‘Thankfully you are alright,’ Quesob said and started pulling the bracelet out of his pocket.
Doctor Thurgood approached and said, ‘Nap Retep. You are Nap Retep.’
Daquan slumped forward and his whole body relaxed. His face unwrinkled and then creased into a large child’s smile.
‘Nap Retep, Nap Retep, Nap Retep,’ Daquan said over and over again in a child’s voice, clapping his hands together.
‘It worked,’ Doctor Thurgood shouted. ‘It worked!’
‘Master? What has happened to you?’ Quesob turned to Doctor Thurgood. ‘What have you done to him?’ And then turned to Daquan.
‘Lord Daquan.’
On the word “Lord Daquan” the transformation reversed and in a flash he became himself again.
‘Quesob, what are you doing here?’ Daquan said. ‘I am supposed to be a child again.’ He became enraged and turned to Doctor Thurgood. ‘What went wrong?’
Before Doctor Thurgood could answer, Quesob pulled the bracelet from his pocket and the room went pitch black.
‘Now what’s happened to the light?’ Daquan said.
Doctor Thurgood started to speak. ‘Nap.....’
Quesob turned around and smacked Doctor Thurgood as hard as he could, sending him sprawling against the wall, knocking him out.
‘Quesob, what is going on?’
‘The bracelet you told Amreth to guard, the one you did not tell me about has started...well...has started sucking light.’
He pocketed it and light flooded into the room. Daquan could see Doctor Thurgood dazed and groaning in the corner though the bracelet interested him more.
‘When did it start?’
‘This morning.’
‘Give me the bracelet?’
Quesob pulled it from his pocket and the light drained from the room.
‘My Lord what is this bracelet? And why was I not told of it?’
Daquan guffawed. ‘There are a lot of things you have not been told, nor will be. You should know that.’
‘Yes, but if this is one of the bracelets?’
‘It is only a beacon, that’s all. If it never went off, it would have mattered none. Now, give me the bracelet.’
Quesob reached out in the darkness and felt for Daquan’s hand.
Like a great dictator on the verge of obtaining absolute power, Daquan said with an air of malevolence, ‘So, someone has found the bracelets and activated them. Foolish fools, fool-hardly charging fool-long into a fools’ trap.’
‘Master?’
Daquan clasped his hand tight around the bracelet and light spilled into the room again.
‘With this bracelet we can trace the other bracelets,’ Daquan said. ‘But....,’ his thoughts drifted away, ‘...with those that betrayed me dead, who could be using them now?’
‘My Lord as I said a few days ago, we found evidence of a playground. Possibly they had children. I could find little evidence of them though. They were careful to leave no photos, names or anything. There was lots of evidence of kids’ drawings, toys and ─ ’
‘So they were trying to return to their youth as well. And you are sure they are all dead?’
‘Yes M’lord. What does this ─ ’
‘Don’t worry. Whoever activated the bracelets must eventually head here.’
Doctor Thurgood groaned and Daquan looked at his slumped body.
‘He was not much use.’
‘Perhaps.’
Quesob explained that the words “Nap Retep” made him childlike and the words “Daquan” made him revert to his normal self. However when Quesob said the word “Nap Retep,” nothing happened, a fact that Daquan pointed out.
‘It appears then M’Lord that only this frail idiot can change you into the child state.’
‘This has worked even better,’ Daquan said, concocting as he spoke. ‘This means that I can go between the two states. As a child I shall wield the bracelets, and as myself, I shall plot my future plans.’
‘From what I have seen you have little recall or control when you are this Nap Retep.’
Daquan roared with laughter. ‘Don’t fret. This is a great step forward. If we have got this far, we shall work it out further.’ He slapped Quesob hard on the back.
‘And what shall I do with this piece of refuse?’ Quesob pointed at Doctor Thurgood.
‘Keep him under house arrest. He will be needed.’
***
Melaleuca let the note’s words drift through her while Lexington quizzed the note once more with her studious eye.
‘I don’t like this one bit,’ Lexington said.
‘I like it,’ Quixote said.
‘Of course you do. Mel. What do you feel? Something is missing.’
‘Lex,’ Melaleuca said, trying to see it from her point of view. ‘You hate this because you still don’t know why any of this is happening.’
