Futile Flame (22 page)

‘Gold and jewels are easily obtainable,’ Ilura said. ‘But happiness is not. My tribe strives to survive, and we have for hundreds of years, though our world was dying until we found Lord Caesare.’

Startled, I looked at her. ‘What positive impact could he possibly have on your world?’

Ilura said nothing. I could barely even hear the movement of the river beside us.

‘I just wish to understand.’

Quietly she turned to me. A typhoon of stories and images whirled into my head. The Allucians were ancient, powerful but they were also very peaceful and they abhorred violence. Therefore, Caesare would never be allowed to hurt me. His behaviour the night before had been noted.

‘We cannot allow that,’ she said. ‘He will not be permitted to force himself on you. So be reassured, his goal is to win back your love.’

‘And if he can’t?’

Ilura’s expression remained closed. ‘He will.’

‘I’m tired,’ I replied. ‘I want to return to my chamber.’

In the evening Caesare stayed away. His absence, coupled with the eerie silence of the servants as they placed food before me in the dining room, made me feel increasingly nervous. It was as though I was in some luxurious prison. All my needs would be met. I would be fed, clothed, made comfortable, given everything except the one thing I wanted – my freedom.

I wandered the narrow corridors late at night, familiarising myself with the layout of my new domain, like a lion pacing his cage. It didn’t matter how many times I traversed each area it remained the same. There were no windows to see the outside world, no doors to escape through, and no one to talk to.

By morning I was exhausted. I stumbled my way back into the bedchamber, throwing myself onto the bed like a spoilt child. Even then sleep was a slow companion to arrive. Eventually when I drifted off it was only into a shallow slumber that was filled with vivid, violent dreams, all of my childhood.

Chapter 37 – Lucrezia’s Story

Six weeks later I knew every part of the mountain, even the areas that constantly changed and adapted to our needs. I realised that the garden itself rarely changed. If it did, it was as though I had merely been transported to another part of it as I wished, rather than an alteration of the main structure.

Within the mountain was a city. Here the Allucians lived, worked and died, although death among them was a rarity. I learnt from Ilura that they lived long and healthy lives.

‘But, surely that could be a problem,’ I said.

‘Potentially,’ Ilura replied. ‘However, births are even rarer.’

‘I see.’

‘Pregnancy among our women is an honour and has only become possible again since Lord Caesare joined us.’

‘Ah. So that is his duty then?’

Ilura laughed. ‘Of course not. It’s only that his presence among us helps us to survive.’

‘How?’

‘Lord Caesare saved us,’ she continued ignoring my question. ‘We were a dying people.’

She was beginning to sound like a fanatic, as though these words were some kind of mantra that they all learnt by rote. Caesare saved them, they were grateful, but further explanation of how never came. I questioned her further. Ilura grew silent and thoughtful, refusing to answer no matter how much I badgered her. She smiled instead, saying all would come clear in time. From this I gathered that the Allucians considered my brother’s presence a blessing and attributed their new fertility to him in some way.

Every day I spent time with Ilura. She was my only friend in an entire society of unique people. In these early weeks I saw little of Caesare during the daytime, but spent my evenings with him in the dining room, eating the delicious food provided by the Allucians. Caesare made no more attempts to seduce or coerce me into fulfilling his sexual needs, rather appeared content to just enjoy my company.

‘Come,’ Ilura said one afternoon. ‘I want to show you something.’

We were on the river and the boat took us to a gateway entrance I had never seen before. As the gate opened, the boat transformed into a carriage led by four small horses, the river became a road. We travelled leisurely through the citadel that I had so far not been permitted to see or visit.

It was a beautiful world. Houses cut into the rock rose up either side of the streets like modern high rises made of marble; house upon house stacked too high to see the tops. They reached up into the false sky, while the underworld sun shone down on the gleaming white of the structures. The streets were clean, white pavements, white streets. It was the realised dream of heaven. Pure.

The vacuum of sound in the city was eerie. Although the streets were busy, bustling even, rarely a sound could be heard; but then, the Allucians didn’t speak out loud. Their telepathy was silent unless meant for the person addressed. Occasionally they had an open sound when more people were included in the conversation. Caesare said that this only happened in social situations. At times the sound of all of them talking was, or could be, difficult to understand. It went straight into your mind and was not filtered or selective like our own hearing. It was the chatter of all of them talking at once that made it hard. Generally that never happened which made their speech patterns very different to our own. They never overlapped each other. Communication was ultimately very polite.

Free of the garden, free of the limited rooms I had been given access to, I felt suddenly light-hearted. We travelled for about half an hour, weaving in and out of street after street, each one a simulacrum of the other, until I was unsure whether this was all some elaborate illusion designed to confuse me. Then finally we drove up a curving driveway, to what seemed like nothing short of a palace.

White and imposing it reared above us like some bleached asylum. A shiver rippled down my spine. I knew I was on the cusp of some revelation.

‘Where are we?’ I asked.

Ilura smiled. ‘The nursery.’

She took my hand and led me from the carriage. ‘Don’t be afraid, Lucrezia. This is what you wanted to know about us.’

The coach pulled up alongside an imposing staircase and the driver jumped down quickly and opened the door for us. I followed Ilura out of the coach and up the steps to a huge white door. As we approached, the door swung open silently and we entered the nursery.

My first perception prickled up the back of my neck: the nursery looked like a palace converted into a hospital.

‘Yes,’ Ilura said. ‘Our nursery is a palace and a place of worship if you like. This is a very important building.’

