Authors: Laura Powell
‘Wait here,’ Aiden told me, ‘while I go get the car.’
Leto had brought me a small overnight bag, as well as an oversized hooded sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms. In silence, I pulled them over my ridiculous costume, while she stuffed my mantle and garland into the skip. I knew the old priestess had taken a huge risk. I had so much I wanted to say to her, so many questions to ask. Yet I was so dazed I hardly knew how to start.
‘Leto . . . if Aiden hadn’t been there to help . . . what would have happened to me?’
‘A wedding night,’ she said brusquely. ‘Of sorts. Between the council and the cult. Isn’t it the usual remedy for troublesome girls? Find a man to put ’em in their place.’
I felt a wave of nausea. ‘How – how –?’
‘
Obviously
there’s nothing like it in the true ritual. That would be an abomination.’ She screwed up her face. ‘Mind you, I doubt Opis was the first to think of it – the Trinovantum Council has a history of getting a bit too close to pretty priestesses.’
I thought of pretty Cynthia – how she tried to run away after becoming a priestess and hadn’t been the same since. I thought of Cally’s strange attempt at confession.
‘Cally –’
‘Callisto’s deluded enough to fancy she’s in love. She and Seb Winter will make a fine power-couple, just like Opis and Lionel before them. The girl’s been groomed for stardom and she knows it. Don’t you worry about her.’
I kept silent.
‘Where’s that boy got to?’ Leto muttered. ‘Flighty. That’s his problem.
Both
of your problems. I told you not to cause trouble, didn’t I?’ she said, suddenly angry again. ‘I warned you. And you never listened.’
‘I had to speak the truth. I – I had no choice.’
‘Hah. Such a meek little thing, you were. Nothing but milk and water in your veins. But you’ve a stubborn streak after all. A rebel spark. Just like your m–’
Her mouth abruptly clamped shut.
‘What do you mean? Do you – did you – know my mother?’
She didn’t answer. She didn’t look at me either.
All the breath seemed to leave my body. ‘Leto . . . was my mother . . . a priestess too?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she mumbled. ‘She’s dead and gone, poor girl. Leave the dead alone.’
‘Then . . . who was my father?’
She looked up, eyes glinting. ‘Trouble, that’s who. And see,’ she said with evident relief, ‘here’s your knight in shining armour. It’s time to go.’
‘Leto –’
‘
Go.
Before her Honoured Ladyship and Lionel come looking.’
She practically bundled me into the back seat of Aiden’s beaten-up car. I tried to ask more questions but she was suddenly deaf. The car’s engine was running and Aiden was tapping his hands impatiently on the wheel. ‘What about you?’ I managed to get out.
‘What if Opis discovers you helped me?’
‘Hmph. I know how to look after myself – which is more than can be said for you.’
With that, the old priestess slammed the door shut and shuffled away into the night. Aiden wasted no time in driving off.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Somewhere you’ll be safe. Somewhere people will listen to you.’
He attempted a reassuring smile but his face was tense.
My shock was ebbing way, to be replaced by a hot and bloody rage. And, in spite of myself, the ache of bereavement. I had been betrayed by the only family I’d ever had, in the heart of the only home I’d ever known.
It wasn’t just the horrors of the crypt. Leto’s revelation was a different kind of betrayal: it exposed the fact that most of the people I’d grown up with had lied about who I was. I wasn’t an anonymous orphan; I was the daughter of a priestess. In which case . . . could my father be one of those fat old Trinovantum Councillors I’d made chit-chat with over canapés? My skin crawled.
I had one comfort, however: nobody would be able to lie to me ever again. I had the power and authority of the oracle. I would broadcast the truth to the world. I would take revenge on the cult for myself and the goddess, and all the other people it had exploited and deceived. I would –
The car screeched to a halt. Aiden swore. I jolted upright, heart jumping. Had we been caught already?
