Amber & Ice

Chapter 20: Your hand is the only thing preventing me from frostbite

Bree stared him down. Athena wasn't sure whether she was merely glaring at him, or sending him a message over the feeds. After a tense moment, Dyo relented.

"Why don't you go and catch up with Ajax - he can fill you in on that lecture we ended up missing most of."

Athena nodded, although she would have preferred to stay where she was; she was intrigued about their discussion. But she headed over to the refreshment booth anyway.

"Athena!" Ajax smiled at her as she approached, bringing her into the group he was stood with. "It would be unfair to expect you to remember all our names, so I will re-introduce you everyone: Artemis is a Justice lecturer at LUP - you'll probably be seeing more of her next year. Penny and Thalia are both second years at LUP. They've already survived my beginners course."

"Survived is far too negative, Ajax. We loved every minute of it!" Penny told him, smiling.

"Just wait until he starts detailing the Dark Years. It's gruesome, but fascinating," Thalia added.

"And makes you realise just how important it is for us to fight for what we have now. Or what we would like to have, at any rate," Penelope sounded as weary as the rest of the group. Athena wondered where their passion had gone; where their drive was. They all seemed so utterly defeated. It was by no means the revolution Athena had been expecting. As bizarre as it sounded, Athena felt that they could have done with Cress there, to kick them into action and raise their confidence. There was no one Cress couldn't cajole to action.

"Your real success so far, Athena, is getting Dyo to show up at a lecture - I honestly didn't think that it was going to happen and I was dreading having to fail him."

"I don't think I can take all of the credit for that one. I had no more idea than you that he was going to arrive."

"That may be true, but he definitely wasn't there for me." His eyes glinted as he spoke.

Artemis was about to say something, but before she could, the lights in the theatre blinked out, plunging them into darkness.

"What's going on?" Athena heard someone ask, although she had no way of knowing who.

"Did one of us just do that?" another, slightly more panicked, voice said.

"I don't think so."

"Bree, are you there?"

There was no answer. Nor was there any sign that the lights were about to come back on.

The next voice Athena heard belonged to Ajax. It was calm and authoritative. "We need to leave. Don't turn on your feed glasses and don't say anything more. I don't think we should be here any more." The hidden meaning in his words was clear and cold panic gripped Athena's chest. She felt as though frozen water was running through her veins. But before she could panic too much, she felt a hand on her arm and Ajax's voice close to her ear. "Don't worry, Athena. I'm going to get you out of here."

He led her forwards through the darkness. She could hear the shuffle of footsteps behind her as the others fell into line. Unable to see and with no way of orientating herself anyway, Athena had no choice but to follow.

Where was Dyo? Had he already made it out?

Blindly, Athena was led down through the stalls and up onto the stage, where the group veered right into one of the wings. From there, a door to the left took them backstage, along narrow corridor to another door, then another, then another.

As they slowly edged further away from the centre of the theatre, Athena heard a crash behind them and what sounded like feet. Lots of them.

A shiver of panic went through the group and they started to surge forward, until a furious message kept them in check: Don't be foolish. A panic is exactly what they want. The only way we are getting out of here is by staying calm. - Nestor

Heeding the wisdom of Nestor's words, the column slowed. However, a few moments later it came to a complete and unexpected stop.

The door is locked Ajax sent across to them. Athena could feel her heart hammering in her chest; she didn't know exactly what was going on, but she could tell from the others' panic that it wasn't good.

What now? Penny wrote back.

Is there another way out? Orpheus queried. Athena was pleased that the messages were coming across the feeds, otherwise she would have no way of knowing who was speaking when.

Because she had been led along by Ajax, Athena found herself right at the front, with the locked door in front of her.

Acting on instinct, she reached out and tried the handle for herself. It definitely wasn't opening, but it didn't feel locked. I think it's just jammed. She send to Ajax. If someone with enough strength pushed down on it, I think it will open.

It's worth a shot. Ajax wrote back, before opening the message up publicly. Ares, can you come up here and try the door?

There was a bit of commotion in the line as Ajax pushed through to the front of the group. Once there, Athena could hear him feeling for the handle. When he found it, he pushed down, hard. And the door opened.

Messages of celebration shot across the feeds and the line resumed its march. As they moved through the doorway, Athena's feet connected with something solid, which rolled off to the side at the contact, but there wasn't time to stop and investigate further. Another corridor met them, followed by another door, on the other side of which, was Dyo.

Thank god, I found you. He sent across. We need to get out quickly. The theatre is swarming with police.

He took Athena by the hand and led them along the last two corridors and out into the chilled air.

They were now at the back of the theatre. The streets were deserted save for Bree, Don, Ariadne and Orion, who were all looking pale and anxious.

"Come on," Bree said quietly. "They haven't come round this way yet; they must be assuming that they have us all trapped inside. We need to split up. Don and I will keep an eye on the theatre. We'll message you later with more info."

Dyo tugged Athena's hand and they started to run along the road, turning off into the busier main street and blending into the crowd.