‘Yes, only the most important piece of information. So far it’s been like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, only to find no picture has been revealed.’
‘Then solve it. Do what you do. Work it out.’
Unimpressed by her command Lexington’s eyes jerked toward Quixote and Ari. ‘And them?’
‘Will do what they have to do.’
Quixote spoke, drawling in a cowboy accent.
‘Why ya dirty mangy dog, dang nab it. I’s gonna rustle me some rescuing.’ He spat on the ground, snarled and strode off toward the door.
Melaleuca looked to Ari for an explanation.
‘He thinks he is going to rescue Uncle Bear-Nard from the clutches of Aunty Gertrude.’
‘Well stop him!’
Powered by the soldier’s uniform, Ari snapped to attention, saluted and said, ‘Yes ma’m. Get right on it.’ He double-timed toward the door, stopped and swung around in a crisp movement. ‘Wow, did you see that. I acted like a soldier.’
‘Good. Hurry and get him,’ Melaleuca said.
He snapped to attention again and double-timed with purpose toward the door.
‘Urrrrr,’ Melaleuca growled at Ari’s speed.
She ran two paces and then somersaulted over the clothes racks and executed an adroit landing, ending in a forward roll before the door, just in time to beat Ari. His eyes widened with amazement.
‘Do that again,’ he said.
Stunned by her sudden feat, she replied, ‘I don’t know how I did that?’
With her dress no longer looking ragged, Lexington glided forward, giving off a regal glow.
‘I decree I should offer an opinion,’ she said in a proper voice. ‘It would seem logical that the bracelets and the costumes bequeath upon us facilitating qualities,’ and then sensing her words were too highbrow, added, ‘The bracelets make the costumes come true.’
‘We know that. Get a costume on that can help us and follow,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Hmmmppph,’ Lexington replied.
Ari marched himself through the door and scrambled for the open trap door. Melaleuca somersaulted again and landed by the trapdoor and together they went down. Pistol in hand Quixote stalked down the Grand Ascension Stairs, having made it as far as the second floor.
‘We have to catch him,’ Melaleuca said.
Ari booted it down the stairs, leaping three steps at time. Melaleuca jumped on the banister and held a perfect balance despite the dizzying height. In five gigantic leaps she flipped from one storey to another, until she landed at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of Quixote.
‘Let’s go play outside. Come on, we’ll go and round up some baddies. I think I saw some out back.’
Quixote whipped his pistol out.
‘I’ll pump ‘em full o lead.’
As Quixote took her lead she relaxed and Ari joined them at the bottom of the stairs.
Pemily rushed out from behind the Grand Ascension Stairs and started walking toward them, her arms full of linen. Half way toward them she stopped and dropped the linen. The colour drained from her
face and her mouth opened and shut like she had lost the power of speech. She let rip an ear-piercing scream and then yelled at the top of her tiny voice, ‘MARAUDERS! MARAUDERS! MARAUDERS,’ over and over and over again.
Chapter 15 - A new kind of playing
The material of the princess’s dress caressed Lexington’s skin, elevating the feeling of her status. Unable to describe it she had a strong desire to rule over people in a caring fashion. As she started to analyse the sensation, it left, though the mirror still reflected an ornate dress. She turned away and waltzed up and down pretending to be a princess and the feeling returned. Her mind raced with impossible questions and again the sensation fled. After several attempts to analyse it and no success, she turned to the clothes rack.
Maybe another costume could help her.
She rummaged her way through the costumes, examining them one by one. The same scrawled-on yellowed bits of paper that Melaleuca had found fell out here and there though not all of them had notes. Attached to a pair of overalls with a helmet and light affixed, a note read - ‘Coal-mining. Useful for underground tunneling.’ She carried on searching for the bits of paper and found the next one clipped to a small vest and shirt, and a pair of jodhpurs with riding boots. The note read - ‘Horseman - able to make horse perform tricks.’
Unsatisfied, she carried on pawing her way through them and found a lemon shaped checkered hat. Its sides sat tied at the top with a ribbon, and two visors peaked out over the front and back. She reached for it, and feeling the crumple of paper lifted it off the checkered cloak it sat on. It read - ‘Victorian detective - helps put facts together quicker.’ Her eyes lit up and her hands trembled. A more perfect costume could not have been found.
