CHAPTER FIFTEEN
NO ONE RETURNS TO THE ball. Instead, we each find our way back to the common room, Marquis leading a wordless Karim by the hand, Gideon clutching an open bottle of champagne. We sit by the fire as Marquis rolls several cigarettes, the silence interrupted only by the sound of Katherine vomiting in the bathroom. There’s a deep, anxious hollow in my stomach. This doesn’t feel real and yet here we all are, sitting in some sort of meeting circle like we’re merely indulging in a nightcap before bed.
Everything feels numb, as if at some time during the evening a veil was dropped between me and the rest of the world. And still I know, with absolute certainty, that in a few weeks’ time I and all the people I love could be dead. I suddenly long for Mama.
Sophie is sitting in the window seat as Dodie unbraids her hair. She won’t look at me. Good. I don’t want to see the hope in her eyes. Hope that we might still both make it out together. Hope that I have a plan. Because I don’t. There is no hope when you know you’re going to have to betray your best friend a second time.
I hold out my hand to Gideon and he gives me the bottle of champagne without a word. I swig down three big gulps of it and cough as the bubbles fill my throat and nose. A bit of extra numbness can’t hurt. But my brain is already spinning, calculating, trying to fit the echolocation calls I’ve learned into a pattern that makes sense. That code has to be cracked and it has to be me who does it.
I won’t let my family die.
‘Tonight was all just some twisted performance,’ Serena says, her gold shoes dangling from her hand. ‘Dress us all up, show us off and for what?’ Tears suddenly well in her eyes. ‘To give us one last taste of freedom?’
‘To give the impression that the DDAD is making progress,’ Marquis says. ‘To remind us all of what we have to lose.’
A snort comes from across the room. Atlas is staring into the fire, his jacket discarded, tie flung over his shoulder.
‘And what’s that?’ he says. The reflection of the flames dances in his eyes as he glares at Marquis. ‘Overindulging in mince pies with some First Class white men?’
‘Redemption,’ Sophie says icily before Marquis can reply. ‘This is our one chance to be someone else.’
The room turns cold as the reminder of Ravensloe’s welcome speech rings awkwardly in the air. Who is the weakest Aviation recruit, I wonder? It’s certainly not Marquis – thank God. So is it Serena or Karim?
‘I don’t need to be someone else,’ Atlas says quietly. ‘And neither do any of you.’
I want to believe him, but Sophie’s right. There’s no future for Viv the criminal, the girl who betrayed her friend, the girl who broke the Peace Agreement. But for Viv who cracked the dragon code, ended the war and saved her family? There might still be some way forward for her.
‘I lied,’ Serena says suddenly, sinking down on to a pile of cushions on the floor. ‘I didn’t fail the Examination on purpose. I’m just stupid.’
‘You’re not stupid, Serena,’ Karim says.
‘I am. Because now, if I fail Aviation, I’ll be married to the Earl of Pembroke. A friend of my parents’, owner of the London offices used by the Promotion and Demotion Department.’ She grimaces in disgust. ‘He’s wanted me for years. And he made it clear that if I choose the Second Class over him, he’ll make sure I get demoted to Third.’
‘Oh, how the tables have turned,’ Sophie says curtly.
‘Shut up, Sophie,’ Marquis snaps.
Sophie gives him an injured look, then stands up abruptly and flounces off to bed. The rest of us sit in the common room, passing round the champagne and the cigarettes as we listen to the music echo eerily from the ballroom. Atlas broods by the fire and doesn’t speak again. He suddenly feels like a stranger. Karim falls asleep with his head in Marquis’s lap and slowly, once the bottle is empty, people wander off to the dormitories.
I curl up in an armchair with a shawl round me and kick off my shoes. My cheeks are hot and my head lolls heavily as I suppress a yawn.
‘Goodnight, then,’ Atlas mumbles. He’s speaking to everyone, but looking in my direction.
‘Goodnight,’ I say.
There’s no smile or gesture as he walks by, nothing to acknowledge that a few hours ago we almost kissed. Gideon suddenly comes to life, too, and staggers off in the direction of the boys’ dormitory. There’s only me, Marquis and a sleeping Karim left.
‘What’s his problem?’ Marquis says, nodding towards the spot where Atlas was.
I shrug. ‘Same problem as everyone else.’
‘But why’s he acting like it’s your fault?’
Is he?
‘I defended her earlier. Maybe that’s it.’
