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  “No…” she croaked. She was almost home. She knew she was. Her shoulder crashed against the Orock of the alley as her body collapsed below her. Around her, the world went black.

  Hours later she awoke surprisingly comfortable, her body having curved into the smooth Orock of the building behind her. Sitting up slightly, she let her eyes adjust to the dim evening air. Groaning, she stood up and stretched. She could still feel a smear of sticky blood on her face and she groaned louder. She must look a state. She was surprised no one had alerted the Guardians, although they had enough to be doing without worrying about passed out Students. Grimacing, she stepped out of the alleyway and onto the main road back to her building. That’s when she saw him. His clothes were strange, but she recognised them instantly from Preparation: long woollen robes, clearly handmade. Those were the clothes of an Earthlander. Without a second thought, she allowed the sound of the Pulse to grow within her mind and flung it towards his head.

  Chapter 5 – The Testing Centre

  “Be still, Earthlander!” A girl’s voice met Elijah’s ears as he struggled to make sense of the world that was now spinning around him.

  “What the…” he managed, as he stumbled to his feet, clutching his head in pain.

  “I said be still, Earthlander!” the voice repeated and Elijah looked up at the girl in front of him. She had short, brown hair atop a curved jaw that would have been pretty if it wasn’t covered in blood. Not to mention the fact she was trying to grievously injure him.

  Elijah shook his head experimentally, glad to find the action didn’t particularly hurt. The Skylander’s buildings might have been built with all the architectural creativity of a sparrow who hasn’t quite figured out what a nest is yet, but at least they were well padded. Looking up at his captor, he felt a strange confidence enter him. He’d survived worse than this girl today, she wasn’t worth getting scared over. Besides he had to get to Truth before something happened to her. He hadn’t time to be scared.

  “I should warn you,” he said, shuffling to his feet and waving his hands in what he hoped was a mysterious fashion. “That your Pulse does not scare me. I have powers, Skylander. I can make it so that you were never born.” He drew himself up to what was, in fairness, an impressive height when he wasn’t slouching and deepened his voice in as dramatic a fashion as he could manage. “All of time kneels before me.”

  The Skylander paled slightly. Elijah decided to press home his advantage. “I am a Seer!” he roared. “The world flees from my presence!” And then something hard smashed against the side of his head.

  “Get down on the ground, Earthlander,” commanded the girl. “Or so help me, I’ll Silence you right now.”

  Elijah stared at the girl. He was beginning to get the feeling that she was less intimidated than he had thought. Instead, an intense look of concentration crossed his captor’s face. Dread seized him. That face did not look good, even putting the blood to one side. She must be a Pulse-Master or something, he guessed, and he did not like the way things were going. That much concentration meant bad things. Suddenly, a high pitched wailing blasted into Elijah’s ears. It wasn’t as bad as the Siren, but it was pretty close. Elijah groaned, covering his ears with both hands. The girl smiled victoriously.

  “Now every Guardian knows exactly where you are.”

  “Right then,” shot back Elijah as he struggled to his feet. “I guess I’d better be going.” He sprinted the opposite way down the alley. And was immediately flung into the wall. He should have learnt by now.

  “You’ll stay here,” the girl snarled.

  Elijah couldn’t even scream when the Guardians entered the building where he was being held captive. Somehow, the girl was using the Pulse to paralyse every muscle in his body – including his tongue. He looked in horror at the two chainmail clad Guardians as they marched in, their eyes cold. Together, they took him off the wall and strung him between them, carrying him to a large metal plate. The four of them stepped on to the strange device and together they flew through the air towards a large, square building they called the Testing Centre. Part of Elijah was happy – this was all part of the plan. This was where they would have taken Truth. A larger, far more dominant part of him, didn’t want to go anywhere near the place the burly Guardians were dragging him along to. The wind whipped around them and Elijah shook uncontrollably, although more from fear than anything else. He wished he could say he was only scared for Truth.

