Through the Tiger's Eye (27 page)
‘Um, Dad, I don’t really want breakfast yet. I’m just going for a walk.’
‘That’s fine, Lucía. Have a look for Ricardo while you’re up there, would you? He went out before I got up and I’d rather you two stuck together today. We might have to get out of here fast if things turn bad.’
Lucy ran all the way to the clearing, to find Pablo boiling the billy.
‘Put it out! There’s a total fire ban!’
‘A what?’
‘A total fire ban. You’re not allowed to light any fires. There’s already a bushfire burning down south. If they see smoke up here, they’ll send the fire brigade up!’
That did the trick. Pablo doused the flames with the contents of the kettle, sending a cloud of steam up. Rahel filled a pot at the pond and dumped the contents on the fire, and then Carlos kicked soil over the embers.
The little group stared mournfully at the remains of their campfire. Toro looked the saddest of the lot. Lucy noticed Ricardo was not with him.
‘Where’s Ricardo?’
Toro looked puzzled.
‘He has not come today. He was supposed to go swimming with me when the sun came up.’
Lucy’s stomach lurched.
‘Are you sure? You’re not just hiding him from me?’
‘No. He did not come.’
Angel trotted up and grabbed her hand. As she did, Lucy felt that Christmas-tree fever again. Angel’s hand felt hot and dry like paper, then Lucy was pulsing with electricity just like with the Tiger-cat. She met Angel’s dark eyes. They were glowing like polished stones. Lucy wrenched her hand free and turned urgently to the other kids.
‘He’s in Telares. I know it, I mean, she knows it,’ she said, gesturing at Angel. Everyone looked at her blankly.
‘You’ve got to believe me! Ricardo wasn’t in his bed this morning and he’s not with you. He’s missing. And Angel thinks he’s in Telares. She just told me . . . Well, not quite . . . Never mind! I can’t explain. Just trust me. He must have followed us last night!’ Lucy didn’t want to think too hard about the implications of that.
‘You are pale,’ said Carlos, and there was no trace of scorn in his voice.
Everyone had gone very quiet, thinking about Ricardo down that tunnel, alone, with the Commander and the militia on the alert after last night’s disturbance.
‘If he did follow us, why didn’t he come back?’ Lucy said to no one in particular.
She didn’t like any of the possible answers.
Lucy had already swung into the pit before the others caught up.
‘Wait, we are coming with you,’ said Carlos.
They swung down the rope and into the tunnel. Lucy ran, senses stretching to find her way as never before. In no time they were at the green curtain, and Lucy trotted into the first Telarian day she had seen since this whole adventure began. She looked at her watch and made the calculation. Just after lunch Telarian time.
‘Lucy, we must have a plan,’ said Rahel, sounding like an echo of Lucy on earlier trips.
‘I’ve got a plan. Bring Ricardo home.’
She spoke too loudly.
‘Hush. Remember where we are! And we do not know where Ricardo is. We must be careful and clever. He may simply have hurt himself and be hiding in the jungle hoping we will come to get him. First we must search.’
Lucy looked desperately about for the Tiger-cat. She would know where Ricardo was, for sure! Why wasn’t she here when Lucy really needed her?
It would have been more sensible and quicker for everyone to split up, but no one wanted to. Close to the jungle jail, they crawled on their bellies until they had a clear view of the firepit and the padlocked gate, with the rickety, rotting mermaid house behind it. What they saw didn’t make anyone feel any better. Three militia patrolled the fenceline, and for once they didn’t look drunk.
As one, the kids wriggled backwards and melted into the jungle. It was a long time before they felt safe to talk.
‘At least they are just militia and not Bulls,’ said Pablo.
‘But soon the Bull reinforcements come,’ said Carlos.
‘That’s it!’ said Lucy. ‘If Ricardo is in there, we must get Ricardo
now
. He can’t stay here any longer, if that’s where he is.’
Rahel spoke soothingly: ‘We do not yet know where he is or what has happened to him. Let us check the workshop.’
