The Wexkia Trilogy: Boxed Set

by Dale Furse

‘Who wants to know,’ Nell said, imitating the tone of his voice. Standing to her full height, she looked down at him. Her eyes widened in surprise as he bent low in a bow.

  ‘I am Compore. Leader of the resistance.’ He straightened. ‘May I know who I am taking to?’

  ‘I am Nell of Wexkia, daughter of Dar-tern whom you imprisoned.’

  ‘Ah. Dar-tern. How is he?’

  Nell said through clenched teeth, ‘He’s dead.’

  His eyes clouded. ‘I am sorry. I too have lost my family and so…so many friends.’

  Huh? Nell frowned. Sam had told her that Varlor was with Grarls when they were imprisoned. ‘You have the sickness?’

  He nodded. ‘It swept through my lands. I am one of the last to survive.’

  ‘There’s others?’

  ‘Yes…at least, there was when I left.’

  That didn’t make sense to Nell. Why would Varlor kill off his partners? Compore dipped at the knees. ‘Come inside,’ Nell said, holding him upright. ‘I’ll make up a bed.’

  He twisted his head to look up at her. ‘I will come in, yes, but I will not utilise a bed. I have the remaining lives to save.’

  Nell didn’t say anything aloud, but wondered how he intended on doing that.

  ‘It’s okay. You can wake up now,’ she said to Deesc as she entered the hospital. Deesc’s bed was empty. ‘Deesc?’

  ‘Here,’ he said from behind.

  She turned her head. ‘You were there all the time?’

  He smiled. ‘I was the urn to your left.’

  She guided Compore to her bed. ‘You can sit here,’ she said, before rounding on Deesc. ‘I guess I was stupid but I thought you would stop doing that now.’

  ‘I don’t remember saying that.’ He laughed and scooped her up into his arms, and whispered, ‘What I do remember is you agreeing to be my life partner and as such, I am honour bound to protect you all the days of my life.’

  She accepted his long kiss, but when it was finished, she warned, ‘If you act like that, your life won’t be all that long.’

  He raised his hands in surrender. ‘I will ask your permission first from now on.’

  She grinned. ‘That’s better.’

  Noting Compore’s confused expression, she explained who she and Deesc were. He never said anything, but Nell thought he had heard of her before.

  Kandar, Haast and her friends arrived. Kandar’s eyes blazed as he strode toward Compore. ‘Wait,’ Nell said stepping in front of Compore. ‘He’s sick too. They didn’t spread the disease, Varlor has also killed many of the rebels. ’

  Kandar relaxed his shoulders. ‘You had nothing to with the infection?’

  ‘No. I and my followers wanted democracy not death.’

  Nell asked Sam, ‘What took you so long?’

  ‘We had to find the other skark,’ he said. ‘It’s parked outside.’

  Kale flitted in and out of the room bringing in pieces of equipment.

  Moving to the bench, Nell said, ‘Help me make some room, Mekie.’

  ‘Where is Dar-tern?’ Mekie asked no one in particular as her eyes flitted from one bed to the next.

  ‘I’ll do that,’ Deesc said to Nell, moving to the bench. His eyes glanced to Mekie to indicate she should go to her cousin.

  With Kandar beside her, she explained to Mekie along with Sam and Kale what had happened. Kale roared a mournful cry and hugged his father. Sam wrapped his arms around Nell. ‘I’m so sorry, Nell.’

  Nell nodded, moved back and gazed at Mekie who, with tears streaming down her face, glanced at Sam then flung her arms around Nell. ‘I’m sorry.’

  They held one another while everyone, except Kale, who continued to go about setting up his makeshift lab, began questioning Compore.

  Compore spoke quietly. ‘I didn’t want to disband the royal line altogether, I wanted the king to put a voting system in place whereby the citizens of Grarlon had a say in the decisions of royalty. Varlor befriended me and my people. The Corl stated that when the Elders were re-instated to their rightful positions, Grarlon would join the new united council of planets and he would do all he could to persuade the king that the proposed new political system would work to his favour as well as benefit the citizens.’ He paused. ‘I must return to my lands to stop the Yexers from devastating them and eating my remaining peoples.’ He scanned the room. ‘You have survivors here,’ he said. ‘Please help me so I can then help my comrades?’

