City of Dust by Michelle Kenney

Author:Michelle Kenney [Kenney, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008281441
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-09-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

I was grimly aware that I wasn’t caught up in one of my nightmares, no matter how much I wished it. In my nightmares, I couldn’t feel anything, no matter how hard I pinched or dug myself. But right now, as the slow burn of reality returned, my body was in agony. I blinked my streaming eyes to clear the dust, and as my vision slowly returned I tried to assimilate the broken scene. There was a wide trapdoor clinging to one fragile hinge above me, scattered stone cladding all around, and the soft groan of pain.

Max! I shot a look across the floor, and tried to form his name. He was just a couple of metres away, crumpled up. The colour of dust. I opened my mouth, but only a feeble croak came out. We were surrounded, in the arena of death, with thousands of Pantheonite faces watching.

And then I spied Rajid, or rather parts of Rajid as the bulk of his body was concealed beneath a pile of heavy debris. Was he dead? Did it even matter? He had betrayed us. Hadn’t he? I was vaguely aware of Max’s hoarse whisper somewhere, and then it started.

It sounded like baying at first, but as my ears gradually adjusted, I realized it was a word.

‘Maze! Maze! Maze!’

I tried to pull myself up, but it felt as though I’d drunk too much elderflower wine at harvest. Everything was slow and stupid. And then we were surrounded by a blaze of crimson, and stamping heavy boots that merged like the trees when I was running. Except I was lying stock still.

Large, rough hands clamped beneath my arms, and dragged me to my feet. They were hazy figures, shadowed by a blurred pack of muscular creatures standing shoulder-high. I struggled, sinking my teeth into a shoulder, and had the satisfaction of hearing a muttered Latin curse before the room finally shrank into focus.

Max and I were in front of the Ludi Labyrinth, which looked even bigger from the ground, surrounded by an arena full of livid, chanting faces. Livia’s personal guard and a pack of the ugliest molossus hounds surrounded us in a tight formation, while Aelia stared down from above it all, an expression of shocked disbelief pinned to her face.

Disorientated, I jerked my aching head around. On the far side, beneath an archway engraved L11 and surrounded by another pack of guards and molossus hounds, was my beloved Unus. Silent and completely ignorant to our arrival. My heart strained as I watched his great head jerk from side to side, bewildered by all the fresh commotion.

‘You’re a little late, but you always knew how to make an entrance!’ Aelia yelled. Now I was closer, I could see her sunken eyes gleamed from hollow blue-black sockets. And my heart ached harder.

‘Silentium!’

Livia’s caustic tone reached above the roar of the crowd, and this time everyone hushed.

The guards backed off, leaving only Aelia, Max and I in the arena spotlight. The air was

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