Carlos led the way, taking the back route. Once again the kids lay on their bellies and looked at the building. Another three militia were on patrol. The Bull Commander was taking no chances. Again the kids wriggled backwards and regrouped, gathering in dense jungle under a tree.
Suddenly, the girls lay on the ground, palms spread on the dirt.
‘What do you think?’ breathed Lucy into Rahel’s ear.
Rahel shook her head and concentrated.
What Lucy could feel was like a small earthquake.
‘It’s a truck,’ she whispered.
‘Yes,’ Rahel said. ‘The reinforcements, or they may be bringing more children from the city. Or taking some away.’
Lucy felt her face set into the expression she had seen so often on Rahel’s face. Determination, pure and simple. No one was taking her little brother to Telares City.
‘We still do not know if he has even been captured,’ Rahel said, seeing her face. ‘Let us check the village.’
They climbed under the tree close to the village and watched the scene below. A string of villagers was straggling in from the jungle, each dragging a heavy log to add to the woodpile. There was no sign of Sarong Lady, the Bull Commander or Ricardo.
‘We must ask Bucket Lady,’ whispered Rahel.
In single file, they threaded through the jungle. Luckily, T-Tongue seemed to remember the way. He trotted confidently ahead, ears pricked. Soon they were huddled under cover near the little bridge.
There was no sign of life in Bucket Lady’s hut. Then Lucy got a distinct whiff of fish and felt the clump, clump of approaching feet. ‘Get down!’ she gestured at the boys. Rahel was already on the ground. Lucy dared to lift her head and saw Bucket Lady and her distinctive buckets, with large fish tails poking out.
Just as Bucket Lady stepped up to her front door, the Tiger-cat appeared, rubbing about her legs, purring so loudly the kids could hear it from near the bridge. The effect on Bucket Lady was instantaneous. She dropped her buckets, plodded wearily but quickly back to where the kids were hiding and said something urgent in Telarian.
Rahel jumped up immediately but Carlos, Pablo and Lucy needed a little more encouragement.
‘We must,’ said Rahel urgently.
Bucket Lady muttered something else and Carlos and Pablo leapt up and, looking over their shoulders, scuttled over the bridge and through the front door after Rahel, with Lucy and T-Tongue bringing up the rear. Bucket Lady grabbed her buckets of fish and closed the door firmly.
Once again Lucy could not understand a word anyone was saying and had to scrutinise their faces for clues. She learned a lot she didn’t want to. When Rahel mentioned Ricardo’s name, Bucket Lady looked grim and shook her head. She put her finger to her neck, as though slitting her own throat.
‘What did she say? Is he
dead? Tell me!
’ ‘No, no,’ said Rahel, ‘but he has been captured. The Commander is very angry. The militia searched the whole village last night and found a strange white-faced little boy hiding nearby, but she does not know where he is being held. A truck has come from Telares City and will take him there tomorrow. The Bull Commander found his medicine missing and blames the little boy.’
A strange buzzing filled Lucy’s head and her limbs didn’t feel as though they were attached to her body any more, but her stomach still belonged to her, tight in a vice of regret. Why had she kept coming down here? She had led Ricardo into danger. The skin on her face felt cold and heavy like old leather, and she wanted to speak, say something, anything, but she had no words.
Rahel went on. ‘Bucket Lady, actually her name is Soella, she says she does not understand why the Commander is getting so upset about a little boy. But ever since we escaped he has not been the same. She says he has got crueller and if anything goes wrong in the workshop or with the tiger rug he flies into a rage. The militia is searching every hut in case there are more children. There is a search party coming this way soon. Remember Ponytail, Lucy, how he complained of the “girl ghost”? The Commander thinks there are other white-faced children helping the others escape. That truck we felt, it is bound to be more Bull soldiers.’
Rahel explained to the others and there was silence as everyone thought about the implications.
‘Soella says tonight she will put the medicine in the soup.’ Rahel tried to sound confident. ‘She thinks that there will be enough to go around, even if there are extra soldiers. She says she knows that the Commander only gives the children a few drops and they sleep. It is very strong.’
