The Key (37 page)

The opening appears and Isabel greets us on the other side. ‘Quickly. In here.' She points to a door that Arkarian holds open. Dillon lays Mr Carter on a bed, and I notice its ruffled appearance. Arkarian pulls up the covering blanket, then shoots me an interesting look. I can't help but think how lucky Arkarian and Isabel are that Matt isn't here.

Dillon quickly returns my attention to the chaos at the school. ‘I'm going back to see if I can help down there.'

It's a good idea. I should go too. I glance at Mr Carter; the bite marks are festering like acid burns. But there's nothing I can do here. It's up to Isabel now.

The school is in chaos. The rats have caused plenty of damage, and a few students caught outside their classrooms have been hurt. Badly. Where the rats have bitten, their flesh is puckering up like an acid burn. Their moaning fills the air. It's a relief to hear sirens in the distance drawing nearer. A whole string of them. But the most damage appears to be in the science labs. I make my way down there to where it is complete bedlam.

I wish I could find the others, but they don't appear to be anywhere. I could search them out with my mind, but I need a quiet moment to do that, and, well, that's just not going to happen here for a long time.

The plague has passed, but the rats are still out there, traversing the land, making their way to who knows where.

The science labs are a mess. A couple of students are still hysterical. That's when I spot Neriah, making her way from one to the other, trying to calm and reassure. The ambulances have arrived and those of us who are OK are asked to leave.

She sees me and runs straight into my arms. We go outside to the back of the building and I hold her close.

‘Tell me what happened.'

She closes her eyes and shows me, projecting the images straight into my head. Mr Carter is running from one lab to the other, yelling for everyone to close their windows and lock their doors. But the rats are closing in. They're already hitting the front buildings. Many rats slide in before the students are able to close the last couple of openings. They seem to have one purpose, to search and find human flesh, as if in some crazy way it will help to make them mortal again. I see Neriah with her eyes open wide and staring, as the fear that grips the rest of the class grips her too. Screams rent the air, stools crash against desks. Students slam against each other as they try to get on top of desks and away from the rats. Some jump up and hang like monkeys off the ceiling beams. Mr Walker tries to calm the class, while flinging snarling rats off himself and the students near him.

Neriah draws herself to the side and closes her eyes. At first the room is still chaotic. She searches the minds of the rats, finding a way to communicate with them. To begin with nothing changes, but a few moments later the rats stop and lift their heads. It's an amazing sight. They make their way towards her as if hypnotised. She holds open a window and they file out. Thankfully, in the hysteria, nobody notices her gift.

‘You did good,' I whisper over the top of her head.

She lifts her eyes to mine with a look I haven't seen in hers before – one of despair. ‘Matt, I saw something.'

‘What was it?'

‘I saw into their minds.'

‘The rats?'

She nods and gulps deeply.

‘What did you see?'

‘Disease,' she hisses. I tug back a wayward strand of her hair and she says, ‘How do we fight this? Where do we begin?'

A shadow passes, but I pay it no attention. My thoughts are full of the mass of rats that bring disease to our world, and how we're going to deal with them. But the shadow has a voice, and it is filled with anger and accusation. ‘How about beginning right here? Right here with me!'

For a moment we both freeze as Dillon starts to pace around us as if he is a wolf on the scent of his prey. ‘So how long has this been going on?'

I put Neriah behind me. ‘Dillon, let me explain.'

‘Your hands around her, her hands around you. If you ask me, that says it all.'

‘I wanted to tell you,' I try to explain, even though it's too late now. Why didn't I make the time earlier? I should have been upfront with him as soon as I realised my feelings for Neriah. If it comes down to it, there's no way I'll use my powers on him. That wouldn't be right.

Neriah steps around me. ‘Dillon, I tried to tell you we could only be friends.'

‘Friends?
You think we can be friends now?' He walks up to my face. ‘As for you, we've been friends nearly all our lives. Is this what friends do to each other? You knew I liked Neriah. You knew and you still moved in on her. You did it while I was locked up in that safe room being debriefed, and when I came out, you were too much of a coward to admit it!'

