Blue Dome (The Blue Dome Series) (30 page)

“Grab my arms!” Daden
shouted.

Bede snatched his right,
and Justin his left, as Daden lunged towards the window.

“You first!” he screamed
at Justin, turning him towards the sill as their feet left the ground. “Bede,
get ready to jump!”

The force of the momentum
was like a spring beneath Bede’s feet. He was seconds from vaulting through the
window when suddenly everything jolted to standstill.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Morana screamed.

Her fingers were hooked
into the back of Bede’s jumper, anchoring him to the floor.

“Let go!” he screamed.

“But you’re my stepson,
what sort of mother would that make me?” Morana gave a cruel, hard laugh, the
wind against her face sharpening her cheekbones.

High above, Bede could
hear fragments of Daden’s voice, the wind shattering the words before they
could reach him. He was now in the middle of a tug-of-war, his shoulder in
agony as it strained to stay in its socket. He gritted his teeth to block out
the pain, manoeuvring himself to face Morana. As he did, a gust of wind threw
her jacket from away her shoulder, revealing the handle of the carving knife
like a deadly secret. Bede didn’t have time to think. He grabbed the knife,
pulling it free of its sheath in a single movement.

“Give that back,” Morana
hissed.

“Sure thing,
mother
!”

Bede plunged the
needle-sharp knife into the fleshy upper part of Morana’s wing, pinning her securely
to the wall. Her clenched fingers gasped open in shock as a thick, green liquid
oozed down her arm, her howl following Bede out into the cold night air.

Morris was the heaviest
breather I’d ever heard. Seriously, the guy sounded like a freight truck
lumbering alongside me. Len wasn’t much better, but he was on the other side of
Calix so I couldn’t hear him as much. Now and then the pair of them would swap
goofy smiles, as if they’d just won the lottery.

“The big boss is going to
be pleased,” said Len.

“Yeah, I reckon he’ll
give us a pay rise, big time.” Morris glanced hopefully at
Stanley
, his face falling slightly when
Stanley
just shrugged.

“Maybe. It’s hard to tell
with him sometimes.”

I sneaked a sidelong
glance in Calix’s direction, smiling as she rolled her eyes – it seemed like
even Demarge’s own henchmen couldn’t work him out.

“What’s that, down there,
at the end of tunnel?” said Len.

I swivelled my eyes to
where Len was pointing. Frayed ends of light were penetrating the darkness in
silvery, misty swirls.

“Can’t wait to see the big
boss’s face,” Morris said, trying to bring the conversation back to the subject
of the pay rise.

But the moment had passed.
Stanley
was now staring at the
light spreading like smoke along the ceiling of the tunnel.

“That’s strange.” He
glanced at Len, then Morris, then back to Len. “Don’t you think? That light. It’s
strange.”

“Yeah, dunno boss,” said
Morris, trying to pretend he was interested. He was a useless actor. I figured
he was probably still thinking about the money and how he’d spend it – either a
sports car or a motorbike, whatever would impress his girlfriend more. Yeech,
now there was a gruesome thought, that someone like Morris would actually have
a girlfriend. I made a mental note to gross Calix out with that one later.

“I don’t reckon it’s
anything to worry about boss,” said Len, looking up at the ceiling. “Probably
just one of those things.”

“Just one of those
things? What does that even mean?” said
Stanley
irritably. “Do you actually think before you open that big gob of
yours?” Morris scowled as
Stanley
continued to frown at the light. “Something’s definitely not right,”
he said.

Calix and I exchanged
glances.
Stanley
had a point.
The smoky light had seemed strange enough when it had been creeping along the
ceiling like a fast-moving moss, but now it was starting to droop down into the
tunnel. It looked as if it was deliberately aiming for the middle of the train
tracks.

“C’mon, let’s hurry,”
said
Stanley
. “This place is
giving me the creeps.”

Morris jerked my arm and
I stumbled forward, just managing to catch myself before I fell over the
railway struts. The strange light had now settled on the tracks just ahead. I
watched it, waiting for the beam to spread, but for some reason it seemed
intent on staying put. Weirder still, it seemed to be solidifying. The light
was now such a deep, silvery colour that it was hard to see through it to the
blackness on the other side.

