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‘Unam?’
The uther came closer. Lenoir could see its paws trembling in the dark.
‘What is it?’
‘Come.’ It cost uthers a lot to speak in a way that could be understood by Ripers and humans.
Knowing that, Lenoir replied immediately. ‘Show me.’
Unam hesitated.
‘What? What is it?’ asked Lenoir.
It ran its paws through its whiskers and then plucked at the fur on its arm, clearly disturbed by something. ‘Old ones make danger.’
Lenoir nodded. The uther had brought a warning that the Grave Elders had turned against him, and he appreciated its loyalty.
‘I understand. But you see, Unam, danger is all there is now.’
‘How long?’ asked Markes.
They had stopped to rest again. Emilia was not used to walking in such rough conditions and she had started to moan softly.
‘Hush,’ Liam hissed, turning fiercely on her. ‘You bring them on us.’
Markes gestured for him to stop. ‘Mind yourself,’ he said.
For a long and tense moment, Naif thought Liam might lash out at Markes, but Suki’s blood friend flicked his tentacles with disdain and stalked ahead to take the lead.
Markes scowled at the boy’s disappearing back and then took Emilia’s hands in his own. ‘There are creatures in the dark, Emilia,’ he reminded her gently. ‘We must be quiet. I know it’s hard, but we must.’
The girl began to cry. ‘I should have stayed behind. I’m slowing you down.’
Markes gave Naif a helpless glance. She gestured that he should step away from them, and as he did, she knelt down next to Emilia.
‘Emilia, I don’t know you well,’ she said carefully. ‘But I know how strong you are.’
The girl lifted her head. In the flickering torchlight, Naif saw that her grimy face was tracked by wet marks. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You’ve endured many . . . things. You can get through this.’
Emilia’s eyes widened. ‘What do you know about me?’ she whispered.
‘Your father . . .’ said Naif.
The girl gripped her hand. ‘What has Jarrold told you –’
‘Nothing,’ said Naif, cutting her off. ‘He said nothing. But I guessed.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’
‘I do know and I don’t care . . . What I mean is, it doesn’t matter here. We’re all starting again. It just proves that you’re strong. You can survive. You can get through this.’ She lowered her voice even further. ‘But Markes is running out of time. Can you do this for him?’
Emilia smoothed her fingers over her face and with the action her expression became more serene. It was a gesture she’d practised before. ‘Yes, I can.’ She stood up.
Markes stepped back towards them. ‘Em?’
‘I’m fine. We should keep going,’ she said.
Naif took the lead, hating the way Markes gently took Emilia’s arm. Fear and confusion and jealousy racked her. It was difficult to tease one away from the other, so she stopped trying.
She peered into the dark, wondering how far ahead Liam had gone, or if he was waiting close by for them in the blackness. Suki’s friend was capable, and he didn’t waste time. Naif didn’t want to lose him from their mission. He’d been through a failed withdrawal and would know things about the Ripers that they did not. He might not tell her, but he would tell Suki.
Suki! How desperately she wanted to see her friend.
Naif held her torch aloft, looking for Liam, but all the halo of light revealed was a large boulder blocking the path. She walked up to it and pushed but it didn’t move.
Where is Liam? Naif wanted to call out to him but didn’t dare.
Markes came up behind and leaned his weight against the rock.
‘It’s stuck in a hole, almost like the ground has subsided around it,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to go around.’
‘Leaving the paths is dangerous,’ said Naif. ‘The lights that mark them are the only thing keeping the Night Creatures away.’
‘I know that,’ he whispered. ‘But the rock’s too slippery and big to climb over.’
Naif looked up and down the slope on either side.
‘We should go down,’ said Markes. ‘The incline seems gentler below.’
‘It is. But the ground is loose. The brush on the high side of us will give our feet better grip.’
‘It’s too steep that way,’ he said quietly. ‘Emilia will struggle.’
‘She’ll be fine,’ said Naif between clenched teeth. Markes’s fussing over the other girl had begun to bother her.
