I closed my eyes and the warmth in my dad’s eyes shone out of the whirlwind in my head at last. I walked towards him, willing the world to fade …
Then the air above was filled with the sound of beating wings, magnificent burnished-gold wings that created a rush of fresh air through the bloodied dust. I opened my eyes reluctantly and watched in amazement as the griffin I had attempted to tame circled calmly above. It was only when it swooped low over our heads, that I got a clear view of its rider.
‘Eli!’ I shouted, my voice breaking on a sob.
He threw me a wink and the entire arena erupted in confusion. I made a grab for Max as he shuffled unsteadily, his chest wound bleeding openly, while applause intermingled with shrieks and gasps. As the huge beast dipped and swooped above the arena, the remaining griffins reacted, rearing to throw their clinging riders, and mauling anyone who got underfoot. Within seconds, two more shrugged off their restricting saddles, throwing out their powerful wings in defiance. The air was heavy with blood, dirt, and wild shrieking as the griffins closed in, forming a pack.
Octavia’s enraged face filled the screens as she stood up and fired curt orders. Then I watched in grim disbelief as she and her guards turned and disappeared through the gilt doors behind them. A fresh shout of terror went up as a new noise, the groan of heavy metal, filled the air. I looked up and saw the crescent of a roof start its journey across the arena’s open-air ceiling, and a fresh fire filled my belly. Octavia intended to sacrifice everyone here to contain the griffins; she was sneaking away from her own bloodbath like a sewer rat.
Suddenly an imperious cawing filled the air, and all the griffins looked skywards as Eli came swooping low, landing their new Leader in a cloud of dust. His arrival set off a round of hysterical cawing and the riderless pack closed around them.
‘No!’ my agonized yell echoed eerily around the hot dry space, causing everyone to pause. I’d forgotten Octavia’s black device. A restraining hand shot out, and caught my arm as I tried to run to him.
‘Let him try,’ August said roughly through laboured breath.
I looked up into exhausted, iris-blue eyes imploring me to let go for once, to believe in someone else. Panicked, I turned to Max but he only nodded in agreement, his wounds draining him of any remaining strength. I stared blindly back at the wild fray, unable to believe any man could emerge alive. And then the noise started to diminish.
One by one, the griffins fell completely silent and backed out, their huge haunches lowered in submission. I limped forward a little, struggling to gain a view and finally I saw him, kneeling at the centre of the pack beside his own docile griffin, and smiling. Smiling at me.
Elation gripped my heart as the arena erupted once more.
‘Can I come?’ I signed.
He threw a considering look around the griffins before nodding briefly. It was all the encouragement I needed to limp to him as fast as I could. They paid me no interest this time, and I threw my arms around my brother’s neck, taking care not to press against his injuries. He flashed his gentle smile, and I swelled with pride for the vulnerable, gifted twin I’d always protected so fiercely.
‘Max and August are hurt – and the arena is closing!’ I signed.
He nodded briefly before turning back to his waiting griffin. He started signing crudely, gestures that anyone could understand. I watched perplexed, and then slowly began to understand. Eli had sensed their genetic weakness instinctively; they were locked in a world of silence, just like him.
Within seconds, his griffin had inclined its neck low enough for me to slide on. Eli gesticulated towards Max and August, prompting the creature to shake out her long wings and amble towards the others. August hoisted Max behind me without a word, and then ran towards Eli who was already mounted on another griffin.
In that same moment, the air was filled with a macabre hissing, which was coming from two of the black arches at the back of the arena. I threw a glance up towards the swiftly closing roof. If we didn’t do something, we wouldn’t be the only ones facing hell and carnage, every citizen of Pantheon would be fighting for their lives. My eyes met Eli’s across the dusty floor.
‘We have to find a way to open the doors,’ I signed in desperation. ‘Serpents!’
Chapter Eighteen
Eli paled and pointed towards the arena’s sliding roof. Without further prompting I squeezed my knees, and patted the griffin’s thick neck. Immediately she stretched out her glorious wings, and soared into the air, and out of the arena just as the metal roof slid closed beneath us. A fresh round of muffled screaming filled the air, and my stomach lurched.
