I go to work on the rabbit, soothing it with gentle whispers, willing its injured tissues, ligaments and bones to mend. As I do this, I see it all in my mind, the bone reknitting, blood returning to their vessels, inflamed tissues healing without a scar. The rabbit gives a sudden jerk, then jumps off my lap, bounding and leaping with incredible speed in the direction from which it came.
‘I’d say it’s healed,’ Ethan says, his voice a little in awe.
‘That was incredible! I actually saw the healing taking place in my mind.’
‘Maybe that’s been your stumbling block. Visualising.’ As he speaks, he stands up and walks around the outer edges of the clearing.
I go and stand beside him. ‘What’s wrong, Ethan?’
‘I don’t know, just a feeling.’
‘Like you had at the trial?’
He gives me a pained look. Instantly I’m regretful. I didn’t mean to remind him of the Tribunal and his sticking up for Rochelle. Those memories are still too raw for him to discuss. He hasn’t said a word.
He turns away and starts putting out the fire. ‘I think we should leave.’
‘Is it the rabbit that’s making you uneasy?’
‘Yes and no. Why that rabbit came to you is not what’s puzzling me; animals sense things sometimes better than humans. It’s how it got the injury that has me worried.’
‘There’s no one up here, Ethan. Who would come? It’s too cold.’
‘We’re here. And that rabbit didn’t break its own leg.’
‘Who would do such a thing to a gentle creature like that?’
‘Maybe the question is not who, Isabel, but what?’ In seconds he has the fire put out. ‘Pack your things. Let’s get out of here before some wild animal comes tearing out of the woods looking to break one of our legs.’
I can’t tell whether he’s joking or serious, only that he’s feeling a sudden urgency. His instinct is prickling again. Quickly I locate where I put my jumper and the few other things I brought with me. We head down the mountain and make it almost halfway before I realise I left the most important thing of all – my backpack, which has all my school stuff in it. We headed up there today straight from school, in order to make use of the afternoon light. ‘I have to go back.’
He doesn’t stop walking. ‘No way! It’s too late.’
‘I left my school bag.’
‘What! How could you be so—?’
‘Well, I did. You go on. It won’t take me long if I run.’
He grabs my arm as I spin around. ‘Forget it, Isabel.’
‘I need my bag for school tomorrow.’
‘We’ll hike up there in the morning and get it.’
‘But it’s not waterproof. The frost and dew will get right in. All my books will be ruined, let alone if it snows overnight. It’ll only take me ten or twenty minutes from here.’
My arguments don’t make any difference. ‘No, Isabel. We’re not going back for it. You said you trusted me, now prove it.’
Silently we make it all the way down. When we get to my house I head straight inside. Peering through the front window, I wait until I can’t see Ethan any more, then wait another full minute, making myself count every second. When I’m sure he’s on his way home, I take off out the front door at a fast run. There’s nothing up that mountain; we train there practically every day. Ethan’s just jumpy ’cause that rabbit’s injury was unusual. But it could have injured itself. How are we to know? And Ethan’s been so serious since the Tribunal hearing in Athens, adhering strictly to the codes and rules. He’s blowing this incident right out of perspective.
I get to the top, panting hard after running uphill for most of the way. It’s starting to darken now, but I can still see clearly, the dim light no hindrance any more. To my amazement, Arabella’s gift of seeing by any light keeps strengthening. At this rate I’m going to have to learn how to control it so that I can turn it off when it becomes a hindrance more than a help.
I swing my gaze around the clearing, but my backpack is not in the place I left it. Did Ethan move it at some stage? I can’t remember, but I doubt it, he was too busy keeping to his schedule. Then where is it? A prickling sensation runs down every fine hair on my back as a sense of evil slowly settles into my chest. Is this Lorian’s gift of sixth sense I’m becoming aware of?
