‘Thanks.’ Ade gave a mocking wave of his hand, indicating that they should go ahead into the mansion. Theo had worked out that their prison had to be somewhere in the heart of England—his money was on the Cotswolds—but there were no local landmarks to give away the location, just rolling hills and distant flocks of sheep. You could live here and not know that the world outside had been forever changed by the climate. It was too far inland to feel some of the worst impacts. The manor house was ancient, parts of it Tudor, the rest a relatively recent Victorian extension. Their compliance with their captivity had been ensured, however, by a very up-to-date surveillance system that monitored all exits, even the chimneys and roof, and several perimeter fences. Ade had given them the tour when he’d first delivered them here on New Year’s Day, stressing that resistance was futile.
And wasn’t that a red rag to a bull?
They went into the library, which during their incarceration had become their unofficial day room. Valerie took the sofa, kicked off her shoes and spread out so there was no space for anyone else. Saddiq lounged in the winged armchair by the fireplace, steepling his fingers like he was auditioning for the part of Sherlock Holmes. Theo chose to stand. Neither Ade nor Lee sat down.
‘We think we know where Meri is. She’s in southern Europe, either Spain or Portugal,’ said Ade.
‘Well, that really narrows it down,’ said Valerie, yawning.
‘We’ve known for some time that the Teans had a base in that part of the world but, with most of them gone, we’d assumed it had been abandoned.’
‘And don't assumptions just like to circle back and bite you on the bum,’ commented Valerie.
Lee shot her a poisonous look. ‘Quiet!’
‘Not in this lifetime, sugar.’ Valerie blew him a kiss.
‘If we could please keep the sniping to a minimum,’ said Ade, sounding like the grown up in a room of people older than him.
Valerie tapped her cheek. ‘Let me think about that a moment. Er, no, there’s no sniping minimum, not when you are keeping us prisoner, cupcake.’
‘He’s not cupcake to you,’ snarled Lee. He was making himself ridiculous but he always was on a short fuse around them. Theo suspected he hated this part of his job.
‘Oh, I don’t know: he’s got that red velvet vibe. Delicious. I could take a bite of that.’ Valerie smacked her lips. She loved to turn on the inappropriate cougar lady flirting to alarm her captors. Theo thought it a rather well chosen revenge.
Ade shook his head at Lee, warning him not to rise to the bait. ‘Moving on. We can get a little closer than that. Rumours put her in the southern part of Spain on the coast.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Theo, not expecting an answer, but to his surprise he got one.
‘The intelligence is based on the movements of the yacht that took her away from London. It’s made frequent stops but continued to head south. We’ve sent our people to track it through France where it called in but so far we have no confirmed sightings of Meri. We think she stayed on board until very recently. There was a sudden explosion of chatter on the web a couple of days ago. We think it was about her but we are only reading the metadata, not the messages themselves.’
Theo folded his arms. What was going on? Why the change in tone? ‘And you’re telling us this, why exactly?’
‘Because I don’t think you understand this situation at all. That’s our fault in part because we have kept you in the dark. I’ve got permission now from my uncle to explain so you get why we are so concerned.’
‘Go on.’ Theo was ready to disbelieve anything that came from this source but he was still interested in what story Ade would spin.
Ade leant on the mantelpiece, addressing the flames rather than the room. ‘Meri belongs to a people who have for many years been at war with mine.’
‘We got that much. Must be tough when one cartel steals a march on another. Must stick in your craw that Meri got away from you.’
‘Not a cartel. We aren’t drugs or people smugglers.’ Ade kicked a log, sending sparks flying. ‘We are two ancient races of people who have done much harm to each other over the centuries.’
‘What? Like Tutsi and Hutu?’ asked Valerie, referring to the catastrophic relationship between the people of Rwanda that had resulted in genocide in the last century.
‘Something along those lines.’ Ade gave her a mirthless smile. ‘But with a longer history.’
‘What do you call yourself?’ asked Theo, testing him. He knew one of the names at least from the warnings Meri’s parents had given him.
‘Perilous and Teans. I’m Perilous, so’s Lee and Kel; Meri’s Tean.’