‘Wyvernmire?’
I nod. ‘I said she wanted the best for us, for Britannia, but now …’
I tell him about Canna and how Hollingsworth all but admitted to me that the government has taken control of the Academy.
Marquis grimaces. ‘It’s almost like Wyvernmire’s expecting Britannia’s dragons to turn on her, and wants to beat them at their own game.’
‘But why?’ I say. ‘She’s got Queen Ignacia, and therefore the majority of the dragons of Britannia, on her side.’
‘Do you think she’s just bluffing?’ Marquis says. ‘Trying to scare us so that we’ll work faster?’
I think of Wyvernmire as I’ve always seen her in the papers, the woman I believed to be firm but fair. Tonight she was someone different. What if her shininess is just an act, like mine? What if she’s rotten on the inside, too?
‘I don’t—’
Karim stirs in his sleep and we both fall silent. Marquis strokes his short, shaved hair. In the light of the fire, I see his mouth tug into a smile.
‘You have real feelings for him,’ I say.
My cousin rolls his eyes. ‘I’ve known him for a month.’
‘You’ve never looked at any of them like that before.’
‘Well, there haven’t been that many—’
‘Liar.’
Marquis lets out a splutter of laughter that makes Karim wake with a jolt. I cover my grin with my hands as he sits up, bleary-eyed.
‘Was goin’ on?’ he mumbles.
‘Nothing,’ Marquis says, his eyes still laughing. ‘We’re going to bed. Come on.’
He hugs me goodnight and I stare into the fire, reluctant to leave the warmth of the common room. I close my eyes and try to imagine a scenario in which we all walk out of Bletchley Park together.
When I wake, the embers in the grate are cold. The common room is dark and my legs, curled up beneath me, have gone numb. I sit up. Behind me, a floorboard creaks.
‘Who’s there?’ I whisper.
Hands slide round my neck. I gasp as they pull me back against the chair cushions, crushing my throat. I reach for the arms on either side of my head and sink my nails into them, straining my bare feet against the rug and trying to twist round to see who wants to kill me.
Is it Ralph come to finish off what he started? I lift a fist and ram it, hard, into his face. Teeth graze my knuckles and the grip round my neck becomes vice-tight, crushing the ribbon of Atlas’s necklace. I catch a reflection in the metal side of the radio above the fireplace, see my own purple face and, above it, two strong arms, covered in blond hair, and the face of—
‘ Gideon ,’ I wheeze as my head swims. ‘ Please . . . ’
Beneath the shawl, my hand meets with something hard.
Those shoes are more dangerous than dragonfire.
I grip my fingers round it and ram the heel into Gideon’s cheek. He screams and lets go, and I fall forward on to the rug, choking on air.
Help! I call, but no sound comes out.
Gideon staggers towards me, a deep, bloody hole under his left eye. I lunge for the poker by the fire.
‘Somebody help!’ I manage to shout.
I gasp as he comes towards me, his face contorted, and presses his stomach up against the poker. He seizes the metal rod in both hands and flings it against the wall. I realise with a jolt that the Guardians are all patrolling the North Wing, where the ballroom and the guest suites are. I scrabble backwards, burning my elbows on the rug, but he grabs me by the throat and lifts me to my feet – and the common room fills with light.
‘You bastard!’ Marquis charges at Gideon and aims a blow at his head that knocks him to the floor.
I fall to the ground again, my head spinning, and then Karim is behind me, grasping me under the arms and pulling me to my feet.
Marquis and Gideon roll across the floor and, as Gideon’s head hits the edge of the fireplace, his hand finds a log. He raises it above Marquis’s head in a shower of wood and ashes, but I kick it from his hand and he lets out a scream.
‘What’s going on?’ Sophie flies into the room, followed by Dodie and Katherine. Marquis has Gideon in a chokehold, his head in the cold ash.
‘If the fire was lit, I think I’d burn your face off,’ Marquis snarls.
‘Marquis, let him go,’ Sophie says sharply.
‘He just tried to kill Viv!’ Marquis shouts. His hands tighten round Gideon’s neck.
‘Well, he’s outnumbered now.’ Serena is perched on the side of an armchair with her hair in a silk wrap, looking vaguely amused. Behind her, Katherine stares at the scene in horror, something silver glinting in her hand.
I rub my throat and look around. Everyone’s here except Atlas. Karim goes to Marquis’s side, whispering something in his ear, and reluctantly he lets go.
