Phoenix Burning (23 page)

“We have some time off. What shall we do for two days?

Hideaki had wrapped bandages around Toby’s legs and it was taking all of his effort not to pull them loose and scratch.

Ayla sighed. “We should get some practice in. You want to spar?”

Toby pointed at Summer, who was watching them from the other side of the courtyard. “You want to give away all your moves?”

Ayla narrowed her eyes. “Little spy.”

“You need to rest your leg anyway.” Toby looked at his own.

“So what – we pray, like Lenka and Matus?”

“We have to keep up appearances.”

“For two whole days? I’m bored already. I’m not used to having nothing to do.”

“Me, neither.” Toby dug his nails into his palms. “I need something to take my mind off this itching.”

“We need games – chess, draughts, poker, Perudo – anything.”

Toby snorted. “Doubt they’ll have any here.”

“We could play draughts – we just have to find some coloured stones.”

“All right, draughts.” Toby rolled to his feet. “Meet you back here.”

Ayla nodded. “Bet I can find more stones than you.”

There weren’t many actual stones lying around the rear courtyard, but when Toby really looked he noticed a lot of flatter larger pieces of shell and grit compacted into the hard sand floor. He rejected any that were smaller than his thumbnail. Crawling around the dirt, focusing on his task, he didn’t see Arthur come up behind him.

“What are you doing?” The boy crouched at his side.

“Looking for stones.” Toby rolled another in his fingers and sorted it into his pile of paler colours.

“Weapons?” Arthur frowned.

Toby raised his eyebrows. “Draughts.” He sat back on his heels. “You think we should be arming ourselves?”

Arthur shook his head. “They’ll provide what we need.”

“That’s what I figure.” Toby allowed a pebble to slide between his fingers. He cleared his throat. “I don’t want to fight you … if there was any way out of this…”

“I know.” Arthur sat and glanced over at Summer. “At least your partner
can
fight. I’m going to have to protect Summer.”

Toby bit his lip. “You’ve got two days to teach her some moves.”

“Not a lot of time – and with everyone watching.”

“Right.” Toby picked up a handful of pebbles and let them fall again. Puffs of dust rose where they landed. “This might not work but…” Again Toby felt eyes on him and he looked up. A brother was watching them intently from the top of the stairs.

“I hate that someone always seems to be listening.” Arthur picked up some of Toby’s darker stones, flesh-pinks, blood-reds and mud-browns, and started to place them in a pattern around the pile.

“What if we ally?” Toby said eventually. “You, me and Ayla. Just until Lenka and Matus are out – we can work together until it’s just us left.”

“I don’t know,” Arthur mused. “Don’t get me wrong, but it’s in my interest if Matus takes you down.”

Toby nodded. “You’re right. If only we could both win this thing.”

“Only one winner.” Arthur threw his remaining stones.

“If I could back out without losing my tongue – if I could just
leave
– I would. I’d let you have this.” Toby rubbed his face.

“But you won’t?”

“I want my tongue.” Toby curled over his knees.

“Me, too – and Summer. So where does that leave us?” Arthur grimaced.

Toby ploughed his nail through the stones, scattering them. “Can we at least agree to give each other the courtyard – two hours each, every day? That way you can train Summer, I can spar with Ayla, and Lenka and Matus can do whatever they need to do.”

“You won’t watch?” Arthur cocked his head.

“If you promise not to.”

“We’ll pray while you train.”

“We’ll do the same.” Toby swept his stones into a close pile. “Agreed?”

“We’ll need to let Lenka and Matus know.”

“Lenka’s still resting in her cell.” Toby shoved his stones in his pocket and rose stiffly to his feet. “You have the yard now – Ayla and I will go round the side wall.”

Ayla came round the corner, her hands cupped in front of her. “Got some.”

“Me, too.” Toby met her in the middle. “Let’s go.”

“Are you ready for this?” Ayla retied the bandage around her thigh, pulling it tight. They were both in Toby’s cell and their doors were open.

“How can I be?” Toby touched his toes. “We’re going to be fighting our friends.”

“We weren’t here to make friends, Toby.
I
didn’t forget that,” Ayla replied.

He groaned. She was right: this would be easier if he’d kept his distance. “Let me help you with that.”

“No need.” Ayla tightened the knot with her teeth.

“You did point Arthur to his key in the maze. I haven’t forgotten.”

“Only because I’d rather face Summer today than Moira.” Ayla scowled.

“You didn’t know about today back then.”

Ayla pretended not to have heard him. Her boots jiggled on the ground. “When are they coming for us?”

“Now.” Lenka was standing in their cell doorway. Her fists were wrapped much like Ayla’s leg and she had tied her fine, flyaway hair off her face with a strip of bandage. “Can’t you hear the bells? They’ll be coming any minute.”

“What do you want?” Ayla snapped.

Lenka shuffled from one foot to the other.

Ayla stood and put her hands on her hips. “You got some insult?”

