The Dark

by Marianne Curley

  I squat down beside him and try to stop shaking. He guides my hand to his leg, but misunderstands the reason for my shivering. ‘Cold, isn’t it?’

  I feel his injured leg, assessing his injuries. ‘I sure could do with Lady Arabella’s cloak. But you know what? It’s not the cold chilling my bones.’

  A mournful shriek overhead rends the air. It has the two of us gripping each other’s arms.

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Ethan hisses.

  ‘What do you suppose that was?’

  ‘Probably your brother,’ he says jokingly, aware of my terror. But his attempt at humour does nothing for me.

  At my silence he says, ‘Hurry up and heal me, Isabel. I’ll feel better with two legs working.’

  I have to work hard to concentrate; my heart is thumping like crazy with no natural rhythm. ‘Where do you think our packs ended up? Can you believe I left my torch in one of them?’

  ‘Well, yeah, so did I,’ he mutters.

  Suddenly a torch lights up, revealing a vast rocky field covered in snow patches. I see Matt pointing the torch light down as he clambers over slippery boulders.

  He reaches us and shines the torch on Ethan. ‘Hey, what happened to you?’

  ‘The fall broke his leg. Can you see our packs?’

  He holds the torch directly over Ethan’s injury. ‘When you’re finished fixing him up, I’ll take a look around.’

  I wave the torch away. ‘I don’t need that much light. But we do need some warmer clothing. See if you can spot our packs with that thing.’

  ‘He shouldn’t be spotting anything,’ Ethan says in a tight voice that’s difficult to distinguish between pain and anger. He looks up into Matt’s face. ‘You shouldn’t be here. Do you know what you’ve done?’ He doesn’t wait for an answer. ‘You risked your own life and put us into deeper trouble when we get back.’

  ‘No one’s going to blame you. I’m responsible for my own decisions.’

  ‘Not in the Guard. We take responsibility for each other. And now we’ve got you to look after. You’re going to be a pain in the neck.’

  Oh no, they’re at it again. And while I know Matt’s actions were questionable, I think Ethan’s words are a little harsh. He’s here now and we can’t do much about it. I point to Matt’s torch. ‘We’d have a hard time finding our packs without that. We’d probably die of exposure first. So I reckon he’s already made himself useful.’

  Ethan says nothing, just makes a kind of scoffing sound.

  Matt announces he can see where one of our packs ended up. ‘Over there. Look. I’ll go and get it.’

  Ethan yells at him. ‘Stay where you are! When Isabel is finished with my leg, we’ll go together, OK? We’re not separating in this place, not for a second. We could lose each other in this absolute darkness, just like that.’ He clicks his fingers, making a snapping sound. ‘Since you’re here now, you’re not to make one move without clearing it with Isabel or me first. You got that?’

  ‘Yeah, OK. I don’t want to go off by myself anyway.’ He shudders as he peers into the darkness.

  Ethan stands up, trying out his leg. ‘It’s great. Thanks, Isabel. At least now we know our powers still work.’

  ‘What about your wings?’ This skill could be the handiest of all. If Ethan could use his wings to check this place out, we might have a chance of finding Arkarian more quickly.

  He looks around, but his sight is restricted to the distance of Matt’s torch light. ‘I’d have to visualise my path. It only takes a second or two, but I can’t see what this landscape looks like. It would be too easy to get lost here. Besides,’ he adds, ‘I haven’t perfected them yet. I could end up anywhere.’

  So it’s agreed Ethan shouldn’t even attempt to use his power of flight. If he were to inadvertently end up alone, whether near or far, he could be lost for ever. A horrifying thought.

  We locate both backpacks and, since Matt brought his own, we decide to conserve one of the torches.

  The darkness here is more than I imagined, but as the light produced from Matt and Ethan’s torches lights up a large enough area for me to see where I’m going, I’m happy to leave my torch tucked safely in my pack. We don’t know how long this journey will take, but without light we would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

  Ethan dives into his pack for Lady Arabella’s cloaks and gloves. He pulls out the first cloak, which unfolds to exactly my size from head to foot, then hands me one of the sets of gloves. Looking up at Matt he says, ‘Lady Arabella didn’t give us a spare set for hangers on.’

