Shine Light (19 page)

She read it, nodded, and handed it back to him. ‘Let’s pray the draculin comes soon.’

‘We shouldn’t have left Kero there,’ said Rollo.

‘One of us had to stay.’

He shook his head. ‘It should have been me.’

‘He wanted to. Now we need to hurry,’ said Naif.

Rollo wrapped the parchment in a small patch of dark hide.

‘Where did you get that?’ she asked.

He pointed to the hem of his pants. It was only then that she noticed he’d changed clothes and that the leather had a patch torn away.

‘On top?’ he asked.

‘That’s what Ruzalia said.’

He took a torch from the wall and handed it to her. She followed him to the broken wall and held the light aloft while he climbed it. Her senses strained as she peered into the gloom.
How many of them were out there? Did they really know it was her?

Rollo jumped down, startling her. ‘Let’s get the fross out of here. I can feel them breathing all over us. Stay as close as you can.’

They collected the rest of the torches, three each, and hurried back along the path to Illi.

Naif lengthened her stride to match his exactly, so that she was never more than a step behind him. Several times she saw the shimmer of a movement and the sweep of a tentacle in her corner sight. Each time she swept her torches in an arc and watched the creatures shrink back from it.

As they drew close to the church Naif felt a downdraught of air and heard the swish of large wings.

She stared into the sky and saw two dark shadows swoop overhead.

‘Draculins,’ she whispered to Rollo.

He stared up into the night as well, but the dark shapes vanished almost as soon as they had appeared. ‘I frossing hope so.’

The stone floors of Illi echoed with some kind of uproar as they entered. It helped them slip in without attracting attention. Naif followed Rollo to the centre of the main floor where a large group of young ones was gathered.

‘What is it?’ asked Rollo, tapping on the shoulder of a girl with a black silk scarf around her neck. ‘I was here just before and everything was normal.’

‘The uthers haven’t brought any food.’

‘What about the clubs and the kafes?’ asked Naif.

The girl narrowed her eyes. ‘Hey, don’t I know you?’

‘Answer her,’ Rollo told the girl impatiently.

‘Shuf off,’ replied the girl, and turned her back on them both.

Naif touched her shoulder. ‘Please help us. We’ve got something to tell everyone.’

She glanced back. ‘What’s so important?’

‘Is there food at the kafes and clubs?’

‘’Parently not. They just came here looking for some.’ She gestured to a group of young guys pushing each other. ‘They’re frossed out of their heads and there’s no food to straighten them out.’

Naif and Rollo exchanged glances.

‘Who’s the supervisor here?’ asked Naif.

Rollo cleared his throat loudly, opened his mouth and shut it again as if he wanted to say something.

‘She’s around somewhere.’ She stood on her toes and took a few steps in each direction. ‘Over there by the pulpit. Talking to the Riper.’

Naif moved to get a better view of the dais. ‘It’s Modai,’ she said to Rollo, who came to stand next to her. ‘And
Cal
.’

‘Haven’t seen Modai since you left but . . . yeah . . . Cal’s supervisor here. I should have mentioned it.’

Cal had been so cruel to Naif when she’d arrived on Ixion. At first Naif had disliked the girl and her obsession with keeping Markes to herself. But since learning that Cal was the child of a Grave warden, her dislike had changed to pity, her anger to wariness. Cruelty begat cruelty.

‘She’ll never listen to us.’

‘No,’ agreed Rollo. ‘And she’ll tell Modai.’

‘I remember who you are.’ The girl with the scarf had come up behind them. ‘You offered me your dress to come to that ball here. I’m Geen and that was real nice of you.’

‘I remember,’ said Naif. ‘Geen, could I use your scarf? I don’t want Modai to recognise me.’

The girl shrugged. ‘Sure. Everyone talks about you. They say you ran away with that pirate. But I knew they were wrong.’

‘What else do they say?’

‘There’s talk about something bad going on in Danskoi but it’s hard to know what to believe. The gangs start rumours all the time to get people to join them. Hey, didn’t that dead Riper have it bad for you?’

Naif twirled and seized her arm. ‘Which Riper?’

‘People are sayin’ Lenoir’s gone and Brand’s the new leader. That’s why Modai’s back.’ She shivered. ‘He gives me the creeps, that one. Always staring.’

No!
Naif tested her bond with Lenoir. Faint. So faint it might not be real. Still she clung to it. ‘Modai is dangerous, Geen. Listen. Tell everyone you know that there’s a meeting outside Los Fien next Early-Eve. The Ripers have captured the Cursed League. Dark Eve and Clash have gone. But Naif is back and she wants to tell everyone the truth about what she’s found out. About the Ripers. About the uthers. About Ixion. You got it? They have to come and hear me.’

The girl looked frightened. ‘Los Fien. Next Early-Eve. I got it.’

‘Not Cal, though,’ said Rollo. ‘Tell everyone but her.’

Naif and Rollo left Illi and waited on the platform for a cable kar. They needed to hurry now. Walking the paths would take too long. They had to cover as many of the clubs and churches and kafes as they could on the way to Los Fien and tell all the young ones.

