‘Honour, Valour, Allegiance.’
The ornate lettering shimmered and danced on the white wall opposite me as I struggled to focus. My wrists felt heavy and I tried to lift a hand to rub my groggy eyes. Nothing happened and I cursed under my breath, twisting around to look upwards at my unresponsive hands. Both were tied tightly to the bed on which I was lying.
I rolled my head from side to side. The movement made my senses swim and I closed them again to stop the sickness that was threatening to creep up my throat. I must have been given one of the sedative drugs.
Then Cassius’s last words suddenly rang in my head with piercing clarity, and my eyes shot open again. There was no one else in the room, but I definitely wasn’t in a laboratory or medical unit. There were no whirring, bleeping machines or invasive tubes. It was just me, and the restraints. My chest tightened as the full force of my situation distilled all too clearly, and my breath grew shallow and jagged. He was deadly serious about my last night. I had to find a way out.
My hands felt sweaty and cold as I forced my panic back down inside. If I was going to have any chance of escape I needed to think rationally. Straining my ears, I tried to listen to any distinct movement outside the room, but all I could hear was the sound of my own raspy breath. Gingerly, I tested each of my restraints – right hand, left hand, left ankle … left ankle seemed looser.
I twisted and strained at the thin rope, which was deceptively strong and cut into my exposed skin. Biting my lip, I ignored the pain and pulled harder. Ugly red welts started appearing around my ankle, but still I didn’t stop pulling and twisting, persuading the rope to give just a fraction more. My flesh burned with anguish but the thought of Cassius’s malicious intent only stoked my fight.
Finally, the bloodied rope gave enough for me to slip my injured foot out. Drawing a shaky breath, I forced myself past the pain, and ran my eye swiftly around the room. The simple Prolet clothes Aelia had given me were lying discarded on the floor, but I was still wearing my Outsider tunic. I swallowed hard, the thought of Cassius removing any of my clothing made my skin crawl.
There was no more time. Resolutely, I ran a toe around the tie securing my right ankle, and managed to wiggle it into the small recess behind my ball joint. I pushed my nails into the soft flesh of my hands and continued to apply pressure. After a few seconds, the rope started to slacken and I managed to pull a small loop out. It was enough, and within a minute both my feet were free.
Jubilant with success, I rolled backwards for momentum, and then flipped forward hard so I landed squarely on my feet in a crouch. Both my hands were still tethered but at least I could survey my surroundings, and work out what to do next.
The room was as pared back as August’s, but much larger. The bed had to be nearly three metres long, and waist-high white furniture lined the walls. However, it was the panoramic black and white images plastering the walls that grabbed my attention. They were more pictures of real, outside life before the Great War, a life none of us had ever known.
There were sky-high buildings, unfamiliar vehicle-lined streets, huge concrete bridges, and people picnicking in open green parks. The world looked huge, noisy, and daunting. And yet, there was a strange appeal to it too.
I cast my eyes around the room, looking for anything that might be used as a tool for escape, but there was nothing close enough except a small, framed photograph. I stared with growing disgust at the image. It was Cassius striding through the forest – my forest – with a dead stag hoisted onto his shoulders and a pack of piranha monkeys at his feet. His smile was triumphant and cruel, the satisfied smile of a hunter when blood has been shed.
A shudder of loathing passed through me. The animal would have stood no chance against such an onslaught, and I doubted the kill was anything but another trophy on Octavia’s wall.
A scuffle of feet outside the door focused me with a jolt, and frantically I returned my attention to my wrist restraints, yanking and twisting with all my strength until the thing I was dreading most happened. The bedroom door opened. For a moment the whole room blurred, and all I could hear was the pounding of blood in my ears. And then it was chillingly clear again.
Cassius’s Roman frame dwarfed the open doorway. He was wearing a black bodysuit casually unbuttoned at the neck and no weapon belt. His dark hair was ruffled and damp, and his death adder eyes flashed with cruel anticipation. For the first time in my life I felt completely vulnerable. To him I was fresh prey, as meaningless as the stag in the forest, just another specimen to be used for entertainment and cast aside.
