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

by Shane Mason

  ‘Not yet, too early,’ Iam said. ‘Too early to be there.’

  Iam giggled, scooped up some dirt and threw it at them, and then skipped off, yelling over its shoulder, ‘Good bye Warrior-Way, goodbye Dreamer-heart, goodbye Straightener, goodbye Knows-it. When it is time, come ask me.’

  It rushed into the forest blending with the trees and disappearing, leaving the cousins speechless.

  Lexington felt another piece of the puzzle had been presented to them, but she could not see where it would fit. She desperately needed to start making sense of all this.

  ‘When we get back,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We will do as already said. Pick costumes and go and have fun while exploring the different things of this land.’

  ‘What about Iam?’ Lexington asked. ‘A being made entirely of plants and dirt, yet intelligent. The strangest find so far. It warrants exploration.’

  ‘You can pick a costume when we get back and return if you please and solve it. Let us go.’

  They followed Ari home as he traced their steps back again. As they walked past the two giant statues, the hollow eye of one of them seemed to come alive. Someone from the other side pressed themselves up against it. The eyeball moved around following the cousins until they were out of view.

  Chapter 19 - Aunt’s Wrath

  With their skirts hiked up, the maids clattered toward the large drawing room off the Grand Ascension-Stairs Hall. Aunty Gertrude munched her breakfast while Uncle Bear-Nard slurped his tea. Astonished, they glared up at the un-rung for maids.

  Uncle Bear-Nard’s face dropped.

  Oh no, not the children again.

  Aunty Gertrude’s face appeared unimpressed at their rushed entrance.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s the children,’ Pemily said.

  ‘They are gone,’ Petruce added.

  ‘GONE! Gone where?’

  Petruce stilled her timid face.

  ‘We went to wake them and their beds were empty.’

  ‘Unslept in,’ Pemily said.

  ‘There there dear,’ Uncle Bear-Nard said, trying to make good of it. He stood up, flustered, knocking his tea over.

  Aunty Gertrude whacked him.

  ‘Clumsy oaf.’

  He carried on talking to the maids as he floundered around the slopped tea, dabbing everywhere other than the fast staining liquid. ‘Prob...probably they popped out early for some f..f..f..fresh air..’

  Aunty Gertrude pushed her chair back and rose up, taut and straight.

  ‘Oooh!’

  Like a general adjusting their helmet, she pulled on the pins in her hair-bun to make it tighter.

  ‘Get all the staff and find them.’

  The maids dashed off like frightened puppies.

  Uncle Bear-Nard wobbled over to Aunty Gertrude. ‘Now, now. I’ll go find them. I think they must just be p..p..p..playing.’

  Aunty Gertrude whacked him again with her open hand.

  ‘You know better than to utter that word. You disgust me!’ She kicked her chair sending it sprawling backwards.

  ‘Those children will learn discipline. Dead parents or not, I will send them to the Southern Wasteland.’

  She huffed back and forth.

  ‘And you still haven’t told me exactly how they got here or how you found out their parents died.’ She stopped pacing, and pushed her face into his. ‘Your sister was never to communicate with anyone in this land, ever again.’

  Uncle Bear-Nard froze. Even for her, this rage-filled display had an intensity he did not know how to handle.

  ‘But dear, It was the only thing I ever asked of you. You knew it before we married.’

  ‘Bear-Nard! We are harbouring outside children! What if we are found out? Eh? Did you think of that? And what exactly did you think you would do with them once they got here?’ She screeched. ‘I don’t like this at all.’

  She whimpered and feigned a mock cry, falling forwards as if to faint, clutching the table to support her weakened legs. Uncle Bear-Nard caught her, feeling sick inside.

  ‘It is not good they are here.’ She fake-cried, trying to generate tears. ‘They bring with them bad omens. The Kockoroc has been seen, and worse the Marauders appeared again yesterday. The whispers brought news of it last night.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The Marauders. Yes.’

  ‘Marauders? Impossible.’ Uncle Bear-Nard let her go and she fell against the table. ‘They were defeated years ago.’ His eyes filled with past emotions. ‘How can this be?’

