A sickening sensation churned in his gut, part disillusionment with his father, part helpless fury. ‘No, Dad, I’m not moving. You seem to have neglected to provide her with any representation so if it’s OK with Meri, I’ll stand for her.’ He stroked the back of her head. ‘Is that OK?’
‘Oh yes.’
‘Right then, let’s get this over with.’ Kel stood so that she had her back against his front, both facing the table of judges. His mind was working fast to find an angle that would convince them to let her go. He only had one argument he could think of instantly and that was as likely to piss them off as persuade them. Still… ‘The Perilous law says that Teans have to be destroyed because they’re dangerous to us, correct?’
‘No one is talking about destroying her,’ said Osun.
‘Some of you are thinking it but that’s not my point. She’s not dangerous and I can prove it.’ Kel whipped off his sweater and t-shirt. Spinning a surprised Meri around, he clamped her palms to her chest. ‘OK, Meri, do your thing.’
Every Perilous in the room took a shocked breath as he broke one of their most instinctive taboos: skin to skin contact with a Tean.
‘Kel, as much as I like you with your top off, this is hardly the place.’ Typically, Meri tried to protect him by making it a joke. ‘You’d better cover up, Ace.’
‘Kel, have you lost your mind!’ Jenny took several paces towards him, intending to pull her little brother to safety.
‘Stay back, Jenny. If she does hurt me, then I deserve it for stupidity, but I hoped you knew by now that I’m not stupid.’
‘This isn’t going to prove anything,’ said Ade.
‘Yeah it will.’ Kel smiled down into Meri’s green eyes. ‘You all may be hacked off with me but I’m guessing that most of you don’t want me to be burned to death. I’ve just handed Meri here the equivalent of a loaded gun. She could use the threat of hurting me to walk out of here with me as her hostage. Seems fair as you’ve taken three to use against her.’
‘We don’t know that she has the knowledge of how to use her power to kill you,’ said Rill. ‘You’re bluffing.’
‘I’m not and she could. Better than that: she’s got it under control and can make my markings appear without harming me. Go on, darling, show them. Make me flare.’
‘You sure?’ She sank her teeth into her lip.
‘They want a show; let’s give it to them.’
15
Meri couldn’t believe Kel was doing this. The reckless wonderful boy had managed to wrong foot the others and still make the invitation intimate. In fact, she’d felt the whole atmosphere shift the moment she’d seen him, like her own personal thunderstorm crackling and clearing the oppressive heat building up in the room. His courage could only be answered by her own.
‘OK, brace yourself.’ She pressed her hands flat against his chest, not closing her eyes this time but keeping them locked on the nearest markings so she could judge this to perfection. As ever when she touched him, she was terrified of harming him, afraid of the passion that could so easily flow freely between them, flooding him with too much power. As least with a hostile audience, she felt in less danger this time of forgetting herself. Pushing a little of her power into him, the lines where she was touching lit up first, then spread through the network under his skin.
Several onlookers screamed and Kel’s sister cried out: ‘Stop her! She’s killing him.’
Kel responded by rubbing Meri’s shoulder blades. ‘No, she’s not, Jen. She’s showing you how beautiful a Perilous and a Tean can be together. This is how we were always meant to be from the beginning.’
One by one the spirals emerged more brightly on his skin like a chain of beacons taking its signal to burn from the last one in the line.
‘That’s probably enough,’ said Meri. She’d taken it a little further than she had in the barge. It was tricky to keep back her power, like tipping water from a heavy can, so much more wanting to gush out.
‘That’s good, darling. Hold it there a second.’ He stood there, blazing proudly before her judges. ‘You can all see I’m not fighting, and I’m certainly not making love in front of you lot, but she’s able to bring my markings alive without hurting me. Teans have an amazing gift to give us. As Meri’s just showing us all, it doesn’t have to be a threat.’
‘And if she loses control, if she loses her temper, what then?’ asked Kel's father.
‘Then I do this.’ Meri lifted her hands and stepped back. Kel’s markings slowly faded. ‘I don’t know where you all got the idea I was some kind of murderous bitch out to fry you all.’