‘Awake already? I thought I gave you enough to keep you down until curfew. You must be a tougher little feral cat than you look – something I look forward to finding out about.’
His smooth and silky tone made my every hair stand on end, but for some reason it was his mention of a feral cat that really made my blood boil. Disloyal or not, only August got to call me that.
August. The enigma: modified Roman knight, undercover freedom fighter, and now double agent. I’d so wanted to believe he was loyal, that he truly believed in the outside and the Prolet rebel cause, but it never fully fitted. He was too elusive, too complicated – and now I knew he was loyal to Octavia the whole time, that he was to be master of my destruction too. Even with a drug-induced fog dulling my brain I couldn’t quite believe it, the same way I hadn’t quite believed he was loyal to the Outsiders.
‘Where are the others?’ I demanded, my voice hard and defiant.
A sardonic smile spread across Cassius’s face. ‘The others? Well, that rather depends on Octavia’s mood. By now they could be feeding the molossers, quite literally … or much more likely, discussing escape tactics with the rats in the Flavium dungeon.’
Cassius pushed himself off the side of the doorframe, and sauntered forwards towards the bed. His eyes half-closed, he began loosening the remaining buttons at the top of his tunic. I scrambled up the bed as far as my ties would allow, and felt every muscle tighten with pure hatred. There was a reason they called Outsiders feral, and he had a shock coming if he thought he would get a submissive victim.
‘I know your secret!’ I spat at him, gesticulating violently at the images surrounding us.
His eyes narrowed as they looked from me to the walls and back again. He smirked. ‘My origin is no secret, and my history with Octavia makes me the most powerful Equite in Pantheon.’
‘So you’re an original human, and yet you’re still so tall? What happened? Did you fall into your own perverse experiments?’ I shot at him. I strained violently at the ties, not to escape this time, but so I could fly at him and dig his eyes out.
‘Ah no, you don’t distract me that easily, little feral cat.’ He smirked. ‘Science makes many things possible. Before the Great War, my life was dull and disappointing. Octavia promised me change if I became her General-In-Charge, but the Prolets are so repressed Isca Pantheon has become almost … boring. You, on the other hand, are something else… You’ll be one of the sweetest spoils I’ve had in a long while.’
He reached out to run some of my loose hair through his fingers and my fury was spiked with hot disgust. He was supposed to be part of an advanced species, and a knight of the old Roman Order. The thought almost made me laugh out loud. The truth was he was the worst kind of monster – and I’d met quite a few now.
‘Stay. The. Hell. Away. From. Me,’ I forced through gritted teeth, injecting as much venom into my voice as I could muster. I might be restrained but he was not getting close, not while there was breath in my body.
He threw his head back and laughed. It was an ugly, callous laugh that sent an arctic chill through my wired body.
‘Or what?’ he continued smoothly, shrugging himself out of his fitted tunic top to reveal a tapered, powerful chest with a raised white welt to the right of his ribcage. It bore the hallmarks of an old combat injury, and an echo of August’s words stirred.
Octavia entertains herself in unique ways, and we were commanded to meet in the arena a few years back. He lost and has never forgotten it. We never speak of it but it’s always there, between us.
‘Is that the scar August gave you? He told me about that. How he made you beg for mercy?’ I jeered.
An ugly sneer passed across his face. I’d hit a nerve.
‘If you think he’s coming for you, think again, little girl. Augustus, like your tree-dwelling primate boyfriend, is locked up in an airless little dungeon, counting the hours until Octavia wants to play games in the Flavium. Alas, he’s not quite the knight in shining golden armour any more. It seems Octavia has run out of patience, even for him.
‘Do you understand? You’re alone, Talia, quite alone; so why don’t you relax? You never know, you might just enjoy yourself.’
His voice had dropped to a harsh whisper. He levelled his eyes with mine and lowered his knee onto the bed, depressing the mattress heavily. My skin started to crawl and panic threatened to overwhelm me. Every hurt I’d collected since the start began to build, hundreds of Great Oaks high, until my insides resembled a smouldering pyre of resentment. I tensed my legs ready to unleash all my pent-up fury and frustration.
