The Dark Read Online Free PDF

what happened up there?’ Ethan asks, trying to look calm. ‘What was that? What does it mean?’
    Holding out my hands, I produce three wooden stools. The same three I made as a young boy. The only items I managed to salvage from one of my childhood lodgings.
    The three of us sit in a triangle, and I’m glad to see they haven’t brought Matt with them. Even though he’s been in training for quite a while now, he’s still not comfortable in my chambers. The equipment startles him – soundless technology, centuries ahead of its time. I remember when he first peered into my 3-D holographic sphere, and realised he was looking into the past, he wanted to get out so fast, he would have gone through a wall if it wasn’t made of solid rock.
    Ethan’s fingers close around one of my arms. ‘Arkarian! What was it?’
    ‘I’ll explain what I know. But you have to tell me what you saw first.’
    His hands fly into the air. ‘It was incredible. Something falling. Black clouds like … like … nothing I’ve seen before.’
    ‘There was this sound,’ Isabel says.
    Isabel’s words, more than Ethan’s, send a chill up my spine. That unusual storm this afternoon has aroused my suspicions. I have to keep assuring myself that even the Goddess, consumed with grief for this whole past year, would not want a rift to form between our mortal world and any other. ‘A sound, Isabel? What sort of sound?’
    ‘A shredding sound. Ear piercing.’
    Her words make my heart beat hard and loud. ‘Tell me about those first moments. Did you notice anything unusual? A strange light? A smell or odour? A glimpse of darkness?’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ Ethan replies in a rush. ‘All of those things, I think.’
    Isabel frowns. ‘I don’t remember an odour, only the smell of your skin burning with that hail, Ethan.’
    ‘You have to believe us, Arkarian. It was … eerie. Our hair stood on end!’
    ‘I believe you, Ethan.’ I just don’t want to create panic, I add silently. Even in the depths of her despair at losing Marduke, or her anger that a member of the Guard could eliminate her highest-ranking soldier, why would Lathenia take such a risk? Has she lost control of her objectivity, even her sanity?
    Ethan sits, and using his training, attempts to calm down. It’s unusual seeing him like this. He’s experienced a lot of strange happenings in his time with the Guard. It’s usually hard to faze him.
    ‘Where do you think that storm came from?’ he asks.
    Isabel is already making her own assumptions. ‘That storm was unearthly, that’s all I’m going to say.’ She looks straight into my eyes. Suddenly my thoughts arehurled into confusion and I find I have to look away. I try to think why. I know that I’m on edge. Everyone is at this time. Our spies say Lathenia is close to discovering Ethan’s identity. And she knows I was the one who planned our strategy the day Marduke was killed, so she wants to take her revenge on me too. But as I don’t circulate in the mortal world any more, Ethan is more at risk.
    It could be because Isabel’s words are so near the possible truth.
    I force myself to return a steady gaze and choose the words that won’t increase their fears. They have to remain calm to keep doing their good work. And while Isabel’s powers still haven’t completely emerged, her healing skill is unequalled in the Guard’s history so far. ‘Lathenia is simply in a rage at losing Marduke. It’s the first anniversary of his death today. Try not to concern yourselves too much.’
    Isabel says softly, ‘She has a very dark rage, Arkarian.’
    Ethan jumps in, ‘I’ll say. Isabel knows all about it. Just before the storm hit—’
    She whacks him with the back of her hand. He almost falls off his stool.
    So, there’s something else. Something that happened before the storm hit that Isabel doesn’t want me to know about. I focus on Ethan for a second, but he’s trying hard to conceal his thoughts. And while he’s not