  Nell glanced at the remaining cylinder of antidote on the end of the bench. It was meant for her father, not the one partly responsible for his death.

  Apparently sensing Nell’s reticence, he added, ‘With my strength renewed, I might succeed in saving Prince Ephry and Orenda.’

  ‘You know where they are?’ Nell wanted to know.

  ‘They were, safe in my camp when I left.’ Kandar began to go to the bench.

  ‘Kandar!’ Nell said in a raised voice loud enough for him to turn back to her. She hurried to his side and whispered. ‘I need that for Orenda.’ His face showed that he wavered. He loved Orenda as much as Nell did. He would choose her above Compore.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ Deesc growled in her mind. ‘Compore is here and he is alive. That could change at any time. Give him the antidote.’

  She threw him an impatient frown. ‘Get out of my head.’

  He flew to her side and grabbing her shoulders, forced her to face him. ‘You will not sacrifice one to save another.’ He turned to Kandar. ‘Compore is alive. We do not know if Orenda still is. There must be another way to gain more medication.’

  ‘He is right, Nell,’ Kandar said, and moved to Kale. ‘How do we get more antidotes, son?’

  ‘Cay-reace is working on them, but I might be able to make a small amount myself if I have Nell’s blood.’

  ‘Why do you have all this stuff then?’ Nell wanted to know.

  ‘I can’t use your blood alone, I need my instruments to clean and separate it.’

  ‘Why does it have to be Nell’s blood?’ Kandar asked.

  ‘Cay-reace used her blood sample. He believed using her natural immunity would be the safest course. Her biology is also a close match to a Grarl’s biology.’ He rubbed his face. ‘I’ll try my best. It might work.’

  ‘How long will it take?’ Nell said.

  ‘That is hard to say,’ said Kale.

  Moving to the end of the bench, Nell picked up the small cylinder and gazed at it. She bit her cheek. Only one sure cure. Orenda’s image flashed through her mind. No. Nell couldn’t loose her too. She clasped the cylinder and looked at Compore. He had to have heard their conversation, yet he appeared content to let her make the decision. Biting down on the soft flesh in her mouth, she frowned. Sam gave her an almost undetectable shake of his head. He didn’t have any talents, but he did always know what Nell was thinking. He was right. There had already been enough needless deaths. She threw the cylinder at Kandar.

  ‘Give it to him,’ she said, shifting and disappearing at the same time.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  NELL’S DESTINATION WAS THE ROOM IN THE KAFIR restoration where she had first met Haast. She shifted back to herself and made her way to the laboratories. The usually busy halls were devoid of physicians, nurses and patients. She shrugged. Maybe some sort of staff meeting. She thought she might as well try the lab on the first level under the ground floor first.

  When she pushed the -1 button, nothing happened. She tried -2. Nothing. The elevator wouldn’t budge. No point in going to the ground floor and taking the stairs. There were no stairs. Corls, like Grarls, didn’t use them and in the case of other species, the elevators were never offline. Even if they were, there was always a Corl around who could take them down. Actually, Nell had never heard of a Corl elevator braking down.

  She stuck her head out into the empty hallway and, straightening, shifted into her Eldorap form. She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on an image of a hallway below the floor. A brief impression of mov
ement and she was there.

  Crashes like the sound of breaking glass echoed around the hall.

  She shifted into her own form and inched forward. It was hard to tell where the noise had come from. The first door had no signage on it. She kept going. Ah. The second door, ridiculously named ‘second room,’ shuddered from the racket emanating from inside it. Something smashed against the wall near her. She stood back and pushed the door in with her mind. A tall, blue-robed Corl spun around. Varlor. He smiled a triumphant smile.

  Nell took in the spectacle before her. The other Corls, all in splendidly spun robes of different colours ignored the intrusion and went about their destruction of the equipment. Cay-reace, with Corls in white coats, stood in the far back corner shielding their faces and bodies as best they could. A pink Corl in a violet robe lifted a square box and hoisted it toward Nell. Fellder?

  Nell sent a blast out, flinging the box back over the Corl’s head. Fellder grabbed another heavy machine and raised it above her head.

  Varlor stepped between Nell and Fellder. ‘No need for that, my dear. Nell has lost what she came for. We can go.’

  At that, all the Corls disappeared.

  Nell ran to Cay-reace. ‘Are you all right?’

  He laughed and nodded.