Len rubbed his eyes with
his spare fist.

“Man, this darkness is
doing something to my eyes,” he said. “That light looks like it’s got a face!”

“Well if your eyes are
playing tricks then so are mine, ’cos I can see it too,” said Morris.

“It looks like an Aeon,”
I muttered under my breath, not realising that
Stanley
could hear me.

“Don’t you dare mention
that word, girlie!”

His face was now just
centimetres from mine, and so red and sweaty that he looked like he was either
going to explode or melt. He drew a deep breath and was about to shout at me
again when something suddenly interrupted him.

“Let them go,” said a
voice.

Standing in the middle of
the tracks was a woman dressed in a long gold satin dress that shimmered like
liquid metal. She had perfectly straight, white-gold hair that hung to her
waist, and green hazel-flecked eyes. I recognised her instantly as the woman I had
seen in the Valley, who’d stopped Daden following me after I’d left the
Slipworld. She stepped towards us.

“You’re one of them,
aren’t you?” said
Stanley
.

“It depends what you mean,”
she replied. “If you’re referring to the Aeons, then yes, I am.”

Len and Morris shuffled on
their feet, looking anxiously to
Stanley
for guidance.

“What’s going on boss?”
said Morris.

“Do you want us to get
her?” asked Len.

“No, it’s okay, I’ve got
it covered,” said
Stanley
. I
could hear the nervousness in his voice. He turned to the woman with a
patronising smile.

“Look, I’d really like to
help you love, honestly, I would, but you’ve got to understand, I can’t let you
have them. My boss would make my life a nightmare.”

“That’s unfortunate, but
it’s not really my concern,” said the woman. “Now please, I’m asking you one
last time, let them go.”

“This chick ain’t getting
the message,” Morris muttered.
Stanley
ignored him, continuing to focus his attention on the woman.

“Surely we can come to
some arrangement?” he said obsequiously.

“This isn’t negotiable,
Stanley
.”

“Hang on, how do you know
my name?”

The woman ignored the
question. “I don’t want to hurt you or your friends. I just want the girls.”

“You’ll have to get them
off me first,”
Stanley
snarled.

Before Calix or I could
swerve out the way he grabbed each of us by our arms and began dragging us
backwards into the tunnel. Len and Morris stood dumbfounded, their mouths
gaping open and shut like fish. After a few seconds the penny finally dropped.

“Whoa, hang on!” shouted
Morris.

Len started lumbering
after us, followed closely behind by Morris, as Calix did her best to kick and
bite
Stanley
anywhere she
could. I joined in with my elbows, landing a satisfying blow to his ribs. He
grunted, then tightened his grip.

“Nice try, girls, but
you’ll have to do better than that.”

“Is that an invitation?”
said Calix, snapping at his wrist.

“Rabid bitch!”
Stanley
pulled his hand away just in time
to avoid Calix’s teeth.

Then, all of a sudden, a
blinding flash of white light filled the tunnel and I felt something dragging
me down like a dead weight. It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it
was actually
Stanley
– he’d
gone completely limp and had slumped to the ground. As the mist cleared and I
glanced around and saw that Len and Morris were also lying flat out on the
track. The woman in the gold dress was now standing directly in front of me and
Calix.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Freya. I’m a
friend of Min and Thomas’s. Now quickly, we must leave immediately. Those men
will not remain stunned forever.”

“Hang on a minute,” said
Calix, shaking her head and crossing her arms defiantly. “Some woman just sort
of drops out of the ceiling, gets into a beat up with a bunch of guys, then
expects me to follow her off to hell knows where? I don’t think so.”

“Calix, I know this is
all really,
really
weird, but trust me, we do need to follow her,” I
said.

“Are you completely
insane?” she said.

I sighed. “Yeah, maybe,
but the only way we’re going to get out of this is by doing what Freya says.”

Calix glared at me as she
tried to make up her mind what to do. Finally, she came to a decision. “Fine,
but you’d better be right,” she said. “And I’m not going without
Troy
.”

“Who’s
Troy
?” said Freya.

