“So, we didn’t get the inverters, but it was bloody hilarious when the American threw up.” Ayla dropped to a crouch next to Toby who was leaning against a wall in the rear courtyard, taking advantage of its shade. Around them a few of the other couples walked around, trying to keep themselves awake, while others sat and talked together in low voices. The excitement of the day was wearing off and tiredness setting in.
Toby was staring at the wall. “What’s on the other side, do you think?” He pointed.
“It’s the cliff.” Ayla stretched her legs out in front of her with a sigh. “Can’t you tell from where we are?”
“I was just thinking that we could get over it if we needed to.”
Ayla shook her head and lowered her voice. “Even if there wasn’t a long drop on the other side, we couldn’t. Look.”
Toby blinked into the sun and struggled to see what she was pointing at. “I can’t…” Then his eyes adjusted to something that glimmered on top of the brickwork. “Is that broken glass?”
“All along the top. And over there –” Ayla pointed – “a guard hut.”
“Watching the wall. I don’t get it – who would want to escape?”
Ayla lowered her voice. “I’m beginning to understand why Hideaki never made it back to the Banshee. It’s like a prison here.”
“Look at Lenka.” Toby pointed. The girl’s head had sagged on to her knees. As Toby said her name, she jerked up. “She almost fell asleep.”
“This trial business is easy.” Ayla put her hands behind her head. “How many overnight watches have you pulled?”
“A few.” Toby smiled. “Particularly when the boiler needed work – I can stay awake all night if I need to.”
“Me, too, no problem.” Ayla stretched happily. “We’ll win this for sure.”
“But do you think we should?” Toby whispered. “If we became silent attendants we might be allowed into the Reliquary to clean.”
Ayla scowled, considering. “How would we get the inverters out again?” she murmured eventually. She shook her head. “No, we stick to the original plan, at least for now.”
“Careful.” Toby stiffened and pointed. A brother and sister descended the steps and began to pace around the courtyard, within earshot of the teens. They seemed to be paying no attention to them, but Toby wasn’t deceived. They were being monitored.
“Do you think we’ll be fed again?” Arthur slid to the ground next to Toby, making him jump. “Summer’s hungry.”
“I’m used to eating two meals a day.” Adele sniffed as she and Adrien joined them.
“We’ll find out in a moment.” Toby looked up. “There’s Mother Hesper.”
She was standing in a shadowy corner, her eyes fixed on the teens. When she saw Lenka drooping once more she smiled. Finally she stepped into the light. “Time for your evening meal.”
Evening meal was corn cakes, rice and potatoes.
Toby was reaching for a crisp potato when Arthur caught his arm. “You seem like a good guy, I’d like to keep you around a bit longer.”
Toby tilted his head, glad that he had taken the time to be friendly. “What do you mean?”
“Stodge,” Arthur said under his breath. “It’ll make you sleepy. Don’t eat it.”
Toby’s eyes widened. Arthur was right: it was a trap, a bit like the wine at the previous meal.
Around Toby the others were filling their plates.
Ayla reached for a corn cake, saw the slight shake of Toby’s head and pulled her hand back. On his word, she would go hungry.
After the meal the teens were taken to their cells. It was still light outside, but the sun was no longer shining on the plastic bottles that let light in through the ceiling and so, underground, darkness reigned.
Ayla marched into hers.
Moira passed her. “How’ll they know if we fall asleep in here?”
Summer hesitated at her own doorway. “She’s right – are they watching us?”
“They must be.” Toby rubbed his eyes then realized what he was doing and dropped his hand.
“Where from?” Cezar walked into Toby’s cell behind him and started running his hands over the walls.
“Get in your own cells.” Mother Hesper stopped outside Toby’s room. “You. Out.”
Cezar ducked his head and limped away as swiftly as he could, his feet almost tangling in her robes.
“Remember – you mustn’t fall asleep.” Mother Hesper smiled at Lenka, whose face was cracking into a huge yawn.
Lenka slammed her mouth closed and backed into her cell.
“See you in the morning,” Mother Hesper said as she closed Toby’s door on him. “And don’t forget sunset prayers.”
The sound of the bolt being drawn made him shudder and he put his hand into his pocket to touch the fork tine that he had broken off at dinner. It wasn’t a screwdriver, but it was something.
Suddenly a high-pitched note trembled in the still air of the passageway and his head jerked up.
The single voice was joined by others – the teens were singing. Arthur’s deep voice cut through the sound, giving it layers, and Toby closed his eyes to listen. It was a hymn to the Sun. A farewell as it sank beneath the horizon and a plea for it to return the next day. Sunset prayers.
Slowly the song died until only the single high note lingered in the air once more. Toby sat up with a start. He had slumped backwards and his breathing had slowed right down.
“That was lovely,” Ayla’s voice snapped from next door. “A lullaby isn’t exactly going to keep us awake tonight though, is it?”
Toby laughed.
“What should we sing then?” Arthur shouted.