‘How do you know?’ asked Saddiq, fascinated despite himself. ‘Forgive me, but to my eyes you look like you’re African in origin; Lee is white European. What do you have in common racially?’
‘Forget the surface—that doesn’t tell our story. Our genetic inheritance goes back way before recorded history. We’ve spread through every country, married into every racial grouping, but still at heart we know the truth about our Perilous inheritance, and that overrules all later loyalties.’
‘Talk about being brainwashed,’ murmured Saddiq.
‘Not brainwashed. It’s a fact of our physiology.’
‘What? You got webbed feet or something?’ asked Valerie, smirking.
‘Lee?’ Ade gave Lee a sign that had his companion stripping off his shirt.
‘Now that’s more like it,’ crowed Valerie. ‘Things are looking up, people.’
Saddiq pretended to cover his eyes. ‘Guys, guys, I really don't think we know each other well enough for this.’
Theo said nothing. He sensed he was on the verge of a revelation.
‘Lee, I need you to get battle-ready,’ ordered Ade.
‘Shouldn’t be too hard,’ said Lee with a dagger of a glance at Saddiq.
‘Not our guests.’ Ade sucker-punched him in the gut. ‘Sorry, but we can’t have them coming to harm.’
Good to know, thought Theo. But why exactly had Ade taken to beating up his friend?
Lee curled over with a grunt. ‘Fricking hell, Ade.’
‘Sorry, bro.’ Ade brought a knee up in Lee’s face. Ouch.
Just as Theo was about to intervene to say that watching them punch each other really wasn’t what he had in mind for this Tuesday morning’s entertainment, a change came over Lee’s bare back. Rosettes emerged like a glowing blotchy rash across his skin.
Valerie yelped in alarm. ‘He’s turning into a werewolf—werepanther—oh God, run!’
Ade waved her back into her seat. ‘He’s not turning into a were-anything. We call that pattern leopard spots. And that’s it—no shaggy coat and big teeth. We’re Perilous, not changelings.’ Ade handed his friend a bunch of tissues for his nosebleed from the box on the coffee table. ‘Thanks, Lee. You can stand down.’
Lee’s response was short and Anglo-Saxon, capped with a hiss of a ‘sir’. For the first time, Theo found something he liked about the guy.
‘Hang on,’ said Saddiq, ‘showing us this…is this the “we’ll have to shoot you if you tell anyone” kind of stuff?’
Lee chucked a bloodied wad of tissues in a waste bin. ‘Passed that point long ago, pal.’
Saddiq scowled. ‘I’m not your pal, kiddo.’
‘Fine. You being here, knowing about Ade, about Meredith Marlowe, is enough to put you under our watch for the rest of your lives. You really don’t want to find out what happens if you go bleating to the authorities.’
‘Righteous complaints are hardly bleating.’
‘Saddiq, this isn't getting us anywhere.’ Theo positioned himself between Saddiq and Lee. ‘Let’s just accept that we all exchanged threats and moved on. OK, you’ve got an impressive thing going on there with the skin. I’m pretty speechless—it’s far outside my frame of reference. You can all really do that?’
‘It shouldn’t be too far from what you know. You’ve lived with someone who can se
e the patterns without any of us entering the heightened stage like Lee did,’ said Ade as Lee pulled his shirt back over his head.
‘Right, so Meri can smoke you out. We all know she has exceptional vision.’ Some of the unexplained elements of the events of the last few months were starting to make sense. Meri had clearly seen these patterns before they found out who she was—that’s why she had run the first time. She’d hidden out with one of the eco-service teams until her path had crossed with Kel just before Christmas.
‘That’s more true than you know. She can also kill us.’
‘Whoa, back up a step.’
‘She can fricking fry us, like chips in hot oil,’ muttered Lee.
‘Too much. Nope, I can’t believe that.’ Theo shook his head. ‘This is going into weird enough territory without a dip into super-power fantasies.’
