The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery (14 page)

To her right a grand staircase, wide enough to fit 15 people across swept down three levels and ended far below in greyness - the main entrance they had been forbidden to come in faintly visible. To her left the grand staircase swept up two more levels into darkness, and a tatty carpet ran the whole length of it, evidence of better days. Ornate carved banisters curved alongside the staircase, and even with the shafts of light hitting the stairs, patches of shadows swallowed portions of it up.

Eerie church-still silence held vigil and a feeling of faded glory hung in the air, though something almost alive, hidden in the unseeable reaches, probed her, stirring her up and
and and
threatening to swamp her. She pushed it back with her will and said, ‘NO!’ in her mind and the feeling slunk away.

On the other side of the staircase opposite her, another corridor started, and two figures emerged from it - Ari and Quixote. She waved at them. She knew they had not crossed this area when Uncle Bear-Nard had led her from the boys’ room to hers.

‘How did you get there?’

They both shrugged their shoulders at her and then turned, drinking in the grand sight of the staircase, the columns, and the great roof.

‘This...this...?’ Ari said in awe. ‘This...’

He could feel it as well. Melaleuca saw it in his face.

‘I think God or some of his angels live here,’ Quixote said - a sense of immenseness washing over him.

‘Dark angels maybe,’ Ari said.

‘We need Lex to see this,’ Melaleuca said. ‘I felt something.’

Ari nodded in agreement. ‘I felt it by the trees. It’s like something is alive.’

Out of the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, like an apparition Aunty Gertrude appeared with two maids behind her carrying trays. The cousins stopped and an instinct to hide took hold of them and they ran into the corridors.

‘YOU LITTLE HEATHENS!’ Aunty Gertrude bellowed, her voice echoing around.

Surprised she had fled, Melaleuca wondered why. She walked back out on to the stairs and stared down at her Aunt, Quixote and Ari following. Aunty Gertrude started up the stairs and screamed for Uncle Bear-Nard to come and help her.

‘How dare you defile the Grand Ascension Stairs,’ she said. ‘What is the meaning of this?’

‘Meaning?’ Quixote looked stumped. ‘You’re the mean one.’

Aunty Gertrude cast a vicious look at him. Seconds later Uncle Bear-Nard raced down the stairs from the upper stories as fast as he could.

‘And that comment,’ Aunty Gertrude said, ‘has cost you your supper and bath.’ She headed back downstairs shooing the maids away. ‘Bear-Nard take them to their rooms. I’ll give you one week to shape them. After that.’

Her voice stopped cold like the snap of an icicle and she chuckled in threat and left.

Uncle Bear-Nard blurted out a nervous noise and said, ‘C..c.c.c.come ch..ch..ch..children.’

Once again they trailed after their Uncle.

‘What does she mean, one week to shape us?’ Melaleuca asked.

‘Not feeling herself today,’ Uncle Bear-Nard replied.

Soon they were back in their respective rooms.

***

Melaleuca could not see Lexington anywhere. Before she could give her whereabouts much thought, a piece of folded paper slipped under the door.

Thinking the boys had snuck out and done it, she rushed to the door and threw it open. The long corridor appeared empty. In a house that appeared as old as this she conjured up an image of a ghost leaving it and then vanishing. Or perhaps there were more secret staircases.

The handwriting on the note belonged to none of her cousins. It read:

‘Nothing is as it seems.

Follow your instincts.

Let your hearts lead you.

Listen to no one.

The walls you see are not the walls that are.

Find the unseen corridor to move without being seen.

Press the creatures in the right order.’

Quesob Quinfollia squeezed his body out of the hidden opening of the cave known as B’barakai’s Incognia.
His smart uniform of leather and embroidery looked beaten up from escorting the Men of Ori to and from their failed mission. As he picked chunks of mud off his knees and shook dirt from his hair, he placed his hand on his shoulder and lifted up his dry blood-stained clothes. His angry-red bullet wound wept, though he ignored the pain and instead counted the men out that followed behind him.

‘1,2,3,4,5...’ he said and blew cave dust out his stuffed-up pug nose.

One by one they emerged from the cave-tunnel they had entered a night and a day before, gathering before him on the northern hills in the early evening amongst the cover of the bushes and the trees. Their gaunt bearded faces watched him blank of any emotion.

‘...195, 196, 197,’ Quesob counted expecting more men to emerge.

‘We have lost some,’ a concerned Quesob said.

They stared back unresponsive.

‘Yes,’ Quesob said to their silence. ‘You don’t care do you? It’s every man for himself where you come from. It’s the same here, mostly.’

Their leader, a thin
man of wiry muscles and chipped teeth stepped forward and spat
on the ground. Behind him the rest of the Ori did likewise.

‘Nice,’ Quesob said. ‘You are free to go. For now the mission is over.’

