The Key (2 page)

Lorian remembers the day he saw his brother working magic – such powerful and unusual magic. He knew then that with Dartemis's talents at her fingertips, Lathenia would become too strong.

But for now there are other matters more pressing – the resolution of this conflict, without war.

Allowing this last thought to penetrate all minds in the room, everyone's attention is quickly refocused. Lathenia scoffs at the thought. ‘What is happening to you? You are more melancholy than I thought. If I didn't know better, I'd say you have allowed yourself to fall in love.'

Her words anger him. ‘I am not so foolish as to allow the very notion of love to interfere with my judgement!'

A quiet descends, where Lathenia finds she has to struggle with the urge to look upon Lady Arabella's face.

Stirring emotions circle the room. Lady Arabella dares not lift her eyes and takes to scrutinising the ice-blue veins that reveal themselves beneath the pale skin of her hands, while Lord Penbarin stares across the table as if seeing his fellow Tribunal member for the first time.

It is Marduke's rough, guttural voice that penetrates and dispels the atmosphere. ‘This meeting is a waste of time. Nothing will be resolved here. Nothing is ever resolved without war. It is the way of the universe.'

Lorian asks, ‘Does Marduke speak the truth, sister? Is there no hope for peace between us?'

Lathenia stares pointedly at her brother. ‘There can
only be peace when there is justice, for you rule by default.'

‘Need I remind you that of the three of us, I was born first.'

‘So you claim,' Lathenia argues. ‘But it should have been me!'

With eyes as fiery as coals Lathenia leaps from her stool, her body upright and rigid with rage. ‘Marduke is right. This meeting is pointless. Only force will give me justice. Control of all the realms should be mine, and I will have it!'

Calmly, Lorian replies, ‘Sister, neither of us controls the realms. The humans govern themselves. They have free will and choose their own destiny. For as long as they are mortal we are only their caretakers.'

‘That will change.'

Lorian's shoulders stiffen and he too rises. Around the room all eyes move from one angry god to the other.

‘You cannot change what must be,' Lorian hisses. ‘Marduke speaks of the way of the universe, but I speak of the way of life.'

‘It is my ambition to combine the realms,' Lathenia explains. ‘And I will succeed.'

‘But that would be disastrous.' Lorian is aghast. ‘The humans would … alter. Their very existence would be in danger of domination from the soulless. The inconceivable will become reality, and over time the line between mortality and death will blur.'

It is in her silence that Lorian understands the depth of his sister's determination. And for the first time in his long life the makings of real fear flutter within. It quickly turns to anger. In a whisper-soft voice that has the hairs prickle on the back of Lord Penbarin's neck, Lorian
says, ‘You cannot do this.'

‘Don't lecture me, Lorian.' Lathenia raises her hand, pointing one long finger directly at the narrow opening in the ceiling. ‘This is what I think of your peacemaking.'

The ceiling begins to peel away. Great chunks of rock and brick jettison into the sky. With another wave of her hand the ceiling completely disappears into the raging blizzard.

‘What are you doing?' Lorian asks, his violet eyes flashing with concern.

Lathenia doesn't answer. Instead she angles her face up towards the blizzard. In a flash of lightning and resounding thunder, the thick clouds swirl and begin to scatter. In seconds the blizzard blows away, revealing a night sky sparkling with clarity and millions of stars.

But Lathenia is hardly finished, and Lorian knows it. His eyes remain riveted to the brilliant night sky. An explosion of light, followed by a hiss, quickly grows into an ear-piercing whistle. It has the mortals diving to the floor a second before the descending chunk of rock explodes above their heads.

Lady Arabella screams and joins King Richard further beneath the table.

Lorian doesn't move, but the power radiating from him is tangible in what's left of the exposed room at the top of the cliff. His eyes shift upwards, centring on a blue star vivid in the distant sky.

‘Uh-oh,' Lord Penbarin remarks. ‘Keep down and out of the way. This could get interes—'

Before he finishes, a blazing light starts hurtling towards them, accompanied by a high-pitched whining sound that near deafens the Tribunal members. The star
shatters in the atmosphere, showering the room in heat and light and burning debris.