A rustling of leaves in the woodland to my right jerks my whole body, making my limbs go stiff. I’m fast freaking out and try to slow my racing thoughts. But another sound, the crunching of leaves underfoot, is way too real, and I know now for certain that something is out there, something that has a decidedly evil feel to it.
‘Ethan?’
I’m not really calling him as I know he’s probably soaking in a hot bath right now, warming his frozen limbs, as I should be, but I need to hear my voice and the sound of a familiar name. Perhaps this sense of evil is a figment of my imagination.
A shadow passes through the trees to my right. It’s darkening quickly now as I stand here frozen to the spot, hardly breathing, my heart pounding at a staggering pace, but the descending darkness has no effect on my vision. The shadow moves quickly and stealthily, especially for its apparent size. As it draws nearer it takes on a more tangible shape. It’s a man, a large man, tall and broad and wearing black leather boots with an animal-skin coat secured at the waist by a silver-studded belt. He breaks through the edge of the woodland and makes his way with heavy footsteps through the clearing to where I’m standing, frozen to the spot. My back pack is in his hand. Releasing his fingers it falls to the ground.
Move, girl. Move it now! If you turn and run you may have a chance of beating this man down the mountain. Somehow I get the feeling he wouldn’t follow me, but my legs have stubbornly decided not to move. It occurs to me that this man is using some sort of power over me.
He draws closer, within arm’s reach, and the sight of him now makes me light-headed and dizzy. ‘I’ve seen you before.’
His voice is rough and guttural. ‘We’ve met in your dreams.’
‘What do you want?’
His head cocks to one side. ‘To take you to a place where it is midnight every day.’
‘What? I don’t understand.’
His neck straightens and with one large gloved hand he pulls at the top of his head. He’s wearing a mask, I realise, and now he’s taking it off. What I see beneath the mask makes me want to retch violently. My stomach contracts with cramps, making me double over. The man’s face is hideous, one side badly scarred and missing parts.
He lifts my face with one massive finger to the underside of my chin. ‘Now do you understand?’
‘I … I only see an angry and bitter man.’
He roars, so loud I have to cover my ears so as not to damage the fine bones inside. It’s the roar, I think, that shatters my frozen state. I don’t need any sixth sense to know what’s good for me now. Slowly I reach for my bag and start edging backwards, putting space between me and the deformed and hostile man before me.
He watches with a sly knowing look coming from his one yellow eye. ‘You cannot run from me, Isabel.’
His knowing my name sends chills through all of my bones.
‘I can find you anywhere, even in your sleep.’ And then he adds teasingly, ‘Ask the boy called Ethan. Tell him he can reach me through his illusions. Tell him I will come.’
Chapter Twenty-six
Ethan
If there’s one thing I’m learning about my Apprentice, it’s that she’s as stubborn and headstrong as a mule. So when I walk away from her house I decide to go back and check. It’s starting to darken earlier now that winter’s almost here, but this won’t stop Isabel going back up that mountain; her sight is incredible now, even in the dark.
Her mother Coral answers the door, wrapped in a dark-blue towelling robe, her hair wet as if she just stepped out of a shower. ‘I heard the door bang a few minutes ago, Ethan. I’ll just go see if she’s in her room.’
A few minutes later s
he comes back shaking her head. ‘It doesn’t look as if she’s been in there all afternoon. I could’ve sworn I heard the door.’
I thank her, my heart starting to thud. She picks up on my concern. ‘Is something wrong? Matt should be home any second. He might know where she is. He keeps a close eye on her, you probably know that.’
‘Yeah … I have noticed.’
‘Should I be concerned, Ethan?’
‘No, no. Not at all. I just wanted to tell her something. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon. I’ll give a call later.’
‘All right, dear.’
Finally I get away, and take off at a sprint. With each pounding leap a sense of urgency increases inside, just why I’m not sure. I can’t pinpoint where this danger is coming from. It’s my gut instinct working overtime, I think, but the sense of something sinister in those woods tonight is too strong to ignore. Maybe I should have been sensing this danger all along during the days of Isabel’s training, but only now, since Lorian’s strengthening of my gifts, am I picking it up.
