The Wexkia Trilogy: Boxed Set

by Dale Furse

  Panic gripped Nell. She needed to show these people the book. Why would her father let them put her away? Was he frightened of his own daughter? She squirmed out of her father's grasp. Her heart thundered in her ears as she ran down the aisle past Sam and Cay-Meka's stunned faces.

  Nell yelled at the elevator, ‘Carlan!’ She had no idea where the word came from but the elevator opened.

  She turned back to the room as she stepped into the elevator. Everyone was on their feet. Their voices became gibberish in the mayhem. Sam jumped in beside her. Maybe she was having another nightmare and she would wake up any moment.

  Cay-Meka shouted, ‘Dar-tern, please find Mother.’ She only just managed to squeeze in before the doors closed.

  Before the doors shut completely, immense emerald wings erupted out of the young Wintar’s back. Sick in the stomach, she was sure he was going to chase her just like in her nightmares.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED TO CORL'S NIGHT. THE lights, noises, music and laughter of the trading corridor smashed in on Nell's senses. She didn't care that a passing young Phib male took a second look at her and her tear-stained face.

  She tried to block out the sounds of laughter and music. What was she going to do? The excitement around her was an insult to her grief over her treacherous father and his friends.

  Neither Sam nor Cay-Meka spoke. Nell glanced at her cousin. She looked like she was pumping up the nerve to say something. Nell ignored her and thought about the Corl, Nadar. He had the proof she wasn't lying. Why would he refuse to tell the council about the book?

  With the Book of Wexkia, other images skipped in and out of her mind. She tried desperately to cling to the ones she thought she might need: Nadar; the book; the words in the book; Nadar yelling at the ugly Wintars of her nightmares. 'Catch her or kill her.' His voice was cold and raspy.

  A deep ache appeared in her stomach. She groaned and her hands flew to the top of her stomach under her shirt. She gasped. The pain disappeared.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Sam asked, sounding more like his father than ever.

  Nell stayed perfectly still for a moment longer. She shook her head at her foolishness. It would have gone away anyway.

  She gazed hard at Sam. ‘If I don't get that book, no one'll ever believe me.’

  ‘We've got to go back,’ Cay-Meka said, her eyes worried.

  ‘What? Do you think I'll hurt you?’ Nell couldn't believe the menace in her voice. She laughed a surprisingly evil laugh, ‘You'd better go back, Cay-Meka, or I just might.’

  A dark cloud passed over Cay-Meka's sea-blue eyes but she stood her ground. It impressed Nell that her newly found whining cousin didn't run away. She laughed again without a hint of malice.

  ‘Maybe you should go.’ Nell tried to sound pleasant and not in the least crazy. ‘You too,’ she said to Sam. ‘That Nadar's got the book and I've got to get it off him.’ She started down the corridor.

  ‘Not without me, you don't,’ Sam said, and trotted up beside her.

  ‘Or me.’

  Nell stopped and raised an eyebrow at Cay-Meka.

  ‘I—I want to see the book for myself and—and if you're not going insane, I can tell them that when they find us.’

  ‘And if I am?’

  Cay-Meka looked at Sam. ‘Sam doesn't think you are and he knows you best, and you don't think you are, do you?

  Nell had to smile at her cousin’s tiny voice. She shook her head.

  Cay-Meka held Nell's gaze, ‘Then I don't think you are.’

  Sam grinned at Nell. ‘We're we going?’

  ‘We could go back to the skark,’ Cay-Meka said.

  ‘Anywhere, as long as it's away from this noise,’ Nell said, and continued down the corridor. Stopping abruptly, she asked, ‘What about your mother, Cay-Meka?’

  ‘I think they only took her to make you come to Corl so they could put you away. They knew you'd want to find your father. I can feel her here and he will too, now that he knows to look out for her.’

  ‘You could be right,’ Nell said, looking in every direction for anyone who might be following. ‘But he'll also be looking for us, so hurry up if you’re coming.’

  As they pushed their way through the crowd, Sam sidled close to Nell and whispered in her ear. ‘You really believe her? She could be a spy.’

  Nell gave her friend a look that said, now-you're-being-ridiculous. She stopped at the same elevator that first brought them from the skark.

  ‘Are we going back home?’ Sam asked. He dropped out his bottom lip.

