Following the light source, we fly through an arched opening in a wall of volcanic rock, and find ourselves in an astonishing tropical world, a world we had no idea existed. Mountains soar above us while creeks, streams and stunning waterfalls thousands of metres deep flow into a river that’s at least a kilometre wide.
Since it’s an ocean we’re looking for, we follow the river as it cuts through a dense jungle. The sounds of buzzing insects and the roar of ancient beasts surge up towards us. It’s an extraordinary find, and I wish I could show it to Ebony.
A small but potent red sun climbs high enough to reveal a vast ocean ahead. The river hits a sand bar, slowing its force so much that the junction is practically imperceptible.
Michael follows me down to a glistening sandy beach. Standing side by side, we stare in wonder at this secret underground world.
Isaac lands on my right side. ‘Incredible,’ he whispers as the rest of the team touch down nearby. ‘We should probably work fast,’ he says. ‘That sun could bake us dry if we stay out here for too long.’
‘Should we look for shelter?’ Tash asks, glancing along the beach to where the forest meets the shore. ‘Or make our own?’
‘See what you can come up with,’ I tell her. ‘But stay close to the beach. I don’t like the sounds coming from those jungles.’
‘I’ll help,’ Uriel volunteers.
‘Sol?’ I call.
‘I’m on it, my prince,’ he says, lifting into the air immediately.
I try to follow him with my gaze, but he flies straight into the rising sun and the glare reflecting off the water makes him invisible.
On Solomon’s return, I shield my eyes as I follow his directions, locating a castle-like stone structure on a small island about twenty kilometres offshore.
I leave immediately. Michael joins me in the air, while the team prepares a base for the arrival of Ebony’s parents: two humans in conditions yet undetermined.
If not for Solomon’s secret source, finding this prison would be impossible. The informant warned of a balancing scale on which the prison sits, triggered to explode by the slightest alteration in the prison’s overall weight. It’s a clever mechanism that eliminates the need for fences, and even guards.
John and Heather are apparently in a dungeon at sea level, which I hope allows them access to water for bathing and keeping their human bodies cool during the hottest daytime periods, or they would not survive this heat.
A reef surrounding the island calms the waters and ensures the delicate weight ratio remains undisturbed. Our presence could change that ratio if we’re not vigilant of every movement we make.
Michael locates the entrance gate and points it out. ‘It doesn’t appear stable,’ he says. ‘Be careful with that.’
I nod. ‘I’ll go in first and carry John, while you bring Heather out.’
‘We lift them simultaneously. I’ll wait for your signal before counting down.’
I take a deep breath. ‘Then we’re set?’
‘We’re set.’ Noticing my nervousness, he tries to reassure me, ‘It’s going to work out.’
‘What if something goes wrong? Every time Ebony looks at me she’ll remember I’m the one who killed her parents. She’ll end up hating me.’
Michael grips my shoulders as we hover above the island. ‘Listen to me. I know you better than anyone, maybe even better than your own mother, and there is no one I trust more. These doubts you have don’t belong in your head. They shouldn’t be there. Get rid of them.’
‘I’m trying, Michael.’
‘Nathaneal, the time has come to declare yourself as the One. All the worlds are waiting for you to take up your throne. And, cousin, we wait with bated breath.’
The lump in my throat makes it impossible to speak so I breathe deeply, and nod my gratitude at his faith in me.
‘OK?’
‘Failure is not an option. Today, I will not let Ebony down.’
‘Good. Now, are you ready?’
I look into my cousin’s golden eyes, a source of courage from which I have drawn many times already, and I nod.
36
Ebony
My first instinct is panic, and I lose it for a while when darkness closes over me and I feel as if I can’t breathe. But it doesn’t matter how hard I kick or punch or try to tear it, the fabric doesn’t come apart. Zavier – the fraud – confirms my suspicions that the lamorak is unbreakable, and that I’m only wasting my energy trying to destroy it. So I put myself into a quiet state to conserve my strength, and sanity.
Feeling groggy, I wake to the swish and crackle of breaking branches as Zavier runs through the forest, carrying me at colossal speed. He stops abruptly and inhales deeply. Rotating his shoulders, he compresses the muscles of his upper torso and tightens his hold on me by pulling me deeper into his chest.
No! No! I’m not ready!
His wings discharge with a mighty whoosh! The backwards drag is powerful and jolting, like being in a car and going from zero to a hundred in one second.
It happens in a blink.
Once his wings settle into a steady rhythm, everything about him relaxes. I sense a change around me but I’m not sure exactly what. I listen keenly for sounds, but there’s only the paced swish-swishing of . . . thirteen, no, fourteen pairs of wings. Gradually I become aware there are no animal sounds, no insects or birds. There’s no rustling of branches or leaves, no distant hum of traffic, no siren or blasting horn. It’s creepy. I hate not knowing where I am, or seeing where I’m going, but this blind silence is different. It’s overwhelming.
Now and then male voices sound off in a pattern: the twelve Prodigies and Prince Luca must be flying in some kind of formation around us. After a while of careful listening I catch something in the distance. It takes a moment to realise what I’m hearing is wind.
