The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery (6 page)

‘It’s been trapped for many years. It’s crying freedom,’ Ari said.

Lexington scrawled furiously in her notebook and her eyes started to blink rapidly, a sign Melaleuca had come to see as Lexington’s mind over analysing.

‘Lex?’

‘So much to consider. Too much. Wish I could freeze things. Why’d Ari say that? What’s he base it on?’

The Kockoroc circled tighter and tighter and tighter until the circle became a dot. The dot stayed in one place and slowly became larger and larger and larger.

‘It’s going to attack,’ Ari yelled.

‘How do you know that?’ Lexington said flummoxed.

‘LOOK!’ He cried out. ‘DUCK!’

The Kockoroc bore down on them at incredible speed. Thin streams and wisps of vapour trailed behind its outspread wings.

‘IT’S GOING FOR ARGUS,’ Lexington screamed. ‘I KNEW HE WAS BAD.’

The Kockoroc roared by, ripping up such turbulence that Melaleuca and the others flicked up into the air. She managed to catch sight of the Kockoroc dropping over into their valley before she landed hard. Ari, Quixote and Lexington landed beside her and an earth shattering ‘BOOOMMM’ blasted from their valley. A shockwave flew over the pass blowing right over them, echoing loudly. For a few brief moments it felt as if it lodged in their chests and with stunned faces they swapped glances.

Then silence.

Quixote stood first and yelled, ‘Yaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhh! Yeeeaaah! Do it again!’

‘Everyone else okay?’ Melaleuca said.

‘I’m fine,’ Ari replied, ‘though I’m not sure about Lex.’

Lexington stood as if frozen in time, not breathing, staring off into space. Ari shook her.

‘Lexington? Lexington!’

Melaleuca raced over to help.

‘What’s wrong with her now?’

‘She’s not breathing.’

Argus arrived on the spot and whacked Lexington hard on the back.

‘Oi!’ Ari cried out and punched Argus back.

Lexington gasped and drew in a huge breath.

‘Idiot,’ Argus said. ‘I was making her breath. She was mesmerised.’

‘Explain!’ Melaleuca said unimpressed.

‘The explosion overwhelmed her. She was stuck.’

‘Well. You could have said something before hitting her.’

Before he could reply, Quixote ran past and started circling everyone.

‘Can we see it again?’

Argus’s face showed strain and tiredness.

‘NO! ENOUGH! FOLLOW ME NOW.’

He headed down hill, yelling over his shoulder, ‘The bird attacked the men following you. I’m guessing so that you can escape. I was wrong about it.’

Melaleuca placed a hand on Lexington’s back.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘I don’t know what happened. Everything is happening to fast. I can’t get it written down. I need time to think.’ A hollow look of worry fell across her face.

‘She needs a clearing,’ Ari said.

Much mystery surrounded all the events so far and though Lexington was best suited to sort out the facts, their urgent need was to flee, not stop and analyse.

Melaleuca placed two hands on Lexington’s shoulder.

‘Lex, listen. We need to get to the bottom of this hill. I know this is asking a lot, but until we get there you need to stop thinking about this. We will clear ourselves when we get to the bottom.’

‘MOVE,’ Argus shouted. ‘YOUR PARENTS WILL MEET YOU AT THE BOTTOM.’

‘Let’s go.’

Down along the ridges they descended at a steady trot passing by what remained of the apparent forest - a few stunted mountain trees here and there. Down narrow goat tracks, past rocks and through scrubby tussock they trundled heading to the valley swamp-floor.

Early evening rushed up and soon darkness and chilly air wrapped around them. Half way down the moon rose and bathed the hillside in dull moonlight. Small animals leapt around in front of them, and goats brayed in the distance and even rutting pigs grunted up from one of the gullies.

Melaleuca studied Argus ahead of her and noted him trip on his own feet. He scuffed them forward unable to lift them very high.

He’s exhausted.

‘Ari. Take the lead,’ a tired sounding Argus said.

Ari ran out in front followed by Quixote who made zapping noises as he overtook Argus.

‘Slow the pace a bit as well,’ he said and looked at Melaleuca. ‘If the leader approves.’

‘Approved.’

‘Really,’ Lexington said from behind Melaleuca, and she heard Lexington flicking the pages of her notebook.

‘Argus,’ Lexington said. ‘I would like to know where you are from?’

‘Shh. Keep quiet,’ he replied.

‘I have been thinking about you. Seems I was wrong back there about the eagle going for you. I’m not surprised. It was a hasty conclusion. Not something I am at all good at.’

‘No matter. Less talk, more walk.’

