The Key (12 page)

‘Yeah, that was the most unbelievable experience.'

‘Well it wasn't for me. It was horrible.'

At the time I had no idea. ‘Tell me about it.'

‘He came to me there. He told me things.'

A dread settles deep in my gut. ‘What did he say?'

‘He told me that … you weren't his son.'

The words shock. But there's a truth in them that I can feel. ‘I should have known.'

‘Why do you say that?'

‘Didn't you ever wonder why he used the strap on me so much, and never once touched you?'

A helpless look fills her eyes. Of course, what could she have done? And if he had wanted to lay into her, I wouldn't have let him! At least I would have tried not to. He was strong with that strap in his hands. ‘He held me at a distance and I felt it.'

‘I was too young to understand. He was just my dad, and I loved him.'

We're quiet for a moment, contemplative. ‘So who is my father?' I ask, not really expecting an answer.

She sits up straighter and her eyes suddenly fill with tears. ‘I think you're about to find out.'

I get up and start pacing the room. ‘Are you serious? Has Arkarian said something to you?'

‘No. Not really.'

A couple of those tears she's fighting back start to trickle over. I can't stand to see them. I hate seeing her so worked up and worried. ‘What is it, Isabel? Why are you crying? I'm going to be all right, you know. I have every intention of coming back!'

She forces a smile to her face. ‘I'm scared this journey is going to change you. You're going to find out things about yourself, your heritage, that are going to draw you away from me, from your family.'

‘Never!'

‘You may not be able to help it.'

A tap sounds at the door and Jimmy's voice follows. ‘You'll have to hurry, Matt. It's nearly time.'

I turn back to my sister. Suddenly my own vision blurs and I drag her into my arms. ‘Whatever I discover about myself, I will
always
be your brother. We share blood, Isabel. The blood of our mother. Nothing and nobody can ever take that away from us. OK?'

She nods, but doesn't answer.

Ethan starts training Neriah, and, as Arkarian organised, I have to accompany them on every session. It's a good idea. Of all of us, I probably understand Marduke the most. The downside is I have to watch Ethan and Neriah interacting. They look good together. Very good. So far, he's mostly going through the motions, seeing where her talents lie, and part of the training is nurturing her paranormal skills. She hasn't gone on a mission yet, so there's that to prepare her for as well.

But it doesn't take long for Ethan to discover that one of Neriah's powers lies in her artistic talents. Her paintings are more than they seem. I've seen some of them at school. They're really special. Whether it's just a charcoal sketch, or a painting in oil or some other medium, she makes everything seem so real.

Right now she's giving Ethan an example. I wander close enough to hear what she's saying. ‘It doesn't matter what I use – a brush, a wand or a stick,' she says. ‘Watch this …' She picks up an oval-shaped pebble and starts scratching away at a rock. Ethan peers down to get a closer look. When their heads come up, Ethan looks astonished. There's a trickling stream between us that is
starting to ice over. I leap over it to get a closer look.

Ethan sees me and calls out, ‘Look at this.'

Neriah giggles, then takes the pebble and makes the outline of a small creature resembling a mouse. As soon as she's finished, the drawing comes to life in the form of a real live mouse. It runs towards me.

‘Wow! Is it an illusion?' I lift my feet out of the way, but it breaks up, completely disappearing.

‘I don't know,' she says, lifting her shoulders. ‘So far the animation only lasts a few seconds.'

‘Her powers are still developing,' Ethan explains. ‘Arkarian thinks that one day Neriah will be able to open a portal through time with just the few whisks of a paintbrush.'

‘That's impressive.' And I really am impressed. She will be a valuable asset to the Guard if she is able to do this. At the moment Lathenia controls the opening of the portals.

‘We should keep moving,' Ethan suddenly says.

We decided this morning not to stay in one spot for too long. So far we've moved three times. I point to a field on the other side of the lake, but Ethan shakes his head. ‘I used to train there with Isabel.' He's about to explain how Marduke appeared there one night to pass them a message and nearly scared the life out of them. Instead, he holds on to the thought, not wanting to distress Neriah. He glances at me, realising I've read his mind again. His eyes narrow, revealing anger and disgust.

