by Rae Else
El sat down beside Alex at the table.
Opposite, the tablet rested before Dan. He clasped his hands together.
‘I know what you’re going to say,’ Alex said. ‘And you’re right, it was my fault. I made a mistake, but it won’t happen again.’
‘You’re right. It was you,’ Dan said. ‘Because of you, Luke got shot.’
El baulked at his coldness. ‘Luke should be fine thanks to Alex so … no harm done.’
‘And you,’ Dan said, ‘endangered yourself by running off too, during an earthquake no less–’
‘Janos didn’t say anything about an earthquake,’ El argued, ‘or that we’d get recognised or shot. If Janos had given us some clear warning, we wouldn’t have gone out.’
‘Janos isn’t omnipotent,’ Dan said. ‘But he did warn us to stay on the plane. You must see now, don’t you, why we have to follow his orders?’
‘Dan,’ El said, ‘he was right this time, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t question what he’s asking us—’
‘Just stop it,’ he snapped. ‘The two of you got Luke shot. From now on, while we’re travelling, you will follow Janos’ commands to the letter.’
He was waiting for an answer from both of them. El nodded grudgingly.
‘Yes, Daniel,’ Alex said.
Dan snatched the tablet and marched down the cabin to the front of the plane, bypassing the others and went into the cockpit.
El sat, trying to still her emotions.
‘Doc,’ Robin Hood called. ‘I think he’s waking up.’
El soon knelt beside Luke. ‘Hey.’
‘Hi,’ he mumbled hoarsely.
Alex checked Luke’s sensory reactions were as they should be.
‘Can I get you anything?’ El asked. ‘Water … whale song?’
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. ‘I’m fine.’
She paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. He’d been lucky to escape with only a minor wound. Dan’s rebuke played on her mind.
‘Luke, I’m so sorry,’ she said finally.
He tried to shrug but grimaced in pain.
‘Lay still.’
He smiled. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
Robin quickly thanked him for shielding her from the gunfire. El couldn’t help bristling as she watched her gush over Luke about saving her. What a transformation it was to the distrustful looks she’d thrown him over the last week. After all, the only reason she’d been outside the plane had been to keep tabs on him. But he accepted her apology with easy grace, leaving El to marvel at his forgiving nature. He really didn’t have a bad bone in his body. El filled him in on where they were heading and what Janos had said. She grew subdued as she sat there, her thoughts and emotions feeling frayed.
Luke tried to keep up the brave face, but Alex wasn’t fooled and soon administered a dose of the DIY opiates that he’d pilfered from the safe house before they’d left. The same opiates that Luke had helped cultivate.
‘You know, you shouldn’t get high on your own supply,’ El said.
Luke chuckled, but soon his eyelids drooped shut and his expression relaxed in repose.
- Chapter Seven -
Reflections
The sirens working for Janos had phoned ahead and planned for their arrival in Cairo. When El and the others checked into a hotel on the outskirts of the city, it had already been vacated by all other guests. It was an expansive set of buildings with two hundred rooms, a stone’s throw away from the Great Pyramid of Giza. On the morning of their arrival, El marvelled at the pyramids against the bright blue sky, in front of which the hotel’s paradisiacal gardens lay.
The staff were pleasant, in a malleable, zombie-like fashion: they’d clearly been instructed by the sirens to grant the group’s every request. It was just as well no questions were asked, given their state upon arrival: Luke with a gunshot wound to the head and both Robin and El in bloodstained clothes.
When El noticed Jim eyeing the pretty female receptionist, she felt disgusted. For the last week, he’d sat around poking fun at the humans caught up in arete affairs. It was clear what sort of man he was. He’d think nothing of taking advantage of the female staffs’ submission. In fact, as an arete, he probably felt it was his God-given right.
When he started quizzing the receptionist about what types of “massage” were available, El’s conscience cried out. She remedied the situation by telling the manager that their small group wouldn’t need so many staff and suggested that the female employees take some paid leave, which the manager immediately assented to. El received a scathing look from Jim before he retired to the bar.