‘Look, I do not like to say it, but there is nothing we can do in daylight,’ said Carlos, showing unusual restraint. ‘We must wait for our moment tonight. We will find your little brother and rescue him and the other children, once and for all.’
‘Yes, we must wait,’ said Rahel.
‘But we don’t even know where he is,’ said Lucy.
‘Soella said she will try to find out where they have taken him,’ said Pablo, seeing Lucy’s stricken face.
Lucy looked about for the Tiger-cat, but she had disappeared again. Suddenly she remembered the image the Tiger-cat had sent to Toro, about Ricardo and his sword and two sleeping Bulls. She forced her leather lips to move so she could remind the others.
‘Yes,’ said Pablo, pointing at the largest of the fish in Soella’s buckets, a beautiful pink and silver specimen. ‘And that is the fish I saw through the Tiger-cat. Soon it will be sliced and filleted and the Bulls will sleep.’ He looked positively bloodthirsty.
It gave Lucy some hope.
Then both Rahel and Lucy felt it at the same time: the shuddering of many approaching feet. The shock galvanised Lucy into action. Rahel spoke rapidly to Soella in Telarian and she quickly hid the medicine in the bucket of fish and shooed everyone out the back window.
The kids melted into the undergrowth, T-Tongue in the lead. There was no sign of the Tiger-cat, but T-Tongue led them through the jungle to the tunnel and got lots of praise when they got inside.
Lucy trudged through the darkness like a zombie. This was worse, far worse, than she had ever contemplated. She felt hollow.
This was real!
She was confronted with the fact that somewhere inside her she had still been clinging to the idea that no harm would come to her or Ricardo. She had seen the Telarian kids in danger, seen what they had gone through, but
she
had felt protected because, in some dark corner of her mind, she didn’t really
believe
what was happening. Didn’t really believe the evidence of her own eyes and supercharged senses because recent events were
impossible
.
What really
was
impossible was going home and explaining to Dad first, then Mum and Grandma, that Ricardo was currently overseas, a prisoner of the Bull army. And how had he got there? Through a magic tunnel, of course.
‘Bulls? Magic tunnels?’ Mum would say. ‘
You’re telling us you took your little brother into that hole I told you not to play in and he’s lost somewhere under the mountain, and you think he may have been arrested by foreign soldiers?’
Then the ambulance would come and take Lucy away.
Dad would never believe her story either. But the biggest problem was that Lucy
hadn’t believed her own story
. Because everything that had been happening had
seemed
like an action video or some super-charged dream, she had believed she could do
anything
and still wake up in her own bed in the morning. She hadn’t thought about the implications. She had been scared, of course, in the beginning; intimidated, as Rahel would say. But lately, Lucy had felt indestructible – crazy enough to lead her own little brother into the clutches of the Commander. She should have known he would follow her if they kept leaving him out.
Lucy had made the same mistake as Dad. When Mum told him he was turning into a ghost, he didn’t believe her. Scientists don’t believe in ghosts. But Lucy knew what Mum meant. He
had
turned into a ghost in their house. His body was there in the lounge room, but his mind wasn’t. It was off in the stars. And he didn’t believe Mum until it was too late. He had believed what he had wanted to believe. Then one day his indestructible family got sucked into a black hole while he gazed at the stars.
Ricardo had believed what he wanted to believe, too. He really had believed his sword would protect him. And it hadn’t. He’d believed he could fend off armed guards with a plastic sword. Lucy hadn’t believed what was staring her in the face and she had led her little brother into danger.
The conversation with herself was endless. It went round and round but always, at its core, was how much she wanted to see Ricardo.
Now! With his stupid sword
. Lucy had never felt anything like it in her entire twelve years. In a rush, she was sorry for all the times she had ever been mean to Ricardo, especially since they had moved out of home.
You knew you were taking it out on him, but you did it anyway
, she told herself bitterly.
Then she reached the end of the tunnel and saw the Tiger-cat stretched out in a shaft of light as though there was nothing in the world to worry about.
Well
, thought Lucy grimly,
you’d better be right
.
But, once again, the Tiger-cat wasn’t telling her anything.