‘Look …' Feeling drawn to defend myself, I attempt to explain. ‘I don't do it on purpose. And you should learn to stop projecting your thoughts so loudly. I'm not the only Truthseer, you know. At least your thoughts are safe with me.'

‘Are they?'

Of all of their distrust, Ethan's is the hardest to take. ‘Darn right they are!'

Neriah keeps looking between the two of us, but her thoughts are locked securely behind a screen – something Ethan should try harder to accomplish.

I look away before he sees how much his lack of faith affects me. The thing is, if these guys don't trust me, what hope do I have to trust myself? Maybe Marduke was right. Maybe evil never dies, and once in your blood, stays there for ever, lying dormant until something comes along to trigger it. Is that how it is with my father? He's still in jail today for the crimes committed against my stepmother. Marduke saw evil in me. He sensed it. And look at the things I've done, the people I've hurt. Can anyone really change?

I walk off and leap back over the stream and down the hill. It's not till I get to the bottom that I realise Ethan is right behind me.

‘Rochelle, stop.'

‘What do you want?'

‘I do trust you.'

For a moment I can only stare, and he adds, ‘I've always trusted you, even when the Tribunal suspected you were Marduke's spy but we didn't know for sure. I stuck up for you.'

‘You did?'

‘Yeah, and I didn't even know why at the time. It was just my instinct. And well, it's been right before.'

He starts to back away, looking, if anything, embarrassed, and maybe even a little annoyed at himself for giving me this admission. He flicks a look up the hill to where Neriah is standing. We're not to let her out of our
sight, so Ethan is taking a risk in more ways than one to tell me this.

‘I just wanted you to know that.' He briskly turns and goes back up the hill.

I follow at a short distance, keeping an eye on the landscape for anything suspicious. It's quiet. Almost too quiet. Something doesn't feel right. I could do with Mr Carter's extrasensory hearing right now, which sparks a thought, and I decide to try it. Pulling off the gloves Arkarian gave me this morning, I put my hands to the ground. Instantly an image of the earth's crust forms in my head – fossil-rich rocks of limestone over a layer of clay. I try to push past these images and ‘feel' for other things. Suddenly the ground starts to thunder beneath my hands and I'm swamped with a visual image of horses. Many horses. Wild and free and running at full pelt along the valley floor. I look up and see that Ethan and Neriah have drifted almost to the top of the hill. If they don't change direction they're going to run straight into the brumbies!

‘Ethan, stop!'

He hears me and turns to look. I wave my arms towards the wooded area to the right. The horses will not run into the woods when there are wide open spaces to choose from. ‘Run into the woods! Quickly!'

But the horses are too fast. The thunder of their pounding hooves can now be heard clearly.

Neriah screams as the large herd of powerful beasts crests the top of the hill, only metres from where they're standing. Instinctively she throws her hands into the air. It all happens so fast. One second the horses are galloping at incredible speeds, the next they're kicking their front legs up and pawing the air. It's an amazing sight. I
run as fast as I can, my heart pounding with the thought of what can only be a terrible tragedy unfolding above me. But when I get to the top, the scene is hardly tragic. I stop and stare. The horses are calm and placid – playfully vying for Neriah's attention.

She croons to each of them, nuzzling their faces with her own. They come up to her one at a time, gently nudging each other to be the first in line.

Ethan is staring too. These are, after all, wild horses, running free all their lives. No one would even attempt to catch one, let alone tame it. ‘You have a definite connection with animals,' he says.

‘Wow,' I can't help exclaim for the second time today. ‘What else can you do?'

She shrugs her slender shoulders. ‘I don't know. But the other day, since the enhancing of our powers, all sorts of things have been happening to me.'

After a few more minutes of patting and stroking the horses, we move off down the valley. The brush with the horses makes us hungry, and Ethan breaks out some sandwiches. Neriah takes one, then Ethan holds the lunch box up towards me.

