by Paul Kelly
Xanthius screamed in alarm, alerting the other Wyverns. They hurtled down towards the ground, aiming for the few remaining members of the Future Storm. Below them, the Breach expanded as entire buildings collapsed inside it, the darkness eating through their foundations as if they were made of paper. Guardians and soldiers screamed as the Breach reached them, a thin sea of darkness that consumed all it touched.
“Get to Sybil!” Elijah roared over the scream of the wind. “We have to save her!”
Xanthius didn’t reply but instead folded his wings and dropped like a rock. Elijah screamed, clinging to the Wyvern’s neck for dear life as gravity ripped his legs from Xanthius’ back, leaving him flying in mid-air. Then, just as quickly as it had started, Xanthius opened his wings, swooping down and plucking Sybil from the ground in one perfect curve. She shouted with surprise but didn’t argue as below them the city was slowly consumed.
To one side, Solomon suddenly appeared, riding atop one of the other Wyverns. His white hair was tangled and his normally bright eyes were haunted. Elijah was happy to see he was alive. Below them, the Breach continued to grow, like the world’s muddiest puddle, and Xanthius slowly circled the city, ordering the other Wyverns to hunt for survivors. The city was in chaos, whatever the Breach hadn’t yet consumed was still in flames and smoke erupted from the shattered buildings, obscuring even the Wyvern’s keen vision. But far, below them, atop the Temple, a lone figure stood, staring at the encroaching darkness. It was Ash. Slowly, the Breach approached the Temple and as it did, Elijah could see the bright strands of the timeline surrounding Ash, expanding into a huge bubble of beautiful light.
“Please don’t,” Solomon said.
Ash looked up, a strange smile on her face, the timeline rippling and spinning all around her, a huge white sphere. The darkness of the Breach came closer, lapping at the walls of the Temple, seeming to struggle against it. Ash raised one hand in farewell and jumped into the darkness. The light of the timeline flooded outwards, covering the Breach and slowly illuminating it. There was a bright flash and the Breach closed and Ash was gone.
Chapter 22 – The Voice
They stayed that night in the deserted ruins of what had been section six of the city of Ekriam. Half the city had been consumed in the Breach. In the other half, the fighting still raged, but it seemed that without the dragons her people were losing. Sybil leaned back against a broken wall, her eyes on the night sky, watching the Wyverns circle the city. Seers rode atop them. Together, they shone brighter than the stars. It was beautiful, in the same way that an exploding star was beautiful. It was very pretty, but Sybil still didn’t want to be right beside it. Not for the first time, she wondered what she was still doing here. She’d joined the Future Storm to fight Tommen and here she was a part of the worst disaster since the War on Time. The Breach had almost killed her, if Xanthius hadn’t arrived when he had… Her stomach growled, making her forget her worries for a moment. Or at least have them overridden by more basic ones. In front of her a fire burned and atop it a chicken roasted on a spit. Elijah settled down beside her, offering her a plate. Sybil accepted gratefully and began wolfing down the meat. They ate together in silence, watching the fire spark and crackle.
“This war is becoming too dangerous,” said Sybil after a while.
“That tends to be a general rule with wars,” replied Elijah.
“I was talking about the Breach. I know the Silence was wrong, I really believe that now. But I can see why it was done. That darkness…” she shuddered. “It was terrifying.”
“It all feels so pointless. We were winning, why did Ash have to manipulate the timeline?”
“Probably standard for the Future Storm,” shrugged Sybil. “They probably always keep a couple of you in reserve, just in case something goes wrong. And those dragons… for a long time, the battle looked hopeless.”
An awkward silence descended and for a few moments they just stared at the fire, watching as it painted shadows over the dozen soldiers who sat opposite them.
“Thank you for keeping me alive out there,” said Elijah, his eyes thoughtful. “And for healing my side again. You know, this is the only the first step. If we’ve taken Ekriam, we can get the other cities together and force the Skylands to free Truth, to free everyone, just like Yvonne said. It’d make a big difference, having you here to watch my back. And, you know, to keep healing all these life-threatening injuries.”
Old feelings of guilt washed over Sybil and she shut her eyes against them, resting her head in her hands. She was so tired of lying. “No,” she replied. “I’m going to go back to the Skylands in the morning. To muster this many Pulse-Masters… it would have emptied half the Drum. Tommen will be weak. I’m going to put an end to this.”
“Sybil…”
“Come with me. Like you said you would.”
“I’m not going to fight Tommen Sybil, it’s suicide. We need to follow Solomon’s plan. It’s the only way Truth makes it out of those mines.”
Sybil bit her lip and stared at the fire, her feelings refusing to be controlled and raging against her body like a virus. She could have died today and Elijah would never have known the truth. His whole life was a lie. How could she keep doing this to him?