‘Ah. That is the central point of this hearing, Miss Marlowe. We got that notion from your parents.’ Kel’s dad stood up. ‘If I may, your majesty?’
Osun nodded. ‘Go ahead, commander.’
The mood shifted. Kel pulled his top down quickly over his head. ‘No, Dad, don’t.’
Meri could sense something really bad was about to happen, something that snuffed out her glimmer of hope that their demonstration had swung things her way. ‘What’s he doing? Kel, what’s going on?’
Using his hands as blinkers, Kel tried to turn her face towards him and away from his father. ‘Don’t watch this, Meri. You don’t need to see this.’
She shook him off. ‘See what?’
The screen flickered on to a grainy shot of a sunny day some fourteen years ago according to the date/time stamp.
‘I was there, you see,’ explained Rill. ‘So was Kel’s mother.’ Behind him a fight took place on a riverbank. A man and a woman threw a bundle about the size of a small child into the water then turned to repel their attackers. Each person they touched collapsed in agony, writhing on the ground as their markings burned and smoked. She could feel Kel shudder as one woman went down. Though the footage was poor quality, the pain was all too apparent. Two armed guards appeared. ‘That’s me—the one on the left. We took out the Teans but not before they killed five of ours, Kel’s mother included.’ Guns were fired and the couple were both hit, the man twice. Hand flailing to hold hand, they staggered away and over the edge, into the water. They didn’t resurface.
Meri felt sick, drained of everything but horror. She had never imagined, never allowed herself to think what those final moments were like. ‘You killed my parents.’
‘Yes. In self-defence.’
‘Don’t lie—not to me. You murdered them. I was there. I know what happened. We were just eating ice cream, having a day out, but you chased us—parents carrying a four-year-old child—you hunted us down like exterminators going after rats.’ She was shaking so hard she thought she might collapse.
‘Meri, please.’ Kel tried to hug her but she was too stiff with pain to allow herself to seek comfort. ‘Why did you show her that? She didn’t have to see.’
‘She did, Kelvin. She needs to understand what she represents to us.’ Kel’s father was relentless, just as he had been that day.
Meri gave a sobbing laugh. ‘Why am I here? What can I possibly have to say to you? You think I care now what my parents’ murderers think of me? Did you bring me here just so I could agree to my own execution, meaning you could all feel exonerated?’
‘Not execution,’ corrected Rill. ‘A kind of house arrest was what we had in mind.’
She dismissed him. She wanted nothing to do with her parents’ murderer. ‘Kel, did you know your father was there—that he shot my parents?’ she asked. ‘That my mum killed your mother?’
‘Yes, I did.’
She felt like she was tottering on the edge of a precipice. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
Kel looked desperate, eyes holding great oceans of pain to match hers. ‘I don’t know. I guess I was afraid what you would think of me.’
‘You should’ve told me.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Do you agree with your father? Do you think I should agree to house arrest?’ Please say no.
‘Absolutely not.’
‘OK
, OK.’ With his support, Meri felt she could breathe again. ‘Then there’s at least one decent Perilous left. Commander Douglas, I’m not walking into your prison. I’ve done nothing to deserve that, whereas you—I can’t believe I’m having to say this—you killed my entire family. If there’s any justice here and if anyone gets locked away, it should be you.’
‘You won’t accept house arrest?’ asked Rill.
‘No.’ Beside her, Kel sucked in a breath.
‘So you’re forcing us to more extreme measures?’ Rill looked to their so-called King Osun who was sitting grim-faced beside him.
‘I’m not forcing you to anything. You are choosing your own path. Me, I’m walking out. I’ve broken no law of this land and I don’t recognize your court. What you do to stop me is on your conscience.’
Osun cleared his throat. ‘And what about your guardian? Don’t you care what happens to him and his friends.’
Meri’s voice cracked a little. ‘Don’t you dare—don’t you dare act as if it’s my fault what you do. Of course I care but I can’t stop you. I’m trusting that your hatred only goes as far as a Tean, not three ordinary people who don’t even know what this is about.’
