Nick shoved him back and glared at them all, weighing up his options. He couldn’t fight his way past this many people. He needed time to think, to figure out how he could escape their protection.
‘Alright,’ he said, and followed his escort downstairs.
As he walked, he scrutinised the four unfamiliar people. They emanated a subtle danger similar to Cal, but rather than making him feel safe, their presence triggered his instinct to run. It didn’t help that Cal’s hand remained wrapped around his sword hilt, as if anticipating an attack.
Valerius was in charge, and he communicated with the Korelians in a silent language made up of glances, nods and unspoken commands. Eight horses were hitched to a water trough in a nearby street, each with bulging saddlebags. Nick gritted his teeth. These people weren’t here to hide him. They were taking him out of Auremos. How long had David and Valerius been planning this? Cal and Artemis seemed to be as much in the dark as Nick, but that hadn’t stopped them from complying with David’s orders. As Nick mounted his horse, bitterness welled up inside him, and he had to bite his tongue to stop his howl of fury.
‘Where are we going?’ he asked.
‘Somewhere safe,’ Valerius replied.
‘Yeah, I know that. I asked where.’
Valerius cast him a sharp, reproving look.
‘I want to go home first. There’s something I need to pick up.’
After glancing at one of the men, Valerius nodded. ‘We’ll pass by your apartment.’
They rode to Market Square and waited in the foyer while Nick hurried up to his bedroom. He grabbed the song gate map from under his mattress, wrapped it in an oilcloth to waterproof it, then shoved it into his boot. Out his window, he saw a bright glow beyond the eastern wall. The aqueducts were alight. He didn’t have much time. He unbuckled his sword and left it on his bed—it would only slow him down—then he went back downstairs and into the bathroom, mumbling that he needed to use the toilet.
It took him less than three minutes to escape through the grate in the floor and into the alleys behind the bathhouse, but that was more than enough time for Artemis to realise what he was doing.
‘Nick, stop! Come back!’
He ignored her and bolted towards the aqueducts. As he drew closer, he could hear desperate shouts and the clang of steel. Smoke poured out of guardhouse windows and clogged the air. A scream came from above and something thudded onto the street. Nick held his jacket sleeve over his mouth and nose and crept forward. The person lay unmoving, with limbs twisted in strange angles and blood pooling into the cracks in the cobblestones. A pair of pale, unseeing eyes stared out from the gap in a black Arai mask.
‘Nick! Where are you?’ Artemis shouted. Her indistinct silhouette moved towards him through the smoke.
He dragged the dead Arai through the doorway of a crumbling house, waited for Artemis and Cal to walk past, then tugged off the man’s boots, gloves, jacket, trousers, helmet and mask. As he changed into the Arai uniform, he avoided looking at those vacant eyes. The back of the helmet and jacket were wet with blood so he dunked them in a water catchment before putting them on. He also soaked the face mask to help protect against the smoke and fumes.
After checking that the song gate map was still in his boot and the Arai sword attached to his belt, Nick peered into the street. Cal and Artemis were nowhere in sight. He could still hear shouting and the clash of swords, but now there was also the sound of jars shattering on stones followed by the muffled whoosh of fast-spreading fire.
Nick sprinted across the street to the guardhouse and stopped at the foot of the stairs, listening. At the sound of approaching footsteps, he flattened himself against the wall, his heart thumping. Pan dashed out of the stairwell, saw him, and drew her sabre. Nick’s own sword barely cleared its sheath in time to parry the first swipe. After that, it took all of four strikes for her to disarm him. She twirled her sabre and lunged. His shields blazed. He swatted the blade aside with his forearm. It slashed his sleeve but didn’t pierce his skin.
She hesitated. ‘You’re a mileskúlos?’
‘I’m Yándi. And I’m on your side.’ Nick scooped up his sword and sheathed it. ‘Don’t follow me,’ he added, and ran up the stairs.
Halfway up, he found the door leading to the lower tier of the aqueducts. It was locked. He kicked it hard, making the wood crack. He kicked again and again until it crumpled.
‘What are you doing, Nick?’
Someone grabbed his wrist. He swung around, ready to fight, and found himself facing Artemis.
