There was no mistaking we were in the guttural underbelly of the Flavium now. Every facet of the structure reminded me of the original Roman Colosseum I’d studied growing up. And, from what I could recollect, that wasn’t a good thing. Although some Caesars had used the public arena to showcase gladiatorial strength and honour, it was the barbaric killings that made the Colosseum famous. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine Octavia had resurrected the ancient structure for noble purposes.
Somewhere in the distance a relentless drum pounded, and the air had a strange, sweetened odour, like old lavender. The walls here were made of bricks, not hard rock, and the torches burning high up the walls were much larger. Everything about this place was imposing, including the thick, dark wooden doors set into the walls at regular intervals. There were tiny grilles halfway up each, yet Unus indicated we should keep going. I didn’t question him. I’d had my fill of looking behind Octavia’s locked doors.
As we approached the end of the corridor a fresher breeze lifted my hair, and Unus’s careful tread slowed. We pressed close into the brick wall and, silently, I stole a glance around the corner. I caught my breath. Three human guards were standing outside the same number of doors.
‘The holding cells?’ I whispered in hope.
Unus nodded. ‘Unus see many doors. These with guards.’
I nodded quickly. It stood to reason Octavia would post sentries outside her prize prisoners. She had to be planning to use the Flavium to demonstrate that Prolet rebel insurgences would never be tolerated. I had little doubt there was a fate of nightmares awaiting their release into the arena. Well, she’d failed to factor me into that equation.
‘Do you think you could surprise them, Unus? They are bound to be armed,’ I whispered.
‘Guards not only ones,’ he returned unexpectedly, feeling inside the tied waistband of his loose tunic and producing a short, stubby axe. I was impressed. I had little doubt Unus could do more damage with this one, roughly made tool than the three guards put together.
‘Unus have present for Tal too,’ he added. I stared in curiosity as his hand emerged clutching something small. He unfurled his fingers, revealing my small catapult nestling in the centre.
A slow grin spread across my face as I picked up the unassuming piece of leather. ‘Unus, you’re a genius!’ I whispered in delight, watching him turn slightly pink despite the yellow, flickering light.
‘Unus take from Cassius’s pocket. Unus think useful.’
‘Better than useful,’ I answered, feeling in my pockets for the last of the darts I’d secreted from the medical supplies cupboard. ‘Now we can have ourselves an Arafel ambush!’
I counted under my breath before giving Unus the sign. I knew our plan was beset with flaws but there was no other way. It was only a matter of time before Cassius caught up with us, and I had no doubt Octavia intended us all to meet our end in the Flavium, in the most gruesome and public way possible.
‘I’m coming,’ I promised Max silently.
‘Bless you, Unus,’ I whispered, as seconds later, he rushed around the corner with a deafening roar, making the guards leap to their feet, their hands reaching for their Diasords. Thankfully Unus, despite his size, was too swift, seizing two of the guards around their necks and knocking their heads together so they slumped to the floor in an ungraceful heap. The third managed to retrieve his Diasord and brandish the weapon threateningly, while reaching behind his back with his free hand.
It was my cue. Taking aim, I rapidly counted to five and released. My aim was true and the small, sharp dart hit the unsuspecting guard in the back of his hand. He whipped his hand in front, shaking his fingers in shock as I ran in. It was enough, and Unus surged forward, knocking his Diasord to the floor. He pressed back against the wall in terror as Unus towered above him. I chuckled softly under my breath.
‘Where did you come from?’ he stuttered, the effect of the drug already taking hold. ‘Nothing lives down there, except nightmares.’
It was Unus’s turn to chuckle. ‘Maybe Unus one of them?’ he teased with a soft growl, leaning closely in to his face.
I stepped forward. ‘Who are you guarding?’ I demanded.
‘What’s it to you?’ the guard returned, looking me up and down with contempt. Unus growled, and it wasn’t the playful noise of moments before. He grabbed the guard, and held him up by the scruff of his neck.
‘Unus nice. Unus wait. But if guard stupid, Unus not nice. Unus not wait.’
The guard turned white and fumbled around his neck for a thick, stubby piece of metal, grooved at one end.
‘Place this in the locks and turn anticlockwise twice,’ he slurred, clutching at Unus’s giant fist wrapped firmly around his scrawny neck.
My heart thudded painfully as I slid the heavy piece of metal into the nearest door. With a bit of persuasion it finally turned, and the heavy door swung open revealing darkness beyond. I grabbed the torch from Unus and plunged it into the musty, dank cell. After a couple of seconds, there was movement from the back, accompanied by a deep groan.
‘What the …? I’ve told you already, I don’t know where Talia might be, I’m not a Prolet sympathizer, and for the love of Arafel, I have no idea how to translate that mouldy old book!’ Max’s angry, stressed voice echoed oddly in the muffled chamber.