  The Testing Centre itself was a huge square building with large metal doors. It had a peaked metal roof atop it which was brown with age. Inside, it was dark and there was a constant, horrific meld of screaming and crying. The air stank of sweat and rust. His eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and he began to make out the shapes of people. Just over twenty feet away, dozens of men and women were chained to a wall, their faces contorted in terror. Elijah’s shaking intensified, but he was helpless to resist as the Guardians carried him to the wall, clamping his arms and feet to the dark, limestone block. Sweat flew from every pore on his body and his eyes darted madly around the bare room, one searching for Truth and the other searching for a way out. Neither were forthcoming. He tried to struggle, to bite, to do anything, but it was no good as the girl who had captured him was doing her usual Pulse trick. He couldn’t move an inch. It was only when the last metal bond was secured to his limbs that he was even able to scream.

  “Let me out of here!” he shouted, his body straining against the restraints, but not even causing them to creak. “I’m innocent, I swear, please I didn’t mean to come up to your fancy special island! This is all a big misunderstanding, come on!!”

  “He admitted it to me,” said the girl with all the feeling of a rock. “He said he was a Seer.”

  “I was only joking!” shouted Elijah pathetically, but his words were consumed by the roar of dozens of men and women chained to either side of him, half of them vowing vengeance, the others begging for mercy. At that moment, Elijah would have settled for anything that didn’t leave him strapped to a wall in something as ominous sounding as a ‘Testing Centre’. Then the wall began to move. There was a clank and a whirr and, in an instant, Elijah felt his whole body lurch to his left. His stomach did a backflip.

  “What was that??” he shouted breathlessly, but the Guardians and the girl had already turned their backs on him. Elijah watched in despair as they left the centre, metal doors clanging shut behind them and stealing the light from the room.

  “What in the name of anything that will get me out of here is going on?!” he screamed, to no one in particular.

  “It’s testing for Seers,” a voice answered him, coming from Elijah’s left. “Why I remember before the War on Time, the same thing used to be done. Course, back in the good old days, they didn’t have Wyverns to do it and they didn’t just take our tongues when they found one. No, they’d ship us off to Ekriam. That’s where they taught us. They did good salad in Ekriam, far as I remember.”

  Elijah looked to his left. Out of the far corner of his eye, he could see an old man fastened to the wall next to him. He had a short beard and tangled white hair and wore a grey robe which might once also have been white. He was smiling, an action which Elijah felt was entirely inappropriate given the circumstances.

  “Who are you?” Elijah asked. “Have you seen a girl, nine years old, black hair, blue eyes?”

  “Oh well, that’s a good question,” the old, weary sounding voice answered. “Used to be I could answer that question, but there you go. What you going to do?”

  “You haven’t seen her?” asked Elijah, his heart sinking.

  “Little girl, black hair, blue eyes?” the voice answered. “Of course I’ve seen her. Not many children in this here Testing Centre in case you hadn’t noticed. No real point in testing them, you wouldn’t know if they’re a Seer for another few years anyway. No, I was referring to the far more difficult question of who I am. Now that’s a question worth asking, let’s see i
f we can puzzle it out…”

  “Where is she?!” screamed Elijah, trying to make out the old man’s answers over the din of the other prisoners.

  “Hmm? Oh. She’s already been through the whole process and out the other end. She’s long gone.”

  Around Elijah there was suddenly a clank and a whirr and he braced himself as the wall suddenly shifted left again. It’s OK, Elijah thought to himself. She’s still alive. You can find her. You can get her back. Which left one important question:

  “What’s happened to her?” he shouted.

  In the darkness the old man seemed to shrug. It was a rare skill to be able to shrug when you’re clamped to a wall. “We, as you may have noticed, are all strapped to this moving wall here. Eventually we will be moved past a Wyvern. She’s already done this bit, so she’ll be in the mines now. That’s where they send everyone after testing. Same as me and you. After they cut out your tongue first of course.”

  Elijah’s eyes bulged. “How do you know I’m a Seer??” he asked in a panicked whisper.

  “Sorry, didn’t quite catch that,” muttered the voice.

  Elijah wanted to scream in frustration. Well, they couldn’t do anything worse to him. “How do you know I’m a Seer?!” he shouted, over the din. And suddenly the whole centre went quiet. Then someone screamed. Then another one and another one.

  “Help me!” A women shouted, and then dozens of others took up the call, their screams piercing Elijah’s ears: “There’s one here!! Help!!”

