The Dark (11 page)

‘Yes. As you were once.’

He must see something in my face, because he turns away with an expression that looks something like regret, then mutters, ‘We shall be on opposite sides.’

‘It doesn’t have to be that way.’

He turns back to me. ‘No, because you will tell me where she is.’

He goes to raise his hand again, but I jump in quickly before he gives his order. ‘You may as well kill me, Marduke. Right now if you want. I’m not going to tell you where your daughter is. But before you finish me off, you’d better think about how you’re going to tell Lathenia you killed me before she had a chance to ask
her
questions.’

‘There is no need to concern yourself, my pet,’ Lathenia’s voice echoes around the room a second before she appears. ‘For I am here now. And when I am finished, you can have your fun with him.’

Marduke nods and bows his head, stepping back from me.

She fully forms, dressed in a long white gown, belted
at the waist with a purple sash to match her lips. Alongside her, the mortal shape of a man forms. A young man. And for a second I think I recognise him, but he moves, and the moment is gone.

And while Lathenia stands before me, I take the moment to study her. The only other immortal I have been this close to is Lorian. I was his Apprentice for two hundred years and came to know him well. They are very different. Opposites in fact. Where Lorian is gentle (mostly), with translucent skin, eyes empowered with an energy that makes them difficult to withstand, Lathenia is more mortal in appearance. By anyone’s standards she would be considered quite beautiful. There is irony in the fact that her soul-mate (for how else could she have rescued Marduke from the middle world?) would turn out to be so … disfigured.

She absorbs my thoughts, and even though my truthseeing power is contained, she lets me know hers. And now I understand her rage. Marduke may still be alive, but he is severely altered. And as there is only ever one soul-mate for each of us, hers has evolved into a different species. And this does not please her.

She turns her head around to the boy and gives him a withering look. Her mood is foul. The boy’s eyes shift from Lathenia to Marduke, and his hands start to shake. She points to the wheel and the boy turns it easily.

Marduke looks impressed. ‘It took two of the wren.’ And to the boy he says, ‘You grow stronger each time we meet.’

With praise lavished upon him the boy increases pressure on the wheel. The rack stretches my limbs
beyond endurance. ‘Hold it there,’ Lathenia commands. ‘Now, Arkarian, you will tell me everything you know.’

‘I’ll tell you nothing!’

‘Is that so?’ With needle-sharp nails, Lathenia scratches the side of my face from eye to jaw.

The pain, as my face slices open, goes through to the back of my eyes. I turn my head away. She grabs my jaw, yanking it back. ‘Where is the opening to the ancient city?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You lie!’ To the boy, she nods. He inches the wheel forward. I fight not to scream out. I will not show any weakness!

‘The opening, Arkarian!’

Stubbornly I keep my lips closed.

Air hisses out from between her teeth. The boy tightens the wheel. Pain sears through every one of my limbs. ‘Tell me where the weapons are kept!’

Continuing to keep my thoughts hidden from Lathenia grows harder with each turn of the wheel. Pain robs me of my ability to concentrate. To focus. Trying not to visualise is getting too hard. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Are they locked in the vault in Veridian?’

‘I know not!’

She turns away, giving me a precious moment to collect my senses. But when she returns she has a metal wand in her hand. I watch, as she takes the tip of the wand and heats it in one of the burning torches on the wall. She returns and holds it between my eyes. ‘Tell me everything you know about the weapons. Everything!’

I think about what I know of the weapons, or what I have learned about them from Lorian. Thoughts of their power, their ability to slay the soul-less, skim across my brain.
No!
I stop myself quickly.
Don’t think!
An image of the chest they are safely contained in, its intricate pattern of golden lace, forms before my eyes.
No! Stop!

She realises what I’m doing and screams. ‘Do you dare presume to withhold information from me?’

‘Maybe I’m stronger than you think.’

Her silver eyes flare wide for a second and she steps back. My simple statement seems to have startled her. But why? Surely she doesn’t really suspect I’m stronger than … what?

‘Don’t think yourself so clever, Arkarian. Give me what I want, or I will push this hot poker straight through your heart.’

