by Jon Robinson
61
‘Thank God that humiliation is over,’ said Julian.
‘I hope you’re proud,’ said the furious red-faced director, pushing towards them. ‘You’ve reduced me, the other performers and this opera house to a laughing stock.’
‘Now if you’re quite finished …’ Julian said coolly and brushed past him, gesturing for the other two to follow.
‘I wasn’t that bad, was I, sir?’ said a concerned Elsa.
The director stooped, bringing himself level with her eyes. ‘You,’ he said quietly, ‘were the worst little girl I have seen in my life. And if you ever manage to sing a single note in tune, it will be nothing short of a miracle.’
‘Oi, leave her alone,’ said Ryan. ‘Come on, Elsa.’ He pulled her towards him and rubbed her hair protectively.
Elsa shrugged. ‘Never liked singing anyway.’
Elsa, Julian and Ryan left the stage and found their clothes in a pile at the side.
‘So what do we do now? We’ve missed our opportunity,’ said Elsa.
‘There’ll be another one,’ Julian said. He peered up the staircase at the ornate ballroom doors, where two attendants were hovering with trays of drinks.
‘They’re all in there,’ said Julian. ‘We should hold on until those waiters have passed.’
‘I’m sick of waiting,’ Ryan grumbled. ‘I’m going in to find them …’
Inside the ballroom a string quartet exploded into a frantic overture. With her eyes on Stephen, Pyra slipped through the guests to the corner of the room.
Stephen must leave the room alone, she said under her breath, clarifying her intent while rolling the domino between her fingers. She closed her eyes and felt a crackling, fizzing sensation in the back of her mind.
At that moment a woman standing beside Stephen felt a twinge in her calf muscle, the hint of a cramp, and stepped back, nudging an older lady who was spraying perfume on her wrists. Diverted from its course, a tiny, almost insignificant cloud of perfume floated into the nostril of a tall man who was adjusting his eye mask. After a couple of moments, the man drew his head back and sneezed. Stephen, who was dancing with an elderly female opera singer, flinched to avoid the sneeze and knocked into a waiter.
The waiter’s wine glass jumped in his hands, releasing a crimson splash on to Stephen’s immaculate white shirt.
‘Oh, Mr Nover,’ he said, ‘I’m so sorry, I –’
‘An accident,’ Stephen said, trying not to lose his temper from behind his snarling fox mask. He looked at his partner and presented a fake smile. ‘Excuse me while I clean this up.’
With that, he moved gently through the crowds to the doors.
From the staircase outside the ballroom Luthan watched as Stephen went into the toilets. He made sure no one was watching and removed the ibis from inside his tuxedo.
Luthan waited for a few more moments, then carefully pushed the door open and peered inside, where Stephen was adjusting the fox mask in the bathroom mirror.
‘Got you,’ Luthan snarled. ‘And don’t even try to move.’
Stephen turned slowly. The fox mask was sinister, grinning.
‘The Pledge is finished, Stephen,’ he said. ‘It all ends here.’
Stephen raised his palms in mock defeat. ‘You’re making a –’
Luthan fired and Stephen’s body slammed back against the sink and crumpled. He sped over and hoisted the unconscious young man over his shoulder.
‘Luthan!’ Pyra called into the toilets. ‘Is it done?’
‘It’s done. Am I OK to bring him out?’
Pyra watched as two suited men marched past, following the corridor around. ‘Now,’ she hissed.
Luthan cautiously backed out through the door with a masked Stephen slumped limply over his shoulder. ‘Here,’ he said, and threw the ibis at her.
Pyra caught it with both hands. She ran to the ballroom doors and picked up one of the brass rope holders. She wedged it across the handles, sealing in the guests and members of staff.
She pulled off her heels and jogged down the carpeted stairs. Standing at the bottom with his back to her was a security guard. She aimed the ibis at the back of his head and fired.
‘You’re clear,’ she said, beckoning to Luthan. ‘Come on.’
She hopped over the unconscious man, only to be met with another security guard, who had just appeared from round the corner.
‘Stop!’ he called out, looking at the weapon in her hands as he reached for the radio on his belt. Pyra squeezed the trigger again and the man was thrown back into the wall.