I followed Ilura into a huge hallway, which was dominated by a daunting centre staircase. To my left and to my right I saw two long corridors that gave the illusion of stretching into infinity. I thought this some other Allucian trick. On each side of each corridor was a row of doors. I couldn’t study this longer as Ilura took my hand and led me up the staircase.

She paused for a moment halfway up and glanced ahead as though she could hear something. Of course she could; someone was talking to her.

‘The babies are excited to be having a visitor.’ She smiled finally. ‘Come.’

Instead of reassuring me, her smile gripped my stomach and nausea rushed into my gullet in a sickening wave. I let her lead me all the same. With every step we took upstairs I felt the strangest sensation, as though this new revelation would inevitably mean certain doom.

At the top of the stairs Ilura paused. She seemed to need to catch her breath, though she wasn’t breathing heavily. I could feel something too and I was sure it was what caused her to stop. The air was heavy. I took a moment to look around. Either side of the landing were similar corridors to those downstairs with the exception that I could see to the end of each. This made the nursery appear unbalanced. The world of the Allucians had its own rules of physical space and so I didn’t worry about the strangeness too much, merely noted it as something to consider at a later date.

By now Ilura had composed herself and she turned right, still holding my hand, and pulled me towards one of the corridors. The air looked clear but it felt wrong. Walking down the corridor gave me the sensation of walking through water; my feet dragged and felt heavy. It was almost like a dream. My limbs felt weighted. Every step closer to the door at the far end made the hair stand up on the nape of my neck. I didn’t want to reach the end of the corridor.

‘What is that?’ I asked Ilura finally.

She stopped and looked at me, a confused expression on her face.

‘That sensation. Is it a spell?’ I continued.

‘What sensation?’

Just as quickly as it had arrived, the feeling fled. I felt almost weightless in comparison.

‘It’s gone,’ I said.

Ilura stared at me for a moment. Her expression showed confusion yet her eyes held an element of something else. Maybe it was fear I saw skitter across her shiny pupils, but it was gone almost as soon as it had appeared.

‘You didn’t feel anything?’ I asked.

Ilura shrugged. ‘It’s this way.’

The babies lay in cots in one small dormitory. There were ten in all. Not a huge number for a society of thousands of people, although an exciting prospect for them none-the-less. They were each attended by an Allucian nurse who sat beside each cot, waiting silently. The nurses were eerily still. They sat with their hands on their laps. None of them looked at us. It was as if they were in their own unique little world.

‘What am I looking at?’

‘The Allucians have longevity, Lucrezia.’ Ilura smiled. ‘Some, like my father, have lived for centuries. But this has an impact on society. No new blood has been born to our people for over a hundred years...’

‘But... Ilura, that’s ridiculous, you’re only a young girl. And the little girl who brought me the first day was no more than twelve.’

Ilura smiled again. ‘I seem so, but I am over two hundred years old. And yes, the girl you saw has been the youngest member of our society for a very long time. But then, you understand that, Lucrezia, because you and Lord Caesare are immortal. Two hundred years is nothing to you.’

‘So, you’re immortal too?’

‘No. This is why it is so important that we continue to procreate. We were dying, Lucrezia No others were being born. We became infertile. Then we found Caesare, and it all changed. Within a short time of him living with us, ten women became pregnant. The number was unheard of. At first it seemed a coincidence and then we learnt that all of them had fed him at some time or other; by that I mean they had used their psychic energy to feed him the blood fruit.’

‘Fertility is the most potent magic,’ I murmured recalling one of Miranda’s lessons.

I looked down into the nearest cot. The baby was a perfectly formed Allucian, no more than three or four inches long. It smiled at me. Its knowing eyes were both horrifying and beautiful. The baby’s irises were pulsing liquid gold in colour. Something flicked behind those pupils.

Completely unlike the eyes of all the other Allucians I’d seen so far.

‘How unusual,’ I said.

‘Yes. Unique.’

‘So your babies have gold eyes?’

‘Not usually.’

I turned to stare at Ilura and her face was grave for the first time since we had met. I glanced back at the infant and shuddered. It smiled back at me with a malevolence that I would never have considered possible.

‘Is there anything else different about them?’ I asked, watching the creature crawl around his cot.

‘No, of course not,’ she laughed. ‘They are just babies.’

Then as if to prove her right the baby began to cry. As with all the Allucians it made no physical sound. Instead its face contorted as I watched. The nurse beside its cot responded immediately as though something had freed her from her catatonic state. She embraced the child, lifting it from the cot and took it from the room.

‘Feeding time,’ Ilura confirmed.

We left the nursery dormitory and Ilura led me to a ward of pregnant women. There were twenty more with child and each of the women, I noticed, had gold flecks in their eyes.

‘We’re evolving,’ Ilura explained. ‘And the council feels it is a good thing. This wonderful change has occurred because of Lord Caesare.’

‘Are you so certain this is good?’

‘Of course. No race can survive without adapting to their new world.’

But I wasn’t so sure that the change was so wonderful. I glanced back at the nursery door, felt the glint of golden pupils glaring into my shoulders. I shrugged. They were just babies and the door was now closed. So how could they possibly be watching me? My imagination was running away with me.

Outside once more, I stood looking up into the fake sky, breathing air that could not possibly be as clean and fresh as it smelled. I couldn’t help but fear the changes I had seen in my brother. He was more evil, yet somehow controlled it. He could no longer tolerate the sun. The evolution was working in both directions. I for one did not wish to be forced into the dark by my continued contact with the Allucians.

‘Ilura,’ I said panic rising in my chest. ‘Help me.’