But a brief shake of her head undid every good intention.
I stared at her, an uncomfortable flush crawling up my neck.
‘What do you mean? He’s … everything’s OK, isn’t it?’
Max’s frown deepened into a scowl.
‘August hasn’t been seen for three months. Not since the Director General took his seat back in the Senate,’ Rajid interjected, staring into the fire embers beneath the cooking pot.
I glanced at Max, my skin starting to crawl like I’d fallen into the fire ant nest myself.
‘The Director General? Cassius? He’s …?’
‘Alive? Yes,’ Aelia confirmed.
A stunned silence pervaded the small rounded room.
‘The head wound Unus inflicted in the Flavium would have killed any ordinary Pantheonite, but as one of Octavia’s original fighting elite … well it turns out Cassius was pretty strong,’ she continued.
‘When the Flavium was cleared, the Scientific Generals had him transferred to the infirmary, where he remained in a comatose state until last month.’
‘But if Cassius is alive, August …?’ I whispered, feeling all my old nightmares start to stir.
‘… was instantly compromised,’ Rajid drawled with a glance at Aelia.
‘It turns out Cassius still commanded a loyal following among the elite Pantheonites, despite what happened in the Flavium,’ Rajid continued, his tone at odds with the gravity of his words.
‘And as soon as news of Cassius’s recovery began to spread, August’s new legislation was frozen by the Senate. Cassius played the game cleverly,’ he continued. ‘He didn’t immediately pull rank. Instead, he offered to work together with August, to bring about a fairer, more open Isca Pantheon that pursued the more … useful elements of the Biotechnology Programme.
‘He recruited old friends, like Livia, as his Empress-Consort Deputy.’
My brain whirled as I tried to recall what I knew about the original mother of the Holy Roman Empire, though Aelia’s scowl already spoke a thousand words.
‘Livia … as in Livia Drusilla? Wasn’t she the real wife of Emperor Augustus?’
‘The wicked witch of Rome?’ Aelia responded, her top lip curling. ‘Yeah, she was a real shining beacon of womanly virtue … apart from the power games, treachery and systematic murder, of course.’
I stared, feeling my world grey.
‘And Cassius was convincing,’ she continued, the dark circles beneath her eyes suddenly more noticeable. ‘His speeches in the Senate were persuasive, especially among the newly elected Prolet representatives. He nearly had me believing in his integrated school for every Prolet and Pantheon child, irrespective of genetic coding. He always was a powerful orator.
‘Besides, the Senatore were weak. Octavia’s sudden death left them fractured. She wasn’t loved, but she’d always been there, at the helm. Her poison was still trickling through their veins, and Cassius was a direct link with the old way of life.’
The room went quiet and Aelia and Rajid exchanged another glance, almost as though they were deciding exactly how much more to share.
‘The Senatore decided Cassius’s seniority demanded he be given a chance.’ Rajid shrugged. ‘And that August should lead a new important mission – the investigation into habitable life.’
‘On the outside.’ Aelia’s whisper seemed to merge with the faded forest pictures I’d painted on the walls as a child.
I glanced at Max. It was the first time we’d heard of any deliberate move by Pantheon to investigate the outside world.
‘Despite his repeated request they send someone else, he was dispatched with the elite Equite force on an exploratory mission. Across Europa,’ Aelia confirmed bluntly.
I grew colder. August was somewhere, on the outside. And he hadn’t come to Arafel.
‘His key objective was to gather scientific evidence for sustainable community living across Europa,’ Rajid clarified.
Aelia nodded, swallowing hard.
‘It was Cassius’s idea, that the Senate explore opportunities for satellite Lifedomes, which would help start a re-familiarization programme. The Senate were impressed, heralding it as a new era, an opportunity to combine the best of the old with the future.
‘And August, with his background in fieldwork, was the obvious choice to lead the investigation.’
‘The mission was expected to take six weeks. It’s been three months,’ Aelia offered, her eyes flitting past Rajid’s.
‘Rumours spread swiftly after that. Now most Pantheonites believe August planned his desertion, and that the group of young Prolet Freedom Fighters abandoned the new Civitas to go looking,’ Rajid added.
‘Anyway, Cassius has since denounced them all as deserters.’
He paused to draw breath, while I stared, already knowing the answer to my question, but I needed to ask anyway.
‘Looking for what?’ I whispered.
‘For you, Tal,’ Aelia returned, like a challenge.
‘In the name of Arafel …? Why!?’ Max interjected, his golden skin darkening with a scowl.
We’d finished the trout stew, and Mum was silently cutting up a fresh pineapple into hand-sized chunks. I wasn’t deceived though. I could assess her mood by the tight compression of her lips.
‘They want to join you, Talia, all of you, here in Arafel. While Cassius has restarted the propaganda machinery, most of the free thinkers believe an outside community thrives. The truth is, Arafel … Max … you … you’ve all become rather legendary.’
Silently, Rajid got up from his cross-legged position by the fire and walked over towards Jas. She lifted her head, growling her warning softly, but he didn’t falter. Instead, he slowly lowered to his knees beside her. She eyed him coldly for a beat, before yawning and rolling over. I stared in surprise. An invitation to tickle her snow-white belly was a real sign of trust. Aelia shot us a satisfied look, her elfin cheeks tinged with spots of colour and I wondered, briefly, what had passed between her and Rajid. They were both Prolet Freedom Fighters, and she obviously trusted him. So why did he unnerve me?
‘The day after the Senate reported August as missing, a group of Prolets took off – through the old Roman tunnels beneath the ruined city of Isca,’ Rajid offered in a low voice, still stroking Jas. His voice was almost hypnotic, and I suppressed a frown. Jas had a pretty sharp instinct with people, yet she’d clearly accepted him.
‘Beneath the city?’ I repeated, recalling my own journey beneath the domes. ‘The Roman tunnel only leads to the Lifedome exterior wall. I had to fly the griffin over the mined land.’
Only once in the last twelve months had I crept to the edge of the forest to stare out at the domed rise of Isca Pantheon; and the dirt-land separating the two worlds looked just the same as it always had: barren, impenetrable and terrifying. It had claimed so many Arafel lives in the beginning, and their memory rested there with their bones, in the blackened soil.
Rajid broke off grooming Jas to look up, his face creased with disdain. ‘The Prolets are, among other things, resourceful archaeologists,’ he responded.
‘Your exit tunnel was just the beginning of the secret excavation work. Since then, we’ve uncovered a whole network of ancient