‘It wasn't like that.'

‘Now I get why the Tribunal members gave me all those gifts. They knew what you would do to me. Lady Arabella made a huge point about making sure I worked
on nurturing them.' He shakes his head. ‘I should have listened. There were signs everywhere!'

‘If you had taken notice of what we have been trying to tell you, you wouldn't be so upset right now,' Neriah says.

He hisses air through gritted teeth. ‘I was thinking more along the lines that I would have worked out what was going on!' He turns to me. ‘So what was that promise you made me? Were you mocking me, Matt?'

‘No! I swear!'

He shoves me hard. My back hits the brick wall. The brick wall cracks.

Neriah tries to run between us.

No! Stay back!
I warn her in my thoughts.

Dillon comes at me again and throws me to the ground. I get up and try to protect myself from his strength and power. He slams me into the wall again, smashing his fist into the side of my head. I shove him backwards, sliding away from the wall that's started tumbling down.

‘Stop this, Dillon!' Neriah screams out as bricks fall around our feet.

Ignoring her, he comes at me again, grabbing my shoulders. I pull my hands up beneath his arms and try to break his hold. But his strength is incredible, and without using my powers, I haven't a hope. One more punch, and hopefully, he'll pull back and this stupid fight will be over.

But he doesn't pull back. He keeps coming and coming. I end up on all fours on the ground, bruised and beaten.

Neriah runs to me.
You have to use your powers!

No! He'll finish soon
.

Don't be an idiot! He's not going to finish until he kills you. Or at least beats you to a pulp
.

She's right, but I won't use my powers on him. I stumble to my feet, wiping blood away from my face with my sleeve. ‘Dillon, wait! Listen to me.'

‘The time for listening is over!'

As he goes to ram me again, arms come around the back of him, holding him still. They're Shaun's. ‘There is always time for listening.'

Dillon easily shrugs out of Shaun's hold. But it's enough to slow him, and he doesn't try to fight me again.

Shaun looks at the scene before him and shakes his head. ‘I don't know what's going on here, but whatever the reason for this, it stops now.'

‘What's happened?' I ask, slowly regaining my strength.

Shaun looks at each of us. ‘The rift between worlds has been torn.'

‘Oh, hell!' Dillon exclaims, punching a hole in the brick wall behind him. ‘No way!'

The concern over Lathenia opening the rift was one of the many reasons I'd been called to Athens. The Tribunal strongly suspected this was Lathenia's next step.

‘How large is the rift now?'

‘Large enough so that all kinds of dark creatures can make their way into our world.'

‘All creatures?' Dillon calls out. ‘No way. She wouldn't open the rift for
all
the creatures that live there.'

‘What happens now?' Neriah asks.

‘Now?'
Dillon mimics sarcastically. ‘Now our
leader
takes control. Our
Master
, if that's what we can call this lying, spineless wimp! Let's see how you take control now.'

Shaun sends Dillon a harsh glare. ‘Dillon, what's happened between you two must be put aside. It must! Do you understand?'

Dillon sucks air in through gritted teeth and continues to stare at me. But finally he backs down and gives Shaun a silent nod. ‘OK. But there's stuff you don't understand. You don't know what dangerous creatures Lathenia has hidden in the underworld, locked beneath iron gates. And we're supposed to fight her with this weakling as our leader!'

Shaun attempts to ignore Dillon's sarcasm. He turns and looks at me. ‘Matt, it's time. We need the weapons. The weapons that were made for the Named.'

Dillon shoots forward. ‘There had better be one for me!'

Shaun's eyes slide to mine, then Rochelle comes round the corner, saving me from answering. ‘What the hell is going on here?' She sees my bloody face. ‘What happened to you?'

No one enlightens her, so I open my thoughts so she can understand the ‘Dillon' situation quickly. She looks at Dillon and her mouth drops open. ‘You did this?'

‘He deserved it.'

She continues to stare at him and he says, ‘Did you know about them too?'

