Smack.
‘Stupid.’
Smack.
‘Stupid.’
Smack.
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...’ Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack...
Quixote roared and roared with laughter, inflaming Aunty Gertrude even more. Tiring, she gave him one last hard smack; nearly toppling over backwards. Halting, she straightened up, adjusted her disheveled clothes and hair.
‘Good. Now as further punishment, straight to your rooms and there will be no dinner at all.’
***
Over the next two weeks they managed to keep a low profile, blending in as much as they could. Quixote spent at least an hour a day in detention, while the others withstood all the small, menial tasks of strength and discipline. With the pigeon-killing episode behind them, the worst had appeared to pass. Most days the greatest challenge was the boredom, though their age group was being groomed for the second tribulation test - the Unforbidden Forest. The preparation was mostly scare mongering; sitting them all down and having older students tell of their horrific experiences and of those that never made it. Not once did they get told how to survive or what exactly happened in this test.
At the Cathedral-Mansion Ari spent time listening to the land and finally heard what he thought was the word, “hom.” Though each time he heard it he got so excited, it died away again, and it took him another hour to start hearing it. He tried and tried but the excitement got him every time.
Quixote and Lexington snuck out most nights, and without venturing so far that they could not return by morning, scouted for the ruins of past Cathedral-Mansions. Within two weeks they had found five of them. Deserted, crumbled, overgrown with masses of plants, they appeared to be ancient castles. Some had their exteriors clad in a façade like the Throughnight Cathedral-Mansion, and some appeared so old that whoever had lived there had never attempted to disguise them. Chuffed that she was right, it did not tell them why they had been disguised or, more importantly, what had happened to the people that had once lived in them. The only clues so far had been Harshon’s words about World War I, World War II and the Marauder incident thirty years beforehand. Something else about these events had wrought changes to the fabric of New Wakefield, but what exactly they could not find out. Quixote remembered that the caped man back at their homestead had mentioned thirty years ago as well, though this offered little more clarity on the subject.
The French Resistance offered little help with this, having only myth and legend to go by. The whispers only extended so far back. Lost to the whispers were how inhabitants of New Wakefield came to be there or where they had come from. Lost also was the reason it could no longer be called Agorrah, or why the forbidden tongue was forbidden. Lexington could not be sure, but she said it sounded like Latin, but she needed books to confirm this.
Lexington looked for records, documents and anything written that her inner voice had said she should find. Without telling the others she looked also for more signs of the symbol she had been given by her mother, but to no avail.
Aided by a cartographer’s costume, Melaleuca sketched a map of all the secret passages in the Cathedral-Mansion they had found so far.
***
The door burst open, Lexington puffing.
‘Quixote hurry. Pembrooke is leaving…..It’s morning. Where were you? Why are you still in bed?’
‘Breakfast?’
She shook her head annoyed.
‘It’s finished. You missed nothing anyway, now hurry.’
As she left, he threw his blankets off, still dressed in the sleeveless karate costume he had slept in.
Out of the window he saw Pembrooke sitting in the cart waiting with Melaleuca and Ari in the back. With no thought, he pulled his brown Vahn uniform over top of the karate costume, stared out of the window, and waited for Lexington to appear. When she appeared, he took off, seconds later bursting out of the front door. He roared past Aunty Gertrude and leapt on the back of the now moving cart. He sat, hardly panting at all.
‘Anyone get me any food?’
Lexington pushed some crumbly bread into his hand, asking, ‘Were you right behind me?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Where were you?’ Melaleuca asked.
‘Asleep.’
Before she could question him more, Lexington put her hand up his sleeve, tugging on the costume underneath.
‘What is this?’
‘Karate costume. I ran out of time to put it back.’
He could see they were disappointed in him.
‘I promise that I won’t do anything today. Really.’
Ari’s unbelieving eyes said otherwise.
‘Promise all you like. We know you just can’t help it.’
Lexington slapped her forehand with her hand.
‘Oh no. With two costumes on, they will see you differently. Didn’t you think of that? You will have to take the karate one off, quickly before anyone sees.’