Without waiting for further prompting, I ran into the darkness, and threw myself at the figure lying on a threadbare mattress.
Max’s protective warmth wrapped itself around me instantly, and I buried my head in his broad shoulder. I was suddenly flooded with guilt – guilt for blaming him for Eli, guilt for dragging him here, and guilt for not realizing he loved me more than he should.
‘Tal? Is that really you? For the love of Arafel … I thought, I thought …’ he whispered hoarsely into my hair, before pulling me to him in a furious hug.
I returned the pressure, and only released him when he winced.
‘You’re hurt?’ I dreaded his answer, yet knew we had to move fast. I couldn’t imagine a world in which Max wasn’t just Max.
‘I was going to ask the same of you!’ he whispered, stroking my hair, ‘and not really. Octavia just has … temper tantrums.’
I bit my tongue, and helped him up, sliding a supportive arm around his back as we walked slowly to the doorway. Unus had pulled the two inert guards next to the conscious one, and was watching them all with one large unblinking eye.
Max chuckled through a hollow cough. ‘You brought the Cyclops?’ he asked in wonder. ‘You really are the most extraordinary girl!’
‘Actually, Unus brought me,’ I corrected with a rueful smile. ‘I wouldn’t be here without him.’
In the better light I could see Max’s face was bruised and swollen around his right eye. He tried to avoid my gaze, but he was clearly suffering, and I blazed with a chemical heat. Gently, I reached out my fingertips to touch his injured face. He closed his eyes, and rested his cheek in my hand.
‘You came for me.’
‘Of course I did,’ I whispered, my voice rough with emotion. ‘We’re going home, Max. I just need to find Eli and Grandpa, and then we’re going home.’
His eyes flickered open and he stared at me intently. ‘What about Aelia … and August? What about the Book of Arafel? Why are they so interested in it, Tal? What do they think it’s hiding?’
‘We’ll do what we can for Aelia and August,’ I answered avoiding eye contact, ‘but Pantheon is their home, not ours. And as for the Book … History has a lot to answer for … but I think I know how to stem Octavia’s interest once and for all.’
His frown was replaced with quick anxiety, as a loud crash resounded further up the corridor. It was followed by shouting and the sound of many heavy feet, running. I looked around frantically to spy one of the apparently unconscious guards clutching a small round disc in the fingers of his right hand. I didn’t need to be told what it was. Unus swiped at it but it was too late; the alarm had been raised.
‘Grab their weapons,’ Max hissed, snatching the device and crunching it under the heel of his leather foot strap.
Unus grabbed the two conscious men by the scruff of their necks, and pushed them up the wall. ‘Tell Unus way out. Unus not break necks!’
The small weaselly one who had raised the alarm pointed at one of the heavy closed doors. ‘There’s … an exit at the back of that room. It takes you up … up a round stone … staircase into … the main floor. Not guarded, but there are cameras.’
I stepped forward and pushed my newly acquired Diasord into his stomach. ‘If you are lying, Unus will come back for you. And he never forgets a face.’
The man turned a pale shade of green, before nodding vigorously. ‘I’m not lying. It’s the only route out, other than through the main tunnel.’
Unus wrapped his boulder hands around two of the guards’ necks until their faces turned purple, only releasing them as their legs started jerking uncontrollably.
‘You go. Unus follow!’ he urged as Max ran to the door and turned the handle. It scraped open with a low groan revealing a large, musty room lit only by a single torch. Right at the back, and silhouetted in the torchlight, was a winding stone staircase. So far so good.
‘See if it’s clear?’ I urged Max. ‘I’ll check the last cell for the others.’
‘I’m not losing you again, Tal.’
He grabbed the stubby key from my hand and crossed to the last door. The clatter of marching feet was getting louder and I glanced down the long corridor nervously. I wouldn’t be surprised if Octavia had dispatched her entire army after us.
The lock in this door was harder to persuade, as though it hadn’t been turned in a while. When it finally relented, the large door swung inwards revealing a similar-sized, musty-smelling cell. I held our torch high and stepped into the darkness. If Aelia and August were inside there really was no time to be lost. Then I froze momentarily.
Something was tickling my bare legs, something cold and slithery. Jumping back, I called out a warning to the others and threw the torch to the floor. The sight that met my eyes was as arresting as it was horrifying: wall to wall, writhing snakes everywhere, only these snakes weren’t the pythons or boas of home. These snakes had crawling hands, and red humanoid eyes that burned my thoughts as they turned to hiss in the darkness.
‘Move!!’ I half-screamed, half-choked as I stumbled from the room, pulling Unus and Max with me. Unus tried to close the door, but the snakes were already filling the doorway. We fled without a backward glance. Whatever we’d freed was a nightmare of Octavia’s making, and it was time she learned that sometimes, nature bit back.