Will they come
?
Naif wondered. Will it be enough if they do
?
She feared for them all. If Lenoir had been taken by his rivals then there was no one to stop Brand and Modai.

She dropped the silk scarf over her head and leaned close to Rollo, as though they were any other couple.

‘Remember our first trip on Ixion,’ he said softly. ‘Everyone took off their clothes and you got mad because I kissed that girl.’

‘I didn’t get mad. At least, not because of that. It was just . . . too strange. I didn’t trust anything,’ she whispered.

‘I wanted to make you jealous,’ he said. ‘I thought you were something special.’

Naif stood very still. She didn’t want to hear this from Rollo. Not now. He was her friend. He made her mad sometimes, and sometimes she thought him dependable. That was enough. ‘We’d just met.’

‘You felt that way about Markes the first time you laid eyes on him. What’s the difference?’ he said.

She had no answer for that. It was true.

After a bit he spoke again. ‘I just wanted you to know, you know. Before we go to Danskoi again. Last time . . . I didn’t get a chance.’

‘But Suki . . . I thought you . . .’

‘I do. I mean Suki is like . . . hot. She’s fun. But she’s not you, Naif.’

Naif wanted to put her hands over her ears. This wasn’t right. She forced herself to look him in the eyes. ‘You said it would have been better if I’d died.’

He let out a breath he’d been holding. ‘I was mad. Lenoir’s a . . . beast, a murderer . . . and yet I can tell you care about him. I want you to care about me like that.’

Naif heard the kar rumbling in to the station. ‘I’ve never said I care about him.’

‘You don’t have to,’ said Rollo. ‘It’s that bond thing. He has you forever, doesn’t he?’

‘Who told you that?’

‘I asked Cal. She knows about the Ripers. She said it’s until one of you . . .’

‘Dies?’ said a voice.

Naif jumped away from Rollo and looked around.

Cal stood at the top of the platform stairs. She advanced on them in careful steps. The white hair that Naif had always found so striking flowed around her shoulders. She would have been beautiful if her expression hadn’t been laced with such poisonous anger. ‘What are you doing back here? Where is Markes?’

The kar pulled in behind them and people jostled past on their way into Illi.

‘Get on board, Naif,’ said Rollo, stepping backwards.

But Naif faced her squarely. ‘Ixion is run by the Grave Elders and the wardens.’

Cal gave a deprecating laugh. ‘Is that why you’re here? To spread Ruzalia’s lies?’

‘They’re not lies. I’ve seen it, Cal. I’ve heard them speaking to Brand. The Ripers are harvesting our blood to keep themselves alive and they’re providing the Elders with some of it.’

‘You’re saying our Elders are cannibals?’

‘In a way, yes. But they’re using an extract of our blood . . . our youth . . . to reverse their own ageing.’

Cal laughed outright. ‘You’re insane.’

‘Naif!’ called Rollo from the door. ‘It’s leaving!’

The kar’s bell tolled its departure note and young ones gave them curious looks as they ran up the stairs from the club to catch it.

Naif took a step backwards. ‘You know I’m not, Cal.
Think
about it. The things you’ve seen. What they did to Markes.’

‘What I
know
is you took him from me.’

To Naif’s utter surprise tears began to trickle down Cal’s face. ‘You and your frossing brother are dangerous! Brand knew that from the start. She should have dealt with you back then but Lenoir interfered. He saved you and he paid for it.’ Without warning, the girl lunged towards her.

The attack came so suddenly that Naif didn’t move.

But Rollo did. He reached out and snatched Naif through the kar’s closing doors, so that Cal slammed into the side, her face pressed against the glass, fingernails scratching the metal.

The kar began to pull away and Cal ran with it, stumbling in her heels, shouting at them.

‘Fross!’ said Rollo, scratching his red curls. ‘Now who’s insane!’

‘Wardens are so mean,’ said Naif, trembling. ‘Her father is one. She wouldn’t know any other way.’

‘I wouldn’t waste too much sympathy on her, Naif. She’d push you under a cable kar and then want to back it up.’

Rollo was right. And now Cal would go to Brand and Modai.

‘We should begin,’ she said, glancing around at those in the kar. Most of them weren’t even pretending not to stare while they murmured in each other’s ears.

‘Ixion’s saviour should go first,’ said Rollo lightly.

His gentle dig refocused her and she went to stand in the centre of the kar, spinning a slow circle so she could see everyone.

‘I’m Naif. Some of you will know of me,’ she said loudly.

‘Hey! You’re the one who hit the Riper with the chair,’ said a guy in front of her.

‘No,’ countered a girl across from him. ‘Naif left. Ran off with the pirate.’

‘And they kidnapped that guy who played the guitar,’ another added.

Naif let them swap opinions until they’d exhausted all rumour and falseness and looked back to her expectantly.

‘Tell everyone you know to come to Los Fien by the next Early-Eve. There’s something you all need to know and I’ll explain it there.’

‘What do we need to know?’ shouted someone she couldn’t see. ‘Why should we listen to you anyway?’