The moment Zahir and Uzuri were led away, the teens rolled back from the fire as fast as they could.
It was only when Toby was gasping like a landed fish in the shade of the sanctuary wall, that he realized Ayla had not come with him. She remained ramrod straight and unmoving, the flame-light playing hypnotically over her face.
“Ayla.” Toby crawled back to her and touched her back gently. “It’s over.”
Slowly Ayla turned her head. She looked left and right, her eyes glazed. Then a slow smile lifted the corners of her lips.
“I beat them all.”
Toby nodded.
“Even you, Phoenix.”
“Yes.” Toby tugged at her collar. “Move away from the heat.”
Swaying, Ayla allowed Toby to pull her backwards, her legs pedalling as she retreated from the fire. Then she faced the others. Summer was a limp rag in Arthur’s arms, Bianca was vomiting on the sand, while Cezar rubbed her back. Brody and Moira leaned against one another in the shade of the high wall, breathing shallowly.
Ayla opened her mouth as though to say something, then she shook her head, shoved Toby to one side and ran.
Toby’s legs were jelly and he figured Ayla’s had to be worse, but he still couldn’t catch her. From the wall above, the weight of an uncle’s attention shifted towards them.
“Wait!”
“Go away!” Ayla barrelled around a corner.
“We’re not allowed beyond the rear courtyard. There’s nowhere to go and you’ll bring the uncles on us.”
“I just want to be alone.” She spun on her heel, beads clattering. “I can’t believe I let everyone see me like that.”
“They saw you win.”
She shook her head. “They saw me weak.” She dragged Toby’s shirt from her shoulder and shoved it back into his hands.
“Are you kidding?” Gingerly Toby eased the creased material on over his burned back. “Even when they were sure you were going to fail, you beat them.” He moved towards her carefully. “Now they know they’ve got no chance against us.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I do. Nell has made you so afraid of seeming weak, you can’t tell when you’re being brave any more.”
She shook her head violently, then sagged. “Everything will be different soon. I’ll be back with her – with Nell and … you’ll be with Barnaby.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means everything.” She wheeled around again and tried to lurch into a run. Toby caught her arm.
“You’ve forgiven me for betraying you, haven’t you?” Ayla whispered finally when she turned back to him.
Toby nodded. He had forgiven her, but he hadn’t forgotten.
“Why?”
Blindsided, Toby stammered his answer. “It was a complicated situation. I was wrong to pressure you to join our crew and we didn’t leave you much choice – I see that now.” He rubbed his elbow.
Ayla cleared her throat. “Would you forgive me again if I…”
“What are you saying?” Toby caught his breath.
“Nothing. It’s just … are we strong enough to get past anything? I don’t want to lose you.”
Toby exhaled. “You won’t.” He pulled her close. “We’re rock.”
Her tangled black hair smelled of smoke and her cheek against his was sticky with soot and sweat. As he tightened his arms around her, Ayla’s trembling slowed and eventually stopped.
She pushed him back and looked around swiftly – there was no one close by. “We have to get out of here. We’re down to the strongest couples. If we lose a challenge, there won’t be any chance to get those things out.”
Toby held a finger to his lips. He felt itchy, as though they were being overheard.
They stood in the shade cast by the giant bronze circle on the sanctuary roof. The glass-topped wall sliced into the horizon on their left and to the right was a recently constructed part of the sanctuary, all concrete and metal. A window was open above their heads. Toby pointed and Ayla nodded and walked further on.
Toby rubbed his stinging smoke-burned eyes. “You’re right,” he murmured.
Ayla shot a look at the wall.
“You’re not thinking of climbing that?” Toby’s mind raced – how would they get over the top without getting shredded?
Ayla snorted. “No. We get the things and –” she looked around again, lowering her voice until it was barely a whisper – “we take the pills now.”
“Now?” Toby swallowed. “Rahul’s waiting in Wren at the north side of the island. He won’t see us being dumped into the sea here.”
“It’ll be fine.” Ayla sounded confident. “No way your captain left you here without someone keeping an eye. Polly … or—”
“I haven’t seen her.” Toby pulled at a frayed edge on his trousers. “What really worries me is that we don’t know how they deal with their dead here. The original idea was to get the things out first, then ourselves. If we try and hide them in our pockets or something and then take the pills, who’ll stop them from stripping us before we get thrown over the cliff? We’ll be unconscious, helpless. If we do somehow manage to keep them hidden on our bodies, what if the rough salt knocks them out of our pockets and we lose them that way? It’s too risky.”
“It’s too risky to stay,” Ayla hissed. “We can tape them to us so they don’t float free in the salt. Hideaki can do it. He’ll be in charge of the dead.”
“How do you know?” Toby shook his head. “Hideaki deals with the sick and injured, the dead might go somewhere else. They could have a mortician.”
“Ashes.” Ayla clenched her fists.
“And you promised Hideaki you’d get him out. What if he betrays us when he realizes we’re leaving without him. Can you trust him not to do that?”
“Toby…” Ayla shook his elbows. “Stop thinking up problems. You and I should take our pills tonight, while we still can, while we have our tongues. It’s the best way, the only way.”
“It’s not,” Toby insisted. “You’ve already faced your worst fear. None of the other challenges will be a problem after this – what can they possibly do that would be worse than today?”
“I don’t know,” she murmured.