“He’s our friend,” I
said, pointing to the far wall. “Stanley and the others beat him up.”

“I see,” said Freya
solemnly. “That complicates things. I’m not strong enough to carry all three of
you.”

“You won’t need to then.
Like I said, I’m not going without him,” said Calix.

“It won’t come to that,
I’ll find a way,” said Freya, glancing at the three men lying on the track. “We
have half an hour at the most. If I carry your friend back to the Cathedral, do
you think you two can run there ahead of me? That way I can protect you if
these three wake up.”

Calix and I looked at
each other before both nodding.

“Yeah, we can do it,” I
said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. I was pretty sure that Calix
could do it, but I was a lot less sure about me. Now wasn’t a great time to
worry about my sporting ability though.

 “Just so long as you
make sure that
Troy
is safe,”
said Calix.

“I will,” said Freya,
“now start running. We’ll meet you again soon.”

Calix hesitated. I could
tell she still wasn’t sure whether or not to trust Freya. I put my hand on her
sleeve.

“I don’t think we’ve got
a lot of choice right now,” I said, trying to keep my voice as level as
possible.

As we ran past the men
lying on the track and plunged ourselves back into the darkness, I just hoped with
all my heart that my judgment was right.

Daden’s wings thrashed at
the clouds, his arms aching under the weight of the two boys. He could feel
himself slipping steadily closer to the roofs of the buildings below, but there
was nothing he could do about it. He was wilting fast. Daden fixed his eyes on
the bluish-grey dome, looming like a precious egg in the dark nest of the
horizon. He knew he had to get to the Cathedral, regardless of the voice in his
head that was begging him to stop. He had no choice.

Far below, the
Wiltsdown
River
coiled its way through a patchwork of lights, the water thick and
black like a frozen oil slick. Daden traced along it, watching as a barge moved
sluggishly under a bridge. The bow of the boat was just inching back into view as
he tilted right to change course, his shocked bundles squirming and digging their
fingernails deeper into his arms.

Daden began slowly circumnavigating
the Cathedral in huge, sweeping loops, spiralling closer and closer to the dome’s
pale blue skin. He knew that Demarge could be anywhere, a dark phantom lurking
in the shadows. At least at this stage, the balcony beneath the dome was
encouragingly still. Daden landed noiselessly, gently setting Justin and Bede on
their feet, as his wings melted seamlessly into his body.

“So far, so good,” he
said.

Bede looked at him with a
mix of squeamishness and indignation.

“For you, maybe. My stomach’s
all over the place.”

Justin was speechless and
a pale shade of green. He clung to the railing, swaying slightly.

“Are you all right?” said
Daden.

“I’ve been better,” said Justin,
his voice heavy with impending vomit.

“I know it is not ideal
but we have to hurry,” said Daden.

“Just give me five
seconds,” Justin pleaded.

“No, we can’t delay. Once
Demarge realises we’re here, our chances of returning to the Slipworld will evaporate.”

Justin scowled and edged
away from the railing, his legs wobbling as if he’d just walked off a boat. He
reached the door and clung to the frame, before following Bede inside. Daden
slid through behind them.

“We need to get to the
door on the other side of the Gallery,” he said.

Bede and Justin began
inching their way around the mezzanine floor of the Murmuring Gallery, rolling
the balls of their feet quietly over the marble. They had soon reached the top
of the creamy coloured steps, leading down to the main atrium.

“Careful,” said Daden.
“You need to count to the four hundredth and seventy- ninth step, then wait for
me there.”

Bede disappeared around
the first spiral, counting the steps to himself in his head.

“Now you,” Daden said to
Justin. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Justin stepped cautiously
towards the step, before pausing to glance back at Daden.

“I don’t want to do
this,” he said.

“Demarge can’t hurt you
this time. Not with me here,” Daden replied.

Justin smiled weakly and
began to descend the stairs.

***

Calix was just ahead of
me as we burst out of the tunnel and into the alleyway. It took me a couple of
seconds to work out exactly where we were. I scanned the skyline for the clock
tower, finding it to my distant left. The river had to be just beyond it, and
the Cathedral, just beyond that again, on the other side of
Beare
Bridge
. Calix and I glanced at each other, nodded, and began running in
the direction of the
Old Town Square
. I smiled to myself; we were getting pretty good at this mental
telepathy stuff.

