Authors: Marianne Curley
Hot chocolate always soothed me when storms struck at night. I close my eyes and force myself to visualise my mother bringing me a cup to drink. But this is a bad idea. My heart wrenches at the knowledge that I’m never going to see Mum and Dad again, never feel their loving arms around me, or hear their voices, or watch their proud faces when I graduate from high school.
My tears flow and, at least for now, I let them.
I don’t know how long we ride this storm, but eventually the winds die down, the rain stops pelting us from different directions, thunder ceases to deafen us, and I’m still safe in Zavier’s arms. That’s when I think I doze off for a few minutes, so weary I can’t force my eyes to remain open.
I wake when we come to a sudden stop and the only sounds are fourteen pairs of beating wings hovering beside us.
A lump forms in my throat. ‘Have we, um . . . arrived?’
‘Not yet,’ he says. ‘But at least the storm has passed and the way ahead is clear. We’ll make better time now, my lady.’
‘There you go again. Zavier, don’t call me, “my lady”. It’s medieval and just plain weird coming from someone who used to be my science teacher.’
He laughs. ‘As you wish. But now I don’t quite know what to call you. Perhaps, “your highness”?’
‘I certainly won’t answer to
that
.’
‘How about “Princess”, like Lord Luca prefers?’
‘Not that either.’
He sighs. ‘If only it were that simple, my lady.’
‘Stop it right now! My name is Ebony.’
‘All right, all right, simmer down, niece. Is that better?’
‘I suppose.’
‘Once we’re in Skade, I could have my tongue cut out for disrespecting you.’
His words send a sickening zing down my spine. Zavier already thinks of me as the Queen of Skade.
A Prodigy suddenly calls out an order and Zavier banks left. They all do, and I get the sense we’re making way for something to pass.
I listen carefully, and before long I hear voices, a few at first, and then hundreds, chattering away in languages I recognise as belonging to various nations of Earth.
‘What’s going on?’
‘What you’re hearing are human souls on their way to a special dimension where they will live in tranquillity for eternity.’
‘Do you mean heaven? Are you telling me there’s an entrance to heaven nearby?’
There is a long pause before he answers. ‘It’s called
Peridis
.’
‘Can I see these souls? Just in case, you know, my p-parents are amongst them.’
He snaps, ‘I told you where your parents are!’
‘Yeah, in a prison that will explode if anyone tries to rescue them. The explosion will kill them too, right? And when they die their souls will go to . . . to . . .’ I choke on the word. Thinking about Mum and Dad in a place that’s only for souls, a world I will never see, is too much to handle right now.
‘Ebony, even in death, no one escapes Mount Mi’Ocra. Souls live in the tunnels and caves there, hiding from the three-headed dog packs and . . . other wild things.’
‘But the souls you freed as part of your payment for me came from that mountain. You said that.’
‘Yes, but I had to bargain for those. There’s no other way out for the souls who are sent to Mi’Ocra.’
‘That’s hardly fair.’
‘Brace yourself, niece, because where you’re going you will see unfairness every day. It’s the way of life for the souls who end up in Skade and the angels born there, through no choice of their own, generation after generation.’
He groans. ‘So for the last time, Ebony, heed my warning and forget your old life. Forget everything about the human world. Forget you ever had human parents. Forget Nathaneal, and Jordan and Amber, and your horses, and your farm. They are all dead to you now. Remember, your entire life on Earth was a lie. But the truth is you were destined to be a queen long before you were born. Soon you will become one. Embrace the position and all that it brings.’
‘Does it ease your conscience that I hate you?’
‘Nothing will ease my conscience, dear.’
‘You left Avena because your love for my mother went unrequited. You tried to live in Skade but hated it. Now you get to live on Earth where I want to be. Why do you get a choice when I don’t?’
‘You’re too smart for your own good. That’s going to be a problem for you in Skade.
Damn!
Your talents will be squandered in that miserable forsaken world,’ he mutters angrily.
Suddenly, a soldier wrenches me from Zavier’s arms.
Whack!
Someone – I’m guessing Prince Luca – just hit Zavier. I hear the whooshing sound of him flying through the air. His scream goes on and on, receding slowly as I assume his body hurtles further away.
‘Why did you do that?’ I yell, trapped inside the
lamorak
.
The human voices are gone, but I still need to see what’s happening, so I try yanking the fabric down over my head. By now I’ve figured the release mechanism is somewhere between my shoulder blades.
The Prodigy holding me mutters a string of words in his foreign language as I move around trying to release the
lamorak
. He sounds anxious and suddenly shouts out what sounds like a plea for help.
‘Hold still!’ Luca commands, which I ignore, wisely or unwisely. My guess is that land is not far below. And since I’m immortal, even if I were to break both my legs, they’ll heal themselves – eventually.
I try again to yank the
lamorak
down from my head. I pull and tug and try poking it with my nail to get a grip, yanking it over my face with my teeth. It’s such a tight fit it sticks in all the wrong places. But I haven’t tried everything yet. So when these attempts fail, I try rotating it the opposite way, rolling the fabric down my back with curled toes.
Suddenly Prince Luca bellows in a thundering voice, ‘Zavier, I command you to return immediately!’ He ejects a burst of energy that blows us sideways. I assume this is supposed to break Zavier’s momentum, not send the Prodigy holding me into a backwards spiral.
Prince Luca yells, ‘Thorian, do not drop her!’
He doesn’t – yet.
‘Gamorn, Sarakiel, hurry,’ Prince Luca yells.
Gamorn and Sarakiel beat their wings hard.