  ‘No, I just need somewhere quiet to think. We can hide here for a while. Carlan,’ Nell said to the elevator.

  ‘What's that mean?’ Sam asked.

  ‘I think it means open.’

  Cay-Meka nodded.

  Sam frowned. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Nell said. ‘But I think I'm going to know a lot more by the time I'm seventeen.’

  Sam shook his head as he stepped into the elevator. ‘So you are changing, then?’

  ‘Yep. Scary, isn't it?’

  When Nell stepped on the moving walkway, the hairs all over her body quivered. It wasn't until they were nearly at the skark that she saw what put her body on alert. Three black-haired Wintars skulked amongst the skarks ahead and to the right. Before Nell could react, they unfurled great wings and flew above them. They didn’t look friendly.

  ‘Run,’ Nell yelled.

  They all wheeled around and ran back against the walkway. The Wintars remained above them, laughing. Nell jumped off the walkway and made better progress. She looked back over her shoulder and stopped. Sam and Cay-Meka dangled from two separate sets of orange talons. They flew over her head with Cay-Meka screaming.

  Nell looked around the ship-park. Surely somebody would hear the girl.

  A scrawny, long faced Wintar played with Nell as a cat would a squeaky toy. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her but he easily flew ahead of her. When she took a different route, he flew above her and circled.

  ‘Run, little girl,’ he jeered after the third direction change.

  He flew in front of her once more.

  ‘Stop playing and get her,’ a voice rasped from Nell’s left. Before she could search for the source of the sound, the scrawny Wintar lunged. He caught Nell's shoulders in his claws with so much force, she let out a cry. The pain burned her shoulders and she wondered how many bones had broken.

  He took her high above the rows of skarks and she was thankful he adjusted his grip on her shoulders. The pain eased and was replaced by a sucking sensation, as if his claws held her in a vacuum. So that was how they carried their children around without hurting them.

  The scrawny Wintar flew over a grey wall into the countryside and soon caught up to his comrades. Cay-Meka was quiet but Sam threatened to break his captor’s legs as soon as they were back on ground.

  Nell thought they would be taken back to the chambers but they flew in the wrong direction. The thought that her father had given them permission to take her to the prison couldn’t be put aside. Tears welled in her eyes. She’d be alone. No family, no friends.

  Weeping quietly, Nell was certain her heart had died. The idea that her father knew the changes would happen to her and didn’t tell her sooner didn’t help. It was probably why he hardly spent any time with her. He’d known from the moment she was born. A violent sob raked her body. That's why he wished she’d died instead of her mother. Why did he even bother keeping her at all?

  Her thoughts turned to the Wintars. They had lain in wait for Nell, but how did they know where she would go? Cay-Meka. She was the one who suggested they go back to the skark.

  Their captors laughed as Sam shouted at them to let them go.

  Nell caught sight of her cousin’s terrified face. Cay-Meka's mouth was wide and she looked like she was still screaming, but there was no sound. Nell supposed she'd run out of breath, hadn’t had the brains to inhale. The podgy Wintar
who held Cay-Meka was the same one Nell saw from the bedroom window at home, the one that took Dar-Seldra. The girl’s lips turned blue and Nell fought her conscience. The argument to let her cousin pass out was tempting. She had taken Nell into a trap. Nell’s lips tightened and Cay-Meka's mouth darkened.

  Nell sighed. She couldn’t hang by and watch. ‘Hey,’ she yelled up to her captor. ‘My cousin isn't breathing. Take me closer.’

  He descended low enough to see for himself, gave a low whistle and called to the orange-winged Wintar. ‘Hey, Galag. Shake that Phib. She's not breathing.’

  The fat Wintar holding Cay-Meka looked down at his prisoner and started shaking vigorously. Cay-Meka's panic-stricken face contorted in pain but she didn’t appear to start breathing again.

  Nell yelled again, ‘Take me closer.’

  Her captor positioned her so that she faced Cay-Meka. Without any hesitation, Nell slapped the girl hard on the cheek. ‘Breathe, you little traitor, breathe.’ She slapped her again. Cay-Meka took a quick, sharp breath and coughed.

  The scrawny Wintar faced forward again and flew alongside Sam's captor. Nell smiled. She probably didn’t need to hit Cay-Meka so hard.

