But there on the top of both statues lay the unmistakable patterns from her lost medallion. Again she felt foolish for losing it, and now she would have to tell the others about it, but would they believe her, and more importantly, would they follow the words of her mother? Her mother’s instructions had been to return if she found…..what, she thought?
How could her mother have known of this statue, which she had already surmised had been covered for thousands of years? She must have meant something else.
With unanswered questions she headed back, dreading suggesting they return to Lone Valley to find their parents.
***
Ari drifted in and out of sleep, finding it challenging to stay awake. He could feel the same force he had felt in the bracelet room, though each time he detected it, and focused on it, it disappeared.
As the sun crawled across the fudgy sky, furtive questions nipped at his mind as he battled sleep. Why could he not see any clouds on this side of the mountain? Who were the men they saw going through the tunnel?
He shut his eyes once again, trying to block the questions, and placed his hands on his crossed legs, determined to stay awake. Bird song chatted all around him and a distant wind tugged at the trees. And then another sound, a sound beneath sound that had no sound, thrummed around him. It seemed to be coming from inside his ear or from a source deep in the earth, which he could not tell. Excited and unsure, he started to think about it and the no-sound disappeared.
He relaxed again and this time the costume tuned his ears to the variances in everyday sounds. The wind through the large trees on the front lawn chuffed as it passed through its leaves and branches, sounding like soft-muted cotton-wool rubbing together. Beyond them the wind charged through the tall thin trees guarding the fence-row sounding thinner, with a high pitch scream barely audible to it. The wind in the squat bushes blasted through them so quickly that it gave off a rattle sound, and the wind in the forest had an edge of largeness to it, like it swallowed it, channelled it and then ejected it with more gusto.
Even the birdsong had differences. Some squawked, some chirped, some chatted and others seem to have a playful tune.
Relaxing more he heard a rhythm between the wind and the birdsong. Losing himself deep in mediation, time began to slow down, and the wind and birdsong at last seemed to form the barest of a rudimentary syllable.
‘Ooooooooo.’
He heard the wind and birdsong speak like it had actually spoken.
***
Melaleuca inspected the statue of Captain Wakefield, though it yielded little clue as to who he was and more importantly why Pembrooke had him in his memory.
How much simpler would it be if she could find someone that could just tell them the history of this land. But that was not going to happen.
She looked again at the statue, wondering if Captain Wakefield had anything to do with the Marauders or worse - the bloody image of her mother?
She searched her feelings, finding only a jumble of thoughts and images, nothing on which to make a decision. She knew though, that the information needed to be passed on to Lexington.
She headed back to the attic, figuring Quixote needed checking as well.
***
In the low grey light of the attic, a small figure darted in front of Melaleuca, running deep into the bowels of the attic.
‘Quixote?’ she shouted in a soft voice. ‘Is that you?’
No one replied.
She walked toward where she had seen it go.
‘Quixote?’
Noises, as if someone searched fast through the costumes came from the attic, and the blue light from the costume room cast its light-stream out in the empty attic, making it very obvious that an open door sat in the smashed up brick wall.
Melaleuca found Ari, standing in the middle of the costumes from the last thousand years, searching through them.
‘What are looking for?’
‘What! Oh it’s you. I heard it, I actually heard it,’ Ari said.
‘Heard what?’
Lexington rushed through the door, flushed with excitement. ‘It’s older than anything known to history, and ─ ’
‘I heard the earth speak!’ Ari half shouted. ‘I need an Indian medicine man outfit. What do you call them?’
‘A shaman,’ Lexington said. ‘Did you really hear the earth? What did it say?’ Lexington looked puzzled. ‘And how?’
As he started to tell them, something small exploded from a corner, sending billows of orange smoke into the room. Ari ducked and headed toward it, then stopped, stood and exchanged knowing glances with Melaleuca, both saying, ‘Quixote.’
‘Over here,’ Quixote said from the opposite corner.
They turned, heard another small explosion, and more orange clouds billowed up to the roof.
‘No over here!’
Two more orange smoke-bomb clouds erupted by the mirror at the other end of the costume rows.