  It’s a cutting thing to say. I haven’t seen Ethan this angry before. He’s really upset with Matt tricking us. I bite down on my tongue; these two are going to have to sort out their own issues. I have enough of my own right now. And I’d offer my cloak to Matt, but I know he wouldn’t take it. It would be pointless even to try. His protectiveness of me wouldn’t allow it. So I put it on, deep hood and all, and revel momentarily. It’s just so warm. The gloves too are a perfect fit.

  Ethan makes a sudden noise deep in his throat. ‘Huh? What’s this?’

  ‘What?’ I ask.

  ‘Look!’ He pulls out two more cloak and glove sets. ‘How did I end up with three? I swear Lady Arabella handed me two cloaks and two sets of gloves. Where did this third one come from? You were there, Isabel. You helped me shove the cloaks inside this bag.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. But Lady Arabella must have …’ I search my brother’s face for a clue. ‘Do you know anything?’

  He gives me a smirk, rubbing his arms to warm up. ‘Do I look like I know anything? Maybe it’s for Arkarian. For when you find him.’

  Ethan doesn’t buy it. ‘Then why didn’t Lady Arabella say so?’

  ‘Maybe she did and you just weren’t listening.’

  ‘Oh really?’

  ‘Yeah, she probably said: “And this third cloak is for Arkarian”.’

  If they keep this up much longer I’m going to scream. I jump in before Ethan retaliates and this stupid argument grows even more out of proportion. ‘Look you two, I don’t get it either, but I do know one thing, this wind’s getting colder. And we should hurry.’

  Glaring, Ethan throws the third cloak set to Matt, who quickly puts them on, gloves and all.

  Direction is our first big decision, and probably our most vital. After an awkward moment of silence we start discussing where to go and how to make sure we don’t end up going round in circles.

  ‘We should leave a mark of some sort,’ Ethan suggests.

  But the ground is mostly rock, and snow is starting to fall. Ethan pulls out a compass wrapped in a red silk handkerchief. Earlier we decided to stick to a northerly direction, but his exclamation has Matt and me craning to see what’s wrong.

  ‘Wow.’

  The dials of the compass are spinning madly, not just in one direction either, but clockwise and anti-clockwise with no visible pattern.

  ‘Maybe we’re standing on magnetic rock.’

  Ethan slides the compass into his trouser pocket and wedges the handkerchief between two rocks on a large boulder, giving it a strong tug to make sure it’s in good and tight. ‘Maybe,’ he says without much enthusiasm. ‘We’ll try it again later. But right now we have to decide which way we’re going to call north, and stick to it.’

  Another mournful shriek slices the darkness. All three of us stare at each other with wide-open eyes.

  ‘Does anybody have any idea what that sound is?’ Matt asks.

  While it’s hard to tell which direction it’s coming from, I have a sense of it being at my back. I point in the direction to the front of me, ‘I have no idea, but I reckon thataway’s north.’

  We head off without any real idea of where we’re going. Without a compass, without a sun, stars or a moon, we’re seriously disadvantaged.

  After a while we realise we’re not walking on rock any more. The terrain is changing, becoming more fertile, if that’s possible in this sunless place. But it’s soon e
vident that we’re walking into some sort of valley. A type of grass squishes under our feet. It could be wet from dissolved snow, or recent rain, or an underground water table. We have no way of knowing. There are trees here and there, barren looking with few or no leaves. We come to an area that’s even more swampy, with string-like trees, dripping with moss, their roots and lower branches buried beneath patches of ice and smelly stagnant water. It’s lucky we’re all wearing ankle high boots.

  Matt lifts one leg off the ground. Murky water drops from beneath it. ‘This is disgusting. Can you smell that?’

  But it’s not the smell that gets my attention. A sound in the distance has me searching as far as I can see.

  ‘What is it?’ Ethan asks.

  Before I get a chance to answer, all three of us hear it. But it’s nothing like that shriek we thankfully left behind. This sound is more of a hiss. It dims slightly, then surges again, this time louder.