She pulled open the double doors at the front of the opera house and squinted through the hazy rain for their getaway car. Pyra jumped up, waving. Anton caught sight of her and turned on the engine.
Luthan paused midway down the marble steps to hitch the slipping Stephen further up on to his shoulder and made his way to the car. The wind was fierce, lashing and whistling in his ears. Steam flowed from Luthan’s mouth with the exertion.
Pyra, shoeless, was hobbling across the icy, rain-slick stone pavement. She soon reached the car and opened the back door.
Luthan dumped Stephen inside and gestured for her to hand him the ibis. ‘I’ll go with Anton,’ he panted, checking over his shoulders. ‘Someone needs to make sure this one doesn’t wake up.’
‘I’ll run back and get the kids,’ Pyra replied. ‘They’re still inside.’ She turned and sped back up the freezing steps to the entrance.
‘This is very odd, I can’t seem to open the doors,’ said one of the masked guests as they rattled the brass handles of the ballroom doors. ‘We’re locked in!’
Jes watched the commotion. ‘I guess that means the Guild have got Stephen,’ she said to Elsa. She tore off her mask. ‘Now it’s our turn. Help me get the others. It’s time we told everyone the truth.’
Elsa spun around, looking for everyone. She spotted Ryan standing by the wall. ‘Ryan!’ she cried, waving to him. Harlan noticed and threw his mask to the floor and joined the group. The last to see was Julian, who removed his ibis from inside his trouser leg and marched towards them.
A small crowd of guests were beginning to gather at the locked doors. The five teenagers grabbed one of the drinks tables and tipped it over. The champagne glasses and bottles rolled back and clattered against the floor with a crash. The whole room turned to see where the commotion was coming from.
Jes hopped on to the emptied table, followed by Harlan and Elsa. Ryan took his ibis back from Jes and stood beside Julian, with the weapons in their hands.
‘We have an announcement!’ Jes called, trying to make herself heard amid the confusion. ‘Listen to us!’
A small number of people stopped and watched, while others at the front of the crowd continued to struggle to free themselves with increasing frustration. Harlan spotted a security guard speaking into his mouthpiece.
‘Please stop!’ Jes yelled louder until her throat ached. ‘We have something important to say … We need you to listen!’
‘We were taken from our homes! We were kidnapped!’ Elsa shouted. A few more of the pack stopped what they were doing.
‘It was the Pledge! The richest people in the country. They did it! All of you have to help us!’
‘I remember seeing you on stage during the performance,’ said a man at the front of the group, pointing to Elsa. He moved his hand towards Ryan. ‘And you! Is this some sort of joke?’
‘We’re telling the truth, I swear,’ said Ryan. ‘You’ve got no idea what we’ve been through!’
The crowd laughed politely and began talking among themselves until the room was once again filled with noise.
‘This is very funny!’ Elsa heard a woman guffaw. ‘It must be part of the show …’
‘Ridiculous, if you ask me,’ said another, pushing his way back to the ballroom doors to investigate the blockage.
‘This is no good; they don’t believe us!’ Elsa said, frantically tugging Jes’s arm.
Jul
ian raised his ibis and fired at the chandelier. The blast whomped through the air and the chandelier creaked, swaying from side to side. The guests gasped and the whole room fell into silence.
‘We came here to expose some very powerful people who are right here in this room,’ Julian said, holding the ibis aloft. ‘If you don’t listen to us, our fate and the fate of all the others will be on your consciences!’
‘Nonsense,’ someone snorted. Jes, Elsa and Harlan watched the guests laughing to each other and begin to turn back to their conversations.
‘It didn’t work,’ said Jes. ‘Now we just look like fools! Is anyone ever going to believe us?’ She put her arm round Elsa, who looked like she might be about to cry.
62
For several minutes Alyn had been searching unsuccessfully for James Felix. Shielding his eyes with his hand, he peered down the alleyway at the side of the opera house, half expecting to see the devastated billionaire slumped against the wall.
If something happens to him, he won’t be able to keep his promise, Alyn thought, as the wind blew the lashing rain across him, flapping his tuxedo. His friends would still be in danger, the other children back at the prison wouldn’t be released, and Stephen, the most dangerous one of them all, would be in control.