‘Quixote. Very good,’ Melaleuca said. ‘Come and show us.’ She turned to Ari and Lexington.
‘I asked him to find a costume that would be good for causing distractions.’
Quixote leapt out from behind a row of costumes.
‘Cool eh!’
A snug fitting suit clung to Quixote’s body, mottled in different colours and hues. Small tubes appeared under the surface of the material and ran from the legs up over the torso and converged on his arms, ending at the cuffs.
‘What is it?’ Melaleuca asked.
Quixote shrugged his shoulders.
‘Whatever it is,’ Ari said, ‘it distracted us. How does it work?’ He touched the fabric, feeling the tubes underneath.
Quixote shook his arms.
‘Watch.’
He lifted an arm, closed his hand and then threw it toward a corner.
POOOOF! Another cloud appeared.
Lexington narrowed her eyes on the suit with suspicion.
‘It’s obvious which section you got this from. How did you work it out?’
‘Just put it on and jumped about.’
‘I see. And what if cannon balls had shot out of the sleeves.’
‘Well it didn’t.’
‘If it did?’
A sneaky smile crossed Quixote’s face.
‘What about your laws of physics?’
‘Oh really.’ Lexington flicked a dismissive hand at him. ‘That is so old. It’s obvious a new set of laws operate here. Anyway, I have discovered that the statue is older than known history.’
‘Boring!’
‘Enough,’ Melaleuca said to Quixote.
Lexington turned to Melaleuca, saying, ‘I suggest once again that the mysterious costumes be treated with caution. They seem, well, different. If this costume does this, what might the others do? They need to be carefully investigated.’
Melaleuca could see sense in Lexington’s words; however Quixote had discovered a costume that might prove useful.
‘We keep on doing what we are doing,’ Melaleuca said.
Lexington started to protest, but was hushed by Melaleuca.
‘We keep on exploring. Stay out of people’s way. Have fun. Use your imagination. From now on Quixote, if you want to select a costume from that section then let’s make sure myself or Ari is with you. That goes for us all. Okay?’
They all nodded.
Lexington pulled Melaleuca to one side out of earshot of the others. Lexington tried to make her eyes as big and round as possible.
‘I have discovered something.’
Melaleuca breathed in and out.
‘What?’
‘I found something that makes me think that our parents are needed to solve this mystery.’ She proceeded to tell her about the medallion and what she had found at the statue. ‘...so you see Mum said to come get her if I found it. I think I have found it.’
‘You should have told us way before this. It matters not anyway. My decision is we wait until we know what it is we ha
ve to find?’
‘Your instincts?’
‘Yes.’
As Lexington started to protest, Ari yelled out, ‘I found it!’
Ari held up a costume made of tanned yellow leather with faded paintings and bird feathers hanging off it.
‘A shaman outfit.’
‘Very good,’ Melaleuca said. ‘All of us write up what we found out today.’ With a serious tone she carried on talking. ‘We rely on no others, except ourselves. Even if someone told us all we need to know, it is ultimately us who must decide whether we believe them and what we do with the information.’
As they wrote up their finds, Lexington ran her eye over it. Quixote’s costumes, plus Ari’s earth-speak she could not immediately fit into what she had found. But Melaleuca’s discovery gave rise to questions.
‘How did you find this out?’ Lexington asked. ‘What costume did you use?’
Melaleuca explained her newly discovered powers, adding, ‘I think I have always had them but never a use for them until now.’
‘Perhaps we all have powers,’ Quixote said.
Lexington felt heat pickles crawl over her skin. Was this the time to reveal her inner voice? She did not know why but she thought they might think less of her, and so coughed and said, ‘Perhaps…n.n.n.not all of us d…do.’
The others looked at her strange, so she drew their focus to Melaleuca’s finds.
‘So one of our mothers was involved in a fight and the man in the statue has something to do with a discovery of this land.’
‘I guess,’ Melaleuca said.
‘Well, it is still not enough to go on.’
‘Lex, it’s only been one day,’ Ari said.
