The Key (27 page)

‘I didn't think it would take you long to get here,' Lathenia says sarcastically. ‘How is it that while I control the opening of the portals, you always manage to arrive a fraction before me?'

‘That's simple,' Ethan says. ‘We're better than you.'

Her silver eyes flare. ‘Really? We shall see just how well you do this time.'

While she holds conversation, she manoeuvres herself around us, and I get what she's doing – searching our identities, giving herself enough time to figure out who we are. Her next words confirm my suspicions.

‘Ah now, let me see. Who do we have here today?'

I keep my eyes averted, focusing instead on the sphere. But the immortal is quick to notice my nervous manner. She comes over and tilts up my chin with her long fingers. I jerk my head away, but a glimpse is all she needs. She hisses air sharply through her teeth.

‘Marduke's been looking for you. He misses you terribly. You really shouldn't have run away like that. There are some things you just don't do if you enjoy living, my dear. You will come back with me to where you belong.'

Matt moves to stand between us. ‘She doesn't belong to you. And neither does this sphere.' He's trying to shift the focus off me.

Her eyes shift to the sphere and without appearing to think twice, she shoves her hand into the cabinet, smashing the glass. But just as she attempts to grab the sphere, it starts spinning madly and flies out through the opening, away from her reach.

Her silver eyes flash blue as she realises where the sphere has gone. Ethan, using his power to animate objects, has the sphere safely in his hands.

‘Give me that sphere!' Lathenia's command is thick with menace.

Using his thoughts Matt tells me to get back. I take a tentative step, but it attracts Lathenia's attention. She flashes her eyes at me. It's the only warning I get. Streaks of iridescent blues and green propel from her fingers. Like laser beams they burst across the room, smashing into my body. Like a ragdoll, I'm flung against the wall
and pinned there.

‘Give me the sphere or I will burn Rochelle Thallimar from the inside out!' And to me she says, ‘Now that I control the middle realm, dying will put your soul exactly where I want it – in an eternity of torture.'

With a calm I've never seen in Matt before, he says, ‘I wouldn't do that if I were you.'

‘Explain yourself.'

‘Lorian has placed a curse on the person who should take it into their head to kill Rochelle.'

‘A curse?'

‘Whosoever shall harm this child and cause her death, shall they themself turn to stone and die before the sun sets.'

Lathenia's eyes shimmer deeper blue. ‘Why would my brother choose to protect a traitor?'

I try to squirm and jump down, anything to escape Lathenia's hold, but each time I move, pain seers through me.

‘She's not a traitor to the Guard,' Ethan says.

Lathenia stares at him, her eyes narrowing as she tries to work out who he might be. ‘How can you be so sure?'

‘I know her,' he says, with the most amazing conviction in his voice. Unbidden, tears spring to my eyes. I shake them off.

‘Really?' Lathenia's word drips sarcasm. ‘I don't think you do. Can you tell me where she was only
last
night?'

I see it instantly. Doubt. It flickers like a living flame and passes in an exchange of looks between Matt and Ethan.

‘Ah,' she says, as if she knows she has already won. ‘Need proof?'

‘Don't listen to her!' I scream out.

‘You lie,' Ethan says to Lathenia. ‘You have no proof.'

‘Don't I? Look here …'

Suddenly her eyes shift sharply to her left. An image forms in the air, so real, it's as if the scene is happening right here in the room with us. I'm in this image, along with Marduke. He's talking over me, leaning down as he often did in a manner that could easily be misconstrued as gentleness. I recall the scene well. It was the moment I confronted him with the knowledge that I suspected he was the one who murdered Ethan's ten-year-old sister. Here, he is trying to convince me it was not him. He is using all his persuasive powers, right down to a gentle touch to the side of my face. In the next second I will shove his hand away and a vicious confrontation will follow, but Lathenia doesn't show this part.

Matt and Ethan look as if they are both struck dumb.

I try to object, to explain, but Lathenia projects another burst of high-voltage energy through me.

Just as I feel as if I'm about to lose consciousness, Lathenia withdraws her attack. I drop to the ground coughing and catching my breath.

