‘Where are my brothers and sisters?’ he whispered.
‘Um . . . I don’t know,’ Ellie said. She wondered if his memory was coming back. ‘Did you see them in the crowd? Do you know their names? What do they look like?’
Seth stared at his feet, frowning. ‘I can’t remember.’ He looked at her seriously. ‘But I think they need my help.’
All of a sudden, he clutched a hand to his throat, like he’d been slapped there. ‘Water,’ he yelled hoarsely. ‘Water!’
‘Don’t shout!’ Ellie hissed. ‘There are two guardsmen right outside.’
Seth shook his head. ‘So?’ he wheezed. ‘What can they do to me?’
Ellie screwed up her face, confused by his confidence. ‘Kill you, that’s what.’
‘I’ll tear their heads off with my bare hands.’
‘Oh yeah, I bet you would,’ she said scornfully. ‘Don’t be stupid – they’ll arrest you, and march you right back to the bonfire.’
‘I’d like to see them try.’
Ellie frowned. ‘They did try. And they would have succeeded if I hadn’t rescued you.’
But Seth had doubled over, wheezing and pawing at his throat. Ellie supposed he hadn’t had anything to drink all day.
‘All right, wait,’ she said, and hurried towards a sink in the corner. There was a chime of glass against glass and she turned to see that Seth had removed a jar of yellow liquid from one of the shelves. It had a dead rat in it.
‘What are you doing?’ she said. He had taken the lid off, pressing the edge of the jar to his lips. He coughed and held the jar out at arm’s length, causing the rat to swish to one side. Liquid spilled over the edge.
‘What is that?’ he spat.
‘It’s preserving fluid, you idiot! I’m getting you some water.’
‘Why do you have all these dead animals?’
‘I’m studying them, obviously,’ Ellie said. She filled a mug with water and rushed back to Seth, shoving it in his hands and carefully returning the dead rat to the shelf. ‘The experiments are really interesting actually –’
‘More,’ said Seth.
Ellie stared in disbelief at the empty mug. ‘How did you drink that so fast?’
Seth just stared back at her. ‘It’s you,’ he said. ‘You were there this morning. On the roof.’
‘Of course I was,’ Ellie said resentfully. How could he have forgotten that she’d saved him from suffocating to death inside a whale?
‘You saved my life,’ he said, and shook Ellie’s hand in both of his. ‘Thank you . . . Ellie?’
Ellie nodded, then her stomach turned as Seth pulled her sharply forward, so his mouth was right next to her ear.
‘Ellie, I need to get off this island,’ he whispered. ‘Everyone seems to want to kill me and I don’t think I can stop them all, if I’m honest.’
‘You can’t stop any of them,’ she said, shoving him roughly away. She was starting to regret risking so much to rescue this boy. He seemed half wild, and entirely unpredictable. ‘And you can’t get out of the City, either.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because there’s nowhere else to go.’
‘There must be other cities.’
‘Other cities?’ Ellie said in astonishment, taking a step away from him. ‘Of course there aren’t any other cities! There’s just the City.’
For emphasis, she pointed at a faded yellow map pinned to the wall. A single large, jagged shape took up a third of the paper. It was simply labelled THE CITY.
‘Doesn’t it have a name?’ Seth asked.
‘It might have done, thousands of years ago. It used to be much, much bigger. Most of it’s underwater now.’
‘What about these?’ said Seth, pointing to a scattering of other, much smaller shapes around it.
‘Those are the farming and hunting islands,’ said Ellie.
‘I can live on one of them, then. I bet I’m good at hunting.’
‘You wouldn’t last a day. Also, farmers live on the farming islands, and they’d be just as afraid of you as people are here.’
Seth squinted at the map. ‘You get all your food from these tiny islands? But there were thousands of people in that square.’
‘The whale lords get most of the food for the City. They have these huge ships that they use to fish and hunt whales. It means they’re very powerful. They practically rule the City.’
‘Those men who put me in the cage . . . were they whale lords?’
Ellie shook her head. ‘They were Inquisitors. They protect the City from the Enemy. They really do rule the City, although you don’t see them very often. Well, until now. What’s wrong?’
