by H. R. Moore
‘That would be a sight I wouldn’t mind seeing,’ Bas smirked, ‘apart from the bit where there are food shortages. Not sure that would suit me.’
‘Who knows, maybe the new Descendants will see sense,’ but both Alistair and Bas doubted it. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t agree with Bas, rather that they wouldn’t want to disagree with Austin. Alistair smiled, ‘but before anything else, the Councillors need to organise a Chase,’ he chuckled, ‘it was news to everyone in that room that the Chase will take place before the funeral. You should have seen James’ face! I don’t think he will be getting much sleep over the next few days. They’ll start with an announcement early tomorrow I should think, so make sure you’re watching the energy. Anyway, enough of all that, shall we pop in on Anita and Cordelia on the way past?’ Alistair monitored his son’s reaction closely as he mentioned Anita’s name.
‘Yep sure, why not,’ Bas responded flatly. Alistair didn’t know, but could guess what was wrong. He didn’t probe directly.
‘Do you think the Chase and ball will have any meaningful effect on the energy?’ Alistair asked instead, pretending that it was an unconnected, casual comment.
‘You think I can’t see right through you?’ Bas replied resentfully. ‘You’re so obvious it’s painful. No I’m not going to the ball with Anita. She isn’t going to the ball, says it’s not her thing. And no, I don’t want to go with some desperate, vacuous Councillor’s daughter, which is what you are about to suggest, thank you very much.’
‘Well you’ve got to take somebody and Missy is very nice, not vacuous at all.’
‘Firstly, what kind of a bloody name is Missy, and secondly that you focused on the fact that she isn’t vacuous means that she is desperate, which means that she probably looks like the back end of a bus.’
‘Very well. Have it your way,’ Alistair said, trying to hide his exasperation as they reached Anita’s house, ‘but you’ve got to take somebody.’
‘Oh sod off would you,’ said Bas angrily, but Alistair smiled inwardly, knowing there was no real fire behind his words.
*****
Cordelia’s house was in fact a small and ramshackle cottage covered in white climbing roses. It was a perfect chocolate box cottage from the outside, with a beautifully maintained garden, four pretty little windows and a sweet winding path to the slightly run down looking front door. As usual, Bas and Alistair veered off the path and made their way round the side of the cottage to the back door, which was wide open. They could hear voices inside, so knocked half-heartedly as they walked straight in with an upbeat ‘hello?’
‘Hey,’ came Anita’s happy response as she recognised the voices and came to greet them both with a brief hug. Anita knew Alistair well; he was a longstanding friend of Cordelia’s, which is why she and Bas had met in the first place. He had given her the job at the Observatory and she saw him a lot; he often popped in to see how the research was going and to offer his opinion on any fluctuations.
Cordelia had also heard who it was and shouted, ‘tea?’ from the sitting room. Without waiting for an answer, she put the kettle on top of the wood burning stove that was roaring in the hearth. It was the end of Autumn, still hot outside, yet Cordelia always liked to have the fire burning, she said it made her feel safe and it gave the house a cosy feel. Alistair plonked himself down into a well-worn armchair and Bas dropped onto a sofa that had seen better days, before they accepted steaming cups of tea and a piece of homemade chocolate and beetroot cake from Cordelia.
Anita looked around as she sat down next to Bas, curling her feet up under her, thinking how different Cordelia’s house was to Alistair’s. Cordelia’s was small, dark, cosy, well-worn and a total jumbled mess of stuff, Alistair’s was light and airy like the Observatory. Alistair had filled his house with antique energy meters and devices, everything with its own place and furniture old and comfortable, yet smart. It was a curious mix of antique and modern and Anita, who normally felt poised and in control, always had the feeling that she was on the edge of breaking something priceless when she was there. They seemed quite at home here though, she thought, helping herself and Bas to their second pieces of cake.
As Anita listened to Alistair and Cordelia’s meandering conversation, she suddenly realised she had no idea how they had become such good friends. Cordelia must be about 20 years older than Alistair and there was no obvious reason for their friendship. In fact, Anita couldn’t think why she hadn’t asked them how they had met before. ‘How did you two meet?’ Anita blurted out abruptly.
