City of Dust Read online

  ‘Thankfully the chaos gave us time to find our way out through the Hypogeum. There’s a network of old tunnels on two separate levels beneath the Flavium, and more than eighty vertical shafts so … a lot of dark corners to check.’

  ‘And we had a little help from the Oceanids.’

  ‘The Oceanids.’ I stumbled over the new word, struggling to keep up.

  ‘Sssh!’ Aelia warned suddenly, pausing.

  Everyone stopped, and my chest snapped like a Venus flytrap. I swallowed a groan, as a faint wooden beat became discernible. It was the heavy booted toll of pursuit.

  ‘They’ve gained on us in the last hour,’ Max muttered.

  ‘They must have got past the strix now,’ Aelia added. ‘Unus, the Oceanids? Will they help us again do you think? How far ’til the Dead City? We have to get there before the molossers pick up our scent!’

  Unus nodded gravely, before turning his head away and emitting a noise I’d not heard before. It wasn’t the belly rumble he used to scatter the strix, but something far more muted, like a primitive call, from deep within his chest. I listened through my stupor, trying to focus on something other than the medieval torture taking place inside my own body.

  The world stilled for a few seconds, but even I could feel the pressure of the ticking clock.

  Was I slipping out of consciousness again? The cavern roof was flickering with the reflection of ghostly lights. Or at least that’s how it looked. Not the reflection of real lanterns or old-world torches, just wild, dancing lights. Then there was the sound of water lapping. I struggled as much as my chest would allow, and finally Unus relented enough for me to crane my neck.

  To my astonishment, we were standing beside a small, black water course that looked ice-cold and deep.

  ‘What’s with the water?’ I managed weakly.

  ‘We’re inside one of the old Isca Dumnoniorum water tunnels, designed to bring fresh water directly into the heart of the old Roman city of Isca. Rajid discovered it. He was so passionate about the old city …’ She paused uncertainly, and I realized Max must have told her about our entrance into the Flavium with Rajid.

  Had he trapped us? Or were Livia and Cassius tracking Rajid the way Octavia had tracked us when we first arrived in Pantheon? I thought back to his detached, erratic manner. Was it all an act?

  ‘Just what makes you so special?’

  The words rattled inside me like loose stones.

  ‘He discovered the spring in a corner of the Hypogeum near the Spoliarium, where they strip the dead, but we couldn’t spare the Prolet workers to explore it until recently,’ she pushed on. ‘We were going to announce it to the Senate – a project for the new partnership – but things fell apart before we got the chance. So Rajid concealed the entrance with some rubble. It didn’t take long for Unus to clear it back, and it worked in our favour to let the strix follow us.

  ‘Furious though Livia and Cassius must be, there isn’t a guard in Pantheon who would risk passing a starving strix, so they must have either rounded them up or fed them. That’s good news for us.’

  Unus lifted his head again, and the same soft, ancient sound filled the tunnel. This time it was so haunting it made me shiver. And much to my incredible surprise it was echoed a few seconds later. An octave higher.

  I’d learned enough about Pantheon to know when something wasn’t simply a distortion of the thick walls around us. The echo was such a pure sound, almost as though the water itself was sharing its song. And then the dancing lights dimmed momentarily.

  I watched, entranced. It was a sound of nature, of the elements harmonizing. The cold cavernous ceiling was coming to life, and I could almost believe I was lying in the lush grass of Arafel beside Max, watching the fireflies dance around our heads.

  And then there was a ripple. And a voice. Or rather a cacophony of sounds. They filled the tunnel although I still couldn’t be sure they were real.

  The water rippled again and, on the edge of my vision, a dark shape broke the surface. I opened my mouth, but my voice refused to come out.

  The shape separated into two and then three, and then it turned towards us. It had a face, three of them. They glimmered in the murky light, like the glimpse of scales beneath water, while their hair writhed like sea anemones all the while. I held my scant breath. With black ovoid eyes, glistening skin and pulsing slatted gills, these creatures were different to any others I’d ever seen.

  The only question was, to which world did they belong?