He reached out towards me, his dark eyes flashing with cruel greed, his thick muscular neck pulsing with desire. I closed my eyes, willing myself not to give him the satisfaction of vomiting, and channelled everything into one wild and ferocious blaze of … nothing. Nothing except the dull, heavy thud of a large body crashing to the floor beside the bed. My eyes flew open.
‘Unus?’ I whispered in disbelief, as I stared up at the huge Cyclops who seemed so surreal and out of place in Cassius’s room. ‘What … How did you know I was here?’
My words felt too thick and cumbersome for my mouth, like my brain and tongue had lost connection somehow.
The heavyset creature swivelled its thick continuum of head and neck, and focused its single, unblinking eye on me. Its stare was fearsome and mesmerizing.
‘Lia say watch. Lia say help if she no come back.’
His simple words reverberated around the room and all at once I was confused. He meant Aelia of course, but I would never have expected help from her hand. She’d made the biggest play in front of Octavia, and I was in no doubt of her feelings for August. But why would she instruct Unus as backup?
‘Thank you, Unus,’ I whispered raggedly, shifting to ease the chafing around my wrists. ‘Do you think you could also help with these?’
I raised my wrists off the bed as far as the rope would allow. Unus took hold of the nearest restraint and snapped it in half with a single twist of his hands. In no time at all I was throwing the offensive items into the corner of the room, and rubbing circulation back into my prickling limbs.
In a swift panic, I felt inside my sleeve and was rewarded with the soft crackle of paper. Somehow, by the love of Arafel, I still had the cipher and tapestry alphabet.
‘Tal OK?’
I smiled up into his yellow, pudgy face and nodded. Everything about Unus was designed for maximum strength and power. I hadn’t stopped to wonder what feelings were going on behind those thick, muscular limbs and unblinking, hooded eye. And now it seemed somewhat humbling that a lumbering Cyclops had turned out to be my knight in shining armour.
‘What shall we do with him?’ I glowered at Cassius’s inert body, lying on the floor beside the bed. He was breathing, and it was probably only a matter of time before he regained consciousness.
Unus drew back his lips into a toothy grimace that lit up his eye, and shuffled towards Cassius’s body. In less than a minute, he was trussed like a chicken for plucking. I stuffed a gag into his mouth for good measure, before staring thoughtfully up at the pictures on the walls.
A curious thought occurred to me, and I trod over to the small photograph of Cassius beside the bed. It slid out from the frame easily, and I folded it carefully before stowing it with the cipher. Cassius’s vanity had given me an idea.
Concealing a three-metre-high Cyclops through the domestic quarters of Pantheon’s elite was not easy. He lumbered slowly and ponderously, and after a second near miss with a guard, I pulled him into a recess and demanded to know how he made it in in the first place.
His single-word answer ‘laundry’ made a lot of sense, and I kicked myself for not asking before. We searched out one of the heaviest laundry trucks that was headed for the sky train, and soon enough we were back on the ground and being shunted along with the rest of Pantheon’s domestic waste.
The laundry truck was densely packed, but Unus kept a narrow airway hole open through the soiled sheets and towels, making our concealment bearable. As soon as the trucks descended into the tunnels beneath Pantheon we climbed out. The dank air smothered me instantly, and I stared suspiciously at our near pitch-black surroundings.
‘Unus stay; Tal stay. Night-time get Lia,’ he offered, producing a small handheld torch from beneath his ill-fitting, dirty clothing. He lit it with a small pocket device, and a small flame flickered and danced against the tunnel walls. It was a tiny circle of light, but I was grateful all the same. I looked up into his large, unblinking face, and was conscious of anxiety that wasn’t there before.
He was right of course: to walk out into daytime Pantheon was as good as giving ourselves up, but I had no desire to become lunch to a pack of giant nocturnal strix either. Unus saw me look nervously over my shoulder, and instantly let out a deep rumble, which sent something scratching down the tunnel.
‘Tal no ’fraid of rat-owls; Unus snap neck.’
He demonstrated with an imaginary strix, and a low laugh rumbled out of his huge chest. I believed he could snap anything with his boulder hands, but waiting around in the putrid tunnels was more than my nerves could take.