  ‘What do you reckon?’ Ethan asks again.

  ‘I don’t know. Insects maybe?’

  ‘In this temperature?’

  But Matt has his own idea, his own idea on this world altogether apparently. ‘Who says they have to be alive?’

  Ethan and I look at him, wondering if he’s going to elaborate, but he only lifts his eyebrows and shrugs at us.

  The hissing sound turns into buzzing and grows overwhelmingly louder. It becomes difficult to hear each other speak. Ethan manages to mouth a warning, ‘We’d better find cover.’

  Too late. From the dark boundaries a coloured glow forms. Within seconds we’re covered by what could only be millions of buzzing insects, individually coloured red, blue, violet, even pink. They’re fireflies! Some are painted colours I haven’t seen before.

  We throw our arms over our faces in self-protection, keeping well within our cloaks. Still, some get in between my fingers, and flutter noisily against my face. They don’t stay long, and soon the dazzling display of fireflies lifts over our heads, they swarm around us for a few more seconds, then fly off.

  We watch, mesmerised, as they disappear. It’s their beauty that has us in awe. It’s as if the fireflies themselves have found a way to bring splendour into their lives.

  Matt shakes his head and fireflies swarm out of his hood. He looks dazed, and Ethan offers his water flask. I reach for my own, but I’m not too thirsty yet, so I decide to conserve. While there’s evidence of plenty of water here, I’m reluctant to drink any of it, especially the swamp water with the foul odour.

  But apparently Matt has his own flask too. He tugs it out from the front of his trousers. So that’s where he must have hidden the torch! If only Ethan or I had seen it earlier, Matt wouldn’t be here right now. Not that I’m in the habit of looking at the front of my brother’s trousers! ‘What else do you have stashed down there?’

  Matt’s eyebrows lift, giving me one of his smirk-like grins. He earns a thump from my fist for his sick humour.

  Ethan can’t help a snigger. ‘Personally, I’d rather not know.’

  The tension between them reduces, and we push on into the valley. But right from the start I sense something very different about this part of the landscape. At first it’s hard to put a finger on, ’cause it’s not so much a physical strangeness, more like a feeling generating inside. But then I hear a sound, a voice if I’m not mistaken.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ I spin around, unable to work out where the voice is coming from.

  Coward!

  ‘There!’ Ethan hisses, turning so fast he almost falls over. I reach out to help him find his balance. He brushes his own shoulder as if trying to rid himself of something there. ‘Who said that?’

  Failure!

  Ethan’s eyes hold mine; breathing hard. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘I don’t know. Let’s just keep walking.’

  My eyes can’t stop shifting from left to right and back again, looking for the owner of that eerie voice. A whooshing sound grows louder. Something’s coming. And if my senses are right, it’s coming straight for us. I look for a hiding place. But where? And from what? The whooshing sound grows unbearably close, and a shadow appears directly in front. Something cold and wet folds over us like a clingy skin. I can’t help but scream out. We all squirm around, bumping into each other, as we try to get this sticky thing off. But fighting makes no difference. The cold wet sensation passes right through me. And with a whoosh, the shadow, with all its stickiness, disappears behind us.

  I fall to the ground, shaking. Ethan doubles over, while Matt heaves as he tries to catch his breath.

  ‘What was that?’ Ethan says.

  Murderer!

  It’s back. That eerie voice. And for some reason it affects Ethan the most. He jumps at the sound, reaching for his left ear. ‘Go away! I know you’re talking to me. Now get lost!’

  I stare at Ethan, wondering what he’s talking about.

  ‘It was my fault,’ he says.

  I don’t like where his thoughts have taken him, and I curse this miserable voice for putting the idea in his head.

  ‘I stood by and watched her die. I could have stopped it, but I didn’t.’

  ‘You were a child, Ethan. There was nothing you could do. Marduke would have killed you too.’

  His face scrunches up and folds under the pressure of his guilt. ‘I loved her. She was everything I wanted to be. But I was jealous, Isabel. Maybe part of me wanted her to die.’

  ‘No! That’s not true! Push that thought from your mind. You loved Sera. And you love her still.’

  Worthless!

