I knew instantly that Fabius was responsible for the beast’s release. A million conflicting thoughts raced through my mind, but that he’d consigned us all to certain death couldn’t be in question.
It padded forward on powerful, heavy haunches and bellowed its rage at us all, sending flames of pure fear coursing through my numbed body. A swift glance took in Max’s blanched face, and I knew it must mirror my own.
A deafening chorus of molossers howling filled the air as the guards sprang into action, forcing the monster hounds into a tight, defensive pack between themselves and Octavia. I could no longer see August. The manticore was now the main focus of attention, but as the guards were looking up into the dome, it was only seconds before a second alert sounded.
Curt commands filled the air, and a sudden barrage of tiny darts rained down around us. We crouched instinctively, minimizing our exposure, while most implanted themselves in the wall above us. Then there was a low cry from the other side of the dome and Fabius collapsed as though in slow motion. I watched in horror as his strong body toppled forward and fell thirty metres through the air, landing with a dull thud on the ground. He lay there, limbs askew and unmoving as the molossers snarled and pawed the ground impatiently.
‘Now!’ I yelled at Max, and holding my tube high I fired a succession of darts at the molossers and guards. Several met with their targets instantly and as they slumped to the ground, I used the ensuing panic to leap to the next ledge. Max followed up with a shower of his newly acquired surgical knives, which flew silently through the air and struck four of the guards in the head and chest. As shouts of panic filled the air I looked briefly for Aelia, but there was no sign of her.
I gripped the wall as the manticore’s roaring filled the dome again, making the narrow ledge oscillate. The creature was following our path and leaping the ledges as easily as though it was taking a leisurely walk. I gesticulated frantically to Max. There was no time to waste.
Together we rose and sprinted, leaping the remaining ledges one after the other without looking back. My feet finally touched the ground floor, and as I bolted towards the darkness at the back of the laboratory, a thick cloud of darts flew over my head. I ducked and threw myself over a circular desk, skidding off the surface and into the dark recess inside. Within seconds, Max was panting beside me.
He threw a quick reassuring smile, before a fresh chorus of ferocious baying broke out. It was answered with a terrific roar, and the shuddering impact of a large body hitting the outer side of the desk, causing it to shake and splinter. I closed my eyes briefly. The manticore had reached the floor.
‘Looks like it’s the battle of the uglies,’ Max whispered, the whites of his eyes gleaming in the darkness, as another heavy body impacted on our shelter.
‘Personally, my acorns are on tiger-man, though I’m not so keen on sticking round to shake his hand.’
I rolled my eyes. Only he could find something funny to say in the middle of all this. But if the manticore could lift and throw a molossus, just what could it do to one of us?
‘What about the others?’ I whispered. ‘Did you see Aelia after Fabius …? And what about August? We can’t just abandon him?!’
Max threw me a hard, quizzical look. ‘We can’t or you can’t?’ he asked directly.
But there was no time to answer as a huge hound careered over our heads and landed in a crumpled heap of hairy limbs behind us. It groaned and threw its bloodied head back in a furious howl as it tried to clamber back up.
‘Time for a walk,’ Max whispered emphatically, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. We flew out from the desk watching out for molossus missiles, which the manticore seemed to be firing with ease, and dived behind a specimen container.
From our new position the main floor came into full view. August was heading a trio of guards protecting two injured molossus hounds. I shook my head to clear the competing thoughts. Was he playing a part? The manticore shook a lifeless guard from its jaws, and snarled viciously at the rest of the molossus pack, who were advancing cautiously.
Silently, I loaded up two of the darts, and took aim as the manticore reached out to swipe at the lead molossus. Its tapered, black paw raked through the dog’s thick fur, and deep, red ravines appeared instantly. It let out a howl of pain as its thick sinewy legs gave way, and it fell heavily to one side, sending the trio of guards sprawling backwards towards the other injured dogs. A chorus of baying filled the air, and for a moment they were lost beneath a tangle of muscular limbs.