Quixote threw all his clothes off, flattened the karate costume, and wrapped it around his skinny waist, pulling his uniform over top.
Melaleuca drew him close to her.
‘Quixote. Ari is to stick with you all day. Leave that costume around your waist!’
By morning break Quixote had kept his word, behaving himself. Pleased with him, the cousins sat on the fields behind the Vahn, again being ignored, when a shrill scream cut across everyone.
Task-Matron Bircher dragged a small girl down the steps by her hair, oblivious to her pain, and stopped on a small raised platform. Everyone surged forward eager to watch. Discipliners, Pedagogues and Prefects flooded out of the Vahn, and waded through the students.
Melaleuca and Ari grabbed Lexington’s hand, while Quixote tried to get a better look.
Task-Matron Bircher let the girl’s hair go, and she stopped screaming, and crumpled to the ground sobbing. Task-Matron Bircher booted her and the girl screamed again, this time clutching her sides.
‘Intolerable!’ Task-Matron Bircher bellowed from her great gut, through a loud hailer. ‘Emotions are weakness. Weakness is decay. This sniveling scum has shamed us all. Are you going to stand for this?’
‘NO!’ came the deafening roar.
The girl shrieked, shaking uncontrollably, earning yet another swift boot to her mid-rift.
Mesmerized, the cousins could not help but look, though felt sick. Lexington squeezed Melaleuca’s hand, turning her fingers purple, and biting her bottom lip, desperate not to cry.
Near the cousins, a sandy haired boy let out a whimper, and a Prefect hauled him toward the back of the students, yelling, ‘WEAKLING!’
Melaleuca checked her cousins. Lexington’s eyes moistened. A tense Ari held himself back, turmoil filling his face - ready to pounce like a caged leopard. Quixote rocked back and forth, and reached into his uniform. Melaleuca tapped him on his arm. Out of all of them she saw that he felt for this girl the most. Quixote closed his hand around the karate costume and Melaleuca shook her head.
‘AND SO!’ Task-Matron Bircher bellowed even louder. ‘WITH THE POWER INVESTED IN ME BY THE ANCIENT SCROLLS OF DISCIPLINE THIS GIRL SHALL BE BIRCHED UNTIL ALL WEAKNESS IS REMOVED!’
The crowd screamed in pleasure.
Task-Matron Bircher produced a long, razor-thin piece of bamboo.
‘WEED THE CHAFF FROM THE WHEAT! REMOVE THE RIFF RAFF!’
All at once the Discipliners, Pedagogues and Prefects thrashed their way through the students, hauling the weak and sniveling ones to the back.
Task-Matron Bircher thrashed the girl with loud, sickening thwacks ushering instant silence. She hit her again and again and again, as the girl screamed and screamed. After a minute the screams subsided to small cries, then to whimpers and then to nothing. Only the wet sound of the bamboo splodging against her bloody body remained.
At blinding speed, Quixote pulled the karate costume out and put it on. He jumped into the air, somersaulted backwards, and kicked a Prefect unconscious. Relis
h spread across his face. There, he had done it; used a costume to defend them, and to protect the children of New Wakefield.
All around him students stumbled backwards, awe struck by the sudden appearance of a 6 foot tall slim, muscled man, dressed in a karate costume.
From the outskirts of the crowd a lone voice cried out, ‘Marauder! It’s a Marauder!’ Then another voice shouted, ‘Hooray. We are saved!’
The whole field froze for a second, and then everyone’s attention swung to Quixote.
Then all hell broke loose.
Students screamed, others shouted, Discipliners yelled for control, Pedagogues waded frantically toward the epicentre, and Quixote flipped into hero mode, kicking, punching, and flattening Discipliners.
Ari and Melaleuca grabbed Lexington, who shouted amongst the bedlam, ‘Get him to save the girl!’
Quixote somersaulted high into the air, screaming a karate cry that reverberated around the field.
‘We can’t get involved yet!’ Melaleuca said.
