The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders (A young adult fiction best seller): An Action Adventure Mystery (28 page)

Quixote sauntered up to her.

‘I’ll do what I want.’

‘Oh really. And what’s that then?’

‘Whatever I want!’

Melaleuca placed a hand on Lexington’s shoulder, sensing her need for them to listen to her. Lexington calmed herself, shrugged Melaleuca’s hand off and pulled on the detective cloak.

‘What if?’ She tapped her chin. ‘We map the land out? Find the best area to attack?’ She eyed Ari. ‘Note our finds, perhaps even rank them in importance.’

Quixote put his bracelet back on, booming at her in a raspy voice. ‘Sissy! What say we round us up a posse and storm that town over yonder.’

‘No,’ Lexington said, shaking her head. ‘Mel?’

‘I’ll explore,’ Ari said.

‘Sensible,’ Lexington said. ‘Let’s find explorer’s costumes, a geologist perhaps, maybe even an archaeologist, hmmm?’ She adjusted her hat with a smug air.

Ari slipped his bracelet back on and an idea lit up his face.

‘Need a shaman.’

‘Now look here!’ Lexington said. ‘We need facts. Facts backed by hard evidence.’

‘Tarnation,’ Quixote said. ‘We need a damn good raiding party.’

As the tension rose and their opinions clashed, the costumes took over, until they argued in character.

‘I’s blow holes in all of youse.’

‘It heap no good. You listen to earth spirit.’

‘What utter poppycock. Drivel such as this belongs in a mad house.’

Melaleuca stepped toward them to intervene. Instead of walking, her body flipped up in the air, pirouetted, and landed behind them. She tried walking again, though her arms and legs flipped all over the place. She fought for control, though the more she tightened her muscles, the more she wobbled and shook. Her mother’s instructions flashed into her mind and she tried pretending to be a gymnast. Relaxed, she went with it, trying to out-leap her body’s jerking and jostling, and as she did so, she brought her limbs under control.

Oh my God, the instruction to play was right.

She imagined being back home, feeling the thrill and safety of pretending to be something she was not, and launched into a series of back flips, stopping 30 metres up the hill, exhilarated and in control. Now she had to trust her trust, the very lesson she was to learn since embarking on this adventure.

Behind her bickering cousins, the setting sun touched the low hills in the distance, and a sense of purpose stirred in her. Clearly they needed to learn to use the costumes before anything else; hypotheses, exploration, rescuing - anything. Her inner resolve toughened, and pulling her bracelet off, she walked to the others, grabbing the bracelets off Lexington and Ari. Surprised, they stopped fighting.

‘Ari. Take Quixote’s bracelet off.’

Pouncing on him, Ari wrestled him to the ground, eventually yanking it off. Grime streaked down Quixote’s face, though a smile of great enjoyment travelled from one ear to the other.

‘That was so much fun,’ he said.

Her mind clear, Melaleuca suddenly saw Quixote’s role. Out of all of them, only Quixote had a permanently irrepressible spirit that nothing could stop. If any of them could teach them how to play seriously, without being serious, it was Quixote.

‘Sit,’ Melaleuca beckoned them.

‘But…..’ Lexington protested.

‘SIT!’

They sat - their faces grainy in the fading light of the day.

‘I have decided,’ Melaleuca said, ‘where we are to start. The costumes are not as simple as they seem. Each of us in our own way has lost control. We need to learn to use them before we use them again like we just did. If we are to rescue those boys, if we are to use them for anything, then we need to know how to use them, and...’

She paused and held their gaze. The last rays of the sun struck at her hawk eyes, dark shadows falling below her neck. The sun flamed her dishevelled hair, the wispy bits appearing to catch fire. Like a warrior princess from another time and another place she held their gaze and the reigns of her small command tight.

‘......it is more important now, more than ever, that we play.’

Quixote looked happily amongst the others. Ari puzzled at her words, while Lexington’s face showed she did not agree.

‘Lexington put your bracelet and Quixote’s costume on,’ Melaleuca said.

With a begrudging willingness Lexington clad herself in the cowboy clothes. Quixote grabbed the detective hat, plonking it on his head.