Seth was clutching his head and gritting his teeth. ‘That noise.’ He looked around. ‘Where is it coming from?’
Ellie frowned. ‘What noise?’
‘That noise,’ he said, looking at her with wide eyes. He pointed to the ceiling. ‘Listen, it keeps rising and falling. What is it?’
‘What does it sound like?’ said Ellie uncertainly.
‘Like a . . . voice. A voice shouting, only I can’t figure out the words. You can hear it, can’t you?’
Ellie listened, but heard only silence. She grimaced in apology. ‘No . . . Um, Seth, did you tell the Inquisition you could hear this voice?’
‘What? No. I don’t think so. Maybe. I can’t remember a lot of it. They spent most of the time –’ he looked briefly ashamed – ‘hitting me.’
The memory of this seemed to come flooding back to him. ‘That man with one arm. He BEAT me!’ he roared, his whole body trembling with rage.
Ellie pulled him by the elbow. ‘Shut up,’ she hissed, looking at the door. ‘You’ll get us both caught!’
‘I have to get out of here,’ said Seth. ‘Right now.’ He rushed towards the door, but only managed three long paces before tripping. ‘Ow!’
‘Be quiet!’
Seth grabbed his foot and held it up, revealing a bloody gash across the sole. He picked up a jagged curl of metal, one edge now glistening with blood, then glared resentfully around the workshop.
‘Don’t you ever clean up?’ he said, pointing to a crumpled dress smeared with paint. Ellie’s clothes were strewn everywhere, together with half-empty glasses of water, cups of tea, scraps of orange peel and slivers of apple core. He stared at a sheet of paper nearby. A stick of charcoal lay on it that had since been stepped on, a fine black powder sprayed across the floorboards. ‘How can you stand to live in this mess?’
‘Listen, they will kill you if you go out there.’
Seth paused. ‘Because I’m the “Vessel”,’ he said, remembering. He sat down on the edge of a workbench, inspecting the cut on his foot. ‘They said I had the Enemy inside me. Who’s the Enemy?’
Ellie sighed. ‘The last god.’
‘What happened to all the others?’
‘They drowned the world,’ said Ellie. ‘Only the Enemy tricked them and they ended up drowning too. The City is all that’s left. It was built on one of the highest mountains – the only parts that still stick above the sea.’
‘So where is the Enemy?’ said Seth.
‘Well, it depends.’ Ellie leaned against a bookcase. ‘Sometimes it’s floating around in the air, as just a harmless spirit. But eventually it chooses a Vessel. Then it lives inside the Vessel’s mind, growing stronger and stronger, until it gets so strong that it can burst out of the Vessel in its true physical form. It’s called “manifesting”.’
‘What’s that like?’ asked Seth.
Ellie shrugged. ‘I’ve never seen it – the last time it happened was twenty-three years ago. But apparently the Enemy’s true form is terrifying – stronger than ten men and much, much faster. That’s why the Inquisitors try to find and kill the Vessel before the Enemy can manifest. But, if it does, the Inquisitors have to destroy it. Usually it kills a lot of people first. The person who defeats it gets to become a saint when they die.’
‘And what happens to the Enemy?
’
Ellie shrugged again. ‘No one really knows. It goes away for a while. Sometimes many years. But it always comes back eventually.’
‘So they think I have this Enemy inside me,’ Seth said, putting a hand to his heart. For the first time, he didn’t seem so sure of himself. ‘That’s why all those people were so happy to watch me die?’
‘Unfortunately, yes.’
‘But . . . how do I know I’m not the Vessel?’
‘You’d know if you were. You’d be able to see the Enemy. That’s the Vessel’s “gift”.’
Seth thought about this for a moment. ‘Well then, I know what I have to do,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Find the real Vessel, and kill him.’
Ellie’s breath caught. ‘What? No, that’s stupid.’
Seth rolled his eyes. ‘Well, of course it wouldn’t make sense to you. You don’t have an entire city trying to kill you. I’m leaving and you can’t stop me.’ He headed for the door.