At first it was strange having the hotel to themselves. The palatial, golden lobby seemed like a set from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. The restaurant where they had their first few meals comprised a vast series of rooms with connecting archways shaped like keyholes. These framed the unoccupied tables and chairs so that it seemed like the empty rooms went on forever. Parts of the hotel had been designed to mimic the ancient monuments too: hieroglyphs adorned the walls and columns. The desertion, paired with the archaic style, gave El the sense that they’d somehow stumbled into the tomb of a pharaoh, and were living out their days in the afterlife.
Yet little by little, a routine and sense of calm developed. They discovered a smaller Italianate dining room, more suited to the size of their party, and the food was fresh and wholesome. A few days into their stay, El enthused about the chef’s Ful, a dish made of fava beans, served with smoky flatbreads. The chef, Omar, soon offered to show her how to make Aish Baladi, the Egyptian bread. She took to getting up early and baking in the open kitchen of the restaurant. The familiar texture of the dough and the aroma of the freshly baked bread reminded her of home, and of mornings spent with her grandma.
Luke’s injury meant that he couldn’t swim, needing to keep the wound dry until it had healed more. Most afternoons they met in the hotel lounge to play cards. Robin would often join in. She’d taken a real shine to Luke, after the whole life-saving incident. Sometimes Alex and Jim played too, although Jim’s preference was for poker and as they only had limited funds from Simmons to use, he quickly lost interest in the low stakes games. Luke generally dictated what they played, often using the “I got shot” card to enforce his favourite: a game that El knew as Cheat, which he called Bullshit. It amused her that his American accent thickened during the game.
Dan largely kept to himself, barely looking at El, let alone speaking to her. The gulf that had been forming seemed set to remain. He spent most of his time staring at the tablet awaiting updates from Janos and reading about worldwide developments. His incessant grimness meant that she wasn’t the least bit inclined to open up any avenues of conversation. It smarted that he hadn’t tried to apologise for the way he’d spoken to her and Alex on the plane.
Instead Dan seemed to prefer the company of books. There were many of them in the hotel lobby and lounge, which meant that he finally picked up something other than his dog-eared copy of Paradise Lost. Although El noticed that his choice in literature didn’t vary much. On several occasions he whittled away the hours with a copy of Dr Faustus and on another, The Inferno.
Once when El found the hotel lounge to herself, she picked up his Milton. Leafing through, she noted the underlined passages, coveting the glimpse they provided into his thoughts. All were about Satan as the serpent, with reference to lies and deceit:
The infernal serpent, he it was whose guile stirred envy and revenge deceived the mother of mankind… The serpent; him fast-sleeping soon he found, In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled, His head the midst, well stored with subtile wiles.
El remembered the bitter look Dan had when he’d spoken about his adoptive parents. He said that they were religious … that they’d thought him evil. He’d likened them to the Order, talking about them as his oppressors. She could see how much the idea had tortured him over the years. She felt a pang of sympathy for all that he’d been through, w
ishing that he’d shared some of these thoughts with her instead of withdrawing. She wondered what dark places these words took him to. Her own thoughts blackened as she mused on how much he’d suffered.
By the second week, Luke’s wound had healed sufficiently that they were able to take to the pool. For the first few days they kept to the kids’ one, which wasn’t even waist deep, supposedly for Luke’s recovery, but El knew the baby steps were for her. When she was okay with being in the water, they kept to the shallow end of the main pool. For a while, their “swimming” consisted of floating around. To El’s surprise, and despite the water, this became the favourite part of her day: it was the time she got to spend alone with Luke.
On their fifth day in the main pool, they were in their usual starfish position when Luke asked, ‘How are you feeling about meeting them … Helena and the other Carrases?’
El looked up and swam down the pool. ‘Nervous. But you know, it’ll depend on what Janos says about me having the full power. Once I’ve quizzed him about that, I may not need to bluff at all.’
