Phoenix Burning (11 page)

Toby looked in his mug, he had a third left. Could he leave it?

Father Dahon spoke once more, as if Toby had asked the question aloud. “Drain it.”

Toby made himself look into the father’s empty eyes as he choked down the last of the gritty drink, then he tossed his mug on to the corrugated tabletop with a hollow clang. The mug rolled on its side, spilling a few final drops.

“Good.” Mother Hesper nodded. “You are all competitors for the place of Sun and Moon, and so will have to undergo certain challenges, or trials.”

The teens grew serious and still; the atmosphere chilled.

“The couples who lose each challenge will be removed from the group and will begin their roles as silent attendants. This will happen until there is only one couple left: the Sun and Moon.”

Toby caught Ayla’s eye. Maybe they should throw the competition. Perhaps it would be easier to search for the relics if they were not spending time doing these mysterious challenges. Attendants might have more freedom. As if she could sense his thoughts, Ayla shook her head. Determination flashed in her green eyes. She wanted to win.

“Now to the first challenge.” Mother Hesper smiled. “The Sun rises and falls each day and night, but one who truly loves the Orb will sit up, waiting; desiring nothing but its return. And so the first challenge is to remain awake
until midday tomorrow
. The first couple to fall asleep before the next ringing of the bells will be disqualified from the competition. If no couple sleeps, then the first individual to have slept will have doomed his or her pair to failure.”

“Wait.” Summer’s head snapped up. “But … you gave us alcohol.”

“Yes.” It was Father Dahon’s turn to smile. “Yes, we did.”

Now that Toby was unable to fall asleep it was all he could think about. The combination of rich food and strong wine made his eyelids feel like slamming porthole covers. Warmth spread through his body from his stomach and, as he looked around the tables, he saw that he was not the only one struggling to keep his head up.

“Toby!” Ayla’s voice snapped him out of it. “Get it together.”

Around him, the other teens were straightening up in response to Ayla’s warning.

Toby felt the fork tine still between his fingers. He jabbed his thigh with it and the sharp pain cleared the fog from behind his eyes.

Mother Hesper glowered at Ayla and stood. “Before you return to your cells, there is time for a tour of the Reliquary.”

Every one of the teens stood, relieved that they were
not being sent straight into the soporific darkness. Ayla nodded at Toby and he took a breath. They were about to find out if the inverters really were on the island.

Half staggering with the impact of the alcohol, Toby followed Mother Hesper and Father Dahon back into the main cathedral. Summer giggled suddenly from behind him and Arthur had to catch her when she stumbled on a step. Ayla closed her hand around Toby’s elbow. “Focus. This is a competition.”

“I’m not used to alcohol.”

“You only had one cup and you drank it slowly. It’ll wear off in a bit. In the meantime, just keep moving.”

“Lightweights,” Brody and Moira snorted as they shoved their way to the front through the giggling swaying crowd.

“I suppose you drink all the time.” Adele tossed her head, but Adrien had to catch her as the movement caused her to lose her balance.

“Aye,” Moira grinned. “Kills the bugs.”

“I feel sick,” Summer whispered as Toby stepped warily back into the main part of the cathedral.

“Line up.” Mother Hesper stood in front of the uncles, who remained silent and unmoving, their hands resting on their weapons. Toby and Ayla pushed past Brody to
reach the front of the queue.

“Behind this door is the Reliquary.” Mother Hesper gestured, but all Toby could see were the massive attendants, whose eyes seemed to see everything.

“You will touch nothing unless I give you permission. You are to look at each relic only long enough so that you would recognize another if you were to see it. If there are any brothers or sisters inside praying, you are not to disturb them. Understand?”

Toby nodded and Ayla’s grip tightened. He turned to see that her face was flushed and her breath shortened. She was not as unaffected by the drink as she had made out. He could actually tell she was excited.

Mother Hesper said something under her breath to the uncles and they stepped to one side revealing the door to the Reliquary, which was heavy and thick.

“It’s wood,” Ayla breathed.

“Wood so old it’s almost turned to stone.” Cezar limped forward and touched it. “Look, it’s black, like iron.”