  Unus emitted another soft noise, indicating behind us with one of his club hands. And through a haze of pain, my chest throbbed for the simple giant who, time after time, had proven such an ally. I leaned my head back and listened to the slow, slightly irregular beat of his heart, like chasing thunder. It gave me the strength I needed to absorb the new arrivals.

  Their large eyes possessed the entirety of their eye sockets. It gave them a ghoulish appearance, but undoubtedly equipped them well for the lightless water. And rather than swim, they appeared to float on the water, as though they weighed nothing more than sea spray.

  Grandpa’s voice reached through the haze. I was twelve years old, listening to him read a page from Arafel’s book of mythology aloud. A page about ancient water goddesses.

  ‘They’re called Oceanids,’ he’d enunciated carefully, ‘or sea nymphs, fabled to have once lived in the earth’s springs, rivers, seas, lakes and ponds.’

  I was fascinated even back then. A human torso combined with a long, muscular tail sounded Gothic and tantalizing. But although the Oceanids had appeared magical through my childish eyes, there was nothing fairy-tale about the creatures staring back from the water now. They were pure, ancient myth.

  ‘Clymene, Asia, Electra, we need your help,’ Aelia said quickly and softly. ‘We are being pursued by Cassius’s guard and their molossers. We understand your allegiance is to none and you’ve helped us once already. But you may not be aware we carry an injured Outsider. One of whom you may have heard … Talia Hanway, descendant of Thomas Hanway, and last guardian of the Book of Arafel.’

  The silver faces inclined briefly, as though in recognition of new information.

  ‘We need protection and the shortest route to the Dead City,’ Aelia concluded, glancing over her shoulder. ‘And we’ve no time to lose.’

  I frowned, despite the energy it cost. Why would the Oceanids have heard of a girl from the outside?

  There was a moment of silence, before an unnatural noise filled the cavernous space. It was much like the sound I’d heard before, only less distorted by the water. Unus jerked his great head forward, as the silent three slid back beneath the inky water. Then he started forward again, his one eye flitting between the rock path and the water that occasionally gleamed with eerie light. I gazed upwards at the contours of his face, and as reality receded, I wondered what other ancient secrets they protected.

  ‘We need to pick up the pace,’ Max urged from behind us.

  No one argued.

  ‘Aelia … Lake? The Book?’ I muttered, feeling my eyelids sink as though under the weight of a thousand fathoms.

  ‘Later.’

  The word danced, as oblivion carried me out of reach.

  Chapter 17

  ‘She was always the most stubborn girl, never could be told anything. I should never have stayed behind when she went to see the tower with Atticus!’

  There were swift fingers, signing, somewhere to my right.

  ‘I knew she was waiting for her moment to try for Pantheon. At least if I’d been there, she might not be half-dead from wrestling a Minotaurus for a start!’

  Eli’s stress coaxed me back from my retreat of shadows and underwater voices. He sounded really worried, and more than a little annoyed.

  ‘You would have been no help at all,’ I muttered shakily. ‘An irate Minotaurus would have tested even your talents.’

  The homely scent of warm broth suddenly assailed me, and I breathed it in, savouring the moment a
nd trying to hold on to the new dream. It was a good one. The air was so much fresher here than the stifling atmosphere of the tunnels. I could almost believe I was home. I forced my other eye fully open and the room spun like a spider’s web. The dream wasn’t disappearing; the air really was fresher here.

  My head began to pound, and the oddly familiar surroundings chased away the remainder of my sleep. I was in a circular stone room, on a makeshift bed, with large bronzed bells suspended above my head. Had we made it back to the tower?

  Carefully I craned my neck, relieved to see the faces of the young Prolets scattered around the large bell room, playing and chatting. It seemed such a naive, vulnerable scene after Ludi. They couldn’t be less aware of the interest they had stirred up in Isca Pantheon. Or of the collective danger they were still in.

  I forced myself up onto my elbow, ignoring the shooting pain down my left side. At least it was bearable now.

  ‘What’s happening? How long have I been out? Eli? Max!’ I croaked.

  ‘Hang on, sleeping beauty, let me check your bandages before you start throwing those badass moves again!’

