Outback Spirit

by Nicole R. Taylor

  Hardy looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Now will you come back to Solace?”

  He sat back in his camp chair and reached for another beer. “Looks like I don’t have a choice.”

  Chapter 6

  Eloise dragged her pen across the page of her journal.

  She sat on the step of her motorhome, half in and out of the side door. Digging her bare feet into the warm dirt, she absently drew, thinking about the last three days. An exploding engine, a lonely town, opals, stars, ‘interesting’ people, and a biker gang.

  Snorting, she kept sketching. The clump of ink on the page looked more and more like the mountain from her dreams. The mountain she’d never been to…at least, she thought she’d never been there. The more she saw it, the more familiar it became, and the dream became confused with reality.

  The early morning sun crept towards her little patch of shade, illuminating the red dirt behind Wally’s garage. The old mechanic was tinkering inside, and every so often she heard his tools ring out as he dropped them onto the concrete.

  Last night he let her know that the replacement part would arrive in two weeks—back ordered with the manufacturer, apparently. It seemed like an eternity. She wondered what a head gasket looked like, but couldn’t picture it.

  Eloise was deep in thought, her pen gouging a hole in her journal, when a shadow fell over her bare legs.

  She jerked backwards and snapped her journal closed. Looking up, she saw it was the miner from Hardy’s.

  “Didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said gruffly.

  He wore a black cowboy hat that shaded his eyes, and his rough stubble and dirt-encrusted jeans made him look like he just rolled out of his mine. Literally.

  Her gaze ran over him and she sighed. “No, no… I just… I didn’t see you.”

  “I’m Kyne.”

  She waited, but he said nothing else. “And?”

  “Hardy said you were after some work. That you were interested in opal.”

  She set her journal down on the step. “What kind of work?”

  Kyne looked down at her bare legs. “Moving mined rock. Hard work, but I’ll pay.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “You really want me to go out to your super-secret mine and help you dig out rare opal?”

  “Hardy vouched for you.”

  Eloise couldn’t help the dumfounded expression that formed on her face. A hardcore miner was asking a woman to help him haul rock? Either he was in touch with his feminine side, or something else was going on.

  “If you think you can take me out into the middle of nowhere and cut me up into little pieces, you’ve got a screw loose,” she told him. “I know how to protect myself.”

  Kyne smiled for the first time and his whole demeanour changed. He seemed almost…nice.

  “I only do that to ratters,” he said.

  “You really have problems with that?” she wondered. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone around to be a thief.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  She bit her bottom lip and thought about what it would be like to go underground and see opal in its natural habitat.

  “So, there’s more of that black you brought in the other day?” she asked.

  Kyne nodded. “I want to get it all out before word gets around. There’s only so much I can do on my own.” He frowned and shuffled his weight from foot to foot. “It’ll only be for a couple of days, but you’d have to stay out there with me.”

  “In the outback?”

  He tipped his hat. “Do you like tents?” The look on her face must have been something else because he began to sell it hard. “It’s quiet and there are stars as far as the eye can see.” And snakes, ants, lizards, and a shovel to dig a hole to poop in. “No distractions. Simple food, simple living. The hard work is worth seeing the opal in the wall.”

  Eloise thought about Coen and what he’d said about the Dreaming. The spirits, they speak through the sky and the animals. Could she’d find them out there? Maybe they were already speaking to her but she wasn’t in the right place to hear them.

  “I’ll give you ten percent of whatever I find while you’re there,” he added.

  Eloise’s heart skipped a beat. He’d just sold a parcel of black to Hardy for a hundred and fifty K. Ten percent was…fifteen grand. More than enough to cover the repairs on her van and then some. Paired with her savings and her low cost of living, it was a year’s worth of expenses. It was also more money than she’d ever had in the one place at the same time.

  Provided that Kyne had more opal waiting for him in that mine of his…

  She looked up at him. “What do I need?”

  “Jeans, something warm for the night, thick socks, and steel-capped boots. Vera will have some if you don’t.”

  “Is that all?”

  “I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Okay.” She stood and dusted off her hands, finding he was half a head taller than her. He seemed proud, a little brusk, and a whole lotta mysterious.

  “I have to get supplies,” Kyne told her. “Meet me at the Outpost when you’re ready.”

  Vera was behind the counter when Kyne walked into the Outpost.

  “Well, here’s a sight for sore eyes,” she drawled.