‘Now what?’ Lexington asked.

‘Run up the hill and back,’ Melaleuca told her.

Lexington shook her head, but trotted off, a surge of energy pumping through her. As her legs dashed across the landscape, she felt an ease of movement denied her by the detective costume. Her right hand twitched as it brushed the pistol, and she rapidly drew it out, spun around and shot at Quixote’s head, knocking his hat off. Elated she hollered out and dashed back.

‘Did you see that?’

She spat on the ground.

‘Kind of fun?’ Melaleuca asked.

‘Yes. I guess.’

Lexington’s logic fought within her. It was fun. She felt different holding the pistol, and the cowboy clothes made her stronger, tougher and more resilient. Though her mind wanted to know why and how they worked.

‘Our parents told us to play and play we shall,’ Melaleuca carried on.  ‘Play is fun, not serious. Play is imagination. I know where we start – the costumes work best when playing.’

Once again Lexington started to protest, but Melaleuca stopped her.

‘Please,’ Melaleuca said. ‘All you have to do is choose brainy costumes and then go play being brainy.’

‘It’s not that simple.’

Ari understood and to help Lexington he said, ‘I want to explore this land, so I will select costumes that will help me do that, playing exploring.’

‘Good,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Make sure they are fun ones.’

‘And me?’ Quixote asked.

Melaleuca cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘Pick the most fun ones. Ones that make you laugh and entertain you.’

‘YEEESSS!’

‘What?’ Lexington sized Melaleuca up and down. ‘I get Ari’s, even mine, but surely Quixote needs a...a...a...strait jacket costume!’

Quixote chortled at the idea, and Melaleuca felt tiresome toward Lexington.

And I thought Quixote would be the hardest to control.

‘Lex,’ Melaleuca said.

‘And what about the children at that horrid place?’ Lexington asked.

‘Costumes first,’ Melaleuca replied. ‘I am correct in this decision.’

‘We need to know what we are dealing with.’

‘Do you have all the answers?’

‘Of course not! It’s what I seek.’

‘When you have all the answers, then and only then will I give you command. Until then I say we play. Play is how we are to discover what is next.’

‘But ─ ’

Melaleuca’s face steamed up.

‘My gut feeling on this is right!’

‘I think ─ ’

‘Do what I said and when you see it is right, then use your logic to work it out. Lexington my job is to make this as simple as possible.’

Melaleuca tried staring into her, attempting to find a handle to calm her down, but something blocked her. She reminded Lexington of an instruction she would not like.

‘Lexington, gentle one, follow your mind, but use your heart to learn from Quixote.’

Lexington’s face registered hurt, but then hardened a little bit.

‘Lexington, lover of all that is gentle, follow your mind but with your heart learn from Quixote. I think you will find are the exact words.’

‘Then learn!’

‘Learn from......why he should......we’ll see...,’ Lexington spluttered, and appeared to run out of words. She flashed her eyes toward Quixote. ‘What about him?’

‘What about him?’

A momentary impasse formed between them.

Melaleuca relented and said, ‘Lex, just take some time out to cool down.’

Lexington threw her hands up and stormed off toward the forest.

Ari and Quixote ran over to Melaleuca.

‘Where’s she going?’ they both asked.

Lexington turned, and in a gentle voice, snarled cowboy-like. ‘Following my mind to solve this mystery using my methods.’

‘I’ll go get her,’ Ari said starting to run.

‘Leave her,’ Melaleuca said. ‘She’ll cool down and come back.’

***

Lexington stormed her way through the forest, trail blazing her rage forward.

‘Tell me what to do. I have the brains.’

Unable to resist, her hand drew to the pistol. She caressed it, feeling wild sensations shoot up and down her arm. She flipped it in and out, surprised at her skill despite knowing she had the costume on. The frustration at Melaleuca cooled off, and the stillness of the forest chimed her gentle nature back in time with her again, yet something else inside her felt strong.

She knelt on the ground and scribed the letters,
‘why?’
in the dirt.

‘About time!!!!!’

‘Stuff it.’

‘That’s a bit off.’

Lexington whipped the pistol out and pointed it
at her head.