‘Where’s Liam?’ asked Emilia, coming up behind them.
Markes shrugged. ‘Probably decided he was better off alone.’
‘It’s not surprising. I mean, he’s not really . . . human, is he?’ said Emilia.
‘Yes he is!’ retorted Naif. ‘He didn’t ask for that to happen to him! It could easily be you or me. Would you call Markes less than human because his hand had altered?’
Emilia didn’t reply and the three stood in awkward silence for a moment.
‘We’ll try the higher way first,’ said Markes to placate Naif.
But it only made her angrier. Using the torch as a staff to lean on, she climbed. Each step sent a jolt of effort through her muscles and the thick brush scratched her legs. Yet she knew they’d come the right way. If they’d tried to walk underneath the boulder they may have slid halfway down the island on the loose scree.
Naif glanced over her shoulder. Markes’s and Emilia’s shadows had merged as if one and she quickly turned back.
Catching her breath, she looked for the next place to step. The Lesser Path they’d been forced to detour from snaked ahead in a twisted pale line, only a few steps away.
She stepped down, placing her foot on a small tuft of brush. As her weight shifted forward, the clump moved. She overbalanced and plunged sideways, dropping her torch. Something barbed curled around her calf and hooked into her flesh.
Naif kicked out with her other foot and brought the spear around sharply. She jammed it into something thick and fleshy, and the barbed tentacle retracted. Then a moan in the nearby darkness scared her.
‘Markes!’
She heard scuffling noises and Emilia’s terrified yelps.
‘Na-if!’ gasped Markes, his voice laced with pain and fear.
Naif got to her feet. Markes’s and Emilia’s torches had been snuffed out and hers lay snagged between rocks a few paces away, flickering.
She lashed out with her spear before stepping forward to retrieve her torch. Picking it up, she swung it high, casting the light as far as she could.
Emilia was behind her, curled up against the boulder.
Markes? She swung the torch in a circle. Where is he? Where? Her light wavered and then caught on the texture of clothing under some bushes down the incline from where she stood. Her heart thumped painfully. She took a step forward.
‘Where are you going?’ whispered Emilia. ‘Don’t leave me.’
The girl scrambled forward on her hands and knees and grabbed Naif’s ankle.
Naif used her free foot to push Emilia’s fallen spear closer. ‘Take this and defend yourself.’
‘No,’ said Emilia softly. ‘I can’t.’
‘Take it!’ Naif ordered her. ‘I’m going down to get Markes.’
Emilia picked up the spear as though it might sting her. ‘What is it? What’s out there?’
‘Night Creatures. Where’s your torch?’
‘I-I don’t know. Markes had them both.’
Naif wanted to chastise her for not holding her own light, but it was pointless now. She looked up at the boulder. On this side, it was pitted enough to climb onto.
‘Get up and off the ground.’
Emilia did as she was told, scrambling to her feet and then up onto the rock.
When she was off the ground, Naif turned away, saying, ‘Keep your spear ready.’
But he was gone.
The Night Creatures watched her. She could feel them, the way she’d felt Leyste when he’d stalked her. Had they told their brothers she was back? Perhaps the altered clothing and her soft pirate’s shoes and tied hair would confuse them?
When she’d escaped Ixion they’d been desperate for her blood, holding her responsible for Leyste’s death. But it had been weeks. Did they remember her? Or did she seem to be just another young one lost on the paths?
They know me, she thought. ‘Markes!’ she called in an urgent voice and swept her makeshift spear and torch in a synchronous arc.
Movement to each side. Shrinking back from the light. Oily skin and the flicker of blinking eyes.
Ixion’s sticky heat became a glove of moisture, drenching her body. Her grip on the torch and spear slipped but she dared not drop her hands to wipe them.
A groan to her right.
She stopped. Swivelled. Over there. Something that wasn’t brush.
She lowered the spear and thrust it forward, parting the leaves. Markes lay underneath, his legs and half his torso invisible. He gripped the roots of a bush in a desperate embrace, arms and face showing the strain of holding on.
