by Rae Else
Dan’s low voice sounded from the front of the plane; he was using his manipulation on the crew. Soon he came and sat down opposite El. He took out the tablet from the rucksack. Wasn’t there something about electrical equipment having to be turned off during a flight? El shook the thought away, supposing that the threat that the Order posed was a greater worry than the plane experiencing an electrical malfunction.
Luke collapsed next to El.
‘You’ll all need another dose,’ Alex said, rummaging in the backpack for his kit.
‘Yes,’ Dan answered, not looking away from the screen in front of him which he was refreshing over and over, rather than reading.
Alex prepared doses of graeae blood for all of them to conceal their power again from the Order’s sight. His hands were steady and his expression calmed as the familiar task grounded him. He settled into the seat next to Dan.
‘I need a drink.’
‘Amen, Doc,’ Jim said. ‘How about it, Toots?’ He looked down the aisle to the air hostess, who presented him with a blank smile, before hurrying off to organise refreshments.
El glanced out the window. As a kid, she’d dreamed of this: flying. Of going somewhere … anywhere.
‘This is your first time flying, isn’t it?’ Luke said.
She nodded.
‘What do you think?’
‘It’s more nerve-wracking than I thought it would be.’
‘It doesn’t usually involve fighting for your life.’ Luke pulled out his phone and a pair of headphones from his pocket. ‘Got just the thing though.’ It was his grin that made her curious and she put the earbuds in as he pressed play.
She frowned. There was a groaning sound like the lowing of a cow but then it grew high-pitched. She snorted as the tones of whale song were interspersed by the splash of waves. Despite everything, she was laughing as she took out the headphones. ‘That answers the question of who actually listens to whale song – they’re all hydras.’
‘Yeah, we’re freaks – us and sirens.’ He laughed. ‘I made it for my kid brother – he’s seven and just came into his powers. He always thought he’d be a hydra. Me and Josh spend most of the year away at school so I made Matt this playlist for when I’m gone.’
El hadn’t realised that he had any siblings other than Josh.
‘So, there’s you, Josh and—’
‘Musical Matt, then my other brother Sam, and Suzie.’
El stared wide-eyed.
It was Alex’s turn to chuckle. He looked noticeably more relaxed as he swigged the G&T the flight attendant had handed him.
‘Triplets, I presume?’ Alex said. Luke nodded. ‘And you and Josh are twins.’ Again, he nodded. ‘That’s the thing about arachnids, they come in big broods. It’s part of what links them to the legend of Arachne – the high probability of having multiple children, like the spider that spawns hundreds at a time.’
El had forgotten about Luke’s mixed heritage and that his mum had been an arachnid. Luke ran his hands up and down his arms, looking agitated.
Before she could say anything, Dan muttered, ‘Piece of shit,’ and slammed the tablet down on the table. He pulled a book from his rucksack and settled behind it. El scanned the cover of Paradise Lost with a spike of annoyance. He’d said they weren’t to take anything unnecessary. Clearly, it was one rule for him and another for them. Still, judging by the way he’d treated the gadget, now probably wasn’t the time to say anything.
The stewardess brought some packets of muffins and biscuits over, which Luke and Alex tucked into. El wasn’t hungry and fell to watching the black sky and sea of lights below. From time to time, Luke pressed one of his headphones into her ear. Over time, the lapping waves of the recording merged with the lights so that the towns and cities below seemed like molten gold.
She must have drifted off because next moment, Luke was tapping her on the arm. ‘El, El.’
Sitting up, she rubbed sleep from her eyes and looked about her. Opposite, Dan was still reading and Alex was snoring, a collection of miniature gin bottles on the table before him. El frowned. She’d never seen Alex drink much before: only the odd glass of wine or two. Then again, he’d started smoking recently. Was this something else he was going to pick up?
The seat belt sign was switched on and she felt the incline of the plane. They were descending. Luke was smiling at her.
‘What’s up?’ she asked.