  Sam’s Wintar had a muscular physique and was quite good looking. His black hair was short and his wings were an iridescent pastel blue. He wore a long-sleeved white shirt and loose-fitting blue trousers in the same style as the others. When he peered down at her, Nell changed her mind. His face was mean and his small round eyes were too close together.

  ‘What was going on back there?’ Sam asked.

  ‘What did you call me?’ Cay-Meka shrieked.

  ‘You heard me,’ Nell yelled over her shoulder.

  ‘Shut up, all of you,’ the Wintar holding Sam roared. ‘Or we'll fly high and drop you.’

  Nell and Sam exchanged shocked looks before she directed her gaze below at a forest canopy. It stretched below them for as far as the eye could see. At that moment, she would have preferred not to be able to see so well in the dark. She had been so mad at Cay-Meka's betrayal; she'd nearly forgotten the predicament they were in.

  They flew farther away from the city and probably farther away from the book. Nell frowned. Hang on. Maybe the beasts were taking them closer to the book. Thinking she may as well try to see into the Wintar’s mind, she reached up past the talons and clasped her hand around his skinny ankles. She was surprised and delighted to find she had snuck in without him even realising she was there.

  The Wintar's mind was cluttered and dirty and Nell managed to rummage around there for about a minute before he pushed her out.

  ‘That's against the law of all the worlds,’ the Wintar complained. ‘You cannot look into people's minds without their consent. I could have you put away.’ He cackled like a hyena. ‘Oh, that's right. You are to be put away. Put away for the rest of your life.’

  Nell chewed her cheek. For the rest of her life? There was no way she was going to let anyone lock her up for the rest of her life. She closed her eyes. She wasn't in the Wintar’s mind for long, but she did get the sense they had Dar-Seldra locked up somewhere. She didn’t feel anything about the book, but he definitely worked for Nadar and he was scared of him.

  ‘Just wait till we land, you big oaf,’ Sam warned.

  Nell wasn't sure what Sam intended by his threat, and she was pretty sure he didn't either.

  ‘Don't believe him, Nell. Your Dad'd never let that happen,’ Sam said. ‘What upset the muttonhead anyway? Did you try to read his mind?’ He nodded up to the skinny Wintar.

  ‘Yes. They still have Dar-Seldra,’ Nell said, wiping the wet off her cheeks. ‘But I don’t think they're taking us to the same place.’

  She had to admit, at least to herself, she was gaining more than Phib traits. This is not the end of it, a small voice nagged at the back of her mind.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CAY-MEKA CRIED QUIETLY. NELL TRIED TO TURN to look at her.

  ‘Stop wriggling!’ the one holding Nell called, looking down at her. ‘What do you think would happen to you if I dropped you from this height?’

  Nell yelled, ‘You vultures have my aunt.’ It crossed her mind how strange it was to say aunt. ‘Take us to her.’

  ‘You're in no position to give orders,’ the Wintar holding Sam said.

  The skinny one's laugh sounded like a frog under attack as he started to swing Nell back and forth as if she was on a swing. ‘That's for sure. Croak. No position. No position at all.’

  ‘You won't get away with this.’ Nell hoped she sounded braver than she felt. He carried her higher. Her heart pounded, loud and fast, as the forest canopy grew smaller and smaller. The suction on her right shoulder seemed to move a little. He was going to drop her.

  A bolt of lightning lit up the sky above them. A moment later, thunder growled low and long like a savage dog.

  The young Wintar’s angry voice came from below, ‘Get back down here, Zarmraz. Do you want somebody to see you?’

  The skinny Wintar trembled as he dropped lower. From the thunder or the young Wintar, Nell couldn’t tell.

  Some time later, a pale pink sun rose over the mountains. Its flickering rays danced through the puffy white clouds and fell on the world below. Nell blinked. Corl’s nights were really short. Everything, including them, appeared to turn pink. In the near distance, the dense forest was punctured by a ravine. A mighty river might have flowed there once, but the river bed was dry.

  With the light, the Wintars descended even lower. The captives had to lift their legs repeatedly to avoid the branches.

  Nell noticed thick vines joined the trees into one huge mass. Signalling Sam with a whistle, she pointed below and began to wriggle violently.