‘I’m going to stop this,’ he said.
‘No, you’re not. You’re coming with me. I’ll get you out of here.’
He pushed her back and darted along the passage to the chasm that fell away beneath the city. Above him, the portcullis gate shut off the lower tier of the aqueducts. Smoke poured through the gaps in the iron gate and swirled down into the abyss. Someone on the wall yelled an order to fire, and the Arai took cover as spears and arrows whipped past.
‘Nick, listen to me,’ Artemis said. ‘Even if you manage to get past the Arai, the sharpshooters will spot you.’
‘Good. Go upstairs and tell them to give me some cover.’
She held his arm. ‘You’re the reason Thanos is here. Don’t give him what he wants.’
He shrugged her off. ‘I’ll be alright.’
‘You’ll be killed!’
‘I won’t. I’ve got a way out.’
Through the bars of the portcullis, he saw several Arai throwing grappling hooks and swinging off the aqueducts. Dead bodies lay in the aqueduct channel with arrows and spears sticking out of them. More Arai were sprinting from the cover of one arch to the next, trying to avoid the sharpshooters’ aim. Some nearest the wall were lobbing their crude grenades up through the smoke screen.
Artemis stepped onto the landing after Nick. He gritted his teeth. She would try to stop him, and he knew she’d succeed. She was the more skilled fighter by far.
He noticed an iron torch bracket in the wall behind her and an idea struck him. First, though, he’d have to distract her, so he did something he’d wanted to do for a long time – he ran his fingers over her cheek and through her hair. He wished he wasn’t wearing gloves. Her eyes widened in surprise. He reached behind her to hook her collar over the torch bracket, but she was quicker. She tugged his Arai mask down, gripped his jacket, and kissed him. He drew a sharp breath through his nose. Her lips were soft and warm and tasted of ochre. He closed his eyes and kissed her back.
‘Come away with me, Nick,’ she whispered.
He couldn’t focus on anything except the curve of her mouth. He kissed her again, and for a long minute forgot about everything except her. He didn’t want to leave anymore, didn’t want this moment to end. But it did, and when she stepped back, he teetered towards her. She took his hand, and he allowed her to lead him off the landing. Once in the corridor, she relaxed her grip, and in that moment his mind snapped into gear.
‘Sorry, Artemis, but I have to do this,’ he said, and snagged her collar on a torch bracket.
‘What? No! Nick?’
As he climbed the ladder, he heard her desperately trying to free herself. He raised the portcullis half a metre then secured the rope, drew his sword, and sliced most of the way through the cords. The remaining threads began to snap under the weight of the iron gate. He sheathed his sword, adjusted his Arai mask, and rolled under the portcullis just before the sharp teeth rammed the stones. Through the smoke, he saw several Arai glance his way, but they quickly turned their attention back to the Auremos sharpshooters as another volley of projectiles zoomed through the smoke.
Artemis appeared at the bars, grabbed Nick’s jacket, and yanked him towards her till he was pressed up against the portcullis. He stared, marvelling at her strength.
‘Please, Nick,’ she said. ‘Don’t go.’
The fear in her voice almost convinced him to change his mind.
‘I’ll come back one
day, Artemis. I promise.’
Before she could say anything more, he ripped free of her grasp and bolted up the lower tier. Arrows and spears whizzed out of the smoke. A few bounced off Nick’s shields, making him stagger, but he pressed on.
‘We need more spirit fire, mileskúlos!’ an Arai yelled, pointing him towards the barrels at the diversion channel.
Nick staggered to a halt at the stockpile of barrels. He was running on adrenalin now, and he knew his limbs would start shaking if he stopped for too long. The Arai were still dishing out grenades, though their supply was low. The fumes were potent, like spilt petrol, and they left a bitter taste in Nick’s mouth.
Someone waved a grenade under his nose. ‘Get moving, mileskúlos!’
Nick snatched the grenade, grabbed a rope, and swung off the side of the aqueducts. As soon as he landed, he drew his sword and scraped the blade across the bricks. Sparks flew over the wick and into the grass. He hit the bricks again. More sparks flew.
‘Don’t light it there, you idiot! You have to get closer to the wall!’