He brushed his hair out of his eyes and jogged back inside the opera house. A short way ahead of him he saw a girl in a black dress and no shoes sprinting up the stairs. She checked both ways, ran to the ballroom doors and removed the brass post that was holding them shut.
Pyra? he thought. He called out her name, but the girl was already engulfed by a mass of sequined dresses and tuxedos. Alyn fought through the crowd and entered the ballroom, where the majority of the guests were still standing. In the corner the musicians looked at one another, shrugged and began an enthusiastic rendition of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro overture.
‘Pyra!’ he yelled, pulling off his mask and throwing it to the floor. ‘What’s going on? What are you doing here?’
Pyra struggled to recognize him for a moment, then said, ‘We’re leaving, Alyn.’ She waved for him to follow. ‘Your friends are all here – Harlan, Ryan, Elsa, Jes –’
‘J-Jes?’ he stammered. ‘Jes is here?’ She isn’t dead … Felix lied to me!
After their unsuccessful attempt to convince the guests of their imprisonment, the gang broke away to the back of the room to discuss what to do next. Jes scanned the crowd for the Pledge and her eyes fell on a familiar face pushing through the crowd.
‘Alyn?’ Jes said. ‘He’s here!’ She began to run towards him, but Elsa got in her way.
‘Elsa, what are you doing, get off me –’
‘Stop, Jes,’ Elsa said, grabbing her. ‘He’s on Felix’s side!’
‘Felix’s side? No way. You’re crazy, Elsa.’ Jes tried to pull her off. ‘Get away –’
‘She’s right,’ Harlan said, intervening. ‘You can’t trust him, Jes. Don’t do it.’
‘I saw him with Felix and Blythe days ago!’ Elsa insisted. ‘I swear to you, Jes, I swear it … he’s with them! You have to believe me. He’s with the Pledge!’
Blythe had been watching the group’s attempted announcement with amusement. He approached them with a sickening smile on his ruddy face, clapping slowly. ‘Well, well, you naughty little rogues, fancy seeing you here,’ he said, looking at each of them in turn. ‘I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced …’
Elsa jumped, and darted behind Ryan.
‘Our men have been looking everywhere for you,’ he said as he removed his phone from his pocket and began to dial a number. Ryan walked towards him and spat in his face.
Blythe wiped the tendril of spit away from his moustache with his sleeve. ‘Charming,’ he said.
‘You’re finished, Blythe,’ Harlan said. ‘You’ve got no idea what we can do.’
‘Oh, it doesn’t look like you can do much to me. You’re nothing more than fodder. A tool. There are plenty more like you. Each of you is completely expendable.’
Ryan readied a second pool of saliva.
‘Save your spit, boy,’ Blythe chuckled, shaking his head, and marched away with his phone to his ear.
‘The Guild has got Stephen!’ Harlan shouted across to him. ‘The project is over. You and the rest of the Pledge are finished.’
Blythe gave the group a lingering look of contempt and pushed through the crowd.
‘If he’s calling for help, we’d better find a way out of here,’ said Jes, panicked.
‘Get out of the way!’ Alyn snapped at the guests, trying to fight his way through to Jes. He turned and then dizziness took him by surprise. He fell, landing on his knees. What’s happening to me? He gripped his head, trying to focus his eyes.
He looked up and saw Pyra shouting at his friends. ‘Come on, guys, we’ve got to get going, move it!’
Still unable to stand, Alyn clambered on his hands and knees towards the wall. He glanced up to see Pyra being shoved hard by someone, knocking her to the floor.
Behind her was a gang of men, muscular and clad in black. Each of them was wielding an ibis.
‘Where are they?’ yelled the man at the front of the pack.
‘Over there,’ Blythe snarled, pointing the teenagers out.
The men stormed inside the ballroom and closed the doors behind them. One stood guard, threatening the ibis at anyone who dared approach.
‘We’re trapped!’ Elsa said, backing away.
‘What in blazes is going on?’ said an astonished man in the crowd. ‘Is this a robbery?’