  He jerked his head toward Aunty Gertrude, feeling angry. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Of course I am sure. You stupid man! They have caused the spirits of the Marauders to return. It forebodes bad!’

  Without announcing why he hastened toward the door.

  ‘Where do you think you are going?’ Asked Aunty Gertrude.

  He swiveled on the spot, his face full of anger. His normally calm features became strong and sure, though as he spoke, they returned to his every-day dottery, aged face.

  ‘To help find them dear.’

  ‘I see.’ She composed herself and sat back down. ‘You must know that I took the liberty of informing the council that we have taken in outside children.’ She did not meet his eyes but took a sip of her tea.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Exactly what I said. I shall not repeat myself.’

  His head spun and his mind whirled with the implications of what she said.

  ‘B..b..b.but, they were supposed to be h..h.h.hidden.’

  Aunty Gertrude’s cold, lead eyes met his. A faint smile straightened out her normally down-turned mouth.

  ‘Fool. Did you really think you could hide children here, especially those children?’ She motioned for him to sit down. ‘I have only told them that I am considering selecting a handful of outside children to train in our ways. I have allowed time for you to instill our ways into them, or....I could send them somewhere to be trained.’

  ‘But how?’

  ‘You forget that I am a Past Matron of Histories. I still have some clout. I should thank me if I were you. I bought you some insurance.’ She smiled baring her teeth in a grimace. ‘Judging by those kids I was wise to do so. If they are discovered, we can simply say they escaped.’ On the word, “escaped,” she chuckled.

  Nervousness flooded over him.

  ‘I will go help find them.’

  He shuffled to the door, turning as he got there and said, ‘I promised my sister I would protect them.’

  She chuckled again and then shouted at him.

  ‘Then you should not have brought them here. This house is the last of the great houses. I will not have the name of the Throughnight Cathedral-Mansion tarnished by those little muck-rakers you have sullied us with.’

  ***

  As they crossed the field behind the Cathedral-Mansion, the cousins heard their Aunt screeching, and hurried voices replying.

  ‘Do you think they know we attacked that place,’ Quixote asked.

  ‘Highly unlikely,’ Lexington said, ‘though maybe…maybe…we have alerted them to something.’

  ‘Like Marauders,’ Ari added.

  Lexington tapped Melaleuca’s shoulder.

  ‘See, I said. Charging around. Not a good idea.’

  Quixote tapped Lexington on her shoulder.

  ‘Our parents and the notes said ─ ’

  ‘Enough. Both of you. Crouch down,’ Melaleuca said. She pointed ahead and said to Ari, ‘Go. See what is going on.’

  As he ran off, Melaleuca moved her cousins toward the hedgerow that separated the field from Pembrooke’s garden. Nearing it she heard voices calling out their names.

  Ari returned.

  ‘The maids and Pembrooke are looking for us.’

  ‘Fine. Let’s just wait until they stop searching then.’

  Uncle Bear-Nard shouted out from somewhere high up, ‘Go round the back, search the fields, be quick.’

  Making an instant decision,
Melaleuca said, ‘Okay, now we have to sneak in. Costumes off. We can hide them in the hedge.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lexington said. ‘We have no undergarments on.’

  Quixote started pulling his costume off.

  ‘So?’

  ‘So what if Aunty sees us naked?’

  He snickered at the thought of running naked past her.

  ‘Highly improper,’ Ari said imitating her.

  Melaleuca held her hand up to silence them.

  ‘If we are caught with the costumes on, someone will eventually work out it was us that attacked that place. If we get caught naked, well, they will think us...well...who knows...and who cares.’

  Naked, costumes hidden, bracelets in hand, they peered through a gap in the Hedgerow. Pembrooke and the maids fanned out through the garden.

  Ari sized up the terrain. ‘We have to be careful not to be spotted from upstairs. I think we can out manoeuvre ─ ’

  Quixote up and thrust his skinny, naked, body through the gap, laughing. His scrawny head bobbed up and down as he zigzagged along the garden paths, and then dashed across the lawn to the base of the Cathedral-Mansion. He waved at his cousins, and ducked down behind a small bush, though it provided little cover for him.

  Lexington scowled, while Ari looked impressed.