***
‘MARAUDERS! MARAUDERS! MARAUDERS,’ Pemily cried over and over and over again. She stared with intensity past Melaleuca, Ari and Quixote. From the look on her horrified face something deadly lurked behind them. Ari and Quixote searched up and down though remained confused as only the vastness of the empty air surrounded them.
Melaleuca heard Uncle Bear-Nard’s run-shuffle-canter trotting toward them from somewhere, and out of nowhere Pembrooke arrived, shambling passed them, oblivious to the shouting. Dropping crumbs of dirt from his motley clothes, he looked sideways and spied the cousins. At first he did not react but after he trained his eyes on Pemily shrieking, he began to shout as well.
‘Arrggggh! MARAUDERS!’
He grabbed the frozen Pemily and turned her around, shoving her back the way she had come.
‘Quick as you can,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Lose the bracelets.’
Uncle Bear-Nard burst out of a door, right in front of the slow fleeing Pemily and Pembrooke. Together Pemily and Pembrooke yelled, ‘Marauders!’ at Uncle Bear-Nard and pointed in the direction of the cousins. Confused, Uncle Bear-Nard stared at the cousins and then at Pemily and Pembrooke, looked a little wistful and then became amused.
‘Tut tut tut,’ he said. ‘Really..y.y.y.you two. Take another l..l..look.’
Pemily and Pembrooke turned back toward their assailants, befuddling their expressions.
Uncle Bear-Nard chuckled, his round body vibrating along with it.
‘You see. It’s just the children dressed up. Must have found that old trunk their mother used to use. No more poking around okay,’ he said to them.
Pemily stormed toward them, the white ribbons from her maid’s hat and apron streaming behind her. ‘But they were...I mean...huge...and...’
Confounded, she eyed the cousins up and down.
Uncle Bear-Nard snapped an order out. ‘Be about your business. Quick. Not a word of this to Gertrude. I mean that or....well...or else!’
Pembrooke nodded as if he knew exactly what Uncle Bear-Nard spoke of, though Pemily looked just as frightened but nodded in obedience. Uncle Bear-Nard heaved a large breath in and out and bore his eyes on Melaleuca.
‘I am not sorry,’ Melaleuca said. ‘No one will tell us anything, so what do you expect.’ Something about the costumes had increased her bravado.
A wistful smile crossed his face.
‘Not to w..w..worry. Folks a bit spooked a..a.a.around here,’ he said and then as if a sudden thought tugged at him, an absent look crossed his face. ‘The Kockoroc’s been sighted. Much flurry of panic.’
‘Cock O rock? What’s a cock O rock?’
‘What? Who told you of the Kockoroc? There is no Kockoroc.’ He bent closer. ‘Hurry back to your rooms to play. Lest your Aunt see you.’
‘But we were going outside,’ Quixote said.
Melaleuca tapped her nose and winked at him. ‘Come on Quixote, let’s go back up stairs.’
Quixote nodded, understanding what she meant, and along with Ari they headed back upstairs.
‘Ahem,’ Uncle Bear-Nard coughed and then pointed at the back stairs. They disappeared half way up the back stairs and stopped.
‘Listen for anyone,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We shall sneak out through the kitchen.
‘Um, where’s Lex?’ Ari said.
‘Probably reducing the costumes to math,’ Quixote said.
Melaleuca laughed at the truth of his words and said with a certain resignation, ‘Come on, let’s get her. All of us.’ She gazed at Quixote. ‘And between you and Lex...well...just stick together.’
In the attic Lexington preened herself in the mirror admiring her Victorian detective costume. Quixote dashed up to her first, earning a stern stare from Melaleuca.
‘What are you?’ Quixote asked.
‘A detective,’ Lexington replied.
‘Good choice Lex,’ Melaleuca said impressed.
Lexington’s long hair flowed out from the weird hat to a checkered cape she wore around her shoulders. The cape reached to her knees and a second, shorter cape that came off the shoulders fell to her elbows. She reached in and pulled out a large curved pipe.
‘Good,’ Quixote said trying not to snigger. ‘You can work out what a cock is doing in a rock.’
Lexington screwed her face up at him.
‘Uncle just said that a cock in a rock has been spotted,’ Quixote said.