Nick struck again. This time the rag caught fire. He took quick aim, lobbed it onto the lower tier, listened for the shatter of ceramics and the whoosh of flames, then sprinted. Someone screamed a warning. Nick stuck his fingers in his ears and counted four seconds before there was a deafening explosion. Two more explosions followed, each louder than the last. In an instant, night became day. Nick staggered as the shock waves slammed into him. He turned in time to see a large chunk of the aqueducts collapse into rubble. The Arai surveyed the damage, stunned. As the smoke clouding the eastern watchtower cleared, the Bandála assault came to a standstill as well. A moment of stillness descended on the battlefield.
On the upper tier right above him, Nick heard someone say, ‘My lord? Are you hurt?’
Nick stared. Was that Thanos? Was he actually here? He jogged backwards till he was sure the people on the aqueducts had a clear view of him then he ripped off his helmet, gloves, mask, jacket and shirt to expose his body paint, cupped his hands around his mouth and called, ‘Coo-ee!’
The Arai army shifted their stares from the collapsed aqueducts to Nick.
‘You want me Thanos?’ he shouted. ‘Here I am!’
A dozen arrows bounced off his shields. More skewered the ground around him.
‘Is that the best you can do? Come and get me!’
He turned and scarpered up the slope, leaping over logs and boulders with ease. His weeks of running the mountain were paying off. After a good few hundred metres, he snatched a glance behind him. His plan was working. Like a fresh oil slick, the Arai army broke away from the Auremos assault and followed him.
An arrow thudded a tree trunk, missing his skull by a fingernail. He pelted along the spur till he reached the top of Blackrock Falls, where water plunged over the steep rock face and splattered the boulders below. He climbed over the edge and began working his way to the bottom, feeling for footholds and keeping his eyes fixed on the cliff above. At any moment, he expected to see ropes tossed over the side and black figures abseiling after him.
He reached the bottom and was about to plunge under the waterfall when he heard the thud of hooves. A groan of dismay forced its way through his clenched teeth as Cal, Artemis and David dismounted.
‘What are you doing? You were meant to leave the city!’ David raged.
‘I am leaving the city. And I’m drawing the Arai away so they don’t slaughter the Bandála.’
‘We have to move,’ Cal warned, watching the Arai circling the cliff top.
They stepped under the waterfall and followed Nick to the back of the cavern where he found the hidden handle for the secret door and swung it open. He winced as cold air blasted him.
‘I’ll see you on the other side,’ David said, drawing his sword.
Nick whipped around. ‘What? Why?’
Then he saw a fifth person standing in the cavern, panting as if from a hard sprint. Through the slit in the Arai mask, a pair of hazel eyes was levelled at Nick. Memories flickered across Nick’s mind. Chestnut horse thundering along the tar road. Soft whisper of a sword being drawn. Mía’s blood-stained dress.
Alexander had caught up with him.
Nick reached for his sword, but it wasn’t there. He’d tossed it aside at the aqueducts, along with most of his clothes.
‘Cal, Artemis, you know your duty,’ David said in a low voice.
They made a grab for Nick, and he tried to dart out of their reach, but they were too quick, snagging his arms and dragging him towards the tunnel.
‘Let me go! We can’t leave David!’
Alexander moved forwards, his wet blade glinting in the near darkness.
‘Get Nick out of here!’ David urged.
Nick struggled furiously, but Cal and Artemis did not let go. Alexander swung his sword high over his shoulder and charged. At that moment, Cal and Artemis yanked Nick into the tunnel and slammed the door shut.
Chapter 39: The mark of royalty
Nick writhed and kicked and protested as Cal and Artemis hauled him down the passage. When his strength ran out, all he could do was stumble on, propelled by their unyielding hands on his back.
An hour later, the tunnel ended at a tangle of deadwood and moss. The full moon had risen well above the mountains and the bush glowed in the harsh blue light.
‘We can’t drag you the whole way, Nick,’ Artemis said, panting.
He scrubbed tears off his cheeks. ‘You shouldn’t have followed me. I told you I’d come back. You aren’t supposed to be here.’