Dan looked up from his book. ‘Janos managed to find us a safe place to land, with the help of some sirens who contacted air traffic control. He wants us to lay low in Spain.’ The steely expression settled on his face as he went back to his book. His air seemed to echo the one that he’d worn in Parliament Square and a chill crept over El as she remembered how calmly he’d incited the crowd to violence. She realised her cheek was cold: Luke was still staring at her, a smile on his lips.
‘What?’
‘You were snoring.’
She flushed. ‘I don’t snore.’
‘You do so, just like that.’ He inclined his head at Alex, whose chin had fallen to his chest in an unflattering way, his snores growing steadily louder.
She frowned, trying to hide the smile that threatened to break.
‘I reckon it was the waterscape. You’ll have to face it – you’re a freak like me,’ Luke joked.
Jim grunted as he got up. ‘Just makes me want to piss,’ he muttered as he passed to get to the toilet, sliding the door closed and ignoring the stewardess’ raised voice about the seatbelt sign.
‘So, Spain,’ El said, looking at Luke, ‘ever been?’
He shook his head. ‘Been to Chile though.’ He started murmuring Spanish in a soft, rolling cadence. El grinned, struck by how melodic it sounded in his deep tone. Below, the bright lights of Barcelona came into view and she contemplated that a short stop in Spain might not be wholly unpleasant.
- Chapter Five -
Unravelling
El was sprawled out on her bed. She pulled out her earphones and dried her eyes on her sleeve. They had been in Barcelona for five days and she was sick of it. They were staying in a three-bedroomed apartment, only fifteen minutes’ walk from the beach; not that they could make use of the desirable location. With the majority of them being on the Order’s most wanted list, it wasn’t exactly safe to go sightseeing.
The first day, Robin Hood and Jim had visited a couple of shops to buy clothes for everyone, as well as stock the flat with food. El was pleased that Robin Hood’s penchant for skin-tight clothing hadn’t been translated to those she’d chosen for El. She’d got her a few pairs of shorts and T-shirts, as well as a swimsuit, some underwear and flip-flops.
The rest of the day was spent huddled around the TV listening to the latest report about the wide-spreading disasters: the reason they were stuck here. Janos had instructed the group to wait for a safe window to present itself before resuming their journey.
They had time to take some pre-emptive measures before travelling again. El’s photo was the most constantly aired on the news, so on the second day, Robin Hood cut and coloured her hair. It was now a short, reddish-brown. When she first saw the choppy style and unfamiliar colour, she recoiled from her reflection. She didn’t feel like herself anymore. But that was the point: she was someone else.
El was sharing a room with her stylist, who was proving to be absent most of the time and aloof the rest: everything she currently wished for in a roommate. El focused and tuned into the drone from the living room where the others were watching the ten o’clock news.
‘The towns of Sur, Diman Wa Tayeen and Al Aamerat in Oman are thought to have suffered the worst damage, where many homes and lives have been lost. Gusts of wind reached up to three-hundred kilometres an hour and brought waves twelve metres high. The residents of the immediate coastal areas were evacuated but climate models were unable to predict the storm’s path or its continued ferocity as it travelled inland. It is unclear how many casualties the storm has caused, but it is est
imated that the deaths will stretch into the tens of thousands—’
El pressed her headphones into her ears and turned up the volume. The catastrophes were still happening and the constant barrage of reports were causing El’s guilt to swell. After all, it was their fault that these tragedies were happening. Yet here they were, grounded … and doing nothing.
As the piano music flooded her ears, El pictured her grandma at the instrument, leaning into the keyboard and being swept up in the melody. El’s grief was the only thing that conquered her guilt and she’d let it crystallise these last few days. She scrolled through her playlist to find something else: Chopin, Nocturne in C Minor.
As the first gentle chords sounded, her eyelids drooped shut. Aside from the one day’s deep sleep at the safe house, her nights had been broken, her dreams punctuated by panic as she fell through water. The fall into the abyss in the Olympia was haunting her, caused by a kind of delayed shock.