‘Wait!’ Ellie raced to cut him off. ‘If those guards outside see you, the Inquisitors will know I’m helping you and I’ll probably get burned alive too. That’s not the kindest way to repay me for saving your life twice in one day.’
‘Twice?’ said Seth, frowning.
Ellie folded her arms. ‘Who else do you think rescued you from that bonfire?’ she said, feeling another twinge of guilt at this sort-of lie.
‘You rescued me?’
‘Well, I had a . . . friend,’ Ellie said. ‘He was able to get you out.’
‘How? In front of all those people?’
Ellie scrunched up her face. She didn’t like talking about Finn. ‘He’s good at that sort of thing.’
‘He must be a wise man.’
Ellie shifted uncomfortably. ‘He’s a boy. A very clever boy. But not always nice.’
‘Then why did he save my life?’
‘Because I asked him to. We’ve known each other a long time. And he enjoys proving he’s cleverer than me.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Oh, um . . . Finn,’ Ellie said, swallowing.
‘He must have risked his life to save me. Can I meet him?’
‘No,’ Ellie said flatly. ‘He’s, um, he’s got a terrible temper. Better not to be around him.’
She was worried Seth would keep asking questions but he seemed to have lost interest. His eyes drifted round the workshop, then rested on the window above. It was set into the sloping roof, and had a ladder leading up to it.
‘I bet there’s no guards out there,’ he said, with a wicked smile.
‘Don’t you dare,’ said Ellie.
But he was already racing towards it, nimbly bounding over workbenches and leaping between Ellie’s chemistry set and the shelves of bottled powders. He reached the ladder.
‘Stop!’ Ellie yelled.
Seth turned. ‘What are you doing?’ he sighed. Ellie had grabbed the harpoon gun and was aiming it straight at him.
‘Miss Lancaster?’ came a muffled voice from the street. ‘Are you okay in there?’
‘I’m fine, thank you!’ Ellie called. ‘Just dealing with some, uh . . . rats.’ She looked pointedly at Seth. ‘Ungrateful rats.’
‘What’s that?’ said Seth.
‘A harpoon gun, obviously. My mum built it. The whale lords use these to kill things much bigger and less annoying than you.’
‘You won’t shoot me,’ he said.
‘I will.’
Seth peered curiously into her eyes, then laughed. ‘No, you won’t. I can tell.’
He started to climb. Ellie’s hands trembled on the harpoon gun, then she groaned and let it go. Looking around, she spotted a brass contraption by her foot. It resembled a small, portable cannon with a clockwork winding mechanism on the side.
‘I’ll use this instead!’ she announced, pointing it at him, finger on the trigger.
Seth sneered. ‘Did your mum make that too?’
‘No, I did. It’s ingenious – it fires a big net. It’s meant for catching bears and wolves, but you’ll do.’
Seth snorted. ‘I don’t believe you. You don’t seem very smart.’
‘I am smart!’ Ellie bristled furiously. ‘I spent months on this. And I didn’t get any help – I didn’t even use my mum’s books!’
Seth kept climbing, and Ellie muttered a curse then pulled the trigger.
There was a loud thunk and a screech of metal and something smacked Ellie hard in the nose. Pain exploded across her face.
‘Ow!’ she cried, dropping the net-cannon and clasping her hands to her nose. ‘No, no, no,’ she muttered. She heard the rungs of the ladder juddering – Seth must have got away. Her stupid, worthless invention!
A hand touched her shoulder, making Ellie yelp in surprise. She looked up into Seth’s dark eyes.
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Are you all right?’
Ellie stared at him, astonished. Seth leaned in close, touching his hand gently to her face. ‘Does it hurt?’
She nodded, noticing blood on Seth’s fingers.
‘I think you’ve broken your nose,’ he said.
‘What?’ Ellie moaned, touching it lightly with her fingers. ‘Are you sure?’
Seth nodded. ‘It’s sort of . . . turned to one side.’
‘It already did that!’
‘Oh,’ said Seth. ‘Well then it’s not broken. Here.’ He picked up a brass cylinder from the ground. ‘This is what burst out that net-thing.’