‘Where are you taking me?’ I ask.
‘My lady, how are you feeling now?’ Zavier’s voice sounds different from the classroom teacher’s voice I came to know so well. It’s more formal, and also stronger.
‘You tricked me. And I don’t know who I’m more disgusted with: you, or myself for tolerating your lies.’
‘Ebony, you were played, and not just by me.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You would not have entertained doubts about being an angel without your trusted friend Jordan feeding your insecurities regularly.’
‘But . . .’ Conversations flit through my head with speed and clarity I’ve not experienced before. This has to be more of my angelic nature coming out. It’s amazing! ‘Jordan had his reasons.’ I’m sure of it, or else why would he try to manipulate me?
Zavier takes his time replying. ‘Yes, he did.’
I didn’t need the confirmation, but I’m glad I got it anyway. ‘Where is Jordan?’ I recall the last I saw him, beaten, bleeding, and chained to a rock wall. ‘Zavier, tell me Prince Luca released him.’
‘Stay calm, Ebony.’
‘Zavier, where is Jordan?’
‘I’m sure Amber will alert the Brothers.’
‘Does she know where the cave is?’
He doesn’t answer quickly enough. ‘The Brothers will search until they find him.’
‘Like my parents? No one has found them yet. What did you do with them?’
‘Ebony, listen to me.’
But my heart is frantic. My mind is frantic. Both are moving astronomically fast.
‘Ebony!’
‘What?’
‘You have to calm down and stop worrying about your friends. They will find their own way now. I know this is hard to hear, but it must be said.’
‘Go on.’
‘You’re not part of their lives any more. You need to concentrate on taking care of yourself. And . . .’
‘Not that I’m interested in your advice, but go on. Amuse me.’
‘The best you can do for yourself is to submit to the demands of Prince Luca.’
He has to
be joking. ‘You’re deluded if you think I’m going to submit to that monster! Clearly, after months of studying what makes me tick, you don’t know me at all.’
‘Perhaps not, but for your own survival you need to accept that you belong to Lord Luca. You are now the King of Skade’s property, soon to be his wife and the Queen of Skade.’
‘Never going to happen. But thanks so much for setting me up with the most evil creature in the universe, who only just takes the title from you!’
‘Don’t make this harder than it need be, my lady. Think wisely. Lord Luca doesn’t have to be unkind to you.’
‘So, if he is, that will be my fault? Is that what you’re saying? And why are you calling him “Lord” now? What happened to “Prince”?’
‘Before the First Angelic War, Luca was a prince who held the highest rank of all the princes in Avena. After the great rebellion he became king of his own new world, but his compatriots refused to recognise his title. Outside of Skade, they still call him prince. Ebony, you must forget everything you learned on Earth. Equality and fairness don’t exist in Skade.’
‘If your lord or king, or whatever he calls himself, expects me to be his slave, he can just forget it.’
‘He wants you to be his queen, not his slave. How it all goes will be up to you.’
‘He may as well kill me now.’
‘Ebony, even if you want to die, you can’t. And it would only entertain him to watch you try to kill yourself.’
‘That’s sick!’
As much as I hate the thought, I probably should listen carefully in case something Zavier says proves useful. ‘That story you fabricated about my birth was very convincing. I almost believed you. At times I think I did. How I allowed myself is unfathomable to me.’
‘Don’t be too critical of yourself, Ebony. I’m good at what I do and there’s something about me that you don’t know.’
‘I don’t want to know anything more about you. I’ve heard enough of your lies.’
He goes silent, but I have questions, lots of them, and he owes me answers. ‘How long have you been planning my abduction?’
‘Let’s see, I began planning for this day a century ago.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘To ensure absolute success I covered every possible outcome.’
‘But there would have been so many variables! You couldn’t possibly have prepared for every one of them. That’s impossible. Life isn’t formulaic.’
‘Yours was. I made sure of it.’
‘How? Give me an example.’
‘I ensured you would be raised with a scientific mindset.’
Well, he did achieve that. Even when the subject wasn’t science, in my home-school lessons Mum would always remind me to, ‘Observe, propose, test and analyse. Believe only in what you can see, feel or touch.’ This fact-based way of thinking had quite an effect on the choices I made growing up. It eventually became the way I selected to believe or not believe in things, like religion, near-death experiences, or anything supernatural.
‘How did you know my parents would comply with all your conditions?’
‘I just had to find a suitable couple.’
‘You didn’t answer my question.’ His arms stiffen around me, and I ask again, ‘Just tell me how you knew John and Heather Hawkins would follow your orders without question.’
He hesitates and I think about what type of people he needed – a couple who, once they had started to raise me, would be so terrified of losing me that they would abide by any conditions he put in the adoption contract.
Around the time of my birth, Mum and Dad were grieving for the baby boy they had lost. He wasn’t even an hour old when he stopped breathing in Mum’s arms. Yeah, they were desperate enough to do just about . . . Wait . . . No, he wouldn’t . . . Only a monster would contemplate something that horrendous.
The thought terrifies me and I pull at the lamorak.