  Sam's eyes bulged and he shook his head. ‘I'm no trapeze artist!’

  ‘We've got to do something,’ Nell whispered loudly.

  The Wintar carrying her screeched, ‘Keep still, half-breed.’

  Nell stretched both hands up and yanked out clumps of feathery hairs from his ankles.

  Sam said, ‘You’re mad.’ Nevertheless, he followed her lead.

  ‘Ouch!’ the skinny Wintar cried, loosening his grip on Nell's shoulders.

  She pushed her fingers between his talons and her shoulders, breaking the suction enough for her to wriggle free. Knife sharp claws tore at her skin as she fell. Her heart thumped in her ears and she wondered if she’d made a mistake. Like a missile, she dropped between two giant trees. From above, the masses of vines connected the trees but she fell through empty air. Her hands frantically grasped at the absent vines. Just as she thought there were none, her hands clutched at one. The jar of stopping nearly wrenched her arms out of their sockets. She cried out.

  The Wintar hovered, groping around with his claws. With aching arms and shoulders, Nell moved as fast as she could from vine to vine until she was out of sight.

  ‘Stop that,’ the strong Wintar yelled.

  ‘Wanna play, do you?’ Sam yelled back.

  The Wintar squawked and Sam shrieked.

  Sam whimpered as he landed with a thud above her. She winced and looked up expecting to see Sam climb down the tree. Instead, a wailing, orange blur crashed through the canopy. On pure instinct, Nell stepped along the branch, hung onto a vine with one hand, and caught Cay-Meka in her outstretched arm. Hardly believing she actually held on to the girl, Nell contemplated dropping her.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Nell asked. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Come to give us away again, have you?’

  ‘No.’ Cay-Meka's face was pained. ‘Please. I didn't know.’

  Nell pulled her onto the branch. When she was sure her cousin had her balance, she let go. Scrambling back up a few vines, she peered through the canopy above. The Wintars had flown higher and were yelling at one another.

  Nell couldn't make out what they were saying, but guessed they were blaming one another for the escape. Sam still hadn’t made an appearance.

  ‘Sam,’ she called. ‘Sam. Are you all right?’
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  Groans floated down from above. A second later, Sam's head popped down through the leaves and she cheered. ‘Hey, you okay?’

  Sam grimaced. ‘No!’ He paused. ‘We'd better get to the ground before they come back.’ He disappeared back into the canopy.

  ‘Sure.’ Nell's giggle was a mixture of adrenaline and amazement at their daring. Without a word to Cay-Meka, she climbed down through the branches and vines.

  Relieved to be standing on firm ground, Nell called to Sam. ‘Come on, slowpoke. They'll find a way through any minute.’

  Sam jumped the last metre or so. ‘What's happened to you? This isn't a game you know? We could have been killed.’

  Nell shrugged. ‘I know it's not a game, but I'll tell you something, I'd rather be down here than up there with that lot.’ She poked her finger at the sky.

  Cay-Meka climbed down slowly, as if she was afraid she would fall. Nell wondered how she obtained the courage to drop from the Wintar’s grasp. The girl was white-faced when she finally placed her feet on solid ground. Tears sprang to her eyes, and Sam looked from Nell to Cay-Meka and back again. ‘What's going on?’ he asked.

  ‘I didn't know they would be waiting for us,’ Cay-Meka said.

  ‘What are you on about?’ Sam said impatiently.

  ‘Remember? Cay-Meka said we should go to the skark.’ Nell shifted her weight to the other foot and placed her hands on her hips. ‘You were right, Sam, she is a spy.’ She screwed up her nose and raised her hand to her cousin. ‘I should slap you again.’

  Sam pushed Nell's hand down. ‘Did you take us into a trap, Cay-Meka?’

  ‘No.’ Her eyes flitted over Nell before she continued. ‘Please believe me. I would never have gone there if I knew those Wintars were waiting for us.’ She shivered and wiped her shoulders as if trying to dislodge the memory of talons.

  Nell wondered if Cay-Meka told the truth. The girl she knew wouldn’t want Wintars near her let alone carry her like that.

  ‘I'm not sure if she can be trusted,’ Sam said. ‘But there's one way to find out if she's telling the truth.’ He clasped Nell's arm and pulled her close to Cay-Meka.