“This is Erin,” Luthor said, without warmth.
“His daughter,” she added proudly, seeming unconcerned by Luthor’s flat tone.
Zane’s eyebrows shot up. He couldn’t imagine Luthor having a child, as he seemed too hardened for that. After recently meeting the Red Lady as the only woman other than his mother, Erin was the second girl Zane had ever seen in as many days.
He remembered his manners. “I’m Zane. This is Titus.” Erin wrinkled her nose. “Those are weird names.”
Both boys frowned at her, mildly offended, and Zane didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t endearing herself to him at all.
Luthor’s scowl was set in like a long day of persistent rain. “Why is the leader of the Bloomsbury Boys in your living room?”
“Because he’s hurt, and Mum is looking after him,” Zane replied matter-of-factly.
“I could see that,” Luthor rumbled. “I need to speak with her.”
Zane sighed. “I’ll see if she’s free now, shall I?”
At Luthor’s nod, he went into the house to find her speaking to Jay in a hushed voice. Jay threw him an angry look. Zane tried his best to ignore it and said to Miri, “Luthor wants to speak to you. Really a lot, I think.”
Miri squeezed Jay’s shoulder. “Try to relax. I’ll be back soon.”
Jay seethed as she left with Zane. She invited Luthor to speak with her in the garden, leaving the two boys with the new girl.
Titus pointed at the bruise on her arm. “Did you get that after you had a dream?” he asked.
She looked at him as if he were an idiot. “I got it from my dad,” she replied, unimpressed by the question. “We were training yesterday … I didn’t move fast enough.”
“Did he tell you to be faster?” both Titus and Zane asked in unison, and then looked at each other in mild surprise.
She stared at them. “You two are weird.”
“Did he though?” Zane pressed.
Erin shrugged. “Yeah, I think so. Why?”
Zane rolled up his sleeve to show her his bruised arm and Titus did the same. Erin raised her eyebrows. “You both been training too?”
“The bruises are exactly the same!” Titus exclaimed impatiently. “Exactly the same place, and both Zane and I had a dream about your father training us and hitting us here, and saying we need to be faster.”
Erin briefly looked shocked but then her eyes narrowed. “Are you two winding me up?”
“No!” Zane replied, appalled at the idea. “Why would we do that?”
Erin shrugged again. She thought a moment and then said, “That’s weird, if it’s true.”
“It is true,” Titus said as he and Zane rolled their sleeves down. “And you’re right, it is weird.”
They all looked at each other for a few moments.
“How old are you?” Zane asked her.
“Nearly fifteen, I think,” she replied, and Titus and Zane both exclaimed, “Me too!” at the same time.
This time they smiled at each other, amused at their synchrony whilst Erin looked at them uncertainly.
“Do you know my father, then?” she asked hopefully.
Titus shook his head as Zane replied, “I’ve seen him lots of times, but only spoken to him a tiny bit.”
Erin looked disappointed. “Oh.”
“Why?”
“Just wondered what you thought of him … what he’s like.”
Zane’s brow furrowed with confusion. “Don’t you know? He’s your dad after all.”
Erin looked down at her boots. “I’ve only known him a few days. He didn’t even know about me until a couple of weeks ago.”
This piqued Zane’s curiosity. “So you didn’t grow up at the Red Lady’s place?” Zane asked.
She shook her head, eyes distant and shaded by a pained expression. “No, I grew up with –”
“Erin!” Luthor shouted from behind her at the entrance to the garden, and all three of them jumped. “We are here to train, not chatter.”
She hung her head and Zane suddenly felt sorry for her. “Sorry, Father,” she said quietly.
“Don’t mumble like that!” he said sternly, marching over. “A warrior never mumbles. Eyes straight and chin high if you have something worth saying, or say nothing at all.”
She lifted her chin and looked at him, yet said nothing. Zane began to chew his lip, brooding. Of all the people she could have sent, why did the Red Lady have to send Luthor?
Miri emerged from the garden, deep in thought. She passed a brief, worried glance over the three children and then slipped back into the house, drawing as little attention to herself as possible.
“That’s my mum. She’s called Miri,” Zane whispered to Erin.
Luthor was looking at Titus. “The Red Lady didn’t mention you as part of the deal.”
“This is Titus,” Erin said helpfully.
“I don’t care what he’s called. She said I was to train Zane.”
Titus patted the air with his hands. “That’s fine. I’m not fit to train anyway.”
“Good,” Luthor said tactlessly and then turned to Zane. He looked him up and down critically. “Practically no muscle … no stamina either, I should think. No power there at all.”
Zane fidgeted, somewhat humiliated in front of the others.
Luthor nodded to himself. “I’ll need to build you up before I can do any useful training with you, otherwise you’ll drop a spear from the fatigue of aiming before you can throw it.”
Erin snickered and Luthor’s gaze fell on her. “I don’t know why you’re laughing, because you need it just as much.” She fell silent.
“Do ten circuits of the square to warm up,” Luthor said and Erin sprinted off happily. Zane, slower to respond, finally set off at a similar speed, trying to catch her up.
Whilst they ran, Luthor watched, shaking his head in disappointment at the way that Zane began to slow down after a couple of laps. Titus leant against the wall. He looked on as Luthor went to run behind Zane, quickening the boy’s pace with his menacing presence. Titus rubbed his eyes and, pale-faced, went back into the house to lie down, leaving his fitter companions to their exercise.