Lenka shook her head. “Whatever happens today, it’ll be over. One of us is losing their tongue. It might be me.” She frowned. “So, I just wanted to say –” she leaned around the door to find Toby – “I won’t forget what you did in the sea. You didn’t have to wake me up and get me out of the water. You didn’t have to help Moira.” Lenka flexed her bound fists. “When we get out there, I won’t hold back. So I just wanted you to know … I won’t forget.” She cleared her throat and looked at the stairs. “Mother Hesper’s coming.” She stepped away from the cell and her face hardened. “I won’t say good luck.” She turned and moved quickly back to her own cell.

Ayla suddenly looked around. “Toby, what if we don’t come back here after…”

“
Ashes
– you’re right.” Toby’s eyes widened. “I’ve got to get the…”

“Do it.” Ayla marched into the doorway, blocking
Mother Hesper’s view of Toby’s cell as she appeared at the bottom of the steps.

“Toby’s not ready.” Ayla pulled the cell door closed behind her. “He’ll be out in a moment.”

Mother Hesper narrowed her eyes. “He’s got until you’re all lined up outside your cells.”

Arthur was first to emerge. He was shirtless and his skin looked like it had been oiled. With what, Ayla didn’t know, but she knew that it would make it difficult to get a grip on him in the fight. As he stretched his muscles moved like those of a big cat. He was ready.

“Summer,” he called.

Summer appeared in the passageway. Instead of hanging loose, her hair was wrapped tightly around her head in two thick plaits. She had pulled off her shapeless cream dress and now wore nothing more than a breast strap and shorts. Ayla blinked as she saw that the girl had the muscles of a fighter.

“By the Sun,” Lenka whispered. “We’ve been played!”

Ayla reached behind her and began to knot the long side of her hair. There was nothing she could do about the short side – it would provide a handhold for anyone who got close enough.

“Matus,” Summer called in a sing-song voice unlike the doll’s squeak that she had been using. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Matus limped out of his cell. Two days had passed since the last challenge, but his ankle remained swollen and his shoulder was bruised with a green-yellow smear where it had been dislocated.

Ayla stared at him, then at Lenka. “What are you going to do?”

“Fight like hell.” Lenka stepped towards her partner. “Ready, Matus?” He nodded, his eyes grim.

Mother Hesper moved towards Toby’s cell and Ayla sidestepped, blocking her.

“He won’t be a minute.”

“Out. Now,” Mother Hesper growled.

“Toby,” Ayla called.

The cell door opened and Toby stood in the doorway. Ayla’s gaze flicked to his fingers; his nails were crusted with dirt. He nodded to her.

Then he caught sight of Summer and his face tightened.

The teens were marched through the sanctuary. Toby looked neither left nor right, but the golden glow of the decorations burned in his peripheral vision. Ayla’s boots rang against the marble floor.

The inverter was a hard knot against his stomach. He had taken his bandages from his legs and used them to
secure it, but he still worried that it could come out during the fight.

Toby push the inverter from his mind. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

The locks clicked and slowly the sanctuary door opened. There was a collective intake of breath.

The square in front of the cathedral was full. The sundial had been removed. Now in the centre was a large ring, wider than the bridge of the
Phoenix
and twice the height of Arthur, created by sharp-edged junk-shards like gaping jaws. The sun glittered from the metal teeth and gaps between the junk allowed Toby to see inside to what seemed to be an empty arena.

Around the fighting ring there were tight circles of attendants on raised benches, more than two hundred brothers, sisters and uncles; even the sunblind in their different-coloured robes. The whole Order had come to witness the final trial.

“There’re Noah and Leila.” Ayla pointed and Toby shivered. Beside them, Toby saw Aldo and Celeste, chins lowered, unwilling to look up.

“Can you see the others?” Lenka whispered.

“Zahir and Uzuri.” Summer nodded to the opposite side of the ring, where the African couple were almost invisible inside hooded robes. “I can’t see Adele or Adrien.”

“And Brody and Moira are still in the infirmary,” Ayla murmured.

“The others seem all right.” Arthur pushed in front of Toby. “Don’t you think?”

“I doubt they’ve said a word of complaint,” Matus said quietly, releasing some of the tension in the air.

“I might’ve liked you, Matus,” Ayla murmered.

“Yeah? Well, now I’m going to kick your arse.” Matus’s words were defiant but his shoulders remained slumped and Lenka’s hand slipped into his.

Toby turned and saw Father Dahon proceeding up the central aisle of the sanctuary towards them, his long robes brushing the pews, his face questing for sunlight.

“Move aside,” Mother Hesper ordered.

Toby pulled Ayla closer to him and Father Dahon walked into the space, stopping on the very edge of the steps.

The watching crowd grew still.

“It’s time,” Mother Hesper said. She looked at Summer. “Make me proud.”

Summer nodded and an attendant uncle opened a wrought-iron gate set into the arena. He gestured at Toby. He and Ayla were going to be first down the steps and through.