‘I am better at thinking about things. Noting things. Picking up on things that others miss in their haste. Slower, yes, but thorough. You see I have been analysing you all this time and even are now as we speak.’

‘Tell me later. Shut up for now.’

‘I know things by just knowing things,’ Melaleuca added.

‘Knowing is one thing Mel, I can provide the reasons why,’ Lexington said in a slighted tone.

‘Working together we can solve anything,’ Melaleuca said.

‘Work together on this,’ Argus said. ‘Shut up!’

Melaleuca took the hint and bade Lexington to do likewise.

Argus whirled about and Melaleuca had to stop herself running into him. She felt Lexington bump into her and Argus stared uphill to some worrying sight.

‘Boys,’ she called out and they stopped a small distance ahead and headed back.

‘Drop to the ground. Now,’ Argus said.

Melaleuca fell on the ground and the others followed suit, and along with her cousins peered uphill into the cold of the moonlit land.

‘Can you hear that?’ Argus said.

Melaleuca only heard the normal noises of the land and saw the others shrug their shoulders and looking blank at each other.

‘We do not,’ Melaleuca whispered back.

Argus spoke with a smug air.

‘That is a line of silence. Only those who have spent hundreds of nights behind enemy lines being chased can hear that. Listen again and this time, listen for where the silence falls. Imagine you are sitting on a clock, and uphill is 12 o’clock. A line of silence is falling along one of the numbers. Listen for where it falls.’

They listened again, straining to hear this silence.

‘Uphill. 12 o’clock,’ Ari said.

‘Yes. Something is moving downhill. Something that is creating silence as it passes,’ Argus said.

Suddenly Melaleuca could hear it - a slow encroaching lack of noise, moving like a silent tide down the hill, spreading out like a fan.

‘Run,’ Argus said.

Quixote took the lead and threw his feather light frame with reckless abandon down the hill, thrilling in the sensation of pretend-flying. Ari thundered behind him steady footed, kicking clear a small path for the others to follow. Melaleuca nimbly stuck as close to Ari as possible while Lexington struggled to keep up.

‘Come on, pick up the pace,’ Argus yelled at Lexington.

The rest of the night they fumbled and picked their way down the hill, trying to outrun the silence. As pre-dawn light filtered over the horizon they arrived at the bottom of the hill and turned to see what had been following them.

‘Where did they come from?’ Lexington asked.

A forest of tall trees covered the hill so dense that little light shone through from the tops, leaving no sign of the barren ridges of tussock they had spent all night running down.

Quixote jumped up and down.

‘Magical trees. The eagle brought them.’

‘Oh Quixote, hardly,’ Lexington said and trod to the base of one of them. ‘From the looks of it, it’s been here many years.’

She kicked one of the roots protruding out of the ground.

‘Yeah – well, I bet I can find claw marks.’

‘Well,’ Melaleuca said to Argus.

Argus stood slack-jawed, bewildered by them and wobbled to and fro, slumped to the ground and then fell forward.

‘Argus!’

Melaleuca bent down and Ari helped her turn him over. He grumbled and shoo-ed them away with his hand and started snoring.

‘He’s asleep,’ Ari said.

‘He was looking exhausted. Just leave him.’

Quixote pushed past her and reached inside his jacket for his pistol.

‘Oh Quixote, enough,’ Melaleuca said.

Pistol in hand, he scampered off with it anyway.

As Melaleuca stood she saw in Ari’s face the question of, “what do they do now?” Before she could even search her feelings, Lexington said to her, ‘What do your instincts tell you now?’

Melaleuca took two hasty steps toward Lexington and Ari shifted back from her.

I’m in no mood for this.

‘To follow me. We wait here for our parents.’

Relish stirred in Lexington’s face and with brave trepidation she said, ‘Can your decisions tell us where they are? I can sort through the facts.’

‘I should think they are leading the attackers in the opposite direction,’ said a strange hollow sounding voice from the forest. A long-limbed humanoid figure over eight feet tall, clad in robes woven out of living plants, blended out of the forest. A perfectly round hairless and eyebrow-less face looked down upon Melaleuca. Colour-faded eyes sat above a shrunken nose and a thin lip-less mouth creased in a slight smile.

‘Come. I am called Antavahni in your language.’ The fingers on its hand twitched as it spoke.

No gut feeling arose in Melaleuca despite her searching its face. Confused, the words of needing to trust her instincts ran through her mind, but still her gut-feelings on it were silent. She turned to Lexington though Lexington had a stumped expression on her face, and she seemed frozen in mid note taking.

