Hunting For The Sun

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

No Holds Barred

Immediately, something struck me as not quite right. I sat up, looking around through narrowed eyes. I rose slowly to my feet and crossed the splinter-coated floor to the door. I reached up and took hold of the bars. I pulled on it and felt it give slightly. I pulled harder and it swung open reluctantly. This wasn´t right. I selected a nice heavy, pointy cudgel from the remains of the bench and hefted it. I stepped around the door and raised my weapon, ready.

No one was out there. Something, however, was on the wall opposite. I walked across to it, my feet splashing in a pool of blood. I checked up and down the corridor before taking the note from its pin on the wall.

Watching over you

That was all it said. Beneath it was a bag. I didn´t recognise it, but I reached down and flipped it open. I realised what was in there and gave a shout of delight. All of my weapons! I put my weapon belt, which hadn´t been so much as tampered with, back around my waist and buckled it tight. I slipped my daggers back into the correct places and took a long drink from my flask and ate some of my bread. I discarded the bag but slipped my gun into my hand. I couldn´t be too careful.

I encountered no one in the corridor, but that wasn´t all good. I had no idea where I was going. I remembered coming from the right when we entered, so I went that way, listening around every corner and always watching my back. The whole place was eerily silent. Blood was smeared up all the walls and I occasionally found bodies heaped in corners. I had been walking for about a quarter-hour when I found another note, written on a shred of white fabric.

Never underestimate passive notions

I had, of course, no idea what it meant, but it sounded good so I kept going. I could feel the air lightening, that sense of being underground leaving me as I walked up ramps and staircases. I frequently glimpsed scenes that I recognised clearly. I was going the right way.

I encountered no one. No one at all. Instead of growing more secure, I got more scared. I was positively terrified by the time I reached that door. Light bled through the wired windows and the padlock was twisted and loose. I put my hand around it, but withdrew it sharply. The metal was hot. I pushed tentatively at the door. It swung out easily. Beyond it was a massive open area of concrete. Those huge search-beams were still and dark. No one was out there.

A cold wind whistled across the rooftop. I went out to the place where we had landed, directly to the right of the door. There was a black helicopter still there and a few bodies were draped out of the cabin. The draught stirred my hair and invigorated me. I went right to the edge and looked down. I was quite far above an empty barren plain of rocks. Behind me were some mountains and snow. This looked to be the only way out.

I pointed my gun ready and went to the helicopter.

`Ho the cabin?´ I called. There was no answer. `I´m armed, don´t make any sudden moves.´

I stepped up into the cabin, then into the cockpit. Evidently none of them had made it this far. I slotted my gun away and removed my rather impractical long coat in favour of one of the rather fine fur lined black leather flying jackets. I snapped a pair of goggles on over my eyes and some leather gloves on my hands. I sat in the pilot´s seat and looked intently at the controls.

Well of course I didn´t know how to fly a helicopter! I grew up poor in the city. None of us knew how. This would have to be one of those sacrifices one must make.

I searched for the `big red button´ but failed to find it. My resolve failed at that point, and I realised quite how stupid this was. I pulled the goggles off and stepped out of the machine. I was starting to get a bit scared. Maybe this was too good to be true? I drifted across the rooftop, looking around me.

Then I saw it. It had to be the only way out, and it wouldn´t be easy. I knelt on the edge and looked over, holding one of the two metal poles that stood either side. It was a baggage chute. It led all the way down to the ground. If I just broke out of the sorting area, then I´d be free, and in the middle of Russia. I sat down in the top of the polished metal slide. I folded my coat underneath me so that I would slide easier, and folded my arms over my chest. I lay down and started to slide.

It wasn´t all that fast, but I got to the bottom and clambered out. Before me was a metal gate. It looked easy enough to scale, made from exaggerated chicken wire with big main poles up the middle. I ran to it, performing a little leap and starting to climb. It cut into my fingers like nobody´s business, but I ignored it. This was freedom. The barbed wire on the top got caught in my clothes, but I dropped down the other side relatively unscathed.

I appeared to be in a long snowy avenue through the mountains. Huge floodlights stood on either side, and I presumed that it was some kind of delivery passage. There was a slightly wider area that looked like a turning space, with a snow-covered shed at the back. It was open, so I decided to investigate. I crossed the area from the high concrete walls and the padlocked gate to the shed beside its wall of rock. My boots barely crunched the pressed-down snow, but the silence was so overwhelming that even the sound of my own breathing seemed loud enough to trigger an avalanche.

Several gleaming black snowmobiles were parked inside, and I moved closer. They looked fairly easy to drive; just your basic ignition and steering wheel. I sat down on the first one, acquainting myself with the controls before turning the key. The engine roared underneath me, and my heart leapt. What if they heard? But there was no time for that. I dropped my tiny supply package into the box on the back and kicked it into life. It started to move forward, and I steered it slowly through the wide doorway. I paused to zip my coat up to the top and pull the hood down. I found some sunglasses in the pocket and hooked them over my ears. Then I pushed the gear lever up and roared away.