I don’t doubt for a second she would do it. But I get the feeling she didn’t go to the trouble of bringing me to this other world to kill me at the first chance she got. At least not until she gets some useful information out of me. ‘Go ahead.’

She raises her arm and holds the burning tip directly over the skin that covers my heart. ‘Who has the key?’

Her question throws me. As far as I understand, Lorian thinks Lathenia has the key. I scramble my thoughts and attempt to play the innocent. ‘What key? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

But my game only serves to make her angrier. ‘The key to the treasury of weapons! The key that cannot be handled by human hands!’

So neither side has the key, and neither side knows where it is! Unbelievable! When I get out of here, this
information will be of great interest to the Tribunal. I stare at her with a puzzled frown. ‘I honestly don’t know.’

She slams the poker into the ground. It explodes, disintegrating into a shower of sparks and metal fragments. She keeps her face turned away, as if she needs time to contain her emotions. Then she says, ‘For as long as your soul exists, you can still be of use to me.’

Her words sound like an ominous warning. ‘How might that be?’

‘It’s a wonder you haven’t worked it out, Arkarian.’ She doesn’t wait for me to reply. She just laughs mockingly and says, ‘If for some reason my plan to destroy you at birth should fail, your friends will come for you. And while they might be able to get in, they won’t get out. And won’t the Guard be disadvantaged then? Hmm? Lorian will be eating out of my hand, kissing the ground I walk on. As it should be. As it should have been from the start.’

‘They’re not as foolish as you think. If they come, it’ll be because they know how to get out again.’

She laughs outright. ‘Only I know where the weakness in the rift is.’

‘Only you? I doubt that.’

She stares at me, wondering at my certainty.

‘You showed them yourself when you unleashed that storm on the mountain.’

‘Ah, yes, the storm. Well, Arkarian, you’re not as wise as your reputation would have us believe. Do you imagine I didn’t plan that? If your loyal companions do get into this world of gloom, believe me, they will be trapped here. They will never find you, but live the rest of their lives walking these dark lands, searching. It
wouldn’t be long before they lost their sanity. Perhaps even their souls.’

I try to glean some information from her that might prove useful should the worst happen, and Ethan or Isabel, or any of the others, take it upon themselves to launch a rescue mission. ‘Once they are in, what makes you think they wouldn’t find that same location again to get out?’

‘Don’t think yourself so clever that I will simply tell you how to find the rift from the inside.’ Her eyes narrow and a thin smile pulls at her purple mouth. ‘But I will tell you this, the rift is impossible to find without light.’ She waves her hand around. ‘And as you can see, there’s little of that around here.’

‘One would think a coloured flash would be obvious in a black sky.’

‘The rift flashes black on the inside.’ She stops, and her teeth clench together.

But the reality is, a black flash would be impossible to find in a black sky. I find myself wishing desperately that Isabel and Ethan don’t even attempt a rescue mission. It might be better if Lathenia’s plan to kill me at birth does
not
fail. Far better for the Guard to lose one member, than all three of us.

The Goddess peers around as if looking for something, then speaks to her young soldier. ‘Where have the wren gone? Fetch them.’

The boy glances at me with a look of wary concern, hesitating a moment before heading outside. Lathenia’s eyes narrow. She’s seen his hesitation too and is troubled by it.

The same four winged creatures, called wren, leap or trot into the room. Their eyes glow brighter red when
they see me, their wings flap once or twice. Saliva drips on to their hair-covered torsos from slightly open, piggish snouts.

My eyes shift sideways to the Goddess. What in heaven’s name does she plan to do with them? While holding my stare, she says to her young soldier, ‘Release him. Have the wren beat him to within a breath of life, then take him to Obsidian Island. Secure him there. If they come, they will search in vain.’

Turning from me, Lathenia, with Marduke and the old man slightly behind her, disappears. But her young soldier remains, releasing me from the rack. I fall to the ground. Instantly the wren close in. When they begin to attack, the boy turns his eyes away.

Chapter Ten

Isabel

Mr Carter is co-ordinating our mission to save Arkarian from being killed at birth. We pass through the Citadel without any trouble. We’re given new identities, though mine is the same as the last time I came to France. It turns out there was a purpose to Lathenia’s mission, other than seeking revenge on Ethan. She also wanted to check out Arkarian’s mother, even though she was only a child of six at the time. Now I understand the bond Arkarian and Charlotte shared.