‘Are you all right?’ Marquis says, striding towards me.
He’s wearing nothing but a pair of striped pyjama bottoms and there’s a long, bloody scratch across his face.
‘I’m fine,’ I say.
I raise my hands to my neck, but he bats them away to look at it.
Serena rolls her eyes. ‘She’ll survive, I’m sure—’
‘Nobody asked you,’ Marquis says. He rounds on Gideon, who is still lying with his head in the grate.
‘Get up,’ he spits.
Gideon staggers to his feet, his neck sporting the same red welts I can feel rising on my own and his nose pouring with blood. His left eye is swollen and closed.
‘Explain yourself.’
The room falls silent as we stare at Gideon. His jaw tremors and, when he speaks, his voice is barely a whisper.
‘I can’t go back.’
‘Back where?’
‘To my old life.’ Gideon shakes his head. ‘I have to win my category, and she’s …’
He casts a disgusted look in my direction.
‘Your fiercest competition,’ Sophie finishes bitterly.
Of course she’s understood Gideon’s motives before the rest of us have. Sophie the mathematician, always calculating the potential possibilities before they’ve happened. Did she even sleep at all? Or did she lie awake, waiting for someone to start a murder spree?
‘You tried to kill Viv because you’re scared she’ll crack the code before you do?’ Marquis says in disbelief.
Why didn’t it occur to me before? Why did I think we’d all just wake up in the morning and carry on as usual, when Wyvernmire has just told us that we must either be rivals or be ruined?
‘Katherine,’ I say slowly, ‘what’s in your hand?’
Katherine hesitates, then opens a trembling fist to reveal a short, thin knife.
‘Were you planning on killing me, too?’ I spit.
‘No,’ Katherine replies. She looks at Gideon. ‘But I knew I might need a means of self-defence.’
God, I really am naive.
The door creaks open and Atlas walks in, still dressed in his suit. He hasn’t been to bed.
‘And where the fuck were you?’ Marquis says.
His accusatory glare is like ice. Atlas takes one look at the knife in Katherine’s hand and the blotches across my neck and launches towards her, grabbing her arm and twisting the weapon from her grip.
The room erupts into shouts as Serena jumps in front of Katherine and Marquis pulls Atlas away.
‘Back off, you idiot!’ Serena shouts. ‘She’s not your girlfriend’s attempted murderer – he is.’
I tense at the word girlfriend and see Sophie raise an eyebrow. As Serena points towards Gideon, he backs away slowly, holding his arms out in front of him.
‘Too late to play the knight in shining armour,’ Marquis mutters, shoving Atlas towards me.
‘He tried to kill you?’ Atlas breathes heavily.
‘He’s drunk,’ I say. ‘Not thinking straight.’
I don’t know why I’m defending Gideon, except that I know desperation when I see it. I, too, have done desperate things.
‘Does anyone else intend to attempt murder tonight?’ Serena sighs as she plucks a cigarette from Gideon’s breast pocket.
The room is quiet except for his sobbing.
‘In that case, I suggest we all go back to bed.’
Nobody moves.
‘Go!’ she shrieks.
Dodie and Sophie spring towards the dormitory and I wonder if Serena’s drunk or just disturbed by tonight’s events. She eyes me lazily as she lights her cigarette, then follows.
‘You’ll sleep here,’ Marquis snarls at Gideon, pointing to the rug.
Atlas moves closer to me. ‘Lock your door,’ he whispers in my ear as we walk out into the hallway. ‘And take this.’ He slips Katherine’s knife into my hand.
‘The girls aren’t going to hurt me,’ I protest, but he grips my elbow urgently.
‘No?’ he says. He eyes Katherine through the doorway to the girls’ dormitory as she climbs into bed. ‘Then why did she sleep with a weapon? I bet she’s got more stashed somewhere.’
‘Like she said,’ I say as I spin round to face him, ‘self-defence. At least she had the sense to realise she might be in danger.’
Atlas glares at me. ‘Maybe that only occurred to her because she plans on committing the same crime she wants to protect herself against.’
‘And where were you, might I ask?’ I whisper, my hand on the doorknob.
‘Visiting the chapel,’ he says quickly.
There’s a chapel at Bletchley?
I reach up on tiptoes as if I’m about to kiss him, and he doesn’t pull away.
My lips brush against his ear. ‘Lying is a sin, Father .’
I lock the door on his stunned face and sleep with the knife beneath my pillow.