They turned and with no noise, disappeared into the bush. Quesob shivered. Their lack of basic human warmth was
even too cold for him. After spending months in their uncomfortable presence a sense of relief washed over him. They had until morning to cross the valley and return to the depths of the southern wasteland, where the barren forbidden Golgotha earth let little grow. He headed after them but at a slower pace. He did not want to catch up to them at all.

***

Footsteps clattered toward Lexington and fearing discovery she grabbed for the nearest door, opened it and slipped inside the room. Keeping it ajar she watched Uncle Bear-Nard march her cousins past. She pushed the door shut and waited.

Big and empty with no clues to anything, her heart sank again - another empty room.

I should have stayed back and worked on my hypothesis.

More footsteps clattered outside and again she peeked. Uncle Bear-Nard shuffled past alone. She waited five more minutes before pushing open the door and slipping out. She pressed her body up against the corridor wall and tiptoeing, slid along it, noting that in places it wobbled.

That will need more investigating.

Corner after corner, she twisted her way until only one corner remained. She poked her head around, checking if the way was clear. A small naked creature knelt at their door peering through the keyhole. Its skin seemed rubbery and patterns moved under it like blobs in a lava lamp. She crept toward it, her questioning mind silencing her fears. It swung its head toward her and she gasped. Its face looked half human and half like Antavahni’s. They exchanged stares before it let out a little, ‘eekk,’ and dashed away.

‘Wait. Come back,’ Lexington said.

She watched its naked bum disappear down the corridor and around the corner. If she could capture it or at least talk to it imagine what it could tell her. The others would then have to admit that hard evidence was better. With no thought for her Aunt or Uncle or for what else might lay in the house she trotted after it.

***

Melaleuca pondered the note. What creatures? Where? She glanced around the room, seeing nothing. She tried using her instincts but nothing revealed itself. Lexington’s words of contrasting options came to mind.

A mirror hung above the fire place and a murky version of herself stared back. Thick dust lay on the mantle clinging to the wood surrounding it. She wiped some of it off and there to her wonderment were carvings of creatures. A snake, a cow and an eagle, all locked in desperate battle.

Let’s see, we saw the eagle first.
She pressed it and it sunk in a little.

Which one next?

Without knowing why she pressed the snake and then the cow. At first nothing happened and then a clunking noise graunched from behind the fire place. A small opening appeared to its right and a panel slid back. Kneeling, she peered in and then pushed her head further in. She could see a wall about three feet away in the low light but dark emptiness lay to her left and right.

Excited she crawled inside it and the floor felt gritty - something tiny and round covered it. Ignoring it, she stood up, pushing through delicate cobwebs. Letting her eyes adjust to the dark she brushed them off and a faint wall lay in the direction of the corridor, similar to the one hiding the back staircase they had first come up.

So that's how they got the note under and disappeared.

Pushing on it did not budge it.

Maybe not.

Eyes fully adjusted, she turned and faced the other way and shuffled forward moving a few paces at a time, waving her hands out in front so as to not hit any wall or overhead object. Within a few metres total blackness engulfed her. Knowing she needed something to illuminate the secret passage she headed back to the bedroom and crawled out. A torch sat on a piece of folded paper.
She grabbed it and unfolded the paper which displayed hand written words.

“Sorry. You will need this.”

How absolutely puzzling. How did it get there? No one could have pushed it under the door, let alone enter and leave without her hearing, and nothing in the room had changed.

Move forward.

She flicked the torch on and dived back into the secret passage shining it before her. Mouse and rat poo littered the floor and thick dust-encrusted cobwebs clung from wall to wall. A small lever sat by the opening and as she pulled it the secret panel closed behind her.

The secret passages seemed to go on forever and it felt like it stretched along the entire outer wall of the Cathedral-Mansion. At one point she tripped and the torch fell, landed hard and turned off. A thin slit of light shone from somewhere and locating it she peered through. A small bed, much like hers sat in a plain room with a handful of candles casting light about.

The boys’ room?

Finding the torch, she searched for a way in though could find no sliding panel. Disappointed, she moved on.

One of these passages must lead to the boys.

After what seemed like ages searching a multitude of the passages, she heard a familiar voice - Quixote’s on the other side of the wall singing a song. She located the side passage, found a lever and pulled it. A panel slid open. Quixote’s silhouette moved about in a makeshift tent, formed from a bedspread hanging over chairs.

‘Quixote,’ Melaleuca said.

He stuck his head out, puzzled.

‘Over here,’ Melaleuca said.

He looked confused. Her head and half her body poked out of the fireplace.

‘Mel! What are you doing?’ He moved toward her. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Shh. Where’s Ari?’

‘Here,’ Ari said lifting his head off his pillow.

He leapt off the bed and rushed to her.

‘Well done Mel. What is it? A tunnel between our rooms?’

‘Better. Passageways to the whole house I think.’

‘Let us in,’ Quixote said.

She barely had time to move before the boys wedged themselves into the small space.

