City of Dust

by Michelle Kenney

  Somewhere overhead a skylark warbled. It was a fresh song full of seafaring adventures, deep seas and of the creatures that swam there. Like Oceanids. The healing hands of the Oceanids reaching out to support me, to save me.

  His hand was stroking my cheek, his warm lips searching for mine, stirring twelve months of repressed desire. His skin was intoxicatingly warm, his hands caressing and the only thing that mattered was quenching a need so real it almost hurt. Our bodies coiled instinctively, like snakes, around the most precious prize. There was no past, no future. Just this endless, satin moment, inside each other’s kiss, suffocating all thoughts and questions. About the water. About the black aquila. About Aelia and Max.

  MAX!

  With a gargantuan effort I pushed August off. He groaned as if drunk while dragging himself to sitting. Whatever intoxication had cocooned us was ebbing away fast now, leaving nothing but a cold, ruined reality.

  I was on my feet in a heartbeat. Conscious of how close I’d come to giving in to the worst impulse in my life – and how I was probably the most unworthy human being left on the face of the planet.

  ‘Talia?’ August was behind me, his hands on my waist, his deep whisper in my ear. It was mellow with need, and the sweetest, most divine torture. But he was a traitor. And Max and Aelia were dead.

  I spun around to face him, my hurt welling up like river in a storm. Unstoppable and fierce.

  ‘He’s gone,’ I whispered, staring up into his perfect face.

  Where had the scar gone? All the battle bruises and fatigue? How dare he stand there, shining in the new morning sun when Max was likely filling the bellies of the scavenging griffins. Aelia too, and who knew how many of the young Prolets? Eli! Panic burned up my throat. He was alive when I left him, but now?

  My heart flooded with memories, as heavy as molten metal, as the battle returned in minute detail.

  How long had we been gone? And how had we survived? Let alone washed up here in this parallel universe beside a river as flat as glass? Perhaps this was some sort of purgatory, in which case I’d probably just failed my last test. What did it matter, this ghost girl belonged in Hades anyway.

  ‘I don’t know who you are.’

  I backed off, aware of the early morning sun on the back of my neck, of the way I felt good, nurtured and healthy. And of how it was all so terribly wrong.

  ‘How … how can this have happened?’ I added in despair.

  August was staring down at his bronzed arms, turning them over in awe, as though he had only just realized that he too was all fixed up, gleaming like a precious gem.

  ‘Where are we?’

  I swung my gaze about frantically, filled with a sense of grim recognition. We were still in the Dead City, the charred remains of a railway bridge and ruined buildings confirmed that much. And it looked as though the riverbank was a small oasis in the middle of the otherwise grey landscape. I looked back at the river; it was a black crystal snake glinting with secrets.

  Closing my eyes, I forced myself to remember. The pain came first, then the violent clamp of suffocation, before the hands. Cold, healing hands that found me hanging by a thread. And breathed life back into my veins.

  ‘Thank you,’ I whispered, as though they could hear.

  I fancied the smallest ripple on the glass surface.

  ‘Are the Oceanids … healers?’ I muttered, trying to rein in my tumultuous thoughts. Trying to remember everything from before the river.

  ‘There are legends, mythical tales that the Oceanids would abduct sailors near death and drag them down to hidden depths to heal them. In the stories they went on to live an undersea life of dreams and … debauchery,’ August responded, his eyes narrowing.

  The way he said debauchery made me flush, in spite of it all. I looked at my feet, nearly buried in the long healthy grass, as he inspected his hands.

  ‘But despite their existence, I’d never believed the myths possible,’ he added. ‘Until now.’

  I raised my eyes, my thoughts hardening. I had so many questions, but I had to think about Max and Aelia. And Eli. For the love of Arafel, where was Eli?

  ‘How long have we been out?’ I agonized, running towards the river, searching for any sign of life. There was no movement beneath the silent surface at all.

  ‘I’ve no idea, and my Identifier was stolen in Europa … by bandits.’

  I stared at him. Aelia had mentioned his dispatch to Europa, but nothing about bandits. It would certainly explain his knights’ tarnished uniforms and lack of weaponry in the cathedral.