‘Unus, is there an underground tunnel that takes us near the Flavium? Would you know the way?’ I asked with a sudden flash of inspiration.
He scratched the back of his head and thought for a second. ‘Yes.’
His simple answer sent warm relief coursing through my body. ‘Great! Can you take us there? Now?’
He nodded, his twisted, toothy grimace appearing more than a little grotesque in the starved light. I grinned. I was surviving in a world of opposites, where nothing was what it seemed and the monsters were turning out to be the heroes.
He reached out and offered a massive, stubby hand as a foothold. I stepped into it without hesitation, feeling safer the moment I swung up onto his broad back, and we set off. The pace was almost unbearably slow, but I was thankful for the lumbering sound of his huge plate feet. It distracted me from the clawing noises all around.
Although the strix stayed clear of Unus, their distorted shadows were everywhere. The knocking of large calcified beaks, the clattering of claws and strange, shrill shrieking disturbed me to my core. After some effort, I recalled a picture of the mythologic owls from my research with Grandpa. Knowing there were hundreds of vicious claws and hooked beaks waiting for their chance out there in the darkness sent fresh fear through my clammy body. There always were plenty of yellow eyes when Max and I tree-ran through the forest at night, but most of them weren’t looking to eat me.
We walked for some time. Occasionally a stream of fresher air hit us, which I assumed led to an exit, and each time, I’d pray it was ours; but Unus always shuffled onwards. He seemed to know these tunnels like the back of his hand, and I felt a strange ache for the creature that had been forced to live as a sewer rat. How Aelia had come by his loyalty was also a complete mystery.
‘You’re a good friend, Unus,’ I whispered into one of his thick, twisted ears. I was rewarded with a belly rumble that echoed down the tunnel, sending the strix clattering onwards.
‘Small Unus sick; Lia help. Now Unus help Lia.’
His simple response humbled me. I’d forgotten one of Grandpa’s most basic teachings: respect for all life, no matter how large or small. I’d assumed that all Octavia’s monsters would have monstrous natures, but even she couldn’t control that much.
Looking down at Unus’s broad, muscular neck. I couldn’t imagine the ungainly Cyclops as a baby, still less see Aelia as the sympathetic tending nurse, but then August had trusted her enough to grow close. The attention she gave Max infuriated me, especially as she seemed to have unfinished business with August, but even I was beginning to see I may have been too quick to judge her completely.
A heavy scuffle some way behind us interrupted my thoughts, and Unus hesitated.
‘What’s the matter?’ I whispered with fresh alarm, feeling Unus’s powerful shoulders tense. The hairs on the back on my neck began to prickle, the long tunnel behind us had gone strangely quiet.
‘Tal hold! Unus run!’ Before I had a second to remonstrate or ask why, my ride was pitching and lurching forward in a heavy, cumbersome sprint. I clung to his back in dread, not daring to look over my shoulder.
There was an unfamiliar pounding noise behind me, and it was getting louder. I prayed we were running from the underground trucks or some stray guards, but in my heart, I knew nothing from the world above us would have Unus running in this way. There was no getting away from it. If Unus was afraid, we were in real trouble.
Without warning, Unus veered off course into a side tunnel and blew our small torch out. It was completely black all around us and, pressed up between Unus and the slimy rock wall, I felt more terrified than ever before. It was also eerily quiet without even the clattering of strix claws to break the heavy silence. Whatever was on our tail had everything running in the opposite direction. Unus patted my knee reassuringly, but I could tell by his laboured breathing that he was far from reassured himself.
Then the air was filled with a low, sinister snarling, and I stared transfixed at the dimly visible archway leading back out into the main passageway. Had Octavia sent the molossers after us? They were approaching at an unforgiving pace judging by the intense baying and growling that was ratcheting up to fever pitch. I dug my nails into my fists. Why wasn’t Unus putting me down? I hadn’t come this far just to be ripped apart by a pack of monster hounds.
Then I saw it, silhouetted in the grey tunnel archway. I stared at the colossal, heaving body before me and felt my blood chill. This creature would make a molossus look like a puppy! It was too large to see fully, although I could make out numerous necks stemming from its massive canine shoulders. There was a constant pounding and as the beast moved, a thick black serpentine tail with reddened spines thrashed against the walls.