But no – Aiden had braked because an animal was standing in front of us in the otherwise deserted road. In the glow of the headlights, it looked huge. A silver wolf with burning black eyes, staring right at us.
I screwed up my eyes, and when I looked again gave a hiccupy laugh of relief.
‘Argos! He must have snuck out from the Sanctuary. Perhaps Leto left the gate open.’
Aiden stuck his head out of the window. ‘Shoo! Go home! Bad dog!’
Argos didn’t move. He raised his head, gave a low howl. The back of my neck tingled.
‘He’s coming with us,’ I said.
‘What? No, wait –’
Before Aiden could stop me or I could think better of it, I scrambled out of the car. Argos immediately trotted over. I opened the door to the back seat and he jumped in, with a little grunt of contentment. I squeezed in next to him.
Muttering, Aiden drove on. I leaned against the dog’s warm furry bulk and closed my eyes. He nudged my cheek with his nose, huffing gently. I remembered the hunt in the golden wood. I remembered the hounds snapping at my heels. I knew why Argos had been sent to me. It was a sign of favour, but also a warning.
Maybe I could outrun Opis. I couldn’t outrun the goddess.
As he drove, Aiden filled me in on how he’d come to rescue me, talking quickly and nervously to fill the silence. I didn’t take much in. Later, I got the story in full.
The morning after I’d given the oracle, Leto had telephoned Aiden to say that I was in serious trouble and needed somebody on the inside of the Trinovantum Council who would be able to look out for me. Almost immediately afterwards, he was summoned to a meeting with both Opis and Lionel, where they offered to make his community service and police record ‘go away’ if he’d cooperate with the cult.
‘I’ve always been curious about what the cult and council get up to behind the scenes. So I also asked to be elected to the Trinovantum. Dear old Dad was so pleased his prodigal son had seen the light that he sealed the deal with a hefty donation.’
Though Aiden didn’t make it explicit, it seemed the cash had also helped secure his place at my initiation. Leto had told him what might happen there too.
Aiden then explained how the smoke I’d inhaled had probably come from the same mix of laurel leaves and other opiates that Opis used to ‘get in the mood’ for the oracle, and it was the drugged wine that had had the most toxic effect. He’d got the anti-hallucinogenic pill off a friend of his who did some dealing on the side.
Aiden kept glancing at me in the mirror. I avoided his eye. I felt an overpowering mix of gratitude for his rescue of me and humiliation that he’d seen me in such a state, out of control of my own body and mind.
‘I’m really sorry you had to go through that,’ he said abruptly and, I thought, uncomfortably. ‘It was . . . horrible.’
I realised he was embarrassed too.
‘Thank you.’ I had no other words. I was trying not to wonder what his instructions had been. I didn’t want to think of that room – the high wooden bed, the painted forest – ever again.
Instead, I stared mindlessly out of the window. It was a damp night and the roads were oily with rain. There was hardly any traffic about and just a few lost souls huddled in doorways or weaved unsteadily through the puddles.
‘I’m taking you to a safe house,’ Aiden said. ‘It’s a retreat for people who aren’t happy with the system, or need to keep their heads down for a while.’
‘How do you know them?’
‘I got into activism at school. Mostly to piss off my dad, if I’m honest. I’d wind him up over dinner with grand socialist theories. But the more I learned about what was going on in the world, the more I realised I had to do more than just whinge about stuff. So I joined some groups, went on demos. One thing led to another, I guess.’
‘Your friends will let me join them?’
‘They’re expecting you. Leto and I weren’t the only witnesses to your oracle. There were other people in the shopping centre, remember. Most couldn’t see or hear you properly, and didn’t know what was going on. But enough people were there for word to get out – word that contradicted the official oracle, that is. I think the Trinovantum Council bought off or intimidated the other witnesses. But one woman refused. She’s in hiding too.’
Aiden turned the car into a wide residential street and swore. ‘Crap. There’s a checkpoint.’
‘Is it . . . is it the cult?’