They’d spoken again about the fact that the full power had frequently manifested in the Carras line and that it was still possible she had it. Luke agreed that it was best to ask Janos to tell her whether he saw it in her future.
‘Besides,’ she added, looking back towards the hotel building, ‘I’m more concerned about finding out exactly what Janos’ motives and intentions are.’
Everything was quiet around them. It was best to be cautious. She wasn’t going to let Dan in on the fact that she intended to interrogate Janos. Or that if she wasn’t satisfied with Janos’ answers, she would refuse to go to see Helena Carras.
When she and Luke had come out to the pool, Dan and Jim had been in the upstairs gym. They’d turned it into a makeshift training room. They couldn’t use their powers, but they’d taken to sparring, using something Jim called Bo staffs.
El and Luke had the pool to themselves, but she knew Robin could appear at any moment. The ladon had taken to lounging on the terrace. El wouldn’t put it past her to tell Dan anything she overheard. El bobbed around in the water, magnifying the sounds nearby but didn’t detect anyone around.
‘It’s weird, isn’t it,’ Luke said, ‘to think that it’s the summer holidays? If we were back home, I’d be thinking about which uni I was going to.’
They swam further up the pool. It seemed a long time ago that El had thought about anything as normal as sitting finals.
‘What about you?’ Luke floated on his back. ‘What were your plans after summer?’
‘That’s in the past. I mean, the manor, it’s gone, and the equestrian centre—’
Luke’s gentle gaze tingled across her face. ‘Hey, you can’t think like that. Once this whole business with the Order is sorted, that can be cleared up too.’
A faint smile tugged at her lips. He sounded so sure. Would it be? Was she being defeatist? Perhaps Dan’s gloominess had rubbed off on her. All her childhood she’d dreamt of escaping the confines of her life, but now that she had, was she wishing them back?
She pictured the library where she’d spent countless hours gazing at the paintings of Perseus and Andromeda, so desperate to find someone different, someone like herself. She’d clung to those heroes and heroines as if they’d been real. But instead she’d come to feel as if she was turning into them. Still. Lifeless. As if she’d been an imitation of a living being. But not anymore. She was here. Alive. With others like her.
Luke splashed her.
‘Hey!’ she cried, wiping the water from her eyes.
He grinned at her.
Great. She probably had snot on her face or something. ‘What?’
‘You’re in the deep end,’ he said.
She hadn’t even realised that they’d strayed all the way up to the other end of the pool. She felt calm, more in control than she had for ages. With a smile, she took a deep breath and pushed herself forward through the water: her arms arced, her legs kicked.
When she reached the end of the pool and looked back, Luke was grinning. She lay back in the water and kicked her legs, looking up at the clouds, focusing on the sensation of the water lapping at her skin. The tension dissipated and drifted away. As she was buoyed up on the water, she felt grateful for the time in the pool, which had cleansed her of her fear. The dreams had begun to lessen and didn’t have the same vividness that they’d had in Spain.
Doing backstroke, she propelled herself along to Luke.
‘How do you feel?’ he asked.
‘Fine. Better than fine … good.’
‘Nothing like facing your fears.’
Her lips twitched. ‘Does that mean you’ll take the plunge later?’
He looked at her quizzically.
She grinned. The other day she’d spied Luke jump off his lounger and rush inside. She recalled his discomfort on the plane too when Alex had talked about arachnids and the legend of them being linked to spiders. ‘I’ll find you a spider—’
‘Euch, don’t say it.’ He ran his hands down his arms and then through his hair.
‘Really?’ El said, laughing. ‘Isn’t that kind of ironic?’
He scowled. ‘Haha, because of the half-arachnid thing. Believe me, I’ve heard it all before.’
She rolled her eyes but imagined that, with three brothers and a sister, he definitely would have. Still she had no intention of ever letting him forget this.
They were in the midst of splashing when Alex came out onto the terrace. It was clear from his stride and creased brow that something was wrong.