‘If you cooperate, then they have nothing to fear.’
‘If I cooperate I might as well be dead and none of them would forgive me for that.’
Ade rubbed his forehead wearily. ‘Meri—’
‘Meredith.’ She was damned if she was going to let Ade use her nickname. He had no right to that now.
Ade gave a humourless smile. ‘Miss Marlowe then, if we’re getting so formal. Please, you have to think about Kel. You are forcing him to choose between his family and you by taking this stance.’
‘He’s wrong, Meri. This isn’t about me,’ said Kel.
‘If you enter into an agreement with us, you’ll still be able to see him—we can sort something out.’
That was cruel: holding out the one thing that could tempt her to compromise. Meri looked round the room, not a friendly face in sight bar the one beside her. ‘I need to think. Give us a moment, will you? I need to talk to Kel.’ She waited until Lee and Tiber moved a little further away before pulling Kel’s head so his ear was at the level of her mouth. ‘How do we get out of this?’
‘I’m relieved you’re not insulting me by considering sacrificing yourself on my behalf.’ Kel caressed her cheek and shook his head, giving the onlookers the impression they were arguing about what to do. ‘Weak points in the room, the windows and the door at the far end. All exit to rear garden. Remember, the people standing behind members of Ade’s family are bodyguards, trained like me, so we have to avoid them. And we have to make sure Tiber and Lee don’t get a clear shot with the tasers.’
‘Understood.’ She nestled into his chest. ‘I guess that window is much closer. Throw my chair through it and we can jump.’
‘Then run straight to the far lefthand corner past the tennis court. There’s an old shed there. I’ll boost you onto the roof and we can get over the wall.’
‘And then?’
‘Run like the wind.’
She lifted her head and cradled his face in her hands. ‘What are our chances?’
‘Fair.’
‘That means appalling, doesn’t it?’
‘Cynic.’
‘Yeah, that’s me.’ Smiling despite the situation, Meri could feel her old self reasserting its presence after the shock of the footage showing her parents’ execution.
‘It’s a plan.’ Kel frowned, gaze searching the room for inspiration. ‘But first we’re going to need one heck of a distraction.’
‘I’ve got that covered.’ She surreptitiously took the remote for U-Can out of her pocket. ‘I had time on my hands so I read the manual and made some adjustments. Me big red button; you chair, OK?’
He kissed her. ‘Oh yeah, baby.’
They stepped apart, grinning like reckless fools. God, she loved him so much.
‘So, have you agreed?’ asked Ade. ‘You’ll go into house arrest for Kel’s sake?’
‘Kel and I always agree as we want what’s best for the other.’ Meri moved to the far side of U-Can as Kel edged behind her chair. ‘After careful consideration, our decision is this: we’re going into…freestyle!’ Pressing the remote, Meri ducked. U-Can began to spin and starfish in quick succession, whirling through the room in unpredictable circles.
‘What the—!’ exclaimed Ade as people began diving out of the way.
Kel heaved the chair through the window and jumped after it, Meri a fraction of second behind him. He cleared like a champion hurdler while she stumbled and went down on her hands, cutting her palms on shattered glass. Even so, she was up and running before she even registered the pain. Taking cover in the bushes at the rear of the garden, she found Kel crouched to give her a lift. Using his foot as a stirrup she let him boost her up on the shed roof. Tarred roof ground against her cuts but she bit her cheek and held out a hand to help Kel. No need: he managed to spring and grab the edge of the roof, hauling himself up by his own muscle power.
‘Go!’ he gasped.
Meri slid down the other side of the apex and carried on over the ivy covered wall. Her ankles felt the shock as she hit the ground. They had emerged into an alley that gave access to the backs of the mansions for garden services and rubbish collectors.
‘This way.’ Kel grabbed her wrist, mindful not to press her cuts. ‘The Common.’
That was a good idea: so much cover, so many exit points. Even if every Perilous from that room was searching for them, they still had a chance of escape. They ran down the alley, cut over the next street and took the first passageway that led towards the Common.