‘Then I’ll find a costume that speeds up time,’ Quixote said.
‘Ahem,’ Melaleuca said, prodding Lexington. ‘Isn’t there something more you should be writing?’
With reluctance Lexington wrote up what she had found and then told the others of the medallion and what her mother had said.
‘You should have told us after you lost it, Lex,’ Ari said.
‘But Mum said ─ ’
‘Yes, but losing it was not part of her plan, I bet.’
Like a sheen deep beneath her skin, Melaleuca saw frustration creep across Lexington’s face.
‘Lexington, relax,’ Melaleuca said. ‘We are doing fine. Stop thinking so much.’
‘But it is what I do!’ And anyway I loved today. There is much to solve in this land, to which I am suited. As for our parents - going back to find them, you will see I am right.’
Lexington read over the sheets of paper in detail. Upon completion her face lit up.
‘So at least we know why this place is called New Wakefield. It was probably named after the statue on the fifth floor.’
Outside the costume room, in the attic, a loud crash sounded, like someone falling over. Altogether they rushed toward the open door, peering into the darkness.
‘Can’t see anything,’ Ari whispered.
‘The door needs to stay shut all the time,’ Melaleuca said.
They waited and waited in silence, but no more noises came from the attic. On Melaleuca’s instruction they shut the door and headed for their rooms.
***
The sun had barely risen the next morning when Pemily and Petruce came separately to their rooms, waking them and ushering them out into the corridor. They shooed them along in a great hurry, until they met at the top of the Grand Ascension Stairs. Still bleary eyed and waking up, they asked what was happening.
Pemily whispered to them, ‘Shhh. Tis a great honour indeed.’ Pride rang out from her tones. ‘The Lady of the Mansion said you could use these stairs today.’
‘Shh,’ Petruce said. ‘Here they come. Follow me.’
Voices chattered five stories below. Harsh inaudible words rose up, echoing faintly in the Cathedral-Mansion roof. Pemily and Petruce trotted down the Grand Ascension Stairs, arms clasped in front, an air of importance about them. The cousins wandered behind them.
At the third storey set of stairs, Pemily and Petruce turned around to the cousins. Dismayed at their meandering, they hissed at them to get into a line. The cousins formed a line across the stairs.
‘No. Behind each other,’ Petruce said.
‘Why?’ Lexington asked.
Before Petruce could reply, people shuffled into sight and gathered at the foot of the stairs. Three men and two women stood alongside Aunty Gertrude.
Unsure, the cousins slowed their pace, studying the strange people. Deep, blue capes draped off them and they all wore uniforms of red, tough-looking wool. Gold and silver stripes traced lines across the chests of their uniforms, and a belt strapped itself tight across their waists, with another belt slung over their left shoulder which attached to their waist belt. Gnarled, naked knees protruded through holes cut into their black trousers, and out from under their high, calf boots, naked feet poked. Each of their left arms had what looked like a leather glove extending all the way up to their shoulder. Covered in belts, buckles, barbed wire, bamboo, and strips of thin leather, it looked like the arm of a suit of twisted armour.
‘What are they?’ Quixote said.
Pemily and Petruce shot looks of horror at the cousins and then at Aunty Gertrude and the gathered people.
Aunty Gertrude swung around to face them, and the gathered people looked up. Aunty Gertrude raised her left arm to calm the maids. The same weird looking leather glove clad her entire arm as well.
‘It’s alright girls I expect better manners from a dog. Leave them.’
The maids rushed back up stairs.
The lines on the faces of the caped people seemed deeply etched, adding a heavy, graven weight to them. They appeared as if they had never laughed or smiled.
Melaleuca did not like them. An ill feeling came off them.
‘Who are these people?’ Melaleuca asked.
With a smile full of vengeful relish, Aunty Gertrude replied, ‘These people are to be your pedagogues and discipliners.’
The words meant little to the cousins, though Lexington picked up on the word Pedagogues.
‘You mean teachers? Of what?’
‘I am sending you to the Vahn.’
With blank expressions the cousins gawped at her, none the wiser.
