The Dark

CHAPTER One



Isabel


Nowhere is safe any more. Every few weeks we change training grounds. Today we’re on the mountain, on an open field over the top of Arkarian’s chambers. Not that you can see Arkarian’s chambers, they’re hidden within the mountain. There is a secret entrance that can’t be seen from the outside. It opens on command – usually only Arkarian’s. The Guard has to maintain a high level of secrecy, our lives are constantly in danger. And since Marduke’s death, nothing is the same. He died a year ago today.

Marduke thought he could use my brother Matt as bait. His plan for revenge ended up dragging Matt into the Guard before he was ready. Marduke had already killed Ethan’s sister Sera, as part of his payback plan for losing half his face in an earlier conflict with Ethan’s father Shaun. It was this fight that turned Marduke from being one of the Guard’s trusted members, to a traitor.

A cold shiver runs through me. It’s the memory of how close we came to losing so much. My brother for one. He didn’t know anything about the Guard then. Now he’s a member. Well, at least he’s trying to be. Ethan is his Trainer, and I think Matt is proving to be a frustrating Apprentice.

I don’t usually come up and watch Matt’s sessions, unless I’m training too. But today Ethan asked me to assess Matt’s progress. It’s dangerous for all three of us to disappear after school together on a regular basis. Our history teacher Mr Carter, who is also one of the Named, is always warning us. ‘It could attract attention,’ he often says. ‘You just never know who’s watching.’

Our identities, though revealed to each other, have to remain concealed from any member of the Order who might be hanging around. There could be someone at school, one of our own ‘friends’ for all we know. The very thought sends another wave of shivers all over me. I rub my arms to get rid of the goose bumps under my jumper. It’s not snowing up here yet, but the weather is turning colder now that winter is approaching. I just wish this day would hurry up and pass. I can’t seem to get rid of the creepy feeling that something’s going to go wrong.

‘Hey, Isabel, are you OK over there? I’ve got a jacket in my bag. Why don’t you put it on?’

I groan softly under my breath. That’s Matt of course, overly concerned as ever. When will he understand I’m only one year younger than him and able to look after myself? Haven’t I spent most of my life proving just that? ‘I’m not cold!’

He gives me a long, frustrated, when-will-she-grow-up kind of look, which sets my blood boiling. I take a deep breath, reminding myself it’s just the way he is. And he’s not just protective of me. He takes what he perceives to be his responsibilities very seriously. Like watching over Mum, for instance. That’s why he resents her boyfriend Jimmy so much, even though he’s also a member of the Guard. (Mum’s not, and she’s never to find out.)

Maybe that’s why Matt’s the chosen one. Chosen by the Prophecy, that is, to be our leader. Arkarian explained it all. But I’m not so sure telling Matt was such a good idea. I wasn’t shown the Prophecy until I was ready to handle it.

Ethan nudges Matt with an elbow. ‘Come on, we’ve got a lot to get through today.’

Air hisses out between Matt’s teeth and he rolls his eyes, totally frustrated. He knows that while he’s picking up some good fighting techniques with all this training, it’s his skills – his powers – that are going to be his real strengths. But so far there has been no sign of any paranormal abilities whatsoever. I know my brother like the skin on my own hands. He’s been drawn into the Guard before his time – a situation that couldn’t be avoided. But now here he is, unprepared, his powers nowhere in sight, even after a whole year! No wonder he feels inadequate.

Mostly I understand what he’s going through. So far only one of my powers has revealed itself – that of healing. I have another one, or perhaps even two, and don’t know what they are yet. But since my healing skills have been useful, I feel a certain contentment, as if I’m pulling my weight within the Guard.

Now Ethan’s powers are legendary. He’s the illusionist. He can move things, too, with just his mind. And luckily for him, he has a third skill, his instinctive trust in the Prophecy. Last year, as a reward for his loyalty, a Tribunal gathering in Athens saw Lorian honour him with the power of flight. I don’t mean that Ethan can suddenly fly like a bird. It’s an ability to transport himself from one spot, almost instantly, to another. Even though it’s been a year, Ethan hasn’t quite mastered using his wings yet. The other day he transported himself into a cow paddock, both feet firmly lodged in freshly dropped and steaming cow dung. When Matt and I got to the scene we couldn’t stop laughing for at least an hour.

And to make matters worse, while Matt is physically fit, he’s never been the sporty type, and hasn’t a clue when it comes to self-defence. While I was into everything outdoorsy growing up, he was into protecting me. And now he just can’t seem to slow his mind down long enough to find his central focus.

‘Don’t sweat it, Matt,’ Ethan tries to reassure him. ‘Your powers will reveal themselves when you’re ready.’