Servants pour out of the monastery, covering their ears and whimpering about the heavens falling. Like ants they run from the cliff as fast and as far away as possible.

Within minutes the earth is showered with the most brilliant meteor display ever witnessed by human eyes. One explodes so close that the entire monolith shakes and the walls of the monastery crumble on one side. Lorian stares at his sister in disgust. ‘Do you respect no life but your own?'

She shrugs.

Another meteor careers almost horizontally across the sky to crash into some far distant land.

‘That was Angel Falls!' Lorian glares at his sister.

‘Really? Are you scared of losing a few soldiers?'

‘Have you no thought for your own soldiers who live there?'

‘I can risk a few to see the death of your elite.'

Lorian stares at her in silence for a moment. Disgusted. ‘You go too far.'

‘Know this, brother, I will always go one further than you.'

He pauses, and all those cowering beneath the table emerge just enough to see what he plans next. Without moving, Lorian closes his eyes. Lady Arabella peers across the table to Lord Penbarin. She has never seen her liege look so focused, or so angry. Lord Penbarin gives a light shrug, then watches as his Lord and Master begins to glow from the inside out, then slowly starts to shake.

Lathenia's eyes shift to Keziah, her aged but trusted Magician. Even Keziah, who has lived a long time, has
never seen anything like this before. He shakes his head. ‘I know not, Your Highness.'

‘Brother?' she says. ‘What are you up to?'

Finally the light from Lorian's body begins to dull, his shaking slows and he sags. It becomes obvious that whatever he was doing, is over. Some look to the sky, but Lord Penbarin keeps his eyes firmly on his Lord. Slowly Lorian becomes aware of where he is. He opens his eyes and finds those of Lord Penbarin. Through his mind he shows him what he has done and Lord Penbarin lunges for breath. He wonders fleetingly what it has cost his liege, but it is done now – there are only the consequences to follow.

Lady Arabella looks to Lord Penbarin for answers. In fear the Goddess will hear him, he sends her only a single thread of thought …
The Named
.

School is different now. There are security guards at the front gate. We don't wear uniforms any more. And the grounds are filthy with litter. It's as if no one cares. About the grounds, the classrooms, or even themselves. And I know this because I hear their thoughts. Before I learned how to control them, I heard them all. I nearly went insane. Suddenly there were non-stop voices in my head. One day I was really tired and couldn't handle it. We were gathered together in the auditorium at school. I was right in the middle of the room and had to run for the door. I didn't stop running until I had stumbled halfway into the bordering forest. But what I'd wanted to do was scream and tell them all to shut the hell up. Even now, the things I overhear sometimes shock me. People can think such horrible thoughts even about their best friends.

The bus pulls up to the school gates, but I wait, looking out the window until the other kids pile out. With music pumping in my ears, I don't realise when the bus is empty. I become aware of the bus driver staring at me through his rear vision mirror. When he sees me looking he raises an eyebrow. He's in a hurry. His run is probably
finished and he can't wait to get to the pub. Sure, it's only eight-thirty in the morning, but life is different now. There aren't as many rules.

‘Hey, you getten out, girlie?'

I pull the plugs out of my ears and pack up my CD player. While shoving it in my backpack I allow his thoughts to penetrate my mind.
Hmm, ain't that the Thallimar girl? Her father's doing time for murder. Better not tick her off … Then again, she sure has got a nice –

‘You need a life.' I interrupt his thoughts and get off the bus quickly.

The others have arrived at school already. Ethan, Matt and Isabel. Ever since they got back from the underworld they've been a really close group. It's like whatever they experienced there has created a bond between them. A strong bond. And now that I'm not with Matt any more, and my friend Dillon has disappeared, I've got no one to hang around with. Even that new girl, Neriah, spends most of her time with them now.

I walk down the steps and wait for one of the two security guards to check my backpack. He makes me empty the pockets of my jeans. As I do this Matt looks in my direction. Turbulent emotions hurtle towards me. Surely he's not still angry at what I did to him? He loved me, while I had to pretend to love him as part of Marduke's vengeful plans. If I could say sorry a thousand times and know that it would make a difference, I would.