  ‘We have to move! If any of them are alive … We’re wasting precious time!’

  ‘Tal, wait!’

  I hesitated as August stepped up close, inside my space. I sucked in a breath. He always moved so damned fast. And his proximity still cross-wired everything. But right now, there was something else too.

  ‘I’ve … missed you … so much,’ he whispered with difficulty.

  I exhaled, a rough breath that hurt so damned much. Why now? I wanted to scream. Words I’d spent so long wanting to hear they were almost tattooed on the inside of my brain. But it didn’t matter. He was a traitor, Max and Aelia were probably dead, and I had no idea where Eli and the young Prolets were. Unus too. They could all be dead. It was a thought that crushed so hard, I could only keep it from destroying me by running. There were no trees here, but the ground felt good beneath my leather-clad feet, and I was doing something.

  ‘Why did you desert them?’ I fired as he fell into step with me after a couple of minutes. ‘When they needed you so much?’

  ‘Is that how little you think of me? That I would abandon every principle I’ve ever held close, let alone my oath as an Equite?’

  His voice was stony, and when I glanced at him his eyes were clouded.

  Tendrils of doubt started to creep through my veins.

  ‘What makes you think I deserted them at all?’

  ‘But I saw you! The moving images in Isca Prolet … Cassius …’

  My head crowded with all the accusations that had been festering for days; accusations that suddenly began to blur and dissipate.

  ‘Think what Cassius is capable of, Talia!’ August remonstrated. ‘For the love of Nero, he can re-create pretty much anything!’

  We were running beside the river. It must have been lovely here once: the glass water one side and the long green bank the other. But every so often the view was scarred with the blackened remains of a burned-out building, lest we forget. Nature and science; love and war; life and death.

  I swallowed painfully. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? The embryos in the bottle, the rows of laboratory tanks, the capability to re-create human life, only with a little extra signature coding.

  ‘He … re-created you?’ I forced out.

  He flashed me a tight-lipped frown.

  ‘He would have, if it were the old Pantheon days. Octavia used to clone her Equites at birth. But it’s far more efficient to use technology now. Remember all the screens and propaganda in Pantheon? The Senate has access to media tech beyond your wildest dreams. Why waste precious resources cloning anyone when they can have the same effect virtually?’

  I swallowed, trying to align his response with all the questions in my head.

  ‘So, the August I watched in Isca Prolet, and then in the Flavium was a … computer … image?’

  I struggled to find a term for what he was suggesting.

  His face was strained. ‘It’s a specialist area of simulated reality … but yes, sort of.’

  Suddenly, I felt nothing more than a frightened forest rabbit, caught in the spotlight of some new Pantheonite toy.

  ‘So how do I know it’s the real you right now?’ I whispered.

  Without warning, he reached out and pulled me in beneath the crumbling canopy of an old shop. It was dark and dingy, and smelled of years of neglect. Then he drove me back until I could feel the rigid, cold stone against my back, his warmth moulding into my front.<
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  I lifted my face to look at him. Really look, and this time I saw it all. Iris-blues, wide open and unguarded, his lips so close I could feel their warmth reaching for mine. At last he was there, the man I’d left on Octavia’s balcony, the one who’d made all the promises.

  ‘I think you know it’s the real me,’ he whispered intently.

  And he was right – I did. Yet every cell of my disloyal body wanted to prove it. I stained to the roots of my sandy hair follicles. It was too much. How could I even think about August in this way when I’d already shared so much with Max? Promised him everything? Would August know? Could he sense I wasn’t the same girl he left?

  ‘But it doesn’t stop at the images does it?’ I whispered. ‘Cassius is actually designing a Prolet army with one purpose: to serve him! And I saw the chimera in the laboratory,’ I added, too conscious of the way our bodies were touching. ‘It’s … a time bomb.’

  August frowned down at me. ‘That little animal is the least of our troubles.’

  ‘I know,’ I breathed.

  The frown deepened.

  ‘Lake,’ I whispered, watching the muscle in his cheek flex.

  ‘What do you know of the child?’ he demanded.