Matt throws down his sword, point first into the soft, grass-covered earth. ‘That’s easy for you to say. Since I haven’t developed any powers yet, Arkarian won’t let me go on a mission. Do you know what that feels like?’ He doesn’t wait for Ethan to answer. ‘No, you wouldn’t. You’ve been going on missions since you were, what? Two years old?’

Ethan can’t help a soft smile. He’s proud of his service. But he’s not going to rub it in. They have problems, these two. Only since Matt became Ethan’s Apprentice have they started to trust each other. But it’s a slow process. I don’t know if they’ll ever get back the friendship they had when they were kids. It all changed when Rochelle came to our school. Matt fell in love with her on first sight. Trouble was, so did Ethan. But Rochelle chose Matt and they were together for one-and-a-half years. Ethan was pushed aside. But it turns out Rochelle was only pretending to love Matt. She worked for the Order. Marduke was her master. And it was part of his plan for revenge on Ethan’s father, that Rochelle blow Matt and Ethan’s friendship to pieces. She played her part well, but at the battle last year in France, she defied Marduke and saved Matt’s life. Despite that, Matt can’t seem to let go of his resentment. And it hasn’t helped that Rochelle’s been away in hiding all this time. She’s not a member of the Order any more. She defected and has chosen to join the Guard. The two of them need to talk. Otherwise he’s not going to move on.

‘Four,’ Ethan begins explaining. ‘I was four when Arkarian introduced me to this other world. But I was five before I was allowed to go on any missions – a whole year.’

Matt snorts, then tries another tack to prove his point. ‘Isabel went on a mission after only three weeks of training.’

‘But she already had one of her powers.’

‘Yeah, healing! That would hardly protect her in a dangerous situation.’

‘She’s also very able, physically,’ Ethan adds.

Matt kind of grunts an acceptance. His eyes shift sideways to where I’m sitting on a blanket hugging my knees. ‘I know Isabel’s different. She’s kind of …’

Ethan looks at me too. ‘A freak of nature.’

He doesn’t mean it literally. He’s wearing a grin from ear to ear. Once I would have misread that look as flirting. It’s hard not to. Ethan and I spend a lot of time together, and well, I really like him. Have for most of my life. But Ethan’s made it pretty clear he’s not interested in me romantically. We’re just friends. Really good friends. And I’m OK with that. There’s someone else I find myself thinking about. But, well, that relationship seems to be going nowhere too.

‘Yeah,’ Matt says, agreeing with Ethan about me. ‘Even so, she gets allocated missions.’

‘But not on my own,’ I sing out. It’s the one thing that really bugs me. OK, other than healing, I don’t have any physical powers, but how many times do I have to prove to the Tribunal I’m physically capable? Sure, I don’t look strong, being small and all, but if they would just give me a chance …

‘I just don’t get how it’s possible for anyone to be so physically driven.’ I tune in to what Ethan is saying. ‘Is there nothing your sister can’t do to perfection, or die trying?’

I’m about to say, ‘very funny’, but the thought doesn’t make it into words. A sudden explosion of pain rocks the inside of my head. Grabbing both sides of my face I hit the ground in front of me. I would call for help, but the pain is so intense the only sound possible is a gasping groan from deep in my throat.

‘Isabel?’

I think that’s Matt’s voice, but something strange, something powerful, is happening inside my head. I open my eyes but only see white blinding light. It terrifies me and I shut them again. ‘Oh hell!’

‘Isabel!’

Matt and Ethan run to either side of me, trying to help me sit up, but the light and the pain are too strong for me to move very much. ‘Something … something is wrong.’

‘What is it?’ Matt screams, then yells at Ethan, ‘Go for help!’

Ethan puts his arms around my shoulders and starts rocking me gently. ‘Can you tell us what’s happening?’

‘White light. Pain. Something wrong.’

‘What are you doing?’ Matt screams at Ethan. ‘Can’t you see she’s in agony? What good will that do?’

‘Give us a second, Matt,’ he says. Then to me, ‘Try to relax.’

I struggle to do as Ethan says, but the pain in my head is too intense. ‘Can’t.’

‘Try again. Don’t fight whatever it is.’

Somehow the pain eases and I sense a change. The light shifts, softening from bright white to grey, and finally an image starts to form.

‘What the hell is happening?’ Matt yells, sounding frantic.

‘Wait,’ I manage to whisper, holding my hand up to allay some of Matt’s fears. ‘I’m OK.’

As I sit back on my heels the images trying to form in my head become clearer. They roll in front of my eyes like a movie for a few seconds. A movie that I can both see and feel. Unconsciously I clutch at my chest. The images bring with them a disturbing sense of horror and despair.

