by Dale Furse
By the eleventh month, Deesc and Nell had settled the issue of their wedding.
A few days later, they were unable to keep it a secret any longer and made their way into the dining room to let Dar-Seldra know. As usual, Tanat was with her, but so too were Sam and Mekie. It made Nell’s heart warm to hear them laughing again.
‘I’m glad you’re all in such a good mood,’ Nell said. ‘We have something of an announcement to make.’
‘So do—’ Mekie began.
Dar-Seldra’s not too subtle kick under the table stopped her short.
Nell hesitated.
‘It’s okay,’ Sam said to Nell. ‘You go ahead.’
She squeezed Deesc’s hand. ‘We have set our wedding date for the first of March.’
All four at the table laughed.
Nell didn’t think it was funny. ‘I’m serious,’ she said. She glanced at Deesc, who looked as confused as she felt.
‘I apologise,’ said Tanat.
‘Sam and I are to be partnered too,’ cried Mekie.
‘Really?’ Nell gazed at Deesc. Having satisfied herself with waiting until then, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to wait any longer for Deesc to be her husband and she doubted he could control himself either. She mumbled, ‘I guess we could change the date if you picked it too.’
‘You don’t have to, you can have that date,’ Sam said. ‘We’re having a double partnership with Tanat and Dar-Seldra. Aren’t we, Mum,’ Sam said with a grin.
Dar-Seldra laughed, and said, ‘Yes. You all go and tell Carl and Annet the news. They are at Kandar’s house.’
Deesc had his head tilted as if he was listening to something.
‘What is it?’ asked Nell.
‘Haast wants to see me,’ he said.
***
By the time, they had finished celebrating the news of Nell’s wedding at Kandar and Tish’s house, Nell was getting edgy. She made their apologies and led her three friends out to the hall. Her nerves jangled at the prospect of finding the answer to her final question. Not knowing how long Deesc would be away, she had to act quickly. This would be the only chance she would get without her love’s interference. Just because she understood why he didn’t think it was a good idea didn’t mean she had to agree with him.
If she knew where it was, she could transport there any time she chose. She gazed at Kale. ‘Can I ask you to do something for me?’
He smiled. ‘Of course.’
‘Could you make a skark find Wexkia? That’s where the ships came from.’
‘Hm mm.’ He thought for a moment. ‘I could try to programme it to take us to its point of manufacture.’
‘Now?’
‘I don’t know. If I don’t do it correctly the skark could explode.’
Nell didn’t care. It was her one and only hope of finishing her quest for her heritage. She gave him a pleading look.
‘All right. I suppose we could go now.’
‘Good.’
Sam and Mekie wanted to go too and they weren’t taking no for an answer. Kale tried to tell them it was dangerous, but they had insisted. Nell gave in.
At the skark-park, Kale fiddled forever inside the ship’s belly. Every time Nell asked how he was doing, Kale said, ‘Soon.’ She started to think ‘soon’ would never arrive. Over an hour passed.
Sam and Mekie were sitting on floor of the skark-park holding hands and talking as if they had all the time in the universe.
More time passed. Nell was about to drag Kale out when he slid out from under the skark’s bottom hull. ‘I hope that will work,’ he said. ‘I’ve managed to set the co-ordinates to the place of manufacture.’
Nell gave him a peck on his cheek. ‘You don’t need to come with me.’
‘I do,’ he said. ‘I’ll have undo the work I’ve done so we can return to Corl.’
‘Well, I trust you anyway,’ Nell said, and turning to the door, she added, ‘Nellen of the family Dar.’ The door whooshed open.
‘We trust you too, mate,’ Sam said, pulling Mekie inside past Kale.
Once they all sat, the multitude of colours shimmered then stopped.
‘Was that quicker than usual,’ asked Sam.
Kale stood up. ‘There must be something wrong,’ he said, and opened the door.
Sam looked over his shoulder. ‘Well at least we’re not in the skark-park any more,’ he said, pushing his way past Kale.
Nell followed them out and knew instantly where they were. ‘We’re in the forest outside Kafir,’ she said. ‘It’s the same one we were lost in when Dar-Seldra was kidnapped.’