Ethan notices where Matt's looking and sees me. For a second our eyes connect and an overwhelming feeling makes me lose concentration, something that tends to happen often when I'm near Ethan. His thoughts rush into my head. He's remembering that moment we first
met, before I started going out with Matt, and we'd felt an amazing connection. A connection I'd had to sever. At least now that I'm with the Guard, I don't have to do things like that. The hardest thing I have to do is to earn everyone's trust. I know what they're all thinking – how does one trust a traitor? Only Arkarian believes in me. I've never known anyone as gentle or understanding. Isabel is so lucky.

For a second I think about going over and sitting with them. I mean, how can they learn to trust me when they only know the worst of me? I tell myself it's simple: just walk.

But something makes me stop. Did I see relief in their eyes? Maybe I should listen to their thoughts. No! That's intrusive and I won't do it – not on purpose. But really, it's not as if I don't know these people. Matt and I used to go out. So why do I have to think twice about making a single move? All I need is courage. I glance briefly around. No one's looking, not even Isabel, whose head is buried in a notebook, pointing something out to Ethan. I take a step towards them. OK, that wasn't too hard. I take another, then another. Look natural, I tell myself as I get close enough to hear them talking among themselves.

‘Hey.' Isabel looks up with a greeting.

‘Hi,' I reply.

Matt notices, but glances away.

I swallow deeply as words dry up in my throat.

Ethan gets up and comes over, leading me off to the side. My heart does this funny little leap, like it's trying to clamber up my throat on awkward feet.

‘You know,' he says, ‘it probably isn't a good idea you coming over here.'

‘What?'

‘All of us hanging around together could look suspicious.'

‘Oh? Oh yeah. I wasn't going to sit here. I … I was looking for Dillon.'

Ethan goes still. A strange reaction. Instinctively I open my mind to his thoughts. He picks up what I'm doing and his eyes narrow and go cold and hard. Oh great! I could kick myself. How can anyone learn to trust me if they think I'm reading their heads whenever I want information?

‘Sorry, Ethan, I didn't mean –'

‘To read my thoughts? Or be so obvious doing it?'

‘That's not fair.'

‘Isn't it?' His head shakes and he turns slightly away.

I try to explain. ‘You know how hard it is sometimes to switch off your powers.'

Slowly he turns back. ‘Look, I don't know how long Dillon's going to be away. He defected to the Guard, like you. He's going through a debriefing right now. But I heard he's making really good progress. So I'm sure you'll have someone else to get your claws into soon.'

What is he talking about? As if I would be interested in Dillon! He has no idea. All the same, Ethan's news is interesting. I had my suspicions about Dillon being a member of the Order, but all the time that I served Marduke, our identities were kept secret from each other.

Mr Carter turns up and says something, but his words float away, lost in the air.

Ethan misses them too. ‘Did you say something, sir?'

Mr Carter smirks, and if I'm not mistaken, his smirk is directed at me. Ethan used to think Mr Carter hated him, but Ethan doesn't really know what it's like to have
Mr Carter's hate thoughts sent straight into your brain. Mr Carter doesn't even try to appear friendly to me, and he doesn't seem to care who knows. I worked for the enemy, and as far as Mr Carter is concerned, that means I can't be trusted. Not ever.

‘What did I tell you people only this morning? Wasn't anyone listening?'

I stare at him blankly and he says, ‘No, not you, Miss Thallimar. You weren't here, were you?' Neriah comes over and sits next to Isabel. When he sees her, Mr Carter's eyes practically melt. ‘Why don't I repeat myself for the benefit of those who just joined us. For the purposes of … discretion, don't make it obvious the five of you are a defined group. If one of you should give your identity away, it would be too easy for the
other side
,' he pauses and looks directly at me, ‘to pick you off one by one.' Still staring at me he pointedly says, ‘Am I clear?'

‘Perfectly,' I snap back at him. Adjusting my backpack I start to move off, more pleased by Mr Carter's words than he could imagine. Ethan's earlier comment had not been an insult, but the same warning Mr Carter had just given us.