At last they disappear, and my heart rate starts to slow. But I’m shaking all over and can’t seem to stop. I look straight up to the sky. It’s blue, only a few cirrus clouds forming on the horizon to the north. Nothing serious. For a second I think I see something up there, like a flash of zigzag lightning of the most amazing colour, but that’s impossible. Yet the dark images I just experienced have left me with a weird sense of impending catastrophe – a catastrophe that will come from the sky!

Digging my fingers into Ethan and Matt’s arms for leverage, I stagger quickly to my feet. ‘We have to get out of here!’

‘What?’ Matt glances around with a dumbfounded expression on his face. ‘What’s going on with you? You scared me half to death just then.’

I drag on their arms. There’s no way I can explain the feeling I have right now, or the sense of disaster that has engulfed me with the passing of those strange images. ‘Just come. Quickly.’ I glance at the sky again, that urgent feeling growing unbelievably stronger, an urgency to get the hell out of this vast open field. ‘We have to find shelter.’

Matt straightens his shoulders and puts his hands on his hips. ‘What are you talking about? A minute ago I was ready to call an ambulance, now you look as if you’re about to run a marathon.’

Ethan is easier to convince. He starts thinking straight away, pointing in a northerly direction. ‘There’s a cave. It’s only a few minutes into the woods that way.’

‘What’s going on?’ Matt asks, not understanding and growing more frustrated by the second. ‘Someone explain.’

Ethan flicks him an impatient look. ‘There’s no time for an explanation. Just do what we say.’

I yank on Ethan’s arm, but just as I’m about to start running, a chill sweeps through me. It feels as if the blood in my veins is turning to ice. Every hair on my body suddenly stands on end, including the ones on top of my head!

‘What’s happening?’ Ethan cries out as his hair, and Matt’s too, also stands on end. ‘The air is alive.’ Quickly he starts collecting our things – a rug and backpacks, some mugs we were drinking out of.

I grab his arm. ‘We don’t have time to collect our things. We’ll get them later, OK?’

He drops what he’s collected and starts to run, making sure to keep Matt in front of him. But we don’t get far before a sudden screeching sound makes us stop dead and stare in the direction it came – the sky overhead. Then it happens again, this time with such force we have to cover our ears. It sounds like a piece of silk ripping into a thousand strings.

‘What on earth …?’ Matt mutters, staring up at the sky.

Somewhere in my mind I know we should be running for shelter, but the sky has the three of us mesmerised. It’s still blue, but in one place, almost directly overhead, something strange is happening. Something has started falling.

‘Take cover!’ Ethan calls out.

We hit the ground.

But whatever it is, it doesn’t drop all the way. And when we dare to look up, we see something resembling a deep, dark hole in the sky.

‘What could that be?’ Ethan asks.

Before our eyes, the hole in the sky contracts as if sucking in a breath. Then from within it, clouds – if that’s what they are – thick and black and shiny like oil fresh from the bowels of the earth, propel outwards. Again we fall to the ground, but there’s no safety here, so we hurry to our feet.

Within seconds these black clouds roll across the hillside, darkening the area around us. Lightning, in amazing colours of purple, green, yellow and brilliant red, streaks across the sky, spreading its tendrils in all different directions.

Ethan shakes me, and has to scream to be heard over a sudden burst of strong wind. ‘Move!’

We start running again, as fast as we can without falling over, but that cave Ethan was talking about is still far away. We’re not going to make it. Thunder, like I’ve never heard before, shatters the ground, making us stumble over wide-opening cracks. The air thickens, and hail starts to fall. But this is no ordinary hail. Besides the fact that it’s freezing cold, this hail is jagged and heavy, like large, sharply-angled rocks. And when it hits something solid, it explodes, burning a hole in its wake. It’s as if the ice itself is composed of an unstable element. At least unstable in this world.

‘Here!’ Matt screams out. He whips his shirt off and throws it over my head. I squirm around until it covers the both of us, glancing up to see Ethan doing something similar with his own. So now I have two layers of fabric protecting me. I doubt it will have much effect, but it’s worth a try. Anything would be, to protect us from this strange exploding hail.

‘Look at that!’ Matt calls out, keeping his head low. ‘The hail’s causing fires.’

‘Unbelievable!’ Ethan sounds stunned. ‘Look at the holes in the ground.’

We keep running, leaping over the increasing number of holes. But it gets harder with every step as the sky grows even darker, so much that it would be easy to believe it were closer to midnight than four in the afternoon. As the hail and deafening thunder intensify, I notice the shirts being held over my head start turning red. The guys are using their arms to protect me! They’re covering me, while taking most of the hits from the hail themselves. I scream and tug at their shirts, trying to find their arms. ‘Pull them down! Stop, you idiots! I can look after myself!’ They ignore me and continue to hold their arms purposefully out of reach.