‘Easy,’ Melaleuca said, ‘single file.’

‘Where does it lead? How far does it go?’ Quixote said rapid fire. ‘Is there treasure? Did you find any torture chambers?’

‘All in good time Quixote,’ Melaleuca said. ‘First we have to find Lexington.’

They shuffled along giggling and laughing until Melaleuca pointed out they might be heard. Each time Quixote spotted a beam of light he insisted on peering in, though he saw little other than old furniture. In true Quixote style he started to become bored with it until he spied something.

‘Why’s Lexington in this room?’

Melaleuca peered through the slit, and there stood Lexington in an empty room looking perplexed.

‘Can we get in there?’ Ari said.

‘Some of the rooms have levers that open panels. Search around.’

Lexington swore the small creature had ducked into this room yet now it lay empty and such a thing defied the laws of physics. She looked at her footprints in the fine layer of dust on the floor and noted there were no other footprints.

Impossible.

The fireplace shook. Startled, she jumped back and watched as dust fell and the grate creaked. Expecting the creature to appear, Lexington crouched down readying herself. The back of the fireplace slowly ground open revealing a dark hole. Soot tumbled down stirring up the long-since disturbed ash into small eddies.

‘Wait,’ came Melaleuca’s voice out of it, followed by a little, ‘Oh!’

Quixote’s head appeared through the clouds of dust, rammed there in his excitement to be first. With cobwebs draped across his impish sooty face he beamed one of his typical smiles.

‘Helllllooooo!’

‘Oh you’re not it,’ Lexington said.

‘Are we playing catch?’ Quixote said and wiggled his body out, taking the brunt of most of the soot and ash.

Puffs of soot wafted toward Lexington and she waved them away.

‘What are you doing in there?’

Not as dirty, Melaleuca and Ari squeezed themselves out and Melaleuca saw the surprise on Lexington’s face. Ari started dusting Quixote down though Melaleuca grabbed his arm.

‘Wait. Look at the mess we are leaving. Someone will know we have been here.’

‘Where did you come from?’ Lexington said. ‘How did you know to hide in there? In this room.’

Melaleuca pushed the note into her hand. As Lexington read it Melaleuca explained.

‘It appears there are secret passageways along most walls.’

Fascinated, Lexington said, ‘This means we can move around without being seen. Think of what we could find out.’

‘Quite,’ Melaleuca said, ‘but whoever left this note can move invisibly.’

She quickly explained how the torch and second note had turned up.

‘But,’ Lexington said under protest, ‘...there is no such...thing...as...’ Her voice faltered and the last few words fell slowly from her mouth. ‘...as...invisibility. Is...there?’

It would explain the creature though, Lexington thought. She urgently needed to work on her hypothesis and wondered out loud, ‘If the creature exists and disappeared into thin air, so might our mother, if it was our mother.’

Melaleuca had not seen Lexington babble like this for a while.

‘What creature?’

Lexington told of what she had seen.

‘So that explains why you were in here,’ Melaleuca said.

‘I’m just saying both vanished without a trace,’ Lexington said.

‘Mum didn’t leave footprints either,’ Ari said.

Quixote sidled up to Lexington and nudged her and whispered, ‘Magic.’

Ignoring Quixote’s quip Lexington said, ‘That could be a connection as well. Take me back to our room.’

‘We too, made a discovery,’ Melaleuca said and motioned to Ari. ‘We know why this is called a Cathedral-Mansion.’ She explained what they had seen.

‘A cathedral inside this mansion,’ Lexington repeated. ‘I want to see it.’ Her mind raced with more questions. ‘Aunty Gertrude mentioned that this is the last one holding together a passing age and that creature looked like Antavahni AND Antavahni mentioned a passing age as well.’

They stared back waiting for her conclusion but none came.

‘Er...meaning?’ Ari said.

Lexington swept her eyes around them and Melaleuca could see she was unsure.

‘I will know, eventually,’ Lexington said. ‘We shall just keep......moving forward, as the instructions from our mother said so and it will become apparent to me.’

‘I know you will. Come on. Let’s go,’ Melaleuca said.

They headed off.

*****

Melaleuca pulled on the lever and the secret panel opened revealing the girls’ room. Melaleuca climbed out first. Another note lay on the floor and she grabbed it as the others climbed out.

‘Quick read it,’ Lexington said.

‘
One more thing,’ Melaleuca read out loud, ‘It may not seem it, but there is great danger around you. To avoid it, keep on doing what you have done all your life, play.’

Lexington read the note for herself.

‘That’s it!’ Ari said. ‘Play? I’ve a good mind to go and find that Uncle, show him the notes and demand to know what is going on.’ He headed for the door.

‘Wait there is more,’ Lexington said and she pointed to some small writing at the bottom of the note. ‘Ps - don’t tell anyone about these notes, especially your Aunt and Uncle. I will reveal myself in time.’