In front of her, Yvonne and Solomon settled down, their backs to the fire, their faces drawn and haggard.
“How’s the fighting going?” asked Elijah.
“Slowly,” replied Solomon, his voice drained of emotion. “Even without the dragons, it’s not an easy fight. Ash held together so much of the Future Storm, without her… It’s hard to stay organised.”
“Who’s taken over?”
“An old man named Lenon. He actually founded the Future Storm to begin with, but let Ash take over because she was so much better at it. For now, people are following him out of respect for Ash, but I don’t know how much longer it’ll last.” He sighed. “This is not quite the glorious victory I had hoped for, my rapt pupil.”
Sybil watched the emotions play out across Elijah’s face, sympathy for Solomon’s loss fighting his disappointment.
“But we’ll still win right?” he asked.
Solomon nodded, his expression firm. “Yes, we will win. Even fighting as they are, the Future Storm have too much to lose not to win this city. But without Ash, a clear leader, it will be hard to make our case to the other cities. That is where you come in.”
“What now?” asked Elijah, his expression suddenly wary.
“Ash is gone,” answered Yvonne, speaking for the first time. “And the Future Storm need a leader. Who better than the Aontaithe? The one destined to make the Sky fall?”
“But, but, I can’t lead the Future Storm,” spluttered Elijah. “I don’t know the first thing about leading an army. Heck, I don’t even know what the word Aontaithe even means.”
“It’s meaning is lost in the mists of time,” replied Solomon vaguely.
“Of course it is.”
“We will be there to guide you,” answered Yvonne soothingly.
“They’ll never follow me,” replied Elijah, unconvinced.
“Xanthius and Solomon hold a lot of sway over Lenon,” replied Yvonne. “They can convince him to give way.”
“But I don’t want him to give way!” replied Elijah, his face a picture of panic. “I don’t want to lead an army, I just want my sister back.”
“This is about more than your sister, Elijah,” said Solomon, impatience lending a cutting edge to his words.
“Maybe to you, maybe to Yvonne, maybe to the whole Future Storm, but not to me! If I can keep Truth safe, I don’t care if the Skylands rule the world from now until the end of time! Don’t you get it? It’s my fault she’s up there! It’s because of what I am, it’s because I ran, because I left her all alone after Dad…” he stopped, choking on his words, a crazed desperation in his eyes.
“If we destroy the Skylands we can build a new world, Elijah,” replied Yvonne, her
words seductively simple. “Seers won’t have to be afraid any more. What happened to your sister won’t ever happen again…”
“Stop talking about her in the past tense!” snapped Elijah, becoming aggravated now, his chest heaving. “She’s not gone. We can still rescue her, we can still get her back. She’s still alive. She has to still be alive. Everything I’ve worked for, everything we’ve done… It’s not for nothing. It can’t be for nothing…”
Sybil stared at Elijah. She couldn’t help it. His eyes were haunted and his body was hunched over itself. Even the mention of her… It had broken him, made a desperate caricature of the boy she had come to respect. Of the man, who had held her when she had discovered the truth about the Pulse, when her whole world had broken. Every minute that went by was breaking him further. Every second that he didn’t know weakened him. Even if the lie destroyed him, even if he hated her for the rest of his life… he deserved better than this. He deserved closure.
“She’s dead Elijah,” Sybil said.
“No she’s not!” growled Elijah. “I don’t care what you all think, I’m not giving up on her. I’m her brother, I’m the one who’s supposed to protect her. I can’t give up. Even if everyone else has, I can’t too. I can’t leave her alone…”
“I saw her die.” She tore the words from her mouth like a rotten tooth, each one an effort. Silence answered her, as if in the aftermath of an explosion,
Slowly, Elijah raised his head and looked her in the eye, searching for any sense of falsehood.
“What?”
“In the mines. When you were taken to the Testing Centre… I wanted to see you locked up. I guess I wanted to know you deserved it, that you really were a Seer. But there was a girl there, in the mines, with black hair and blue eyes. The foreman hurt her. I tried to stop him. But it was too late. She was so small and so frail, she couldn’t have been older than nine. She couldn’t take it…”
“No, no, no, no, no!” shouted Elijah, covering his ears with his hands. “That could have been any girl, anyone. You didn’t know Truth, you don’t know what she looked like…”
“Elijah…” said Yvonne, resting one hand on his shoulder.
Beside her, Solomon just stared at Sybil, open mouthed, shock making a jagged, broken thing of his haggard features. Sybil put her hand in her pocket and withdrew the silver pendant.
“She was wearing this. I’m so sorry Elijah.”
Elijah snatched the piece out of her hand, his whole body trembling in a terrible mixture of grief and rage. He stared at it for the longest time, his finger tracing the diamond etched into it.
