Unknown

by Paul Kelly

  “Let me past,” she commanded. “I can heal him.”

  Solomon snorted. “Finish the job more like,” he said, barring her way. “You Skylanders are good for only one thing and it is the exact opposite of living.”

  “Move Solomon!” Yvonne shouted. “I will not let him die because of your bigotry!”

  Grumbling, Solomon stepped aside. Sybil took Elijah’s hand in hers. It was cold and clammy. Within herself, she searched for the beat of the Pulse. It was weak this far underground, but it was there, as consistent and dependable as ever. She let it engulf her, allowing its steady beat to become a part of her even while she tried desperately not to think about what it was. She stared at the wound, trying to remember her lessons from Advanced Healing. She’d practiced this on Wyverns a thousand times. This was… no different. She felt bile rise in her throat, but she swallowed it back down. She was a Student. She was cool, calm and collected. She took a deep breath and changed the key of the Pulse. The shift was harder than she’d expected. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she tried to make the transition. What had been easy in the Skylands, even in the desert, was now almost impossible. It was like she’d hit a brick wall, like the Pulse just didn’t want to change. Then, in an instant, it gave way, the beat’s pitch becoming higher, yet smoother. Sybil focused everything she was, everything the Pulse was, at the wound. Elijah’s body began to shake.

  “What’s she doing??” Solomon shouted distantly.

  “It’s too late now. Let her work!” Yvonne replied.

  Sybil directed the beat at the sides of the cut, glad that Yvonne had already cleaned away the blood. Steadily, she let it surround it, covering Elijah’s side in a cacophony of sound. Suddenly, blood spurted out, the dark red liquid oozing across the table. Sybil’s heart skipped a beat. What if she killed him? It would be all her fault. She might as well have stabbed him herself… No. No emotions, she scolded herself. Steadily, she let the beat inch closer to the edges of the wound, splitting the sound and using it to close the skin together. As if like magic, the cut began to close. Slowly, the flesh moulded together, becoming one, drawn together by the need of the beat to become one again. Sybil wiped sweat from her forehead as she finally finished and then stepped away from the table, breathing heavily.

  “It’s done,” she gasped.

  Chapter 19 – The Temple

  The first thing Elijah noticed was the pain in his side. He groaned and tried to sit up, but it forced him back down. He moaned pitifully. He’d forgotten he had been stabbed. What a thing to forget. There was a flurry of movement and then Sybil was at his side.

  “Take it easy,” she said and Elijah noticed that her eyes were weary and bloodshot.

  “That stuff about the Voice is a load of bull,” he groaned.

  Sybil smiled wryly, but didn’t reply. Instead, she took his hand in hers. It was warm, either that or his was just unusually cold and clammy. He was pretty sure it was the latter.

  “What happened to me?” he asked, his voice slurring like he was drunk. “Where’s Yvonne and Solomon?”

  “You didn’t notice being stabbed?” Sybil asked, shooting him a sidelong glance.

  “Oh, I noticed that no problem,” replied Elijah. “I didn’t notice myself walking back here.” He moved one hand to his side. He traced a finger along the scar line, wincing at the contact. “I didn’t notice myself getting magically healed either.”

  “Yvonne and a friend of hers carried you here. I healed you,” answered Sybil.

  “Oh,” replied Elijah, uncertain how to take the revelation. He didn’t know why what the Skylander did still surprised him. “Thanks,” he managed to splutter out.

  “You are welcome,” answered Sybil stiffly.

  Well, this was awkward.

  “Where’s Solomon and Yvonne?” he asked again.

  “They’re above, helping Ash with the defences,” answered Sybil, her expression suddenly ice cold.

  “That was fast, they must have had a good plan to capture the city so quickly.”

  Sybil stared at him for a second. “It’s been three days since you were stabbed Elijah,” she said. “What they’ve done in that time has been anything but quick.”

  That silenced Elijah. He remembered the bloodbath in the courtyard. That replicated across the entire city… the dead must number in the thousands.

