Phoenix

Escape

Her feet hit the pavement, left, right, left right,forcing the pressure sensor LCD's to glow a hard-impact red. While the lighting effects had awed her on her way into the Central Commercial District, they were nothing but tracker marks now. She cursed the lights, cursed the rich Elites for their superfluous excesses, cursed her legs for not moving faster. Curfew was hours ago. Patrols would be roaming the streets. The threat of getting caught was all around.

The police were slow in their pursuit, having stopped to question the Director on the nature of the incident. Ash used her head start to slip down a laneway alongside the Palace, where the lighting budget hadn't reached. There, she hunkered down in the shadows to plan her next move, breath rattling so loudly, she was sure it could be heard all the way to Outer Band.

The door she was leaning on burst open, flinging her into the gutter. She rolled once then scrambled to her feet, thinking she'd been caught. Then she noticed her assailant wore ivory bodice and iridescent wings.

Amerie.

She turned to flee, but Amerie was too quick and dodged to block her path. Ash side-stepped left. The pixie mirrored her. Right. Amerie did the same.

"Get out of my way," she rasped, too out of breath to put any fortitude behind her words.

Amerie didn't move. "Take me with you."

"Yeah, right," Ash said. Any moment now, the police would be rounding the corner.

"Just take me as far as Outer Band," Amerie urged.

Ash looked the pixie up and down, from the tips of her manicured fingers, to the bejewelled clips on her hastily buckled sandals. "You wouldn't last an hour out there."

"The Madame will kill me is she finds out I almost burnt down her theatre. I need to stay with mum for a while." At the apprehensive look on Ash's face, Amerie continued, "She's a Middle Caster but she lives in Outer Band because she's the Director of the orphanage. You might know her. Her name's Emmeline Wilson."

That got Ash's attention. Amerie was Emmeline Wilson, the Director of the Orphanage's daughter? She hadn't expected that. Now that she knew, she wondered how she hadn't seen it before. They had the same sloping noses, the same pinched expressions when they frowned, and the same withering glares.

"Why should I help you?" she said. Amerie had set her up for failure tonight.

Amerie crossed her arms. "If you don't take me with you, I'll go back inside and tell them where you're going."

Ash recognised the threat and knew, coming from Amerie, it wouldn't be empty. "Rat," she muttered, her annoyance forcing out the gutter slang.

Amerie shrugged and turned to go back inside.

"Fine," Ash growled. "I'll take you as far as Junction Bridge. Then you're on your own."