  She put the lollipop she’d been sucking on back into her mouth a little too suggestively for his liking. The witch had tried—and failed—to get into his pants from the day she’d moved to Solace.

  “Just here for some supplies,” he said, ignoring her.

  “Got a list? Or is it stored in that pea-sized brain of yours?”

  “I knew I should’ve gotten you that copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People for your birthday. You sorely need it.”

  “Ditto.” She crunched her lollipop and tossed the stick into the bin. “What’s cooking, handsome? I know Hardy went out to see you at that hole of yours last night.”

  Kyne sighed and glanced over his shoulder but there was no sign of Eloise.

  “She’s pretty for a wallflower, isn’t she?”

  Kyne didn’t bother biting. He pulled the list he’d written on a scrap of cardboard out of his shirt pocket and slapped it down on the counter. “Here’s your list. Oh, and I’ve got a feeling Eloise will need some boots.”

  Vera’s eyebrows rose as she picked up the list. “Boots, huh? You finally taking a girl home to your burrow?”

  “Shut up, Vera. For once in your life, stop with the smartarse commentary. You wanted me to come back and give a damn about Solace…well, here I am.”

  The witch snorted and rounded the counter, grabbing the one and only trolly in the store. “Fair enough.” She peered at the cardboard. “I don’t see rope or cable ties on here.”

  “Vera.”

  “Joking. Harden up.” She snorted and began to laugh. “Get it? Harden up.”

  Kyne narrowed his eyes. “Don’t give up your day job.”

  He hadn’t met many elementals, but the one’s he had all had certain affinities—earth, air, fire, water, and the fifth and rarest element, ether. His talent was obviously with the earth, it’s what made him a good miner.

  “You better give me some of that vanilla shit you like so much,” he added.

  Vera smirked. “You want the additive?”

  “No.” Kyne shook his head, hoping this shopping trip wouldn’t take too long. “This time it’s definitely for the flies.”

  As Vera wheeled the trolley down the aisle, he found himself in the small, but full clothing section. It was mostly workwear—high-vis shirts, trousers, and safety gear—but there was a stand of brimmed hats like the one he wore. Akubra and Barmah. Costly, but Aussie made and tough.

  The bell rung as the door opened and Kyne looked up as Eloise walked in, a backpack slung over one arm. Her mousey blonde hair was loose and her sunglasses sat on her head.

  Get to know her, Hardy had said. Gain her trust. She needs help. I think she’s an elemental.

  Their eyes met and he still wasn’t sure wh
at Hardy saw in her.

  “Here,” he said, waving her over. He took her sunglasses and picked up a slate grey hat and slapped it on her head. The colour picked up the grey spots in her otherwise green eyes and made them shine. “If you don’t want sunstroke, you’ll need a hat.”

  She ducked down to look in the little mirror attached to the stand and swept her hair back.

  “Looks good,” he told her. “You got boots?”

  “Yeah,” she kicked up her foot. “Not steel-capped, though.”

  “You’ll need them, believe me. What size are you?”

  “Eight.”

  There was only one style of women’s boots on the shelf—simple black lace ups. He took down a size eight and handed the box to her, not bothering to look at the price.

  As she tried them on for size, he went and helped Vera at the till.

  The witch shot him a knowing look and he shrugged. If Eloise was an elemental, he’d have her pegged the moment he got her into the mine. If she could find where the black opal was without his guidance, then he’d have a place to begin.

  “They fit,” Eloise said, carrying the box in her arms. She stood beside Kyne, the boots laying haphazardly in the box.

  “Add them on,” he told the witch.

  Vera slammed her finger down on the total button on her ancient cash register and grinned as it let out a satisfying ding. “That’ll be three hundred and eighty-five dollars and fifty cents…plus GST.”

  Eloise paled, but Kyne coughed to cover her embarrassment. Half of that was for her boots and hat. “Put it on my tab,” he said. “I’ll fix it up when we get back.”

  “A miner who’s on a good thing,” the witch declared, grinning at Eloise. “He never bought me anything.”

  “That’s because you never came to work for me.”

  Vera chuckled and winked at Eloise. “That’s because I like to keep dirt on the ground and not underneath my nails.” She held up her hands and wiggled her emerald green fingers. To Kyne, she declared, “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”

  Outside, Kyne and Eloise loaded the contents of the trolley into the back of his ute.

  He glanced at Eloise, deciding the hat suited her. Hardy was right about one thing—she was determined to give anything a go, even shovelling dirt in a mine in the middle of woop woop.