I tried to deny what I was seeing, to tell myself even Octavia couldn’t be capable of such monstrous deviancy. Then it crouched down on its bulging, muscular haunches and I saw them: not one, not two, but three wild-eyed wolf heads, and enough teeth to make mincemeat of a dozen Cyclops. Terror spiked down my spine, as it levelled its demonic, hunting eyes with the entrance to our tunnel.
Cerberus. The beast’s name reverberated through my disbelief. Guardian of Hades.
This was a mythical beast of horror, and worst of all, I knew exactly what it was looking for. Me.
I flattened back against the uneven rock surface. It was dark enough to hide, but the creature snarling and shoving its saliva-streaming canines into the tight tunnel entrance seemed to have a heightened sense of smell. There was no way it wouldn’t catch our scent if we stayed where we were.
As though it read my thoughts, all three heads suddenly swung our way, competing for room in the narrow entrance way. Its scaly, enflamed nostrils pulsed repeatedly, searching to pinpoint the scent that was clearly driving it crazy. I pressed so hard into the rock behind me it began to cut into my back, and Unus’s breath became heavier and erratic. I could feel fresh beads of sweat breaking out across his thick shoulders, and hugged him close as a million thoughts rattled through my frantic mind.
I gritted my teeth. This had Cassius’s bruised ego written all over it, it didn’t seem logical that Octavia would allow someone of value to be ripped apart.
An eerie silence descended, and I willed my heart to pump more quietly, but it pounded on stubbornly. Unus was still, but his neck and shoulders were now dripping with sweat – if nothing else the creature had to smell our fear.
A gargle of victory suddenly escaped the beast’s wet jaws, and six blood-red eyes narrowed in our direction. I watched transfixed as it shifted its thick powerful body around to face us. It was so big it filled the archway completely, and its rough hair scraped the cold rock surface as it forced itself forward with a menacing snarl.
‘Unus, run!’ I whispered frantically, trying to inject some life into the Cyclops’s frozen limbs. But instead, and much to my horror, he pushed off the rock face and stepped forward as though to face the monstrosity. All three blood-eyed heads could clearly see us now, and its body slunk low like a big cat hunting its prey. Only this was no big cat, this was a mythical beast with the strength of seven dragons.
I kicked my legs and tried to slide down from Unus, I was no use glued to his back, and I still had speed and agility on my side. But he held me firm. I pulled harder, but he kept my legs tightly trapped to his back with his truck arms. Just as the panic escalating inside me threatened to explode he threw back his thick muscular neck, and let out a series of unfamiliar hoots and calls. It had to be a distress call.
Confused, I watched as Cerberus paused its advance and listened. A new, wild fury settled on its distorted faces and it reached out a clawed paw to swipe at Unus. The single blow sent us staggering back towards the cold rock, Unus’s shoulder taking the full impact of the collision. Taking swift advantage of his dazed state, I slid to my feet and ran around to distract Cerberus. I looked up into its malevolent eyes and, as if in confirmation that I was its intended prey, it licked all three pairs of its lips, slowly and purposefully.
I saw red. Blood-blistering, horror-hiked, adrenaline-angst red.
‘What?’ I screamed at the top of my voice. ‘You want to eat me? Well, I’m right here so come and get it, you pig-ugly, skunk-stinking, elephant-arsed excuse for a mutt! I bet you wouldn’t even know what to do with a ball if I had one!’
There was a moment’s silence and then the strangest noise filled the tunnel. It was an unfamiliar whooshing sound, coupled with a chorus of high shrieking that threatened to burst my eardrums.
‘Tal move!’ Unus roared, lurching towards me and using his heavy body to shield me against the opposite rock face. Then the whooshing and shrieking was all around us, mingling with Cerberus’s violent growls. It was the most terrifying cacophony of noise I’d ever heard, and I could do nothing but cover my ears and wait for the chaos to subside.
Finally, after what seemed like several minutes, an unnatural hush descended. When Unus finally stepped away to let me scramble out, I searched the gloom in fear, but the tunnel was completely empty. Puzzled, I looked up into the Cyclops’s inky blue eye. It was clouded with relief.