Ellie grabbed it from his hand. ‘Why are you still here?’ she said sourly, picking up a cloth and pressing it to her nose to stem the bleeding.
Seth looked up at the window. ‘I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. You seem very . . . persistent.’
He winced, and put his hands to his temples.
‘The voice again?’ Ellie asked.
He nodded. ‘It won’t go away.’ He squeezed his eyes shut. ‘It keeps crashing and crashing. How can you not hear it?’
‘Look, you can’t go out there,’ said Ellie. ‘There’s too much you don’t understand.’
Seth nodded distractedly. ‘Pinch your nose. It will help stop the bleeding.’
‘How do you know that?’
Seth thought about this. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said. He looked exhausted – the skin around his eyes puffy, his forehead clammy. He slumped down on the floor, leaning against a workbench. ‘What sort of city tries to burn a boy alive, Ellie?’
There was shouting in the street as a crowd clamoured by. They sounded afraid.
Ellie looked down at Seth, and shrugged in apology. ‘This one.’
From the Diary of Claude Hestermeyer
I have learned some upsetting news.
Peter – the real Peter – was fond of gambling. Much too fond. I had thought he’d learned to control his habits; we had worked hard at it together. But it seems he had carried on in secret and incurred a large debt. Now, the moneylenders have come to collect.
From Peter’s father.
I went to visit him today, to see how he’d been coping since the funeral. He had not been coping. His face was badly bruised and he needed my help to walk from the front door to his chair. He winced with every step, clutching his side.
‘Who did this to you?’ I asked. I could not bear to see him this way – first for him to lose his son, and now this. I felt somehow that it was my fault, for failing to help Peter deal with his problem.
I returned glumly to my office that night, trying to figure out how I could raise the money to clear the debt.
‘I could help,’ said the Enemy, as we walked up the street towards the university.
‘Hmm?’ I said distractedly.
The Enemy smiled. ‘You remember who I am, don’t you?’
‘But you can’t do things,’ I said. ‘You can’t even hold a glass of whisky.’
‘I thought you studied the Enemy for a living? I can do things if you ask me to. Try it,’ he said. ‘Ask me to pick up
that starfish.’
I stared down. Sure enough, there was a starfish lying on the cobblestones, grey and long since dried up.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘Pick up that starfish.’
To my amazement, he bent over, picked up the dead starfish, and put it right in my hand. It wasn’t an illusion – I could feel the weight of it. I found myself suddenly light-headed.
‘Now try to think bigger,’ the Enemy said. ‘Much bigger.’
I considered this for a moment and, though a part of me screamed not to, I kept picturing Peter’s father’s bruised face. I had failed to help Peter, but perhaps I could help him.
‘Get the money he needs,’ I said. ‘However you can.’
The Cathedral of St Celestina
Ellie stumbled groggily from her bedroom the next morning. She rubbed her eyes and the workshop settled into view, sunlight streaming down from the window, dust motes drifting in the beams. There was no sound from the basement, where she’d cleared Seth a space to sleep, providing him with an old mattress and a pillow she’d improvised from a bundle of rolled-up jumpers stuffed inside a potato sack.
Ellie looked around, hoping Finn hadn’t crept in during the night, but there was no sign of him. She was about to climb to the roof to water her plants when there was a knock at the door.
She undid the bolts and pulled the door open an inch, afraid the guards might still be outside. But it was just Anna, dressed in her usual blue jumper, black skirt, and mismatched socks. She was making whooshing sounds, swinging her hand back and forth like she was wielding a sword. She looked Ellie up and down. ‘You’re still in your nightdress.’
Ellie cleared her throat. ‘Oh, I . . . um . . . I had a lie-in.’
‘You never lie in.’
‘I didn’t sleep well. You know, because they nearly burned Seth alive?’
Anna continued making her whooshing sounds. ‘You’re still bothered about that?’ she said. ‘So what are we up to today?’
‘Well, if you don’t mind, I wondered if you could run me some, uh, errands,’ Ellie said distractedly.
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