The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery (10 page)

‘Waaaaahhhhhhooooo,’ he cried and turned to Melaleuca. ‘That was so much fun.’

‘Glad you liked it,’ she said. ‘Did we hit something?’

‘Didn’t feel like anything,’ Argus said, pulling himself up and hanging his head over the side. ‘We’ve driven up over the top. Sea’s flat now.’

‘Yes. We can see that,’ Ari said.

‘Flat sea?’ Lexington said as she surfaced from the floor and joined the others in surveying their surrounds.

The sea angled down at least a thousand feet to the Photaic Wall which now looked like a small spread out curtain and in front of them, the sea flattened out for about a kilometre and stopped where sheer cliffs rose up for hundreds of metres. Above the cliffs sat the forested slopes of the south side of the Long White Cloud Mountains. No longer shrouded in clouds, blue-tipped snow peaks adorned the tops. The cliffs ran for many miles south before petering out into low lying land and hazy blue hills way off in the distance.

At first Melaleuca had little clue what to make of it. Her feelings ran amok inside her and trusting that they would settle down soon, she eyed the others and gauged their reactions.

Ari straddled the land with his eyes and she could feel him supping in the spirit of earth he had often spoke about.

‘What is it Ari?’

He opened his mouth, stopped and then swallowed hard.

‘It’s strong.’

‘What is?’

‘I don’t know, but it’s like the opposite of the emptiness of the plains, yet I can still feel the emptiness in the land.’

Lexington continued to examine the sea and said in a matter of fact manner, ‘The land is obviously hidden by an energy field. Perhaps you feel that.’

Her voice brimmed with contained excitement.

She’s loving this.

‘It’s blinking amazing! That’s what,’ Quixote shouted. ‘A secret land, a real secret land. I bet there are heaps of things to discover. Let’s go. What are we waiting for?’

A
rgus threw the anchor overboard.

‘What are you doing?’ Quixote leapt onto the deck, and tried to haul the anchor up. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Yes,’ Melaleuca said. ‘The sooner you are on land the better.’

Quixote strained and strained and managed to heave the anchor part of the way up, though red faced and puffing, he could not get it on to the deck. After dropping it a few times and making lots of noise Lexington said, ‘Oh Quixote. Be quiet. I am concentrating.’

A dozen questions churned in Lexington’s mind. ‘Antavahni, why are we being hidden again?’

The floor of the speedboat could be partially seen through him now.

‘Tell me, please. You do not look well. I can help if you tell me what to do.’

Antavahni stirred and said in a half mumble, ‘Got to stay hidden.’

‘Why?’

‘Parents. Meet your parents there.’

‘Our parents are there?’

‘Always,’ he slurred back.

‘What’s that mean? Why is this land hidden?’

‘The two powers separated,’ he said and then spoke more faint words that Lexington struggled to hear.

Antavahni drew in a huge breath and his nostrils flared. Colour tinged his skin and he threw his eyes open with a jolt and hoisted himself up, crying out, ‘Tenarthdarway. Ahhhhh.’

Reveling in an unknown aroma he said, ‘Smell it. They are all gone but their scents linger on. I am the last. I am the last Etamol. Where we failed may the others pass through. My age can now finally rest.’

Lexington crossed her legs, laid her arms on them and tried to look as if she did not care.

‘Tell me. Tell me all you know.’

Antavahni seemed not to recognize her and a baffled glaze fell across his insipid face but then his shoulders drooped and a great oldness fell over him. All at once the slow sureness, which had come to characterize him, returned.

‘Argus,’ Antavahni said his voice sounding thin again. ‘Well done.’

‘Just tell me when I can go.’

‘Stop fighting. Be as these children.’

‘I’m not wasting a second youth as a babysitter.’

Antavahni glared back at him. His colour faded again and he reached for the side of the speedboat to steady himself. A great exhaustion washed over him and he sat before he fell.

A clear gut-instinct arose in Melaleuca from Antavahni.

He’s near death.

‘Soon...be there...and then you...begin.’

‘Begin what exactly?’ Lexington said.

Quixote flapped his arms. ‘I bet we learn to have super powers.’

Lexington ignored him and again said, ‘What do we begin?’

Antavahni pointed at Quixote. ‘Looks like he starts now.’

She pushed her notebook in haste toward Antavahni’s face.

‘What starts? Tell me.’

Antavahni chuckled at Quixote’s performance and then stopped, and though worn out said with great command, ‘Go closer to the cliffs. Silence until we land. As unlikely as it is, we do not want anyone spotting us.’