I didn't even think of bringing anything to eat and now I'm hungry. But I'm not going to take his lunch from him. ‘Oh no, that's all right. I'll get something later.'

‘Don't be an idiot. I knew we'd be all day. I packed this for you.'

I take a closer look and see two sandwiches still left in the box. I take one, my face feeling hotter by the second. I wonder if it's possible to make a bigger fool of myself than I'm doing today? Somehow I doubt it.

After lunch Ethan runs Neriah through some technical exercises to see how skilled she is in these arts. I
watch from a short distance, splitting my concentration between the area immediately around us, and the grassy fields on the outer perimeter. Neriah's having trouble with some basic martial arts. Ethan is behind her now, one arm around her waist, the other her throat. I know this move. She's supposed to drop at her centre and pull Ethan's elbow downward, making sure to place her chin in the way of the choke. I've done it a thousand times, but until you do it the first time, it seems impossible.

She has a go but they both end up sliding to the floor. They burst out laughing, while helping each other to their feet. The sight of them getting along so well, and having fun doing it, starts to grate on my nerves for no other reason than I wish it were me. I decide to go for a walk. The fresh air should knock some sense into my head. It would be a good idea to check the area out, anyway.

When Neriah sees me walking off she calls out, waving me over. I hesitate, because I really don't want to feel their beaming happiness up close.

‘Rochelle!' she calls out loudly. ‘Come and show me how it's done.'

I can't believe what she's asking! She looks at Ethan. ‘A demonstration would be a big help. What do you think?'

At first he doesn't say a word, but just looks at me. Finally he gives in to Neriah's whim and shrugs his shoulders. ‘Sure.'

Slowly I make my way over, wishing instead that I was buried deep in a cave somewhere on the other side of the world.

With slow steps Ethan moves in close behind me. And then his arm comes around my waist. He presses in at
my back and I feel his chest inhale deeply as his other arm closes around my throat. For a moment everything is still and I become conscious of the fact that if I turn my head just slightly to the right, my eyes will meet his. The pressure to do so becomes intense and for a second I can't resist. Slowly, I turn.

But he's not looking at me. He's looking straight across at Neriah and smiling.

If it's possible to die from embarrassment, then I should be flat on the ground right now with no breath in my lungs. Instead of dying, I decide to do the next best thing. Manoeuvring my chin into position to break the stranglehold, I drop downwards, pulling Ethan's elbow along with me. Turning my hips now I keep pulling Ethan's elbow away from him. He loses his balance and hits the ground hard.

Neriah laughs and can't seem to stop, doubling over.

Ethan looks up at me from the ground, shaking his head. But there's a grin there, so at least there's no hard feelings and I can walk away with my pride intact.

Just as I go to walk away I hear a noise and spin quickly to my left, flicking a knife from my boot.

Ethan is up beside me in a flash. ‘What is it?'

‘Footsteps.'

I hear them again, and this time Ethan does too. He lunges for Neriah, shoving her behind us. Her expression changes quickly from one of fun to fear. Her big brown eyes grow even rounder.

‘Stay quiet,' he says softly and propels a knife from his boot to his palm.

A crackling of twigs has the nerves at my neck rippling. The footsteps are getting closer and now there's the shadow of a man coming towards us.

Surprising me, Ethan puts his knife away.

‘What are you doing?'

He starts walking over to the man, and then I see why. It's our friend, Dillon. Arkarian said he would be joining us soon.

Ethan and Dillon grab each other's arms. ‘Hey, it's good to see you,' Ethan says. ‘You weren't away long.'

Exactly. Dillon and I have both defected from the Order now, but where my debriefing took almost a year, Dillon has only been gone a few weeks. I remember the months of doubt I went through and I wonder how in control Dillon can be after such a short time. Loyalties are difficult to break. But who am I to judge? Dillon doesn't have evil in his blood. His parents were drunks and they fought a lot, but they weren't murderers, like my father.

Arkarian and Lady Arabella must be confident of Dillon's successful transition to have put him through the program so quickly. And they are the two people I trust the most in the world.