She’d taken to avoiding the reports on the TV as the images from the broadcasts seeped into her dreams. For the last two nights, the murky water that she’d plummeted into had been littered with debris … and corpses. A wave of unease stole through her as the submerged bodies flickered through her thoughts, their limbs bobbing as if reaching out to her.
Her choice of reading material was partly to blame for these disturbing dreams too. She’d been reading the same book for the last few days: A Brief History of Serpents. Presently, it lay open beside her. Alex had snuck it into the rucksack before leaving Camden. He thought it might be beneficial for El to read up on her kind before meeting Helena Carras.
There was a section on the full power which El found herself re-reading frequently. In her most recent dream, the drowning people had consequently taken on a stony-hued complexion.
She looked at the passage again. At this rate, she’d soon know it by heart. It was an early eyewitness account of the full power, dated 431 B.C.
It was as if the rock had risen up to claim the arete, as if the ground were ingesting him. Like an old piece of meat, his flesh became grey until he was entombed in a seal of stone. His entire composition had changed. Flesh and blood were gone. Looking at him now, one would have thought him born of a sculptor, not that he had once seen, spoken and heard.
Thoughts about whether she could still have the full power plagued her, making her fixate on the passage. The more she mused on it, the more she wished that they could get going. She wanted to ask Janos about it. She needed to know if it lay in her future.
El shot up as the door opened. So far, whenever she’d slunk away to her room, no one had disturbed her.
Alex came in and she hastily dabbed her eyes, pulling her headphones out, leaving the dirge-like melody playing.
He looked awkward but came over to the bed. ‘Here – Tia’s on the phone.’ The addition of the landline in the flat had been the only welcome thing about Spain, allowing them to keep in touch with what was going on back in London.
El nodded, sniffing and took the phone from Alex before he hurried away.
‘Hi,’ El croaked.
‘Hey.’ Tia paused. ‘Alex told me you’re a little down.’
She shrugged, forgetting that Tia couldn’t see her. ‘So? It’s not like I’ve got anything to do.’
‘El. Shutting yourself away like this isn’t healthy.’
She crossed her arms and shuffled back in bed. The lighter in her pocket dug into her leg and she pulled it out, idly flicking the switch so that the flame ignited.
‘In case you haven’t noticed,’ El said, ‘I’m not much of a people person.’
‘You’re great with me and Adam.’
‘Well you’re easy.’
Tia laughed. ‘Thanks, I think.’
El was sick of having to share her space with arete that she barely knew. Robin wasn’t so bad she supposed, but Jim was vile. He lapped up the broadcasts about the disasters as if they were light entertainment. He smirked at the scientists talking about climate change and mocked the religious leaders debating whether the mounting catastrophes indicated the end of days.
‘El?’ Tia said.
‘Sorry.’
‘It’s okay. But please, you can talk to me. I’m only a phone call away. I know Alex and everyone else cares too.’
Alex had tried to get El to play cards and chess, or watch a movie the last few evenings, but she’d rebuffed his attempts. She’d noticed he’d come close to losing it with Jim, whose comments about the cluelessness of humans were grating on him too.
Luke had tried to get her to come swimming, but each time he knocked on the door she’d said that she was too tired. The pool in the courtyard was busy during the day, but early morning and at night it was quiet and safe to use.
‘How are things there?’ El asked.
‘All good. We’ve been able to supply the guys in Kew with the painkillers they need.’
Tia and the others were staying with one of their human friends in Camden. Although the other safe house in Kew hadn’t been attacked, over the last few days some Opposition members had disappeared from Kew Gardens where they had been gathering raw materials to manufacture medicines.
‘That’s good,’ El said.
‘Yeah. Looks like things are settling down a bit.’ After another lengthy pause, Tia added, ‘Promise me you’ll get out soon, okay?’
