Pegasus and the Flame (7 page)

‘That would be great. But if I promise not to do anything heavy, can I at least go up there to try to clean up a bit before we get to the real work?’

‘Agreed,’ he said. ‘But only if you promise to be careful and keep away from the edge.’

‘I will.’ Emily quickly changed the subject before her father could change his mind. ‘So what are they saying about the blackout?’

‘Well, it’s not good,’ he said as he went back to work in the refrigerator. ‘The power company has put its entire staff on it, but it looks like we’ll have no electricity for at least two days, maybe three.’ He paused and looked at her again. ‘You know what that means, don’t you?’

Emily nodded. ‘It means you have to go back to work, doesn’t it?’

‘I was going to tell you that it means no school for a few days.’ Then he reluctantly added, ‘But yes, I’ve got to go back to work. I’m due back in at midnight. It was only because of you being home alone that I was able to steal a few hours away.’

Emily lifted the jug of milk out of her dad’s arms. ‘Then you shouldn’t waste this time here. Go sit down and I’ll see what I can make us for dinner. Then I think you should try to get some sleep.’

When her father smiled, it made his dimples appear. ‘Hey, who’s the parent here?’ he demanded, laughing.

‘I am,’ Emily teased as she started to use as many thawing items as she could to prepare their supper.

‘Fair enough,’ he admitted. ‘This has been one strange twenty-four hours.’ He sighed heavily as he sat down at the kitchen table. ‘There is looting going on all over the city because of the power outage and security systems going down. Uptown, people are getting hysterical. Some even went into their local police stations claiming to have seen these huge, grey, four-armed creatures coming out of the sewers. Insisting they were some kind of demons and this was the end of the world.’

‘Wow,’ Emily said as she pulled out a frying pan and set it on the gas stove. ‘That is strange.’

‘But that wasn’t the worst of it,’ her father said. ‘Remember I called you from Belleview? I was there to draw up a report on this mystery kid that had been brought in. Seems he was hit by lightning and fell out a window.’

‘Ouch! That had to hurt,’ Emily said as she started to scramble some eggs. ‘Was he killed?’

‘Nope,’ her father answered. ‘The doctor said he should have been. Not only did he not die, he’s healing faster than anything they’ve ever seen before. His bones are knitting together in record time and the burn on his back is shrinking by the minute.’

Emily stopped scrambling her dad’s eggs. ‘He’s healing really quickly?’ she said. ‘Who is he?’

Her father shrugged. ‘I’m not really sure. He said his name was,’ – he paused and stood up, then bowed at the waist and raised his hand in a flourish – ‘Paelen the Magnificent, at your service.’

Emily couldn’t help laughing as her father repeated the sweeping, formal gesture. ‘Where’s he from?’

‘I haven’t got a clue,’ said her dad, sitting down again. ‘He claims he doesn’t remember much, but after being a cop so long, I know a lie when I hear one.’ He paused as if reaching for something just beyond his grasp. ‘It’s … it’s really strange, Em. There is something seriously wrong with that kid, but I just can’t put my finger on it.’

‘Like what?’

‘A few things, really,’ her father answered. ‘The strange way he speaks. Real formal, you know? Then there’s the way he was found, wearing only a bloodstained tunic and winged sandals studded with jewels. He’d obviously been struck by lightning, but somehow he survived that as well as the fall. When the paramedics arrived, they found him clutching this beautiful golden bridle. Between the jewelled sandals and the horse bridle, it all had to be worth a fortune. But he refused to tell me where they came from or how he got them.’

Emily felt her pulse quicken. Paelen the Magnificent? Healing quickly? Wearing a tunic and sandals, and clutching a golden horse bridle? She knew it had something to do with Pegasus. She just didn’t know what.

The eggs were quickly forgotten as Emily took a seat at the table beside her father.

‘So is he still at the hospital?’

‘No,’ he answered darkly. ‘And that’s another story all its own. When the staff saw his blood test results, they nearly had a fit. Things kind of went downhill from there.’

Emily’s ears were ringing. Everything her father said was shouting Olympus. Somehow, there was another Olympian in New York! She had to tell Joel as soon as she could.

‘What do you mean? What happened?’ Emily finally asked.