‘Too late for that,’ Ari shouted back, ‘besides look!’
Quixote fought his way through the crowd toward Task-Matron Bircher. She stared horrified at the mass panic ripping through the fragile discipline of her prised students.
‘HOLD STILL! STOP PANICKING. HOLD TO YOUR TRAINING.’
Behind her, ancient looking Discipliners came out to observe the pandemonium, unimpressed. Task-Matron Bircher yelled for someone to get the Head Discipliner and to call the Inquisat.
Quixote landed by the body of the still breathing girl, causing Task-Matron Bircher to recoil.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’
Quixote giggled.
‘Helping her.’
She swung the bamboo stick at his head, though Quixote dived between her legs while somersaulting. He swung his back heel over in a high reaching arc, smashing her in the face and knocking her out.
He picked up the girl’s body and headed into the crowd of fleeing students. They parted like a giant zipper, afraid of him, though soon realised he appeared to be saving the girl, not “marauding” her as legend and whispers had warned.
‘Where’s he going to take her?’ Ari said.
‘Does it matter? He saved her,’ Lexington replied.
‘Oh it matters,’ Melaleuca said.
From the edge of the crowd, the Gorks let up a cry. ‘MARAUDERS! MARAUDERS! THEY ARE HERE TO SAVE US!’
Clapping, cheering and whistling spread throughout the students.
Quixote passed his cousins, winking at them, and then vanished from view. The crowd gasped as Quixote disappeared, though it left Melaleuca fuming, and Ari and Lexington wondering what costume had he now discovered.
Sah Task-Master Carrion hobbled out to Task-Matron Bircher’s body yelling out orders to the remaining Discipliners, infuriated by the adulation for the Marauder. He placed his mouth on the loud hailer, rasping out, ‘AFTER TODAY I WILL CULL THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU! INQUISAT GO!’
Silence fell amongst the students, and a chill ran through them. Horses appeared on the edge of the field out of nowhere, Captain HeGood at the lead.
‘CHHHAAAARRRRGGGGGEEEEE!’
Captain HeGood spurred his horse forward, and the rest of the Inquisat, a hundred and fifty in all, spurred their horses on behind him.
Students screamed and ran in all directions.
Like a scythe through a wheat field, the Inquisat drove their steeds hard, slicing through them, smashing them with long poles, leaving an empty swath in their wake.
Out of the kicked-up dust, three horses crashed down upon Melaleuca and Lexington, their hooves landing on their heads. Dazed, stars swirled about, and lights popped and blipped in front of their eyes, and a stunned, silent whistling tone filled their ears.
Ari jerked them up, yelling at them, ‘LEX, MEL, SAY SOMETHING! ARE YOU OKAY?’
The bracelets kicked in, healing them, rendering them mostly immune to the damage and pain.
Lexington tapped her ears.
‘Y..y..yes. I think so. Don’t think this uniform was totally made for horse attacks.’
Melaleuca tugged at both of them.
‘Let’s get out of here.’
‘What about Quixote?’ Lexington said.
‘He can look after himself.’
Amongst the fleeing students, they tore off in the direction of the Cathedral-Mansion.
A deep, brassy horn sounded from somewhere deep in the earth, grumbling like a bear waking from a deep hibernation. The earth trembled, and the students screamed in terror. Instead of fleeing, they ran around in maddening circles, confused.
The cousins stopped unaffected, bewildered at the sight.
‘Low sonic waves,’ Lexington said. ‘I’ve read about this. It induces panic in people.’
‘Look,’ Ari pointed. ‘The Inquisat can just pick them off.’
The Inquisat slowed to a trot, and cantered around whacking pupils at their leisure. Soon piles of students lay on the ground groaning, crying and holding their injured body parts.
‘Run!’ Melaleuca said. ‘Run as fast as you can and head for the mansion.’
They ran around the outskirts of the field, passing by the edge of the imposing Vahn and started to run through the town. Here and there a few escaped students ran for cover.
The horn blasted again.
An older boy running in front of them, jumped up in shock, and ran back and forth, confused. As the horn stopped, the boy turned around, and they recognised him as Gregand.
