recoiled from the large sword strapped to his hips.
‘Ret? What’re you talking about?’ he asked. ‘And what’re you doing here?’
She tried to quickly order things in her mind to tell him, but it came out in a desperate rushed whisper. ‘Suki said that … Rollo thought I’d been taken by the Ripers to Danskoi. He’s joined your League and I thought he’d convinced you to come after me …’
Naif became aware of all the Leaguers’ eyes upon her now – not the dark.
Joel swore and stood up. He hauled Naif out of the circle and half-dragged her up the last segment of the path towards the cathedral.
Eve joined them.
‘We’re not here because of you, you stupid idiot,’ said Joel. ‘We’ve got our own plans and you’re not part of them. I told you to stay away – stay with Charlonge.’
‘But Charlonge is here to –’
‘What?’ He swirled and stared back at the others, now herded into the middle of the circle. When he saw Charlonge his expression changed. Naif knew her brother. He was furious and yet … pleased.
Eve saw it too and frowned.
Joel turned back to Naif and grabbed her shoulders. ‘You have to go back down the mountain. Take Charlonge with you.’
‘No,’ said Naif. She shook off his hands. ‘I came to Ixion on my own and have lived that way without any help from you. You can’t just tell me what to do anymore.’
Joel’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘But I always have.’
Naif straightened. ‘I’ve always done what everyone told me to do before. Father, the warden, even you. Not anymore, Joel.’
‘They can’t leave anyway,’ Eve intervened. ‘The scouts say we’re surrounded and I’ve only got a few flares left. We go in, and what will be, will be.’
‘Surrounded? By the Night Creatures?’
Joel and Eve locked gazes and Eve nodded slowly. ‘She might as well know, Joel. She’s in it now whether she likes it or not.’
‘We’ve been watching Danskoi for a while,’ said Joel. ‘The Ripers are spending a lot of time up here. And outside it the place is crawling with Night Creatures. The time is right to find out now while the Ripers are distracted.’
‘Not just distracted,’ said Naif. ‘I’ve come from the Dominion. They never even voted about Ruzalia. Markes and I escaped when they started fighting.’
‘The Ripers fighting?’ Eve’s face came alive.
Naif nodded, swallowing. ‘Tearing at each other like beasts. Brand and Modai against Lenoir and Test.’
Joel glanced over at Charlonge, Suki and Markes. ‘Markes was with you. Is he the musician? The new Circle member?’
Naif nodded. ‘They had him chained to the floor in the Dominion. They planned to use him and Charlonge to lure Ruzalia. They say she covets artists as well as over-agers.’
‘And you freed him?’ asked Eve.
‘After the fighting broke out, no one noticed us.’
‘Why didn’t they vote?’ Eve glanced around as if sensing something again. ‘Tell us. Quickly.’
Naif felt her urgency; it was as if the oxygen had been sucked from the air, the wind from the night.
At a shouted command from Eve, the Leaguers got to their feet and assembled in fighting stance; knees bent, standing arm’s length from each other, pitiful weapons poised. They looked like children playing games, Naif thought, not warriors.
‘Brand told the meeting that one of their own had killed a Night Creature called Leyste.’ Naif dropped her voice to a whisper, but even that seemed loud in the thickening dark.
‘A Riper killed a Night Creature? Is it true?’
Naif nodded again.
‘Why should we believe anything you say?’ demanded Eve.
‘Eve!’ admonished Joel. ‘My sister might be a nuisance but she doesn’t lie.’
A nuisance! Naif wanted to slap him. When had her brother become so arrogant? Or had he always been that way? Full of righteousness and anger?
She raised her leg so that they could see her bruised and bleeding ankle. ‘Is that enough proof? Leyste – a Night Creature – stalked me. He attacked me outside Agios after you left me, Joel.’ She tried to keep the blame out of her voice.
Eve knelt down to examine the wound. ‘It’s one of their marks all right. An older one under the fresh blood. How did you get away from it?’
‘Lenoir killed it …’
As soon as she’d uttered the words she wanted to take them back. Not just from the expressions on Eve and Joel’s faces, but because a howl went up around them from the dark that turned her bones to paste.
Joel thrust her between him and Eve, and drew his sword.
‘Eve?’ he said.
‘Advance!’ bellowed