‘It seems one of the nurses called the CRU when she saw the results. Not long after that, several of their agents arrived at the hospital to collect him. But when I challenged them on it, they called my captain. I was immediately ordered back to the station and told to forget everything. As always, it’s all very Government hush, hush. I have no idea where they took him or what they plan to do with him. But from what we know of the CRU, I sure wouldn’t want to be in that kid’s shoes. Or winged sandals either, for that matter.’

Paelen was sitting up in bed in a secure hospital unit. Men in white coats were hooking up a lot of strange wires to him. Several were taped to his chest, while others were secured to his face and head. When he tried to rip them off, two men in white overalls rushed forward and caught hold of his hands to restrain him. But when Paelen proved too strong for them, more men arrived. They wrestled his hands down until he was finally handcuffed to the sides of the bed.

‘Where am I?’ Paelen demanded as he struggled against the steel cuffs clamped on his wrists. ‘What is this place? Why have you put me in chains?’

‘We ask the questions,’ said one of the men in overalls. ‘Not you. So just lie still for a moment while we finish hooking you up.’

‘I do not understand,’ Paelen said as he looked at the frightening array of machines being drawn up to the side of the bed. ‘What is hooking me up? What more are you doing to me?’

‘Just relax,’ said a doctor. ‘We’re not going to hurt you. This equipment will tell us a little bit more about you. It will record your heart rate and brain impulses. It will show me if you are very different from us.’

‘Of course I am different from you,’ Paelen said indignantly. ‘You are human and I, Olympian!’

The men in overalls raised their eyebrows at each other.

‘Olympian, huh?’ one of them said. ‘And I suppose you’re the great Zeus himself?’

‘If I were,’ Paelen asked, ‘would I receive better treatment?’

The man shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

‘Then I am he. Zeus,’ Paelen said quickly. ‘And as such, I demand you release me.’

‘Sorry Zeusie old boy, no can do,’ the man said once he was certain Paelen’s steel handcuffs were secure. ‘There are a lot of folks around here very interested in speaking to you. So just lie still and be patient. They’ll be with you soon.’

Seeing that his pleas were hopeless, Paelen lay back and became quiet. He couldn’t believe what was happening to him. All he had ever wanted was to get hold of Pegasus and be free. Free of Olympus and Jupiter with all his rules. Free of the Nirads and the war.

He never wanted to visit this world or meet any of its people. He’d heard countless stories about it when he was growing up. Of the strange people who lived here and how they worshipped the Olympians. But he’d never been curious about them or tempted to visit. They were just human. What could they possibly offer someone like him? But in following Pegasus here, he’d been struck by one of Jupiter’s lightning bolts and was now trapped.

It was bad enough waking in that strange place they called Belleview Hospital. But things had quickly gone from bad to worse when more men arrived to take him away. He had tried to fight them off, but his wounds were too great. Now here he was on this little island, enduring more horrors.

Paelen was helpless to stop them from stealing more of his precious blood. They’d cut off samples of his hair and shone their bright lights in his eyes until he could no longer see. He’d been studied like youngsters in Olympus study insects they find on the steps of Jupiter’s palace. Poked and prodded and put in a strange device they called the MRI.

When they’d tired of that torture, Paelen had been brought to this room. It had no windows and was without any obvious means of escape except through a single door.

Paelen could smell the earth pressing in behind the white walls. He knew that wherever he was, it was in some kind of strange labyrinth deep beneath the ground.

He wondered if these same people had captured Pegasus. Was the great stallion somewhere in this place with him? Part of Paelen wanted to ask. But another part of him thought better of it. These were not good people. If Pegasus hadn’t been captured, he wasn’t about to alert them to his presence. He owed the stallion that much.

Watching the men as they buzzed around him like bees, Paelen tried to figure out how best to escape. That had always been one of his talents in Olympus. No matter where Jupiter locked him up, he always managed to get away.

But with those heavy white things they called casts on his legs and his obvious broken bones and deep burns, this wasn’t the time to make his move. Instead he would tolerate his captors. Play with them, taunt them, and do his best to learn all their weaknesses.

Only when he was recovered and strong again, would he make his move. He would leave this place of pain and despair. And finally, he would capture Pegasus.

Emily picked at her food, unable to eat. The story her father had just told was spinning around in her head. She was convinced that Paelen had something to do with Pegasus. But with the stallion unable to speak, and Paelen now spirited away by the CRU, Emily had no idea how they were connected.