‘Unlikely. I was meant to leave the temple at five, and nobody was supposed to check on us before then. But even if they did, or if Leto got caught, I don’t reckon they could get organised so quickly.’
The way was blocked by a simple
STOP
sign flanked by two men in slim-fitting blue uniforms and flat peaked caps. Another car was slowing down ahead of us, which gave us a little time.
As if he knew he needed to be as inconspicuous as possible, Argos curled himself up and tucked his head into his paws. I pretended to be asleep too, pulling my hood down to shadow my face.
Aiden’s driving licence was requested. The light of a torch swung into the car. ‘What are you doing out so late?’ one of the men asked.
‘My sister was at a party across town and asked me to pick her up,’ Aiden replied, copying the man’s bored tone.
‘Nice dog,’ the other one said.
They waved us on.
As soon as we were out of sight, Aiden grimaced. ‘They’ll remember us, as soon as people start looking for you officially. Argos isn’t exactly easy to miss.’ He laughed shortly. ‘Not only have I seduced a priestess away from the cult, I’ve kidnapped the High Priestess’s dog. Bloody hell.’
I pulled at my lower lip anxiously. ‘So what were those men after?’
‘Anything or anyone they don’t like the look of. Checkpoints are increasingly common these days. After the anarchist bombing campaign in the City, the home secretary pushed through legislation to establish a new Civil Guard. They’re basically military police.’
I felt such a child. I’d probably heard a news item about the Civil Guard, and ignored it. I never imagined that this sort of stuff could have anything to do with me.
‘A lot of activists will be inspired by your oracle,’ Aiden said. ‘Especially once they find out how the authorities tried to suppress it. It’s obvious Opis and Lionel are running a scam, cooking up false prophecies to fit their own agenda. It’s important that people hear it from you.’
Leto had called Aiden my knight in shining armour but this wasn’t a romantic rescue. It was a practical one. He needed to recruit me to his cause. And I needed him too, if I was to get my revenge.
Just as the sky began to lighten, Aiden pulled into a large council estate and parked outside a row of shops. He was worried his car could be used to trace us, and so we walked for nearly an hour until we reached a run-down high street not unlike the one where Leto and I had been caught up in the gang battle. Our destination was a boarded-up library. A hole had been cut in the chain-link fence that surrounded the muddy back yard.
Before I ducked through the fence I rummaged in Leto’s bag, and pulled out the veil she’d packed me.
‘What are you doing?’ Aiden asked as I started to pin it over my hair.
‘I’m going to be among strangers. I have to cover myself.’
‘But,’ he said with heavy patience, ‘these people are on your side. They’ll want to see you. The real you.’
‘To gawp at me, you mean.’
‘Aura, it’s not natural for women – for anyone – to cover their faces. It’s repression.’
‘Not if it’s my choice.’
He made an exasperated sound and went ahead to knock at a small peeling door.
It was a long time before it opened. A white man with dreadlocks squinted through the crack.
‘You didn’t say nothing about a dog.’
Aiden shrugged an apology. ‘He’s house-trained.’
‘Any trouble along the way?’
‘A checkpoint. Couldn’t be helped.’
‘OK. You’d better come in.’
Argos stuck close to my side, ears pricked, eyes watchful, as we followed our guide into a large basement. The two small windows had been covered with pinned-up cloth, so it was hard to make out the group of people sprawled on cushions on the floor. There was a thick herbal smell that reminded me of the burning laurel leaves, and was combined with body odour and cooking smells. Silence fell as soon as we came through the door.
Aiden cleared his throat. ‘Hi, everyone. This is Aura. She’s left – escaped – the Cult of Artemis.’
A woman darted forward. She touched her hand to her brow.
‘Honoured Lady!’
I shrank back. The title didn’t feel like it belonged to me. Not yet.
‘I saw you,’ she said breathlessly, staring into my eyes. ‘In the shopping centre. I was at the foot of the escalator – I heard it all. I felt the goddess’s presence . . . all around like . . . like a dark light!’