Cordelia and Alistair turned round and looked at her in surprise, Cordelia giving her a sad, wistful look and neither immediately responding. ‘Oh I don’t know,’ Cordelia eventually ventured, her voice delicate and decisive, it contained a subdued, yet sharp edge of warning that made people think twice before disagreeing with her, ‘it was so long ago I can’t think exactly how we met now.’ And with that Alistair changed the conversation to focus on how Anita and Bas had hated each other when they had first met, when Anita had come to live with Cordelia at the grand age of three. He started recounting embarrassing stories of how, through Bas’ unwavering determination, they had finally become friends.
At last the torture was over and Alistair and Bas headed for home, but Anita couldn’t help thinking about the look that her grandmother had given her and about how Cordelia and Alistair had met. She decided she would do some digging and drop it in to conversation again at some point soon.
Cordelia came back from showing them out and as she sat back down, an intriguing smile meandered across her face. ‘So, I hear rumours that somebody wants to take you to the ball.’
What? A look of panic shot across Anita’s face, a rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins. How could she possibly know? How did anyone know? She looked questioningly at Thorn before inwardly chastising herself for being totally ridiculous. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Anita said too quickly, trying to brush the comment aside.
‘Well the whole of Empire seems to be talking about it.’
‘Talking about what?’ Anita questioned, confused. Had Marcus told everyone?
‘Whether you’ll say yes obviously,’ Cordelia laughed back shaking her head, bewildered.
‘I haven’t decided yet,’ she blurted back, barely able to form a response.
‘Well, that’s a turn up for the books, Bas must be thrilled.’
‘Huh? What do you mean?’
‘That you didn’t say no outright,’ said Cordelia, looking at Anita like she might have just hit her head.
‘Oh,’ Anita finally twigged what her grandmother was on about. ‘Bas and I are just friends, and will only ever just be friends. I don’t want to give him the wrong impression.’
‘I see,’ Cordelia replied, frowning in puzzlement. ‘In which case, who were you talking about?!’
Cordelia was really interested now, but Anita was furious at herself and got up to leave, ‘I’m going for a swim, see you later,’ she said, throwing the words back over her shoulder as she hurried away, leaving Cordelia staring bemused after her. Now that was interesting, Cordelia thought to herself.
CHAPTER 5
Two days later, Anita made her way to the river bank opposite The Island, to where the congregation of Chase contestants had gathered. She spotted Bas and made her way towards him, hoping he wasn’t still in a bad mood. They had announced the Chase yesterday, the day after Bas had presented to the Grand Council, however this had caused practically no shift in the energy and he had been in a foul mood as a result.
‘Hey,’ said Anita lightly.
‘Hi,’ Bas responded, visibly perking up at the sight of her. ‘Ready?’
‘I was born ready,’ she said cockily, but today she was a bit nervous, not that she would ever admit that to anyone. She had never before competed against the Descendants and she didn’t want to think how she would react if bitch-face Gwyn beat her. For the sake of the Gods, be nice, thought Anita to herself, alth
ough it was pretty half-hearted given how much Anita wanted to beat her.
A Councillor appeared and ushered the contestants away from the rapidly growing crowd towards the top of the nearest hill. When they reached the summit they found the Descendants were already there, cloaks on, looking regal, all standing in a line behind three boxes, Austin in the middle. Austin beckoned to James (the Councillor who’d had to hastily organise the Chase), who brought him an energy speaker so he could project his voice to both the contestants in front of him and to the crowds below.
Austin reminded Anita strongly of Marcus, but with a few notable differences. He was older, grey hairs rippling through his dark locks, his face more tanned, with lines both from general age and too much time spent out in the sun. He was a little broader, a lot fuller, taking far less exercise than he used to, and had not a hint of Marcus’ fun-loving disposition, radiating instead a menacing authority, enhanced by cold eyes that confirmed her suspicions; he was just plain mean.