“Oh for…” Toby could picture Ayla rolling her eyes. “If you bloody well have to sing, then sing something lively.”
“Like what?” Summer squeaked.
Toby grinned. As the others debated he took a deep breath. Then he walked to the cell door, put his face close to the airholes and began.
“What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning?”
There was a long shocked silence, then a loud giggle from one of the girls.
“Hooray and up she rises, hooray and up she rises, hooray and up she rises, early in the morning.”
Most of the group joined in. Toby strained his ears; he couldn’t tell if Ayla’s voice was among the cacophony.
“I do not know this one,” Zahir complained.
“It’s easy to pick up,” Celeste called. “Just sing the chorus. Hooray and up she rises. It’s about the Sun.”
Toby had managed to retain an air of the devout, while singing about drunkenness.
“I can’t remember the next verse.” Toby stopped singing. “I know you know it, what’s next?”
“I don’t sing,” Ayla snapped.
“Ayla…” Toby begged. Her name became a chant that filled the corridor. “Ayla, Ayla.”
“Oh fine…” she said.
Toby stifled a laugh.
“Put him in the scuppers with the deck pump on him…” Although she tried not to sing, it was impossible not to fall into the rhythm of the words.
When the song was over there was barely a pause before Uzuri shouted from her cell. “Now one from our country.” And Zahir began to drum on his cell door.
Time slipped by. Toby had no idea how long he had been in the cell or how long it had been since the group had stopped singing.
The teens had fallen into low discussions about the Sun. There had been a lengthy argument over who was more devout: Lenka and Matus or Adele and Adrien, but generally the teens were simply talking to pass the time.
As the evening dipped into the depths of night, however, the cool temperature and the deep quiet began to seep into their bones and they dropped into silence.
“Summer, are you awake?” Arthur banged on his door.
“I’m here,” Summer answered sleepily.
It was an exchange that was repeated among the pairs over and over again as the night dragged on.
“Lenka, are you there?”
“Uzuri, talk to me.”
“Leila, Leila?” The American boy’s voice was growing increasingly urgent. “Leila!”
Finally he received an answer. “I’m up, Noah.” But Leila’s voice was low and sleepy and Toby knew she had been falling asleep when her partner had called her name.
Toby himself was beginning to worry. He had stayed away from the small camp bed at the back of his own cell, preferring to sit on the hard floor for the added discomfort, but now even the cold earth was beginning to feel like an embrace. He had slipped down, stretching his legs out before him and leaning on his elbow.
When his chin jerked forwards and he bit his tongue, he gasped. He grabbed the tine of his fork from his pocket and jabbed at his leg again, hissing with the pain.
“Ayla,” he called. “Talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say?” she responded immediately. Toby blew out a rush of air. She was awake.
“I don’t know.” He got to his feet, racking his brains. He couldn’t ask her about life on the Banshee – they were meant to be sheep farmers from the Falklands. “What’s your favourite food?” It was a dumb question, but better than nothing.
Ayla snorted. “My favourite food?”
“Yes, tell me what you like to eat.”
“Depends on the time of day,” she said in the end. “I like porridge for breakfast, if it’s made properly, you know, with milk. I had syrup in it once. It was … unforgettable.”
“Have you ever had chocolate?” Toby pressed his head on the wall between them, as if to get closer to her.
Ayla laughed. “Of course not. No one has.”
“I have,” Adele’s voice chimed in. “Once.”
“They have chocolate in France?” Ayla asked.
“In what’s left of Belgium, actually,” Adrien replied. “Our oldest brother is a trader. He bought it home – he said it was one of the very, very last pieces.”
“It’s all gone now,” Adele added.
“What else do you like?” Toby pressed.
He could almost hear Ayla thinking. “I hate fish,” she said in the end and he snorted loudly.
“Seriously?”
“Yes. I’d almost rather eat anything else. Gull meat, sprouting potatoes…”
“But if you had a choice for your last meal ever?”
“Do you have to?” Arthur grumbled from his cell. “I didn’t eat, remember?”
Toby’s stomach was rumbling, too. “Sorry.”
Ayla was quiet for a bit, then she spoke in a low voice. “Can you hear me, Toby?”
“Barely.”
“Good,” she spoke even quieter. “Curry,” she said. “When we go to India…” She fell silent. “Well, that’s what I’d have if it was my last meal.”
Toby raised his eyebrows.
“What about you?”
He sighed. “I liked the stew we had at lunchtime. I wonder if Peel could make it, if he had the ingredients. What about your free time, what do you like to do?”
“I don’t get free time, you know that.”
“You must, at least sometimes.”
“No.” Her voice stayed low. “But I liked it when Nell taught me to read. She traded everything a couple of years ago, but for a while we had two real books.”
“Which ones?” Toby had learned to read from stock manifests and Dee’s Atlas.
“Something called Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Ayla’s voice held a smile. “And the other was The Lord of the Rings.”
