“Cezar!” Summer started to shout.
It was Moira who woke first, jerking on her chain like a fish on a line. Her spiky blond mohawk flopped into her face and she went face first into the water, only to splash back up shocked, but instantly wakened.
“What the Sun?”
“Get out of the water,” Toby snapped.
“Wha…?” Moira struggled to her feet and stood swaying.
“Cezar’s waking,” Summer called, and Toby turned to see the other boy stirring.
“Come on, pal. On your feet.” As Toby’s attention turned, Lenka slipped sideways out of his grasp. She splashed into a wave and her flyaway hair was flattened to her head.
“Moira, you’re nearest – get Lenka,” he called.
“Do I have tae?” Moira sighed, but she was already kneeling back down and using her shoulders to boost Lenka’s head out of the water and back towards Toby. Between them they managed to get the girl leaned against the stake, where Summer was willing to hold her steady.
“Now Cezar.” Toby cocked his head and Moira nodded. Then, as Toby splashed to his knees to complete the same manoeuvre, she hesitated.
“This is a challenge, right?” She frowned.
“So?” Toby glared up at her.
“Why the Sun would I want tae help youse?”
“It’s not me you’re helping, it’s Cezar, come on.”
Cezar was moaning again and the tide was pulling his trousers. His skin was already red where the salt had burned him.
“Still competition, ain’t he?”
Toby blinked. She was right. What had he been thinking helping Lenka and Moira when he and Ayla needed to win?
“Toby says the challenge is a maze. We’re not competing.” Summer said suddenly. “We’re the prize.”
“She’s right.” Toby’s jaw tightened. “It doesn’t matter what we do, the loser will be the last one out of that tunnel.” He glanced at the opening in the wall.
Moira turned to follow his gaze. “You’re saying we just have tae sit here and wait?”
Toby frowned as he nodded. “Why us?”
“We’re all blond,” Summer answered him. “We’re Suns. The Moon has to follow the Sun – that’s scripture.”
“So they have tae find us?” Moira sneered. “Shouldn’t be hard. The streets of Glasgow’re a bloody maze.”
“Now will you help with Cezar?” Toby snapped.
Finally Moira nodded and the two of them got the semi-conscious boy to the stake, where he managed to grip the weathered wood for himself.
Toby examined the metal post. The ring at the top where their chains were attached was corroded. The tide would reach all the way up to it. He exhaled shakily and looked out to sea. The tide was still rising.
Had the challenge started? Toby felt the skin on his feet begin to peel away. He would soon be bleeding.
“Come on, Ayla,” he whispered.
The sun traced its path towards midday and glittered from the salt like diamonds. All five of them were now huddled as close to the shore as possible. A distant scream made them all jump.
“What’s happening?” Summer whispered, but Toby simply shook his head.
“Look!” Cezar shouted. “Someone’s coming.”
“Who is it – can you see?” Summer squinted into the tunnel.
“It has to be Ayla.” Toby leaned forward. She alone had the secret to getting through the maze. She had to be first out.
It wasn’t Ayla.
The person stumbling down the tunnel, looking behind him as though lava were chasing him, was Arthur.
He paused when he saw the group then, when Summer cried his name, he raced forwards.
“I’m coming!” He burst from the tunnel and didn’t stop. He plunged into the salt as though it was freshwater and threw his arms around Summer. “They said there was a time limit and that you were in danger.” He looked around. “I had no idea it would be this.” He lifted her hands gently. “Your poor skin, how bad is it?”
“I’m all right. You?”
“It was bad.” Arthur shook his head. “There’re traps. Brody stepped on a stone that moved and it tipped him head first into a statue. I had to leave him behind.”
Moira gasped.
Arthur pulled a thin chain from his shirt. On it hung a blackened key and a label with a rough picture of Summer drawn on it. “Let me get those chains off.” He turned to Toby, Lenka and Cezar. “We had to find the correct key and then the exit. I don’t know where the others are. Maybe they stepped on traps, too.” He unlocked Summer’s chains and lifted her into his arms.