‘It’s all right,’ said one of the men. ‘You won’t remember a thing …’
They can’t get us if they can’t see us, thought Julian, who had been watching everything from his position by the wall. He grabbed a fire extinguisher, removed the nozzle and sprayed, turning back and forth until the room and guests were half covered in a sea of foam. The panicked guests began rushing back and forth.
A gang member casually walked up to Julian, swatted the extinguisher from his hands and pointed his ibis at him. Julian took the shot in his chest and collapsed against the wall unconscious.
‘No!’ yelled Elsa.
Ryan charged at one of the men, tackling him to the ground and throwing punches wildly. ‘I’ll kill you!’ he cried, furious and frantic. ‘I swear I’ll –’
An ibis blast silenced him. He crumpled and lay covered by foam.
Elsa threw her arms round Jes. ‘I’m scared,’ she whimpered. ‘I don’t want to go back to that place, I don’t!’
‘We’re not going back there,’ Jes said. ‘We’re gonna need fire. Harlan, do you think you can make it happen?’
‘I’ll try,’ he said, and shut his eyes, ducking behind a table for cover.
Jes put on the best smile she could manage for a frightened Elsa and began hurling the bottles of spirits from the nearest table on to the floor. The bottles smashed on the ground and liquid bubbled and spread across the ballroom.
‘Quickly, Harlan!’ Jes said, only just avoiding an ibis blast.
Deep in concentration, Harlan felt the now-familiar light-headed sensation that meant the Ability was beginning to work. Just seconds later a stray ibis shot knocked a lit candle from a wall-mounted bracket. The candle held its flame and rolled towards the spilled champagne.
The floor erupted with a darting fire that followed the path of the fluid and rippled and writhed until great sections of the ballroom were burning.
The guests ran from the flames, shoving and screaming, and hammering at the doors in a great surge, knocking the man who was guarding them to the ground.
The leader of the gang raised his ibis at Jes. It was a direct hit, and Jes flew back and landed just centimetres from the path of fire.
Elsa scurried to the other side of the room, barely missing the ibis blasts. She watched as one of the thugs aimed his weapon at her, and shut her eyes. If it’s ever going to work, now would be a good time, she thought, desperately.
/> ‘Blue elephant, blue elephant.’ She whispered her locus over and over again, trying to help herself concentrate.
A single pearl from a broken necklace rolled in front of the approaching man’s path. He placed his boot on the floor and skidded until his legs flew out from under him. Only as he hit the floor with a thump did Elsa open her eyes. It had worked!
Pyra, who was crawling on all fours between the foam and the flames, jumped on the back of one of the masked men, her forearms wrapped round his throat in a chokehold. She tightened her grip and eventually the man fell unconscious against a table, sending a tray of glasses to the floor with a tremendous clatter.
Pyra snatched his ibis from the floor and fired wildly, not bothering to aim at any of the shapes in the smoke.
Harlan raced over to Jes and pulled her clear of the fire. Then he ran towards Ryan and dragged him by his legs over to Jes. ‘Someone make sure Julian’s –’ he cried, but before he could finish an ibis threw him off his feet. He rolled back over the table and fell silent.
There’s no one left but me, Elsa panicked, realizing she was all alone in a room full of terrified guests and masked men, who were there with the sole intention of capturing her. She sprinted to the back of the room and hid behind a table.
Alyn, watching this, grabbed the wall to hold himself steady. He looked up at the men, who were standing in a circle in the centre of the floor, surrounded by snaking flame.
They’re going to take them back to the prison, he thought, watching the chaos unfold around him. I … I think I can do it. I can save them …
Alyn shut his eyes and visualized the masked men fallen, lifeless and still. Then, in his mind’s eye, he saw the image dissolving, turning into something. A shape. A butterfly, with burning wings.
‘I can save them,’ he repeated aloud.
He brought himself upright slowly. The imaginary butterfly he’d conjured as a locus ascended towards the top of the enormous brass chandelier, the centrepiece of the ballroom. There, among the wires and cords, the old, faulty electrics caught the flame from the butterfly’s wing and exploded. The plaster began to crack and wither in the heat and the chandelier creaked and slipped a centimetre.