About two-thirds of the way up I hear the roar.
My heart practically stops. No way. It can’t be! I’ve heard that roar before a million times, but only in my dreams.
I take off again, sprinting as hard as I can. I’m not far from the lake now, but it’s almost completely dark, and I keep running into scrub and vines and logs and branches. Then I run straight into Isabel. We hit so hard we both fall to the side, rolling over and over each other downhill about twenty metres until our sides wedge solid against a fallen tree.
‘Ethan!’
‘Isabel, are you all right?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine now. Sorry, I was looking over my shoulder and didn’t see you.’
‘What was that roar I heard?’
She gets up urgently, locates her bag, and starts dragging on my arm, yanking me over the top of the log. ‘We have to get out of here.’
‘What did you see up there?’
She’s running now, still dragging on my arm. ‘My worst nightmare.’
I stop at her words, but Isabel keeps going. ‘Come on, Ethan. I’m not going back for you, that’s for sure.’
I find her words ironic and run to catch up. ‘You’ll go back for a backpack, but not for me, huh?’
She sees no humour at all. ‘Shut up, Ethan. Just keep running.’
We get to the bottom and I make her go inside to let her mother know she’s home and will be sitting outside talking to me for a few minutes. She looks at me weird, but does it anyway. It takes her ages to come back out because Matt is home now and she had to make up some story about why she was late and why I want to see her.
She hands me a sports drink, sliding herself on to the top railing of the wooden fence I’m leaning against. She drinks half her bottle, then wipes her mouth with the back of her sleeve. ‘I should have listened to you.’
I wait for her to go on. She stares into the darkness. I wonder what she can see; probably a host of night creatures that most people wouldn’t even imagine are out there. ‘I saw something, up there by the lake.’
‘What was it?’
She shifts her head sideways to mine. ‘A man.’
‘A man?’ I don’t know what I expected, but my sense of danger, of evil, felt like more than just ‘a man’.
‘He was huge.’
Goosebumps break out on my skin in anticipation of what’s to follow.
‘He wore a mask, but then he took it off, and his face was …’ Her hands cover her own face for a moment. ‘Oh, Ethan, it was hideous.’
Words try to form in my dry mouth. ‘What did this man’s face look like?’
Her eyes open wide. ‘It was only half a face, with train tracks zigzagging down the deformed side.’
‘What?’
‘Scars, Ethan.’ She misinterprets my exclamation. ‘No, I mean, how can that be?’
She shrugs. ‘I don’t know. Don’t you believe me?’
‘Of course I … It’s just, you’re describing someone that isn’t real.’
She jumps off the railing and turns on me. ‘Oh, yeah? You should have been there—’
‘And you shouldn’t have been there.’
‘Oh, so because I didn’t listen to you, you’re not going to believe me?’
‘That’s not what I meant.’
‘No, but I can see it in your face. It may be dark out here now, Ethan, but I can see your expression as if I were holding a torch under your chin.’
‘Isabel …’ I try to reassure her, but her description is way too real. Or, I should say, imaginary. It describes what is in my head, in my dreams, the nightmares that have plagued me ever since my sister died of that horrible brain aneurism when she was ten. How can Isabel see this man, this creature, when he only exists in my subconscious?
‘Did he … did this creature …?’
‘Hurt me or anything?’
I nod. She says, ‘No. But I think he threatened me. And I think he was playing with me too.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, he had my backpack, like somehow he knew that’s what I’d come back for, and he said that he wanted to take me to a place where it was midnight every day.’
Her words could have come straight from one of my nightmares.
‘Ethan? Are you all right? You look as if you’re about to pass out.’
She makes me sit cross-legged on the cold hard ground. ‘What is it, Ethan? Why do you look so stunned?’