‘What is it?’ she hissed.
‘Something underneath,’ he gasped. ‘Pulling me down.’
‘What do you mean underneath?’
‘In the ground.’
‘A tunnel?’
A pained nod. ‘It’s got my legs.’
‘Hold on,’ said Naif. She dropped to her knees and began digging feverishly, gouging the soil with her fingers, scooping it aside. It crumbled under her efforts as though the ground was brittle.
Markes cried out as he suddenly sank lower.
Flashes of the sinkholes in Grave spurred her on. What if the ground completely gave way on them? ‘Hold on!’
Naif began to thrust the spear into the soil, stabbing the area close to his legs.
‘It’s loosening,’ whispered Markes. ‘Watch my legs.’
Naif dropped the makeshift weapon and scraped more furiously. Her hands burned with the friction. Soon she felt the slickness of blood. But she didn’t stop. When her fingers contacted his flesh, he cried out.
Feeling more carefully, she found a barbed tentacle curled around his upper thigh, hooked in tight. She didn’t know if the blood she could smell and feel was her own or his.
Using her fingertips to guide it, she edged the spear into the hole she’d made and angled it at the thick flesh of the Night Creature. As carefully as she could, she gave a quick, short stab at it.
The tentacle quivered. She attacked it again and again until it began to loosen its hold on Markes’s leg. As it retracted and turned its attention to her, she flipped the spear on its edge and sliced the tentacle.
The high-pitched whine of the Night Creatures filled her ears. Naif tried to block the sound out and kept cutting until the tentacle slid away.
Markes coughed and gasped. ‘I’m loose.’
Naif dropped her spear and grabbed Markes’s shoulders. It took all the strength she had to drag him out of the hole.
They lay side by side, spent, for a moment or so before Markes pushed himself upright.
He slipped off his shirt and tied it around his thigh to stem the blood flow.
With shaking hands, Naif retrieved her torch. It had almost burned out.
‘Your hands,’ said Markes. ‘Look at them.’
Naif glanced down briefly, then away. ‘We must get to the path before more Night Creatures come.’
‘Naif . . .’ He reached out. ‘Thank you.’
She shrugged. Didn’t he know she would do anything to save him?
‘Where’s Emilia?’ Markes said suddenly.
‘On the boulder.’
‘You shouldn’t have left her,’ he said accusingly. ‘You promised you’d care for her.’
‘But . . .’ Naif couldn’t speak for the anger that surged through her.
‘What if they’d hurt –’ He stood and swayed.
‘What if they’d killed you? Or what if they’d dragged you underground and turned you into something like them? Something like . . .’
‘Like me,’ said another voice.
Markes and Naif swivelled. Liam stood in the wavering torchlight; his tentacles wound around his spear, his hand holding an unlit torch.
‘No!’ said Naif. ‘I didn’t mean that.’
‘No matter,’ said Liam abruptly. He tilted the torch forward so that it caught light from Naif’s dwindling flame. ‘Torch low. Liam find people. Maybe know?’
Naif put aside her anger. Joel might be close. ‘Who? What do they look like?’ she asked.
‘Come.’ He sounded impatient and excited.
‘Markes is hurt,’ she said automatically.
‘I can walk,’ said Markes. ‘The bleeding has slowed. We can’t stay here.’
They climbed back to the path, where Emilia met them. She slipped her shoulder beneath Markes’s arm and took some of his weight. No one spoke as Liam led them on. Naif hurried after him, not bothering to look back again.
Ahead, she saw one of the huge iron braces that held the kar lines in place. It reminded her of the stanchions under Grave.
Liam headed straight for it and used it like a ladder to climb up to the station. Naif copied him and soon a sign became visible, swinging gently from posts planted at one end of the platform. Once on top, she waited to help Markes.
Not giving them a chance to rest, Liam veered around the edge to the high side.
‘Where are you going?’ whispered Naif as she caught up with him.
‘You see,’ he replied enigmatically.
Suki trusted him, she reminded herself. She must too.
