Toby woke up, disorientated. How long had he slept? He had one arm slung over his face, so at some point the sunlight must have disturbed him. He swung his legs over the hard cot and looked at his cell door. It was locked. Night, then.
“Ayla, are you awake?”
There was no answer.
He moved to his door. “Wake up.”
The quality of the silence seemed to change and Toby remembered how Ayla woke – she went from fast asleep to firing on all cylinders in an instant, like a boiler.
“Ayla?”
“I hear you.”
He sighed, relieved.
Then she spoke. “You still don’t believe I didn’t know?”
Toby said nothing.
“I couldn’t have known it would be like this.”
He leaned his forehead against the door and imagined she was doing the same. “We knew we were going in without enough information and we made the decision to go ahead anyway.” He swallowed. “It’s worse than we expected, but … we can deal with it.”
“They keep their secrets down here,” Ayla muttered.
“They haven’t any choice. Silent attendants, remember?” Toby shuddered.
“What do you want to do?” Ayla whispered.
Toby turned to look behind him, checking the hatch in his wall. It was closed, but that didn’t mean no one was listening.
“We could leave,” he murmured. “Over the wall and along the cliff.”
“And give up the mission?” Ayla hissed. “Even if we can get over the glass without being seen, there’s no way off the island – not yet.”
Toby banged his forehead on the door. “You’re right. Wren might not be here yet. We have to stick it out for at least another day.”
“How bad can it be?” Ayla whispered. “We can out-fight and out-think every one of these landlubbers.”
Toby thought of Arthur and Cezar. “Maybe not all.”
“We just have to stay ahead of the competition for a bit longer, while we think of something.”
“Right.” Toby closed his eyes. “Are you still tired?”
“Not really. My clock’s screwed up. I have no idea what time it is.”
Bells chimed and Toby jumped, shocked. “You hear that?”
“Yes.” Ayla cocked her head as sounds emerged from the other cells.
“They ring just after midday, don’t they?” There was a frown in Ayla’s voice. “How come it’s still dark?”
A figure swept past the outside of Toby’s cell, a darker patch of shadow sliding through the darkness.
“Only darkness can teach us to truly love the light,” Mother Hesper’s voice rang out. “You will remain in your cells until you ask to be released. The first to beg for freedom will lose the challenge for their pair.”
“So we just have tae remain in our cells?” Brody called.
“That’s right. In your cells … in the dark.”
Mother Hesper had been gone for some time.
“I don’t see how this is going to be a problem.” Toby was lying on his camp bed with his eyes closed. “I like the daytime as much as the next person, but I’m planning to sleep this one through.”
Ayla made no reply, but his ears caught voices from a couple of cells down. It was Summer. “Arthur … when are they going to feed us?”
Toby sat up, suddenly feeling sick at the mention of food. If the bells had rung he had already slept through at least two meals. And he had skipped a meal the night before.
“Ashes,” he clutched the camp bed with shaking hands. This was more than just darkness – it was another endurance test; the couples were going to go hungry and thirsty.
Suddenly all Toby could think about was water: the rain the Phoenix caught in barrels, freshwater from streams, even the poisonous salt. He rolled over and leaned against the wall.
“Ayla?”
“I heard, Toby. We’ve had hungry times.”
Toby nodded to himself. Now he knew what the alternative was, he would go hungry for as long as it took.
He thought of Adele and Adrien. Two meals a day she had said. How would the French couple cope with hunger?
The Scots would have no problem. He sensed that they had lived harder lives than any of them. What about the others? Arthur and Summer seemed decently fed, as did Celeste and Aldo. Would they suffer the most through this test, or would their own reserves keep them going when Toby and Ayla could not.
He ground his teeth.
“Go to sleep, Toby, it’s the best way to get through this.”
But Toby’s body told him he had slept long enough so he lay in the dark, staring blindly at the ceiling.
This time round there was no singing and the couples who spoke did so in whispers; afraid of helping out their competitors. Toby knew that Arthur was speaking to Summer from the low rumble of his voice, but he couldn’t make out the individual words.
