The Dark

CHAPTER Eighteen



Isabel


For twenty-four hours I can’t sleep. Ethan, though, is wonderful. All afternoon we talk about what happened in Rome, and he reminds me of the time he botched a mission and the woman he was supposed to protect unfortunately died. ‘The Tribunal aren’t blaming you. You didn’t put the bomb under that silver dome, Isabel,’ he tells me over and over. ‘Just remember that.’

It grows late and he leaves, worried about his mother. She’s worse than usual, and no one can understand why. I regret burdening him with my problems when he has so many of his own. I go up to my room and flop down on my bed. Eventually I start to doze.

I dream of Arkarian. His face, his gentle eyes and vivid blue hair, as always, bring me comfort. I feel myself shift into a kind of oblivion, a semi-awareness, as if I’m neither awake nor asleep. He’s exactly as I remember him, tall and slender, calm and strong, poised and in control. His eyes draw me to him, and instantly I’m lost in them. But it’s a sweet feeling of warmth, trust and security that I lose myself in. He steps up to me and smiles. I run my fingers through his hair, marvelling not just at the unusual colour, but at the feeling of silk in my hand. And for the first time in a long day I feel myself unwind.

But the dream changes, and my old enemy Marduke appears. Yet here is a man who is nothing like I remember. He’s changed, taken on the look of a strange beast, almost entirely covered in a bristly fur. It crawls down his forehead and the sides of his face, making me shudder with repulsion.

Arkarian and I are thrown apart at Marduke’s appearance. My head swims with a foul odour that I recognise as the evil that has resided in this man since he chose to serve the Goddess. Marduke holds Arkarian back with just the point of his finger and a wild green energy that radiates from it. He grins, and his halfmouth, and one blazing eye, seem to laugh louder than any words.

As sure as my next breath, my heart knows what’s going to happen; and the fear that grips me makes me curl into a ball, knees tucked tightly to my chest. I try to wake, try to make a sound. Matt is sleeping in the room next to mine, and our walls are thin. Jimmy is across the hall with Mum. But the only sounds being made are the ones playing out in my dream. Horrifying sounds of Arkarian being tortured. Now I see him, in a dark room lit by burning torches, strapped to a medieval rack. I stretch my hands out to him. ‘Arkarian!’ But the distance between us only seems to grow further.

Marduke laughs. I hear it both in my heart and in my head. And then I see why. Those same four creatures who abducted Arkarian from the Citadel make an appearance. One turns and looks up at me, staring with glowing red eyes. It flaps awkward wings, lifts into the air, then snorts with the contentment of a pig.

Marduke barks a command, and two of these creatures make the rack stretch Arkarian’s bones to breaking point. ‘No!’ I scream and thrash about in my bed. I have to wake from this nightmare, which I feel in the pit of my stomach is not a dream at all, but a glimpse from another world. ‘Let him go!’

Marduke speaks, his words slurred as if his tongue is out of proportion with his mouth. But I understand his meaning all right. And it makes me scream even harder, while my hands and feet try to hit out at him.

Someone starts shaking me. It helps drag me from my nightmare. I open my eyes to find Jimmy holding my shoulders, with Matt yelling in my face to wake up. Mum is looking worried, grasping her pyjama shirt top together between tightly held fists. ‘Heavens, what’s wrong with her? She’s having so many nightmares lately.’

I try to calm down so Mum doesn’t suspect anything weird about me. She doesn’t know about my double life. That’s how it has to be for her own protection. But my heart is still in overdrive as I try to figure out what just happened. This same person reached me through my dream once before.

I have to tell Jimmy and Matt, but especially Jimmy. He’ll know what to do. Who to tell. Thank God he’s back. His light joking manner is a blessing in a crisis.

But first I have to reassure Mum. Straightening, I pull out of Jimmy’s hold. ‘It’s all right everyone. I’m fine now. It was just a bad dream, that’s all.’ With my eyes I try to tell Jimmy we have to talk.

To Mum he suggests, ‘What about a mug of hot chocolate, love? Always good for a sleepless night. What’d’ya say, darl’?’

Mum looks at me, a hand to her throat. ‘Would you like that, honey? Some hot chocolate?’

‘Oh yeah, that would be great, Mum.’

Reluctant to leave, she touches Matt’s arm. ‘You go, Matt. Make some for all of us.’

