I froze, unable to do much but watch as it skimmed along our walkway, its huge black eyes gleaming in the twilight before it twisted back up again with a raucous cry. Was I dreaming, going mad, or had I really witnessed a two-headed eagle fly by our walkway?
I looked at August in horror. He winked.
‘Yes, two heads – a Roman thing. Let’s get going before it comes back. The haga report directly to Octavia.’
Chapter Eight
I was learning to expect the unexpected when it came to Isca Pantheon. The laboratories were located in a completely different area to the living quarters, which meant we had to drop to the ground-floor level inside a completely terrifying transparent box. I would have preferred to climb down the exterior of the vast concrete tree August called home.
‘Try to look less like a meerkat scouting for ambush. You’re supposed to be one of us,’ he whispered as the box plummeted to the floor at breakneck speed. I nodded and redoubled my efforts, but every inch of me clamoured to run from this alien space that had so little in common with Arafel.
As soon as we reached the floor, August’s demeanour changed. Instantly, he became more alert, glancing skywards and heading straight towards the entrance to a dark tunnel on the opposite side of the great dome floor.
‘Let’s not waste any time here. After curfew the haga become less … answerable,’ he muttered.
I didn’t need any persuasion, and shadowed his route across the floor. Craning my neck, I bit my lip when I picked out more than a dozen of the mammoth two-headed eagles circling, swooping and diving beneath the dome’s magnificent ceiling. All at once I knew exactly what forest mice must feel like, and was filled with new empathy.
We walked as quietly as possible, but every step of our progress was punctuated by the birds’ harsh, guttural cries. August flashed a look of warning as though he could feel my straining nerves.
‘Official business, remember,’ he muttered, his eyes flashing bluer in the gloom. I forced down my fear and doubled my pace.
Our path took a circuitous route around the outside of what looked to be the main civic centre of Pantheon. On the floor everything looked much bigger, and even the tiny buildings on the periphery of the city were bigger than our treehouse at home. I stared at row after row of the unblemished buildings and their repetitive, stark appearance. The buildings weren’t completely without style; there were majestic pillars, classical sculptures, and ornate frescos, but they all looked too clean, too perfect. It was a terrifying ghost city, and I found myself longing for disorder – scattered rubbish, an opportunist rat, anything.
As though I’d spoken aloud, the air was suddenly filled with loud predatory cries, and a terrific barrelling of wind.
‘Don’t look up! The haga have noticed us and they interpret eye contact as a challenge.’
He pulled me roughly under a stone archway at the corner of one street. Beneath my feet there was a colourful mosaic of a Roman soldier in full military regalia, holding a spear outstretched as though ready to battle with anyone who lingered too long. It was Mars, the god of war and I held my breath until my chest hurt.
Finally, August’s hold weakened enough for me to look out and watch two massive birds swoop past our hiding spot. Now they were closer, I could fully appreciate their massive size and design. Their wingspan alone had to be the length of a horse’s back, and their outstretched claws and smoky red, hooked beaks were borrowed straight from their myth. They were terrifying, brutal creatures designed for a brutal purpose.
‘Now!’ he whispered, pulling me out behind him.
As we ran out, three more of the creatures swooped directly towards the first two. Without hesitation, they met in an aggressive mid-air challenge, their talons gleaming and beaks wide open, revealing layers of razor-edged teeth within. The hideous, guttural noises were unlike anything I’d ever heard, but provided us with enough cover to sprint the rest of the way to the tunnel. I didn’t allow myself to look up, and within seconds we’d reached the dark entrance fortified by a thick iron gate.
Frantically, I ran my eye over the bars. There was no obvious way in, and the grilles were too tiny to wriggle through. The air was perforated with another harsh shriek and I ducked. The haga were preparing to dive again. There was no time to lose. With panic building in my throat, I watched as August stooped to level his left eye with a small, square screen to the left of the gate. It was flickering with an intermittent red line, reminding me of the security system we’d set up in the forest, although ours was primitive by comparison.
There was a reassuring click, accompanied by a low buzzing noise, and then the gate slid noiselessly open. He pushed me inside just as the screeching birds swooped past, leaving the faint scent of blood in their wake.
I put my hand up to the cool, dank wall and caught my breath, feeling like a cat that had just lost one of its lives. I cast my gaze around at my new surroundings. We were in some sort of tunnel, lit by long, yellow boxes. They produced a miserable half-light that made eerie shadows reach out from the dripping walls. The forest at night had never felt oppressive, despite all the predatory animals.
As if he could hear my thoughts, August held up his Identifier and tapped the screen. A bright ivory light spilled out from the top of the box, illuminating a good section of the sloping tunnel in front of us.
‘Is there anything it doesn’t do?’ I murmured, as we set off at a brisk pace down the steep slope.
‘Yes, it doesn’t get us into the labs. For that we need these,’ he answered bluntly, staring down at me.
‘These – what?’ I responded, confused.
He threw me a sudden suggestive look, and fluttered his long dark eyelashes. I peered back into his face, wondering whether he’d taken leave of his senses, and then smiled briefly, despite myself.
‘Your eyes are the key to the laboratories?’ I whispered.