  ‘What’s so funny? They’ve broken everything.’

  ‘Yes. However, this isn’t my laboratory.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘I knew Varlor or someone he sent would try to stop us making the medications so I set this one up as a ruse.’

  Nell hugged him. ‘You are a clever one. Where is the real lab?’

  ‘In the far north, Nadar’s pole house. We have a team working day and night there.’ He held out his crooked arm.

  Understanding his meaning, she stepped back. ‘I haven’t tried taking more than one person with me before and I’d probably loose someone on the way.’

  ‘No one else knows the way,’ he said, still with his arm raised.

  Nell smiled. Someone does. ‘I need Nadar’s bracelet. Where is it?’’

  Cay-reace frowned. “I don’t think that’s wise.’

  ‘Tell me, Physician.’

  He sighed. ‘It is locked under guard on the top floor.’

  ‘Wait here. I’ll be back in a tic.’

  She hurried into the hall. Not the best time to let the room’s occupants see her travel form. Shifting to Eldorap, she made her way to the top floor. Without injuring the two guards chatting at a desk, she stunned them with a mind-blast. Behind them was a wall of what looked like bank safety deposit boxes. Nadar’s name was on one. Hoping Nadar knew how to put it back on, she grabbed it and took off to Dar-Seldra’s house.

  Her aunty looked up from her book and as if she had spent her whole life around Eldoraps, she said, ‘Hello. Can I help you?’

  Nell couldn’t stop a giggle. ‘It’s me. Nell.’

  Dar-Seldra’s eyes widened. ‘Nell?’ she said, leaping to her feet.

  ‘Yeah. Look, I don’t have time to explain. Where’s Nadar?’

  ‘He’s with Tish. They will be here later.’ She closed her book and put it on the coffee table.

  ‘Why are you reading a book on Grarlon?’

  ‘We all are. Cay-reace has immunised us and the Grarls will need physicians and volunteers to distribute the antidotes.’

  ‘Oh.’ That made sense. Nell hadn’t thought about that side of the rescue effort.

  Dar-Seldra moved close enough to touch Nell’s arm. ‘Why do you look like an Eldorap? Your friend does that.’

  Nell guessed her aunt deserved some sort of explanation. ‘Yeah. That’s how we travel. A lovely Eldorap woman has let me imitate her form as her husband has for Deesc.’

  ‘She is beautiful. What is her name?’

  ‘Keela. I’m sorry Dar-Seldra, but I have to find Nadar,’ she said, and left without another word.

  To avoid any more delay answering questions, Nell landed in the hall. Making herself invisible until she was sure the hall was empty, she shifted and rapped on the door.

  Tish opened it. ‘Nell,’ she said, taking Nell in a tight squeeze.

  ‘Hi, Tish. Is Nadar here?’

  She let go, and pulled Nell through into the sitting room where Nadar was studying sheets of paper. They looked like maps.

  Without preamble, Nell demanded, ‘Nadar. You will come to the restoration lab with me.’

  Nadar looked up. She threw the bracelet to him. He appeared about to question her, but changed his mind at Nell’s emotionless face. He gave a nod, fitted the bracelet and disappeared.

  Tish’s startled face flashed in the corner of Nell’s eye as she shifted and followed Nadar.

  ‘What happened here?’ Nadar asked Cay-reace.

  ‘I’ll give you one guess,’ Nell said from behind him. She hadn’t bothered to change her form.

  Cay-reace and his Corl team fell to their knees at the sight of her but Nadar smiled as if amused. He said without a pause, ‘Of course. Varlor.’

  ‘Yep. Oh, get up all of you. I’m not really an Eldorap and anyway, Eldoraps aren’t gods and they wouldn’t like you acting like they were.’ She crossed her arms until they all stood up. ‘Right then. Nadar, you take Cay-reace and join me at your ice house.’

  At the pole, she ignored the gasps from Cay-reace’s team at her Eldorap form and shifted.

  ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ Cay-reace said. ‘Continue working.’

  Feeling bad about being so abrupt to Nadar, Nell took the time to tell him all that had happened on Grarlon. She omitted her father from her story; she wanted her and Mekie to tell Dar-Seldra. However, she did include the vast fleet of heavily maned and armed stons surrounding the planet.