A gentle nature settled around Antavahni and the features on its face seemed to shimmer and somehow make the trees brighter and more alive. Antavahni swiveled its head about searching for something.

‘What are you?’ Melaleuca said.

‘Where are you from?’ Lexington said at the same time. She started to write.

Quixote barged forward and Ari leapt once again to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, slowing him down.

‘Are you a giant?’ Quixote said. He clasped his hands together like a little boy excited before a great prize, the pistol dangling between them. ‘Was that your eagle?’ The expression on his face told of all his imagined worlds coming true.

Antavahni ignored them and swished past a scrawling Lexington. With no gut feeling Melaleuca’s instincts said to let trust fill the void. She almost wanted to challenge Lexington to work this one out, though from the look on her face, illogical possible impossibilities marched through her logical mind and battled with one another.

‘Were you seen?’ Antavahni said and trod to Argus.

‘By who? The men coming across the valley,’ Ari said.

‘Who else?’ Antavahni snapped.

It reached over and took the pistol off Quixote and placed it by Argus, saying in a calmer voice, ‘Not yet little one.’

Almost on cue Melaleuca and Ari stood in front of Antavahni and said, ‘Who are you?’

A slender plant-clad arm reached out and touched both of their chests. ‘I mean you no harm though the men following you do.’

Antavahni snapped to full height and peered in the forest’s direction while Melaleuca tried to catch its eyes to see inside it.

‘You cannot read what does not exist. I am not of this age.’ Antavahni looked down and then said thoughtfully to Melaleuca. ‘Trust your intuition always.’

‘Are you male or female?’ said Lexington as she studied his body and made notations against a hasty sketch.

Antavahni lifted Lexington’s pen-hand off her notebook. ‘Neither, though once I was the male of my species. It matters not now, for soon I shall pass over,’ he said sounding as if he spoke to long-dead ancestors. ‘I, Antavahni, last of the Etamols.’

A wave of pity emanated from him and all the cousins felt an unexplainable deep remorse. Melaleuca checked Lexington; concerned Antavahni may have been too much for her logic, though a fresh glow sat about her. She studied him despite what he had said.

‘Don’t trouble your questioning mind with me,’ Antavahni said to Lexington.  ‘Soon there will be enough chaff for your intellect to weed out.’

‘And our parents?’ Melaleuca said.

‘Trouble not about them.’

‘But where are they?’ Lexington said.

Antavahni raised his hand and chanted, ‘Naawaatha ammtennagh eoaoe.’

A sudden floating sensation fell over the cousins and their feet went numb and soon all feeling left their body. One by one their legs gave way and they fell softly to the ground, sleeping by the time their bodies lay still.

Antavahni lifted them with little effort, laying them beside each other and then waved his hand over Argus, chanting more strange words.

Argus stirred and his heavy eyelids opened and faltered half way, shut again, and then struggled to open fully. Blood shot eyes finally peered out from behind them.

‘Get up,’ Antavahni bade Argus.

Argus blinked, rubbed his eyes and took stock of where he was. ‘How long have I been asleep?’

‘Mere minutes. An ill chosen time to sleep.’

Argus tried to get up though each time he collapsed. A great thirst welled up in him and his lips felt dry. Argus hauled his knees up and hung his arms over them, figuring he would wait for all his aches and pains to subside.

‘Your age is a weak race,’ Antavahni said with contempt and waved his hand over Argus.

Antavahni chanted and a bolt of electric-like energy ripped through Argus. He writhed in convulsion as shock after shock surged through him. Argus gasped and struggled to breathe, feeling his brain freeze and his whole body scream in silence. And then it stopped. Vitality pumped through Argus and in an instant he felt refreshed, as if he had been asleep for hours.

‘What the...’ Argus said gathering himself enough to add, ‘Thanks. I think.’
God, I am glad this crazy mission is over.

‘A man of your discipline should have fought off sleep.’

‘What’s it matter now. Jobs done.’

He felt relieved saying those words. For twenty years this unknown mission had sat in the back of his thoughts. Now it was done. He could return home to his estate and live out the rest of his years in the luxury he had grown used to. He cast a look of satisfaction at Antavahni, yet despite the shimmering appearance of Antavahni’s face, there was no mistaking the confused look that crossed it.

‘Done,’ Antavahni said. ‘The cousins must be taken to Agorrah. They cannot stay here.’

‘What? Taken where? My deal was to get them out of harm’s way. Rescue them. There. There they are. Rescued. Finished. You take them from here.’ He stood up surprised at his nimbleness.

‘I can only travel as far as the border. It is you who must cross them over. You have to do this. You have to do this to remember.’

