Curse of the Celts Clara O'Connor (new reading txt) 📖

closing my eyes to my last sight of the city that had been my home. I allowed the wind to whip through me, cleansing me of the last traces of the controlling clutches of the people who ran it.

We were already at the western wall, and because the hovercraft was flying the council flag, we were waved on without further inspection by the sentinels guarding the western gate through which I had passed on my previous escape attempt. The policy about passage through the walls being forbidden after dark did not apply to the council as it did to regular citizens.

Devyn had almost returned to himself and was listening keenly. He didn’t trust Matthias; even now, as he helped us escape, the overriding emotion from Devyn was wariness. Had the senator changed sides so completely? I had witnessed for myself his lack of affection towards Marcus. Why throw everything away now to help him escape? Yet that was what he had done.

“Father!” Marcus’s alarmed cry cut across us. He pointed to a boat coming around the bend behind us. “That boat has stayed with us all the way from the tower. It’s following us. I’m sure of it.”

“Let’s put a little speed on and see what they do.” Matthias pulled back on the throttle and the nose of the boat lifted, throwing us backwards. We watched to see whether the only other active craft on this part of the river responded. Because the river in the city was generally thick with traffic, citizens often joked that if you timed it right, you could walk across the Tamesis without ever needing a bridge. Around the docks was, of course, the busiest, but that traffic petered out as you went further inland. By the time you got to the inner wall on the east of the city there were no more great ships. There were plenty of barges delivering cargo to the warehouses, lots of little hackneys zipping about, but on the other side of the western wall, towards Richmond, boats were few and far between, especially at this time of night.

Matthias eased off the throttle as we came into Richmond. There was a long stretch here and still no sign of the boat that had been trailing us. I allowed myself to relax a little.

Devyn turned his attention back to Matthias, like a hawk hunting a mouse.

“How did you find Cassandra?” Devyn asked out of nowhere. Calchas had taunted us that finding me and matching me to Marcus had not been a matter of chance. Matthias and Calchas had plotted together. This man had to know the truth of my abduction.

Matthias ignored the question.

“Once we’re back in our lands, I’m the only thing that’s going to keep us alive. It’s a long way to York.”

“Touché.” Matthias slashed Devyn with his snake-in-the-grass smile. He looked over at his son and back at Devyn; whatever he saw there clearly decided him. “You will see him to York. Promise me.”

Devyn nodded. “Is that where your ally is?”

What ally? Did Devyn suspect a traitor? Did he suspect that someone had betrayed my mother, that someone had helped them steal me away? Was this why Calchas’s earlier bombshell had sent him reeling?

Matthias shook his head, “No, I…”

“Look.” Marcus grabbed his father by the shoulder, pointing towards not one but three boats that were now approaching us at speed. “We are caught.”

“Not yet,” Matthias pulled the throttle all the way back. The hovercraft shot forward, flying across the water. “If any of you have any tricks you can use, now would be the time.”

I focused, willing the night to answer my call. I felt nothing in response.

“I still can’t; it’s not there,” I yelled, raising my voice to be heard across the wind ripping my words away into the night. “At the arena, they injected us.”

“We’ll just have to hope our technology holds out then,” Marcus shouted back.

We sped through the night. Richmond whipped by, and we were out, well past the furthest point I had ever been from the city. The pursuing boats chased us across the water, the sky behind them bright with the orange light of Londinium while we raced forwards into the black wall of the west. The only light was the tunnel made by the headlight at the front of the hovercraft.

Matthias glanced back over his shoulder. “We aren’t going to lose them, and sooner or later the tech will fail. While we still have a lead, I’ll pull in to one of the islands in the river. You three jump out and hide, and I’ll lure them further on. It will give you a chance.”

Devyn nodded his agreement even as Marcus started to disagree. “No, Father. What about you?”

Matthias shrugged. “There was always a chance I would get caught. They may not actually be hunting you down. Maybe we just attracted the attention of a patrol. I may yet be able to talk myself out of it; I’m still a member of the council. Now, get ready. Grab the bags from the locker; you’ll need them on the road.”

Marcus protested, but his father just looked at him. “I said, go.”

We pulled on the packs and prepared to jump.

“There.” We had passed several small islands in the middle of the river, and a series of bends meant that we were also out of the line of sight of the pursuing boats. “Ready?”

He slowed the hovercraft and pulled in to the tree-covered island. We jumped into the dark. The water was freezing and I couldn’t catch my breath. I felt a hand pulling me upwards and we all pushed through the tall reeds and pulled ourselves up onto the bank as the chasing boats flew by.

Matthias had lost his lead when he dropped us off; he couldn’t be that much further ahead of them.

The noise reached us first. We turned in the direction of the boom as an explosion lit the night sky.

“No!” Marcus screamed, pulling his bag off, preparing to drop into