Toby dropped his eyes. “I like to make stuff,” he offered. “Engines – the others call them toys, but they’re prototypes really.”
A snore cut across their conversation.
“Who’s that?” Toby jerked to his feet and heard Ayla leap to her door.
“I don’t know.”
He strained, but couldn’t tell. “Who’s awake? Call your names.”
“Arthur.”
“Summer.”
“Zahir.”
There was a pause, then, “Uzuri.”
“Adele.”
“Brody.”
“Moira.”
“Bianca.”
“Cezar.”
“Is it Lenka?” Ayla called. “Did she fall asleep?”
“I’m awake,” Lenka replied sleepily. “You had better be, too, Matus.”
“I’m up.”
“That’s not everyone.” Toby hammered on his door. “Hey, come on! Name call.”
Finally a husky voice from the end of the row. “Celeste. I’m awake.”
“As am I. Aldo.”
“Who does that leave? Who’s missing?” Uzuri called.
“It’s Adrien,” Adele whispered. “He’s the one snoring.”
“I didnae hear the ’Mericans, either.”
“We’re here, we’re awake.” It was the girl. “Aren’t we, Noah?” There was silence. “Noah? Wake up.”
“I’m awake.”
“But that means we can go to sleep now, right?” It was Cezar. “Now we’re not last, we can go to sleep”
“We’ve lost,” Adele wailed.
“Not necessarily, Adele.” Uzuri’s deep voice was a comfort. “Adrien was first to sleep, which means you are losing now. But you remain awake. If you can stay that way until a pair both fall asleep, then they will be out and you will remain.”
“You hear that, Cezar?” Bianca snapped. “You have to stay awake. If we both sleep before Adele…”
Arthur rumbled. “This is a trial to prove our worthiness to be the Sun and Moon. We all have to stay awake. Think of the Sun.”
“The Sun … Praise the Sun.” The mantras rang out along the passageway and Toby leaned on his door. His whole body started to sag and he jerked back to his feet.
“This is no good.” He rubbed his eyes again and stifled a yawn. “How long till dawn?”
“There’s no way to know.” Even Ayla sounded tired now. “My gut tells me we’re a way off yet.”
“Mine, too.” Toby knew he had a decent internal clock. “I’m going to do some press-ups.”
“Don’t tire yourself out.”
“I’m hoping it’ll keep me awake.”
But after the first ten, Toby’s arms began to shake and he found himself face down on the floor, unwilling or unable to lift himself up again. He closed his eyes for a moment, just briefly, intending to remain awake.
“Toby!” Ayla’s voice whipped him out of it. It was as if she could sense what he was doing.
“I’m fine.” Disorientated, Toby staggered to his feet and began jogging on the spot.
Ayla lowered her voice again. “Think about a problem,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing. Work out how we can solve our problem.”
“That’s … a good idea.”
Toby sat cross-legged in the middle of his cell. They had found the inverters, but they were inside the locked crypt, guarded, at least during the day, by two large uncles. Toby shuddered again as he pictured the empty-mouthed guard outside the Reliquary turning on him.
Could there be another entrance? He considered asking Ayla what she thought, but decided to save their conversation for a time when he was sure everyone else was asleep.
The wall in between the cathedral and their quarters backed on to the crypt. If there was a way to get through it, they wouldn’t need to pass the guards at all. But how could they dig through a wall without being seen?
And there was the added problem that they were locked in their cells at night. Would they have to steal the inverters during the day?
Toby dug his nails into his palm. He’d had the Phoenix’s inverter in the palm of his hand and lost it.
If they managed to get the inverters, could they get out without resorting to Ayla’s suicide pills? Toby went over their entrance. If they wanted to leave the way they had come, they would have to go back through their quarters and into the cathedral without being seen by attendant brothers and sisters or guardian uncles. Then they would have to get through the main door, which was magnetically locked, across the courtyard without being spotted, and through the massive double gates, which seemed to be operated from within. If they managed all of that, they would then have to make it to the northernmost point of the island without being stopped by any of the Gozitan islanders.
It seemed impossible. His mind raced, finding no way out of the maze. Frustrated, Toby dug his nails into his palms. The only other way out was through the rear courtyard and over the glass-topped wall, which Ayla thought would drop them over the jagged cliff edge and which was watched by more guardian uncles. The sanctuary of the Solar Order really was a fortress.
Still, if he could cling on to rigging in a storm, he should be able to manage a cliff climb. If they wanted to escape before the actual festival they’d have to go over the wall. Would it be possible to arrange some kind of distraction?
As his mind hit one dead end after another, a scraping sound from the back of his cell made him spin around. A tiny hatch slid open and eyes glittered in the cavity. So that was how they were being watched.
Who was looking at him? Was it Mother Hesper?
Toby stared back; he refused to be the first to drop his gaze. Finally the grate scraped closed and cold fingers slid up his spine. There was no way for him to know when someone was behind there, listening. Conversations with Ayla would have to wait.