So I’m back in France as Phillipa Monterey, with Ethan as my companion, Jean-Claude. Except now Charlotte is sixteen, and about to give birth.

‘What the hell!’ Ethan exclaims, unimpressed, as he dodges an English soldier’s arrow.

Another arrow whips past my head, narrowly missing my ear!

‘Get down!’ Ethan calls out, yanking on my arm.

It appears that delivering us safely into France is something Mr Carter is having difficulty achieving.

‘Watch out behind you!’

I spin around just in time to avoid the lunge of a
sword. Ethan dives at the soldier’s feet, taking him down to the ground, disarming him at the same time. It appears Mr Carter has landed us directly in the midst of a raging battle between the French and English armies. A French soldier nearby notices us. ‘Here, where did you two come from?’

Struggling to explain why I’m standing in the middle of a battlefield wearing a long green gown and soft brown slippers, I lift one shoulder and offer a pathetic helpless smile.

The soldier’s gaze slides over us both from head to foot. ‘You won’t last long without armour.’ He runs around for a minute gathering weapons from dead soldiers nearby, giving us each a sword and shield. When he hands me mine he points to the sword. ‘Do you know how to use that, lady? If you stay close by my side, I will protect you.’

Ethan raises his eyebrows and rolls his eyes.

A mounted English soldier bears down on us. Ethan lunges for him. ‘This is too dangerous,’ he says. ‘We also don’t have the time. Not to mention the fact we could get killed, or kill someone in self-defence who’s not supposed to die today.’

We struggle to make our way to the edge of the fighting. Eventually we see a chance to escape into some thick bushes. ‘Come on,’ Ethan urges.

I drop my sword and shield and run for protection into the nearby woods. Once deep inside, the sounds of battle diminish, and we stop to catch our breath and our bearings.

‘Anything look familiar?’ Ethan asks, knowing I was in this area not so long ago. ‘Or has Carter stuffed that up too, landing us God-knows-where on this planet?’

‘Mr Carter’s doing his best.’

‘Is he? Or did he land us directly in the middle of that battle on purpose?’

I shake my head. ‘What have you got against that man?’

He makes a scoffing sound.

‘I know he’s harsh on you in the classroom. But maybe he’s like that ’cause he’s trying to bring out the best in you?’

His scoff this time turns into a fully-blown choking fit. I thump him on the back a few times. He motions me away. ‘I’m OK.’

Finally, he gets his breath back. ‘We never hit it off at school, that’s for sure. But if you want to know the truth, what I’ve got against the man is … Now this is going to sound lame, but it’s my gut instinct.’

It should be my turn to scoff. But he looks so serious. And well, Ethan has reliable instincts. ‘Look, all I know is that bad mouthing Mr Carter won’t help us save Arkarian’s life.’

‘You’re right,’ he concedes and glances around. ‘Let’s find our way out of here.’

It takes a while, but eventually we come to farmland that looks about right. A road up ahead leads into an area that looks similar to what we were earlier shown in the sphere.

Finally I see the castle, behind its outer walls and the small thatched cottages, just as imposing as it was ten years earlier. But that last time I was with Arkarian. Remembering brings a sharp pain to my chest, making my lungs feel as if they can’t get enough air.

Ethan notices as he pulls open the wooden gate. ‘He’ll be all right, Isabel. We’re going to make sure of it.’

Thankful for Ethan’s optimism, I follow him through the gates. When we draw near the gate-house doors, Ethan makes me pull back behind a bush. ‘We should check things out first.’

But my head says no. We lost enough time stuck in the middle of a battle, kilometres in the wrong direction. ‘This is the day Charlotte is supposed to give birth. We could already be too late.’

‘So what do you suggest, go straight up to the entrance?’

He thinks it’s a joke, but I think his idea is spot on. ‘Exactly. But I know we have to be cautious, so how about I go on my own?’

‘What?’

‘You can keep watch for anything unusual from here.’

He doesn’t like my idea but eventually caves in. Before he changes his mind, I walk up to the front gate and bang on the iron door knocker a couple of times.