  ‘Change of plans,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Run for it.’

  With Ari leading, they thrashed through the garden.

  Pembrooke wandered into sight and stared slack-jawed at them. Ari skidded to a halt, and the girls banged into him, pushing him forward.

  ‘Bracelets on,’ Melaleuca whispered, fearing their discovery.

  ‘Little blighters,’ Pembrooke said with anger, and then in a caring tone added, ‘Theys won’t tell yous, but yous are really needed. They ain’t got any heirs, and can’t show much love. Not allowed really.’ He smiled showing his missing teeth.

  ‘Quite,’ Lexington said.

  ‘Ere where’s ya clothes. And where’s the other little one?’

  ‘Um…errr…we often run naked,’ Melaleuca said offering a lame explanation. ‘It’s….it’s good for the skin.’

  ‘Getja inside befores ya spotted,’ he whispered, trying to herd them with stealth.

  With little dignity, Jeeves half walked and half sprinted towards them from the back of the Cathedral-Mansion. He looked worried and elated.

  ‘My goodness, I, we thought you had been lost or kidnapped...I mean were....’ He spluttered, and then as if remembering who he was, stood taut. ‘Miss and Masters. Your absence has caused great concern, least of all to us staff.’

  He bent down on one knee, looking at them square on instead of down his nose, and dropped the whole butler act.

  ‘No one will show you around here that they care. We just cannot show it. Not yet. All of this will be yours one day. This is your inheritance. Don’t wander off again, not until you are ready. There are those who would rob you of your birthright.’

  ‘Are you leaving the notes?’ Lexington asked.

  ‘Notes?’ Jeeves looked puzzled at her, and then suddenly said alarmed, ‘Where are your accoutrements? Has some ill befallen you?’

  Uncle Bear-Nard burst out from the house, huffing and puffing, his round face, red.

  ‘Where have you been? Your Aunt is killing herself with worry.’

  ‘Worry? We thought no one would miss us,’ Melaleuca said.

  ‘Nor cared,’ Lexington added.

  ‘M..m...m...missed? Not cared? Let’s get you out of sight. Before your Aunt vents her wrath at you.’

  Like a trapped dinosaur roaring from its cage, Aunty Gertrude shrieked out their names from somewhere inside the Cathedral-Mansion. A great commotion, pots and pans banging with the words ‘Get out of the way silly women,’ boomed from inside.

  Uncle Bear-Nard cowered and Jeeves became as stiff as a plank.

  Aunty Gertrude emerged a fuming fit of ire, rolling out her vexatious stride with measured determination.

  ‘You little brats. You have done it this time. When I think of the extent of my gratitude. Having to waste the time of my staff and...and...’

  She advanced until she stood, towering over them with her gaunt head. Her face pitted itself with red splotches, and tiny blood vessels burst like spider webs on her cheeks.

  ‘Where are your clothes? I hope for your sake a wild animal tore them off. Disgusting! Cover yourself with your hands, instantly.’

  Not understanding her, the cousins covered everywhere except where she meant.

  ‘We are all naked under our clothes, Aunty,’ Lexington said.

  ‘Really. Oh I see, really.’ She stepped around the cousins inspecting their bodies. ‘Tut tut. Pathetic. Call those bodies. Lilly-white puffs of soft flesh laid over bones of weak-willed, frail soppiness.’

  She pulled her sleeves up, exposing the underside of her toughened leathered forearms. Something in the past had melted her flesh, and it now appeared as a mass of solidified scars. Horrified they could not stop ogling her arms.

  Aunty Gertrude noted their mute reaction. ‘Good. Now maybe you might glimpse what it is to have discipline.’

  Quixote emerged from his hiding place, yelling, ‘Let me see.’ He bounded across the lawn, his penis slapping on his body as he ran, shocking his Aunt and the maids. He poked her forearms and cried out, ‘Ewww!’

  Instant rage flooded her face.

  ‘Prepare for discipline, moral rectitude, sacrifice, duty and above all pain!’

  Uncle Bear-Nard raised his hand in feeble protest.

  ‘NO BEAR-NARD! IT IS TOO LATE!......There can only be one course of action, one course of action. I just won’t have this wonton, willy-nilly care free behaviour, this dissolute flaunting of rules. That is it. Final.’

