Burn Bright

Flanked by Eve and a handful of her League, Naif, Suki, Markes and Charlonge climbed towards Danskoi cathedral.

Ahead, and still a short climb to the cathedral, several paths converged into a nub of clear ground, creating a large pool of light. More Leaguers crouched there, waiting. They faced the dark warily, wearing light bands around their ankles and each carrying a weapon of sorts; sticks or roughly made knives like Suki’s.

Naif hurried through the middle of them, to the far side where Joel knelt watching the outside of Danskoi. Heedless of what any of them thought, she flung herself against him. ‘Joel, I’m here and I’m all right. Cal lied to Rollo.’

He wore armour of tough, thick leather crudely reinforced with metal plating. It scratched her skin and she recoiled from the large sword strapped to his hips.

‘Ret? What’re you talking about?’ he asked. ‘And what’re you doing here?’

She tried to quickly order things in her mind to tell him, but it came out in a desperate rushed whisper. ‘Suki said that … Rollo thought I’d been taken by the Ripers to Danskoi. He’s joined your League and I thought he’d convinced you to come after me …’

Naif became aware of all the Leaguers’ eyes upon her now – not the dark.

Joel swore and stood up. He hauled Naif out of the circle and half-dragged her up the last segment of the path towards the cathedral.

Eve joined them.

‘We’re not here because of you, you stupid idiot,’ said Joel. ‘We’ve got our own plans and you’re not part of them. I told you to stay away – stay with Charlonge.’

‘But Charlonge is here to –’

‘What?’ He swirled and stared back at the others, now herded into the middle of the circle. When he saw Charlonge his expression changed. Naif knew her brother. He was furious and yet … pleased.

Eve saw it too and frowned.

Joel turned back to Naif and grabbed her shoulders. ‘You have to go back down the mountain. Take Charlonge with you.’

‘No,’ said Naif. She shook off his hands. ‘I came to Ixion on my own and have lived that way without any help from you. You can’t just tell me what to do anymore.’

Joel’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘But I always have.’

Naif straightened. ‘I’ve always done what everyone told me to do before. Father, the warden, even you. Not anymore, Joel.’

‘They can’t leave anyway,’ Eve intervened. ‘The scouts say we’re surrounded and I’ve only got a few flares left. We go in, and what will be, will be.’

‘Surrounded? By the Night Creatures?’

Joel and Eve locked gazes and Eve nodded slowly. ‘She might as well know, Joel. She’s in it now whether she likes it or not.’

‘We’ve been watching Danskoi for a while,’ said Joel. ‘The Ripers are spending a lot of time up here. And outside it the place is crawling with Night Creatures. The time is right to find out now while the Ripers are distracted.’

‘Not just distracted,’ said Naif. ‘I’ve come from the Dominion. They never even voted about Ruzalia. Markes and I escaped when they started fighting.’

‘The Ripers fighting?’ Eve’s face came alive.

Naif nodded, swallowing. ‘Tearing at each other like beasts. Brand and Modai against Lenoir and Test.’

Joel glanced over at Charlonge, Suki and Markes. ‘Markes was with you. Is he the musician? The new Circle member?’

Naif nodded. ‘They had him chained to the floor in the Dominion. They planned to use him and Charlonge to lure Ruzalia. They say she covets artists as well as over-agers.’

‘And you freed him?’ asked Eve.

‘After the fighting broke out, no one noticed us.’

‘Why didn’t they vote?’ Eve glanced around as if sensing something again. ‘Tell us. Quickly.’

Naif felt her urgency; it was as if the oxygen had been sucked from the air, the wind from the night.

At a shouted command from Eve, the Leaguers got to their feet and assembled in fighting stance; knees bent, standing arm’s length from each other, pitiful weapons poised. They looked like children playing games, Naif thought, not warriors.

‘Brand told the meeting that one of their own had killed a Night Creature called Leyste.’ Naif dropped her voice to a whisper, but even that seemed loud in the thickening dark.

‘A Riper killed a Night Creature? Is it true?’

Naif nodded again.

‘Why should we believe anything you say?’ demanded Eve.

‘Eve!’ admonished Joel. ‘My sister might be a nuisance but she doesn’t lie.’

A nuisance! Naif wanted to slap him. When had her brother become so arrogant? Or had he always been that way? Full of righteousness and anger?

She raised her leg so that they could see her bruised and bleeding ankle. ‘Is that enough proof? Leyste – a Night Creature – stalked me. He attacked me outside Agios after you left me, Joel.’ She tried to keep the blame out of her voice.

Eve knelt down to examine the wound. ‘It’s one of their marks all right. An older one under the fresh blood. How did you get away from it?’

‘Lenoir killed it …’

As soon as she’d uttered the words she wanted to take them back. Not just from the expressions on Eve and Joel’s faces, but because a howl went up around them from the dark that turned her bones to paste.

Joel thrust her between him and Eve, and drew his sword.

‘Eve?’ he said.

‘Advance!’ bellowed Eve.

The Leaguers ran towards them, two abreast, staying just inside the confines of the narrow path. As they reached Eve and Joel, a freakishly long arm and claw snaked out of the dark and began to drag Cloffie, the leader of the column, from the light. Naif saw the peculiar coils along its muscle and the thick veins pulsating with blood.