  ‘Varlor has planned well,’ he said. ‘I suspect it was he who transported the Yexers to Grarlon.’ He frowned. ‘I have no idea how he accomplished that without being burned alive.’

  ‘Yeah, that is the trouble. He’s clever. Mad, but clever.’ Nell said. ‘He must have moved them there before he betrayed the rebels.’

  ‘He has much to answer for,’ said Cay-reace.

  The grey Corl gave a shake of his head. He was worried. ‘What are you thinking, Nadar?’ Nell said.

  ‘How we should proceed from this point. I will take as many immunisation treatments as you can spare and return to our families and friends. Then I will collect as many Corls uninfluenced by Varlor as I can to meet me at the ship-port. Those willing to help with the distribution of antidotes on Grarlon will travel with me. From there we will depart Corl. Do you agree?’

  ‘I do,’ Nell said. ‘Have you been to Grarlon before?

  ‘I have.’

  ‘What do you think, Cay-reace?’

  His eyes widened at her asking his thoughts. He raked his fingers through his blonde hair, and said, ‘Yes…yes. That is ideal. I will have a skark here for my director to transport the medical supplies.’ He faced Nadar. ‘I will go with you.’

  Nell bit her cheek. That would take too long. ‘No,’ she said, and took in a deep breath. ‘We’ll load up as many as we can and start treating the Grarls now.’ She rubbed her face. ‘You get going, Nadar.’

  ‘We will have the antidotes ready when you return,’ said a pretty sunflower-yellow Corl. He nodded and left.

  The Corl technicians must have been listening because they had already loaded boxes of medication into bags and hung them from Nell and Cay-reace’s shoulders and waists. Nell was surprised they had made so much so quickly. They had been working. She glanced at the already filled boxes that remained.

  She said to Cay-reace. ‘To save time, we should load up your director and have him come with us. That way, he can show other Corls the way.’

  He nodded. ‘Director, you heard the young lady.’

  He nodded and as soon as they were ready, they made their way to Grarlon.

  Nell soon became comfortable carrying the weight of Cay-reace and all the bags. She made sure the Corl was still in contact, and sped up.


  ‘Okay?’ she asked her passenger.

  ‘Yes. That was a slightly different experience than travelling with a Corl.’

  ‘Yeah. I took it a little slower than they would.’

  Once inside the palace, Nell noticed Haast wasn’t there but Orenda was. Nell hurried to her bed. She was unconscious and her chest gurgled with every breath. ‘Cay-reace, hurry.’

  He hurried to Nell’s side. ‘She’ll sleep for some time but she will be all right.’

  ‘Where’s the prince?’ Nell asked.

  ‘We don’t know,’ Deesc said, holding her close. ‘Have you got more antidotes?’

  ‘Yes,’ Nell moved out of his embrace. ‘And more are on the way. Where did Haast go?’ Nell asked.

  ‘He explained that he couldn’t interfere with the problems of other planets and returned to Eldorapal,’ Deesc said. ‘However, he did say all would be well in time.’

  She gazed at Orenda’s prostrate form. ‘I hope he’s right.’

  Sam and Mekie walked to her side and Sam patted Nell’s arm. ‘She’ll be okay now,’ he said.

  She smiled at her adopted big brother. ‘I know, but as soon as she can speak, she’ll be asking about Prince Ephry.’

  Compore watched the proceedings from his bed. Nell walked over to him.

  ‘We have some antidotes with us, but Nadar is recruiting as many Corls as he can to bring more as they’re made. They will also dispense them to every victim they find. Are you finished with your revolution?’

  He bowed his head. ‘The revolution is aborted.’ He looked up, mischief in his eyes. ‘However, I will lobby the royal household for some form of democracy.’

  ‘Good,’ she said, and turned to everyone else. ‘I have to find Eph before Orenda wakes up.’

  ‘You’re not going alone,’ Deesc said. ‘I am going with you.’

  Nell smiled. ‘Fine. Kandar, keep everyone safe and don’t let the Yexers find you.’ She shifted. ‘Oh, and think about what we should do about the stons.’

  ‘I’ve already thought about them,’ Sam said. ‘If Varlor knows about us, and I’m guessing he does by now, I reckon he’s waiting for the Yexers to clean up us all up, then arrange the transport for the Yexers back home. Safe without the Yexers, he’s probably come here, take what he wants and then go back and do whatever he has planned for Corl.’