Up ahead the tree-line draws closer, and the prospect of finding shelter under the canopy of the forest has us push our weary legs to their physical limits. But just as we get there a streak of purple lightning screeches over our heads, striking the tree directly before us. The power of the hit tosses us metres into the air. The three of us scramble around on all fours, momentarily disoriented. And if the other two are like me, dazed and deafened as well. Somehow we crawl to the forest edge, skirting around the tree, now nothing more than cracked and burning timber. Slowly the ringing in my ear decreases and my hearing returns.

Once inside the canopy of the forest the hail eases, but the storm intensifies, ripping trees from their roots and overturning boulders that twenty-ton cranes would have trouble shifting. It feels as if this storm has a purpose, and that purpose is to gobble us up!

‘Here!’ Ethan yanks on my arm. ‘This way, I think.’

I see where he’s heading, even though he can’t see it yet himself. It’s so dark in here, both Ethan and Matt would only be able to see a few feet in front of them. But thanks to my skill of sight, a gift from Lady Arabella last year at my Initiation in Athens, I can see much further. I take over the lead, and in a matter of minutes find shelter beneath an overhanging ledge forming the entrance to Ethan’s cave.

At last the three of us try to catch our breath. Ethan and Matt both collapse in a huddle on the rocky floor. Hail has left horrid cuts on their upper bodies, faces and arms and heads. They’re both bleeding from the wounds, but their burns are worse. And the way Ethan is holding his head, he could even have a mild concussion.

I try to get my breathing back to normal quickly and start working on healing them straight away. I take Ethan’s arm, but he pushes me away. ‘Do Matt first.’

Matt protests, but I snap at him, ‘You’re only making Ethan wait longer by arguing, so shut up, Matt, and let me do my work.’

It seems to take for ever, the stench of their burning flesh overwhelming me for a minute so that I find it difficult to start visualising what needs to be done. I force myself to concentrate. Finally they’re both healed and the three of us sit under the protective rocky ledge staring out at the strange storm that’s now settled into a heavy rain depression. Drenched to the bone, we huddle together for warmth. The temperature has fallen to somewhere near freezing point.

‘What the hell was that?’ Matt asks.

I feel Ethan’s shoulders lift, unable to answer. Slowly he turns his head in my direction, his eyebrows rising. I can almost see his thoughts ticking over. He’s remembering the strange phenomenon I experienced earlier, giving me a warning of what was to come. He’s figuring it out, thinking I had some sort of ‘vision’. But I’m not sure he’s on the right path. I’m also not sure I want to hear his theory. My mind’s in a mess right now, a headache beginning to take shape.

If I did receive some sort of ‘vision’ or warning, who’s to say it will happen again? It was hardly a warning at all really. That storm erupted too quickly. It would be a useless skill to have in that sense.

‘Isabel? You got any ideas?’ Ethan’s hand does a wide sweep of the devastation surrounding us, and I notice a slight tremor he can’t conceal. ‘Is this what you saw? This … this hurricane?’

But how can I tell him this storm was not exactly what I saw, but more the tail end of what I felt? What I saw is unexplainable. A place of darkness, pain and suffering, where fear and despair lock around your heart like a cage from which there is no escape.

I shudder suddenly and Matt tries to warm my arms with his hands. ‘I’m OK!’ I say these words with more force than I mean. Instantly I’m regretful and start to say so, but he gets up and moves away, leaning against the edge of the cave opening.

‘Isabel?’ Ethan reminds me that I haven’t answered his question.

I keep my voice soft enough so Matt doesn’t hear. ‘I’m not exactly sure what I saw, Ethan. That “vision” was very strange. And this storm, it’s just so unreal. I can’t be certain the two are connected.’

We’re silent for a moment, and the rain begins to ease. And if I’m not mistaken, patches of blue sky start breaking through where trees have been uprooted. ‘Who would have thought this beautiful sunny day would have ended this way?’

‘Exactly,’ Ethan says. ‘What I want to know is why we weren’t warned.’

I gaze at him in a puzzled way. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Aren’t hurricanes usually tracked for days before they hit land? I heard the weather report this morning. There was no mention of a hurricane.’

‘We don’t get hurricanes, Ethan. These are the highlands, not the tropics. And it’s not even summer!’

‘So what did we get?’

My eyes drift to where Ethan has picked up a small stick and started poking at a rock between his feet. ‘Look, I don’t really know, but it had a lot of power. Did you ever see hail like that? Ice that ignites when it hits something solid?’

He stares at me. ‘What are you saying?’

I don’t want to scare Ethan or anything, but he is asking for my opinion. And I know he wouldn’t want to hear a watered down version just because it isn’t pleasant. He’s not like that. ‘There’s something else.’

‘Go on.’

‘It felt to me as if the storm came through the sky. As if it came from another world.’