They upped anchor and cruised to the base of the cliffs and lay anchor again. Antavahni still insisted on silence and refused to answer questions. They ate some food and waited, slumbering in and out of sleep - bellies full and appreciative of the rest after their long trek.

Before twilight Antavahni removed his robe, exposing his pale frail body. With an air of finality he produced a black case and opened it, pulling out a long hollow tube dotted with many holes. One end had a mouthpiece and the other end bulged out like a cobra’s neck. He rummaged in his robe and grabbed the silverquick. Its blue shimmering middle twinkled as if many stars lay trapped within its gelatinous mass.

A small wave rippled across the water and rocked the speedboat - the motion nearly causing Antavahni to drop the silverquick. He let out a cry of astonishment and a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

‘Oops, mustn’t let that happen.’ He settled himself. ‘Soon it will be dark and no one will see us.....but the sea will become wilder and wilder until nothing will survive its churn...By that time you must be on land. But I, Antavahni, last of the Etamols, will offer myself to the sea. Finally.’

An air of glad sadness hovered around him.

‘Come with us,’ Melaleuca said.

‘I cannot. I am done. Should I set foot back on Tenarthdarway, Aggorah, New Wakefield, then the land would know. Not even I can second-guess the Ethmare from whence we all come.’

A three foot wave broke out of nowhere, hitting the side of the speedboat, and it lurched to one side. The sun dipped behind the mountains, and twilight blanketed them with last-light greyness.

Antavahni cried out, ‘It is time.’

He grasped the tube and squeezed the silverquick into it and an electric blue glow shone out from it. He drew in an enormous breath and then blew and blew and blew until his cheeks puffed out. A loud roar erupted from it like the sound of a hundred oceans clashing and then dissipated with a suddenness that left faint echoes lingering.

A low noise ground upwards from the watery depth below and the sea chopped and slopped back and forth yet the air stayed eerily still.

One by one, square seaweed-encrusted columns of rocks rose out of the sea, forming a crooked line to the cliffs. The sea level crept up and licked the top of the columns and fell again exposing barnacles encrusted on them.

‘Cross. Quick. Soon they will be ten foot waves,’ Antavahni said with a great foreboding.

The swelling sea clenched the slight tops of the columns for a second, covering them, and then dropped away leaving them towering above the lowered sea level. Lexington counted about a hundred of them and felt giddy.

Argus eyed Lexington with a look of disbelief, and Melaleuca shook her head at him. She was in command. A decision surfaced and she said to Argus, ‘You are in charge of getting us across.’

‘Thrilled,’ he said and swung his unsteady body to Antavahni. ‘Couldn’t we go ashore at a beach?’

‘No time. Move or drown.’

God, how did I get myself into this?

‘Grab your packs,’ Argus said.

The cousins pulled their packs on and readied themselves.

Weakest link in the chain first.

‘You, Miss Nosey. Up first.’ 

Lexington closed her eyes and swallowing, touched her secret medallion through her clothes. Argus could feel her suppressing the urge to vomit.

Wuss.

‘What are you doing? Send Ari first,’ Melaleuca said.

‘NO PACKS,’ Antavahni cried out. ‘They will unbalance you. No longer needed.’

Lexington let hers drop from her back and looked a little more confident.

Quixote threw his pack overboard.

‘Here, let me,’ he said and leapt over the side, landing square on the first column. His feet started to slip. The sea sunk away and then rose up again and his precarious balance rushed out from under him. He fired a foolish grin at the others.

‘DON’T LOOK DOWN!’ Argus said.

Quixote plunged into the choppy sea. The rope still tied to his leg went taut and to his surprise his cloak held him buoyant in the sea. Argus and Ari hauled him back onto the boat feet first. A wet bemused Quixote laughed out some sea water.

Argus shook his head but saw that Quixote was okay.

‘Go now,’ Antavahni said. ‘Waste no more time.’

Another wave slopped against the speedboat and its white crest crashed over the side, drenching them. Argus scrambled around searching like mad until he finally reached under a plank and pulled out life jackets and some more rope.

‘Put these on. Here,’ he said to Ari throwing him a knife. ‘Cut him free.’

Ari sliced through Quixote’s rope, and as they crammed their life jackets over top of their cloaks, Argus threw the new rope around himself and threaded it through the cousin’s life jackets joining them all together.

‘I’ll go first.’ He glared at Lexington. ‘Look at the columns, not the sea. Focus on them one at a time. Concentrate and we’ll get there. Lexington, you go after me followed by Quixote then Melaleuca and then Ari.’

Antavahni struggled, pushed himself up and pulled on Argus’s pack.

‘Leave it behind.’