‘Descendants, Councillors, contestants, children of the Temples of the Mind, Body and Spirit, we are here today to celebrate the beginning of an historic and momentous occasion, the Crowning of Alexander, son of Anthony, and Peter, son of Christiana. As is customary, according to our traditions, those Descendants not currently in power will compete with any and all challengers who put themselves forward to become the Chase Champion. The Chase Champion will also open the dancing as guest of honour at the ball. I am thrilled to see such a turnout to compete here today,’ he paused as he surveyed the contestants in front of him, ‘and I do hope we have a competitive and fair Chase.’ Austin eyed Bas suspiciously, obviously sizing up Marcus’ competition. It’s not him you need to worry about, thought Anita, smiling to herself. ‘Contestants, please take your positions.’ With these words, Alexander, Marcus, Gwyneth and Peter all took off their cloaks with a theatrical flourish and handed them to a waiting Councillor. Marcus really is pretty hot, Anita thought as he handed over his cloak. Focus Anita, focus, she said to herself and forced herself not to look in his direction until this was over, she would need her wits about her if she were to win today, she suspected the ‘fair’ part of Austin’s speech would almost certainly be disregarded.
The contestants lined up behind the Descendants, who were now in front of the boxes facing down the hill towards the crowd below. The boxes contained homing pigeons, each with its home in a different location. Austin would pick one box at random so that in theory nobody would know which way the pigeon would fly, release it and the contestants would chase it to its home. Here, the winner would claim their prize, which was normally just the glory of winning, but today included the privilege of being guest of honour at the ball. Homing pigeons were used as it was easy to track their energy. Each contestant would be given an energy meter that they would have to lock on to the pigeon’s energy as soon as it was let out, the idea being that they could then use the meter to track the pigeon. Often contestants had to drop out at this point, if they couldn’t lock on quickly enough, they were left with nothing to follow, however Anita found this easy, she suspected this had something to do with being a reader. I must watch Alexander, Anita thought, he’ll no doubt be off to a flying start too. The other problem contestants often ran into was blindly following their energy reader, instead of thinking also about the best route to take. This had ended badly for many contestants who had ended up at the top of a vertical incline with no easy way down, or swimming across a river when there was a bridge fifty meters downstream. At least she was on home turf; that should be an advantage.
James was moving around handing out energy meters and Anita took her small golden box as it was handed to her. Here we go, she thought, as the meter sprang to life in her hand and she took her place behind the Descendants at the brow of the hill.
‘In the interest of fairness, I shall choose a contestant to pick the pigeon you will chase,’ Austin said and motioned to a girl standing beside Bas to step forward. ‘Which box shall it be?’ he asked.
The girl looked a little dazed at having been picked, but pointed at the left hand box saying, ‘that one,’ in a small voice, before stepping back into line with the other contestants.
‘Splendid,’ proclaimed Austin. ‘Contestants, please ready yourselves,’ he said reaching forward and unhooking the latch on the box. ‘I declare this Chase…open,’ he bellowed as he flung the lid open and a pigeon launched itself into the sky.
Anita watched the pigeon in what seemed like slow motion as it paused for a split second in mid-air. She used this opportunity to point her energy meter at the bird and lock on to its energy before hurtling down the hill with the rest of the contestants after the pigeon. About half way down she felt someone shove her forcefully sideways. She stumbled and almost fell as she saw Gwyn whip past her. Bitch, thought Anita. Now she felt justified in hating her. Two can play at that game, she thought as she launched herself off a ledge at the bottom of the hill. She felt like she was flying, not missing a beat she landed, completed a forward roll and picked up her pace again. The stunt gave her a bit of a lead as most other contestants, including Gwyn, she noticed smugly, were taking the path all the way to the bottom and were stuck in single file as the path narrowed. Anita knew that Bas would follow her though, and the other Descendants had been behind her, so who knew what they had done. She pelted at full speed across the rickety bridge over the river into the dense woodland the other side. Anita could feel someone coming up behind her. She knew with energy that strong that it would be one of the Descendants, she just didn’t know which one and it would waste time and energy, not to mention require risking running into a tree, if she turned to take a look.