  I hadn’t noticed Aelia sitting up beyond my head, resting against the cavern wall. Her small elfin features were twisted up into an ironic grin, but there was no missing the dark circles beneath her eyes.

  She slid around and, lifting a thin blanket, peeked through a long incision in my tunic. Only once she was satisfied the bandages, which looked a lot like Max’s trouser bindings, weren’t seeping did she look back at me.

  ‘You’ve been out a couple of days. Nothing major,’ she confirmed with a perfunctory smile. ‘A couple of broken ribs, thought one had punctured your right lung to begin with, but turned out to have narrowly missed. You managed to form a tension pneumothorax, but we released the air.’

  I nodded. That had to explain the sharp pain among the haze.

  ‘You lost a lot of blood though, and I had to sew you up using a sterilized bone from the Armamentarium – and some sheet thread. Thought maybe you were getting an infection but your fever broke last night so … I think you’ll do.’

  After another swift inspection, she closed my tunic and pressed her small hand to my forehead. I closed my eyes and recognized the familiar pressure. She clearly hadn’t left my side at all.

  ‘Unus?’

  I gazed around warily, recalling the Oceanids.

  ‘He’s keeping watch at the bottom of the tower. The Oceanids led us through the water tunnels to the old bathhouse where the kids were sheltering before they moved up here.’

  I nodded. There was something prophetic about sheltering in the blackened ruin of a Roman city, with a two thousand-year-old bathhouse beneath our feet. Wherever we went, a shadow of the ancient civilization followed.

  ‘He volunteered,’ Aelia continued, eyeballing me carefully, ‘just in case any ravenous, wanderlust-filled strix tailed us this far. We spent the first night hiding in a Hypogeum cave, then the strix got so close Unus had to carry you. Max and I ran a few of the outlying tunnels beneath the Flavium, which should help to confuse the molossers.

  ‘We got lost a few times, before Unus summoned the Oceanids, but once we had a guide we made it here in a couple of hours. Just as well. That wound needs time to knit.’

  Aelia’s exhausted tone said everything about how close a call it had been, and I managed a small nod. I knew anyway. I could still feel the shadow close by. And I wanted to ask so many questions – about August, about the Prolets, about exactly why she stole the Book. The questions crowded my dazed mind, competing for attention.

  I glanced around the large, stone room. It was dark outside, and there was no way of telling the time, but it didn’t matter because I could see the stars, and the shy night sky. And in that moment, it was one of the most reparative sights I’d ever seen.

  I scanned the room carefully. Most of the young Prolets were exactly as we left them – pale, thin but in good spirits. Leaving Max. Who was seated at a small, round table, adjusting the settings of his crossbow. Ignoring me.

  A wave of dormant guilt welled up as the Ludi maze returned in raw detail. He’d been there in my shadow, saved me countless times, and yet when we’d faced our final moment together I’d still stopped him from saying what he most needed to say. Our coiled bodies flashed through my head, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than for him to hold me, to whisper my name like he had that night. To feel that closeness and trust. I stared, needing to say so many things, and understanding none of them as a persistent tug on my sleeve dragged my gaze back.

  ‘So, what’s a brother got to do to get some attention around here?’ Eli signed.

  He leaned forward, and dropped the lightest of kisses on top of my head.

  ‘Welcome back, most stubborn of girls,’ he signed, scanning my face intently.

  ‘Just so you know, when you’re all healed up, I intend to be very annoyed with you.’

  ‘Just so you know,’ I retorted, ‘when I’m all healed up, I intend to avoid ungrateful brothers!’

  ‘How is your leg now?’ I added pointedly.

  ‘OK.’ He smiled as I threw another glance at Max, who stared down at his crossbow stubbornly. My fragile hope crumbled. He didn’t understand I couldn’t say goodbye, not to him. It would be like saying goodbye to myself. So maybe this was it, maybe he would pull away now, and I would be the one left hurting. Maybe that was no more than a ghost girl deserved anyway.

  ‘Aelia … Lake? The Book? Why did you take it? Where is it now?’ I rushed, the words sticking at the back of my dry throat.

  There was a pregnant silence while Aelia contemplated her hands, her pulse just visible in her neck.