  Uncle Bear-Nard’s face soured and beads of perspiration frosted his bald head. Even Jeeves dry-swallowed and his fingers twitched.

  Quixote held out his hand, palm up, as if asking for something, and dropped his head, though the girls could see him smirking. As his arm rose higher, all the fingers on his hand closed into an awkward fist. Melaleuca moved toward Quixote, though too late. He yanked his head up revealing a grin that a leprechaun would be jealous of, and blurted out, ‘This wrist says, I don’t think so!’

  Aunty Gertrude rushed at Quixote drawing her hand back to strike him. Ari leapt forward blocking her way, while Quixote ducked. Pembrooke, Uncle Bear-Nard, and Jeeves all gasped in surprise and yelled out, ‘Quixote!’

  With his body shielding a sniggering Quixote, Ari said, ‘You’ll have to come through me first.’

  Aunty Gertrude halted, composed herself and backed away, still glaring at them; her face poker-hot red with great distaste.

  Melaleuca stepped up beside Ari.

  ‘We decide what’s best for us.’

  Aunty Gertrude mocked her words with a sneer, giving her a dirty look. She pondered the moment.

  ‘Have this round if you must,’ and one by one she looked them up and down.

  She froze her eyes on Lexington and said, ‘When the full flock of your cascading hair has become matted with the mud of Disciple Park...,’ and then glared at Ari, saying, ‘...and when your strength has failed you in the Unforbidden Forest...,’ and then to Melaleuca, ‘...when your forthrightness has been tucked away as a distant memory...And...’ She saved the most disdainful look for Quixote, glaring at him with great repugnance, ‘...when your stupidity has been smashed from your bony frame by the deep reaches of the southern hills, then we will see who laughs, who plays, who comes, who stays.’

  Quixote played with his bracelet. Pembrooke reached down and grabbed Quixote’s wrist with the invisible bracelet on, steadied him, and said, ‘Choose your battles carefully with this one.’

  Aunty Gertrude took a step back. All emotion left her face and she said, ‘Bear-Nard, these children will fall under our ways, or go to the borstal, or to the southern reaches.’

  Unfazed Melaleuca shot back at her, ‘Perhaps we should like to l
eave, in that case.’

  Aunty Gertrude smiled as if she had caught Melaleuca in a trap.

  ‘How unfortunate. Those few that come to New Wakefield never leave. Sorry, I guess someone forgot to tell you.’

  She walked away happy at the displeasure she thought she had created.

  ‘Please children,’ Uncle Bear-Nard said in a beaten down voice, ‘Go to your rooms and rest. Some food shall be sent up. Please, we will talk soon.’

  None of them wanted to hurt him anymore and so they wandered to their rooms.

  ***

  The cousins gathered in the girls’ bedroom, discovering that both their clothes and their costumes they had hidden sat on the floor. A note sat next to them.

  Quixote grabbed it, reading it out loud.

  ‘By all means keep your identities secret. Let no one know that you have the costumes. For the time being keep away from other people. Learn to use the costumes. By the time your parents get here you should be skilful enough for the next stage.’

  ‘See,’ Melaleuca said, ‘as I said. First learn to use the costumes.’

  Lexington put her detective costume on, letting its deductive powers augment her need to know why. As she flitted through the facts, thinking about Iam, the Borstal, the statues, the bracelets, and the costumes - one overriding conclusion occurred to her.

  ‘I bet our parent’s were attacked for the bracelets!’

  The looks of her cousins demanded an explanation.

  ‘The Captain guy said we, or the Marauders had been here 30 years ago. We know our parents lived here, or at least one of our mothers; makes sense our fathers did as well, but I bet our parents used the bracelets, and...’

  Quixote leapt in and said, ‘Yeah. That explains Dad’s powers eh!’

  ‘...er...no. They did not have the bracelets.’

  Ari pulled his toga on.

  ‘I’m not sure that makes sense, Lex. The bracelets were here, not in our valley. Surely if they had used them once, they would have kept them on.’

  ‘Or the bracelets only work here, or with the costumes,’ Lexington said.