Ayla nodded. “It wouldn’t have burned well. Maybe that’s why it was left.”

“It was left because of superstition.” Father Dahon’s voice wound between them and Toby flinched: his hearing was incredibly sharp. “Behind this door was the crypt. The Gozitans thought that if they removed the door, it would
release the souls of all those interred below.”

Lenka backed into Matus while Ayla just rolled her eyes. Toby found himself staring at the uncle on his left who glared at them from under thick, frowning brows.

Suddenly the uncle jerked towards Toby and opened his mouth, as if to say “boo”. Only a grunt emerged. Toby stumbled into Ayla, his heart hammering. Inside the uncle’s blackened mouth there had been no tongue.

Ayla pushed him off. “What’re you doing?” she hissed.

Toby shook his head. Maybe he was imagining things. This was what happened when you got drunk. He remembered Peel sobbing after a long night’s drinking and yelling at someone named Carla who wasn’t even there.

Toby’s head had started to thump. The sunlight spearing through the windows high above and glinting from all the gold was hurting his eyes. He wasn’t the only one. To his right Zahir had one arm over his face, while Leila had her head buried in the shoulder of her partner.

“It will be less bright inside. May we go in?” Uzuri was looking at Zahir with concern. “Zahir has an extreme sensitivity to light. His eyes are not like ours.”

Mother Hesper smiled as she regarded the albino boy. Then she took a large key from a pocket of her robe and unlocked the door. “Come then.” She waved them through.

It was dimmer inside, but not completely dark – small cross-shaped windows high up in the walls let light shine in.

Ayla pursed her lips as she looked up, but Toby dismissed the openings with a shake of his head. They were no good as a route into the Reliquary – even Summer wouldn’t fit through them.

Dirt-packed shelves lined the walls on either side of them. Although many of the skulls from the original crypt had been removed, leaving indents behind, several remained, grinning at Toby.

Summer squeaked as she found herself facing the sockets of a skull with clumps of hair still stuck to the bone.

“In here, please,” Mother Hesper said as she ducked under a lintel.

Toby was pushed from behind as the teens hurried to escape the chamber of skulls.

Inside the next room, to Summer’s obvious relief, the shelves had been cleaned. Each displayed different items.

“That’s a solar panel!” Cezar shook off Bianca’s hand and limped forwards. “I never saw one of those before. I thought they were all smashed!”

“
Cezar!
” Bianca was mortified.

Toby stared at his feet, terrified that one look at his
face would give away his knowledge.

Mother Hesper nodded. “We have collected a few but, yes, most were smashed.”

Uzuri raised one hand as if to touch the black silicon, then dropped it quickly when Mother Hesper glared at him.

There was no dust on the panel. Toby’s heart rose. “Someone must clean,” he whispered to Ayla.

“You’re right.”

Toby’s idea about becoming an attendant seemed more attractive to him by the minute. He brought his attention back to what Mother Hesper was saying.

“It is items like this that caused the apocalypse. Using the Sun’s gifts in such blasphemous ways, trapping its rays inside man-made machinery, treating it like a slave rather than the god that it is, no wonder it took its powers from us.”

“Ave Soleil,” Adele whispered.

“Praise the Sun,” Uzuri echoed and Biana raised her hand to make the sun sign, her nails glinting in the halflight.

Toby mirrored her. Lenka and Matus glowered at them all.

“And now, here.” Mother Hesper stopped in front of a set of shelves that glittered with jewellery inside glass cases. Every item depicted the sun: small sunburst earrings, torques in sunbeam shapes, tiaras that looked like rays,
crystal suns inside silver pendants, a silver ring with a smiling sun’s face on it. Beside this display was another, of jewellery designed with both the sun and moon. Usually the sun was gold, the moon silver, but some were brightly coloured, almost cartoonish, and in one pendant set apart from the others, the moon was asleep. Toby leaned close. Something about the moon’s slumbering face made Toby think that it was crying. He looked up to find Mother Hesper staring at him and quickly stepped sideways to peer at a bangle with a little dancing sun dangling from it.

“These must be worth a fortune.” Bianca’s nails ticked on the glass case as she lifted her hands to touch.