“Unchain us, too.” Lenka raised her arms. “It won’t change anything, whoever is last out is last out.”
“It won’t work.” Arthur carried Summer towards the beach. “One key, one lock,” he said over his shoulder.
“Try,” Moira pleaded, but Arthur shook his head.
Moira cursed as Arthur headed for a pile of rocks near the tunnel entrance.
Lenka yelled and pointed, and Toby’s gaze was drawn back to the tunnel. This time the figure sprinting for the light was definitely female.
“Ayla,” he shouted, but there was no reply.
“Bianca!” Cezar cried gratefully as she drew nearer.
Bianca unchained Cezar and then stepped away, offering her partner no support. Cezar staggered out of the sea and on to the sand, his broken leg trembling like a mast in a storm.
Bianca didn’t follow him. Instead she ran her nails over Toby’s cheek. “They got her,” she said in a voice like honey. “I was planning to do it myself, but I didn’t need to. She was ahead – had your key and everything – then she stopped to direct Arthur to Summer’s key and that’s when they got her. Stupid cow.”
Toby’s knees almost collapsed. “You’re lying. Ayla wouldn’t have stopped.”
Bianca backed out of the water, giving a little wave. “Guess she figured she only had to beat one of us. Don’t worry,” she directed her final words to Lenka and Moira. “Toby’s the one losing today.”
TWENTY
The sun ticked on and the sea continued to rise in bursts. Now the tide reached Toby’s ribs, sucking at his shirt. It felt as if a million ants were biting. It was probably a good thing that his hands were stuck behind his back, or he wouldn’t be able to resist scratching, opening his skin and poisoning himself even more.
After what Bianca had said, the girls had backed away as far as they could go and left him to his misery. Even Moira had no words to taunt him.
“Where are they?” Lenka muttered eventually.
“It’s a maze – they’re lost.” Toby’s eyes were pinned to the tunnel, still hoping.
Bianca had said that they had got Ayla, but Bianca didn’t know Ayla the way he did. She would never give up. If she was alive, they still had a chance. The longer the tunnel went empty, the more likely it was that Ayla would be the next one out of it.
But time beat on, measured by the thump of his heart and the pull and push of the tide, and she did not emerge.
The water rose over Toby’s chest. He could no longer feel his legs at all. Numb was probably better than tingling … or did that mean permanent damage? He thought longingly of Uma’s barrier cream.
“They willnae let us drown, will they?” For the first time since he had met her, Moira sounded frightened.
Toby tore his gaze from the tunnel. Moira’s spiky Mohawk gave the impression of height but now, as the tide bubbled at her chin, he saw that she was much shorter than he was.
“Ashes.” He closed his eyes.
If the girls drowned, they would be out of the running for the festival, the challenge over. If Moira or Lenka succumbed, he and Ayla would surely win by default. He pictured Ayla lying injured somewhere. The sooner the girls drowned, the faster Ayla could get help.
He owed Moira nothing.
The Phoenix was the important thing – Toby and Ayla had to win the competition and get the inverters out to her.
“Damn it all to hell and ash,” Toby couldn’t let her die in front of him. He waded awkwardly through the water to Moira. Her eyes glittered with terror and she was tugging ineffectually at her chains.
“You’ll dislocate your shoulder,” Toby snapped. “Stop it.”
“We’re gonnae drown!” Her accent was getting even thicker and she twisted as she floated in the lifting tide.
“Shut up.” Toby crouched as low as he could without submerging his own face. He could not use his arms for balance, so he spread his feet and dug them into the sucking sand.
“What’re ye doin’?” Moira gasped.
“Get on,” Toby snapped.
“Are ye serious?”
Lenka gaped as Moira struggled on to Toby’s bent thighs and lifted her face out of reach of the salt. Toby wobbled dangerously.
“You’re going to fall,” Lenka said eventually. She too waded closer. She leaned against Toby’s back, propping him up. Then her fingers found his and she gave them a squeeze.
Arthur was yelling. Toby looked towards the tunnel. Two shadowy figures limped towards them. He sagged, his heart sinking at the inevitability of it: Matus and Brody.
