Phoenix Burning

by Bryony Pearce

  Toby shoved him away and spat in his face.

  Matus wiped the spit off, his bruised face murderous, but he said nothing.

  “That was too close.” Suddenly shaking, Toby sat down next to Ayla. He turned his back on the junk-filled horizon and was faced with Cezar staring hungrily over the salt.

  “I don’t want to lose my tongue,” the boy mumbled, squinting into the afternoon haze.

  “You won’t.” Ayla pointed. “Moira and Brody are still out there.” She glanced back at the walls where Cezar had shown them the hatches. “You hear that?” she yelled. “They’re still there. It’s over. Get them out.”

  There was no sound and no movement behind the wall.

  “Do you think they’re waiting for Moira to drown?” Summer whispered, her face pale.

  Toby clenched his fists. “I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”

  “I can’t do this any more.” Cezar looked at Bianca. “We can’t win. Look at me.” He thumped his twisted leg. “We’ve more challenges to go – more torture. And then we’ll lose our tongues.”

  “We’ll win.” Bianca stood. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “How?” Cezar snapped, then he gestured, taking in Arthur, Toby and Matus. “We don’t stand a chance. Even if we do…” He hung his head. “I-I don’t want to go blind.”

  Bianca gasped. “You said you’d do this for me – for our families.”

  “We can’t win, Bianca. Our families won’t get the money and the colony will be two workers short – for what? We thought that if we didn’t get the crowns, we’d be sent home. Win-win. Well, that’s not what happens, is it? I’m needed back home, I can fix the broken equipment and there aren’t enough of us left healthy to waste two.”

  Bianca began to tremble. Her nails curled into her palms. “You promised.”

  “I didn’t have all the facts,” he said quietly.

  “We can’t escape.” Bianca shook her head. “There’s no way out.”

  “No way out of the sanctuary.” Cezar stared out to sea again. “But we’re out here now and there’s no one to stop us.”

  “We’re on a pile of rock – there’s nowhere to go.” Summer stared at him.

  Cezar pointed out to sea.

  “You’re insane.” Bianca retreated.

  “You want your tongue torn out, B?” Cezar tilted his head. “You want to face whatever tomorrow’s challenge is?”

  “Whatever it is, I’ll win it for us,” she pleaded.

  “No, you won’t,” Ayla spoke up. “If it’s you or me, I know who I’d place my money on.”

  “Shut the hell up.” Bianca’s claws snicked out. “Anyway, you’re injured now.”

  “But I’m not,” Lenka said quietly.

  “They’re right. I’m swimming.” Cezar slipped down the rocks.

  “You can’t!” Toby reached for him. “You were in the salt, Cezar, you know what it’s like. That was at the shoreline – you only had a taste of what it’ll do to you further out – the currents are poison.”

  “And what about your leg?” Bianca swung her head. “You’re not strong enough.”

  “We only have to make it round the headland.” Cezar stood in the waves now; orange water simmered at his knees and tin cans banged against the rocks with hollow thuds. “There has to be somewhere we can hide until the festival. They’ll assume we’ve drowned.” He looked at the others. “That’s what you’ll say, isn’t it?” He was walking backwards, the orange salt rising up his thighs.

  “Cezar, it isn’t possible,” Toby begged. “Come back in.”

  Cezar shook his head, tears in his eyes. “I’m not going back, Toby.”

  “Can you even swim?” Summer called.

  “There’s a lake by our village.” Cezar continued to retreat.

  “Damn it, Cezar!” Bianca looked wildly from her partner to the cathedral and back again. The sun blazed from the great bronze disc on the roof and lit up her hair. “You know I can’t let you go alone.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “You could stay.” Summer grabbed Bianca’s arm. “They’ll take out your tongue, but you’ll still be able to work in the sanctuary.”

  Sadly, Bianca shook her head. “I want to stay, this place was my dream, but he’s right. If our village isn’t going to get the money, it needs us more than I need this.” She sniffed and suddenly she looked very young. “I should never have talked you into it, Cezar, but you were the only blond in our generation and I needed you. I got you into this … so I should get you out.”