‘All Senatores and Equites have a high-security gene coding stored on our retinas. It means we have access to all the prohibited areas, a privilege of our status if you like.’
‘A status you are born with,’ I corrected, feeling my hackles rise at the operation of such a dangerous hierarchy, placing pre-programmed genetic coding above everything. Such a concept would be ridiculed with the derision it deserved in Arafel.
‘Well no, not quite,’ he returned unexpectedly. ‘The privilege has to be earned at some point.’
‘You mean you haven’t always been a Roman knight?’ I raised my eyebrows and could tell he caught my tone.
But for once he didn’t bite.
‘Something like that … My father was also a scientist, but a far more philanthropic one than his son. He invented a new antidote to an influenza variant that was wiping out huge numbers of the Prolet workforce.
‘My parents tried to use the antidote to trade for a better standard of living for their family and for the Prolet community. Instead, they were given the highest recognition in Isca Pantheon: the chance to donate an embryo into Octavia’s most prestigious Order of Knights. The Equite.’
I looked up at August. His profile was serious.
‘They accepted of course,’ he went on. ‘Saying no to Octavia is never an option – and they were given an assurance that I would never want for anything. And I didn’t, well apart from parents of course. Octavia made sure I never met them.’
‘So, you should have been a Prolet …?’ I asked slowly.
‘Yes. My original DNA was enhanced with Octavia’s signature coding – plus a little cocktail of two-thousand-year-old Roman DNA – and non vos! A new Equite was born.’
Despite the fact he was obviously delusional, my curiosity was burning. A million questions shot to the tip of my tongue. Signature coding I could just about swallow, but two-thousand-year-old DNA cocktails?
‘A light,’ he muttered suddenly, nodding into the gloom and fading down his Identifier.
My stomach dived to the dank floor as I scanned the darkness ahead. The faint light was
about two hundred metres ahead, and gradually illuminating the tunnel. Someone was coming our way!
Panicked, I gazed around but could only see dark, damp straight walls.
‘There’re no exits this side of the gate. Lower your eyes and don’t fight me.. whatever I say!’
I threw a suspicious look at my formidable companion, wishing I had a choice. As the light grew brighter, August reached out and took my upper arm firmly. I stiffened, but as another tall figure emerged from the gloom, his tight grip was the least of my worries. It had to be another Pantheonite of privilege to have access to the tunnel this late at night.
The echo of heavy, confident footsteps filled the tunnel as the shadowy figure moved, blurred, and then separated out into two distinct shapes: one tall and striding, the second wide and growling. August’s hold tightened and I didn’t object.
‘Well well … Augustus Aquila … and what brings you out so late?’ a familiar, drawling voice resonated around the tunnel.
‘Oh I haven’t disturbed anything forbidden have I?’ he added dangerously. ‘What would Octavia say to her favourite?’
As soon as Cassius stepped into our small pool of light, my free hand clenched into a fist and it took all my self-control not to launch myself at him. I seethed with hatred for his slick, ebony hair, hard features, and death adder eyes. Tonight he masqueraded as conquering hero with a cape of dark purple attached to his tunic shoulder, but I knew better. He was the cruellest kind of coward who thought nothing of hitting an old man, and ripping my family and world apart.
An ugly snarl dragged my attention to the dark shadow behind him, and slowly Brutus’s monstrous form lumbered into the low glow of our light. One quick glance at the thick lip pulled back over huge, threatening canines told me what I needed to know: he remembered me. Instinctively, I found myself pushing forward onto the balls of my feet, ready to pick my moment.
The next thing I knew I was being pulled into a hard embrace, and as August’s head dropped towards mine, he affected the most convincing, easy laugh.
‘What’s an Equite gotta do to get a little private time around here, Cassius?’
His grip around me tightened, and much to my horror his olive face leaned right into mine. I may have mistaken the mischievous light in his eyes, but I definitely didn’t imagine the warm touch of his lips against my own. I caught my breath as my entire world inverted and turned upside down. Adrenaline flooded my body, leaving my mind woolly and confused, and I was minutely aware of everything: the scent of his skin, the warmth of his body, and the brief glint in his iris-blue eyes.
Instantly I lashed out, raking my nails down August’s smug expression. This time his defences were too slow, and I had the satisfaction of watching five faint vertical weals flush pink down his right cheek.
A dark scowl flashed across his face.
‘She looks a little small. If I didn’t know better I’d say you’d gone underground for your fun, and Brutus seems to agree. Don’t you, boy?’ Cassius jeered.
As if in agreement, the huge beast growled and eyeballed me as though I was fresh meat for hunting.
‘Still, the prohibited ones are always keener to please, and she’s unusual. Bring her to me when you’re finished. I’m not averse to a bit of poaching myself.’
August’s answer was a short, hard laugh and a firm arm propelling me forward, stepping out between me and Brutus.
We walked on until we were out of earshot, then I shook off his iron hold and turned to him in fury.
‘Keener to please? Take me to him? I’d rather kiss every wild pig in Arafel!’ I seethed. ‘I want to slice his yellow-bellied throat and watch his blood run dry!’
