Free Fighting Fit by Annie Dalton Page B

said to her brother in a trembling voice. Rising gracefully from her couch she left the room. As I rushed after her, shouts of laughter followed us.
    I knew now why Orlando had planted me in this house. The PODS were out to destroy Aurelia. They didn’t just want to harm her physically. They wanted to kill her spirit.
    But why would they bother, unless she threatened their own malevolent plans in some way? I fretted. And that was just ridiculous. Aurelia wasn’t a threat to anybody. She was just a sweet, harmless little rich girl.
    Later, I shot out of an uneasy doze to hear my mistress moving around in the dark.
    I opened my eyes as she crept softly out of the room. Probably just going to the latrine, I thought drowsily. Um, so why is she wearing her cloak? I asked myself.
    And I was off my couch in a flash. I was Helix, an angelic trouble-shooter on a mission that was just about to go seriously pear-shaped.
    You should have seen this coming, I scolded myself. That banquet had given Aurelia a nightmare preview of her future. Now she was probably rushing off to the arms of her secret lover.
    I beamed urgent telepathic signals to Reuben as I threw on my clothes.
    Meet me under the quince tree. NOW!
    Outside, the night air smelled of roses. A perfect full moon sailed over the quince tree. Reuben came hopping out of the slave quarters, still trying to buckle his sandals. “I’d have been here quicker but I had to shut Minerva in her kennel,” he whispered. “What’s up?”
    “Aurelia’s running away. I think she’s going to this guy. We’ve got to follow her.”
    We slipped out of the slaves’ entrance and raced along the dark street. “This is terrible!” I panted out. “You heard what Dorcas said. Anyone who gets in Titus’s way ends up seriously dead. If he finds out about her boyfriend, Aurelia could be next.”
    “We don’t know she’s got a boyfriend yet,” Reuben said breathlessly. “This might not be what you think.”
    “Why else would a nice Roman girl be out in the streets at night? She’s hardly likely to be going clubbing!”
    “There she is!” said Reuben suddenly.
    Aurelia had stopped to peer at a piece of papyrus in the moonlight. We silently caught her up. “Right at the crossroads,” she murmured. “Take the third on the right by the olive mill. Go to the old aqueduct and wait.”
    And she was off again.
    When we reached the aqueduct, someone stepped out of the shadows. With a flicker of alarm, I saw other figures silently following behind him. I heard someone whisper, “Bless you little sister,” then they all set off together down the street.
    “This isn’t about some boyfriend is it?” I whispered to Reubs.
    “Doesn’t look like it,” he agreed.
    Other anonymous humans joined them as they hurried along. It went on like this, a growing crowd of men and women, all stealthily and silently heading for the same unknown destination.
    Now and then one would stop and listen intently, to see if they were being followed, then they’d hurry on.
    Finally we reached open ground. There had been houses here once, but they had crumbled into rubble years ago. We trailed Aurelia and her companions through the moonlit ruins until we came to an overgrown fig tree. The gnarled branches partly concealed a low archway, which had once been part of a temple. Everyone silently filed inside.
    When we were quite sure the coast was clear, we followed.
    On the other side of the arch, a flight of steep stone steps disappeared down into the dark. On every sixth or seventh step, someone had placed a lighted clay lamp.
    Helix might be up for it, but Mel Beeby wasn’t too keen to go exploring some crumbly old crypt in the dark, so I quickly helped myself to a lamp.
    It’s lucky I did. At the bottom we found ourselves in a low stone tunnel with dozens of other tunnels going off. It was a total labyrinth.
    “Now what do we do?” My voice echoed spookily around the tunnel.
    Reuben pointed at the wall.