Kel suddenly threw himself down, dragging her with him, using the cover of a holly bush. Two cars streaked by.
‘Up!’ Kel pulled her to her feet and they started running again across the frozen ground. Thanks to the popularity of this area with joggers and dog walkers, their footprints were lost among many, leaving behind no easy way to track them through the churned snow. This time they didn’t stop until they were far into the Common and in a thickly wooded area.
‘OK, breather,’ said Kel.
Meri rested her hands on her knees, bent over, panting. ‘I really shouldn’t have cut P.E. for so many years.’
‘Hands?’ Kel checked her cuts. ‘We need to get to a chemist. Get something for those.’
‘Let’s get away first. You have a plan?’
‘Kind of making it up as I go along but I’m thinking we should keep to open ground. If we head north-west, we can go through Richmond Park to the Thames. I don’t think anyone will expect us to go that way. We can get to the river and take a water bus downstream—that’s going to be the most difficult part as they’ll be watching public transport.’
‘Is your phone on?’
‘Shit.’ He dug it out of his pocket and was about to turn it off but Meri stopped him.
‘It’s too late. Leave it on and wait a moment.’ Meri looked for possibilities, dismissing the mother pushing a baby along in a pram. Not fair to involve them. Turning the other way, she saw that they were on the verge of a golf course, a wide strip had been cleared of snow to allow the really keen golfers to practice. A man was having trouble getting his ball out of the rough, his bag of clubs standing a little way off. Taking the phone off Kel she sauntered over and dropped it into the top.
‘Get away from my clubs!’ barked the man, hurrying over to save his prized bag.
Meri held up empty hands. ‘Keep your hair on—just looking.’
‘Well don’t. Scram. This course isn’t open to the public.’
‘Excuse me for breathing.’ With a flounce, Meri turned her back and walked into the trees. The golfer headed off in the opposite direction, dragging his trolley behind him like an unwilling dog on a short lead.
‘Good thought,’ said Kel, ‘except neither of us has a phone now.’
Meri imagined what would happen when the
Perilous converged on the man on the fairway or back at the club house. With a temper like that, the golfer would probably call the police and his lawyers if anyone tried to empty his bag. She just hoped it would tie up Ade and the others for precious minutes. ‘Too risky to keep a mobile. The moment you switch it on someone can track you. Let’s get away from here before they work out what we did.’
Kel helped her over the fence surrounding the golf course. ‘It feels very 1980s to have no phone.’ Kel took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
She huddled down, grateful for the extra warmth. She’d escaped in the clothes they’d lent her, baggy tracksuit trousers and hoodie: not enough layers for a freezing January. ‘Welcome to how our grandparents used to live.’
‘Weird.’ He danced on the spot to keep warm. ‘How will we know which way to go without the map app?’
‘I guess we’ll have to be radical and look at the signposts.’ She tried to hand him back his coat but he refused.
‘I’ll only keep it for a little while until you get cold,’ she said.
‘I won’t get cold. I’m buzzing with adrenaline.’
Walking swiftly rather than running, they kept going north-west on the Common, cautiously crossed a main road on an overhead walkway, and entered Richmond Park through one of the ornate black gates with the royal crown. The first things Meri noticed inside the park was the tent city of homeless people stretched down an old avenue of oak trees. People were warming themselves around braziers and cooking over open fires. A Salvation Army van was handing out blankets.
‘Why don’t you get one of those?’ suggested Meri.
Kel joined the queue and snagged a brown checked rug that, with a quick stab of a penknife borrowed off one of the tent dwellers, he put over his head like poncho.
‘I don’t want to speak too soon, but I can’t see anyone following us,’ said Meri. ‘Do you think it’d be OK if I stopped for a moment at the shower block and washed my hands?’
‘I think we can risk that.’ Kel pulled up the hood to the sweater she was wearing. ‘But you need to understand that the Perilous have connections in law enforcement. They’ll be getting the CCTV feed and any drone coverage so we’ve still got to move quickly.’