Over the next few days, everything settled into a routine. Titus became marginally more comfortable around Miri and let her have her bed back. He elected to sleep in Zane’s bed, with Zane on the floor, as Titus refused to sleep or eat in the same room as Jay. Soon after the two boys breakfasted together, Luthor and Erin would arrive and then all morning Zane would be drilled through various exercises with her. Erin took to it all very well, revelling in the exertion, whilst Zane struggled to keep up. It was only the promise of a kiss from the Red Lady for his fantasy delivery of meat that sustained him. Sometimes Titus watched, sometimes he read any book that Miri could lay her hands on for him, but occasionally, throughout the day, he would pause at whatever he was doing to turn and stare at Jay, hate-filled, just for a few moments, and then return his attention to his previous task.
The afternoons were filled with frantic work in the garden, Zane tired out and slow, Miri desperate to extract all she could to feed the extra people in her care. The Bloomsbury Boys intermittently brought canned offerings to her door, but she was adamant that the healing process would be improved by lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
All the while, Jay swore and moaned with pain and frustration but kissed Miri on the cheek every morning and every night, thanking her quietly for her kindness when no-one else was looking.
A couple of times Zane approached Jay to try to help, only to be knocked back by his bad-tempered refusal to have anyone except Miri near him. In the end Zane gave up, letting the healing take place in its own time.
On the fourth day after Luthor’s arrival, halfway through one of the training sessions, Luthor called a halt to announce that he was going to pick up some equipment from back in his territory. He gave Zane and Erin a set of exercises to complete before his return and then left at a jog. As soon as he was out of sight, Zane flopped onto the ground and groaned. Erin laughed at him.
“You’re so soft!” she said.
Zane pouted. “You don’t have to dig for the rest of the day when we finish here.”
“I have lunch and then I practise with knives and swords,” she replied, coming over to sit next to him on the old pavement. “After dinner I practise fletching.”
“What’s that?”
“Making arrows,” Titus answered for her as he came over to sit with them.
“You do all that every day?” Zane asked incredulously.
Erin nodded. “I want to be strong.” Her jaw was set in a way that reminded him of Luthor.
“I just want to be able to hunt,” Zane sighed. “That’s all. I didn’t realise it would be so hard.”
“My father’s being thorough. Besides, you should feel proud to be trained by him. He’s the Red Lady’s Champion, so you’re really lucky.”
“Yeah,” Zane sighed, unconvinced.
“Are you in the Red Lady’s gang?” Titus asked after a few moments.
Erin shook her head. “No. I think my father wants me to be one day, though. I think he’s hoping that if I train hard, I’ll be good enough to join.” She looked at Zane. “Are you training so you can join?”
He shook his head and explained the deal to both of them. Erin looked surprised. “I heard she doesn’t make deals with other gangs.”
“I’m not in a gang,” Zane retorted. “And anyway, she said it was a special thing.” He puffed his chest out proudly. “Just for me.” He noticed that Titus’ attention had drifted. “You ok?” he asked.
Titus blinked himself out of his deep thought. “I was wondering when Lyssa will be back.”
“Who’s Lyssa?” Erin asked and for the first time in days Titus’ face became animated.
“She’s my sister. She’s clever and …” His voice trailed off and he became distant again. His fingers dug into his palms. “Jay stole her … I haven’t seen her since.”
“It wasn’t Jay that took her away,” Zane said hastily and Titus’ glare fell on him.
“It was! I remember, he dragged her off and she didn’t want to go with him.”
“But it wasn’t Jay who took her away afterwards. It couldn’t have been–none of the Bloomsbury Boys can make lightning like that.”
“Huh?” Erin’s eyes were wide. “Someone made lightning? Did they make a storm come?”
Zane described the events of the evening that he and Callum witnessed, and it became clear to him that Titus hadn’t fully realised what had happened. “So it wasn’t Jay. He’s alright really,” he concluded, although he felt uncomfortable. He wasn’t certain what Jay had been planning for Lyssa, but he didn’t think that was helpful to mention.
Titus’ eyes were shadowed by the depth of his frown. “They wouldn’t have had a chance to take her if he’d left us alone,” he muttered. Then he looked up. “So if he isn’t hiding her, and it was these others, who are they? Why’d they take her? And where is she?”
Zane looked down, uncertain about what to say. His mum hadn’t wanted to talk about the Unders, and what if she and Callum were wrong anyway? Before he could decide how to respond, he was distracted by Erin, who reached out unexpectedly and squeezed Titus’ hand. “I know how you feel, worrying about someone … it’s hard.”
“Do you have a sister missing too?” Zane asked nervously, fearing that such a degree of coincidence would just be too freakish.
She shook her head. “No … not missing, and not a sister.” She looked at them both watching her and seemed surprised, then defensive. “It doesn’t matter, and anyway it’s none of your business and I don’t want to talk about it,” she gabbled, jumping to her feet. “We’d better do something useful,” she announced and began to sprint around the square, focusing completely on the exercise and doggedly avoiding their gaze.
Titus watched her thoughtfully. He glanced back to the house and then leant closer to Zane, lowering his voice.
“Do you think the Red Lady would make a deal with me?” he asked hesitantly.
Zane shrugged. “We could ask her. What do you want to make a deal for?”
Titus’ eyes looked into that faraway place once again. “I need to get strong too. I need to learn how to fight.”
“Oh. Ok.” Zane also watched Erin changing her activity to go through strengthening exercises. His mind began to fill with the thought of speaking to the Red Lady again, leaving no room to consider what Titus could be planning.
Titus prodded Zane’s arm. “Can you do it, Zane? Can you ask her to include me on your deal?”
Zane thought for a moment and then beamed. “I think we should go and ask anyway.” Titus looked satisfied as Zane grew excited, already drifting off to his favourite memory of the Red Lady. He resolved to see her, as soon as possible, forgetting his conversation with Callum. All he could think of now was seeing her again, hearing her voice again and kissing her rose-petal skin.