‘She’s right,’ Mekie said, taking off up an incline. ‘The ravine’s just up here.’
‘Be careful,’ Sam yelled out after her. ‘You stay back, Kale. The rocks are slippery near the edge.’
Mekie waited at the edge of the trees.
‘Let me go first,’ Nell said. She spread her wings and hung over the brim. A familiar humming drifted to her ears. She had thought it was the wind the last time she was there, but at that moment she knew it was music calling to her. A harp? She didn’t know, but it was definitely some sort of stringed instrument. Soaring into the abyss, she followed its call to the bottom.
The music echoed from a hole in the base of the straight wall of rock. The hole was big enough for a man to crawl through. She waved her hand at Sam and waited while Kale deposited him beside her.
When Kale returned with Mekie, Sam already had his head in the hole. ‘It looks like it gets bigger further in,’ he said.
‘Get your big head out and let me look,’ Nell said.
One glance told her he was right. She squirmed through the opening and crawled through the short tunnel to a large chamber. The music wasn’t any louder there, just the soft strumming of strings. As she stood up, sun poured in and washed over her. She looked up. A great glass dome pointed to the sky. She scanned the cavern. The cave walls were dirty, but looked as smooth as okfor. Wait. They were okfor. Nell sneezed. She had stirred up the dust under her feet. Where she hadn’t stepped, dust had been drawn together in piles all around the door. How strange, she thought. The cavern was stuffy and smelt ancient. She breathed in the stench of rotten eggs, not strong, and getting less and less so as clean air joined the sunlight.
Kale clambered through the hole. ‘Look,’ she said, pointing to the inside wall of the cave around the hole.
He wiped his hand over the surface and clicked his long nails against it. ‘Okfor,’ he said. ‘This is a purpose built wall.’
‘Probably some old forgotten Corl city,’ Sam said as he stood up. He helped Mekie onto her feet and gazed up. ‘It’s sunny.’
‘Good,’ Mekie said. ‘At least we can see where we are. Where are we exactly?’
Kale rubbed his head with both of his hands. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I am certain I calibrated the skark successfully. We should be on Wexkia.’
‘But it’s the Kafir forest out there,’ Mekie said.
The music slowed, changed beat. Short strum, long strum, long strum. Over and over. ‘Can you hear that,’ Nell asked.
‘What?’ Mekie said.
‘The music.’
‘I can’t hear any music,’ Sam said.
Mekie shook her head, and Kale said, ‘Me either.’
‘Well I can, and it’s calling to me. This is Wexkia. I just know it.’ Nell twirled around on the spot. ‘I feel it.’
‘Look at the floor,’ Mekie said. ‘The stones have been laid purposefully.’ She knelt down, spat on it and rubbed her hand over the grime. ‘And they used to be shiny.’
Nell trailed her hand over the cool metal and started trotting around the perimeter of the cavern. ‘There aren’t any doors.’
‘Wait,’ Kale said. ‘I don’t know how this could possibly be Wexkia, but if it is and you can hear music no one else does then you might be able to see what others can’t.’
Huh? Stopping, Nell wondered if he could be right. She stood back and gazed at
the expansive wall. She shifted her eyes the way she did when first reading Wexkian writing. She saw everything. Great arched breaks as wide as streets appeared at intervals around the chamber. Large windows dotted what remained of the walls, but they weren’t walls, they were façades of buildings. She strode over to the closest arch and gazed down a paved street. ‘It is a street,’ she said. Sam, Mekie and Kale moved beside her.
‘I can’t see anything,’ Sam said.
Nell hit him on the shoulder. ‘Well, I can, dummy.’
At the contact, Sam’s eyes widened. ‘Wow! I can see now and you’re right, it is a street. A bloody long street.’ He pointed. ‘Look, there are other streets intersecting it.’
‘What do you mean?’ Mekie asked. ‘I can’t see anything.’
‘Me either,’ Kale said. ‘It’s still a wall.’
Sam wandered forward, his head turning from side to side and tipping up and down. ‘I can’t believe this.’ His voice was full of awe.