‘I don’t need you to believe it, I just need you to listen,’ said Ade, displaying no sign he was barking mad. He had to be, didn’t he? ‘She is a threat to us. We can’t let more like her run loose in the world because they will kill us when they find us—and they can see us coming before we can see them. One touch is all it takes.’
‘Jeez, what are we doing here?’ asked Theo, dropping his face in his hands. ‘Stop the crazy man’s carousel, I want to get off.’
‘Not an option,’ said Ade briskly. ‘My uncle, who is, as you’ve no doubt gathered, our leader, has agreed that you should hear all this because we think you’ll want to save Meri.’
‘Save her from what? We’ve already cheered her running away from you.’
‘Save her from the Teans. Meri is in far more danger from her own people than she is from us.’
Theo stood up straight. ‘Explain.’
‘We just wanted to stop her having any offspring with the same power. We’d’ve been happy for her to live her life out in peace as long as we knew we had her contained. The Teans and those who support them, they want her to begin the war all over again and they’ll use her, willing or not, to do so.’
‘You’re joking?’
‘I wish I were. So our interests coincide: you want to help her and we want to stop another war between our two races.’
‘Ever tried diplomacy?’ muttered Valerie.
Ade wheeled around. ‘Don’t you think we’ve tried every route over the centuries?’ For the first time he actually sounded angry, revealing he was far less calm than he appeared. ‘Don’t you make fun of something you don’t understand, Miss Johnson. We got out of slavery, sacrificing thousands of our lives in the struggle and I can tell you that the Teans were not happy to let us go. They chased us, hunted us, until we turned the tables and beat them at their own game.’
‘But Meri is different,’ said Valerie. ‘She would never hurt you.’
‘She might be, but the people around her aren’t. Can’t you understand that I speak not from my own experience but from the wisdom of centuries? I know how this will go. We’ve hoped before that there would be a new start—peace between our peoples—and yet it always unravels and goes back to war. Meri fell into my hands; I should’ve nipped this all in the bud then; now we face something much bigger, much worse. I've let my people down so badly.’
‘What exactly do you mean by “nipped in the bud”?’ asked Theo coolly.
‘I should’ve moved her out of London, brought her here.’
‘You planned this as her prison?’
‘Here, or somewhere like it. She was to be kept safe.’
‘Your idea of safe and mine are very different. Mine includes freedom. So how exactly do you think we can help you?’
‘We can’t get her out of a nest of Teans, no more than we’d survive a walk in a minefield: they’ll see us coming. But you can. She trusts you. Go there and bring her out.’
‘And I was born yesterday. Ade, wake up: I’m not doing your dirty work for you.’ Theo cast all acting up aside, trying to get through to the young man.
Ade’s expression was conflicted. Theo realized that Ade did care for Meri in his own way, it wasn't all bluster. However, he had signed up to a different set of priorities, ones Theo could never endorse. ‘Theo, I promise you that she won’t be harmed by the Perilous, not unless she attacks us first. We just ask that she doesn’t pass on her abilities to a new generation.’
Theo shook his head. ‘Uh-uh, no deal.’
‘Then stay here.’
‘How about you, Val: happy to spend another year or two at Camp Perilous?’
Valerie pretended she couldn’t care less. ‘Fine. It’s on his account, not mine. We get to live rent free in a mansion. Think of what I’m saving on utility bills. We’d be stupid to leave.’
‘Saddiq?’
‘Yeah, lap of luxury becomes a way of life after a time. I can cope.’ Saddiq kicked back in his chair, boots crossed at the ankles.
‘I’m not going to call your bluff,’ said Ade. ‘I’m just going to leave the door open and say you’d better go fetch her before something irreversible happens to her. I know my enemy. You’ll come to me asking for that deal when you discover what the Teans are capable of doing. If you leave her too long in their hands, she won’t be the same girl you once knew. If you want to rescue her from that, then we’ll be her only safe haven. Lee, let’s go.’ Ade strode out, followed by his righthand man. As promised, he left the door open.
Theo rubbed his arms to rid himself of goosebumps. ‘Did he mean that, folks? That we’re free to go?’
Valerie got up off the sofa. ‘Only one way to find out. Anyone got the money for a bus fare home?’