‘Behave or I’ll drill you full of holes.’

‘The costume is dominating you
;
take it off.’

‘I will be heard!’

‘Feel it. You are still you, but the costume is stamping itself on to you.’

Lexington turned right, then left, and then right again. The logic made sense but something else controlled her.

‘Laugh’

‘What?’

‘Laugh’

‘Why?’

‘JUST DO IT! I WILL EXPLAIN AFTER.’

‘Ha ha?’ she said imitating a giggle.

‘Do better than that.’

And on it went, her inner voice goading her to laugh, until finally Lexington chortled as much as she could, and the costume released its control on her. Feeling rational again, she pulled the bracelet off.

‘The same thing happened to me as happened to Quixote. It must be the costume.’

‘Perhaps the costume needs to get used to you.’

‘Or the bracelets need to be tamed like a wild horse.’

‘Whichever, you are right to be cautious. They need testing and investigating. You are better suited to the detective costume. Melaleuca is sort of right.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The play thing. Before you react, think of it this way. The costumes appear to work when a person is fully enthusiastic.’

‘You don’t just need play for that ─ ’

A figure suddenly burst out of the forest with no warning and knocked her down. Dazed she tried to get up, but her head spun. A great stink, unlike anything else she had ever smelt before accosted her nostrils, just as she fell unconscious.

A hint of autumn hung in the air and the night would soon reflect it. Ari shivered in his loin cloth and rubbed his hands together.

‘I guess even Indians get cold.’

‘We had better find Lex and head back,’ Melaleuca said, ‘before it gets too dark.’

‘Let’s camp here,’ Quixote said. ‘It’ll be just like back at home.’ He pulled the detective cloak around him more.

‘Is that what your costume tells you?’ Ari asked.

Quixote held up his bracelet in his hand.

‘Nah. This costume’s boring. I just wanna do it.’

Melaleuca nodded, liking the idea.

Ari built a small bivouac using the natural cover of a large rock protruding from the hill, insulating it with tussock and leafy branches. He dug up Bracken Fern roots and lit a fire to roast them on, while Quixote and Melaleuca picked berries from a nearby bush skirting the forest.

In the darkness on the hillside, comforted by the glow of the small fire, snug in their shelter, they feasted on juicy berries and roasted roots.

‘What about Lexington?’ Ari asked. ‘Should we go find her?’

Melaleuca paused before answering. Lexington needed to follow orders. Perhaps some more time alone would do her good.

‘What if she is lost?’ Ari asked.

‘Unlikely,’ Quixote said. ‘The cowboy suit would help her.’

‘Still, I bet she would like some of this.’ Ari motioned to the berries and roasted roots.

‘Alright,’ Melaleuca said, ‘Go and track her and bring her back. Play with her and get her to play as well.’

Ari poured his way through the forest following her tracks. After nearly 30 minutes a large figure leapt out of nowhere and knocked him over. Stunned but still conscious, he raised his groggy head up. A vague, out of focus figure stood with Lexington in its arms. He thought of Lexington’s words about finding out all the facts first, and smelt an incredible stink and fell unconscious.

***

As Daquan handed the object to Quesob, he rolled it around, examining it.

‘What is it?’ Quesob asked.

‘With it you shall track down the bracelets, especially now they are being used.’

The small clear opening on the bottom of its spherical shape looked like polished see-through stone. It sloshed as he handled it, so he shook it gently, feeling the weight of the liquid inside.

‘How does it work?’

‘Look into the opening and place the bracelet under it. A small arrow points the way. It is a compass for the bracelets.’

Quesob stared at Daquan. Sparse hair stubble matted his eyebrows, his head and his face, a sign of a return to normalcy.

‘Where did you get such an object, my Lord?’

‘Does it matter? Hmm?’

‘W...where m’lord, please.’

‘If you must. Found years ago in the north hills.’

‘The North Hills have been forbidden for years. I don’t like going there,’ Quesob said. He shuddered, thinking about the Ori and B’barakai’s Incognia.

‘You will go where I tell you,’ Daquan said with a great flourish of his arm. ‘Do you know why they are forbidden?’