‘Sam.’ Mekie cried. ‘Sam, where are you?’ She turned to Nell. ‘What happened to him? What did you do?’
‘Don’t be so dramatic, Mek. He’s fine.’ She pointed to Sam. ‘He’s just there.’
‘He is not. He’s gone. He’s gone through the wall.’
‘Nell,’ Kale said, his small eyes round and worried. ‘Sam couldn’t see anything until you hit him. Maybe you have to touch us too.’
Nell raised her hand.
‘I’m not saying to hit us, just touch me and Mekie.’
Nell’s excitement bubbled in her chest as she moved between them and gave them both hugs. Mekie ran to Sam, hugged him then kicked him. ‘Don’t you ever do that to me again!’
‘What did I do?’
‘It’s Wexkian built, Kale,’ Nell said quietly. She laughed as she hugged him again. ‘Close your mouth and come on.’ They walked into the street.
Mekie’s eyes darted everywhere. ‘Do you think someone is here?’ she whispered.
Nell closed her eyes and opened them again. ‘No. There’s no sign of life, animal or vegetable. Listen. Can you hear the music now?’
‘Nope,’ Sam said, and the other two shook their heads.
‘That’s a shame. You’d like it, Sam. Follow me.’
One-story buildings stood side by side on both sides of the street. All were built of stone and wood, not okfor, and they all had flat roofs. Some had what might have been front gardens, but they were dirt now. Dusty paved walkways led to double glass doors.
Some of the doors in the buildings were open. Others had statues out front and solid okfor single doors. The statues were animals Nell had never seen before. She scanned the street. There weren’t any piles of dust like in the cavern; it was evenly distributed over everything.
She gazed along the thoroughfare. ‘Hang on,’ she said, and hurried past a couple of buildings. She stopped in front of one of the statues. A ronk. It was a ronk from Eldorapal. On the side of the street, rested a Kroll of marble-like stone. Nell faced her friends. ‘Isn’t it beautiful?’
Mekie turned away from one of the buildings. ‘It might have been once,’ she said. ‘But it’s just dirty now.’ She gazed back through the windows. ‘There’s clothes on hangers in there. It looks like it was a fashion store.’
Sam called out from one of the walkways. ‘This one was a restaurant. It’s got round tables and a long bar down the side.’
‘Let’s go back and look at another street,’ Kale said loud enough that they all could hear.
They walked quickly back through the cavern and into the next street. A high building sat on the corner. Its massive half-circular stairs led to a double okfor door, similar to the great houses on Gramlax. The music that had become soft background music changed, increased in volume and pace. Double time. And it was coming from behind those doors.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
‘LET’S LOOK IN THERE.’ NELL RAN UP the stairs. She pulled back on the doorknockers and the doors opened out. As she stepped inside, lights blazed and the music stopped in her head. Books, more like tomes, lined the side and back walls. The bookcases were metal. Long, wooden cupboards sat under the bookcases. She moved to the wall on her left and ran her hand over one. Her fingers found deep grains within the dark wood. She had never seen such a beautiful piece of furniture. In stark contrast, there were small, square tables of okfor metal dotting the floor between her and an arched opening in the back wall.
‘It’s a library,’ she shouted out to the others. She wandered through the tables. The harp in her mind strummed once as she passed under the arch. She had entered a room, the same size as the front one. In front of an empty back wall of smooth okfor, this room had a high table only wide enough for the large tome open on top of it. The table, a lectern really, was made of the same dark wood that the sideboards.
Nell hurried forward and looked down at the book. The writing was Wexkian. Her heart skipped a beat. This was Wexkia. I knew it. She rested her hands on the open pages. A shiver ran down her spine.
‘There you are,’ Mekie said, rushing to Nell. ‘What’s that?’
‘A book.’
‘Obviously, it’s a book, Nell,’ Mekie said, and, pushing her hands under the book, she shut it.
Nell only just pulled her hands away in time. ‘Hey.’
‘What’s the title?’
Sam and Kale peered over the table. ‘Well?’ Sam said.