Max leaned heavily into me, his breathing ragged and harsh. I couldn’t let myself think about how badly he might be hurt. He was as much a part of me as Eli, and there was no way I was losing him.
‘Aelia?’ I asked, aware she was the only one of our party still missing.
‘I don’t know,’ he responded weakly. ‘We were separated, but with a little luck someone raised the alarm among the Prolets… She has a lot of friends.’
I thought briefly of Unus’s loyalty to the complex, freedom-fighter doctor, and found myself hoping she was OK.
‘Hold on!’
I gritted my teeth and applied downward pressure between the griffin’s shoulder blades. Eli was diving below us and I followed swiftly. The noise from inside the arena was hideous. The crowd were panicking and piling against the exit doors in a desperate crush. Terrified screams reverberated across Pantheon, making my skin crawl with horror. I hesitated and cursed. A moment ago they were content for Max and I to be served up as live bait; and they weren’t my people – but they were people all the same.
‘We have to open the doors!’ Eli signed frantically. I nodded. We didn’t owe any favours but our war was with Octavia, not the pawns in her game.
I looked around for any sign of her but there was none. Inwardly I raged. How could any leader leave her people at the mercy of her own vile genetic experimentations? I scanned the empty streets outside the Flavium, and spotted a small party of guards hurrying into a white transporter unit. Then I glanced back towards Eli who had already landed outside the main doors.
‘Leave her,’ Max muttered lifting his head. ‘It’s not the right time, Tal.’
‘So, when is the right time?’ I scathed. ‘What about Grandpa, Eli, everyone she’s ever hurt? If we let her get away now, we might never get the chance to take her down again!’
‘Or we let hundreds of people get eaten alive, and miss our last ride home?’
The wisdom of his hoarse words perforated my haze like a Diasord. He was right of course. I could lose everything for one moment’s triumph, just to see real fear contorting her glacial, waxen face.
I leaned in to the griffin, and shifted my body weight to adopt a steeper angle of flight. Within seconds we were on the floor beside a set of the Flavium’s massive gilt-edged doors. I dismounted and shuffled up the steps, grasping the huge heavy door-knockers in my hands. The muffled screams and groaning were so close now. White-eyed, I turned to Max who was hobbling slowly up towards me.
‘Here,’ he puffed, ‘use this, burn a hole around the lock.’
He handed me his Diasord and sat down on the wall unsteadily. He was too pale, and I could tell by the way he was breathing that everything was an effort. I gritted my teeth, and levelled the laser with the door. The wood splintered immediately, and within seconds I had burned a complete hole around the heavy wrought-iron lock. I grabbed hold and pulled with all my strength. There was a resounding crack, and the entire double loop came away in my trembling hands.
‘Tal, move!’ Max yelled, grabbing my tunic and stumbling down the steps as the huge doors swung open with a groan, and people spilled out in every direction.
The stench of warm blood, sweat, and dirt once again filled the air and for a second there was little more I could do than stare blindly around at the chaos. People were screaming, bleeding, and dying everywhere I looke
d.
Max and I stumbled away from the main flow, but I knew we had to get airborne fast. The panic was overwhelming. Eli swooped low and gesticulated anxiously towards our griffin, who was nervously rearing away from a group of men attempting to corner her. I slid under Max’s shoulder and moved him as fast as I dared back towards the creature.
‘Reckon you can climb on?’ I asked.
A grumble of assent was my only response. He was getting increasingly heavy but I didn’t care – no one else was dying on me. With my free hand, I beckoned to the creature who understood immediately and ran forward to meet us. It sunk low, allowing Max to clamber on. An angry shout went up, and the crowd surrounded us.
‘Get back!’ I spat as fiercely as I could.
‘You’ve had your chance to escape, now it’s ours!’ hissed one of the thicker-set Pantheonites.