  They were about to be enslaved in the mines and they were worried about who they were going to be chained up with.

  “The priorities of some people…” muttered Elijah bitterly.

  The old man, however, seemed to be oblivious to the noise. He continued in the same voice.

  “Oh, you always know a fellow Seer,” he said, matter-of-factly.

  “There’s two of them!” someone shouted and suddenly hysteria engulfed the centre, dozens of prisoners convulsing against their restraints, screaming to be freed.

  “I don’t know why they bother,” continued the old voice in the same tone. “This whole place is soundproofed.”

  “Can you get us out of here?!” Elijah shouted at the old man, trying to ignore the screams.

  “Oh no, no, not at all,” answered the voice. “No, no, no. Maybe a couple of decades ago. Maybe then. But not now. Oh no.”

  Elijah felt like joining the rest in their screams of despair.

  “You could though,” the voice added, almost as an afterthought.

  “Me???” shouted Elijah incredulously.

  “You’re a Seer,” sighed the old man, his voice barely audible over the screams of the other prisoners. “Use the raw timeline. You should know that. Sure, we’ve known how to do that for over a millennia, well before we learned how to manipulate it or anything like that. Those were the days of real nations, none of that rubbish you have these days…”

  Elijah started. Just how old was this guy? He’d figure that out later. There were one or two slightly more pressing matters now. “How do I do that?” He shouted.

  “Open your eyes young Seer, open your eyes!!”

  Elijah shuddered. The voice knew what he was. After so long hiding, hearing it out in the open made bile rise in his throat.

  The old man continued, oblivious to Elijah’s feelings. “All Seers have them. Those inner eyes that let us see the timeline. That single spark that lets you see all of time, unfolded in front of you, all the maybes, all the possibilities, all the endless choices…”

  Elijah opened his eyes as wide as he could, straining to see something in the air. This was ridiculous. Suddenly, the wall shuddered again and Elijah lurched left. A small flash of light appeared on the very edge of his peripheral vision and dread seized him. He was coming closer to the Wyvern.

  The old man tutted beside him. “Don’t try to see it. Being a Seer… it’s not something to be learned, its natural, normal, just do whatever comes naturally.”

  Elijah screamed. “That’s bloody easy for you to say!” he shouted. “You’re not the one about to have your tongue cut out! If it was that damn easy do you not think they’d keep one or two more Guardians here??”

  The old man laughed. “Ha! Guardians as if they could do anything to stop you… they haven’t found a Seer since this building was built. Run out of us to test as soon as they built the Testing Centre… it’s kind of ironic really…”

  Elijah stopped listening. He had about three minutes before the wall moved on again and he lit up like a firework. Instead, he concentrated. Do whatever comes naturally. He tried to relax, but the muscles in his arms and legs couldn’t help but strain against the restraints.

  Beside him, the old man laughed again. “You’re trying to relax aren’t you? I spent months at that, meditating, looking into candles… spent most of the time asleep to be honest with you… those were the best months of my life…”

  Elijah screamed again, a loud guttural scream of fear and frustration and rage. And then something flashed in front of his eyes. Long and silvery, like nothing he had ever seen.

  “So frustration comes naturally to you?” the old man said beside him. “Well, that’s just kind of sad really…”

  But Elijah wasn’t listening. All around him the voices of dozens of prisoners had reached a new, wailing crescendo, but he wasn’t listening to that either. The old man was right. He could see it. He could even hear it, the trickling sands of time, each grain falling a drum beat in his ears. It had been there since his father died. He knew that now. Something inside him had broken when the Skylands had ripped Greg away from him. As if this new power had known that there was no longer any need to be hidden, that there was no longer any need to be afraid.

  Before his eyes, a thousand strings suddenly erupted into the air, each a thousand different colours, each flickering and moving like a thousand paintings rolled into one. Elijah stared. It was wondrous. He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen them before. They made up everything, from the iron that chained him to the wall to the very atoms of the air. Everywhere he looked the multi-coloured strings of the timeline flowed. And then he was gone.