‘Curious,’ Lexington said, having little clue of what he spoke about. She took a few puffs on the pipe. ‘Arrgh! Ptuuueeh,’ she gasped and then half spat. ‘It tastes horrible.’
Quixote tugged on the shoulder cape and poked Lexington’s hat.
‘What exactly does your costume do then?’
‘Elementary,’ she said and gave him a strange look. ‘It provides enhanced cerebral observation.’ She peered down her nose at Quixote and Ari. ‘Why have your bracelets been removed?’
Melaleuca reported what had happened while Ari searched through the costumes for something better to wear. Lexington’s mind whizzed through the details in super quick time.
‘I deduce to non-bracelet wearers we must appear different than how we appear to each other. Therefore Pemily and Pembrooke saw, not yourselves accoutred roughly, but whatever these costumes represent.’
‘What about the word “Marauders” though?’ Ari asked.
‘Quite,’ Lexington said.
‘Quite.’ Quixote imitated her, an annoyance she ignored.
‘A marauder is a ruffian, a veritable cad, a low-life, someone who would steal from his own mother,’ Lexington said. ‘I need to hunt for clues.’
‘What about your hippopotamus-thesis?’ Quixote said.
What about it? For some reason its urgency had diminished. She pulled her bracelet off and realised that, unlike the princess’s dress, she had stayed in character and not once had she dropped out of it.
‘I think perhaps we should experience what these outfits offer Mel. My hyper-thesis shall have to be...changed...again.’
Melaleuca could see Lexington’s brain over-thinking.
‘Lex, keep moving forward.’
‘Hey, get this,’ Ari yelled and raced back to them.
He held up a loincloth, feathered headgear, and a quiver of
arrows, a tomahawk and some moccasins.
‘A North American Indian. I bet this will help me feel the Ethmare.’
‘We don’t quite know if the Ethmare is real Ari,’ Lexington said. ‘And besides ─ ’
‘If you must,’ Melaleuca said, ‘get a costume to work it out but Ari will do as he must.’
‘Oh. I see.’
An obvious peeved expression flashed back at Melaleuca, and Lexington twiddled with the pipe.
‘How do we even know we are supposed to use these costumes?’
‘We were sent here to find these. How can you deny that?’
‘I don’t, though I neither know why?’
‘Keep...moving...forward, and we will find out if it is relevant.’
Lexington pushed her bracelet back on with a sharp haughtiness and Melaleuca could tell that many questions still filled her mind. The feeling, go out the back now, flashed through Melaleuca and she saw why.
‘Quixote has gone. Quick. We’d better find him.’
They headed out of the attic and two eyes appeared behind two small peepholes in the ceiling of the roof. The Harbinger watched them as they left - gladdened they had discovered the bracelets and costumes, yet perplexed how they found them so quickly.
***
Uncle Bear-Nard’s afternoon walks had stopped since the cousins had arrived. They had proved more troublesome than he had thought. Perhaps a short wander in the forest and some fresh bracing mountain air would help clear his head. He did, after all have many things to ponder. For one, what was going to happen to the cousins? How would they take to life here in New Wakefield? They could not stay at the Cathedral-Mansion forever. What to do, What to do?
‘Where do you think you are going?’ Aunty Gertrude said from behind him.
It took him by surprise. ‘Nothing, dear, nothing.’
‘I did not ask what you were doing, merely where you are going?’
‘Oh. I see. Just for a walk.’
She eyed him with suspicion which really meant nothing. It was just her way - everything was suspicious until proved otherwise. He waited for a stern opinion or a harsh roasting but instead she spoke calmly.
‘Good. Perhaps barefooted might be more suitable.’
With little thought of answering back he bent down and started to pull his shoes off. ‘Pray may I ask as to why this time?’
She smiled as much as she could smile these days.
‘A memory filled with holes. Tut tut. The Thistle Ceremony is only weeks away. Since the brats arrived, you have lost your edge. The pain should be good for you. Pembrooke has planted an extra special crop of Norwegian Thistle’s this year. I suggest you walk through them, and...’ One of her nasty glints shone in her eyes. ‘...and see if you can withstand a Forest Thistle. To prove it bring one back for me.’
The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders - Book 1 Page 22