How badly would it hurt to have his tongue removed? And what would be worse: being forced to work in the sanctuary for the rest of his life or knowing he had let down the Phoenix? The captain would try and get him out, of course, but he didn’t think there would be any escape.
He returned his attention to the tunnel to see who would be out first. At first he thought he saw a trick of the sun – it looked as if Matus had a third limb. Then the limb moved sideways and Ayla was behind them. She was catching up.
He jerked to his feet, dunking Moira into the salt.
“Ayla!” he yelled.
Her head shot up and she moved faster.
All three of the runners were shambling, exhausted. Ayla dragged one leg behind her, her hands clamped around her thigh. Matus’s right ankle was at the wrong angle and each time he put weight on it his whole body twitched. Brody had to hold on to the tunnel wall, half shuffling, as blood dripped from his hairline into his eyes. Toby remembered Arthur saying that he had hit his head.
As Ayla drew level, Matus tried to shove her. She dodged and almost collapsed as her bad leg took her weight, then she loped forwards. Again Matus tried to push her backwards, but this time she was ready.
Instead of dodging his arm, she released her thigh and grabbed his wrist and elbow.
Toby gasped as he saw the crimson sheen of blood on her leg.
With a practised twist, Ayla forced Matus to his knees and used her good knee to dislocate his shoulder. Toby flinched at the crack and Lenka screamed as loudly as Matus. Ayla released him and he rolled sideways.
“Matus, think of the Sun!” Lenka shouted.
As Ayla overtook him, Matus rolled to his knees and grabbed her ankle with his good arm. Toby grunted as she went down with a thud and a puff of dust.
As Matus crawled up Ayla’s legs, Brody stopped walking. He swayed, unfocused.
It was Moira’s turn to scream. She jumped as high as she could, thrusting her face from the water. “Brody!”
Brody saw her, frowned and staggered onwards.
Ayla howled as Matus reached her injured thigh and punched it as hard as he could. She twisted and kicked but couldn’t shake him.
“Brody!” Moira choked as a wave pushed her under.
Ayla managed to clamp her own good leg around Matus’s throat, while Brody stumbled for the exit.
Toby watched, heart in his throat, as Brody moved into the light and paused. Then, as Moira’s screams were once again lost in the salt, he wobbled on to the beach. Finally he splashed into the water and had enough presence of mind to lift Moira out of the salt.
“Where’s th’ key, Brody?” Moira panted.
“Key?” Brody frowned.
“For the chains.”
“The key!” Brody tried to hold her with one arm while he patted his pockets. As he searched, clarity returned to his eyes and his face fell.
“I’m gonnae have tae put ye down.” He pressed his forehead to his cousin’s. Moira nodded and he dropped her.
His search became so frantic that Toby’s attention was pulled from Ayla’s fight with Matus.
“Is it round your neck?” Toby muttered. “That’s where Arthur’s was.”
Brody nodded and pulled desperately at his collar. “Oh Sun, I cannae find it.”
He lifted Moira, whose head was fully underwater. “Ah cannae find th’ key. Ah must have lost it when the trap sprung…” He glanced back to the maze. “Ah’ll go back.”
“There’s no time,” Lenka whispered.
She was right. If Brody left her, Moira would have only moments left, and Ayla and Matus would be out of the maze before he could return. Toby could see the thoughts chasing themselves over their faces.
“Look again,” Moira spluttered. “It has to be on ye.”
“It’s not.” Brody exhaled shakily. “Ah failed.”
A whoop of triumph drew Toby’s attention and he watched Ayla shake free of Matus and begin to crawl, leaving him lying still behind her.
She dragged herself towards the tunnel exit. Beside him Brody sobbed quietly, his tears vanishing into the rising salt.
“Matus!” Lenka was pleading with her partner to get up.
“Come on, Ayla,” Toby called.
“Shut your mouth.” Lenka whipped around to face him, her expression vicious. “Wake up, Matus!”
He started to stir.
“Ayla, he’s coming round!” Toby screamed.