‘It’s not like I can go for a walk.’ El thought of home and all the surrounding fields and woods. She’d always been able to take herself off whenever she needed to. Being here, with others constantly around, was suffocating.
‘You could swim.’
Great. Alex had mentioned the pool. Not that she’d confided in him about why she didn’t want to use it. El hadn’t mentioned the nightmares to anyone.
Tia interrupted the prolonged silence again. ‘I want you to know that we really care. We’re here whenever you want us.’
El smiled. She wished that she was back with Tia, sitting with a cup of tea in the garden and talking about everything.
‘Thanks, Tia. I miss you, and Adam. Tell him I said hi, okay? And give Cam a hug from me.’ They’d had the good news yesterday that Cam was finally improving.
‘We miss you too and will do. Look after yourself. And go for a swim – nature’s healing. Plus, if you don’t do something soon, you’re gonna get fat.’
El laughed in spite of herself.
‘Also your playlist needs fixing. No more depressing music. If I overdid Chopin I’d want to slit my wrists too.’
El was stunned into silence for a moment but her lips twitched at her friend’s dark humour. Tia had a way of just coming out and saying things. Damn her arete hearing.
‘One last thing: Dan was being grumpy again. Tell him to call too.’
The words seemed barbed and El swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. Tia certainly had more hope of talking to him than she did. Mumbling an indistinct reply, El said goodbye and hung up. In truth, she knew that Dan was the only person who could have staved off this depression that was getting the better of her. He could have … if he’d cared enough to try. Since they’d been in Spain, he’d been pushing her away. Their heart-to-heart at the safe house a week ago felt like a distant memory.
She’d tried to talk to him over the first few days here. His sullen, monosyllabic answers had soon warded her off. She could tell from his constant pacing and tendency to lash out at the tablet that he refreshed religiously, that he was frustrated at being stuck here. But he didn’t breathe a word about it, not to anyone.
The gloom that possessed him seemed impenetrable. Whether reading his book or watching that irritating webpage, the same unyielding expression cloaked his features. Every time she spotted that look, it chilled her, recalling what he’d said at the safe house. I have to give everything to succeed. The more and more she looked at him, the more she felt as though the sentiment was swallowing him whole.
Going to the bathroom, El got into her swimsuit. She smiled. Of course: Robin
had chosen her a green one. In front of the mirror, she eyed the damage done to her hair and played with the jagged tufts. She felt like a shorn sheep. Each spring she’d seen the freshly sheared animals in the fields surrounding the manor, their gait awkward when freed to join the rest of the flock.
When she went downstairs to the courtyard, she was surprised at how big the pool was. There were a number of trees throughout the enclosure, which must provide welcome shade in the height of the sun. She smiled up at them, identifying the ripening fruit: banana trees. Tia was right … nature was healing. No wonder she and Adam were always so damn cheerful.
The sound of trickling water reverberated from a fountain in the courtyard. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was beside one of the brooks in the manor’s grounds. Her granddad had taught her to swim one summer in the lake. She reckoned she’d been about five. He’d been eager for her to know how, should she ever fall in. As she stared at the deeper water at the other end of the pool, fear welled up as if she were a little girl again, unsure of whether she’d be able to stay afloat.
This was stupid. She dropped her towel and sat down at the edge of the shallow end, examining her thighs and feeling self-conscious after Tia’s comment. It had been a good month since she’d done any horse riding. At least training for the Olympia had afforded an intensive workout, not to mention the actual matches there. She shuddered as the gloomy abyss in the Elysium flashed through her thoughts.
Dangling her legs in the water, she tried to work up the courage to slip in. Footsteps flip-flopped behind her and she craned her neck. Luke was coming down the stairs, in a T-shirt and trunks.
He caught sight of her. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise you were here. I’ll come back later—’
‘No.’ She hated how pitiful her voice sounded but she didn’t want to be alone. ‘Please … Stay.’
He slipped off his flip-flops and sat down next to her.
They were silent a while, their feet making spirals in the water.