‘Augustus?’ Octavia’s thin reedy voice rang out, quivering with anger and something else, barely masked. Cassius scowled by her side, as a strong arm pushed out from the tangle of heavy molossus limbs. Seconds later, August climbed to his feet awkwardly, his face grainy and sweating. He was gripping a small black-handled dagger in both hands. It looked small defence against the manticore, which roared and advanced menacingly.
‘August!’ I yelled instinctively.
All eyes swung my way and I heard Max swear. Instantly I was flooded with guilt. I’d exposed my best friend to the worst kind of danger. Max could die, we could both die, and it would be entirely my fault. I couldn’t live with that. And somewhere deep inside, I suspected August wasn’t playing a part at all. I had to do something. So I did. I ran straight out into the pathway of the wild-eyed, snarling manticore.
‘Tal! No! Get back!’ August roared.
But the manticore had lowered its hairless head and was advancing on me, raking the ground with its tapered, black serpentine claws.
‘Keep … very … still,’ August’s staccato command filtered through the tense air, and I wondered briefly whether death would be instant.
A loud crash reverberated across the space. The manticore sank its head to the ground and turned swiftly, its muscular tail delivering a stinging blow across my chest. As I staggered backwards, I saw the remaining guard step up behind August. They were holding large metal rods with pronged ends and kept striking the floor repeatedly. The metal rods fizzed and crackled with an intermittent blue light, making the manticore sidestep nervously. It was clear the creature knew exactly what the rods were, and they were no simple restraining devices.
Cold realization swamped my wired body. Jas, Grandpa, Eli, August … and now any other living creature that stood in the way. This monster hadn’t asked for life, but it was living and breathing now, and controlled by fear just like everyone else.
I cast my eyes around swiftly for anything that might serve as a weapon, just as an anguished cry resonated from the floor.
Holding my breath, I looked back to see August dropping to his knees in front of the rest of the guard, a deep dark stain growing across the neck of his bodysuit. Horror swept through my limbs as the rest of the guard advanced on the limping manticore, flanked by Brutus and three remaining molossus hounds. A small black-handled blade protruded from the manticore’s thick paw. August’s blade. He had inflicted a superficial injury, designed to incapacitate, but I could tell the guards had a different end in mind.
Max was beside me in a flash, his face white and focused. He nodded behind us. The exit was wide open. He then opened his rations bag. The net we’d found in the medical supplies cupboard was still there. I understood immediately – we’d tried a similar manoeuvre a thousand times before when catching difficult game in the forest, just never on this scale.
I nodded grimly, as Aelia appeared from the shadows. I beckoned her forward and passed one end of the net to her. Her glare was impossible to miss, and I glowered in response. She had a thing or two to learn about Outsiders.
Max whispered the plan and she nodded curtly. Clearly she was not a fan of Pantheonite restraining methods either. In the next moment, she and Max had set off at a sprint in opposite directions, passing around the back of the guards and the cornered manticore. Max reached the first ledge unobserved, and leapt up easily to the first, second, and third shelves.
Swiftly I looked across at Aelia – the first ledge on the opposite side was too far away for the net to stretch, so she’d leapt up to one of the suspended medical units instead. Between them they spread the net high, taut, and directly above the unsuspecting group of guards and molossers. I held my hand up, and just as two of the hounds lowered their heads with blood-chilling snarls, I brought my hand down sharply and Max and Aelia cast out with all their might.
The fine net was made from a fibre as light as air, and as it gained momentum it billowed naturally, spreading wide above the group. It floated down until it barely grazed the helmet of the tallest guard, then the remainder of the material powered down as though driven by invisible force. I was impressed. We would never fail in the forest with this net.
The pandemonium was instant, and the writhing ball of netted limbs roared and bawled for release. Max yanked the seal line, pulling the fine mesh tight as the surprised manticore, which had been deliberately left outside the netted group, pushed itself up and roared aggressively. Bewildered, it started forward shakily towards August’s inert body, which was lying on the floor.
My chest constricted sharply. There was nothing else for it. Summoning all my remaining courage, I stepped into the manticore’s eye-line, waving my arms rapidly. It hesitated, before swinging its furious body around, crashing its great tail to the floor with thunderous blows. I took one look into its dehumanized eyes, and glimpsed beyond the roaring. This beast of beasts was terrified.