  He stared up at the low, rocky ceiling, imagining the battle raging for days as soldiers and Guardians fought house to house and street to street.

  He felt gingerly along his scar line. It felt like someone was pinching him. Continuously. With really sharp nails. “I don’t suppose there’s any sort of Pulse painkillers are there?” he asked.

  “Sure there are,” replied Sybil, concentrating briefly before hitting him in the head. The world went black.

  Elijah was not happy when he woke up again. Now he had a pain in his side and his head.

  “What did you do that for?” he asked irritably.

  “You were complaining,” answered Sybil shortly.

  Trying and failing to ignore the pain, Elijah sat up and stared at the Student. Her eyes were definitely bloodshot and her hair was a tangled mess.

  “When was the last time you slept?” he asked.

  “While my people were being slaughtered, I hid down here,” replied Sybil. “The thought doesn’t inspire pleasant dreams.”

  “Both sides would have killed you given half the chance, you know that,” answered Elijah, rubbing his head. “There was nothing you could have done.”

  Sybil bit her lip and looked away, her eyes seeing nothing.

  “You could join us you know,” said Elijah. “Properly, I mean. Not just tagging along for the free tour through the desert. You could fight in this war too, see Tommen destroyed. Really dead this time. None of this is-he-dead-or-isn’t-he rubbish like we got when I blasted him with the power of Prophecy.”

  “And how many Guardians would I have to kill?” asked Sybil. “How many friends I grew up with? You could not possibly understand. If I do nothing, I am helpless. If I do everything, I will always hate myself.”

  “If you want to kill Tommen, you will have to kill others to get to him, Sybil.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?!” snapped Sybil. “Why do you think I can’t sleep at night?”

  She turned away and Elijah lay back down again, trying to figure out what to say. The silence stretched on.

  “Do you believe in any of this Voice stuff?” asked Elijah after a while.

  Sybil shrugged, staring at the mountain of grain she’d amassed. “That didn’t come from nowhere,” she said.

  “Do you think I’m really the one they’re looking for then?” asked Elijah. “Do you think I’m going to make the Sky fall?”

  Sybil snorted. “You? Come on. You couldn’t make rain fall.”

  “Thanks for that.”

  Sybil said nothing.

  “You know what? I’m glad I’m not from Aubrey anyway,” announced Elijah, working himself up. “Because if being stabbed is what it’s like being their Aontaithe or whatever they want to call it, I don’t want any part in it.”

  “You are such an ignorant people,” blurted out Sybil, her tone exasperated.

  Elijah sighed. “Alright, I’ll bite, what don’t I know this time? What, with your vastly superior knowledge, does the Skylander know that I do not? Go on, tell me what they brainwashed you with.”

  “You are from Aubrey, Elijah,” replied Sybil.

  “What?” asked Elijah, confused. “I thought you didn’t think I was the chosen one.”

  “Oh I don’t,” said Sybil. “Not at all. If you’re the Earthland’s saviour then I might as well go home and tell them to stop sending troops. The war would be over in a day. But you are from Aubrey. If you’d learned even a bit of history you’d know that.”

  “I think I know where I was born, thanks,” replied Elijah acidly.

  “But do you
know where you were born when that Prophecy was written?” asked Sybil. “Look at the map on the wall,” she indicated the yellowed parchment that had hung there since they’d arrived. Elijah suspected it had been hanging there since someone first figured out that writing down how to get to places was a good idea.

  “Yeah, that’d be real useful if you Skylanders hadn’t burnt down all of our schools,” grunted Elijah.

  “As I said, ignorant,” sniffed Sybil. She pointed towards the top of the map. “There is Aubrey and there is Prazna. Notice anything about them?”

  “I told you, I can’t read a map,” answered Elijah, feeling himself getting annoyed and frustrated by his own lack of knowledge.

  “They’re cities, Elijah,” replied Sybil. “Cities within the one country. The country of Aubrey. Before the War on Time, there were only six countries in the Earthlands. Now there are nine cities instead.”

  Elijah stared at the map in bewilderment, before abruptly shaking himself. “This doesn’t change anything,” he said. “There’s hundreds of Seers from Aubrey.”