Not long after supper, Emily’s father went to bed for a few hours of rest before his next shift. The moment he shut his bedroom door, Emily dashed back into the kitchen to gather together food and drinks to take up to Joel and Pegasus.

‘You’re not going to believe this.’ Emily arrived breathlessly back on the roof. ‘There’s another Olympian in New York! His name is Paelen and—’

The moment Emily said the name, Pegasus started to shriek and tear furiously at the shed’s floorboards.

‘Pegasus, what is it?’ Emily ran over and stroked the stallion’s quivering muzzle. ‘Do you know Paelen?’

Pegasus snorted angrily, rose on his hind legs and came down brutally on the floorboards. His sharp hooves cut into the wood, tearing up huge splinters.

‘Please, stop,’ Emily cried. ‘You’ve got to calm down. My father’s asleep in the apartment below us. If he hears you, he’ll come up and find you!’

Pegasus stopped tearing at the boards, but shook his head, still snorting and whinnying. Emily looked desperately over to Joel.

‘What do you think is wrong with him?’

‘Easy boy, calm down,’ Joel soothed. He turned to Emily. ‘Seems that Pegasus doesn’t like Paelen, whoever he is.’

‘Is that it?’ she asked the stallion. ‘Don’t you like Paelen?’

Pegasus became still and strangely silent. He looked Emily straight in the eye. In that moment, Emily felt that tight connection to him. Somehow she knew that Paelen was someone who had hurt Pegasus and caused a lot of trouble for him. As she stared into his large dark eyes, strange images suddenly flooded her mind. She saw Pegasus in the dark storm-filled sky with lightning flashing all around him. She felt his determination, his fear – and his urgent need to get somewhere, knowing it was a matter of life and death. Then she saw a boy in the sky beside the stallion. The boy was older than Joel, but not nearly as big. He was flying beside Pegasus and reaching across to the stallion. Then she saw him snatching Pegasus’s golden bridle away. Suddenly there was a bright, blinding flash of lightning and terrible, searing pain—

‘Emily,’ Joel repeated. ‘Emily, what’s wrong?’

Breaking the connection, Emily blinked and staggered on her feet. ‘Joel?’ she said in a soft and distant voice.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m, I’m fine, I think,’ Emily’s head started to clear. She concentrated on Joel, now looking anxiously at her. ‘I just saw the strangest thing,’ she said.

‘What?’

Emily looked back to the stallion. ‘Pegasus, what I just saw? It was true, wasn’t it? Paelen took the bridle from you. It was because of him you were hit by lightning.’

Pegasus snorted and butted Emily gently.
Yes
.

‘Please tell me,’ Joel pressed. ‘What did you see?’

‘I don’t know how to explain it,’ she said. ‘But it was kind of like watching television, only much more intense. When Paelen got the golden bridle off Pegasus, it attracted lightning and they were both hit.’

‘So now we’ve got to find this Paelen and get it back,’ Joel suggested.

‘That’s going to be impossible,’ Emily said. Stroking Pegasus, she explained about the conversation with her father and how Paelen had been taken by the secret government agency, the CRU.

‘I’ve never heard of the crew,’ Joel said, bewildered. ‘And my dad worked for the United Nations.’

‘Not crew,’ Emily corrected. ‘C-R-U. Central Research Unit. They just pronounce it like the word “crew”. Not a lot of people know about them. These guys deal with weird science stuff and anything to do with aliens. My dad says, when the CRU come to get you, you’re never seen or heard from again. He’s had to deal with them a couple of times in his career, and each time, he was threatened and ordered to stay quiet or there’d be trouble. If the CRU ever learned about Pegasus, they would take him away and we’d never see him again.’

‘If they’re as bad as you say,’ Joel said, ‘we’d probably disappear too, just because we’ve seen him.’

‘Exactly,’ Emily said, ‘which is why we have to be extra careful until Pegasus’s wing heals. He’s got to get safely away to finish whatever it is he came here for.’

‘Did he show you what that was?’

‘No,’ Emily said. ‘All I saw was Paelen stealing the bridle and then both of them getting hit by lightning. But it felt like life and death kind of stuff.’ She turned back to the stallion, ‘Isn’t it Pegasus?’

The stallion nodded and pounded the floorboards.