I turned on my tail as Max appeared at a run carrying a small box. Flashing the contents at me, I nodded as we sprinted across the laboratory floor. The manticore was snarling ferociously, worked up by pain and anger.
Max threw a mischievous wink. It was brief, but its familiarity gave me the final charge I needed. As we ran, I grabbed one of the carcasses from the box and lobbed it directly at the beast. It was a dead squirrel monkey. The lure of the fresh meat proved too tempting, and immediately it fell on the free food. It was gone in a beat, and then we raced for our lives.
We reached the ledges and leapt without breathing, pausing only when we reached the shelf directly above an open steel container. With the irate beast powering towards us, I took the bait box and stepped out to the edge of the ledge. Suddenly, we were children again, daring each other to swing through the rushing forest waterfall.
‘Now,’ Max yelled, and holding me securely by my legs, I pushed off and swung upside down through the open door of the container. He swung me fast and strong, and as I flew inside I turned the box upside down and threw the bloodied contents as far as I could, pulling back out just as the manticore reached the cage. It roared, missing my face by a hair’s breadth, and dived instead onto the dead carcasses. I somersaulted down the moment Max released me, landing squarely on my feet. Within a second Max was beside me, and together we slammed the heavy door tightly into position.
For a moment there was complete silence as we stood side by side, listening to the furious snarling and crashing from the inside of the steel unit. Every breath hurt, and I barely noticed as Max pulled me into a warm hug of relief.
‘Thank Araf …’ But my whisper was left unfinished as his shaking lips crushed down on mine, leaving me in no doubt as to the extent of his fear. I tensed, a million fragmented thoughts whirling through my mind. Max, the big brother I’d never had, my oldest friend and biggest tease … was kissing me?
‘Talia?’ August’s weak voice filtered through the mist that had descended around me. I pulled away from Max’s hold, and spun towards the floor. Aelia was kneeling beside him pressing a cloth to his neck. I flushed scarlet. How had I lived for nineteen years without a hint of a kiss, and then received two within a gnat’s breadth of each other – in this hellhole?
Aelia’s face twisted into a filthy scowl as I skirted the floor towards them, scanning the shadows for Cassius and Octavia.
As I approached I could see August’s face had paled, while blood still oozed out at the neck of his tunic. The puncture was just beneath his right shoulder, and made with some force. Although Aelia had bandaged it with a rag I could tell it needed padding. Without thinking, I pulled down the zip of my bodysuit and ripped a length of material from the cotton hem of my tunic, which Aelia accepted with a scowl.
Within seconds the trickling blood flow was slowing. He mustered a weak smile, but there was something different and unspoken in his now dull blue eyes. Questions, and quite a few of them. All at once, I knew he’d seen Max kiss me a few moments ago, and I was flooded with a strange discomfort.
‘Well, that was quite a show for a couple of genetically subordinate ferals,’ a caustic voice interrupted, making all the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. Somehow I knew this was natural Octavia, unrehearsed.
I looked up at Max, who had sprinted across the floor to join us.
‘Whatever she says, do not trust her,’ I signed, pulling up my suit, before turning slowly in her direction. Octavia stepped out from the shadows, flanked by Cassius and Brutus. Cassius held his Diasord outstretched and leered at Aelia and I, with cold, calculating eyes. I seethed. Like a true coward, he’d hidden in the shadows until the danger was over.
Max stepped up beside me, squaring his shoulders, and I watched as the look of smug satisfaction was wiped from Cassius’s face. Max’s muscular frame made him a formidable adversary for any man – Diasord or not.
‘Cassius, I believe your dogs need a walk,’ Octavia commanded acidly.
The trapped guards didn’t get a mention, and I knew their fate would not be a sympathetic one.
Cassius threw an ugly sneer, before walking across to the writhing net of limbs, while Brutus remained next to Octavia, snarling threateningly. Slowly, I crouched beside August, taking in his wan face. We’d managed to stem the blood flow, but the wound was deep and needed stitching.