  He stood up suddenly and felt blood rush to his head. He staggered back, feeling dizzy, clutching the table. The sensation cleared after a few seconds and he righted himself, deliberately not looking at Sybil.

  “I meant what I said before. Being stabbed hasn’t changed that and some old map definitely hasn’t. I have to go rescue Truth, being the Aontaithe isn’t as important as that. Come with me. Maybe, together we can beat Tommen. That’s what you want isn’t it?” Sybil looked back at him warily. Her skin had become a sickly white after being underground for so long and her face looked haggard.

  “Where are you going to get a Wyvern?” she asked.

  Slowly, Elijah and Sybil made their way out of the twisting tunnels. Neither of them were in any hurry to remain inside the oppressive maze but their progress was slow. This was partly because they barely knew the way out and partly because Elijah’s body seemed to have forgotten how to walk after lying on a table for three days.

  “Why did you save me?” Elijah asked after a while.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” asked Sybil briskly, her gaze fixed on the passage ahead of them.

  Elijah shrugged. “All the effort you people have gone through to kill people like me. It just seems… uncharacteristic.”

  “Uncharacteristic?” Sybil’s mouth twitched into a smile.

  “You know what I mean,” grunted Elijah. He looked away. He found he couldn’t quite think straight when she was smiling like that.

  “You saved me too,” answered Sybil.

  Elijah nodded. “From Tommen.”

  Sybil shook her head. “I probably would have gotten away from him anyway, I didn’t need you for that.”

  “You could have gotten away from the man who could move every part of you like a puppet?” asked Elijah sceptically.

  “I’d have found a way,” growled Sybil.

  “Right, like -”

  “It’s not important,” interrupted Sybil. “What I’m trying to say is… you saved me from myself, from Tommen’s lies. When I found out about the Wyverns… life didn’t make any sense to me anymore, I’d have burned that whole camp up just for the chance for something to feel real again, I’d have kept going… I’d have kept going until they stopped me.”

  She stopped walking and turned to him, her smile gone but her eyes glued to his. “You saved me from that.” Elijah’s heart stopped. He wanted to say something. He knew he had to say something, but the words wouldn’t form in his head. He just stared at Sybil, unable to look away. “Elijah there’s something I have to tell you -”

  “Aha I knew it!” interrupted Solomon. They both turned towards the old Seer who seemed to have materialised out of nowhere. “Don’t let me stop you,” he continued. “Go on, I’ve been waiting to hear this confession since I met you. Never trust a Skylander, that’s what I always say.”

  “What I was going to say,” replied Sybil. “Is that maybe you Seers aren’t as bad as all that. But obviously there are always exceptions to that rule.”

  She returned his glare.

  Solomon ignored her. “What are you two doing wandering around down here anyway?”

  “We’re looking for an exit and then we’re leaving Ekriam and we are going to rescue Truth. Don’t try to stop us.”

  Solomon put his hands up defensively. “Look, if being stabbed isn’t going to change your mind, I don’t think there’s much I can say. I’ll even find Xanthius for you. I’m sure he’d be happy to give you a lift. But before you go, just indulge me one last time. Let me show you something.”

  “What is it?” asked Elijah cautiously.

  “You’ll see,” replied Solomon mysteriously, setting off into the darkness without waiting for a reply.

  Under Solomon’s leadership, the three of them were quickly above ground. Elijah was of two minds about whether that was a good thing or not. On the one hand, he needed to find a Wyvern and it was good not to be trapped in the oppressive darkness anymore. On the other hand, Solomon seemed to delight in keeping them in the dark about their destination and the air outside stank of rot and death. The exit they came out of faced into a large square, something Ekriam seemed to have in abundance. Bodies were burning in every corner of the plaza, the rancid black smoke so thick it looked like it held up the sky. A razor sharp wind cut through the air, but did little to disperse it. Solomon led them up a set of thin, stone stairs and onto the edge of a huge, granite wall. Before them, the whole city was spread out. The wall was over twenty feet high and it stretched all the way towards the Temple, a huge square monolith which stood at the heart of the city. Around it eight other walls radiated outwards, like the spokes of a wheel, effectively splitting the city into nine.