She holds her hands up, fingers spread wide. ‘Don't get mad at me, Dillon. But I'll be honest with you – I think you had to be blind not to notice that these two have something very strong between them. Maybe it's a guy thing. Matt couldn't see it at first, even though everyone else could. And when he did realise it, he'd already made that stupid promise to you. Not telling you was another mistake, but he didn't mean to hurt you on purpose.'

Her words are generous and maybe, just maybe, Dillon will listen to a third party. He shrugs and glances away, and Rochelle brings me her message. ‘Lorian has released the chest of weapons that has been in his care. Arkarian has it. He wants us to meet on the ridge above the falls and for you to get the key.'

Shaun's head nods deeply. ‘Let's go, then.'

‘Where are the others?' I ask Rochelle.

‘Ethan and Isabel are making their way to the ridge as we speak.'

‘What about Mr Carter?' Dillon asks. ‘Is he OK now?'

‘What do you mean, Dillon? What happened to Marcus?' Shaun asks.

A woman walks around the side of the building. ‘That's what I would like to know!'

It's Ms Burgess, and her words make Rochelle jump. ‘Oh, Ms Burgess, I didn't see you there. Don't worry, Mr Carter's fine.'

‘That's hardly likely, young lady, considering the condition he was in. I want a word with Ethan Roberts. Where is he? And where did he take Marcus?'

‘I swear Mr Carter's fine. I … I saw him only a few minutes ago.'

Ms Burgess's face screws up in disbelief. She goes right up to Rochelle and swings a finger back and forward in her face. ‘I'm telling you now that if Marcus Carter is not returned to this school in the next few minutes I'm going to call the police and heads will roll. Am I making myself clear, Ms Thallimar?'

‘Emily, what's the fuss? I can hear you from clear across the other side of the oval.'

Finally something goes right. Mr Carter's appearance is timely. Ms Burgess gasps at the sight of him. ‘Marcus,
are you all right? Where did that boy take you?'

Mr Carter walks up to Ms Burgess and tugs on his jacket collar. ‘I assure you, Emily, I'm perfectly well. This jacket is made of strong fabric. The darn rats couldn't penetrate it. Those rotten scoundrels gave me a fright, though. I'd gone and fainted. Ethan carried me away from the crowds, then ran and got some smelling salts and I washed the blood off.'

She frowns at him, and as she does so, he grins at her. She practically melts. I can't believe it! So Ms Burgess has a crush on our Mr Carter!

‘I take it that classes have been cancelled for the rest of the day?' he asks, carrying on the conversation as if everything is normal.

‘Oh yes,' Ms Burgess says as they walk towards the office together. ‘Most of the parents have been contacted and have started picking their children up already. And buses have been organised to take the others home early. They've already started leaving. Can you believe what's been happening lately? This is the second time this term that school's been cancelled. What's going on, Marcus?'

‘I don't know, Emily, but it would be a good idea to keep everyone indoors, just in case those rodents make a return appearance. I'll make an announcement right away.'

As soon as they're out of earshot, we start to move off, but my thoughts keep swinging back to Dillon and the look of intense fear in his eyes a few minutes earlier. It's there again now in his dazed look.

‘Exactly what has Lathenia got locked beneath those iron gates you mentioned earlier, Dillon?'

He goes to speak, but no words come out of his mouth.

‘You'd better tell us,' Shaun says.

He takes a deep breath. ‘All right. But you saw them too, Matt.'

A shiver reverberates through me as I recall the brutish animals locked in Lathenia's dungeon.

Dillon explains, ‘They walk on two legs like humans, they have two thick hands as well, and are just as tall as us. They have large heads with long curved horns coming out of them, and … I don't know quite how to explain this, eyes that see right through you – black and glassy, like a window to a dark well of nothing. And down their backs are these pointed bones that stick out along the line of their spine. They're big and strong too. And yeah, did I mention the fact that they're attracted to the scent of living flesh?'

‘I've seen these creatures impounded in Lathenia's dungeon. They're exactly as you describe. But I didn't see any in the underworld,' I say.

‘No, you wouldn't have. She keeps them locked in a series of underground caverns and tunnels. They live there among their own kind, in their own filth, while Lathenia works out a way to control them.'