  Elijah had the now familiar sensation that he was somewhere where he shouldn’t be. He was in a cold stone room, formed of misshapen rocks that seemed to have been made into a room with four walls and a ceiling only through blind luck. Here and there, tapestries hung from the walls in a desperate effort to lend the room some warmth. Elijah had the vague feeling that he was supposed to be doing something important, he just couldn’t quite recall what. In front of him was a large oaken table surrounded by old, bearded men. One of them was wearing a shiny gold hat.

  “We can’t allow Aubrey to take Coral, they’ll control the whole north coast then.” The king was saying. “They already have too many Seers. If they get help from the Outsiders too, they will grow too powerful to be contained.”

  In front of the six men was a map showing the boundary between Prazna, Coral and Aubrey. The map showed the forces of Prazna in neat little battalions with little yellow sigils to mark them out. The forces of Coral were clustered on its borders and those of Aubrey were scattered across the map, as if someone had just thrown the little flags in the air and hoped for the best.

  “We cannot stop them,” another voice argued. “They have whole legions with the gift. Even if we change the timeline again, there’s no guarantee things will play out as we want them to.”

  “We have to try, it worked for a while last time - ,” the king started to say before blood erupted from his mouth. Elijah blinked. He couldn’t decide which was more surprising – hearing the powers of a Seer being described as a ‘gift’ or the 6 feet of metal protruding from his royal majesty’s head. In an instant, an army was standing in the room, hacking at the inhabitants.

  “They have a Tunnel!” someone screamed and suddenly the door burst open, guards streaming in. Elijah flinched as they ran thr
ough him. To his left, a black portal hung, with still more people pouring through it.

  “Stay in formation!” the leader of the attacking forces roared. “Seers to the back! Watch for any signs of timeline manipulation!”

  The army swarmed from the Tunnel into the room, easily dispatching of the few guards that rushed inwards. “Take out the wall!” roared the commander.

  And suddenly, before Elijah’s eyes half a wall began to crumble into dust. Above his head, the ceiling began to shake. The army marched through into an open courtyard and were met with a barrage of hasty arrows. “Shield formation!” The cry went out. Several white robed Seers scurried to the outside of the group, throwing what looked like dinner plate shaped rainbows through the air. The arrows disintegrated as soon as they touched them. “Forward!”

  Elijah followed the invading army, trying to avoid the blood stained bodies of the room’s former owners. He stepped out into an empty, cloudless sky. He knew where he was now. Or rather he knew when he was. This was the War on Time, long before the Skylands were ever born. Around him the very fabric of reality seemed distorted. The rainbow colours of the timeline seemed to pale with the strain of it. He turned and looked into the black eyes of the king. The thought “wait he was dead a minute ago” didn’t seem to do justice to the impossibility he was seeing. In the war chamber were suddenly dozens of bearded old men, multiple copies of each of them screaming at their attackers, their eyes rolling with madness.

  “There’s been a distortion!” the commander roared. “Close the Breach!” The Seers in the group turned back towards the war chamber, only to be instantly cut down in a hailstorm of arrows. Behind Elijah, the world cracked and warped, becoming a black hole, sucking in the soldiers in the war chamber. There was an ear piercing scream and then a blast of energy and every soldier in the room disappeared. The tapestries barely looked disturbed. The only thing that remained changed was the hole in the wall. And out of that hole came a sea of darkness. It oozed across the ground, consuming all it touched, its depths a colour darker than black. Elijah edged away from it, passing through soldiers and Seers as he went. He didn’t know why, but he knew that that darkness was not something he wanted to be involved in. The rainbow colours of the timeline flickered and died as it passed them, leaving nothing in its place. It was not just pure darkness. Even darkness retreats beneath light. This wasn’t just the absence of light, this was the absence of everything. And it oozed forward like a flood, consuming the corpses of fallen Seers and soldiers as it went. The remaining attackers of the city began to flee, but were cut down mercilessly by the defenders atop the wall. The darkness spread as it moved, consuming the lower bricks in the walls and causing those atop to slowly buckle and crumble. The city’s defenders ran for cover, screaming for Seers to stop the Breach. Elijah had his back against the furthest wall he could get to and decided that wasn’t quite far enough. He turned and ran straight through it. Behind him, screams of terror were abruptly silenced as the Breach continued its relentless march.