  “Behold our destination my rapt pupil!” declared Solomon, pointing dramatically at the huge building.

  “Well, that was quick. Can you point me towards Xanthius now?” asked Elijah.

  Solomon ignored him and began to walk along the battlements.

  “They tried to destroy it, you know,” he said conversationally, as if Elijah had never spoken.

  “The Temple?” asked Elijah, although he knew the answer.

  Solomon nodded. “They threw everything they had at it, even tried to dig it up at one point, but they couldn’t. It was the last symbol of the Seers who had ruled this city and they couldn’t do anything about it. It must have been maddening.”

  “Why couldn’t they?” asked Sybil. Solomon looked at her sideways and Elijah could see his hatred battling with his desire to finish showing off what he knew.

  His pride won out and he answered her: “It’s frozen in time, one of the last things we learned how to do before the Silence began. Few know how to do it now, me and Yvonne are the only ones I know of and we couldn’t prophesy to save our lives anymore.”

  He sighed. “So many things were lost in the Silence.”

  Sybil said nothing in reply and the three of them walked in silence, their gazes locked on the vast metropolis spread out before them. Each section of the city was divided into dozens of courtyards, with a pillar and a cage in the centre of each one. Elijah began to feel his skin prickle nervously. It was a giant prison, he realised. He suddenly began to feel extremely grateful that the Future Storm had attacked when they had. If they hadn’t, even if he’d made it past that wall, they would have caught him. There was no hiding in this city.

  As they looked out over it, Seers and soldiers rushed past them, carrying supplies and building materials. A few glanced curiously at Sybil in her grey clothes, but, for the most part, they were ignored. On several of the walls, Elijah could see what looked to be catapults being constructed, their wooden structures being tied tightly down. Dozens of archers already stood ready at the battlements, watching the skies for Skylanders and their Wyverns. In the courtyard below them, civilians rushed by, getting on with whatever it was they normally did. Solomon set a fast pace and
Sybil and Elijah found themselves half running to keep up.

  “What’s so important about this Temple?” Elijah asked, trying to catch his breath and ignore the pain in his side at the same time.

  “You’ll see,” answered Solomon, not letting up his pace.

  When they reached the end of the wall, they climbed down another narrow, stone staircase. Before them was the Temple, surrounded by a wide circle of stone. It was different to the stone of the other walls, it was shinier and smoother. Elijah stopped to run his hand along it. It was like glass.

  “It’s called chert,” said Solomon, watching Elijah. “It’s very rare, it’s from beyond even the Earthlands.”

  “There is nothing beyond the Earthlands,” sneered Sybil.

  Solomon said nothing and kept walking, passing through a chert archway. Before them, the Temple stood, its white stone dominating the skyline, contrasting sharply with the black of the chert which surrounded it. Its outline was sharp and imposing. There was barely a curve to be seen. The front of it jutted out from the main building at a right angle, inviting them in. Elijah had never seen anything so big. So this was what the Seers had done with all their wealth and power. They’d built a giant rock. Well, at least it had stood the test of time. Atop the main doorway, a huge circle, inlaid with a diamond, was etched into the rock. Each edge of the diamond touched the edge of the circle, except for its top which, instead of meeting it, curved outwards, forming the bounds of the circle. It was simple, yet imposing. Solomon followed his gaze.

  “It is the symbol of the Voice,” he announced, gesturing grandly. “It has stood there since the Temple was built. Each of the points symbolises one of the gifts the Voice gives: the gifts of wind, earth and knowledge. The last point forms a circle. This is the Aontaithe, the one who will have all three.”

  Elijah looked up at it. “My mother used to have a pendant with that symbol inscribed on to it. Do you think she was a member of the Future Storm?”

  Solomon shrugged. “Anything’s possible but it could have just been a family heirloom. It used to be everywhere before the Skylanders outlawed it.”