The avenue I followed was very long, winding its way through the mountains. I was still travelling when it grew dark, so I made myself a camp and went to sleep.

~*~

It was some time before anything else happened, but I had reached a city within a week or so of hard travel. I couldn´t tell you where I actually was, so don´t bug me about it. I left the snowmobile a little way out of town and went in. It was night, and the snowy streets were deserted. I stole some food from a baker´s shop and ate it as I sat on a bench in a wintry park. I heard her footsteps behind me long before she thought I did and I slipped my gun out of its holster, tensing my shoulders ready to turn.

Sure enough, a cold hand closed around my neck. I stayed still, trying to fend off the revulsion.

`Are you the one who knows the one with the white hair?´ she whispered. By that time, I had lost enough of my gullibility to believe her awful accent. This girl was English.

A curl of red hair fell across my shoulder, and she swept it back.

`I know one with white hair,´ I answered. `What´s it to you?´

She hissed. `You would do well not to anger me. I am a child of the night, and nothing may stand in my path.´

`You can drop the accent,´ I advised her. `You´re English.´

`Well done,´ she said in a normal voice. She still had a slight lisp that didn´t sound quite natural. `Will you come with me?´

`If you tell me who you are,´ I bargained, staying still but flipping the safety catch on my gun silently.

`Fair,´ she shrugged. `My name is Persephone.´

`What´s your real name?´ I pried.

`Why should I tell you?´ she flared. `Fine, Virginia.´

`Thanks.´

`And you are?´

`Rae, originally Meg.´

`Then you are the person for whom I was looking,´ she nodded. `Can I trust you?´

`Depends on what you consider to be trust,´ I said honestly. `I would steal your socks if it suited me, and I would kill you without a moment´s hesitation if I were asked, but for now you can trust me not to hurt you or give you away.´

`I may harm you at some stage, but for now we are allies,´ Persephone told me. I nodded. `Look out if I get hungry, though,´ she threatened, coming close enough that her breath stirred my hair.

`You eat people?´ I asked, alarmed.

`Not all of them,´ she corrected. `I´m more into blood.´

That would explain the lisp.

`Come with me,´ she said. `Your friend is with us.´

I got carefully up from the bench, being sure to make no sudden movements and spreading my coat wide to show her all my weapons. She nodded and beckoned me. I looked at her briefly before following, seeing if I could identify her.

She had blood-red hair in long curls down her back, and her pale skin was flecked with freckles. Somehow, though, it didn´t seem cute. Her eyes were a chocolate-brown but with red pupils. Her pointed teeth appeared whenever she opened her mouth to flick her tongue over her lips. All in all I decided that it would be wise to keep my distance.

We left the park and crossed into the deserted snowy street. I looked around at the ancient, snow-lined, gaudy architecture, wondering where I was. Unfortunately, I still have no knowledge of Russia, so I couldn´t tell you.

The beautiful buildings, however, were defaced almost exclusively. They had slogans painted all over them and windows were smashed. As we went deeper into the seedier parts of the city, there were smouldering wrecks of cars and furniture in the streets. Huge craters were blasted out of the road, buildings were crumbled heaps and many spiked iron gates barred the entranceways to private houses, but there was not a soul in sight.

Persephone picked her way over the craters with grace and a distasteful look on her face. I trotted after her, praying that Skye was alright. She turned to a low square arch over the entrance to an underground carpark and vanished into the dark within. I hesitated, swallowing, before going after her.

We went down and down, as deep as it went, sometimes hopping over barriers to cut our journey short. After a time in the clammy darkness, we reached the bottom.

`How much further?´ I asked, rubbing at a stitch in my stomach.

She gave me an eerie smile, the tiny amount of flickering light flashing off her sharp teeth. `Not long now, Mortal,´ she hissed.

I smarted at the nasty tone. I was barely mortal.

She led me to a small hole in the side of the lowest level. I looked at the gap in the crumbling concrete with great contempt.

`I won´t fit through there,´ I told her.

She looked me over appraisingly, and I felt like I was being frisked.

`You´re skinny, mortal. You´ll get through,´ she decided.

`I don´t think so,´ I countered.

She shrugged and flickered into the form of a bat, settling on all fours like a little old man to crawl through the gap. I swore sulphurously and got down on my knees to look through the small hole. I could see nothing, but I settled down onto my stomach, shuddering at the thought of what I was getting myself into. I reached out my arms and pulled myself across the ground to the gap. I slotted my head and shoulders in fairly easily. I pulled my arms all the way through and dragged the rest of my body after me. There was a great deal of coughing and squirming going on, but I made it.