  ‘What?’ Matt calls out, peering over his shoulder. Oh no, the voice is tormenting Matt now.

  Imposter!

  ‘I’m not an imposter!’

  I yank on his arm. ‘Ignore it! Keep moving, one foot after the other. OK?’

  Coward! Imposter!

  Now there are several voices, surrounding us. I keep pulling on Ethan and Matt to keep walking. But with each step, the voices multiply. Soon there are hundreds of accusations coming from every direction.

  Abandoned! A voice shrieks into my ear. I spin around, but nobody’s there. ‘What do you want from us?’

  Beside me Matt’s hands flail in the air surrounding him. ‘Who are you?’ he cries out. ‘Why are you doing this?’

  ‘It’s the valley,’ I try to explain, looking ahead to see how much more of this wretched place we have to cover. ‘There’s something in the air here, or the ground. Whatever, only your inner strength can stop the intrusion into your mind.’

  ‘It’s impossible to stop,’ Ethan says. ‘The voices are everywhere. I couldn’t stop my sister from dying. I may not be able to stop my mother either.’

  ‘Work harder, Ethan. Force a block.’

  ‘It’s no good, Isabel,’ Matt whispers hoarsely from between us. ‘Listen to them!’

  Loser!

  ‘That’s what you should be trying not to do!’

  Piercing through the voices, a scurrying sound makes all the nerves in my spine tingle. Ethan and Matt both glance at me, then each other. The scurrying sound grows into a furious rumble. Suddenly hundreds of animals, small like rats, come into view. Like a wave, they roll across the landscape towards us.

  Ethan grabs my arm. ‘Quickly!’ He pulls Matt over, making us huddle together on the ground in the shape of a ball, our cloaks wedged tightly around us.

  Beneath our feet the ground vibrates. In seconds the animals are on us, clambering over our backs with sharp claws and scrambling down the other side. Several force their way under our cloaks. They nip at our boots. One scurries up my arm. I scream, and it tries to claw into my hood. The look of its over-sized front teeth makes my blood curdle. Frantically we push them out. Finally they pass over, disappearing into the dark.

  And with their passing, the voices come back in force, making my skin crawl with their eerie accusations. It’s as if someone’s been inside our heads and dug up our deepest feelings of doubt and guilt. Slowly we trudge forward, but
every step gets harder. ‘How much more can we take of this, Ethan?’ My pace slows to a crawl.

  Matt’s arm comes around my waist, but he’s hardly able to hold up his own weight. He shakes his head as if trying to clear it. But the voices don’t go away.

  Ethan stops. ‘I have an idea.’

  He closes his eyes and concentrates. He’s trying to create an illusion. How hard will it be to focus through this incessant screaming?

  But somehow he does, creating an illusion of a beautiful forest just up ahead. Ethan lifts his torch, and the forest glistens as if a warm sun is shining on its moist leaves. The illusion is like a rope we cling to, pulling ourselves closer to safety with each step.

  And suddenly we find ourselves standing at the edge of a fast-flowing river, the voices fading behind us.

  But we have to step back quickly not to fall in. If we did, we’d die for sure. And quickly. This river doesn’t flow like any other that I know. It has many currents, all pulling it in different directions, forming several whirlpools, frightening rips and lengthy rapids. It also looks deep. And while I can just see over to the other shore, it’s quite a distance. The thought of having to cross it scares the life out of me. I fall back on to my heels with a feeling of despair. There must be another way, but which way is the correct one? Maybe we should never have crossed that valley. Maybe we should have headed in the opposite direction in the first place.

  I glance up at Ethan and Matt. They look weary but relieved, slowly regaining their composure.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Ethan squats down to ask me.

  But all I can think is that if I don’t know the way, how can I find Arkarian? How can we survive in this place? I don’t want to ever hear those voices again. This place is harsh. It works on two levels – physical and emotional. I throw my head back and stare up at blank nothingness. ‘Oh where are you, Arkarian?’

  Not expecting a reply, it’s a shock when my head fills with a blinding light and sharp stabbing pain.

  ‘Isabel?’ Ethan calls. But the pain in my head is too much right now and I ignore him.