‘Stop moving,’ he hisses.
But I don’t. I need to see his eyes. I take a deep breath. ‘Zavier, tell me you didn’t . . .’
His sudden erratic heartbeat reveals that it’s true.
‘He was an innocent baby who had just started his life! I haven’t been an angel long, but I’m pretty sure that killing a human infant is breaking a damn serious law in any dimension.’
‘You would be correct.’
‘You’re evil!’
‘I had no choice.’
‘No choice but to murder a healthy infant to ensure his parents would agree to any condition you put in front of them?’
His voice drops. ‘There’s no going back, Ebony. I can’t change the past.’
‘I hope you find it extremely difficult to live with yourself.’
‘No more, no less than usual,’ he murmurs.
‘Why are you doing this? What does Luca hold over you?’
He sighs. ‘It’s a long story.’
‘Then give me the short version.’
He sighs again. ‘A long time ago I had to leave Avena. Lord Luca welcomed me to Skade, but . . . I disliked it there so I asked the king to cease my existence.’
‘Why didn’t you go back to Avena?’
‘I was forbidden.’
‘So you wanted to die?’
‘Yes. At the time existing seemed pointless.’
‘But here you are, in the flesh.’
‘Lord Luca said he would do it himself but only after I managed his Death Watchers for a thousand years. It would mean living on Earth for that time.’
‘So even death has a price in Skade,’ I remark dryly. ‘I’ve heard of Death Watchers. They convince the dying to choose Skade. So what happened?’
‘I came to like Earth.’
‘Did he let you go after you served the thousand years? Or is he charging you to live on Earth by doing his dirty work?’
He inhales sharply, as if caught by surprise. After a moment he says, ‘Every hundred years I must do a job for him.’
‘Aha! And this century it’s me! I suppose you jumped at the chance. Did you?’
‘No, I refused. I offered to do anything, anything else.’
‘Sure you did.’
‘I don’t blame you for not believing me.’
‘What does it matter whether I believe you or not? You’re a monster, just like your employer. So what was the deal?’
‘On your safe delivery to his palace a thousand human souls will be released from Mount Mi’Ocra.’
‘How philanthropic of you!’ I hope the coldness in my voice freezes his heart. ‘So what is this mountain, a village for souls?’
‘Something like that, except their housing takes the form of caves, crevasses, a nook under a ledge or even a rock, if they’re lucky.’
‘Zavier, the hero,’ I mutter sarcastically, so angry inside my blood is boiling. The red haze descends and makes me feel claustrophobic. I try to breathe slower, lighter, calmer. ‘Tell me, what was in this for you?’
In a tight voice, as if he’s speaking through clenched teeth, he says, ‘Ten million dollars.’
‘Thought as much.’
He stiffens and says, ‘In a world where money is the commodity by which all things are measured, a man does what is necessary to survive.’
‘But you’re not a man.’
‘No more, no less than your precious Nathaneal, who lives more amongst humans than angels.’
Yeah, because he’s been looking for me! ‘Don’t compare yourself with Nathaneal. You are poison where he is wine. Now get this lamorak off me.’
He goes quiet, and in his silence my mind ripples with a sense of familiarity about this mountain he called Mi’Orca with souls living in caves and nooks. I try to hold on to the feeling, recall where I’d heard it mentioned before, but I’m so tense it hovers just out of my reach. ‘Tell me more about Mi’Ocra.’
‘Let’s see, Mi’Ocra began as a volcano and was active for tens of thousands of years. Its walls grew to unimaginable heights, and when
the lava ran out over time the reservoir filled with water and has since become an underground ocean. But, Ebony, there is more to this place, and it’s time you know it all.’
I brace myself inside this enforced darkness. ‘Go on.’
He takes a deep breath. ‘There’s an island in the centre of this ocean with a prison on it.’
At the mention of a prison my mouth goes dry. ‘This island, is it dangerous?’
‘Deadly.’
‘How so?’
‘Altering the prison’s weight ratio will trigger an explosion. The island and everything on it will sink to the ocean floor where prehistoric aquatic creatures live in perpetual hunger.’
‘Zavier, why are you telling me this?’
‘Because, Ebony, there’s something you need to know.’
But I’ve figured it out, and it makes me angry and sad at the same time. ‘This is the prison where Luca is keeping my parents.’
‘Yes.’
How will anyone find them there?
‘Try to keep calm, Ebony.’
‘Calm. Who would know to look in this underground world? It’s not as if I can tell anyone who might be able to help them. Obviously, this is why you’re only telling me now. Do you have any idea how much I hate you?’ I need to see his face to tell him how much. ‘Zavier, get the lamorak off me.’
‘But, Ebony –’
‘Get it off now, or I’ll crawl out of it. I swear, Zavier, I will keep moving until I find how to open this thing.’
He shifts position, balancing more of my weight against his chest while he tugs on the fabric at the back of my shoulder blades. As he finally lowers the lamorak from my head, I imagine Mum and Dad locked in this underground world, so far from home and all alone. I take in a shuddering breath as tears flow freely from my eyes.