The Named by Marianne Curley Read Free Book Online Page B

finger.’
    I go and sit in front of her. ‘You’re a healer.’
    ‘ What ?’
    ‘I checked with Arkarian –’
    ‘Why do you keep mumbling that strange name? Who is Arkarian ?’
    ‘He’s my …’ I try to find words she’ll understand. ‘My area supervisor.’
    She squints at me. ‘As in your employer?’
    ‘Yeah, sort of. Well, yes, actually, but I don’t get paid.’ She groans. ‘You work for nothing? Somehow, Ethan, I can’t see it.’
    ‘Well, thanks. Whatever you think of me I’m not a mercenary. The rewards of this job far outweigh any monetary pleasures.’
    ‘O-K,’ she says slowly, humouring me, her head edging a little closer. ‘What exactly is your job?’
    Hmm, Arkarian told me to go slow. In other words, explain enough for Isabel to understand without blowing her mind and stuffing all chance of her believing what I say in future. ‘I’m like a guard. Well, actually I am a guard. I was an Apprentice guard for a long time, but now I’m a Trainer.’
    ‘So what do you guard, Ethan? Girls?’
    ‘Very funny. And no, I don’t guard girls, though that idea does have its good points. I guard time . More specifically, history . My job is to make sure it all happens the way it’s supposed to, the way it already did.’
    She greets this with a totally disbelieving lift of her eyebrows. ‘Yeah, right.’
    ‘I know it’s a hard concept to understand, so don’t worry too much about taking it all in just yet. What I want you to accept tonight is that there is this other world that works within our mortal one. Time in this other world isn’t measured the same way it is here. There are all these different facets. Imagine a brilliant crystal that’s mostly round.’
    The only indication that she’s listening is the narrowing of her eyes. But then she says, ‘Are you tryingto tell me that in this other world time is round, like a sphere?’
    ‘Sort of, but remember we’re just talking about the measurement of time, which is, by the way, a very mortal concept.’
    ‘Uh-huh?’
    ‘Yeah, and, well, there’s this place called the Citadel. It’s huge. You have no idea – rooms and corridors you could walk through forever and not have seen it all. Well, anyway, time there isn’t measured at all.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘You see, way back in time –’
    ‘Mortal time?’ she asks with a mocking tone.
    I try to ignore the tone, hoping my explanation will help unravel the mystery for her. ‘Yeah, that’s right. There was some trouble and, well …’ But the look on her face is too hard to ignore. She’s not taking any of this in. I’ve got to keep this simple. ‘Look, do you know your myths?’
    ‘Which ones?’
    ‘Greek. And Babylonian before that.’
    ‘Hmm, are you talking about the creation myth, and how everything supposedly started from a mist called Chaos?’
    I smile encouragingly, but go on to explain, ‘It didn’t exactly go like that. You see, Chaos is a woman, one very uptight immortal.’
    Her eyebrows lift, just a little. ‘You said that in the present tense.’
    ‘Exactly.’
    ‘What are you saying, Ethan? You’re starting to freak me out again.’
    ‘I’m trying to say that all our troubles began manythousands of years ago when one very bored goddess decided to create a little chaos. She found a way to tamper with the past. At first it was just fun, but it gave her a sense of power above her compatriots.’
    ‘The other gods?’
    ‘Right. Well, this particular goddess began experimenting and soon discovered that by tampering with past lives, she changed the present. She realised that if she changed enough past events she could create a future that made her even more powerful. Her sole focus soon became total domination – of the world. The more she changed to suit herself, the more power she gained. Over the centuries she grew obsessed with the idea. She started recruiting her own army of followers and began a kind of order. We in the Guard have come to know it