Toby licked his lips. Was there anywhere he could get a drink? He touched the walls of his cell. They were earth – no chance of moisture. He touched his door. Surely the cool night air might mean moisture developed on the hard plastic. He had only to wait a few more hours to find out.
When the hatch in the back of his cell opened, Toby sat with his back to the wall. He would not give his watcher the satisfaction of his attention. Assuming they could see him in the deep darkness that was.
The darkness … Toby’s eyes started to play tricks on him. In the farthest recesses of his cell he was sure that he could see movement. The shadows seemed to be gathering. Colours danced in his peripheral vision, but each time he turned his head there was nothing, only more dark.
He closed his eyes tight, forcing bright colours to burst behind his eyelids. That way he could pretend for a moment that the gloom was his choice.
He lay down and rolled on to his front, covering his head with his arms, keeping his fantasy going, not allowing himself to look but it was impossible for Toby not to go back in his memories to when darkness did cover the whole world – when day differed from night only in the quality of the grey overhead. Then it was cold all the time and the Phoenix had needed her ice-breaker for more than the junk that filled the seas. Icebergs had floated down out of the North Sea and into the Pacific; whole islands of ice that slowly dissipated into the poisonous water, raising sea levels and freezing wildlife.
It had been worse on land. Even with populations decimated following the recessions, the wars and disease outbreaks that followed the eruption, the food reserves ran out. Those who did not fight for every mouthful died and populations headed for the rivers and seas – there was no power to run water, no sewage plants; they had no choice.
Toby had been born into a twilight world. Day had never followed night. When he was young the sun, moon and stars were nothing but stories. The captain had navigated by following birds, spotting landmarks and noting the direction of the wind and the shape of swells. And, of course, he had the compass and sextant that never left his side. Some of Toby’s earliest memories were of his father working with his charts and the sextant, staring at the slight alleviation in the darkness that told him roughly where the sun hung in the sky.
Toby desperately wanted to see the sun.
He rolled over and opened his eyes, almost believing that if he did so, light would shine in. It did not.
The hatch in the back of his cell opened once more. Toby curled his lip and ignored it. But when the hatch slid closed there was a slithering and skittering from the back of his cell. Alarmed, Toby rose to a kneeling position.
“Ayla … is there something in your cell?” he whispered.
Her answer was instantaneous. “Yes. For some time.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think?”
Toby listened. The sounds grew louder, magnified by the darkness. Whatever it was seemed to be crawling up the walls.
“Insects,” he groaned.
“Roaches.” There was thump from Ayla’s cell and the faint sound of crunching. At least she still had her boots – Toby’s feet were bare.
“I hate roaches.” Toby’s skin felt as if it was trying to crawl around the back of his spine.
“At least it’s something to eat.”
“That’s disgusting.” Toby jumped as something touched his hand. Swiftly he shook the insect off.
There was a loud shriek from Uzuri’s cell. “What the Sun is this?”
Screams and shrieks began to fill the air.
“Fools!” Ayla muttered. “Roaches can’t hurt them.”
As desperate as Toby was not to lose the competition, he quailed at the idea that two of the other teens would have their tongues pulled from their mouths. Who? Arthur and Summer, Cezar and Bianca?
“I want to go home,” Summer wailed.
“Hold on,” Arthur called. “They’re creepy, but they won’t hurt you.”
Toby smiled grimly. Ayla had said the same thing of the blind brothers and sisters when they had arrived: creepy, but harmless.
Toby could feel movement on the blanket and his skin crawled. He was steeling himself to brush his bare hand across the material when his hatch opened once more. “What is it this time?” he asked, not expecting an answer.
But one came.
“Rats,” a quiet voice said. “Good luck.”
Toby hoped the rats were not as hungry as he was. On the other hand…
“Ayla, do rats eat roaches?” he called.
“R-rats?” Adele’s screams turned to hysterical sobs.
“Hang on, Adele.” But Adrien’s voice was as shaky as his twin’s. “Think of the Sun.”
“I am thinking of the sun. I want to be out in the sun.”
