Shine Light (5 page)

She lowered the spear and thrust it forward, parting the leaves. Markes lay underneath, his legs and half his torso invisible. He gripped the roots of a bush in a desperate embrace, arms and face showing the strain of holding on.

‘What is it?’ she hissed.

‘Something underneath,’ he gasped. ‘Pulling me down.’

‘What do you mean
underneath
?’

‘In the ground.’

‘A tunnel?’

A pained nod. ‘It’s got my legs.’

‘Hold on,’ said Naif. She dropped to her knees and began digging feverishly, gouging the soil with her fingers, scooping it aside. It crumbled under her efforts as though the ground was brittle.

Markes cried out as he suddenly sank lower.

Flashes of the sinkholes in Grave spurred her on. What if the ground completely gave way on them? ‘Hold
on
!’

Naif began to thrust the spear into the soil, stabbing the area close to his legs.

‘It’s loosening,’ whispered Markes. ‘Watch my legs.’

Naif dropped the makeshift weapon and scraped more furiously. Her hands burned with the friction. Soon she felt the slickness of blood. But she didn’t stop. When her fingers contacted his flesh, he cried out.

Feeling more carefully, she found a barbed tentacle curled around his upper thigh, hooked in tight. She didn’t know if the blood she could smell and feel was her own or his.

Using her fingertips to guide it, she edged the spear into the hole she’d made and angled it at the thick flesh of the Night Creature. As carefully as she could, she gave a quick, short stab at it.

The tentacle quivered. She attacked it again and again until it began to loosen its hold on Markes’s leg. As it retracted and turned its attention to her, she flipped the spear on its edge and sliced the tentacle.

The high-pitched whine of the Night Creatures filled her ears. Naif tried to block the sound out and kept cutting until the tentacle slid away.

Markes coughed and gasped. ‘I’m loose.’

Naif dropped her spear and grabbed Markes’s shoulders. It took all the strength she had to drag him out of the hole.

They lay side by side, spent, for a moment or so before Markes pushed himself upright.

He slipped off his shirt and tied it around his thigh to stem the blood flow.

With shaking hands, Naif retrieved her torch. It had almost burned out.

‘Your hands,’ said Markes. ‘Look at them.’

Naif glanced down briefly, then away. ‘We must get to the path before more Night Creatures come.’

‘Naif . . .’ He reached out. ‘Thank you.’

She shrugged. Didn’t he know she would do anything to save him?

‘Where’s Emilia?’ Markes said suddenly.

‘On the boulder.’

‘You shouldn’t have left her,’ he said accusingly. ‘You promised you’d care for her.’

‘But . . .’ Naif couldn’t speak for the anger that surged through her.

‘What if they’d hurt –’ He stood and swayed.

‘What if they’d killed
you?
Or what if they’d dragged you underground and turned you into something like them? Something like . . .’

‘Like me,’ said another voice.

Markes and Naif swivelled. Liam stood in the wavering torchlight; his tentacles wound around his spear, his hand holding an unlit torch.

‘No!’ said Naif. ‘I didn’t mean that.’

‘No matter,’ said Liam abruptly. He tilted the torch forward so that it caught light from Naif’s dwindling flame. ‘Torch low. Liam find people. Maybe know?’

Naif put aside her anger. Joel might be close. ‘Who? What do they look like?’ she asked.

‘Come.’ He sounded impatient and excited.

‘Markes is hurt,’ she said automatically.

‘I can walk,’ said Markes. ‘The bleeding has slowed. We can’t stay here.’

They climbed back to the path, where Emilia met them. She slipped her shoulder beneath Markes’s arm and took some of his weight. No one spoke as Liam led them on. Naif hurried after him, not bothering to look back again.

Ahead, she saw one of the huge iron braces that held the kar lines in place. It reminded her of the stanchions under Grave.

Liam headed straight for it and used it like a ladder to climb up to the station. Naif copied him and soon a sign became visible, swinging gently from posts planted at one end of the platform. Once on top, she waited to help Markes.

Not giving them a chance to rest, Liam veered around the edge to the high side.

‘Where are you going?’ whispered Naif as she caught up with him.

‘You see,’ he replied enigmatically.

Suki trusted him, she reminded herself. She must too.

When Emilia and Markes joined them, they left the station behind and followed a narrow, softly lit path until it ended abruptly at the foot of a rise. The undergrowth had been cleared away and the loose rock crunched underneath her feet. Liam put out his torch and motioned for them to do the same. Naif checked her pocket for the flint before she did, telling herself she could relight it quickly.

They stood in the dark, letting their eyes re-adjust, before Liam moved forward again.

He climbed up the small rise almost silently. Naif tried to emulate him, but her feet felt clumsy and tired. Behind her, Emilia and Markes made even more noise.

As they descended the other side, Naif saw a second rise before them, this one slightly higher.

Liam pointed. ‘Maybe friends.’

‘Are they familiar? Do you see Suki?’ asked Naif.

‘No Suki.
You
see,’ he said to Naif. ‘
You
stay.’ The latter was to Emilia and Markes.

Naif expected Markes to argue but he just nodded as if grateful to be able to stop and rest.

She stood but Liam pushed her down to the ground.

‘Belly,’ he insisted.