And while Ethan and Matt's thoughts are distracted, the girl accompanying Lathenia suddenly moves. Spinning like a whirlwind and reaching an amazing height, she leaps across the room. Surprising Ethan, she kicks him in his kidneys, knocking him forward. Spinning again, too fast for the human eye, she appears nothing more than a momentary blur. Stopping suddenly she lands another kick to Ethan's head, then another to his gut. On the third kick he drops the sphere. It rolls across the floor.

‘Quickly!' Lathenia calls out, stretching her own fingers out for it.

At last my strength starts returning. I reach for the
sphere too, but my legs are still weak and I can't get up. The girl dives for it. We can't let either of them get their hands on it. If this should happen, they will disappear, leaving this time period instantly. And the sphere will then be Lathenia's.

But Matt has a plan. As the room is shaken by a thunderous tremor, he closes his eyes for a fraction longer than a normal blink. The sphere lifts away from Lathenia and her soldier's searching fingers. It hovers in the air for a moment before flinging into his own safe hands.

In a flash the girl leaps on Matt, but he shoves her aside easily. She rolls across the floor and hits the opposite wall, looking stunned.

As Ethan straightens up, Matt throws him the sphere. ‘Protect this while I deal with Lathenia.'

I get to my feet and Matt asks, ‘Do you think you can deal with the girl?'

‘I'm fine now. I can do it.'

A moment later she leaps on Ethan. She's so fast her movements are almost indecipherable. They roll across the floor together, the sphere trapped between them. I decide to run over with the intention of using my hands on her, but she's quicker than even my thoughts. She gets up and stares at me with large oval eyes, ready to spring into action. My best chance is to let her come to me. In a flash she spins. It happens quickly. One second she's across the room, the next she's right in my face. I grab her arms and rip the sleeves off them. Then I release as much energy as I can into her unprotected flesh. She screams and clambers off me fast.

Meanwhile Lathenia is stretching her hands out to Matt. She's going to use the energy that flows from her fingers. But an even louder explosion directly overhead
makes us all stop and stare. Suddenly a crack appears in one of the bright red walls. It grows larger as the whole room shifts downwards with a jerk.

‘It's sinking!' the girl calls out as the rest of us struggle to keep upright.

Lathenia forgets Matt and shifts her attention to Ethan. He's the one with the sphere. He's the one she wants now. To her soldier she hisses, ‘When the water surges, swim to the surface as fast as you can and wait for me there.'

Lathenia's words of water make my skin erupt in shivers. Another reverberating explosion overhead plunges the room into darkness and we start to sink as the marble flooring breaks into two halves. Ocean water floods in. Within seconds the room is half full, and then all my nightmares come at once as the surrounding walls break apart and an entire wall of water floods the chamber. The pressure is intense, and great chunks of metal and marble swirl around us.

The girl starts to swim, kicking herself up towards the surface. Below me, Lathenia has grabbed Ethan and is dragging him deeper and deeper towards the ocean base. She can out-breathe any mortal for sure. She's going to hold Ethan underwater until he drowns, then take the sphere, swim to the surface and return to her own time.

Matt dives down, following them, but Lathenia is fast. I can't believe this is happening. No way can Ethan's lungs hold out much longer, let alone get to the surface from the depths she has taken him already. And still she continues to drag him deeper. With my own lungs nearly bursting I dive after them. Matt sends his thoughts to me.
No! Go back. Get to the surface
.

I have to help!

He turns for just a moment.
Trust me! Now go and get ready to resuscitate
.

I stop and tread water. Resuscitate? He should have brought Isabel here instead of me! I watch Matt swim away, and even though visibility is next to nothing down this far, I can just make out his body changing shape. I peer into the darkness, trying to see what's happening. For a second I think I see a shark. A shark! It disappears into the murky depths in fluid movements. With my lungs on the verge of exploding I start kicking my way to the surface.

I break through and suck in huge gulps of putrid, ash-filled air. The sky is completely obscured. Only a few pieces of rubble protrude from what is now virtually complete ocean. Lathenia's soldier is sitting on one such miniature island. I decide to swim for another, further away.

