by Shane Mason
‘And yet you want me to tame the very people who attacked them. Better still why not find out whoever is behind the attack. The guy I shot at, at the kids’ home wanted an object of great value, something of the parents’.’
The colour drained from the Harbinger’s face and he stared at Argus dumbstruck. ‘It was the Ori that attacked their parent’s? Are you sure?’
Argus shrugged his shoulders. ‘No. It’s what Antavahni said. Besides Ari and Quixote saw them and said they were.’
The Harbinger stumbled backwards and held on to the wall to steady himself.
‘Only one other knew of the bracelets, Daquan. But he is a madman, a recluse - holed up in his crumbling mansion, passing into decay - crept from the Southern Wasteland where he was banished too. No, there is something else afoot. Someone else has pieced the puzzle together. Someone tracked their parents down thinking they had the bracelets, little knowing they were hidden here.’
‘I still want to leave. That’s final.’
‘So be it. Leave then,’ the Harbinger said with little fight left. ‘Go through Herod’s Pass to the south. You can’t miss it. It’s the only natural valley that leads south. Keep traveling until the roads run out and then follow the ridges until you come to the second alluvial valley. When you reach the ravine turn west and follow the river to the sea. The river creates a current strong enough to get through the Sedgemere.’
The Harbinger pushed himself off the mirror, feeling all his effort had been for nothing.
‘Sedgemere?’
‘The wall, ah...the invisible barrier...you must have passed through it. It stops outsiders getting in or seeing in. Now please just go.’
Argus squinted at the Harbinger. Maybe he was right, hell the world might be ending - good riddance. And so what if the cousins had powers? If they were to stay innocent then they would not use those powers and besides, he had seen plenty of innocent people devastated by the strong and corrupt. His only reason for staying would be to help, something he had never done. So why start now?
‘Are you setting me up?’
‘JUST GO,’ the Harbinger said.
***
As the gunshot rang out, all the children on the courtyard froze and appeared to hold their breath, and then as if a blanket of panic fell on them, became alive and animated. Ari knew he should go back and see why Quixote had fired a shot but the mass of thronging children mesmerized him. He had never seen so many people gathered together, let alone the acts of cruelty. Another thought crossed his mind. What if it was not Quixote but someone shooting at them? He inched his way back down the embankment and Melaleuca landed by him.
Ari raised his eyebrows.
‘Quixote?’
Unimpressed, Melaleuca nodded.
‘We spooked him and he fired at us.’
Quixote dashed along the path through the long grass toward them, and a bedraggled Lexington followed after him. They joined the others, and despite Quixote jiggling around Melaleuca focused on Ari. From the expression on his face she could see he had found something.
‘What is it?’
Ari motioned for them to lie down and together they crawled up through the long grass. The children on the concrete courtyard talked amongst themselves and stared toward where the cousins lay.
‘Why are they looking this way?’ Melaleuca asked.
‘They heard the gunshot,’ Ari said.
Lexington stroked her chin.
‘Do you think they never heard a gun before?’
‘Could be many things,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Maybe this is the Borstal. It looks hideous enough.’
‘One of those kids is the one Quixote and I saw,’ Ari said. ‘He had thistles rammed onto his body and was bleeding.’
Lexington winched.
‘Ow. How can you see that from here?’
‘Costume increased my sight.’
Lexington threw an “I-told-you-so” look at Melaleuca.
‘Just note it down in your head,’ Melaleuca said and felt annoyed with her though did not know why.
The massed children parted and four grown men dressed in leather tunics and puffy pants emerged carrying thick sticks and whips. Quixote leapt up and started snarling.
‘These here are nothing but dirty rotten scum and I’s intend to whop them a good.’
He charged toward them, screaming and crying out obscenities. The children screamed and ran in all directions and the four grown men stood their ground for a brief second and then started stepping backwards. They looked at each other, unsure what to do.