‘Hide me! Hide me! I can’t find it.’
He launched himself onto Melaleuca, clawing at her in desperation.
‘Get off. Find what?’
‘Shelter! Shelter before the mist!’
‘What mist?’
‘You don’t know! Who...what...’ He suddenly let go. ‘Outsiders. Get away from me!’ He pushed her away, and turning to run, tripped over his own feet and sprawled on to the dusty road.
Ari bent down to help him up, though Gregand struggled against him.
‘What is this mist?’
‘When the third horn blows the mist of testing will spill out of the earth, all left outdoors of an undisciplined, impure heart will die!’ Gregand shrieked like a madman, and then ran off.
The cousins sprinted through the town, slowing to a trot once out of it, and headed for the Throughnight Cathedral-Mansion. They kept up a steady pace, discovering they did not tire easily. The horn blew a third time, making them stop. They peered back, but could not see any death mist, though the distance now may have limited their view.
They took up their pace again and eventually entered the forested track leading up the hill. They passed by the bushes that led to Pembrooke’s secret entrance.
Quixote leapt out of the bushes alone.
‘You guys took your time!’
Relieved to see him, his cousins rushed to him, and hugged him.
Chapter 29 - Two Meetings
Daquan barely acknowledged Quesob, save for grumbling, ‘Took your time!’
With bloodshot eyes and darker than normal circles under them, Daquan glared at him. Hair grew on his head and face now, as did a semblance of eyebrows.
‘Five days out I checked the orb,’ Quesob said wearied and dusty. ‘It pointed back here, so I was already heading back.’
Daquan clenched his fists.
‘I must have those bracelets. It has something to do with those children at the Throughnight Mansion.’
Quesob’s confusion showed on his face.
Daquan explained events so far, adding, ‘I have decided to come out of reclusion.’
‘But...but...you...you are...’
‘Yes. A reviled man. But I need to get closer to those children without arousing suspicion.’
**
Iam surveyed the aftermath of the Inquisat’s charge, gazing on the writhing bodies strewn around the field. Moved, Iam knelt, feeling the earth, discovering that all lived though many held dimly to life. Yet among
st them a tiny ember of forbidden hope flared in their broken bodies. A hope, Iam thought, that meant many would die before it gave birth to something greater.
Chuffed, Iam started to slink off though turned, saddened. When the end came, would he go peacefully or fight?
***
Before they chastised him, Quixote’s sheepish grin crossed his face again.
‘Sorry guys. I just couldn’t stand it anymore.’
‘Where’s the girl?’ Lexington asked.
‘Follow me.’
Soon the four cousins knelt over the body of the battered girl, hidden in the safety of the bushes. Lying unconscious, dried blood encrusted her broken facial bones, and her breathing rattled.
Lexington took the young girl’s head, and cradling it, stroked her black, blood-matted hair. She had never seen anyone wounded so much, nor witnessed such cruelty. Nothing had prepared any of them for this, least of all, Lexington. Something deeply nurturing moved in Lexington, and she stared into the girl’s face, feeling herself enter her body, and just for a second glimpsed what she had endured. Anguish, sorrow, tears, panic, fear and dread rushed out of the girl, engulfing Lexington.
Greif stricken, Lexington wailed, uttering a wretched, desolate noise, and subsided into sobbing.
Ari tried to comfort her, while Melaleuca paced back and forth, moved by the tragedy yet concerned about what to do next.
‘It’ll be okay Lex,’ Ari said.
She gazed at him, tears pouring from her eyes, and her face covered in strands of hair.
‘Will it? How? Mel?’
‘Thinking. Need clarity,’ Melaleuca replied.
Images of the small onslaught played around in her mind, holding her decisions at bay, and her head felt filled with wool.
Quixote knelt down by the girl and chuckled to himself.
‘With a face that ugly, she could be a Marauder now.’
Lexington gave him a disgusting look, and even Ari scowled.
Vahn and the Bold Extraction, The Page 9