Cal stooped over, wiping sweat from his face. ‘If you’d told us your plan instead of just running off—’
‘If I’d told you, you would’ve stopped me. I trusted you both. You were going to force me to leave the city.’
‘We didn’t know about that until tonight,’ Artemis snapped, ‘and even if we did we can’t disobey a direct order from David Rayámina.’
‘So now you decide to follow the rules?’
Cal straightened. ‘We didn’t take the Bandála oath lightly.’
Nick gripped his dreadlocks and gulped down a roar. ‘I left to draw the Arai away! It was working too, until you showed up. And now David’s stuck in there with...with...’ He tried to push past them to get to the tunnel but they shoved him back.
‘Alexander will kill you, Nick,’ Artemis said. ‘Rayámina’s given us this chance. We have to take it.’
They watched Nick keenly, as if expecting him to bolt. He crouched, trembling, and held his head in his hands. He hadn’t counted on anyone following him. This was a disaster. He tugged the map out of his boot, tried to focus on the red dot near Blackrock Falls but his eyes were too full of enraged tears. All he could register was the direction: south-east. He slipped the map back into his boot. He’d have to rely on his ears.
‘What are you looking for?’ Cal asked.
Nick wiped his nose on his sleeve and replied, ‘A song gate.’
They stared at him.
‘That was your escape plan?’ Artemis demanded. ‘Are you insane? Alexander knows how to use those things!’
‘And I know how to close them permanently,’ he fired back. ‘We’ll have to go to higher ground to hear it. The map’s pretty vague.’
‘Map?’ they both repeated.
‘You have a song gate map?’ Cal said.
‘I didn’t even know such a thing existed,’ Artemis added, looking astonished. ‘Where did you get it?’
Nick stomped away without bothering to answer either of them.
As they headed for the ridge, Nick listened to the abstract rhythm of the bush, straining his ears to hear the electric hum of the song gate. They paused at a spring bubbling from the side of the hill and gulped several mouthfuls of the freezing water. Cal and Artemis watched Nick the whole time. He wanted to bellow at them, but he swallowed his fury and pushed on in silence.
His pants were still damp from his leap through Blackrock Falls, and n
o matter how much he stamped his feet or how hard he bunched his fists, his toes and fingers remained numb. More than once his stomach threatened to empty itself.
At the top of a slope, he stopped. Eucalypts flecked the rugged peaks of the basalt hills. The moon had reached its zenith and a dim suggestion of dawn lightened the eastern horizon. Nick realised then how long they’d been walking. What had seemed like several agonising minutes had been an hour or more.
A breeze shifted the treetops, and possums scrabbled about to regain their balance on the branches. Nick caught a distant hum on the wind.
‘Do you hear that?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Artemis replied. ‘What is it?’
He scanned the area but couldn’t see any shimmering air. From the direction of the breeze, he guessed it was just behind the hills on the south side of the valley.
‘The song gate.’
Nick looked at the clouds of smoke belching from the burning aqueducts, so thick they blotted out the southern sky. Drawing a ragged breath, he turned away from Auremos and took off down the slope. The song gate’s hum vanished, cut off by the hills. He followed the valley floor, running fast through the bush with Cal and Artemis right behind him. He wasn’t sure how easy it would be to reach the song gate. It was classified as ‘dangerous or inaccessible’, which could mean it was halfway down a cliff. He wondered what they could use for rope.
A horse whinnied, the sound keening across the valley like a ghostly shriek, and Nick saw a dark mass of riders closing in fast.
‘Hurry!’ he yelled.
They bolted up the hill to the ridge. As soon as they reached the high, flat ground, the drone of the song gate blasted Nick’s ears. Even though he couldn’t see the gate yet, he knew where it was – down the steep rocky slope that fell away into the gorge below. A hundred metres and they’d be there.
Four riders streaked along the spur and circled around in front, their bows drawn. Nick staggered to a halt. Artemis bowled into him. Cal collided with the two of them and they tumbled in a heap. Nick was flipped over and frisked roughly then the Arai pressed him onto his knees and reefed his head back by his hair. Above the thrum of the song gate, he heard the sounds of struggling. Soon, Cal and Artemis were kneeling beside him.
Lightning Tracks Page 28