He wore a pale, gold-embroidered tunic and had an ugly scowl pinned to his sculpted face. Something told me he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I made a grab for Max’s Diasord and then a voice stilled me in my tracks. I exhaled audibly as an imposing soldier parted the crowd.
‘Let them go!’
August repeated his authoritative command and the Pantheonites shuffled uncertainly. His senior rank dispelled a few, but some were clearly suspicious given his shift of allegiance in the arena. I looked up at his swarthy, stained face and fresh remorse engulfed me. I’d got so many things wrong. This man had defied everything for us, and I’d found every reason under the sun not to trust him.
A fresh outbreak of screaming at the doors of the Flavium distracted the crowd momentarily, and two red-eyed serpents slithered out, trailing what looked to be the remains of a human arm behind them. Their long forked tongues flicked and hissed hypnotically as they crawled among the cawing griffins, dragging a heavy snake-like body that looked big enough to contain a whole person. But it was their front legs that mesmerized me; the hands that dragged them along had five fingers, five human fingers. I blanched as August grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me onto the waiting griffin behind Max.
‘You are leaving now. Follow the sky train tracks back to the holding bay. The exit is usually securely guarded but you can override the system and open the doors if you hit the code X button followed by 2025 on the control desk. I’ll follow after I’ve tidied up a few things here.’
He spoke urgently, his pained eyes belying his brisk tone. He had no intention of following.
‘Come with us!’ I urged, suddenly frantic at the thought of leaving him.
‘Stop them!’ the thickset Pantheonite yelled, running full pelt towards us. August cursed and ran around the front of the griffin, launching himself in a powerful tackle. The two men fell heavily to the ground, and a struggle ensued as I swung my leg over and prepared to leap down again. Instead, I found a firm arm around my waist, and the griffin started beating its wings in preparation for flight.
‘Get her out of here, Max!’ August shouted, as he rolled on top of the struggling Pantheonite, and pressed his Diasord to the man’s throat. More of the crawling serpents were spilling from the huge doors, and a fresh chorus of screaming filled the blood-saturated air. I struggled against Max, but even in his weakened state I was no match for his stubborn strength.
‘Quit fighting me, Tal,’ he whispered. ‘I’m not leaving you and besides, he made me promise.’
‘Do you always do what everyone else wants?’ I threw out as the floor started to move away.
I kept my eyes trained on August’s military frame, which was suddenly submerged beneath a mob of brawling bodies, and my world closed in. With one last supreme effort I yanked away from Max’s hold and leapt as though my life depended on it. I landed in a tumble, using the mob of bodies to break my speed as I would branches in the forest.
‘Tal!’
I didn’t look back at Max. How could I explain something I didn’t understand myself? Instead, I searched the air for Eli and spotted him circling above the Flavium, gazing intently down at the arena. I willed him to look my way, and thankfully something in the universe made him swing his gentle eyes towards me. The worry in his face was almost harder to bear than Max’s hurt.
‘What are you doing?’ he signed, immediately turning his griffin back towards me.
‘I’ll be OK,’ I gesticulated. ‘Just get Max home, he needs medical help, fast. I’ll follow with Grandpa.’
He hesitated. I knew it would take all of his resolve to leave me behind so I drove the nail home.
‘I’d do it for you.’
He threw me a tight smile of defeat, which I knew was costing him.
‘I’m on it, sis,’ he signed, immediately diving towards Max who was circling for somewhere to land. As the two great creatures swooped past each other, he leapt and landed neatly behind Max who had slumped forward against the animal’s plumage. I breathed a sigh of relief as Eli gently encouraged the griffin upwards, and then froze as something warm brushed against my leg.
Glancing down, I was horrified to see one of the serpents was preparing to wrap its long crushing body around my left calf. I didn’t waste any time. Using its thick sinewy head as a springboard, I leapt to a safe distance and sprinted around the perimeter of the mob.
Within seconds, I had a clear view of August struggling beneath the thicker-set Pantheonite. Swiftly, I picked up a small stone and took aim with my slingshot. The white stone flew through the air like a tiny bird, catching the Pantheonite square in the middle of the forehead. He released his vice-like grip around August’s neck instantly, and rolled away. August was on his feet in a heartbeat and running towards me, a murderous look on his swarthy face.