Quesob shook his head.

‘Neither do I, and nor does anyone else. That can only mean one of two things. There is something hidden up there or it is just silly superstition.’

Quesob would think about such things later. He pulled the light-swallowing bracelet out and tried to put it under the bracelet-compass, but all the light disappeared.

‘Idiot,’ Daquan said, wrenching the bracelet out of Quesob’s hand.

Pain shot into Quesob’s shoulder, and Daquan’s large hand closed around the bracelet and light rushed back into the room. Quesob muttered an anti-pain mantra under his breath, calmed himself and retaliated.

‘I would have worked it out!’

Daquan’s fat face glared at him, and he furrowed his stubbly eyebrows in anger, nodding his jowly head in approval of Quesob’s pain control. Daquan placed his closed fist under the compass and the arrow swung from side to side, and then stopped.

‘It’s pointing to the Throughnight place,’ Quesob said with amazement.

‘Really. Perhaps the bracelets are there, or could it be that thousands of miles past it in the same direction is the place where you found my one-time traitorous friends?’

‘Yes, that is also it. I will leave at once,’ Quesob said dreading the thought of having to clamber back through B’barakai’s Incognia.

‘Good. Once you are out of the district, use something faster than horseback. If someone is using the bracelets I want them dead yesterday. I must have them.’

‘Yes. I understand. I will leave this very night.’

Scratching his face and eyebrows, Daquan watched Quesob leave.

***

Hours later, Daquan sat on his balcony, facing out over the valley. The lights of New Wakefield flickered in the darkness below, although he stared in the direction of the southern barren hills. Beyond them lay the fabled wilderness; an inhospitable terrain leading to an ocean near the bottom of the world. Few who ventured there ever came back. Exhaustion and starvation killed most people, or they got lost, wandering for years, and of course there were the Ori to contend with.

He swirled a beverage congratulating himself that after all these years he was close to finding the bracelets. Maybe within a few weeks he would have them and then he could start the next step in his master plan.

An arrow whooshed through the air, embedding itself just by his head. A red string dangled from it. Despite the late hour, he went downstairs, and crossed the courtyard to the stables, mounted one of the many horses and rode off into the night.

Sometime later he arrived at the base of the southern hills and headed for a small copse of willow trees overhanging a small creek.

Daquan growled.

‘This better be important.’

Captain HeGood Nexic stepped forward, shocked at Daquan’s appearance.

‘Your hair...and...beard...???’

Daquan snarled.

‘You call me out in the middle of the night to comment on my grooming!!!! Get on with it! Better be bloody important.’

‘Of course it is. Why else would I risk my neck?’

Daquan forced a laugh.

‘Because you think you will get something greater than you have now.’

‘Quite. Today while at the borstal we were treated to a visit from someone who was never to come back.’

‘Who?’

‘The cowboy, and with him were three friends, an Indian, a ballerina I think and an intellectual. They burst out of the orchard and charged down the guards before retreating.’

Daquan’s eyes widened and he let out a roaring noise.

‘Impossible!’

‘I saw the whole thing with my eyes. The very same cowboy. Why? Do you think I would lie?’

Daquan turned away and spoke in a soft voice.

‘But they are all dead.’

‘Who? All? The cowboy? How do you think that?’

Daquan whipped his gaze back toward him and saw him go from puzzled to suspicious. Captain HeGood shuffled his body to face off with Daquan.

‘You knew where they went all those years ago?’

Daquan held his tongue.

‘The memory of them, I meant, heh.’ Daquan laughed to hide his slip of the tongue. ‘I thought the memory was dead?’

‘The memory of the Marauders gone? I do not think it will ever go. It is almost a legend now. Yes, people are forbidden from speaking about it, but I hear whispers, I get reports. Those events have taken on a proportion way beyond what happened.’

Captain HeGood eyed him, wondering if all these years as a recluse had put him out of touch with life in New Wakefield.

‘I know what the council are hiding,’ Daquan said, slyly changing the subject.

‘What?’

‘You heard.’

‘And it made little sense.’

‘Let me put it this way. I know the secret they guard hidden in Golgotha.’

