If I had stayed in my room with my 'illness' then I knew that Clementine would have told the Caretakers that I had been looking a whole lot better when she'd seen me in the dorm recently, so I was forced to rejoin the others for the rest of another mundane day's activities. The main event this afternoon was making perfume from flower petals, which probably sounds fun unless you have done it a few thousand times before. It would have been an essential part of yet another day exactly like the one before, were it not for the fact that today had already gone way off track. No day would ever be the same again.

Having done it so many times before, I could make perfume with my eyes closed - and mine often smelled as if that was exactly what I had done - so while my hands went through the motions, my brain began to scheme. Horrifying though the day's news had been and gut-wrenching though it had been to find Sadie did not want to come with me, I had to guiltily admit that I was finding it all a bit thrilling. That was terrible, wasn't it? These other girls weren't nice but they didn't deserve to die, and here I was, glad that I had the opportunity to do something different that their imminent deaths afforded me. But in a strange way, this was the situation I had been waiting for my whole life - the chance to have an adventure. It was a shame that my best friend hadn't agreed to come with me, but that would prove an adventure all of its own.

That night, when we all went to bed, I stayed awake - yet another wicked sin. Once I was sure that all the others were sound asleep, I slipped out of bed and got dressed. It was irritating that I had nothing more adventure-worthy to wear than my white robes but they were the only clothes I had. I opened the window and peered out. There were still people moving about in the precinct, servants mostly, who worked to a different timetable to the Chosen, but that wasn't going to change anytime soon. I would have to chance it.

I slipped out of the window and hoisted myself up onto the roof as I had done so many times before in the early hours of the morning. I had never felt more conspicuous in my life than with my brilliant white robes brightly obvious against the dark roof, but it was too late to turn back now. Actually, it probably wasn't, but I still wasn't going to turn back. Reaching the corner of the building, I shimmied down to the ground, then stole along the wall to the window of the herbalist's.

This was where we came when we got cramps or sick or whatever, and I knew that they had something in here that could make a person sleep. I didn't know what it was but it had put Senior Louis out like a light when he had his trouble. I had made a mental note of it at the time, thinking it might be useful in some mischief making, but now I had a more serious purpose in mind.

As I slid the window carefully open from outside, I wondered what the punishment might be for what I was attempting. The thing was that, even though they knew I was to be sacrificed in ten days - closer to nine, now - the Caretakers would still punish me. Was that because they needed my soul to be blameless when they pushed me into a volcano? Or was it that they were a bunch of evil-minded sadists? Either way, I wasn't planning to be caught.

The plan was to dip a handkerchief in the sleeping drug, then wave it under the noses of the other girls to keep them asleep while I dragged Sadie out of bed to the apple cart by the kitchen. I might be able to carry her some of the way but I'd have to wait and see. She might not thank me for it when she woke up but I was determined. I didn't even know what there was to eat out there in the wide world, but I was betting that it was different to what I had eaten every day of my life, and right now, different was more important than better.

It wasn't a perfect plan; in the dark of the herbalist's it was hard to find what I was looking for. I didn't dare light a lamp, so I had to take the vials of drugs to the window and hold them up to examine them in the moonlight, but finally I found what I was looking for and headed for the door.

I had decided to go back to the dorm through the building. There was a greater chance of discovery this way but I needed to make sure that the route was clear, because there was no way I could carry Sadie out the window, along the roof and down the wall. The best I would have been able to do was shove her out and that would rather defeat the object.

But as I approached the stairs that led back up towards the dorms, I heard a sound. Was one of the Caretakers out and about at this time of night? I peered around the corner to look at the stairs and a chill snaked its way up my spine. Someone was creeping up the stairs. And not just any someone; it was a man. And not just any man; a young one. And a massive one. Maybe all young men were this size and the pictures in the book had simply not done justice to their scale, but the silhouette of this man suggested something carved from rock rather than flesh. The other thing I could not fail to notice about him was that he was armed.

Speculations about the man's impressive size could wait for now. Whatever this hulking figure was doing here, he was not meant to be, and while I didn't feel a great deal of loyalty to this place, I wasn't going to stand back while my comrades were murdered in their beds. There was a sturdy-looking vase on a plinth just behind me and I picked it up, wondering whether saving everyone from certain death would mitigate whatever punishment I might receive for being out of bed at this hour. I crept up behind the man, who had remained stationary on the stairs, apparently waiting for something. I raised the vase, ready to bring it down across his head - or as near to his head as I could reach.

"I wouldn't, woman."

The voice came from behind me and the shock of hearing it made me toss the vase up in the air. I managed to catch it again as the huge figure on the stairs turned to look at me. I whipped around, and from the shadows, a second massive figure emerged, cutting off my retreat.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. Which was pretty ballsy. These men were unlike anything I had ever seen. They looked a completely different species to the elderly Priests who ran the temple. A shaft of moonlight through a window illuminated them, casting the lines of their muscles into deep relief and increasing the impression that they had been sculpted - nothing that perfect could be natural.

But I did not dwell on their perfection for long - longer than perhaps I should have, but not long. I was unquestionably the fittest of the Chosen because I went for a run most mornings and deliberately trained myself, while the most strenuous exercise everyone else did was a spirited session of Pilates. But I was no match for these men - I was like a blade of grass between two massive trees. My best hope was that I was smarter than they were, but right now I was struggling to kick my brain into gear - a lot had happened in the last twenty-four hours and my mind was a little overwhelmed. Escape plans were obviously on hold for tonight, I had to warn everyone that we were under attack. I had to get past them and sound the alarm.

"What are you doing here?" I asked again.

"We're your worst nightmare."

"Not even close." I hurled the vase at the head of the one on the stairs and let out a scream that ought to have been loud enough to wake the dead, let alone the ever-vigilant Caretakers. At the same time, I was on the move, ducking nimbly under the arm of the man on the stairs as he shielded his face from the vase. I heard the snarl of irritation from the other man but knew that he was too big to follow where I had gone and would have to wait until his friend got out of the way.

Just enough to give me a decent head start.

Where the staircase turned, I vaulted up over the banister, saving precious seconds. For the second time that day I was struck with a sensation of enjoying something that I shouldn't - third time if you count me ringing the Devil's Doorbell. I was in mortal danger and so were the rest of the Chosen who, though they did not know it, were now relying on me. Their lives were in my hands. And the result of that was down to a thrilling chase - me with my speed and quick brains, against the hulking brute strength of my pursuers. I knew it was wicked, but I felt a surge of excited elation as I raced up to the top of the stairs, still screaming.

And ran into what felt like a brick wall.

Dazed and off-balance, I began to fall back down the stairs but a hand looped around my waist to save me and I stared up into the face of a third man, his features decorated with grim war paint.

He didn't look friendly.