‘No.’

‘Remember.’

‘If I’d known this was the mission, twenty years ago, I would have said no.’

‘You took the gold. You gave your word.’

Argus chuckled and his demeanor changed to amusement.

‘Well Mac. Dunno what was up in your “age,” but welcome to the real world of this age. Gold’s gone. My word ain’t worth a thing now. I ain’t doing it.’

He curled his top lip up in a snarl.

‘Remember, you must remember.’

Argus shook his head disgusted. ‘I got paid for a job. I done the job. That’s all there is. Final.’

A sympathetic smile formed on Antavahni’s pallid face. ‘But you have nothing to go back to.’

‘Yes I do, I ─ ’

Antavahni held his arm out toward the forest and chanted and four trees slowly faded away.

‘Your laws of physics do not apply to me.’

The empty space where the trees were, spoke of a power that could take everything away from Argus.

‘Okay…okay…what’s involved?’
I should kill this freak first chance I get.

‘Good.’

‘What is involved?’

Antavahni spoke with great pronouncement.

‘Only one path ahead of you lies. No matter where you turn, it will now always lead you to it.’

‘Listen to the question freak. What do I have to do?’

‘There is land hidden in the southern reaches of what is now called the antipodes. Take the cousins there. I will help you transport them as far as the Long White Cloud Mountains, across which you must take them for it is the border I cannot cross. Or do you remember the way?’

Like a faint ember hidden in the cinders of a burnt-out fire, Antavahni’s words singed him, rekindling old smoldering memories.

‘What’s gone should be forgotten,’ Argus said.

‘I will escort you if you cannot remember the way.’

‘Are you nuts? Look at me!’ Argus pulled his top off and displayed his ageing body. ‘This mission nearly killed me.’ He grabbed the baggy skin under his arms and tugged it. ‘I don’t have the strength anymore. I am old now!’

‘Indeed.’

Antavahni held his hands over Argus and started chanting again, though this time clouds gathered, the land darkened and the earth trembled beneath Argus, his legs buckling under him. Electric-like energy tore through him again, and this time he felt his skin stretch and tear, and his bones and muscles twist, and wrench asunder from his body’s fabric. And then it stopped. Light flooded back and the earth became still.

As the pain subsided anger replaced it.

‘Enough,’ Argus cried out. ‘Stop this.’ He clenched his fists and leapt to his feet with the ease of a young man.

Antavahni’s face went blank and he swayed back and forth, falling to the ground with little noise and lay still, breathing with a gurgling sound.

Pleased, Argus reached for his pack.

Time to get out of here.

Melaleuca mumbled, and he looked at her sleeping face and something stirred inside him. He wanted to ignore the feeling though knelt to check her. Sleeping deeply all the cousins seemed peaceful. He looked again at Melaleuca, noting that even asleep her face appeared commanding and regal, almost queen like. Her face was that of a younger version of the dead woman back at the destroyed homestead.

He reached out to touch her and pulled his hand back in shock. His gnarled old skin had been replaced by youthful skin. He traced his eyes upwards. Slender arms filled with sinewy muscles met his gaze and he looked down at his torso.  A young man’s body had replaced his old worn out body.

‘What the hell happened?’

Antavahni lifted his head with difficulty.

‘My powers are not of this age.’ He coughed. ‘After 50,000 years my health suffers. I’ve not long left. Get them to Agorrah. They are the last chance to save this age.’

‘You made me young again?’

‘Only in body.’

For the first time in years that Argus could recall, something resembling a sense of wonder fell over him and he considered what Antavahni had just wrought in him, and, more importantly, the power that had been unleashed.

‘What’s so special about these kids anyway?’
I want what this freak has.
‘And what’s in it for me? More gold? I don’t need gold.’

Antavahni stood, arched his back and faced the sun, concerned at the tone in Argus’s voice.

‘Come help me move them and I will divulge what they are and why you must help.’

***

The cousins slumbered for many days in their unnatural sleep and many dreams came and went. In the last dream they all met on an expansive white desert, playing and letting their imaginations soar. Even Lexington and Melaleuca laughed and danced, though as the dream wore on Melaleuca stopped playing and became suspicious.

‘Ah guys, I don't think this is a dream.’

‘Yeah it is,’ Quixote said suspended in mid-air.

Lexington stopped.

‘I think you are right. In a dream you are not supposed to be aware you are in a dream. But I certainly am.’

Melaleuca stood on the barren landscape and realised she had never seen a white desert before or any desert at all, yet she had been happy to accept where she was. The others slowed to a halt as the same realisation struck them.