But I need to talk to Jimmy, and I can’t wait until Mum goes to bed. ‘But Mum, he doesn’t know how to make it like you. Matt will make it in the microwave.’ I can’t believe what I’m saying. I sound like a spoilt brat. ‘Please, Mum?’

She relents. And as soon as she walks out the door I spin around and grab Jimmy’s shirt front. ‘He’s not dead!’

‘Who’s not?’ Matt asks. ‘What are you talking about?’

I have to hiss the word. Speaking it out loud scares me half to death. ‘Marduke.’

‘But, Isabel, we all saw him die. You were just dreaming, darl’.’

‘It happened while I slept, but it was no dream, Jimmy. He’s alive I tell you. As alive as you and me.’ But then I think about this. ‘Well, not quite as you and me. He’s changed. It’s as if he’s become part monster. An animal.’ I’m starting to sound more hysterical than believable. ‘Look, last year he did the same thing. He reached me through my dreams.’ My head shakes. ‘I don’t know how he does it. Maybe it’s one of his powers. But I recognised him straightaway. He wanted to tell me something.’

Matt’s eyes squint as worry lines crease his forehead. ‘What did he say? Are you in any sort of danger?’

Suddenly it becomes clear, but I have to hurry. I can hear Mum downstairs switching off lights already. She’s made the fastest hot chocolates in her life. ‘I think it was an invitation.’

Jimmy catches on. ‘He’s inviting you to the underworld.’

Matt comes to his own decision. ‘It’s a trap! Lorian is right not to risk lives to bring Arkarian back.’

I turn on Matt as if I’m a snake and my words are venom. ‘Lorian is not right about this!’ Mum’s footsteps are near, but we’re not finished yet. Jimmy spins his head to the door just as Mum gets to the top of the stairs. The door slams shut.

‘Hurry, Isabel. I won’t keep a door shut in your mother’s face for longer than absolutely necessary. What do you want me to do?’

‘You have to get me into that world, Jimmy.’

‘No way!’ Matt cries out.

I ignore him, keeping my eyes fixed on Jimmy, but all he does is shake his head. ‘I haven’t got the power, Isabel. It takes an immortal.’

But his answer is not what I want to hear. I grab his shirt front once again, and bring his face down to mine. ‘Don’t feed me that crap, Jimmy. I’ve seen your work in the ancient city. You have power.’

‘We all have powers, Isabel. That’s why we’re in the Guard.’

Matt scoffs at this; both Jimmy and I ignore it. He’s just impatient, and I’m impatient for Jimmy’s help. Anyone’s help.

Jimmy unwinds my fingers from his shirt. ‘I don’t have the powers you need.’

Mum bangs at the door with her foot. ‘Honey? Matt? Someone open this door.’

Matt gets up. ‘Coming, Mum.’ He walks over slowly.

I stare at Jimmy one last time. ‘Then find me someone who will help me get through the rift.’

‘And induce the wrath of Lorian?’

‘Well yes, if that’s what it takes!’

His eyes narrow as he thinks about my request. Arkarian is his long-trusted friend, someone Jimmy totally respects. He too must be hurting over Lorian’s decision not to approve a rescue mission. Matt opens the door and Mum comes in with a tray and four mugs of steaming hot chocolate drinks. While she puts the tray on my dresser, Jimmy whispers near my ear, ‘The one you need is Lord Penbarin. I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting. But you have to understand the consequences of your act. What you plan to do is treason – disobedience of a direct command. Isabel, you could die for this.’

For the first time since Arkarian’s abduction I feel a surge of hope. Action has always been the way I work. And now I have a plan that I know is right. When this is all over, I’ll accept whatever fate I’m dealt. But for now, no one is going to stop me.

Mum comes over and hands me a mug of hot chocolate. She looks so concerned. She probably thinks I’m coming down with something. I take the mug and feel a sharp stab of pain. I sure as hell don’t want to die, never to see my family again. Or put my mother through any sort of grief. But how can I leave Arkarian in that place, in the hands of a madman, without even trying to help? The answer is simple – I can’t. If death is a risk, then I’m willing to take it. For him. Only for him.

I look across at Mum as she takes a seat at the foot of my bed, and force a reassuring smile to my face. But the smile develops a tremor as a wave of uncertainty almost overwhelms me. I force it aside. Now is not the time for doubts. Turning my head to the side where Jimmy waits, I whisper in the softest voice, ‘If that’s how it has be, Jimmy … then so be it.’