‘Ohhh ignoramuses. I am sending you to New Wakefield’s school of discipline!!!! And believe me when I say discipline, I mean suffering, pain, and hardship.’
Chapter 21 - The Vahn
‘School? Really?’ Quixote jumped up and down on the spot. ‘Are you for real?’
The stern group eyed Quixote’s questions with great disgust.
‘See their impertinence,’ Aunty Gertrude said.
The tallest of them, a skinny man with a face like crumbling bricks, stepped forward with an awkward gait.
‘I am Sah Task-Master Keen. DO not speak unless spoken too.’
‘Not this again,’ Lexington said.
He looked at her, then at Melaleuca, a flash of recognition crossing his face.
‘You look familiar...’ He turned his grey eyes to Aunty Gertrude.
‘My Lord, none of these children have ever been here before.’
‘Hummph,’ he replied.
A short, rotund lady surged forward, with a face like a pig’s head on a neck-less shoulder.
‘I am Task-Matron Bircher. Don’t talk back.’
She raised her podgy arms to hit them. Ari leapt in front of his cousins, blocking her. Shocked, Task-Matron Bircher recoiled. From behind her Task-Master Quenlein, a thickset man, with a scabby, sun-burnt looking face leapt out, swinging his right arm at Ari. Ari blocked the blow, surprising all the adults. Eyes ablaze with defiance, Ari gritted his teeth, uttering in a deep voice, ‘No one touches us.’
Task-Master Quenlein roared like an animal in his face.
‘Had I used my Galeslar-clad left arm, you would not be standing.’
Ari
held his gaze though Task-Master Quenlein’s eyes reflected back his steel will.
‘Task-Master Quenlein, desist,’ Sah Task-Master Keen said.
He backed off growling at Ari, shaking his left arm at him. The leather-metalled armour that clad it covered his arm like an outer shield.
With its bits of belts, buckles, barbed wire, bamboo and other paraphernalia, Ari felt glad Task-Master Quenlein had used his right arm.
‘You have strength boy,’ Sah Task-Master Keen said to Ari. ‘It might hold you in good stead.’
He turned to the remaining man, a younger version of himself, though a face full of scars, as if barbed wire had been raked across it. ‘Master Phrenia, note all this down.’
Master Phrenia nodded.
‘These were the best that could be found?’ Sah Task-Master Keen asked.
Aunty Gertrude arranged a smug smile.
‘Sadly these are the best.’
The cousins prodded Melaleuca, asking her what to do in a whisper. Her instincts said to do nothing, but wait.
Alarmed, Lexington whispered to Melaleuca, ‘I want to stay here.’
‘SILENCE!’ Aunty Gertrude shrieked.
‘Matron Henlenessy, are they suitable?’ Sah Task-Master Keen asked.
Matron Henlenessy moved forward, a younger looking version of Aunty Gertrude with fuller lips. She eyed them up and down with a cold eye, and pronounced, ‘A few days or weeks will soon answer that.’
Sah Task-Master Keen chortled, explaining, ‘She is a Matron of the House of Knives. Given to her order is the gift of judgment and decision making. Seems she is on your side.’
Quixote broke away from his cousins, falling at the feet of Task-Master Quenlein. He grabbed his knees and protruding toes, laughed and said, ‘I can see your toes, and ya pants have holes in them.’
Task-Master Quenlein reached down and with his meat-cleaver sized hand, picked up a smirking Quixote and drew his other hand back to hit him. Sah Task-Master Keen held his hand up, stopping him.
‘The imp has no fear. Admirable.’ He turned to Aunty Gertrude. ‘They may be suitable, yes. I shall inform the Head Discipliner.’
Task-Master Quenlein put Quixote down. With an out of place gentleness, Master Phrenia grabbed slowly for Quixote’s hands, guiding them to his protruding kneecaps.
‘Feel them boy, feel them good.’
Quixote slapped both his hands on his knees. A puzzled look crossed Quixote’s face.
‘What do you feel boy?’
The Omega Children - The Return of the Marauders - Book 1 Page 30