Mother Hesper sneered. “We do not care. Once placed inside the Reliquary, an item never leaves.”

Ayla’s hand closed around Toby’s forearm and he could feel the sweat on her palm. “Are those
real
diamonds?” She pointed to a ring in the centre.

Mother Hesper narrowed her eyes. “I believe so. As I said, the value does not matter, if it depicts the Sun, it belongs to the sanctuary.”

Ayla’s thoughtful hum gave Toby a shiver of concern.

“It will be easy enough for you to identify similar items as important.” Mother Hesper waved them onwards and Toby frowned at the next display. This too was in a glass box, but it contained little statues, some with the head of a
falcon, some little beetles.

The teens stared solemnly.

“Ah don’t get it,” Moira said eventually.

“These are Egyptian.” Mother Hesper pointed to a statue of a male figure. “The Sun god, Ra. The scarab beetle.” If you see anything like this, it too depicts the Sun.”

She moved along slightly to a statue of a woman wearing an elaborate headdress. “This is Hindu – another solar deity, Surya. Many items come to us from the old museums. Just because they do not show a picture of the Sun, does not mean that they do not belong to the Solar Order. Be ever vigilant. Now this…” She left the display case and pointed to the next shelf.

“What is it?” Leila leaned close to a thin box covered in numbered buttons.

“I’ve seen one.” Ayla spoke up, surprising Toby. “It’s a calculator – for working out sums.”

Cezar shoved his way to the front of the group. “I’ve heard of these.” His fingers hovered over them and the Sister slapped his hand away with horror on her face.

“Don’t touch. These are some of our most dangerous items. See the grey bar at the top of the plastic casing?”

Cezar nodded.

“Tiny solar panels. This item is solar powered.”

With a gasp, Bianca pulled Cezar back.

“But it’s so small.” Zahir tilted his head.

Mother Hesper nodded. “There were many of these once, but they were thrown into landfill once the Sun vanished – useless. Now they are usable once more and when people find them, they are tempted to take the first step towards the second cataclysm. If a pilgrim brings in anything like this, you must immediately hand it over to me.” She glowered at Ayla. “If only you had known to destroy the one you saw. Too late now.” She sighed regretfully and Ayla nodded as if in agreement.

The next area looked to Toby just like the jumble of spare clothing in the storeroom on the
Phoenix
.

“Each item blasphemously depicts the Sun.” Between two fingers Mother Hesper picked up a T-shirt with
Little Miss Sunshine
capering on the front. Then she dropped it. “You may touch these – look through so that you can see what I am talking about.”

Summer was first to reach in. She picked up a T-shirt that said
Sun’s out, guns out.
“What does that mean?”

Ayla picked up another that said
Sun, where rock and roll began.

Cezar’s said
Sun Gym.
Uzuri picked up a T-shirt that said
Blue sun
and stared at it.

Lenka gasped as she held up a bright red T-shirt that said
Hotter than the sun
. “Blasphemy.” She threw it to one side.

“You get the idea.” Mother Hesper drew them onwards and Toby’s eyes widened.

“You have books – paper. How?” He thought of Dee’s precious Atlas, the only real book he had ever seen. “Paper’s flammable. The books were burned in the Darkness.”

“Not all.” Mother Hesper sneered at the covers in front of her.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Empire of the Sun, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Sun Also Rises
. The bent covers seemed to strain with the force of wasted words bursting to escape.

Mother Hesper turned back to the teens. “If a pilgrim brings a book to you, do not attempt to read it.”

Brody shrugged, Moira with her. “Can’t read anyhow.”

Mother Hesper hummed. “Who among you
can
read?”

Toby glanced at Ayla and she gave the slightest shake of her head, silently warning him to remain quiet about any possible advantage. Finally Summer raised a hand. “I can and so can Arthur.”

Cezar, too, raised his. “I can read. Bianca only a little.”

Lenka nodded her head. “I read.”

“Adrien reads French.” Adele looked at her brother. “He learned from the gravestones.”

“I read,” Leila said eventually. “Noah doesn’t.”

“Is that everyone?” Mother Hesper looked suspisciously at Toby, but he spread his hands.

“What’s next?” Ayla asked.