Luke swam to the pool’s edge and pulled himself out. ‘What’s up?’
‘Janos has sent word – the Carrases have completed their graeae trials throughout the Mediterranean. We’re flying to Crete tonight. From there, Janos will take us by boat.’
‘That’s good, isn’t it?’ El said.
‘I suppose. It’s just the timing…’
El wondered what Alex was on about. Had he been hoping to fit in a tour of the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings before they left?
Luke was staring at him bemusedly too.
Alex sighed. ‘Omar had a whole birthday menu planned for tomorrow – and now we’ll be away.’
A smile broke over El’s face. ‘I hadn’t even remembered—’
‘But it’s your eighteenth,’ Alex said.
She smiled, trying not to crack up. With everything that was going on, how could he possibly think about her birthday?
El swam to the steps and got her towel from one of the sun loungers. ‘It’s perfect. The fact that we get to move on is the best present. I wouldn’t have wished for anything else.’
Alex looked sombre. ‘So we’re still agreed on the plan?’
El nodded. ‘Janos will spill everything: his reasons for breaking with the Order, why he thinks Helena Carras will help us and, ultimately, how he intends to put an end to the Order.’
‘And if he won’t tell us?’ Luke asked.
‘He will.’ El said. ‘Remember the ball’s in our court. He needs me to get Helena’s help. As soon as we see him, we’ll barter to know everything. If he won’t, we won’t sail.’
As Robin padded down onto the terrace, their conversation was cut short. She was wearing a skimpy, green bikini.
‘I’m gonna work on my tan,’ Robin said, sitting down on one of the loungers. ‘Luke, can you do my back?’ she asked, holding out a bottle of sun lotion.
Luke’s gaze strayed down to Robin’s bust as she smiled flirtatiously, a look she was directing at him more and more these days.
Luke took the sun cream from her. She lay down on her front, with a satisfied expression, basking in his attention.
El stifled the urge to order her inside to put on more clothes. Instead she murmured, ‘I’m going to say goodbye to Omar,’ and stalked inside.
- Chapter Eight -
Scylla and Charybdis
As they disembarked at the terminal in Heraklion, Sim
mons handed Jim a black leather briefcase stuffed with Euros. They hadn’t been able to use any form of electronic payment for fear of being tracked and instead had received many of these over the course of their journey. El swore that if they survived their fight against the Order, one of the first things she’d do would be to reimburse the businessman.
At the airfield, they climbed into a waiting taxi which ferried them from the characterless surfaces to the coast road. Beneath the night sky, the waters were lost in the same way they’d been in Spain. A glimmer of excitement ran through El. Tomorrow, for the first time in her life, she would see the ocean by daylight. So far all their journeys had been undertaken at night, so she’d missed seeing anything of the landscape. In Egypt, the pyramids and hotel gardens had been the only sights. It felt good to be venturing onwards, exploring, she thought with a smile.
When they reached the harbour, El patted her pocket, checking that her lighter was where it should be. They walked down the pier amidst the fishing boats, the taut ropes of moorings creaking in the breeze. Yachts, catamarans and powerboats were anchored among the working boats too.
‘It’s midnight,’ Dan said. ‘Happy Birthday, El.’ He pressed a small velvet box into her hand.
She raised her eyebrows. They’d barely spoken the last couple of weeks yet he’d got her a present.
‘Thank you,’ she said but frowned as he walked straight past her. He’d given her a gift and then immediately gone back to ignoring her. El realised he’d spotted something out on the water. A rich, lilting voice permeated the salty air, singing,
‘I dreamed I saw my own true love, she stood so still she did not move, so dank her hair, so dim her eye, I knew she’d come to say goodbye.’
There was a boat nearing them, the voice grew louder as the craft raced towards them. El slipped Dan’s present into her rucksack: she’d open it later. As the boat sped across the water, she noticed that there was no hum of an engine. When the song finished, the frothing of the waves ebbed and the boat halted in front of them. The male siren aboard had been controlling the water with his voice.