Dragging myself from the water, I collapse on what is more or less a pile of large boulders, one of the last remains of what was once a beautiful city. I search the water, knowing that as each second passes, the worse it will be for Ethan.

Bubbles breaking the water are the first sign of movement from below. But it's Lathenia's head that crests the first waves. This must mean she has won. She spots her soldier and waves a weary-looking arm to her. But the arm is covered in blood, and my heart lurches at the sight. Whose blood could it be?

Matt and Ethan are still nowhere in sight.

Lathenia disappears from the water, reappearing on the small island where her soldier scrambles to assist her. The Goddess is bleeding badly from several wounds. She looks as if she's been in a fight with a … shark!

Suddenly both Lathenia and her soldier disappear. And for a long moment there is nothing but the sound of waves thrashing across the lower edges of the boulders. Time seems to stretch into eternity as I wait, constantly peering across the grey waves for signs of life, growing more agitated with every passing moment.

At last I see something. Bubbles have re-formed. But it's only a dolphin. The dolphin swims right up towards my island of boulders, as if it has something to tell me. That's when I see Ethan, sprawled unconscious along the dolphin's back. The dolphin changes and turns into Matt!

I help Matt drag Ethan ashore, rolling him over fast, checking his airways. They appear clear and I start resuscitating as I was taught last year at school. Minutes pass. I start to panic.

Matt drags himself over. ‘I'll work his chest.'

Between the two of us, at last Ethan coughs. Quickly I roll him over again and he brings up a lot of water. Eventually he sits up, and the three of us stare at the destruction around us, exhausted. No one is inclined to break the silence.

It occurs to me that I didn't see Lathenia with the sphere, yet neither does it appear that Matt or Ethan has it.

‘It's gone,' Matt says. ‘It's at the bottom of the ocean.'

For a few more moments none of us says anything.

Eventually Matt calls Arkarian's name.

‘My father is in a rage.'

Arkarian's words surprise me. The two of us are sitting on stools in his central chamber. Behind us, the sphere is thankfully quiet. I've come up here to talk about Atlantis and to get some answers to questions this last eventful mission inspired. Now all thoughts of Atlantis disappear. The last time Lorian was in a rage, he rained fire over the earth and surged power into all of the Named.

‘What's got Lorian all fired up this time?'

‘There's a growing sense of disquiet among the Tribunal. He feels it, and it unsettles him.'

‘Well, that's understandable. The traitor is one of them, and they're nervous.'

Arkarian shrugs lightly. ‘There's no real proof, Matt.'

I scoff at this, my own doubts surfacing, and I can't help being sarcastic. ‘Oh, come on! Didn't Lorian find the key buried in the courtyard? In a box that could only have been forged by someone with Tribunal powers?'

Arkarian's head lifts and his eyes meet mine. ‘That might be true, but there are others with these powers.'

Since rescuing Neriah from Lathenia's palace I've come to my own conclusions about who the traitor is. And
while Arkarian is right here beside me, apparently his thoughts don't follow the same line. I try to work out where he's heading. ‘Don't tell me you think your own father has a hand in this?'

He doesn't hesitate. ‘No, that's not what I mean.'

‘Ah, so you think the Tribunal are being framed? By who? Marduke?'

He shrugs again and stares at his feet. ‘I just don't want to believe the traitor is one of the Tribunal. Over the centuries I've grown close to each of them –'

‘You've only known King Richard for a little over a year,' I remind him.

‘And I have come to know him very well in that time, Matt.'

‘Don't be naïve, Arkarian. You and I both know who this traitor is.' Using my thoughts I remind him of the image that stunned us both in Lathenia's palace not so long ago. An image of King Richard walking arm-in-arm with the enemy herself.

In a serene voice that is Arkarian's trademark, he says, ‘Veridian has waited centuries for this King. I can't believe he is a traitor.'

So calm! So loyal! Can't he see what's right in front of him? ‘The things we wish for can be as elusive as a dream, and just as far from reality.'