Lexington studied the scene and announced, ‘The advantage is ours. Never before hath these crude sentinels been loutishly accosted as such,’ and then mindful that her language sounded cryptic followed it with, ‘What the blighty, they are scared, let’s go.’
She jumped out of the bushes and started running after Quixote.
‘What’s got into her?’ Ari said.
‘The bracelets and the costume,’ Melaleuca said, unimpressed no one had waited for her to make a decision. ‘Come on. We had better stick with them. At least to protect whoever they are from Quixote.’
Ari and Melaleuca launched themselves after them, joining Quixote and Lexington in their reckless charge towards the screaming children. Quixote fired round after round and shrieked obscenities into the air. Ari ran around making his ear shattering whooping noises, and Melaleuca somersaulted between the children as they scattered.
Lexington grabbed one of the children, a small fleeing girl, and felt her tiny body go limp as she fainted. Lexington lay her on the ground and felt guilty for scaring her into passing out. Grey hair hung limp around the girl’s dirty face though a gentleness and fairness rested about her. Scars marked her face, and her arms hung out of a crumpled threadbare sack that barely covered her body. Cuts, bruises, welts and small bleeding pricks covered her. No more than eight years old, she opened her eyes and said in a whimpering tone, ‘Please don’t kidnap me. I have no mother or father, please don’t take me away.’
‘Kidnap?’
Lexington reached for the girl to comfort her but the girl shook with fear and screamed so loud that Lexington flinched. The girl launched herself to her feet and sprinted off.
Melaleuca somersaulted several times, landed and surveyed the bedlam raging around her. Quixote laughed derisively as he pumped hot lead over the heads of the frightened throng, and Ari chased the men and the older boys, yet Lexington had a slight shocked look on her face. She cart wheeled over to her.
‘These children are very frightened of us, like they have seen us before,’ Lexington said.
‘Can’t blame them. Look at Quixote.’
The “bad-men” Quixote had gone after had retreated to the building, leaving swathes of children between them and the cousins. Quixote roared and shot over the children’s head to chase them away. Some of the screaming children fled into the building, while others ran into the bushes either side of the courtyard leaving the four men standing with their backs to the building. Doors to their left and their right swung open and twenty more men, dressed in the same leather tunics and puffy pants trotted out to join their four comrades. On their gnarled faces they had expressions of intense anger with eyebrows knotted in fury. Scars filled their faces and lumps of badly set, broken bones jutted out under their skin, giving them devilish appearances, and heavy truncheons and maces swung loose in their hands.
Quixote held his ground, standing 50 metres out from them. Ari joined him. Seeing more men, a feeling came over him that he needed his Tomahawk. He reached behind and unhooked it, swinging it around in front and brandishing it in full view. The newly arrived guards eyed Ari and Quixote, and the anger left their faces, replaced by stunned surprise and nervous murmuring. Quixote snarled at them, cursing them with threats of mayhem.
Lexington and Melaleuca joined the boys.
‘Now what?’ Melaleuca asked.
Someone appeared on top of the building and surveyed the scene as
if a commander viewing his battlefield.
‘Why have you returned here? You were banished.’
The guards assumed a pose that suggested they were readying to attack.
Chapter 17 - Engage, Evade, Escape
Quixote lifted his pistol and shot at the man standing on top of the building - Captain HeGood. The bullet whizzed past him though he did not flinch.
Melaleuca nudged Ari. ‘Stop him.’
He yanked Quixote’s arm down, and Lexington shook her head though looked steadfast at the Captain. She cupped her hands around her mouth.
‘What do you mean return?’
Captain HeGood folded his arms and rocked forward on his feet, raising his right eyebrow.
‘The cowboy gave me his word he would not return here ever again.’
Quixote snarled, thrashed against Ari, and shook his fists at the Captain.
‘Balderdash. You bare-fisted brainless gump of a stump.’
Captain HeGood swished his cloak aside and held aloft a baton, crying out, ‘ADVVAANNNCCCEEE!’