We’d been running for
about ten minutes when it struck me, we had no idea where Freya was. I glanced
up, half expecting to see a large, fast moving object above us, but the
mauve-black sky was completely unruffled.

“Hey, wait up a minute,”
I said.

Calix wheeled around.
“What’s up?”

“It’s Freya. Have you
seen her?”

Calix shook her head.

“Nah, I was just
wondering that myself. If anything happens to
Troy
…” she trailed off, her face growing hard.

 “I’m sure he’s fine,” I
said quickly. Truth was, I had no idea. For the umpteenth time, I just hoped I
was right. “I guess all we can do is keep running.”

The full tide churned
beneath our feet as we pelted across the bridge. It made me shiver just looking
at it.

“I guess that’s the way
into to the church?” said Calix, pointing to the small pathway that Min, Thomas
and I had used when we’d first gone to the Cathedral.

I nodded.

“So how do we know that
Demarge isn’t there waiting for us?” said Calix.

“We don’t,” I said. “But
what else can we do? Freya’s told us to get to the Cathedral as fast as we
can.” I paused, remembering our other option. “There is another way in, but
it’s through an underground tunnel and up through the crypt. It’s more discreet
but it’ll take twice as long. Besides, Demarge already knows about it.” The memory
of almost becoming part of a sarcophagus explosion was still fresh in my mind.

“I guess we don’t have a
lot of options then,” said Calix.

We left the bridge and
began running up the path towards the wrought-iron gates, arriving to find that
they were wrapped in thick, iron chains.

“Looks like we’re going
to have to climb this fence,” said Calix.

I stepped back and ran my
eye from the foot of the gate to the top, pausing at the row of sharp,
man-eating iron spikes. I didn’t need to say a word.

“On second thoughts,
getting cut to bits doesn’t really do it for me,” said Calix.

“Maybe we can try and
break the chains?” I said, desperately looking around for a hefty chunk of
rock. But apart from a few twigs and an old summer sandal sticking out from
underneath a nearby bush, there was nothing that looked even remotely useful. Calix
and I were still foraging around when a voice interrupted us.

“You’ve made it here in
excellent time.”

I whipped around, just as
Freya was setting
Troy
down. He
was pretty wobbly on his feet and Calix ran to help him.

“Thank God you’re okay,”
she said.

Freya smiled wryly.
“Well, maybe not God.”

She turned to the padlock
and a handful of white-gold sparks shivered into the catch. It shattered instantly.
Freya then set upon the chains swaddling the gate, the links pop-popping open
as if they’d been made of plastic, not iron.

“How did you do that?” asked
Troy
.

“No time to explain,”
said Freya. “We need to get inside the Cathedral as fast as we can. Be careful
though, Demarge could be waiting for us.”

I shuddered at the
thought.

“C’mon!” Calix tugged at
my shirt, jerking me back to reality. We began running towards the door as
Troy
loped on ahead, his long legs easily outstripping
us. Freya was already there by the time we arrived.

“I’ll go first,” she said.
“Once I’ve made sure it’s safe I’ll call for you.” She pulled on the large
bronze handle and it gave way easily. Her face grew serious. “This is not a good
sign,” she said. “Demarge is obviously expecting guests.”

A slim shaft of light
spilt from the tiny crack in the door, cutting a line through the shadows at
our feet. I watched, amazed, as Freya quickly dissolved into a beam of gold
light and slid into the Cathedral. Seconds later, a thin finger curled its way
around the side of the door and beckoned us forward.
Troy
and I pulled the door open a bit wider and Calix crept in. Then it
was
Troy
’s turn. I took a deep
breath, exhaled slowly, and stepped onto the familiar mosaic star.

***

“Four hundred and
seventy-seven, four hundred and seventy-eight…” Bede was almost at the middle
step. “Four hundred and seventy-nine,” he whispered quietly to himself.

“What have we here? A
consummate mathematician?”

The voice, a mix of metal
and silk, made Bede’s blood freeze in his veins.

