“He’s sick. I’m the medic. Let me through.”
Perhaps an hour had passed since Toby had been dumped on the floor of his old cell, unable to answer the shouts coming from his father down the corridor.
Finally his door was thrust open and Hideaki rushed in. “The silent attendants have placed Ayla on the beach to await the tide. She’ll be fine, so long as your shipmates are waiting as they promised,” he whispered. “When I last treated her we arranged a meeting point – your boat should be waiting to pick me up outside the maze. I’ll go there now and tell them to wait for you. There has to be a way to get you all there. I just need to think.” His face fell. “What happened, did your pills not work?”
Toby shook his head.
Hideaki frowned. “Strange. But the symptoms should wear off soon.” He lifted Toby’s eyelids one by one and checked his pupils, then pressed his paired fingers against his wrist. Toby’s pulse fluttered against the pressure.
Weakly Toby caught his hand. “You said pills,” he rasped. “You mean pill right? Just one pill.”
“No…” Hideaki said slowly. “Blue Death is a paired set: two pills. If you only took one…” He looked at Toby’s useless limbs. “It looks like you had the paralytic, but no respiratory depressor.”
Toby flopped backwards. Ayla had only given him a single pill … hadn’t she? She wouldn’t have betrayed him, not after all they had been through … would she? His heart began to calcify.
“My inverter,” he said. “Did you see what happened to it?”
Hideaki nodded. “Mother Hesper returned it to the Reliquary.”
Toby groaned. “Ayla’s is locked away with Simeon, ours is gone. This was all for nothing.”
Hideaki pressed a wet cloth against Toby’s forehead. “They’ll be coming for you as soon as I tell them you’re sufficiently recovered. I’ll hold off as long as possible, but you know they spy on these cells.” He leaned closer. “So don’t move if you can help it.”
Toby caught Hideaki’s sleeve. “If you can, get Simeon’s inverter from him. You can take it to the Phoenix when you’re picked up.”
Hideaki nodded and Toby closed his eyes. He imagined Ayla being rescued from the beach by Theo and felt ripped in two – part of him wanted her safe despite her betrayal.
Why had she done it? They had stolen an inverter for each of them; the Banshee would have ended up with exactly what they needed. Why not stick to the original plan?
Hideaki moved Toby’s arms and legs until they tingled. Life was returning to his body. He coughed and Hideaki held water to his lips. After a few sips, Toby felt up to raising his voice. “Captain?”
“Toby!” The reply was immediate. “Are you all right?”
“Save your voice,” Hideaki snapped. “Do you want them to know you’re better right now, or do you want a bit more time with your eyes?”
Toby clamped his lips together.
Hideaki gathered his things. “I’ll try and find a way to get you out of here. Just hold tight.”
The captain had given up shouting for Toby and the corridor was quiet apart from a monotonous thumping from Simeon’s cell. Toby pictured him hurling himself against the thick plastic door, over and over again, trying to break it down.
How long did they have before Mother Hesper came for him? He knew she would come before sundown, and time was rolling on.
Suddenly there was a thud against his cell door and it shuddered. Toby sat up.
“I’m getting you out.”
“Hideaki?” Toby whispered.
There was something wrong with Hideaki’s voice, it sounded thick and strained.
“Where’re the uncles?” Toby stood on wobbly legs.
“Drugged.” Hideaki pushed Toby’s door open and turned his back before Toby could see his face. “I’m going for your captain.”
Toby staggered to the doorjamb and leaned against it. The slanting light in the corridor told Toby it was afternoon – maybe three hours since midday.
Suddenly his father rushed towards him and wrapped him in his thick arms.
Simeon followed.
“At least we have the chance to get one inverter out of here,” Toby murmured. But the look on Simeon’s face petrified him. “What?”
“I don’t have an inverter.” Simeon didn’t meet his eye.
“Ayla gave it to you, I saw her.”
Simeon nodded. “She gave it to me. I don’t have it now.”
The captain loosened his hold on Toby. “Did you drop it during the fight?”
Simeon shook his head. “It was secure in my pouch. But—”
“I wasn’t dreaming.” Toby breathed. “It was Nell. She was right behind you.”
“Nell?” Barnaby asked.
Simeon hung his head. “She pickpocketed me…”
“Ayla set us up?” Even as he asked the question, Toby knew the answer.
“She used us all.” Hideaki stepped into a beam of light. His face was pale and his eyes red. He had been crying, screaming perhaps. “I’ve been to the meeting place. There’s no one there. She’s left me behind.”
Toby stared at the hem of his robe. “She promised on her sister’s grave that she wouldn’t betray me…” He tailed off.
“If the ship wasn’t at your meeting point,” Simeon said to Hideaki, “how are we going to get off this island?”
Toby looked at his father. “Where’s the Phoenix? Can we swim?”
The captain frowned. “Certainly not. We have two fools on board who already tried that. They’re half dead. Uma isn’t sure she can save them.”
“Cezar and Bianca,” Toby whispered. “They made it!”
“If you can call it that.” Simeon nodded. “Theo pulled them out of the bay. The girl was dragging the boy and they were going under when I spotted them. The last thing she said was your name, so we took them on board. They were both still out when we left this morning.”
“At least let’s get out of here,” the captain said. “Someone will be trawling the coast on Birdie, looking for us.”
“Unless Ayla told them you were dead,” Hideaki grunted.
“You want to give up?” Toby asked. “I’m not waiting around to lose my sight. The rear courtyard’s our best bet – we have to get over the wall and along the cliff.”
Simeon nodded. “Let me go first.” He strode past Toby to reach the bottom of the staircase.
“I knew you weren’t working alone, thief,” Mother Hesper announced as she stepped from the shadows. Uncles stood behind her. Simeon glanced at the captain, ready to fight, but the captain shook his head. There were too many of them and nowhere to go. “You tried to make a mockery of us. You tried to steal a holy relic. Worse, you seem willing to risk another cataclysm! I cannot imagine what you meant to achieve.” She looked at Hideaki. “And you, of all people, should know that there is always someone listening.”
Father Dahon moved into view at the top of the stairs, his pale eyes gleamed. “It’s time,” he said.
The captain stepped forwards. “I won’t let you blind my son.”
Father Dahon blinked. “Your son was chosen above all others to be the Sun. He will be converted through blindness – as I was … and as you will be.”