Suddenly I slip from Thorian’s hold and begin to fall. One pair of arms almost catches me, but fails, while the other one’s beating wings sound too far away.
Strangely, I thought free-falling would feel better than this, but with no room to spread my arms or legs, it’s a nightmare. And now I’m not so sure land is close below me.
I drop for the longest time, what must be thousands of metres. The wind whistling past changes and becomes sharper, ear-piercing. Soon I’ll be hitting the ground. Even an immortal will have a hard time recovering from a drop this high.
It’s then that I hear the familiar sound of Zavier’s wings. He seems to take too long to reach me, but finally his strong arms wrap round me, and I feel safe again.
He squeezes me until I’m breathless, murmuring words that I don’t understand, but which are thick with emotion. I clear my throat, ‘Uh, Zavier, you do realise we’re still dropping?’
He lifts his head off my shoulder. ‘On purpose. Don’t fret. You were moving very fast.’
‘So were you.’
He slows the beat of his wings, gradually coming to a complete stop, and we simply hover for a few moments. ‘Thank you, Zavier,’ I murmur, and press my face into his shoulder.
‘I’m sorry this happened, Ebony. I should have been more careful. I know better than to speak against the kingdom. It’s the one sure way to antagonise the king.’
‘Do you
have
to take me back? Prince Luca just attacked you. And you know what he wants to do with me. Can you turn round and fly us back to Earth? The Prodigies are still weak. You would out-fly them all.’
‘Ebony, there is no place to hide on the Earth if Prince Luca is looking for you.’
‘If you took me back, Nathaneal would protect you.’
‘Nathaneal would destroy me!’
‘Like Prince Luca just tried to do? Come on, Zavier. This is my only chance, and I need you to help me.’
‘Ebony, I have a contract with the King of Skade.’
‘I know – me, in exchange for a thousand souls and ten million dollars.’
‘It’s not that simple. Contracts are
covenants
between angels. The only way out is by mutual agreement or a battle to the death.’
‘That’s barbaric.’
I feel him shrug. ‘It’s the way these things have been done for thousands of years.’
‘Well, it’s stupid.’
‘Perhaps as queen, you could have that ruling changed.’
‘Sure. And Prince Luca will simply let me.’
‘It won’t be his decision to make. That would be a matter for the high court to decide, and only a royal ranked as high as king or queen can submit a law for review. You wouldn’t need the king’s permission to submit.’
We reach the others, and Prince Luca starts yelling at Zavier, his voice still magnified with a strange echo. ‘Should one more traitorous word pass your lips, I will throw you into outer space where you will be crushed to dust for the cosmic winds to spread throughout the universe.’
He barks out a command in his own language and I hear the Prodigies moving around, falling into their standard formation around us. We start flying again, but this time Prince Luca remains right alongside us.
And now I’m not sure who I hate most – Luca for wanting me to be his queen, or Zavier for making it possible.
40
Searching for light between descending boulders, while carrying John, is becoming a losing battle. John’s injuries are critical. Oxygen deprivation could end his fragile hold on life.
Ebony, my sweet love, if I should fail you in this, please find it in your heart to forgive me.
Swimming against the explosion’s powerful downward drag starts taking its toll on my strength. I need to break the surface, quickly. A glimpse of white light high above looks hopeful, but a massive boulder plummets towards us.
Too large to deflect, I swim with the drag until I clear it. And now I have taken John into deeper, darker depths.
I’m sorry, my love.
Michael and Heather are nowhere in sight. Until I know otherwise, I will assume they became airborne before the downward drag took hold, and are now safe.
So far I have shared oxygen from my own lungs with John, but now I’m struggling for air too, and beginning to doubt that I will make it to the surface before losing consciousness.
I can’t afford for John to slip from my arms, so I have to find a quick path to the surface through plunging boulders, rocks and other debris. But the last of my air floats up in a series of bubbles and I’m starting to lose focus.
It’s then that I see Ebony’s face as if she were right in front of me, her rich red hair floating in the water like a silk cloud. Her deep-violet eyes are pleading with me to follow her. I reach out and grasp her arm.
Ebbie, don’t go.
I’m not going anywhere without you
,
she says.
Come. I know a way.
Still clutching John, I follow her, relishing the sound of her hauntingly beautiful voice, her spirit voice from our time together in Peridis.
Stay strong, my handsome prince, and we will be as one again soon. Promise me you will not forget me once you have grown into your corporeal body.
I could never forget you, sweetheart. Never . . . But, Ebrielle, you have forgotten me.
She frowns.
Don’t tease me.
You don’t remember you’re an angel.
That’s impossible. My love, don’t say such things.
But, Ebbie, it’s true.
No! I could never forget you.
She begins to fade. I reach out for her, but she disappears, and in her place I see a bright white light. It becomes three lights. Angels, in maximum glow, descending like torpedoes.
Uriel reaches me first. He takes my shoulders in his hands.
Are you all right, my prince?
I nod.
John needs air.
He lifts him out of my hands, and with Isaac and Solomon clearing a path through the debris, we soon break the surface.
By the time I land on the beach, Jez is already clearing John’s airways and breathing life back into his lungs under a makeshift shelter of palm tree fronds. But the heat is too much for any human, so as soon as John is breathing again we fly out of this extraordinary and somewhat bewildering underground world that exists where nothing should.
In an abandoned cave about midway up we lay John and Heather on blankets. Everyone waits outside except for Jez and me, giving us space to tend to the humans and prepare them for transport.
After some urgent healing of John’s more critical injuries, Jez explains how we’re going to transfer them. ‘You’ll be in a deep-sleep state until you’re back on home turf, at which point we will bring you out of it.’