“Sing, Adele. Sing.” Adrien started a hymn to the Sun, but Adele didn’t join him, she only screamed louder.
Strangely none of the others raised their voices, shocked to silence by the crazed sound of Adele’s shrieks.
“Adele, for the love of all you consider holy, shut the hell up.” It was Ayla. “You’re acting like a baby.”
For a second the girl was shocked into silence. “There’re rats!” she cried eventually.
“And roaches. So what?” Ayla snapped. “Have they hurt you? No.”
“I-I don’t like this.” It was Summer.
“Well, you know what you’ll like less?” Ayla growled. “Having your tongue cut out on that altar.”
“She’s right, Summer – be strong.” It was Arthur.
Toby leaned against his cell door. “What happened to it’s a competition?” he murmured.
“She was pissing me off.”
He heard Ayla stamp across the cell, her boots crunching on roaches as she went. Then there was a loud squeak and a thud as Ayla booted a rat across the cell.
Ayla’s scolding didn’t keep Adele quiet for long. After only a few minutes the girl began to sob once more, her cries getting louder and louder. Around his cot, Toby could hear the rats getting braver, closer. When one brushed against him he yelled as he thrust it away.
“Toby…” Ayla warned.
“Sorry. I’m all right.” He sat back on his cot, drawing up his legs.
Then there was another kind of scream from across the passageway: Uzuri. This time it was a cry of surprise and pain, followed by a flood of words in her native language.
“What happened?” Toby leaped to his feet.
“One of them bit her.” Zahir’s voice was shocked.
“I guess the rats are hungry, too,” Bianca called, her voice high-pitched and verging on hysterical.
“Stamp around,” Cezar called to her. “They’ll be more scared of you than you are of them.”
“Nae rats,” Brody said. “They’re nae ’fraid of anythin’ they can eat.”
Adele’s sobs rose again, louder and louder.
“She’s driving me crazy,” Moira shouted. “Adrien, shut yer sister up,”
There was no reply from Adrien.
“Adrien?” Toby pressed his hands against the door. “Are you all right?”
Still silence.
“The rat’s have eaten him!” Celeste cried.
“Don’t be stupid,” Ayla groaned. “He’s probably fallen asleep.”
“Not likely.” Toby kept his voice low. “Adrien, talk to me.”
Adele carried on screaming.
“Adrien…”
“I-I-I can’t!” Adrien’s voice. “Je ne paux pas.”
“Adrien…” Toby warned.
“He’s breaking,” Ayla breathed.
“Je veux sortir. Je veux rentrer … a la m-maison.” Suddenly he was shouting. “Je veux sortir! Laissez-moi sortir!”
“What’s he saying?” Arthur yelled, struggling to be heard over Adele’s howling and Adrien’s abrupt thumping.
“He’s hammering on his door.” Toby pressed his hands against his own. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Adele’s voice joined her twin’s. “Let us out!”
When Mother Hesper came for the twins, she brought a torch. The guttering flame drew the couples to their doors like moths.
Even though he didn’t want to see Adele and Adrien removed from their cells, Toby approached the heat and light. He stared at the flame and clutched his arms around himself. Would they all be forced to the altar and made to watch once more?
As Adele’s door opened she raced out of the cell and stopped before the blaze with a gasp of relief. Her whole body was shaking, she was pale and her sapphire eyes were bright red. She turned from the light only when Adrien flew from his own cell to wrap his arms around her. His hair was matted around his face, and Toby was horrified to see clumps of hair clinging to his fingers where he had been pulling it out.
Adele clung to her twin but then, as though struck, her knees collapsed.
Toby turned from the horror on her face.
“Let us go to the altar,” Mother Hesper said.
“No!” Adele staggered to her feet then raced past Mother Hesper towards the stairs. The sister allowed her to go.
Adrien looked up into her skull-like face. Calm had descended on him. “There’s nowhere to run?”
Mother Hesper shook her head and held out her arm. “Shall we?”
Adrien nodded as he looked after his twin. “Louer le Soleil.”
Toby heard a scream from above – Adele had been caught.