Octavia suddenly pulled a smaller, slim object from a hip pocket and pointed it directly at me. It looked like a Diasord, but was small and lighter.
‘Touch him again and say farewell … Although it’s always a shame to sacrifice useful specimens.’ Her tone was deliberately provocative.
Max stepped up, his rugged face strained with anger, but whatever he was going to say was lost in the chaos that followed. Brutus suddenly let out the deepest snarl as a small body of brown fur flashed across the floor with a stone clutched in its left paw. I felt a moment of speechless pride, the tiny flurry of fur was my little apricot monkey! So much for genetically engineering new animals; it seemed the existing ones were pretty astute already. At once I knew he would make it.
Brutus pawed the floor impatiently, saliva dripping from his huge jaws until he could stand it no longer, and then he careered across the laboratory floor in hot pursuit.
There was a second of stunned silence before Cassius started roaring in fury. ‘Brutus, heel, you goddamn monster son of a bitch. Heel!’
He strode across the dome floor after Brutus, a new purple scowl pinned to his sculpted face.
‘Now!’ Max signed, pulling August’s heavy body to his feet and slinging one arm over his shoulder. I rushed to support his other side, and then we made for the exit as swiftly as August’s dead weight would allow.
‘Stop them!’
Octavia’s voice was lost among the din of molossus dogs finally freed from the net, and running riot across the laboratory floor.
Rapidly, we pulled August level with the security box and aligned his eye with the retina screen. There was a bleep and the doors slid back, just as Cassius broke through the throng of injured guards and howling dogs and charged towards us, Diasord high.
‘Fabius?’ I asked Aelia quickly. A brief shake of the head was her only answer.
‘Stay with Aelia; I’ll follow as quickly as I can,’ Max yelled as he leapt back behind the sliding white doors, turning to confront Cassius head on.
The doors clicked shut, and there was a heavy silence. I forced myself to swallow, though my throat felt like sandpaper. I was separated from Max again, and this time I couldn’t pretend I didn’t care. I scanned the reverse of the door, but this side had no scan box and August was slumped unconsciously on the floor. His face had taken on a worrying grey pallor, and there was clearly little time left. We had to find medical help urgently. I drew a deep breath, though I felt as though my chest was being slowly constricted by a boa.
‘Where’s the closest medical unit? We need a doctor!’ I threw out at Aelia. Mentally I started assessing the journey, recalling the moving track, which would help with August’s weight.
She lowered her gaze to appraise August’s inert form, lingering on his wound, before looking back at me with a scowl.
‘You take hero-boy here to the main infirmary, and he’s as good as given a fast-track ticket to Octavia’s circus of freaks.’
I glared in response to her hostile tone.
‘You just can’t get it into your sweet little Outsider head can you? You’re not meant to exist! You think you can come running in here and fix everything with your perfect little outside ideals … It’s not bold or brave; it’s suicide! August had it wrapped with Octavia. He didn’t need us and now we’ve probably made it ten times worse. He had to protect you in there. Do you have any idea what Octavia would do to an Equite of his rank if she suspected insubordination? That he wasn’t just trying to protect a … rare specimen?’
Her face leaned so closely in to mine, I could feel the heat of her dislike.
‘You think you’re the only one who’s lost someone? You’ve a lot to learn about Isca Pantheon. As for this hero-boy, my advice is to take him to a Prolet med, fix him up, and give him time to concoct a story while Octavia cools off. He’s done it before … and she likes to forgive him.’
I stared at Aelia, at the oddly familiar glint in her eyes, and knew she had to be speaking the ugly truth.
Just trying to protect a rare specimen … he’s done it before … she likes to forgive him.
Her words struck a discord in my head. August’s true motivations were as unclear as ever, and Aelia’s acidity only made my suspicions worse. Either way, there was no way we could take him anywhere near Octavia’s Pantheon with any level of confidence. She would interrogate him, or worse, because he’d protected me, and he wasn’t strong enough. I looked back down into his pallid, lifeless face, and his warning about the Prolet world echoed uneasily through my head.
‘Take us to your doctor,’ I responded quietly.