Other Leaguers fell upon it, hacking and slashing, but the claw seemed impervious to the blows.

‘Clash!’ cried Eve.

Joel advanced on the Night Creature, his sword swinging.

The Leaguers retreated as Joel moved in, bringing the sword down with a two-handed chop. He pulled his sword free and swung again, his face so savage, so intense that Naif barely recognised him. She saw her father, though, in the cold fury. This time, his blow severed the claw from the arm and blood sprayed free.

As Joel reached down for the fallen Leaguer the howling intensified and all lights on the path to Danskoi extinguished.

‘Get inside the cathedral,’ roared Eve above the din. She threw a flare onto the path in front of them and Night Creatures fled its fluorescence. ‘Run!’ she yelled. ‘Run!’

Naif scrambled higher, alongside the Leaguers, losing Joel then glimpsing him again with Charlonge. Markes was next to her for a moment also, forging ahead up the last steep distance to the cathedral.

A small group of Leaguers was already clustered at the door under lantern light. Two of them worked at prying it open while the others watched for attacks.

Eve let go another flare as the larger group converged on the smaller, and everyone milled around the entrance.

‘Report!’ shouted Eve.

‘Wood’s too thick to axe,’ shouted back the boy who was bent over the lock with only a makeshift hammer and lever.

Naif recognised the voice and pushed her way closer to see him. ‘Rollo!’ she cried.

He glanced up at her for a moment, his expression surprised and relieved, then returned to gouging the lock.

‘Way!’ The Leaguers parted, letting Eve through to the door. She knelt down next to Rollo. ‘Get it open,’ she ordered with quiet imperative. ‘My last flare’s gone. We can’t keep them back.’

Rollo nodded and kept working the huge lock furiously with lengths of twisted metal. Sweat beaded his face, stuck his hair to his head.

Eve pulled her sledgehammer from its sling and walked back to the fringe of the lantern light. The Leaguers closed behind her into a tight, defensive semicircle. The flare light had all but gone. ‘Clash!’ she bellowed.

Naif pushed past the Leaguers to see Joel join Eve, sword already drawn.

It was just like the first time she’d seen then together behind the club. Only this time their backs were to an unrelenting stone wall and a locked door, and the paths no longer offered escape.

They raised their weapons as the flare finally died and the light shrank back to a tiny pool that barely covered the group. They began to fight the Night Creatures, side by side, with support from the semicircle of Leaguers; swords and batons meeting tentacles and claws.

Lenoir! Help us! Naif concentrated as hard as she could, summoning the sense of bond between her and the Riper. But nothing told her he felt her fear, her need.

‘It’s loose,’ shouted Rollo. ‘Just … a … little … long … er.’

Longer! We need longer!

On impulse Naif ran out to join Joel and Eve, pulling up just short of the reach of their hammer and sword.

‘LEYSTE!’ she screamed into the dark. ‘LEYSTE!’

The howling assault stilled as if the Night Creatures had one listening mind.

With her heart beating in painful thumps, Naif stepped out in front of Joel and Eve.

‘I’m the one Leyste stalked. What do you want?’ she called into the night. ‘Why are you all here?’

‘Ret,’ whispered Joel. ‘Get back –’

‘Hush,’ she told him softly. ‘Rollo is nearly inside …’

The Night Creatures began to hiss but Naif waved her arms. ‘I know you can understand me. I-I’m sorry for Leyste but he’d been following me. Lenoir says it is forbidden for you to do that. Leyste turned off the lights on the path so I would get lost. That is not allowed either.’

The hiss grew until it sounded as though a huge pit of snakes lay before her. She had drawn their attention and they were coming for her now.

‘Get back,’ she told Joel and Eve. ‘Get away from me.’ She was going to die here. Even Lenoir couldn’t save her this time.

‘Look,’ shouted Eve. ‘Beyond! Lights.’

Torches had appeared on the rough line of the Danskoi path, cutting through the darkness. Lights coming towards them with unshakable intent.

‘He’s inside,’ whispered Joel.

Naif glanced behind. The Leaguers were scrambling inside the church, and Eve and Joel had started taking careful backward steps, weapons raised.

‘Come on, Ret,’ Joel urged. ‘NOW!’

Naif turned and ran for the doors of Danskoi as hard and as desperately as she had run for the Ixion barge. Claws slashed at her back, catching in her shift and ripping it through. She shrugged out of it and kept going but barbs found her ankle, as if sensing Leyste’s mark. They tore the flesh and hooked in the bone.

She collapsed, curling up in pain. Worse than the obedience strip. Worse than anything.

‘Ret!’

Joel’s voice meant nothing.

Even the hammer blow that crushed the creature’s skull, releasing her, was a distant event, happening to someone else.

Then someone shook her, sour breath mingling with her own light panting, fierce, demanding eyes in a blunt-featured face, swollen sweat drenching thick skin. ‘Are you with us? ARE YOU WITH US?’

‘Yes, Eve,’ Naif whispered, making her legs work.

Wide lips curled in a smile. ‘Good girl.’