  I thought of Thomas’s classical chimera drawing and then Lake’s distinctive, double-lidded eyes.

  ‘I guess you could say I have an eye for a serpent.’

  August stared at me, his thick brows drawn together. It was one of the old looks, one that took everything and gave nothing back. But this wasn’t a time for secrets. I shook my head and, for the first time, he broke first, running his fingers through his raven hair as he shifted his weight back.

  ‘I left Pantheon for two reasons. I’d lost support in the Senate. There were integration issues with the Prolet population …’

  ‘You found out they had minds of their own?’ I shot back.

  ‘Yes … No! Look, there were issues, all predictable, but for which the Senate had little tolerance. Despite my repeated requests for time! Cassius recovered, and still had a lot of friends among the older Pantheonites. He made promises and gained authority as only Cassius can. Then, once he had support from two-thirds of the Senate he passed a resolution to unfreeze the Biotechnology Programme – in the interests of natural retirement and developing a fresh workforce for Isca Pantheon, so it was claimed.

  ‘But it was all about gaining enough authority to restart the classified Prolet and chimera trials, which I only found out about through Rajid’s surveillance.’

  My shoulders tensed.

  ‘I knew then it was only going to be a matter of time before he started developing the code for the Voynich’s Hominum chimera,’ August continued, ‘as Thomas detailed in his research …’

  ‘Hominum?’ I whispered, my head spinning until finally it arrived at the only translation that fitted.

  Human.

  And there it was. I stared up into August’s face with the shadow of something stark and dystopian slowly staining every thought. I’d guessed at Lake’s true identity in a way, but human chimera? It sounded so fantastical, even for Pantheon, even now.

  ‘I played along with the Senate’s recommendation that we return Isca Pantheon to its former order, but I’d already made up my mind, to find somewhere new. A fresh location in which to start again, with every last creature willing to come with me. But Hominum chimera … She’s unstable … a different type of challenge altogether,’ he muttered.

  I thought of the small chimera animal hidden away in the laboratory, of its speed, agility and aggression. Lake seemed so innocent by comparison. Could she really be the human face of the Voynich’s last secret?

  ‘The Senate needed a high-ranking official to lead the mission for new locations. And Cassius wanted rid of me. He delighted in making it impossible for me to refuse after the Prolet riots, without losing all credibility.

  ‘And then I had an idea. Very little real information existed at all about Hominum chimera, except for myths about its extreme volatility. A mission would give me the perfect cover to visit the birthplace of it all; to uncover any ancient stories about Hominum chimera’s abilities … and find out whether any DNA remains.’

  ‘And does it?’ I asked breathlessly.

  August stared at me, picking his words with great care. ‘We knew very little before we set out. The most famous story being that of Hominum chimera’s imprisonment beneath the Colosseum, within the real labyrinth of Rome.

  ‘She was barely ever allowed above ground, because of her extreme strength and aggression. And yet on one celebratory public occasion, Emperor Augustus ordered her appearance. She was heavily shackled, with his strongest gladiators in attendance, but it wasn’t enough.

  ‘When she got there, she unleashed all her anger at being incarcerated for so long by snapping her chains and …’

  ‘And?’ I prompted.

  ‘… devouring the spectators,’ August finished bluntly.

  I thought of Lake’s serpentine eyes, and a shiver slid along my spine.

  ‘In Pantheon, it was always assumed to be nothing more than a story, an old Roman fireside tale, if you like. But when we arrived in Rome’s ruined Colosseum, we found a caved-in entrance to an ancient Hypogeum. Once we were inside, we found perfectly preserved catacombs with mythological frescos and engravings. One particular tomb depicted the same legendary story about Hominum chimera … told in exactly the same way.’

  I swallowed to ease my dry mouth. A story repeated had its roots in fact. It was something Grandpa used to say.

  ‘I took samples, and recorded images before we left, enough to share our findings and warn Isca Pantheon about the final destructive potential of Hominum chimera. Enough to lead a revolt against its re-creation, and discredit Cassius’s renewed Biotechnology Programme. But we were ambushed on our way back, our evidence destroyed, and of course Cassius lost no time in sabotaging my name while I was away.’