Nell touched her fingers to the title. ‘The Last Book of Wexkia.’ Without waiting, she opened it, flipped to the last pages and began to read. She skimmed over the writing until she found the place where her book of Wexkia had ended. All is lost, it read. The Corls are burying our cities, our parks, our abodes.
Our capital, Poinap, where I am writing these last words of Wexkia, will also become a thing of the distant past. The few of us who are left are angry. This emotion, unfelt since the dawn of Wexkia, sits heavy on our hearts.
We will not pass into complete extinction. The future Wexkian saviour will know her homeland. Her history is in here. Poinap must be saved. A dark spell, not used since the dawn of Wexkia, has been placed over the only entrance left to Poinap. Corls can enter, but they will not leave. They will join us in everlasting death.
This is for you, child of Wexkia. Poinap, and all it holds, is waiting for the rise of Wexkia.
Nell froze and gazed at Kale, every muscle in her body tensing.
‘Are you all right?’ Kale said.
Nell glanced at Sam and Mekie, but her eyes stayed on the little Corl.
‘Nell?’ Sam said. ‘What’s wrong?’
Mekie put her hand on Nell’s forearm. ‘Why are you upset? What did the book say?’
Nell couldn’t answer, couldn’t move. She just stared at Kale. Her mind buzzed. What did the writer mean? The piles of dust at the entrance popped into her mind. ‘No Corl will leave.’ That’s what it said. ‘No Corl will leave.’ A dark spell. Any Corl who entered there the spell had turned into a pile of dust. But Kale wasn’t. He was okay. No. It must have happened when they tried to leave.
‘Nell, please, you’re scaring me,’ Mekie said. ‘Your eyes are black again.’
Nell couldn’t take her eyes off Kale. She couldn’t think straight. How was she going to save him? Fear burnt at her heart. She couldn’t breathe.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ Kale asked.
***
Sam didn’t know how to answer his friend’s question. A spark of fire flickered in Nell’s black eyes. That only happened when she was angry. But why was she angry? What had that book done to her? Kale hadn’t done anything. He was her friend. She loved him, Sam was sure of it.
Not wanting to believe she would hurt Kale, but not wanting to take the chance either, he said, ‘Go outside, Kale.’ The stupid Corl just stood there staring back at Nell. Sam pushed him toward the doors. ‘Get out now.’ He stumbled toward the doors and out into the street.
Nell’s eyes followed him out.
Sam stepped in f
ront of the crazed looking Nell and shook her shoulders. Her head wobbled, but she didn’t take her eyes off the doors Kale had just gone through.
‘Nell,’ Sam shouted at the top of his voice, shook her again.
‘Stop it!’ Nell screamed. She pushed Sam back with such force that he fell onto the floor with a grunt.
Mekie hugged Nell tight.
‘Mekie, no,’ Sam yelled, jumping to his feet and running toward her.
Mekie waved him back with her hand. Sam hesitated. Using her eyes, she entreated him to leave her be. He drew his brows together in a scowl, but stepped back. Please don’t hurt Mekie, Sam pleaded silently.
Mekie gently rubbed Nell’s back with her hand. ‘I love you, Nell. Please don’t push me away. We all love you. Please come back to us.’
***
At Mekie’s touch, her words, Nell blinked. The terror filled fogginess cleared from her head. She relaxed and gently pulled out of Mekie’s arms. She had to find away to save Kale. ‘I’m okay.’ Mekie didn’t look convinced. ‘Really I am, and I’m sorry, I scared you.’
‘I hope you’re sorry for scaring me too,’ Sam said.
Nell tried to smile, but her lips wouldn’t move. ‘The book,’ she said. ‘The book said that Corls can’t leave this place. If any came here, I think they were turned into piles of dust by a Wexkian dark spell.’
Mekie gasped. ‘Kale’s a Corl.’
Nell nodded.
‘There must be a way you can break the spell,’ Sam said. ‘You have to, Nell.’
Nell’s eyes flamed orange at him. ‘Don’t you think I know that?’ She reigned in her emotions and shook her head. When she was a little calmer, she said, ‘Can you go tell Kale? I can’t face him yet. I need to think so don’t come back in. I’ll meet you outside.’
‘We might be able to help you think of something,’ Sam said.