I’m trying to figure this out through my suddenly numb brain. ‘You must have been dreaming, and somehow we connected.’
‘What! I wasn’t dreaming up there, believe me. One second he was there, his massive hand under my chin, making sure I saw his hideous features—’
‘He touched you?’
‘Yeah, just for a second. He spoke, then disappeared.’ She snaps her fingers. ‘Poof, just like that, he’s gone.’
‘What did he say?’
‘Something about running from him, and how I can’t. And that he could find me anywhere, even in my sleep. He called me by my name and he knew yours too. He said, “Ask the boy called Ethan. Tell him he can reach me through his illusions. Tell him I will come”.’
‘No way!’
‘Who is this man?’
I stare at her. How can I explain when I don’t really know myself? ‘I don’t know who it is. Up until a few minutes ago I thought this creature was a figment of my imagination, the lingering nightmare of a scared and traumatised child.’
She stares back at me hard, her hands on her hips. ‘That man was real, Ethan. As real as you and me.’
It hits me where and from whom I can find the answers. I start to take off at a run, but not in the direction of home.
‘Hey,’ Isabel calls. ‘Where are you going?’
‘To see the one person who can give me the answers I need.’
Chapter Twenty-seven
Ethan
Arkarian is waiting for me in his chambers. I don’t give him a chance to explain. I’m too hyped up, my head brimming with questions. ‘Did you see what happened?’
‘No, I didn’t, but the feel of him was all over this mountain. Is Isabel all right?’
‘Yeah, she’s fine. Who was that? And what was he doing outside my dreams?’
‘Ethan, I think you’d better sit down. Are you sure Isabel’s all right?’
‘Yes!’
He produces a stool. I shove it out of my way. ‘Tell me, Arkarian, who was that creature?’
He sits and draws in a calming breath, taking too long to answer.
‘Come on!’
‘His name is Marduke.’
‘I know that name. Tell me from where.’
‘He murdered your sister.’
His words hit hard. For a second I feel ill, I think I’m going to fall. Quickly Arkarian waves the stool back into position beneath me. ‘Are you telling me my nightmares are grounded in reality?’
He takes too long to ans
wer. ‘Arkarian!’
‘They have distorted slightly over the years. You were an eyewitness to your sister’s murder, but nobody believed you. Of course your description was hard for the average adult, or even the average police officer, to imagine – tall as a tree, broad as a bear, one yellow eye, half a missing face, hands as large as watermelons, and a roar like a thousand lions in a cave. Is it any wonder they sent you to therapists?’
‘But you knew I was telling the truth.’
‘Yes, but it was decided that your young traumatised mind couldn’t cope with the reality. You were losing your sanity, and at such a young age.’
‘So you took me in and lied to me all this time.’
‘We protected you only, Ethan. We never lied to you. We nurtured you through the hardest period of your life – losing your sister that way, it was tragic. Look what effect it’s had on your parents, your father especially. He hasn’t been the same man since.’
His words have me thinking. ‘How do you know what type of man Dad was? Did you know him or something?’
He goes quiet and sort of still. ‘You know my job is to observe. I’ve been around for a long time.’
I sense he’s leaving something out, but Dad’s not my concern right now, so I let the matter drop. ‘Tell me why this creature, this monster named Marduke, is after Isabel.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘That’s not good enough. You know everything.’
‘You flatter me, Ethan. What did he say to make you think he wants Isabel?’
‘He threatened her.’
‘What! How?’
I groan. ‘I don’t know – something about being able to get to her anywhere, even in her dreams. Mostly, I think she felt his threat inside. Will he harm her, Arkarian? Can you tell me this?’
He looks at me, clearly puzzled. ‘I’ll speak with Lorian. There are plans that may need altering now.’
‘What plans?’
‘I can’t tell you.’
‘More secrets? Are you lot playing with our lives? We’re mortals, Arkarian. We die.’