Argus smacked his hand away and leapt from the boat, landing on the first column. ‘OKAY. I’LL JUMP TO THE NEXT ONE AND THEN YOU JUMP LEXINGTON. THEN I’LL JUMP AGAIN AND YOU JUMP, THEN QUIXOTE JUMPS AND SO ON.’

Argus jumped to the second column and landed clean on it.

Lexington stood by the side of the speedboat. Seeing her nervousness Melaleuca clutched her hand and said, ‘You can do it. Just jump.’ 

She drew in a deep breath, stepped up and kicked off. A sea swell lowered the speedboat and for a fraction of a second she appeared to hang suspended in mid air. Argus yanked hard on the rope trying to pull Lexington toward the column, though he overbalanced and she plopped into the sea followed by Argus. Lexington floundered around and groped for the column catching the edge of it while Argus pulled himself back up.

Quixote tore past Ari, hurled himself onto the first column, landed and steadied himself. Toppling back and forth, he reached down and grappled with Lexington’s hands. She started slipping out of his grip, so he wrenched her collar tight - yanking it upwards with a mighty burst of adrenalin, pulling her out of the sea. Her chain-necklace snapped and the medallion flew out to sea unnoticed by either of them. They clung wet and dripping to each other and Argus jumped to the third stepping-stone, yelling for them to all start jumping. Soon the rest of the cousins all stood on the top of a column trying to find their balance.

‘KEEP LOOKING AT THE COLUMNS,’ Argus said. ‘NOT THE SEA.’

As they all teetered and steadied themselves, Lexington looked back at Antavahni. Melaleuca felt Lexington’s sadness and turned to see what she stared at, and along with Lexington witnessed Antavahni’s body become more transparent.

‘Go.’ Antavahni motioned, and as if to motivate them pulled the anchor up and the speedboat started drifting away, rising and falling amongst the swells.

One by one they worked their way across, combating vertigo and fighting for their balance until soaked and nauseous they reached a small lip at the base of the cliff. Climbing onto it, they lay there relieved. The lip felt cold and hard but at least it was solid. With the dark of evening now upon them they gathered their wits in silence and even Quixote had no words to share.

‘Who’s still got their torch?’ Melaleuca asked.

Argus sat up and said, ‘Back in command then?’

She ignored him.

‘I have,’ Quixote said. ‘I pulled them off my pack.’

He switched them both on and swept the lip with red and white light, stopping when they illuminated worn down steps cut deep into the cliff face. As he traced the steps upwards the torchlight petered out into the heights of darkness, and a decision welled up inside Melaleuca. ‘They will be fine. Ari?’

With a quick glance he smiled and said, ‘No sweat. We have climbed steeper at home.’

Argus inspected them and said, ‘Steeper than these. What? Climbed overhangs?’

A wave smashed over the lip, soaking them.

‘We have no other choice,’ Melaleuca said flicking her wet hair out of her face. ‘Besides you are going to lead the way.’

‘Torch then,’ Argus said and snatched it off Quixote. ‘If there are any overhangs then tough man Ari here can assault them.’

Torch in his mouth, Argus started up the steps and the others followed. They moved up the dark cliff face feeling their way and listening to Argus’s directions, keeping their eyes on his torchlight up in front, though Quixote held onto the red-lit torch. He insisted on stopping and shining it under his chin to make scary faces, though each time Melaleuca chided him.

Soon they could not see the lip they had sat on and the sound of distant powerful waves smashing into the cliff travelled up to them. They worked their way up and up and up. The strenuous climb abated their shivering. Their arms and legs ached, warming them up, and the sweat on their skin dragged their body heat out into the cool night air. The rope cut in to them and each time one of them complained Argus pushed on even harder.

As the climb got more arduous, Melaleuca kept on bumping into Lexington though in turn could feel her being tugged forward by Argus.

‘How much further?’ Melaleuca called out.

‘Just keep going,’ Argus called back.

He reached up and felt a carpet of grass under his hands. Elated, he scrambled over the edge and lay there as the cousins clambered onto the grass behind him collapsing, damp and exhausted but happy.

A fresh inland earthy aroma blew across them, a strangely welcoming hint of the unknown.

Argus stood and shone the torch around and it started to fade. He pointed it at the cousins checking them with haste and then relaxed.

Yes, he conceded, they are extraordinary - bold, unafraid, and hardy though he doubted Lexington. She asked too many questions, annoyed him and seemed the weakest. She managed a grim smile at him and he pulled his knife out and cut the rope between them all.