I felt my cheeks grow pinker by the second, and hoped the darkness would cover my embarrassment.
‘I rather hope you don’t kiss every wild pig, that could prove rather dangerous,’ August responded intently. ‘And besides which I’m feeling oddly territorial.’
For a second I didn’t trust myself to speak. Even in the low light I could see how much he was enjoying this moment. Suddenly, he leaned forward until I could feel his warm breath on my neck.
‘I’m your first kiss aren’t I?’ he whispered with a glint of satisfaction.
Hot anger flooded my veins. My priorities were Grandpa and Eli, not playing mind games with a genetic Roman throwback. I turned abruptly and started walking.
He chuckled before catching me up with a couple long strides.
‘Cassius is a law unto himself. He’s Captain of the Equites and Lead Government Scientist. He also has Octavia’s ear so he’s not someone to piss off.’
I threw August a look of contempt. ‘I’m not doing anything with that man, for you or anyone else!’
‘I wasn’t suggesting that for one second. I just want you to understand he’s not someone to underestimate, at any time.’
‘I have no desire to spend any more time than I absolutely have to within these godforsaken walls! Once I have my family back, I never want to see any of you ever again!’
I sounded like a child, but the last ten minutes had jangled my nerves. Tactical or not, his kiss had shocked me, but what was more shocking was that deep down, I hadn’t hated it all. And now my mind kept rerunning the touch of his lips on mine, as if to corner me into some kind of admission. The silent torture caused a fresh heat to steal across my cheeks.
He glanced down at me, his face dancing with shadows.
‘Once we reach the end of this section there will be a fork. The right-hand side is gated so we take the left tunnel. Whatever happens, ignore any noise or sounds from behind the gate. We move on as quickly and as quietly as possible.’
His voice was hard and matter-of-fact. We were back to being strangers.
I walked quickly, pushing August’s new coolness from my thoughts, and thinking through my plan. I needed August’s security clearance to access the laboratories, but once I’d found Grandpa and Eli I had to take my chance. August still had everything to gain by turning us all in. Somehow I had to find a way of losing him. It was safest for everyone.
We continued our journey down the shadowed tunnel, in a silence broken only by our own echoing footsteps. Several minutes passed, by which time I judged us to be at least one kilometre underground. The air grew damper and thinner, and just when I started to believe I might never feel fresh air in my lungs again, we reached a fork.
A dim, yellow lantern perched on the murky wall above the gateways, and August turned left without hesitating. A sharp scraping noise startled me as I made to follow. I chanced a brief look back towards the grilled gate, and a pair of blood-yellow eyes peered back at me through the gloom. I inhaled sharply.
‘Move!’ August hissed so harshly I spun on my heel without question, and followed him into the darkness of the new tunnel, which rose steeply.
‘Are we in a new part of the dome?’ I asked after my heart had calmed a little. We’d climbed onto a black moving track, and were continuing to walk at a much faster rate.
‘We are in a new dome altogether,’ he answered shortly. ‘There are three domes, interconnected by a series of underground tunnels. The second two were added long after the first.’
‘And what was that … back there?’ I asked hesitantly.
‘That gate leads to an area of Pantheon you should avoid at all costs. Forget about it, it holds nothing for you.’
His tone was non-negotiable, and we continued on the moving track in silence.
‘Did you ever see it?’ His question was so soft I barely heard it.
‘What?’ I played for time, although instinct told me exactly what he meant.
‘The Book your grandfather said he destroyed. The Book of Arafel … as I believe you call it?’
This time he looked directly at me, his startling blue eyes piercing the gloom, assessing my answer intently.
‘No, never,’ I replied with what I hoped was a convincing shake of the head. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’
The laboratories turned out to be secured by two thick white doors, protected by a series of codes and yet another retina scan box. I studied August as he input the digits and thought I might be able to replicate the pattern, but the retina scan would be harder to get around. I gritted my teeth as various macabre thoughts went through my mind. As the doors finally slid open, we were enveloped by an iridescent blue light, and then a pungent, acrid smell that made me want to gag.
‘Formaldehyde,’ August confirmed in response to my pained expression. ‘It’s used as a preservative in our labs. You’ll get used to it.’
Somehow I doubted it. He walked forward and, much to my amazement, his whole body suddenly shimmered and vibrated as though he were made of jelly. When he turned back to look at me, he’d faded to a shadowy outline behind a fluid, gelatinous screen. His hand then appeared back through the transparent substance, and beckoned. I walked forward and tentatively reached out to touch the viscous substance. It was barely visible, and stretched out like a wall either side.
‘It’s an infection screen,’ he offered, clearly amused, ‘perfectly harmless, unless you’re a virus or bacteria.’
A swell of irritation climbed my throat and, steeling myself, I closed my eyes and stepped right through.
It was rather like passing through an ice-cold mist of adrenaline, barely perceptible to the eye yet capable of setting every nerve ending haring. I gasped at the sudden tingling across my skin, and once again when I opened my eyes. The infection screen did so much more than cleanse; it also concealed the entrance to the vast laboratory. I stared around in amazement, struggling to take in the open-plan, clinical space that stretched outwards and upwards.
Book of Fire Page 10