When Emilia and Markes joined them, they left the station behind and followed a narrow, softly lit path until it ended abruptly at the foot of a rise. The undergrowth had been cleared away and the loose rock crunched underneath her feet. Liam put out his torch and motioned for them to do the same. Naif checked her pocket for the flint before she did, telling herself she could relight it quickly.
They stood in the dark, letting their eyes re-adjust, before Liam moved forward again.
He climbed up the small rise almost silently. Naif tried to emulate him, but her feet felt clumsy and tired. Behind her, Emilia and Markes made even more noise.
As they descended the other side, Naif saw a second rise before them, this one slightly higher.
Liam pointed. ‘Maybe friends.’
‘Are they familiar? Do you see Suki?’ asked Naif.
‘No Suki. You see,’ he said to Naif. ‘You stay.’ The latter was to Emilia and Markes.
Naif expected Markes to argue but he just nodded as if grateful to be able to stop and rest.
She stood but Liam pushed her down to the ground.
‘Belly,’ he insisted.
Naif wanted to ignore him but she knew he was right; practical, like Suki. She sank to her hands and knees and began to crawl. It took some time to get to the top of the next ridge, and her hands and knees were stinging and rubbed raw.
Ignoring the pain, she peered over the top. Nestled between the cradle of this ridge and the next one was a bare strip of ground lit by a perimeter of torches. Not naturally bare; the land had been cleared and scraped meticulously. At one end was a rock wall with cave openings. The other end was bordered by a prayer hutch and a rough retaining wall. It was a fortress of sorts.
In the middle were groups of young ones; some sitting, talking quietly, while others stacked what looked like armour and weapons on separate piles.
Naif strained her eyes looking for someone she recognised, the dark making the figures almost ethereal – and then she spotted Eve.
Her heart beat faster with a new rush of nervousness. How would the Cursed League react to her being back? Her presence had almost cost all of their lives at Danskoi.
Na
if slid back down the ridge to the others.
‘I see Dark Eve. It’s the Cursed League.’
‘Thank fross!’ said Markes.
Liam sprang up, but this time it was Naif who placed the restraining hand on him. ‘Let me go first. They will know me.’
‘Be quick!’ said Markes.
She nodded. She knew what he meant; could feel it too. The Night Creatures wouldn’t take long to find them.
She rose and walked up the ridge, deliberately noisy, so the League would hear her coming. Halfway down the other side, hands gripped her from the dark and propelled her roughly down to the cleared ground.
She stumbled but managed to stay upright.
A torch was thrust in her face. ‘Who are you?’ demanded an angry voice.
‘What are you doing here?’ asked another.
‘I’m Naif,’ she said simply. ‘Sister of Clash.’
‘Naif is gone,’ one of them replied, twisting her arm high behind her back.
She knew how to avoid showing pain or weakness. ‘And now I have returned.’
‘Naif ?’
A familiar voice cut across the arguments of those who held her, and the small crowd that had gathered parted for a tall, heavy-set figure. Though they were not close, nor friends even, Naif was relieved to see Dark Eve.
‘Eve!’
With a fierce cuff the leader of the Cursed League knocked aside the guard who held Naif’s arm. He staggered and fell on his backside.
Some of those watching tittered, but Eve’s expression brooked no humour and they quickly fell silent.
‘Come!’ said Eve.
Naif held her hand up to stop her. ‘I have others with me. Markes and two more from Grave. We have information for you.’
She frowned. ‘Bring them in. Quickly. The Night Creatures are restless.’
Naif stepped closer to her and stood on her toes so she could speak in the tall girl’s ear. ‘I would warn you that one of them has been changed by the Ripers but he still is one of us.’
Eve stiffened. ‘Injured?’
‘His withdrawal failed and he was discarded. There are more like him on Grave living in the Old Harbour.’
‘Failed, Naif ? Speak plainly.’
‘It’s best if you see for yourself. But your people might be fearful of him. You have my word that he can be trusted. He knows Suki, from her home.’