  “You’re going to swim?” Lenka said. “You’ll die.”

  Bianca shook her head. “Please! I can do it. Without me, he’ ll die.” She cocked her head towards her partner. Then she carefully navigated her way down the rock.

  She hissed when her toes touched the water and her eyes met Toby’s. “It does burn.”

  “It’ll get worse.” He held her gaze. “You don’t stand a chance – either of you.”

  “Maybe she does,” Ayla grunted. She slid awkwardly down to stand beside Bianca, her path leaving a bloodstain on the rock. As she splashed into the salt, she glanced up at Toby.

  Cezar was still splashing backwards, as though terrified someone would catch him and pull him back.

  Ayla turned to Bianca. “I don’t like you and you don’t like me.”

  “Whatever,” the girl sneered.

  “But we’re alike, so just you listen.” Ayla leaned close until only Bianca and Toby could hear. “You’re strong enough, so you might get him around the headland. Keep your faces out of the salt if you want to have any chance at all.” She paused. “Head for the cliff on the north side – there should be a boat.”

  “A boat?” Bianca’s head shot up, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Keep your stupid voice down,” Ayla hissed. “Toby’s family will be there – they’d never go far.”

  “And you’re telling me this, why?” Bianca glanced at Cezar.

  “He deserves a chance.” Ayla shaded her eyes. “If the boat is there, tell the sailors Toby sent you.”

  Bianca swallowed. “We’re not strong swimmers.”

  “Then you’d better get stronger.” Ayla held up her hand and Toby pulled her back on to the rock. “Good luck.”

  “This is a mistake,” Toby said for the last time. “Don’t do this.”

  Cezar shook his head, turned his face to the horizon and began to swim, doggy style. He passed Brody and Moira who watched him with horrified faces. Toby’s heart sank.

  TWENTY-ONE

  “What’s going on?” Mother Hesper’s voice shattered the tension. Bianca caught her breath. Frozen in a second of indecision, she stood in the salt, staring from Cezar to the furious mother.

  Then, as a dozen robed attendants ran from the tunnel and Mother Hesper hurried towards her, Bianca gave a little hiccupping sob, turned and flung herself after her partner.

  “Keep your damned face out of the water,” Ayla shouted.

  Bianca did not acknowledge her, but struck out strongly towards Cezar. She quickly caught him up.

  “Idiots,” Mother Hesper sneered. “There’s nowhere to go.”

  Toby looked at her. “They didn’t want to do another one of your challenges. Cezar would rather drown than go through what you’ve got planned for us next.”

  Summer looked at Mother Hesper, her doll eyes wide. “We could’ve died today – I thought you … weren’t you watching?”

  “Of course we were watching. Someone is always watching – like the Sun above us.” Mother Hesper’s fingers twitched into a sun sign. “It doesn’t matter. The guardian uncles will patrol the beaches in case they come ashore and, if they drown… Well, the survival rate for this challenge was higher than expected.” She looked over her shoulder. “Father?”

  Father Dahon was standing in the shadow of the tunnel’s entrance.

  Toby squinted after him. “You expected some of us to die?”

  Summer clung
to Arthur and even Lenka paled.

  “Your lives belong to the Solar Order now.” Mother Hesper lowered her brows. “And yes, every year some of the applicants die at this stage. It is a prize worth dying for, don’t you think?”

  “Y-yes.” Lenka nodded, making a very shaky sun sign with one hand.

  “You are going to release Moira though?” Arthur stood and balanced Summer on the rock behind him. “The challenge is over.”

  Toby had almost forgotten about Moira. She and Brody remained by the post. Brody was watching Cezar swim away, but his arms were tightly around Moira, holding her up. There was nothing visible of the blond girl but her eyes, nose and mouth, which she had upturned. Her gasps for breath were audible even over the crashing of the salt into rock.

  Mother Hesper did not move.

  “Then we’ll get her out of there ourselves,” Toby snapped. He looked at Ayla. “Brody dropped her key. We just need to find it.”

  “You mean go back into the maze?” Matus shuddered.

  Ayla clutched her thigh and looked away.