  ‘Cassius has Lake and the Book. Along with the rest of the Prolets. You must have seen them, imprisoned, forced to watch their friends and family run the Ludi Labyrinth one by one. No one has survived it before us. I’m so sorry, Talia.’ Her quiet words came in a rush. ‘Rajid and I thought we could trade the Book of Arafel for the Prolets’ freedom. And reassure them enough to try for the outside. But with the price Cassius has placed on your head … Well, you’ve become a little legendary yourself.’

  I frowned, watching her dry lips move. I knew Cassius must hate me for escaping his clutches and yet there was always this hint of something else. A piece of the jigsaw missing.

  ‘When I returned to Isca Prolet, Cassius had rounded up every man, woman and child and thrown them into the Flavium dungeons for Ludi Pantheonares,’ she continued. ‘He was always unpleasant when Octavia was in charge. But Livia – she’s fanning his psychosis … and now … now he’s turning out to be worse than Octavia!’

  I thought back to when he’d nearly forced himself on me, and fought the stir of nausea inside.

  ‘He’s not worse,’ I corrected. ‘He’s always been a monster.’

  I could feel Eli’s hawk-like gaze on me. He knew how I felt about Cassius, and I could sense the control he was exerting over his anger. He was hardly likely to let me out of his sight ever again. I shot him a covert glance. His mouth was set, his lips thin. I’d pushed him with my latest escapade. If only he could see it was because I wanted to protect the Book, the Prolets, Arafel and everyone who lived there. Because I wanted to protect him.

  Aelia lifted a cup of water to my lips, and I took it with effort.

  ‘Heal the body, heal the mind, Talia.’

  I’d heard Mum say it so many times, I could even hear the little inflections in her voice. I inhaled deeply. Cassius and his menagerie were searching for us, and it was only a matter of time before we were discovered. Thinking myself better had to start right now.

  ‘The Prolet trials, Aelia.’ I grimaced. ‘The embryonic workforce in laboratory tanks, their independent will suppressed so they are more obedient. It’s … obscene! Did you know about it?’

  She looked at me carefully before gesticulating discreetly at the young Prolets in the room.

  ‘They’re the product of the first, unsuccessful roun
d of the same scientific trials.’ Her voice was low and serious. ‘It’s genetic modification work Octavia’s team started in secret, before Cassius took over and made it an official part of the ongoing Biotechnology Programme. Somehow, after August left, Cassius pushed the proposal through the Senate – the new Senate comprising only Pantheonite members.’

  ‘It’s the worst kind of scientific intrusion!’ I exclaimed heatedly. ‘Free will makes us who we are. Without it the Prolets will be nothing but obedient clones, genetically modified workhorses until they drop!’

  I coughed, and a racking pain claimed my right side.

  She paused, regarding me quietly.

  ‘You think I don’t know that? These are my people, Talia. No one hates that laboratory more than me. When Rajid discovered it, I didn’t believe him. I thought even Cassius couldn’t be responsible for that level of insanity. So he took me there, and yes, it’s like the worst nightmare you’ve ever had. But getting angry doesn’t make it go away. We have to be smarter than that.’

  ‘And Rajid has,’ I interjected drily.

  She stared at me, clearly struggling with the idea that Rajid could be a traitor.

  ‘Rajid was always so passionate, I can’t … Look, I’ve been wondering, maybe Cassius was tracking him once the Prolets were rounded up? Using him as bait, knowing you would come?’

  I drew a breath. I’d wondered the same myself, hadn’t I? So why didn’t I believe it? ‘The drawing?’ I pushed on. ‘Why tear a page out of the Book of Arafel and hide it?’

  My mind whirled with too many unanswered questions, before settling momentarily on the tiny hybrid creature in the laboratory.

  ‘Was it to do with the chimera work?’ I whispered croakily, shifting to pull myself up against the wall. ‘We saw something …’

  She hesitated before nodding. ‘The multi-genus work has been going on for some time … You might have seen evidence before in Isca Prolet? We were trying to challenge it in the Senate before August left.’

  She threw a swift glance around before returning her attention to us.