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‘vision’ or warning, who’s to say it will happen again? It was hardly a warning at all really. That storm erupted too quickly. Itwould be a useless skill to have in that sense.
    ‘Isabel? You got any ideas?’ Ethan’s hand does a wide sweep of the devastation surrounding us, and I notice a slight tremor he can’t conceal. ‘Is this what you saw? This … this hurricane?’
    But how can I tell him this storm was not exactly what I saw, but more the tail end of what I felt? What I saw is unexplainable. A place of darkness, pain and suffering, where fear and despair lock around your heart like a cage from which there is no escape.
    I shudder suddenly and Matt tries to warm my arms with his hands. ‘I’m OK!’ I say these words with more force than I mean. Instantly I’m regretful and start to say so, but he gets up and moves away, leaning against the edge of the cave opening.
    ‘Isabel?’ Ethan reminds me that I haven’t answered his question.
    I keep my voice soft enough so Matt doesn’t hear. ‘I’m not exactly sure what I saw, Ethan. That “vision” was very strange. And this storm, it’s just so unreal. I can’t be certain the two are connected.’
    We’re silent for a moment, and the rain begins to ease. And if I’m not mistaken, patches of blue sky start breaking through where trees have been uprooted. ‘Who would have thought this beautiful sunny day would have ended this way?’
    ‘Exactly,’ Ethan says. ‘What I want to know is why we weren’t warned.’
    I gaze at him in a puzzled way. ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘Aren’t hurricanes usually tracked for days before they hit land? I heard the weather report this morning. There was no mention of a hurricane.’
    ‘We don’t get hurricanes, Ethan. These are the highlands, not the tropics. And it’s not even summer!’
    ‘So what did we get?’
    My eyes drift to where Ethan has picked up a small stick and started poking at a rock between his feet. ‘Look, I don’t really know, but it had a lot of power. Did you ever see hail like that? Ice that ignites when it hits something solid?’
    He stares at me. ‘What are you saying?’
    I don’t want to scare Ethan or anything, but he is asking for my opinion. And I know he wouldn’t want to hear a watered down version just because it isn’t pleasant. He’s not like that. ‘There’s something else.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘It felt to me as if the storm came through the sky. As if it came from another world.’

Chapter Two
    Arkarian
    They’re coming to see me, and they’re looking for answers. Ethan, in particular, seems anxious. Whatever he’s seen has shaken him badly. He’ll want an explanation. And while I’ve lived for six hundred years, accredited master in the hierarchy of the Guard for many of those, I certainly don’t know everything, as Ethan often likes to tell me. Even the Tribunal are experiencing surprises lately with Lathenia in such a rage.
    Of course Isabel is coming too. I glance down at my clothes – black pants, blue jumper. I pull the elastic out of my hair, it falls loose around my shoulders. What will Isabel think? I stop myself and take a steadying breath. What does it matter? It’s not as if she will notice. She once believed herself in love with Ethan. Perhaps she still is.
    ‘Arkarian!’
    It’s Ethan, calling from just inside my chamber’s secret door. As usual when he’s overwrought, he can’t screen his thoughts from me, no matter how hard I train him. One day it could prove dangerous. There areplenty of Truthseers out there in the world and they’re hardly going to announce it to anyone. Marduke was one while he lived, as well as all nine members of the Tribunal. And of course truthseeing is one of Rochelle’s skills.
    ‘Did you see that thing?’ Ethan storms into my work station with Isabel trailing behind.
    ‘Hey,’ Isabel says with a small smile.
    ‘Hello, Isabel.’ Total blank. She’s masking her thoughts well.
    ‘Did you see