  I looked up at August’s bitter expression and felt my guilt swell. It all made so much sense.

  ‘It happened while we were sleeping,’ he forced out. ‘We never identified them, but …’

  I nodded.

  ‘They cut the throats of most of my soldiers while we were sleeping. They didn’t realize a small party of us had left early to hunt. It was like returning to a battlefield. We weren’t expected to return to Pantheon.’

  I dropped my gaze to my feet, feeling like someone had just righted the world’s axis. Finally. He’d lost some of his best friends, come close to death himself, and I’d done nothing but treat him like a deserter.

  I lifted my hand to touch his cheek. He turned towards my fingers, pressing his lips against them.

  ‘Lake’s capabilities?’ I whispered, knowing already what this was all leading to: power.

  What sort of weapon was she?

  There was silence, while the rotten guttering rattled above us.

  ‘The tomb of Hominum chimera had a complete mosaic ceiling,’ he responded after a beat, ‘depicting the fabled chimera glowing like the sun. Like some kind of ancient Roman god describing The Requiem.’

  ‘The Requiem?’ I repeated, my words sounding oddly brittle.

  ‘The Mass for the Dead.’

  His eyes blazed even in the shadows, and I knew this was it, the real reason August had agreed to the mission in the first place. The only reason he’d risked leaving Aelia, the Prolets, perhaps even me, because of a bigger threat to us all.

  ‘It’s a myth we’d only heard whisper of before, that Hominum chimera can … is capable of triggering a sequence of natural disasters, culminating in the eternal fire of damnation. In other words, the end of civilization as we know it.’

  ‘Didn’t we do that bit already?’ I whispered, my brain reeling. ‘What makes her so different?’

  He smiled, pushing a stray hair back from my eyes.

  ‘Now that’s where it gets really Roman. Hominum chimera was believed to be the mother of all mythological beasts, t
he one hybrid capable of being stronger, faster and more agile than her only existing counterpart.’

  I looked up at August, a strange acknowledgement sating my veins, as though the answer had been inside me all the time.

  ‘Which is?’ I asked, my voice sounding tight and odd.

  He hesitated momentarily, iris-blues fading to ink, narrow and assessing. Then he leaned close, letting his lips brush my cheek as he whispered words that gleamed with a timeworn truth.

  ‘Nature herself.’

  Chapter 22

  We slipped out of the dark building. The sun was higher now and the birds in full chorus. It seemed ironic that any creature would choose to live here.

  ‘So re-creating Hominum chimera was always Cassius’s aim?’ I asked. ‘Even in Octavia’s time? He must have been scheming to overthrow her for years. The fact that Lake already exists …’

  August looked at me, a blaze of anger in his eyes.

  ‘Yes,’ he answered shortly. ‘After Thomas left, Cassius was left with a clear choice: follow his brother or become Octavia’s lapdog. There were always rumours about an illegitimate son, hidden away somewhere in Isca Pantheon, but Lake … He told no one about her.

  ‘It wasn’t until Rajid came to me with tales of a honey-eyed serpent child, that I put it together with stories of Hominum chimera. I knew the scant stories we had weren’t enough. I needed old-world evidence and knowledge, enough to warrant an official Senate investigation at least.’

  There was a moment’s silence while we paused to check our progress against the sun’s position.

  ‘Where are we even going anyway?’ August frowned. ‘You don’t know these streets.’

  ‘I’m navigating,’ I muttered, squinting at the sky, ‘the feral way.’

  I was cutting an easterly direction across the city, having recalled Max saying something about the river running in a south-westerly direction. My initial target was the ruined cathedral, and from there I was hoping to pick up a trail. I couldn’t think about any alternative.

  Suspiciously, I scanned our surroundings, listening and watching as I might in the forest. We were moving down a medium-sized old road, approaching some sort of overgrown crossroad. The remains of a rusted sign caught my eye, its lettering just clear enough to make out a mottled Exe Str**t. It felt poignant and, briefly, I wondered about the bustle of life it once watched. A direct contrast to this dusty vacuum.