Lexington lifted her hand to touch the medallion, a comforting reminder of her mother’s trust and felt where it had been. Panicked, she lifted her life jacket off and threw it on the ground, rummaging inside her clothes desperate to find it. Her heart sank and she crawled back to the cliff’s edge, peering into blackness. A large wave smashed into the cliff, ferocious sounding in its power and she knew it was lost to the watery depths.

‘Come away from the edge,’ Argus said sounding almost concerned for one of them for the first time.

Lexington held her ground. A sense of letting her mother down swept over her.
How could I have lost it? What will I tell the others and will they believe me now?

Agitated by her refusal Argus yelled, ‘Get over here now!’

‘Leave her,’ Melaleuca shot back at Argus. ‘What is it Lex?’

Lexington twiddled her bottom lip.

I can’t tell them, not yet.

‘What happened to Antavahni?’ Lexington said feigning concern.

‘What do you care? He’s as good as dead,’ Argus said.

‘Yes, and he had all the answers and now they’re gone.’

Argus guffawed at her words.

‘What’s so funny?’ Melaleuca said.

‘She’s only upset ‘cos she lost her book of answers. She didn’t care about him. Everyone wants something. Basic human selfishness,’ Argus said with pride.

‘She just wants to know why. That’s all,’ Ari said. ‘I guess we all do but she more than us.’

‘Passing opinions when uninformed,’ Lexington said, ‘is foolish.’

‘Stay here then and figure it out,’ Argus said. ‘I will find shelter. After that you’re on your own. Mission done.’

‘I’ll come help,’ Quixote said.

‘No. You’ll stay,’ Argus said. ‘One wrong move and you’ll plunge over the edge.’

‘We’ve climbed worse back in our valley,’ Ari said.

‘Good for you. Notice anything different. Oh yes. That’s right. You’re not in your valley now.’

Melaleuca stood and once again squared off with Argus. ‘I make the decision for us. No one else.’

‘Look honey whatever. Here take the torch. Go find shelter, go on. Playing is one thing. I’ve seen your playground. Maybe you were trained. Who knows for what? But this is real. Get it. Real. It could mean death!’

Ari shoved his way past Melaleuca and held his hand out to Argus.

‘Give me the torches. I will go.’

Melaleuca pulled Ari’s hand down.

‘Argus will go.’

Ari started to protest and before he could get half a sentence out, Quixote launched himself at Argus, grabbed the torch and tore off into the darkness.

Melaleuca spun around to see the torch jiggle and splutter off into the darkness.
Sheeesshh.

‘Ari, go after him.’

‘That Quixote,’ Lexington said, ‘needs rules. I have always said it.’ She tut-tutted for effect.

‘That Quixote as you put it jumped in and pulled you out of the water.’

Despite the darkness Melaleuca could feel Lexington cringe at the truth of her words.

‘You’re in charge are you?’ Argus said in a mocking tone. ‘Being in charge while playing is one thing but this is real.’

She chose to ignore him though felt irked by his comments, and anyway,
she trusted Ari to bring Quixote back.

From a small distance away Ari yelled, ‘We found something.’

‘What is it?’ Melaleuca cried back.

‘Don't know. Some sort of wall.’

‘Wave the torch so we can see where you are,’ Melaleuca yelled.

‘It’s dead,’ Ari said.

‘Well, did you find Quixote?’

In a teasing tone that sounded faint enough to be coming from inside a building, Quixote yelled, ‘I found a doorway.’

‘Sing or hum so we can locate you,’ Melaleuca said as she started moving toward where she had heard them.

Ari hummed as loud as he could, and with Lex and Argus behind her, Melaleuca groped her way forward.

‘I think it’s the door to a house or something. No, hang on ─ ’

Quixote cried out and then started shouting.

‘Just wait!’ Melaleuca said.

‘Don’t make so much noise. It’s enough to wake the bloody dead,’ Argus said in hushed tones. ‘Who knows who’s listening.’

‘No wait.’ Quixote screamed. ‘Oh my god, it’s a trap.’ He screamed again and it died away like he had fallen in a hole.

Ari screamed out his name and Argus and Melaleuca ploughed forward, converging on each other’s voices.

Lexington surmised the facts about Quixote in her mind and suspected otherwise, and instead stared up into the sky, making her own discovery.

‘I’ve found the door,’ Ari said.

A ghost noise warbled out from it followed by giggling. Melaleuca chided herself. She should have known better with Quixote.

‘Get out here,’ she said.

Out of the darkness he jumped and shouted, ‘boo!’

‘In charge, my butt,’ Argus said.

‘We are who we are,’ Melaleuca said, ‘and for good reason.’

In light of recent events, she had yet to discover the exact reason although knew Argus spoke some truth however mean he sounded.