‘How, Unus?’ I whispered.
‘Unus play game. Unus do strix food call. Strix run. Dog stupid. Chase anything that run,’ he offered simply.
I reached out to embrace the Cyclops’s thick body. ‘Unus brave and clever,’ I answered, my voice laden with emotion. ‘Thank you.’
He patted my shoulder awkwardly, as though he were unused to being the object of affection.
‘Now Flavium,’ he concluded, reaching out and swinging me back up onto his back without waiting for agreement. I settled down gratefully, somehow less afraid of the shadows.
Apart from the occasional appearance of an empty laundry trailer, we were quite alone this time. The call Unus used had dispatched the strix on a full pack alert, and I relished the thought of Cerberus chasing them, wagging its ugly serpentine tail.
Within the hour, Unus began to slow his pace again, scanning the dark, dank walls and ceiling as if working out exactly what was above.
‘Are we near the Flavium, Unus?’ I whispered, feeling flutters of excitement in my stomach. I was aching to leave the darkness behind, and to find Max. I closed my eyes briefly. I couldn’t consider any alternative. The thought that he could be hurt, or worse, was too much. And as for Aelia and August … My chest tightened like a fist.
August was Octavia’s hand puppet by his own admission, whereas Aelia had inadvertently both gambled, and saved my life, within the space of a few short hours. She seemed to make a habit of it. I should hate them both, but the truth was I didn’t. Or couldn’t. I shivered and Unus patted my leg awkwardly, nodding into the darkness on the right.
‘Unus know drainage passage for waste. It’s quiet; we follow.’
He stepped up towards the wall, and reaching behind a small protrusion in the black rock face, pushed with all his strength. We were rewarded with a glimmer of dimmed light as a large, heavy door slid backwards, creating a narrow opening. He squeezed through the space with a little difficulty, and I swiftly followed.
Unus hadn’t exaggerated, the doorway led into a wide room littered with all types of waste, mostly excrement. It was better lit than all the previous passageways, but smelled foul. I fought the urge to gag, and watched as Unus pushed the hidden door back across the entrance, and took a circuitous path around the decaying matter. There was row after row of crude holes in the ceiling, dripping with putrid sewage, and I wondered briefly at a civilization that prided itself on being so technologically advanced, and yet still relied on such a basic drainage system.
I exhaled in relief when Unus selected a dark passageway at the back of the room. The rotten stench seemed marginally fainter because of the absence of raw waste drainage holes, and we trod cautiously down the long, insipidly lit tunnel. The green, mould-covered walls seemed to stretch on endlessly, and just when I was beginning to despair of ever reaching the holding cells, we arrived at a dead end.
Frustrated, I ran forward and pushed the solid wall. Had there been a rock fall? A low belly chuckle escaped from Unus, and I looked back at him in confused frustration. He had to know that every second counted.
He dropped his huge head to one side, and listened intently before reaching up above us. Then he grasped a concealed ledge and, using a couple of crude indentations set into the rock face as footholds, levered himself up into the darkness. There was complete silence. I looked around, forcing myself to consider my options if he failed to reappear, but none appealed. Then a strong arm reached down from above and, muttering a silent prayer, I let it scoop me up.
This passageway was different. It was better lit and ventilated, but there were no shadows to hide our progress. I couldn’t decide which was worse – the strix-ridden black, or the flickering torchlight that left few places to hide.
‘Unus know cells,’ he whispered, ‘but always guards. Tal stay. Unus make safe.’
I put my hand on his thick arm to stop him, and he looked down in surprise. ‘I want to help,’ I returned softly. ‘Tal help Unus.’
For a moment the thickset Cyclops looked nonplussed, then a twinkle shone in his inky eye.
‘Tal stay close; watch Unus’s back.’
I nodded my agreement, and we moved stealthily into the brighter yellow light. In just a few minutes I might see Max, Aelia …and August. I clenched my fingers as tiny impulses of excitement fanned across my shoulders and down my spine. Partly because I need to focus, but mostly because the first two hadn’t triggered them.