7
Taking a break from the dusty track he had been following, Kel sat on a boulder and took off his trainers. He had blisters on both heels and every step had been accompanied by a hiss of pain. He was hidden from unfriendly eyes by the rows of vines kept alive by a complicated irrigation system. It was switched off now, but he could see the hose snaking among the roots that kept the vineyard viable in the much hotter conditions of this half of the century. Each summer it baked under temperatures of forty-four or forty-five degrees, the extraordinary become ordinary. A shame the hose wasn’t switched on. He would kill for a drink of water even though it was a cool winter’s day. He’d drained his canteen several fields ago.
Where was he? He leaned back and looked up at the sky. Only a few vapour trails so he wasn’t near a large city and airport. His best guess was he was nearing the Loire Valley. He had headed north after being put ashore. Why that direction, he wasn’t certain, but it had felt right. Going south meant he was pursuing Meri and that was a bad idea until she had had a chance to establish herself with her people. He had believed the threats that he would be shot on sight if he tried to follow the yacht. He’d be dead and Meri would never be told what had happened to him. The Teans were past masters at duplicity. His current plan was to get somewhere safe where he could earn a living, reach out to comp-punk Sadie so she could message Meri, and leave Meri to decide the timing of their reunion.
If that happened.
Kel rubbed his eyes wearily. He had to believe it would happen one day. If he had to wait, then he would suck it up and do just that. He would be a latter-day Penelope at her loom while Meri was Odysseus trying to find her way back to him. Their love would survive. It had to or all their sacrifices were for nothing. He'd left the Perilous for her.
And then the sirens of doubt started singing—which was pretty apt seeing how they almost did for Odysseus and his crew. The voices struck up in his head that told him that Meri had a new life in which he had no part; that their love had been so quick to develop, it would be as fast to die; that she no longer needed him when she had a whole country waiting to serve her.
He pressed his knuckles into his eye-sockets. ‘Shut up! I really do not need you right now.’
The sirens shut their mouths but didn’t leave. He could feel them inside, sitting there on their rocks, waiting for another chance to unravel his faith in Meri and himself.
I think I’m going a bit crazy, he admitted. That or I’m dehydrated.
After a few more hours walking, he came to a river winding through a stony bed. He knelt down and drank deeply. The cold water was as good as a slap in the face, driving away the cobweb-feeling in his head. As he filled up his canteen, he decided to rest here before he went in search of something to eat. Good: he had a plan.
When he lay on his back on a patch of grass hidden by the leafless fronds of a willow tree, his body felt like it was still walking. For the first day, he’d been haunted by the sensation of being at sea. That had faded to be replaced by the steady pace of a long walk. He’d hitched a few rides, but mostly he had taken backroads. He had no need to hurry because he had no destination in mind. His journey was shaped by ‘things to avoid’: Teans, Perilous, and interest from the authorities what a person without any papers was doing wandering through their countryside. That was all very well while he could live lightly, passing through. Ben had pressed some money into his hand before he was taken off the yacht and that had bought him supplies to start with but funds were already running low. All he had in the world was a backpack with the barest essentials in terms of clothes, a penknife and toothbrush. He would have to reenter civilization soon.
And then he fell asleep, his exhaustion both mental and physical. When he woke up it was dark. He judged that it was the dark of a winter evening rather than late at night. He sat up carefully and reached for his canteen. A chill had settled in his bones after sleeping on the damp ground and the water now made his teeth ache, it was so cold.
A fire flickered on the bank two hundred metres away. Kel got to his feet and parted the willow fronds. Other travellers had arrived while he was out for the count. Fellow wanderers were sometimes good news: they were usually far better equipped than he. However, he had to be wary. With the mass movements of people across Europe, an underclass of those not granted asylum had developed. Rejected by the official states, they had become a loose-knit nation of their own, the No-Homers. In France, some of the No-Homers had become more like roving bands, taking what they could from the settled population. That was why Kel had to exercise great caution when walking. Many of the farmers in this region took aim at a stranger before asking questions and you couldn’t trust chance-met travellers.