‘Leave them! Run!’ I yelled, pulling the others towards the staircase. I caught a brief glimpse of the battalion of foot soldiers down the long corridor as we stumbled through. Simultaneously, they broke rank and gave chase.
‘Bring it on!’ I thought, as the hissing and slithering of serpentine beasts filled the stone corridor behind us. The soldiers’ commands quickly turned to shouts of terror as they ran directly into the pathway of the new horror emerging from Octavia’s dungeons, but we sprinted up the roughly cut steps without looking back. There had to be a good reason why Octavia kept any of her creations under permanent lock and key.
Max ran ahead of me and I concentrated on the sound of his rapid footsteps, making light work of the steep stone steps. It was Unus who tired first, his heavy thudding pace slowing with each twist of the staircase. I caught hold of Max’s tunic and made him pause. There was no way we were leaving him behind. Unus came around the corner, his face red and his one eye blinking back the rivulets of sweat pouring from his near-bald head.
‘Unus wait, catch breath,’ I told him, alarmed by his deep colour.
He smiled through his panting, but shook his head. ‘Big snakes move fast. Unus seen before. No stop.’
We turned in unison. If Unus considered we needed to run, there was little doubt in my head we’d unleashed monsters, right in the heart of Octavia’s own lair.
We continued at sprint pace until we finally rounded a corner, and came face to face with another thick, heavy door. Max pulled at the rusted handle and much to my relief, it groaned inwards. After a few seconds Unus appeared, and Max and I yanked him through the doorway before pitching our shoulders against the wood and heaving the door closed. This was a one-way trip.
I held up Unus’s torch as he recovered his breath, and surveyed our new surroundings. We’d emerged in some sort of armoury room and there were harnesses, shields, and helmets covering every inch of wall. There were also gladiatorial-style weapons – knives, machetes, axes – but I had little doubt our newly acquired Diasords were the best weapons we could equip ourselves with in this place. I swallowed hard. There was a bitter, acrid scent lingering in this room, and though I’d struggled to identify it at first, I knew exactly what it was now. Blood.
‘Let’s find the others,’ I whispered, before running to the arched exit and checking around the corner. There was another long corridor ahead, interspersed with arches fortified by strong iron bars. I knew instinctively there was life beyond each. I couldn’t be sure what kind of life, but I could sense it was there all the same. This had to be where Octavia incarcerated her victims, ready to terrify and torture in the Flavium.
My mood darkened, and I swallowed the impulse to throw open every door. Aelia and August’s faces loomed to the forefront of my mind and I drew a deep breath. Should I be fearing the very worst for them? A sickening chill crept into my stomach, the same chill that had invaded my bones when Mum told me Dad had died. I gritted my teeth. August and Aelia didn’t deserve my loyalty. I had to stay strong.
It was the noise that puzzled me at first. It reminded me of voices echoing in the Ring at home, hundreds of voices talking all at once. Max frowned and took the lead, creeping forward stealthily and taking care not to pass too close to the bars. Occasionally our progress was punctuated by distressed grunts. Whatever was in the cells knew we were there too.
After a few minutes of wondering if the red-eyed serpents had unwittingly proven a more effective adversary to Octavia’s battalion than ever expected, the tunnel opened out into a circular room. We trod forward carefully, looking for an exit. It appeared to be completely empty except for a large white grille that lay flat against the entire ceiling.
Suddenly, and without warning, the ceiling receded faster than I could watch, and light and noise spilled through the grille. Instinctively, we dived back towards the cover of the tunnel, but another iron grille dropped swiftly into place, leaving us no exit. My chest contracted sharply, my fragile confidence gone. Had we walked right into a trap?
We didn’t have long to consider the question before there was a loud cranking sound that slowly intensified. We gripped each other in terror. The whole room was beginning to move and shake.
‘Max!’ I screamed as the floor began to rise, taking us with it. The circular grille above our heads groaned as it slid back, allowing us to rise right through the ceiling. There was no going back now, we were being propelled upwards whether we liked it or not.
We emerged through the ceiling to the overwhelming sound of thunderous, overlapping applause and voices, and when my eyes finally adjusted, I could do little but stare in cold horror at the terrifying view. There were thousands upon thousands of finely dressed Pantheonites encircling us in a huge arena, and as our circular floor jolted to a halt, we were trapped centre-stage.
High stone walls separated us from the many rows of raised seating, and massive screens stretched around the top half of the arena, showing our flushed faces in minute detail. How long had they been watching us? Since we reached the Flavium? Since the tunnels? Since Cassius tried to force himself on me? I stared in denial at the nightmare scene unfolding around us.
We’d been played to perfection. We’d run blindly through Octavia’s primal lair, to reach the heart of her deviant games, and nothing could be more clear. This was the moment it had all been leading up to. Execution.