stared back out the window. She would be gone before then.
The Illi platform was wider than Vank and lit by ornate iron and glass lamps. A cobbled path branched out from the wooden platform along the mountainside.
Rollo led the way, walking backwards along the cobblestones so that he could talk. Retra stayed close to Suki, wary of what lingered beyond the path. She could smell the electricity of the dark, feel its charged fingers reaching for her.
‘We’re here,’ said Rollo.
Retra lifted her gaze. Uphill from the steps stood the vast stone edifice of Illi church. Where Vank was spire-angular and ornamented inside and out with hardened wood, Illi was built on rounded lines and decorated by bevelled mantles and pillars. Fire torches lit the outside and, as the warm breeze played with their light, they splashed grotesque shadows across the face of the church.
Rollo pointed downwards. ‘The Grotto is at the bottom of these steps. It’s part of the old Illi gardens and was an outside place to worship. I haven’t been down there yet. At Goa, they told me that the Grotto isn’t safe. People go missing from the steps all the time.’
‘I can’t see any lights,’ said Suki. She was alive with curiosity. ‘Do you think anyone is down there?’
‘There’s a rock wall at the bottom of the steps. It curves like a half-moon. The Grotto is on the other side of it. The wall will most likely shield any lights. I guess that’s why people go there. It’s private.’
Retra stared at the steps disappearing down into the night. ‘It’s getting darker again.’ Even as they stood there, the lights of Illi grew brighter, signalling the passing of Early-Eve. ‘We should hurry.’
‘Me first!’ said Suki, as she went to plunge down the steps.
Retra caught her arm. ‘Wait, there’s a password to get in.’
‘What is it?’ asked Rollo.
‘The age of rage,’ Retra whispered to them.
Suki pulled away and kept moving. ‘Still gonna be first!’
‘Hey, wait!’ Rollo catapulted after her.
Retra followed them more slowly, heart in mouth. A dull glow lit the rough steps as if somehow it produced its own energy. Even so, shadows seemed closer than they should be. Was this really the right place? Did Rollo know or was he making it up? She found it hard to trust someone she hardly knew. And yet he’d trusted her.
Retra’s doubts grew stronger than her conviction as she continued down. Several times she thought about turning back.
She heard scraping sounds on one side of steps.
Like you. Smell good.
She pressed her hands to her ears.
Mine. The voice stayed insistent and clear.
A scream climbed into the back of her throat and caught there, robbing her lungs of their passage of air. She looked below for Rollo and Suki but they’d disappeared at the bottom of the steps, perhaps to the other side of the wall.
She should run back to Illi. Or the station. But what if Joel was down there? What if her brother was this close?
Come to me.
She made a noise, a harsh, frightened sound that cleared her throat. Air flowed back into her tight chest and she began to run downward. Don’t fall. Don’t fall. Don’t fall.
Invisible fingers grabbed at her ankles but she lifted her knees high, touching only her toes onto the stone-work. Hot breath caressed her neck, and soft touches like clammy kisses fell on her arms. She flailed, not sure if she imagined them or not.
Joel. Joel. Be there. Please be there.
The steps ended abruptly, a wall looming from the dark without warning. Her hands slammed into rock, jarring all the way to her shoulders. Her desperate fingers grasped the cool iron loop of a door latch. She twisted it with all her strength but it didn’t budge. She let go and beat at the door with her fists.
‘The age of rage,’ she cried. ‘The age of rage.’
The heavy door swung inward. She stumbled through it, past tall boys armed with pointed sticks, into Rollo’s waiting arms.
‘What took you so long?’ His grin was eerie and distorted by the glow of hundreds of candle lamps.
‘You left me,’ Retra gasped.
‘Sssh,’ said Suki. ‘They’re starting.’
Retra pulled away from Rollo and gazed down into the Grotto. The candle lamps illuminated a hundred or more gangers, sitting in loose formation on the rock floor of what seemed to be a cave without its roof. The walls were dotted with hollows that contained statues – many of them ruined. Retra recognised one as a dolmen – the three upright stones