The Last Murder at the end of the World

SIXTY-THREE

Emory enters the cauldron garden alone, having struggled up the goat trail for the last two hours in the pitch black.

Seth and Clara stayed behind in the lighthouse. It’s well after curfew, and neither of the elders would exempt them, no matter how hard they protested. Emory thinks it’s spite, but she didn’t fight too hard against the decision.

In truth, she’d rather be by herself tonight. The things she has to do will be dangerous, and she’s much happier knowing her family will be away from the village.

Walking through the cauldron garden, she peers around in wonder.

Moonlight has melted across the dome, while thousands of fireflies zip around in the darkness, bioluminescent butterflies leaving purple and pink trails in their wake. It’s one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen, and one of the most baffling. How could all of this come from the souls of people such as Thea and Hephaestus?

Emory bites her lip, trying to imagine what Niema felt about all of this. Back in the lighthouse, Thea claimed she wanted to control humans the way she controlled the villagers, because she was afraid of what they’d do if they were released from Blackheath.

‘Control,’ murmurs Emory.

That was one of the words on the letter Niema was writing to Hephaestus the night before she died.

Emory left the original in her dorm, but she’s read it over so many times she can recall it verbatim.

My darling boy,

I know you’re disappointed, and my decision will feel like a betrayal. You must believe I’ve let you down, after asking so much of you, but

There was a gap after that, with the rest gathered from the pencil rubbing Emory made: if I couldn’t control … better … contain … Abi wanted to … couldn’t kill

And then the numbers ‘5:5?’ were scrawled on the back.

Niema killed thirteen people as part of a doomed experiment to control humans. The letter seemed to suggest she’d given up on it, preferring to contain them instead. Was that the betrayal she was referring to? Had Niema decided to keep the humans locked up in Blackheath forever?

Footsteps crunch through the undergrowth, wood cracking.

Pushing through the branches, Emory discovers the villagers hacking their way through the undergrowth with machetes and axes, clearing plots of land for farming. Their eyes are closed, their faces filthy. They’re scratched by thorns, panting hard at the exertion they don’t know they’re undertaking.

‘It might be kinder to let the fog have us,’ she thinks.

She’s footsore and tired by the time she enters the cable-car station, jamming the lever forward and jumping onboard the carriage as it departs.

Huge forks of lighting are crawling across the island, thunder bouncing off the volcano. Several rowboats are out at sea, lanterns swaying at the bow, tiny points of light in the endless black.

‘Where are they going?’ she asks.

‘Thea wants the equipment salvaged from the lighthouse,’ I reply.

The cable car sways in the wind, creaking on the line as it glides into the village, which is dark aside from the harsh light spilling out of Thea’s lab.

Thea rowed to the lighthouse last night, but Emory still doesn’t know why and none of her theories explain it.

It’s not the only question chasing her. There are swarms of them.

Why would Niema bother putting her defence system up, only to abandon the lighthouse and go to the village? What happened to Hui after she was stabbed? Why can’t Ben stop drawing equations in the dirt? And why did they hike out to Blackheath last night, dragging a cart behind them?

The cable car judders into the station, and Emory spills out, plucking her sweaty clothes away from her skin.

‘What time is it?’

‘It’s 10:16 p.m.,’ I reply.

Hephaestus is expecting to meet her at midnight, with the key to Blackheath. The last time she saw it, Adil was rolling it under his thumb, as he accused Thea of murdering Niema. He treated it carelessly, like a trinket, which is why she didn’t think to wonder what it was.

She stalks through the driving rain towards the barracks, ascending the staircase to Magdalene’s dorm.

She’s hoping that once she’s explained her plan, Adil will hand over the key.

She just needs a little leverage to get Hephaestus talking. He’s the final piece of the puzzle, but if she doesn’t handle him carefully, she’ll be dead long before the fog hits the island.