She soon got an answer. As she landed her vault of the fence at the far side of the woods, she saw Alexander’s delicious form recover from his own vault and race away. Anita picked up her pace to match Alexander’s, not quite believing how fast he was for a Spirit. They flew across the open field, easily jumping the stream running through its middle and leapt at the steep incline the far side. Anita felt totally exhilarated. This was the first time she had ever been truly challenged in a race and that spurred her on to new depths of determination.
They reached the summit of the hill and picked their way down the other side back to the river. ‘You could at least pretend to use your energy meter,’ Alexander jibed as they went. ‘I’ve already warned you once.’
‘You seem to have a callous disregard for your own safety, whilst being particularly precious about mine,’ she shot back. ‘Any specific reason for that?’
‘I’m the Spirit Descendant; people would mock me if I couldn’t read energy. You on the other hand are a Body, with as it turns out, exceptional Body skills, as well as significant Spirit abilities. You are not what you might call normal and this is a dangerous climate in which to stick out.’
‘Well you seem to have remarkable Body skills for a Spirit and seem to be fine, so I’ll take my chances,’ retorted Anita as they reached the river and started jumping from rock to rock to cross it. The next group of challengers, including Gwyn, Bas and Marcus had reached the summit behind them and Anita made a show of holding up her energy meter as she crossed the river and pointing in the direction that the pigeon had flown. ‘Happy now?’ Anita called back over her shoulder as she launched into a sprint along the river bank the other side. Alexander pelted after her a bit pissed off now. He had recently been getting used to people doing whatever he said and Anita’s disobedience was infuriating.
They carried on at full speed for an hour going up hills, down the other side, across the river, over fields, through woods, until at the summit of a small hill Anita’s energy meter started playing up. It was indicating that she should head east, when she had seen the pigeon (and could feel its energy) heading north. ‘That’s weird,’ said Anita as they ran down the slope the other side, ‘my energy meter is telling me to go east. What does yours say?’
‘It says to head north,’ said Alexander showing Anita hi
s meter, ‘and I can feel its energy heading in that direction.’
‘I can too,’ she said as Alexander’s face hardened.
‘Austin,’ Alexander spat.
‘Um, why?’ Anita asked as she started to run North after the bird.
‘He must have tampered with the meters because he wants a Descendant to win,’ he said. ‘Energy meters don’t just pack up, all they do is lock on to one source of energy and don’t change until they are given a new target. You didn’t accidently set it to a new target?’ Alexander asked.
‘No, of course not. I’m not stupid you know,’ she said indignantly. ‘I work in the bloody Observatory; I know how to use an energy meter.’
‘You work in the Observatory?’ Alexander asked, surprised. ‘So you’re an energy expert too?’
‘Well I wouldn’t go as far as expert,’ she said, upping the pace a little, ‘but I work with Bas and help him monitor the energy.’
‘Brilliant,’ he said sarcastically. ‘So you are an energy reading Body who also knows all about energy. It doesn’t get much worse than that.’
‘For the sake of the Gods,’ Anita fumed back, ‘are you always such a pessimist?’
‘You’ve got to lose the Chase.’
‘What?’ Anita laughed back. ‘You’re off your rocker if you think I’m just going to give up.’
‘You’ve got to. Austin will know you’re a reader if you win.’
‘How? I’ll just say I saw the pigeon head north and that your meter was pointing north so I headed north. It’s not entirely untrue.’
‘And what about when we get to the end? How are you going to explain how you actually find the pigeon?’
‘I’ll get lucky.’
‘You’ll get lucky? Yeah sure, no one will suspect a thing.’
Anita had had enough. ‘You stay here and keep sprouting doom and gloom if you want to, but I’m going to get a move on, or else this little disaster of yours will be entirely hypothetical anyway.’ Alexander relented and picked up his pace. He would just have to make sure he got to the pigeon first.