The guards held their ground not moving; a hushed silence falling over them. In an audible whisper one of the guards said, ‘Marauders. They’re back.’
Captain HeGood picked up a brick, and hurled it at the guard, knocking him senseless.
‘I’ll banish the lot of you to Golgotha. NOW MOVEEEEE!!!!’
Swallowing hard, the front line trudged forward, gripping their batons with white knuckles, while uncurling whips and whipping the air with a great menace. The guards behind them surged forward at an unsure pace, swinging razor-thin bamboo sticks - a crisp whistling whisk harmonising with the cracks of the whips.
Lexington stepped backward. ‘Perhaps a hasty retreat is in order.’
Melaleuca looked at the boys readying themselves to fight.
‘I know we should, but something about these men just makes me mad. Besides, they look scared.’
Lexington squinted out from under her cap, putting all the clues together: Children huddling in the bushes; Guards approaching unsure; The small girl asking not to be kidnapped; Even Pemily seeing them as Marauders:
‘Well, I do concur, but ─ ’
Quixote screamed and ran toward the guards yelling. Ari charged off to the left, swinging his tomahawk, and even Melaleuca leapt up and somersaulted right, splitting the guards in three directions.
Captain HeGood thrashed his arms about in the air. ‘GET THEM! I’LL BANISH THE LOT OF YOU IF THEY ESCAPE!’
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Three guards’ whips shot out of their hands, and a laughing Quixote fired at their feet. They turned, high-tailing it, and tripped over each other and Quixote roared with more laughter.
Lexington gritted her teeth and shuffled backwards.
‘Don’t hurt them!’
Melaleuca somersaulted back and forth with little effort, soaring over the guards as they lashed out with their whips. They dashed back and forth at a tiring pace trying to catch her with little success. Melaleuca leapt over one of the guards, grabbed their whip, and cracked it back at him, smacking him square in the face. A piece of flesh fell away, though the guard stood there unflinching.
‘Didn’t feel it.’
She crouched, sprung high into the air and came down on top of the guard, sending him sprawling to the concrete and knocking him out. She leapt again, landing on top of another guard, her crotch smacking the back of his neck. Her legs came to rest dangling over his shoulders. Surprised, the guard flailed his arms above him, though Melaleuca spun her legs out from underneath her, wrenching the guard off his feet.
A small cheer erupted out of the bushes and Lexington edged over to the children hiding there. As she got closer she heard the older ones telling all the children to pipe down, that cheering would certainly lead to banishment or death.
Melaleuca glanced at Lexington, meaning to check her but a wild cry from Ari drew her attention. He swung his tomahawk, thrashing at the air in front of him, charging at the guards again and again. Quixote hovered behind him, firing round after round after round as the desperate-faced guards inched backwards.
‘FIGGHHHTTT!’ Captain HeGood yelled. ‘FIIIIGGGGGHGHHHHHTTTT!’
Spurred on, several of the tired guards tried again for Melaleuca. She sped up, leaping back and forth egging the guards on until exhausted, they half collapsed. Captain HeGood screamed death threats at them again, and they turned their attention toward Lexington.
The remaining guards clumped together and advanced on Ari and Quixote. Quixote walked toward them, wrenching their whips out of their hands. They pounced on him, bringing him down to the ground. With a mighty cry, Quixote threw them off and started lashing them with their whips.
Bit-by-bit Ari and Quixote forced them backwards.
Melaleuca beamed, chuffed the guards had given up pursuing her. She watched them saunter off, though her smile did not last long. Lexington gave a little shriek as the wearied guards now honed in on her. Melaleuca ran toward Lexington, cart wheeling through the ragged line of guards, knocking them over.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Lexington said.
‘Yeah. This is fun, but I am not sure what we are achieving.’
Lexington threw her arms up.
‘They wanted to rescue the little boy remember.’
‘Quite. Grab the boy if you can. I am going to pull the boys back.
