick to her stomach. And yet, he’d saved her by revoking her badge. Her emotions twisted like a snake inside her; anger and gratitude railed against each other.
‘Char’s here!’ Suki’s voice jarred her from her turmoil. She was ahead of Naif, standing at the gate, peering through into the amphitheatre below.
‘Where are Liam and Clash?’ asked Naif. ‘And Brenny?’
‘They’re here. Come on,’ replied Suki, beckoning impatiently. When Naif reached her, she pulled her through the heavy wooden gate and pushed it shut behind them.
Below them, the Grotto was as
Naif remembered it; stepped rows chiselled into the rock and swathed in moonflowers. She let her gaze sweep across the amphitheatre looking for the secret exit they’d taken after the meeting of the gangs. It was overgrown with creeper again; hidden from those who didn’t know it existed. Somehow, seeing the profusion of blooms disguising the tunnel was reassuring. There was still another way out.
‘Look!’ Suki pointed down to the front rows close to the central stone dais.
Last time she’d seen it, Eve, Clash, Kero, and the other gang leaders had stood there, calling their people to vote. What had happened to the other gangs since she’d left? Did Kero still lead the White Wings?
Now the dais was empty, except for two figures crouching together at one edge: Char and Jarrold.
Relief slowed Naif for a moment. She watched Clash, Brenny and Liam, already halfway down and moving quickly.
‘Let’s catch up,’ she said. She went to follow them but Suki stopped her.
The Stra’Ha girl became very still, except for her eyes, which flicked in all directions. ‘We should wait here. Be their lookout.’ She shifted away from the gate behind the thick spray of creeper.
‘Suki?’
‘Come, Naif. Quick.’
Naif stood, undecided. Her instinct told her to go down to the others. But Suki knew about stealth and fighting. Naif trusted her friend so she hurried into the hiding place next to her. ‘What should we look for?’
Suki shrugged. Parting the curtain of creeper, she peered out. ‘A rogue, most likely. Those who went wild and didn’t stay with Brand or Lenoir or Varonessa are hungry.’
‘For what?’
Suki turned her head, so that their faces almost touched. Her breath was warm on Naif’s cheek. ‘Us.’
‘B-but –’
‘Have you ever seen Lenoir eat?’
Naif scanned her memories and found no answer to Suki’s question.
‘I think that they don’t just use us to transform from Night Creature to Riper but they eat us as well,’ said Suki.
Naif’s mind rejected the notion but her body reacted with shock. She swayed as if she might faint but Suki held her fast.
‘You have proof?’
The girl tapped her temple. ‘I know.’
With Lenoir’s presence so strong in her, Naif found it was impossible to keep her reaction from him.
Naif ? What’s wrong?
Shine Light Page 5