Demarge looked up at him
from the four hundredth and seventy-fifth step, his hands perched lightly on
his hips.

“Run!” Bede screamed.

Demarge stepped quickly
towards him. “A warning? Sweet, but utterly pointless,” he said.

Bede glared at the tall,
dark, silhouette as Daden and Justin rounded the corner behind him and stopped
abruptly.

“Justin?” said Demarge
with mock surprise. “So glad to see you back on your feet. Last time we met I think
you were experiencing a spot of back
trouble? How
are
you? Such a
shame we had to fall out over ‘artistic
differences’.”

Justin stared at Demarge
with a mix of loathing and fear but said nothing. Demarge smiled slyly.

“And Daden. We seem to go
for years and years without bumping into each other and then suddenly I see you
twice in one week. Such lively conversations too. We really ought to make more
of a habit of it.”

“As much as I enjoy your
witty repartee Demarge, we really need to be on our way,” said Daden.

“Be my guest,” Demarge
replied, ushering him forward. “I’ll just wait here and see to it that you have
a safe passage.”

Daden shook his head
wearily. “We’ve been through all this before Demarge; you won’t find the
entrance to the Slipworld through me.”

“Well now, that creates a
bit of a conundrum, doesn’t it,” said Demarge, “since neither of us is willing
to move. Still, I can understand your position. You don’t want unsavoury sorts
coming in, do you?” He laughed, pausing to listen to something stirring in the
stairwell below. “If I’m not mistaken, those are human voices I can hear,” he
said, arching his right eyebrow smugly.

“They won’t be alone,”
said Daden. “You will soon have two Aeons to contend with if you want to stop
us entering the Slipworld.”

“Scary,” said Demarge,
sarcastically.

The approaching footsteps
grew louder and louder. Bede threw a worried glance in Daden’s direction.

“That’s my sister,” he
whispered. “I can’t just let her walk into this without any warning.” Daden put
his hand on Bede’s shoulder.

“If we warn them now it
will simply split the group. Believe me, we have more chance of returning to
the Slipworld when there is at least one other Aeon to distract Demarge. Clare
will be okay. She’s with Freya, and between us we won’t let any harm come to
her, I promise.”

***

I had a bad feeling as I
climbed the stairs behind Freya. I couldn’t explain why, but something just
felt wrong. It was all so quiet.
Too
quiet. Still, I figured that Freya knew
what she was doing. I tried to edge the paranoia from my mind and just
concentrate on the steps in front of me. It was only when I rounded the next
spiral that I realised I hadn’t been paranoid at all.

“So, the rest of the
group arrives,” said Demarge. “Clare.” He said my name slowly, his voice
lingering on the single syllable. I could almost feel his eyes touching my
skin.

“Leave her alone!” I
heard a voice shout from somewhere higher up on the stairwell.

“Bede! Is that you?”

I tried to step forward,
but Freya pulled me back. Demarge smirked, his eyes boring into me, intense and
searching. I felt like a bug pinned to a specimen board.

“I’m glad you decided to
come back. I assume you’d like to apologise for rudely running away like that?”
Demarge gave me a sickening smile and I shuddered, tearing my eyes away. He
shifted his gaze to Freya. “You know she’s mine. I will have her.”

“Not while I’m here.” The
words fought their way through Freya’s gritted teeth. Demarge smiled
indulgently and turned his attention to Calix.

“So, the would-be snake
killer. You’ll be pleased to know that Arius has made a full recovery. Such a
shame the two of you got off to a bad start. I’m sure you’ll have another
opportunity to patch up your differences though.”

Calix gave Demarge one of
her killer scowls but he’d already moved on.

“That just leaves you,
doesn’t it
Troy
?”

“How do you know my
name?” said
Troy
.

“
Stanley
mentioned it in passing and I remembered. I’m good with names.”
Demarge tapped his temple theatrically. “Once they’re in here I
never
forget them.”

He leant back casually
against the wall and for the first time in weeks I could see my brother. He was
definitely skinnier than when I’d seen him last, but apart from that, he seemed
fine. I sighed with relief. It was only as my eyes then shifted sideways that I
felt a lump form in the pit of my stomach.