“You lied to me,” he snarled, his features contorted in an agony greater than any physical pain could cause.
“I was afraid,” replied Sybil, her voice shaking, but determined to explain herself. “I’d just left my home and everything I knew. You were the only person I knew in the Earthlands. I needed you to help me. I couldn’t tell you. I’m so sorry,” her voice broke and her eyes shone with tears, the emotion fighting past all her safeguards and into the keep of her soul.
“She’s been dead this whole time,” said Elijah, his voice the deadpan tones of those in shock. “This whole time and you never told me. After everything we’ve been through together.”
“I needed you,” sobbed Sybil, her voice breaking as she pushed out the words. “I didn’t want to be alone.”
“You used me,” spluttered Elijah, his eyes disbelieving. “You used my own sister. And she’s gone. She’s really gone…”
“I’m so, so sorry…” repeated Sybil, the words sounding empty and pathetic, a plaster over a gaping wound.
“Why?!” howled Elijah, his voice tortured and primal. He fell to his knees, tears flooding from his eyes like a floodgate.
“First my mother, then my father and now even Truth. Why do you Skylanders have to destroy everything!”
His voice was broken and cracked, his words coming out in tearful stuttering’s. His whole body was shaking violently and he reached for Sybil, his hands like claws, hatred twisting his expression into a contorted grimace. His every muscle was tensed and Sybil could tell he was fighting himself, that he wanted to hurt her, to throttle her and it was taking everything he had not to.
“Now do you see why the Sky must fall?” asked Solomon, always an opportunist, a note of triumph in his eyes as he looked at Sybil. “They are liars Elijah. They take and they take until there is nothing left. Lead us my rapt pupil, let us destroy them together.”
Elijah rounded on him, grief and pain turning him into a caged animal, desperate to strike at anyone who strayed too close.
“Stop playing your games, Solomon!” he shouted. “My sister is dead… she’s dead. Destroying the Skylands isn’t going to bring her back. Nothing is.” His expression was broken and haunted, grief and rage fighting for their place on a plain of broken hopes.
“Elijah…” said Sybil, trying to say sorry, but unable to find the words. There were no words for this. She watched, helpless, as Elijah walked away from her, away from the fire and away from the last remnants of the Future Storm.
Elijah stumbled through the broken city, his mind a confused mess, his fist clenched around his mother’s pendant. She was dead. She was really dead. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d always thought that if he worked hard enough, if he fought hard enough, he could get his old life back. He could rescue Truth and then he and her could find a place here in Ekriam. They could just live normal lives, grow up as people were supposed to grow up. But that hope was gone now. He would never see her again. He had left her to die in Prazna and that was what had happened. Nothing could match that pain, but Sybil’s betrayal had rubbed salt on the wound. A part of him had always known that Truth was gone, that he had been deluding himself by thinking she could have survived this long in the mines. But he had never thought, even for a moment, that Sybil would keep it from him. He’d thought that he had meant more to her than that. But she had used him, just like the Skylanders used everyone. Tears stung his eyes and he shut them, willing the world away from him. Gradually, he felt his feet carry him out of the city, away from the chaos and destruction and death that still raged there. Away from Sybil and the pain she had caused. And towards the plain, uncaring and simple sands of the desert. The night was cool and there was no wind. The sand was soft against his sandals and Elijah just walked and walked and walked. Behind him, the city of Ekriam slowly receded into nothing, the sands swallowing the whole world. Above him, the sky tracked the passage of time, turning from pitch black, to purple, to pink to the bright orange of dawn as in the east the sun steadily rose. Gradually, the coolness of the night disappeared, replaced by the arid heat of the morning sun.
And still, Elijah didn’t slow his pace. He felt numb, the rage of the night before all but forgotten as the rigours of reality settled upon him. He tried not to think about it. Thinking about it, just made his stomach twist, as if his gut was trying to escape from his mind. As the sun rose higher in the morning sky, his pace slowed, his body gently reminding him that he needed water to live. But Elijah just kept walking, his legs dragging him onwards. The sun beat his head like it had some sort of personal vendetta against him and he began to feel faint. Everything around him looked blurry. He hoped that was just the sun, warping the air like it does when it’s feeling particularly vindictive. Slowly, in the distance, a shape began to materialise. It was a tree. A tree in the middle of the desert. Elijah shrugged. The way life was going, he wasn’t going to start demanding logic now. He collapsed under the tree and lay back against its trunk. It was cool, even through his clothes. In front of him, the whole expanse of the desert lay. He suddenly felt exhausted. He’d been walking for far too long. He needed to get back to Ekriam, he knew, otherwise he would die in this desert. He closed his eyes. He just needed a little rest and then he’d be ready, he could make the return journey then, get back to Ekriam and… within seconds he was asleep.