‘Hidden in the southern wasteland?’ Captain HeGood shook his head. ‘Are you mad? Many state that they know the secret. Children tease each other with such.’

‘Don’t underestimate the depth of my knowledge.’

‘Don’t underestimate my usefulness. I came here to share with you the news you asked for, to return a favour. Consider the favour returned.’

Daquan relaxed.

‘Okay. Okay. We spar with words, which is pointless. I thank you for the news.’

Captain HeGood mounted his horse.

‘You never did tell me why you wanted to know if the cowboy and the others ever turned up again.’

‘I removed them once before on your behalf, and let you take the credit. Your promotion was your reward. All I asked in return was the simple news you now bring me. Call it pride if you will. I like to see a job when done, stays done.’

Captain HeGood got the message loud and clear, keep his nose out - he was not going to be told.

‘Very well then. As Chief of the Inquisat I am charged with maintaining law and order. If you think this may escalate to the level of last time, I expect to be kept informed. You can count on me for discretion; I believe I can count on you?’

‘Count on you?’ Daquan paused, held the captain in an ice cool gaze. ‘You betrayed me last time.’

Captain HeGood’s horse snorted at this, and jostled back and forward.

‘Oh for pity’s sake, I did nothing of the sort. We have been over this many times. I have said all I would say on that subject.’

Daquan nodded and shooed him away with a gesture of his hand.

‘One other thing,’ Captain HeGood said, ‘probably not connected in anyway. But two days ago FumpHee and I came across some odd children in
Hirad’s forest.’

‘Odd? In what way?’

‘I’m not sure. One of the boys seemed loopy, the other unafraid.’

‘You didn’t apprehend them?’

‘Couldn’t. Was tracking another boy.’

Daquan chewed the news of the boys over in his mind and then said, ‘Send a tracker out and see if you can find them.’

‘Really. Send a tracker out. Glad I have you here to tell me what to do. And what will I get in return?’

‘If the Marauders are back, then you will need lots of favours from me.’

He smacked Captain HeGood’s horse hard on the rump, making it totter about.

‘Go do your job, law order man.’

Captain HeGood glared at him, and kicked his horse into a trot and left.

As Daquan rode back his mind steamed with maddening thoughts of past resentments and betrayals. Someone who knew his murky past had the bracelets and was now in New Wakefield. It seemed the only possible explanation. How else could the Marauders return? But why? Why bring the bracelets back here? Did whomever it was know that he had no more than three months earlier ordered the killing of the last known bracelet wearers? Impossible. But then if they had the bracelets, anything was possible. But then they would have to be a child or child-like. His heart sank. Maybe he was too late. Maybe they had taught an adult to attain an innocent-mind like Doctor Thurgood had with him, and that an adult now wielded the bracelets. But why come back here?

He thought about what Quesob had told him, of the possibility of children, and, of course, Captain HeGood’s news of strange children in the forbidden forest. He could see the connection. Children trained to exact revenge on him for the murder. But they could not have been trained within a few months. No. Whoever, or whatever had the bracelets, must have had them a long time.

Curses that Quesob had left this night. He would have to send a rider after him. Quesob was essential to this plan. He would stop at nothing to get the bracelets, even if it meant betraying his friends.

Yes, thought Daquan, yes the cowboy is the major clue. An evil glow of smug satisfaction enveloped him. He chuckled to himself how easy it had been last time to get rid of the cowboy. He had simply taken the cowboy suit off.

***

Yanked from his sleep by the image of a something crashing into him, Ari rolled over ready to fight. Pensive, he looked across his sleeping cousins huddled in the makeshift bivouac. Morning light filtered in and he peered outside and could see no sign of anyone. Muddled, he relaxed, trying to recall how he got back. The image of Lexington draped across the figure filled his mind. He prodded her. She stirred, opened her eyes, and looking refreshed from her sleep, smiled at him.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Mmm.’

‘How did you get back?’

‘Back? What?’ She pushed herself up from snuggling between Quixote and Melaleuca. ‘It’s a bit fuzzy. But that thing, whatever it was bought us back here.’ Lexington looked up and around, searching her memory. ‘You took quite a hard knock.’