Persephone was waiting for me on the other side. I had emerged in a thin passageway that was totally dark except for the handful of red flames that Persephone held. She nodded to me and I dusted my hands off on my trousers. She started to walk smoothly along the narrow passage, not looking at me.

I tried to ignore the nasty smell of rotting flesh and damp. I heard little bones crunch beneath my feet and strove not to think of what they used to be. Eventually the passage widened into a corridor and then became almost a chamber. A chamber lined with pointy-teethed persons. They all stared at me, some drooling visibly. All were muttering, `Live one! A live one!´

The cry was taken up all around the hall, and many cries of praise were given to Persephone, but she ignored them all.

`Gracious Persephone! You are truly a Goddess!´

`Silence, Louis!´ she snapped. `This Mortal is no food!´

The long-haired vampire fell silent, but frowned.

`This is our queen, rise, vampires, and rejoice, for the Dark Queen has come to us!´

Many cries of surprise and joy filled the echoing chamber. Soon a chant was taken up, `Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen!´

I blushed and looked at the ground. I was a bit young to be a queen. I looked around for Skye and my eyes settled on a throne at the back of the hall.

Sure enough, there she sat. One leg was drawn up with the foot resting on the chair. She lounged indolently, picking her teeth with a cocktail stick and looking at us through half-lidded eyes. My eyes widened, my mouth dropped open and I gave out a low cry. I ran towards her and flung my arms around her. She laughed awkwardly and patted my back.

`I said I wouldn´t fail you,´ she reminded me. I realised that the wet feeling on my cheeks was me crying.

`Where did you go?´ I demanded. `How did you get out?´

Skye nodded to Persephone, who flicked her hand imperiously. All of the vampires turned and either flickered into bat form, flying out of the tunnel to feed, or walked down a side corridor or up some stairs and out of sight. Persephone gave us a last nod and a pointy smile before swirling her cloak around herself and vanishing into thin air.

`I don´t know quite what happened,´ Skye admitted, once we were alone. `But somehow I got a chance to escape. I Apparated straight here to fetch Persephone and the others. We went and terrorised the prison. We left you to it, because Persephone, she´s a mystic type, said that the transition you needed was important. We weren´t allowed to take you with us.´

I grimaced. `You have no idea of the trouble it took to get here,´ I protested.

`I know, and I´m sorry. It´s not my fault.´

`When are we getting back to Draco?´ I asked.

`I don´t know,´ she said honestly, her eyes going distant. `We can get the vampires to help us, but it´ll cost us.´

`I think we can do it another way,´ I said, hoping it was so.

`Oh?´

`Well, there has to be some way other than to rely on them more. They have been pretty helpful.´

`Yeah,´ Skye considered it. `Maybe we could just Apparate back to them.´

`But if they´re still in the Hogwarts area then that would get us all caught.´

`Who says that they haven´t already gone in by now?´ Skye said. `They could easily be back. I think you need to contact Draco.´

I was reluctant, wanting to do this myself, in a way, but I could see that it made sense. I nodded.

Draco?

There was a fairly long silence while I waited for him to hear me.

Rae!

Are you alright?

Fine, but that´s not the point. Are you out? Are you alright?

Yes, yes, I´m fine. Skye´s here too.

Thanks the gods! Where are you?

We´re in Russia somewhere. Near some mountains.

I mean where specifically?

Oh, we´re staying with Persephone for now

, I told him.

Oh.... Good, good.

What about you?

We´re still in the mountains

, he said, and I could feel his discomfort. We can´t risk moving Alethea.

She´s still alive?

I was surprised, to tell the truth. From what he had said, I really expected her to be dead and gone.

Yes, but barely. We´re not going to risk moving her.

How are the rest?

I´m fine, Raven´s fine, Cloud´s fine, but he´s missing an arm. Alethea´s still not good. I miss you,

he said mournfully.

I miss you too,

I said, trying not to think about it. We don´t know how to get back or how long we´ll be. If you´re still in Hogwarts territory then it will be too dangerous to Apparate.

We may have to turn back,

he told me. I think we´ll just have to try it another way.

What else can we do?

I asked. What do we still need?

We need to know where the Light temple is,

Draco told me. That´s all for now. Persephone, did you say?

Yes. She said her other name was Virginia, though.

There was a sudden silence.

Well, she can help you. Stay with her. I´ll get back to you when anything happens.

Okay...

Bye.

His presence was gone, and I looked to Skye. She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head slightly.

`He says that Alethea´s dying, but the others are fine except that Cloud has lost an arm. They´re still in the mountains and don´t want to move because of Alethea. He says also to stick with Persephone and that he´ll get back to us with a plan.´

`Sounds hopeful,´ Skye drawled, lounging back again and picking at her teeth with the little wooden stick.