  “Well, I’m going. It’s not like we’re helping the competition. They already lost.” Toby leaped from the rock, on to the beach. “Arthur?”

  Arthur glanced at Summer. When she nodded he climbed carefully after Toby.

  The attendants lining the tunnel closed ranks.

  “What are you doing?” Alarmed, Toby turned to Mother Hesper. “What’s the point in letting Moira drown?”

  Mother Hesper smiled. “You’re right, of course.” She raised a hand that had been buried inside her robe. In it she had a single key. She threw it to the brother who had met Toby and Ayla at the wharf. “Unchain her.”

  Toby watched him pick his way gingerly through the salt. Moira’s face disappeared underwater before he could get there. Even Ayla stiffened.

  “Hurry!” Arthur yelled.

  Finally the brother released Moira and Brody carried her to shore.

  Mother Hesper spread her hands. “You will be happy to know that there is only one more challenge left. Take some time – worship in the cathedral. Prepare yourselves for a true fight. On the day of the new moon, we will know which of you are our Sun and Moon.”

  “New moon?” Summer tilted her head, calculating. “That’s three nights away.”

  Ayla nodded. “So we get a holiday.”

  Lenka frowned. “You said ‘a fight’. You mean we’ll be fighting each other?”

  Mother Hesper smiled. “Haven’t you been fighting one another since the beginning?”

  Toby rubbed his legs – the high sun was drying them and they looked like raw meat. His chest and shoulders weren’t quite as bad but the itching and peeling caused by the chemical burns of the polluted sea was agony. Was he in any condition for a fight? Were Lenka and Matus?

  He tried not to think about the condition Cezar and Bianca would be in by the time they found Rahul… If they found Rahul.

  Ayla glowered at Mother Hesper. “So – can we go to the infirmary?”

  Hideaki pursed his lips when he saw the teens lined up outside his door. Despite his swollen ankle and dislocated shoulder, Matus had managed to hobble his way to the front of the queue and Lenka needed salve on her skin just as much as Toby did.

  But as Hideaki told Matus to come in, attendants rushed past with Brody and Moira.

  Moira’s skin was sloughing off and blood now coated her chin and chest. Beside her Brody bobbed, a massive bruise shining on his bloodied head and the same blood making a bib on his front.

  “Put them in the usual beds.” Hideaki sighed. He glanced at the rest of the teens. “This is going to take some time – why don’t you rest in your cells? I’ll send a sister when it’s your turn.”

  “Us first,” Matus warned. He had his good arm around Lenka, whose fine hair had dried into its normal halo.

  Hideaki caught Ayla’s eye. She gave an imperceptible nod.

  “Fine,” he said. “You first.”

  The teens staggered back to their cells in near silence, the rasping of their pain-filled breathing was the only sound in the corridor, and still Toby felt the weight of eyes on his back. When he turned there was no one there.

  “They’re watching again,” he muttered.

  “They’re always watching,” Ayla groaned as she wrapped both hands around her bleeding thigh.

  Lenka was hardly keeping upright. Only Arthur and Summer had emerged from the challenge almost unscathed.

  “Do you still think it’s worth it?” Toby asked suddenly, staring at Arthur. “We were supposed to die today.”

  “Mother Hesper didn’t mean that,” Summer breathed, looking around, sharp-eyed. Toby frowned. Was Summer slyer than she seemed – playing a game for the watchers?

  “She meant it.” Ayla pressed her thigh. “You didn’t see those traps. I missed getting a spike in my chest by a centimetre.”

  Matus nodded. “I could have been killed, too.” He pointed at his ankle. “I hurt myself rolling from a blade that was aimed at my throat.”

  “But she said…” Summer fell silent.

  “She’s helping you, isn’t she?” Toby frowned. “That’s why your hands were tied in front of you, instead of behind your back.”

  Summer looked at Arthur, who flushed. “She likes Summer.” He closed his fists. “We’ve not had much advantage, just the occasional tip-off.”

  “Which you didn’t share,” Ayla sneered.

  “Would you? It’s a competition.” Summer snapped. “Toby said you knew about the maze. Did you tell anyone else?”

  Ayla glared.

  “I-I don’t think Moira’s going to make it,” Lenka muttered.