Ayla took a moment to haul herself to her feet then kept moving. The tunnel seemed never ending.
Behind her, Matus started to crawl.
Then Ayla was at the tunnel edge and passing the line of shade cast by the sun.
Ayla curled her lip at Lenka as she reached Toby. “They tried to stop me.” She grabbed Toby’s shoulders.
“Scum!” Toby spat. Brody and Matus had considered Ayla enough of a threat to hurt her, yet they had still managed to underestimate her.
He glanced at Brody, who was trembling with the effort of holding Moira out of the water.
“The key?” Toby asked.
Ayla raised her arm – it was wrapped around her wrist.
“Get me out of these chains.” Toby bent over to present his lock. The salt sucked at his clothes and chin, but Toby raised his arms as high as his shoulders would allow.
Ayla unwrapped the key chain just as Matus crossed out of the maze. With a smirk she raised the key, put it in Toby’s lock and tried to turn it.
Nothing happened.
“Ayla?” Toby’s heart thumped.
“It’s not moving,” she spoke through gritted teeth.
Lenka stood up straighter. “Matus, quick – there’s something wrong with their key.”
Matus started to run; hobbling on his injured ankle.
“Ayla,” Toby warned.
He could feel her behind him, frantically shaking the lock. “I can’t turn it.”
“It must be the wrong key.”
Ayla shook her head. “There was one for each of us. That’s how I knew where Arthur’s was, I found his before I found mine.”
“Then it’s just stiff. Try harder.” Toby leaned down, trying to lift his hands higher out of the salt. Seawater thrust past his lips making him choke, but he forced himself to remain low, so Ayla could see what she was doing.
He felt, rather than saw, Matus splash into the surf.
His chains shook as Ayla yanked and pulled at the lock. Her howl of frustration undulated over the water.
Then, suddenly, the chains slipped free, his arms snapped open and Toby burst from the waves. He grabbed Ayla’s arm, put it over his shoulder and pulled her on to the beach.
When he heard a clang Toby looked back. Lenka’s cha
ins were swinging back to the post. She too was free. Brody stood helplessly, holding Moira up, and watched them go.
Toby thudded into the rocks next to Arthur and Summer and started to strip off his sodden clothes. Summer hadn’t removed her baggy cream dress – was she really so modest that she preferred to sit in salt-soaked cloth than remove it?
Toby forgot about the girl as the skin of his legs peeled off along with his trousers and he squealed.
“Ashes, Toby, how long did they have you in the salt?” Ayla started to help him, her fingers gentle as she pulled his shirt over his head.
“Too long,” Cezar answered for him. “Moira would’ve died without you, Toby.”
“She still will, if they don’t get her out of there right now,” Arthur muttered.
“Where are they?” Toby growled. “Where are the damned attendants? They must be watching to see who loses.”
Cezar pointed. “There’re hatches all along the wall. This must’ve been real entertaining for them.” His voice was sharp with bitterness.
“How’s your leg?” Toby grabbed Ayla’s thigh. “What did they stab you with?”
“A sharpened branch.” Ayla pushed his hands off.
“You shouldn’t have pulled it out.” Toby said, just as Matus dumped Lenka next to Bianca. He threw himself at Matus, thudding into his chest with a noise like a sack of grain hitting a deck. “I’ll kill you.”
“Arthur, stop them,” Summer squeaked.
Arthur made no move. “Matus deserves what he gets,” he said, turning his face away.
Toby punched Matus, hearing the satisfying crack of bone under his fist. Matus put his hands over his head. “It’s a competition,” he shouted. “What did you expect?”
“Not this.” Toby grabbed Matus’s hair and forced his head around so that he was looking at Ayla’s bleeding leg.
“I can’t blame you for cheating,” Ayla said. She reached out a hand, silently asking Cezar to help her stand. “Ask Toby – I’ve cheated him. But if you’re going to cheat, make sure you damn well win. The fact is, at this point, if you think the only way you can win is to cheat then you’ve already lost.” She turned her back on him.
Phoenix Burning Page 18