Once the wrought-iron gate had been locked behind the teens, they instinctively took up positions around the outside of the ring: Matus beside Lenka, Arthur next to Summer, and Toby with Ayla.

From inside the wall seemed even taller, as oppressive as the junk dam the
Phoenix
had used to enter the Gozitan waters. Even though the area they had to fight in was perhaps three metres square, the wall loomed, creaking as if it might collapse on them, and sharp spikes protruded, shrinking the arena even more.

Toby could see the attendants through gaps in the rusting junk, none big enough to let any of the fighters slip out, but wide enough to allow the audience to see what was going on.

The weight of two hundred rapt gazes fell on Toby and he bounced on his toes, feeling as if insects were crawling beneath his skin. On the surface Ayla seemed calm, but Toby caught the twitch of her jaw that told him she was wound tight.

Toby knew Ayla could fight, but she had exposed weaknesses to the others – her burned and clawed shoulder, her injured thigh. Summer, by contrast, had no injuries and a lot more fighting experience than they had realized.

He shifted closer to Ayla. “Stay on my right,” he murmured.

“If I can.” She nodded at Arthur. “They’re playing to win.”

“From the beginning,” Toby added.

Ayla blew a stray hair out of her eyes. “Do you think they really had no idea about the challenges?”

Toby didn’t answer. It didn’t really matter now.

Father Dahon appeared on a raised platform to the right of the arena.

He raised his arms. “You may have heard that this is a fight, but it is not a mere battle. It is a challenge.” He signalled and two attendants lowered ropes, one on either side of the arena. They dangled almost two metres above Toby’s head, far out of reach. From one rope hung a wooden staff, from the other a magnifying glass.

Then Toby heard the rasp of a panel opening. His eyes followed the sound to see a wooden hatch the size of a small box set into all the sharpened metal. It was open at the back so that he could see the crowd through it.

It too was out of reach.

Mother Hesper’s face appeared in the opening. She held up a glittering diamond sun pendant, ensuring that everyone inside the ring and out could see it.

“Here is a single pendant,” she called. “Diamond. The truest representation of the Sun that we have.” The attendant crowd gasped in awe. Many of the brothers and
sisters had never seen the Reliquary. “The winning couple will be the first to hold this pendant in their hands.”

She placed the diamond inside the box and closed the hatch, cutting off Toby’s view.

Father Dahon raised his own arms. “The Sun will aid his favoured pair.”

The crowd cheered and they all heard a bolt close.

Toby felt some of the tension slide from his shoulders. It was not, as he had feared, to be a fight ‘to the death’, but instead a physical
and
mental challenge. How could he use a staff and a magnifying glass to open a bolted door?

Across from him, Arthur cracked his knuckles. He was frowning.

“Every few minutes a bell will ring,” Father Dahon called. “When you hear it you must stop fighting, turn to the Sun and pray until the next bell – at which point the challenge will continue. Those who stand and pray will receive the Sun’s aid. The ringing of all five bells will signify the end of the trial and the selection of the new Sun and Moon.”

“We need to get the staff and the magnifying glass,” Toby whispered.

“No. We take out the competition first,” Ayla countered. “Worry about the puzzle when we’re alone.”

“All right.”

A bell rang. The teens hesitated, looking at one another, then the brothers and sisters outside began to roar their support for the different couples.

Lenka swaggered towards the centre, leaving Matus standing awkwardly at the edge of the arena. Summer nudged Arthur and he powered towards Matus with a burst of speed. As soon as Lenka realized what was happening she turned, but Arthur was already there.

Matus barely had time to lift his hands before Arthur raised a fist like a mallet and hammered him in the forehead, exactly where he had been injured in the maze.

There was a crack and Matus hit the ground.

Arthur shook out his fist and turned to Lenka, who skidded to a halt and back-pedalled.

“I-I think he just killed Matus,” Toby gasped.

“He put Matus out of the fight,” Ayla hissed.

Toby ran to stand next to Lenka and raised his hands, palms out.

“Arthur…”

Arthur powered forwards like a juggernaut.

Toby took his foot in the thigh, where his skin had been badly burned by the salt. He turned from the force of the blow, instinctively crouching to take the weight on his other leg, then he shot out with his elbow, aiming for Arthur’s ribs.

Arthur was pushing past to reach Lenka, but Toby’s blow knocked him off balance.

Lenka took her chance and went at his face with her nails. Arthur pushed her away, his cheek bleeding and she retreated towards Ayla. Perhaps she thought that if Toby was trying to help her, then Ayla would, too.

Her mistake.

Ayla flew into a spinning kick at Lenka’s chest and knocked her straight back into Arthur. He grabbed her in a sleeper hold and squeezed. Her fingers scrabbled on his forearms but her movements grew weaker with every passing moment.

Arthur was going to kill Lenka.

“There’s no need for this.” Toby hurled himself on to Arthur’s back. His fingers slid from Arthur’s oily skin and, unable to secure a grip, Toby slid back down.