Naif wanted to ignore him but she knew he was right; practical, like Suki. She sank to her hands and knees and began to crawl. It took some time to get to the top of the next ridge, and her hands and knees were stinging and rubbed raw.

Ignoring the pain, she peered over the top. Nestled between the cradle of this ridge and the next one was a bare strip of ground lit by a perimeter of torches. Not naturally bare; the land had been cleared and scraped meticulously. At one end was a rock wall with cave openings. The other end was bordered by a prayer hutch and a rough retaining wall. It was a fortress of sorts.

In the middle were groups of young ones; some sitting, talking quietly, while others stacked what looked like armour and weapons on separate piles.

Naif strained her eyes looking for someone she recognised, the dark making the figures almost ethereal – and then she spotted Eve.

Her heart beat faster with a new rush of nervousness. How would the Cursed League react to her being back? Her presence had almost cost all of their lives at Danskoi.

Naif slid back down the ridge to the others.

‘I see Dark Eve. It’s the Cursed League.’

‘Thank fross!’ said Markes.

Liam sprang up, but this time it was Naif who placed the restraining hand on him. ‘Let me go first. They will know me.’

‘Be quick!’ said Markes.

She nodded. She knew what he meant; could feel it too. The Night Creatures wouldn’t take long to find them.

She rose and walked up the ridge, deliberately noisy, so the League would hear her coming. Halfway down the other side, hands gripped her from the dark and propelled her roughly down to the cleared ground.

She stumbled but managed to stay upright.

A torch was thrust in her face. ‘Who are you?’ demanded an angry voice.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked another.

‘I’m Naif,’ she said simply. ‘Sister of Clash.’

‘Naif is gone,’ one of them replied, twisting her arm high behind her back.

She knew how to avoid showing pain or weakness. ‘And now I have returned.’

‘Naif ?’

A familiar voice cut across the arguments of those who held her, and the small crowd that had gathered parted for a tall, heavy-set figure. Though they were not close, nor friends even, Naif was relieved to see Dark Eve.

‘Eve!’

With a fierce cuff the leader of the Cursed League knocked aside the guard who held Naif’s arm. He staggered and fell on his backside.

Some of those watching tittered, but Eve’s expression brooked no humour and they quickly fell silent.

‘Come!’ said Eve.

Naif held her hand up to stop her. ‘I have others with me. Markes and two more from Grave. We have information for you.’

She frowned. ‘Bring them in. Quickly. The Night Creatures are restless.’

Naif stepped closer to her and stood on her toes so she could speak in the tall girl’s ear. ‘I would warn you that one of them has been changed by the Ripers but he still is one of us.’

Eve stiffened. ‘Injured?’

‘His withdrawal failed and he was discarded. There are more like him on Grave living in the Old Harbour.’

‘Failed, Naif ? Speak plainly.’

‘It’s best if you see for yourself. But your people might be fearful of him. You have my word that he can be trusted. He knows Suki, from her home.’

‘Suki?’

Naif nodded and glanced around the camp. ‘Is she here? Is she all right?’

Eve studied Naif for a moment with narrow eyes. ‘Suki is with Clash. They will return here soon.’

Naif sagged with relief. Both her friend and her brother were safe. As safe as Ixion would allow.

‘Then I’ll call my friends. You tell your own.’

Eve gave a sharp whistle that brought the entire group running. Naif noticed some carried sharpening stones and others had weighted leather thongs looped around their wrists.

‘Attend me,’ said Eve. ‘Clash’s sister is back and she brings newcomers. They are with us. All of them.’ She gestured to the guards who’d brought Naif in. ‘Go with her.’

Curious faces watched in silence as Naif and the guards ascended the ridge.

Once at the top, Naif took one of the guards’ torches and waved it.

She held her breath, waiting for some sign. When there was none, her stomach pinched tight in fear. Had she been too long? Had the Night Creatures taken them?

‘Your friends have gone,’ said the guard who’d twisted her arm.

‘No!’ she said, waving the torch again.

The light caught movement and then shapes emerging from the bushes. She knew Markes straight away and half-ran, half-slid down the slope to meet them.

‘Come,’ she said. ‘Eve is there. Clash and Suki will be back soon.’

Markes pulled her to him in a quick hug then he and Emilia kept climbing. But Liam held back.

‘What is it?’ asked Naif.

‘Hurt me?’

‘No,’ she reassured him. ‘Eve knows we are friends.’

‘But this?’ He reached out one of his tentacles, curling it gently around her wrist.

‘I will explain to them,’ said Naif.

‘Suki?’ he asked.

She suddenly comprehended his hesitation. He was scared about how Suki would react to his changed appearance.

‘She will understand too. She is not here now. But soon will be.’

The suckers on his tentacles felt soft and moist as he shook her arm gently. ‘Sure you?’

‘Sure.’

He let go of her wrist and began to climb.

Naif followed him, hoping she was right. As she reached the rise, she looked back into the dark, remembering how it had been at Danskoi. Eve had launched flares into the sky and shown the mass of Night Creatures writhing in the dark. Was it like that around them now? How many watched and who did they report to? How long until Brand came for Eve’s people? And Lenoir. He must surely know she was back.

She turned and descended slowly. A circle of people surrounded Eve and her friends, but they made way so she could join them. Naif saw the hostile stares directed at Liam, and felt the tension.