“Your plan is still good. We win the trials, we go to the festival, we hand the things to the captain, then we get out.”
“I don’t want to wait.” Ayla’s eyes pleaded.
Toby had never seen her like this. Everything in him rebelled against rejecting her plan. His own instinct was to get the hell out of Gozo and here she was, asking him to go. But it wasn’t safe. It wasn’t the plan.
“We have to wait,” he said sadly.
Ayla hung her head, then she shook him off and stepped backwards. “I’m going to tell them I need some pain relief from the infirmary. I’m going to see Hideaki.” She pushed her hair back over her shoulder. “I’m going to find out who deals with the dead.”
Toby slipped despondently into his cell. He wanted to check under his bed, to see if the inverter remained safe, but he didn’t dare. Nothing had been said, there had been no uproar. It hadn’t been found.
He lay staring at the ceiling, clenching his fists.
Then Ayla stood in his doorway, her shoulders hunched low. “They have a mortuary well away from the infirmary,” she said. “It leads directly out to the cliff edge. The silent attendants deal with the dead – it’s one of their ‘sacred mysteries’.” The breath burst out of her, as if she’d been punched. “They’ll find the things on us. We have to wait … or go over the wall.”
Toby sat and patted his mattress. He cut his eyes to the panel in his wall. Then, as Ayla collapsed beside him, he took his tine from his shirt sleeve and jammed it closed.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t want to risk anyone overhearing,” Toby whispered.
“There’s nothing more to say.” Ayla groaned. “This was my plan, and now I’ve got to see it through – stop acting like a whiny baby. End of.”
“What’s that, your mother’s voice?” Toby reached for her hand, but she didn’t let him take it.
“You think I should cry about this? How does that help?”
Toby dropped his hand.
Awkward silence stretched between them until Ayla snapped it. “I know what the next challenge is.”
Toby’s eyes widened. “How?” Then he nodded. “Hideaki.”
Ayla nodded. “He says it’s a maze.”
Toby quickly glanced down the corridor, even though he had already checked that everyone else was at lunch. “A test of intelligence then.” He found his eyes pinned to Cezar’s room. “Cezar will be our biggest problem.”
Ayla agreed. “I can take him out of the game.”
“Don’t!” Toby sometimes forgot how ruthless Ayla could be. “We only have to beat one other couple – there are still three more. If Cezar comes first, it won’t be a problem for us to come second.”
“Hideaki gave me some pointers. He doesn’t know the exact layout, but he said there are dangers. If we follow the sun sign with the short curved rays and avoid any route marked with barbed rays, we should avoid the most lethal traps.”
“Lethal traps?” Toby frowned. “They wouldn’t, would they?”
“I think these sun worshippers are sadists.”
Ayla closed her eyes. “Apparently we’ve got a day off tomorrow.”
“Thank the gods for that.” Toby leaned against the wall just as a rattling sounded from the wooden panel in his cell.
“Someone’s trying to listen!” Ayla hissed.
“Ashes.”
As angry voices sounded, Toby jolted to his feet, bent and pulled the broken tine from the hatch. He hid it quickly back in his sleeve and hurled himself back on his cot. He grabbed Ayla as he went down and half pinned her beneath him.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“Shut up.” He tangled his legs in hers, grabbed her hands and twined their fingers. Then he pinned her arms above her head and kissed her. Her lips were hot and cracked.
Toby’s pulse pounded in his ears. Ayla bit his lip and now he tasted blood as well. She was going to hit him as soon as her hands were free. He pulled back, licked his lip and then, suddenly she was kissing him. This was nothing like the last embrace they had shared on the Phoenix. This was hungry and desperate and filled with yearning and fire.
Shaking, he touched his tongue against her lips and she opened her mouth. Their bodies pressed so closely together that he could feel her heart racing against his chest.
“What are you doing?” The light was blotted out of his doorway and Toby rested his forehead on Ayla’s with a groan.
An older brother barged into his cell, strode to the wall and tore open the panel. His shoulders jerked in surprise as the wood moved smoothly back into the wall. He spun around and glowered at Toby.
“What did you do?”
“Huh?” Toby looked up. “Isn’t this allowed? No one said.”
“What’s going on?” Mother Hesper swept into the doorway.
“The brother here wanted to watch us steaming up the cell,” Ayla snapped. “He got frustrated when the panel was stuck. It must’ve warped or stiffened in the heat.”
“Well?” Mother Hesper tilted her head at the brother.
“It seems fine now.” The brother bent and demonstrated. Mother Hesper pursed her lips.
“It’s an offence to tamper with the workings of the sanctuary. The panel is here for your own protection. Should something happen, or should you become ill, this is how we know to get you help.”
“Of course.” Toby smiled innocently. “As I said, I never touched it. My hands have been busy elsewhere.” Ayla rolled her eyes.
“Get out and join the others.” Mother Hesper stood aside to let them pass. “Your behaviour isn’t appropriate.”
“But it isn’t forbidden, either?” Toby checked as they slid past, his hand still wrapped around Ayla’s.
Mother Hesper glowered. “Consider it disallowed.”
Toby bowed his head. “We’ll join the others then.”
The brother remained standing in Toby’s cell as they left. He swallowed, thinking of the inverter buried under his bed, but he had no choice but to climb the stairs and leave. As they opened the door Toby looked back – Mother Hesper was entering his cell.