Melaleuca ran across the courtyard, somersaulting around some of the bedraggled guards and kicking them. She felt buoyant and exhilarated; a veritable defender of the weak.
Lexington approached the children in the bushes. ‘Come on. I won’t hurt. Follow and we can help.’
A small girl popped her head out and yelled, ‘Go away. We don’t want to be maraudered.’
Another girl hushed her, while an older boy pulled her back. All along the bushes, barefaced, scared eyes stared out.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Lexington asked. ‘We can take you away from here.’
A frail looking boy with hollow cheeks stepped out, and as if he had no soul, said, ‘We seek the way of discipline. The only way to leave here is through a hard mind and hard body.’
‘You want to stay here? Why?’
The same boy Ari and Quixote had seen chased came forward. ‘I’m not scared of you, even if you are a Marauder. My parents told me that you would return to help.’
Several children rushed out of the bush, and grabbed him, pleading with him to be quiet, and dragged him back. Lexington looked over her shoulder for support, though Melaleuca seemed more distracted by the boys who had managed to herd the guards against the building.
Captain HeGood peered over the side.
‘CEASE FIGHTING!’
Having already stopped fighting, the guards hung their heads in shame. Captain HeGood sniffed back a noisy spit ball into his throat, gurgled in into his mouth, and spat on the cowering guards – following it with a sneer. He turned his steel stare to the cousins.
‘You may have bested these useless guards, who are now banished. But you won’t best my guard, the Inquisat. They said you would never return, but I said in case you do I shall be ready. AND I AM READY. I HAVE BEEN READY FOR THIRTY YEARS!’
Quixote snarled back at him.
Melaleuca leant in close to Ari. ‘Get Quixote out of here.’
Ari grabbed him, and struggling, started to drag Quixote backwards.
‘Let me go, you flea-bitten miser.’
Lexington walked to Melaleuca.
‘None of the children want to come. This proves my point. We do not know what is going on.’
‘I know.’
Melaleuca kept her eyes on Captain HeGood, and he turned as if to go, though turned back.
‘Why have you returned? What do you want?’
‘To leave,’ Melaleuca said. She grabbed Lexington and together they dashed back across the courtyard, pausing to help Ari drag a struggling Quixote over the embankment.
‘What’s got into him?’ Lexington asked
.
‘Dirty snivelling curs. Mangy half-breed mutts. Downright low-lifes. Yella bellies.’
Melaleuca pulled his head upright by his hair.
‘Stop it Quixote.’
He carried on cursing the air blue.
‘Grab his bracelet,’ Lexington said.
With great difficulty Ari pinned Quixote’s wrist hard against the ground, and worked the bracelet free. Quixote stopped in an instant and stared up at them stunned. Melaleuca tilted her head back, sighed, and then flopped it forward – her eyes demanding an explanation. Quixote screwed his face up and for a brief moment looked as if he might cry, but then he started spouting, ‘Did you see us? Wow! We were unstoppable. And those children! How many? A thousand? A hundred thousand? Do you think we can go back and play with them?’
‘You scared them,’ Lexington said.
‘We could show them the bracelets, share our costumes with them, perhaps ─ ’
Melaleuca pulled his hair again.
‘Stop. Listen!’
‘Even the adults ran. We were the coolest. Did you guys see me?’
Ari put his face close to Quixote’s face.
‘QUIXOTE LISTEN!’
Quixote halted his rambling.
‘Control yourself Quixote,’ Melaleuca said
‘Sorry.’ He looked sheepish. ‘I don’t know what came over me. One minute I was just me and then I wasn’t. It’s almost like I became a real cowboy.’
‘Another reason why I need to analyse the costumes,’ Lexington said, taking off her detective cloak. ‘Now we should go. I hope that man on the top of the building will not chase us.’
‘Good point. Me cover our tracks. No one follow us.’ Ari said, the vowels in his word-sounds becoming shorter. Ari sped around the trees ripping branches off. He bundled them together, squashing dirt and grass into them.