  Arthur looked at Ayla. “I wouldn’t have made it through without you. If the next trial really is a fight…”

  “It’s every woman for herself.” Ayla folded her arms.

  Arthur nodded. “Still…”

  “Still nothing.” Ayla refused to look at him. “I shouldn’t have helped you. I almost lost because of it.” She pressed her lips together. “I’m sorry, Toby. I shouldn’t have stalled, I should’ve got straight out as fast as I could.”

  “It’s all right.”

  Ayla stopped walking and shook her head. “It isn’t. You could’ve died. If it had been the other way around, I’d have reamed you out. So yell at me.”

  “I’m not going to yell at you.” Toby looked at the wall where a small hatch was sliding open. “You did the right thing. I won’t yell at you for that.”

  “I betrayed you,” Ayla growled. “That should bother you more!”

  “How did you betray me? It’s nothing more than I would have done.”

  “We agreed to win this thing.” Her beads clattered with her frustration. “And I almost blew it.”

  Toby reached for her, but she ducked away. “Shout at me, Toby.” Her shoulders slumped.

  “I’m glad you helped us,” Summer murmured. “And so is Arthur. I wouldn’t have lasted long in that seawater. Not like you, Lenka.”

  Lenka touched her own peeling arm before walking into her cell and closing the door.

  Hideaki’s cream felt like ice. Immediately Toby’s skin stopped burning and his tendons loosened. “Gods, that’s good.” He collapsed on to the bed. “How bad are my legs … will they heal?”

  “There’ll be scarring.” Hideaki continued to slather the salve on with gentle fingers. “But you’ll have full use of your legs. Unlike the Scottish girl.”

  Toby looked away from the beds where Moira and Brody were sleeping. “You drugged them?”

  Hideaki nodded. “The infirmary had everything I needed to patch you up. They’ve done this before.”

  Ayla was sitting on the bed next to Toby. A thick white bandage covered her left leg from her knee to the bottom of her tunic.

  Hideaki lowered his voice. “You know the next trial is a fight, Second. You should have no problem with it – if you rest that leg properly.”

  Ayla grinned at Toby. “We can win
this.” She pumped her fist.

  “What about Arthur?” Toby hissed.

  “Size isn’t everything,” Ayla insisted triumphantly. “We sparred together, we can fight. We’ve got this.”

  “I know.” Toby turned away from her.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “What’s the problem?” He clenched his fists and rolled back. “Seriously? You want to fight Summer? She’s a child. Lenka is badly burned. Matus is injured.”

  “So am I…”

  “That’s not the point. It isn’t like fighting in Tarifa. We’ll actually have to hurt them.” He opened his fists. “I-I’m not sure this is worth it.”

  “Are you kidding?” Ayla rose to her feet. “You want to give up now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I asked you to leave days ago. You wouldn’t. Now we’re committed. We can win this thing and we’re going to. Have you forgotten why we’re here?

  “Of course not.”

  “Well then.”

  “What if we have to kill the others?”

  Ayla hesitated, breathing hard. “All right, fine, we make a pact. No killing. We knock out – disable if necessary, but no killing.”

  “And what if Mother Hesper makes it a condition of winning? After today I don’t trust her not to.”

  “They can’t make you kill, Toby. If the others are down and have clearly lost, then they can’t make you finish them off.”

  “What if they do, would you do it?”

  Ayla glanced at Hideaki. “If I have to.”

  “You’d kill Summer?”

  “If it’s her or me.” Ayla caught his hand, but he pulled it away. “You know who I am, Toby. You always have. But it won’t be a problem – it won’t be ‘to the death’. They’ll make us fight till there’s a clear winner. That’s right, isn’t it, Hideaki?”

  Hideaki nodded sadly. “I would like to think so.”

  Toby’s legs were itching again. Ayla caught his hands as he began to rub them, aggravating the raw skin. “What if we win?” he said eventually. “Arthur and Summer lose their tongues.”

  “You don’t care about Lenka and Matus?”

  “Do you?”

  Ayla sighed. “They signed up for this. Would you rather lose your tongue to save them from it?”