‘You’re the most obstinate … self-opinionated … insubordinate … frustrating little feral cat I’ve ever met in my life!’ he yelled furiously.
He caught me up in a sudden unexpected crush, knocking the breath of my body. My eyes flew to his, and I was amazed by how open and vulnerable they were. For a moment iris-blue and forest green were the only two colours that mattered. And a new emotion filtered into my fatigued limbs, a tenderness that made me want to cup his bloodied face, and draw it gently down to mine.
‘I thought I held the whole damned world in my eyes?’ I whispered, my voice catching.
I knew he was going to kiss me then, despite Max, despite the chaos around us, and despite everything in my reason telling me this leap was just too big. His lips met mine, stealing my breath and saying everything we hadn’t since the start. The world around me receded, and I responded with everything I had. I didn’t care, this moment was free. And feral.
A curious smile spread across his face as he drew away. ‘You are the most incredible girl, Talia,’ he whispered, ‘incorrigible and incredible. And you don’t belong here, among all this.’
A fresh angry shout went up from the mob, followed by the sound of heavy, hollow beating wings filling the air. Our gaze went skywards, stolen by a glorious breathtaking sight: a pack of griffins soaring above us. So that was what Eli had meant! He’d found the mechanism to reverse the rolling roof and free the remaining pack.
‘Now!’ August yelled, grabbing my hand and dragging me back towards the Flavium steps. I didn’t ask where we were going, and I knew he wouldn’t even try to persuade me to leave without Grandpa now. We raced down the steps into the arena, and I felt any last shreds of youthful ignorance evaporate as I stared around at the death and carnage.
There were bodies strewn everywhere, human limbs mingled with larger unidentifiable, bloodied heaps. I thought numbly of the woman who had been the cause of so much hurt and bloodshed, for the sake of an ancient book that would have been far better consigned to flames.
Averting my eyes from the empty place Unus had lain, I sprinted after August towards one of the dark archways. A shadow fell across the arena floor and, looking up, I saw Eli circling with Max slumped unconsciously in front of him.
‘Perfect!’ I signed. ‘Now get Max home!’
He nodded brief
ly, and then gesticulated to something beyond the rim of the arena. Swiftly, a lone griffin flew into view, diving down to join us on the ground. I reached up into the creature’s plumage and patted it reassuringly.
‘Thought you could use a lift home,’ Eli signed.
A smile flitted across his face, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes, and I knew he was struggling to leave me in this place.
‘Race you to dinner!’ I responded.
Then, before he could change his mind, I turned and sprinted into the darkness with August.
As soon as we entered the gloom, an eerie silence enveloped us. The air was thick and I felt a new fear stir my exhausted muscles. Down here I couldn’t see well enough to leap and run, and August would be no match for Cerberus or the strix. Unus’s gentle face materialized before my eyes, and I had to swallow down the hard grainy lump in my throat. It wouldn’t do to give in to my pain now. The griffin followed us reluctantly, the occasional scrape of its claws on the stone floor the only evidence of its company. Something about this place instilled fear even in the most ferocious of beasts.
‘This isn’t just about Grandpa, is it?’ I whispered when August halted his stealthy progress.
‘Aelia,’ he answered shortly after a pause, reaching back to squeeze my fingers, ‘and your grandpa, and somehow getting you both home.’
A thousand tiny hairs on the back of my neck and arms prickled suddenly, and my head felt woolly. What if her Prolet friends had already rescued her? Was that the only real reason he was here? To save her?
‘You love her, don’t you?’ I blurted.
Both August and the griffin pulled up sharply.
‘Yes,’ August returned, frowning, ‘we share … history. She wouldn’t abandon me any more than I would her.’
Something scuffled in the darkness ahead and he held up a warning hand. I grasped my Diasord but, for once, felt too hurt and angry to be nervous. August took a few paces forward and then returned.
Book of Fire Page 24