  When he returned the trolley, Vera blew him a kiss, but he was outside and hopping into his ute before she had the chance to give him some parting ‘wisdom’.

  “Are you sure?” Eloise asked as she sat beside him.

  “About?”

  “Everything.” She opened the box containing her boots and began to thread the laces. “I don’t have the money to pay you back for this stuff. The hat was…” A hundred bucks.

  “It’s necessary for the job. I can write it off on tax.” Kyne turned the key in the ignition and revved the engine. “But if you’re so worried, I can take it out of your wages.”

  She flushed, her cheeks pinking. “Are you that sure you’ve got more opal down there?”

  “Yes,” he said, reversing onto the road, “I am.”

  Black Hole Mine was a blink and you’ll miss it kind of place.

  Kyne’s camp consisted of a clearing with a ramshackle lean-to and the remains of a campfire. Everything else he seemed to need was loaded in the tray of his ute. He wasn’t lying when he said it was simple living.

  The ride over had been silent and uneventful, the track as bumpy as her thought patterns. She didn’t know how to talk to him, which wasn’t anything new, but thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind her lack of conversation skills. He didn’t have any, either.

  Eloise hopped out of the car and looked around as Kyne unloaded the generator and fuel. Scrub and dry, woody trees stretched as far as the eye could see, the sky impossibly blue.

  The flies out here were just as bad as the ones in town, and she was glad Vera had given her a supply of her miracle vanilla repellant.

  Above ground, the mine wasn’t much to look at, but she was beginning to see the double meaning behind the name Kyne had given it.

  A grate sat over the shaft, which was about a metre or so in diameter, and a metal ladder hooked over the top edge, descending into the tunnel below. It was an intimidating hole that led into a black maw, and Eloise began to regret coming out here. Theory and practice were two different things now that she stood at the precipice.

  Another ladder-like contraption rose out of the shaft and climbed up into the air on a diagonal. It ran for a few metres, then came to an abrupt end, the tip hanging in mid-air. Below was a cone-shaped pile of dirt and gravel.

  “That’s the hoist. It gets the dirt out of the mine,” Kyne explained, leaning over the back of the ute’s tray. “You load it into the bucket at the bottom of the shaft, then hit the button to send it topside. It goes up the track, dumps out at the top, then comes back down. Runs on a diesel generator.”

  “That’s what I’ll be using?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what will you do?”

  “I’ll be jackhammering rock out of the wall.”

  “Fair enough.” She turned and began to haul out more gear. There was only one tent…and it looked small.

  Seeing the look on her face, Kyne said, “I like to sleep outside, snakes and all. That’s for you.”

  “Snakes?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of them?”

  “No, I…” She swallowed hard. “I don’t have anything against snakes, I just don’t need to exist in the same space as them.”

  His lips quirked. “Fair enough.” She turned back to the tent, but he shook his head. “Leave that for now. I want to get started.” He handed her a hardhat and swapped his hat out with his own battered one. “Keep it on at all times. Last thing anyone needs out here is a concussion.”

  He grabbed a jerry can, poured some diesel into the generator, then started it. Checking the connections, he gestured for her to follow him to the shaft.

  “You first,” he said.

  Eloise looked over the edge and a lump formed in her throat. Light glowed below but it was impossible to tell how far the shaft sank into the ground. “How far down is it?”

  “About twenty-four feet. Seven metres or so.”

  She took a deep breath. It wasn’t that deep, but it was still a long way to fall.

  “Take it slow,” Kyne told her. “One rung at a time.”

  The last thing Eloise wanted to do was show weakness, so she flung her leg over the side and hopped onto the ladder. Her fingers tightened around the rung and she began the slow descent into Black Hole Mine.

  Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts…

  Kyne watched her progress from above, not once urging her to hurry. He said nothing, letting her make her way to the bottom. Finally, when her boots touched solid earth, a sigh of relief shuddered through her entire body.

  “I’m at the bottom,” she called up.

  “Stay there. I’ll be right down.”

  The ladder shook as Kyne transferred his weight onto it and Eloise looked down the tunnel. It was lit by a series of light bulbs strung up with heavy duty power cables—the miner’s version of fairy lights. The walls were covered in gouge marks from machinery and were a mottle of different colours. She could see the changes in the layers of earth down the shaft and her mind spun. This must be the ancient coral reef Hardy had told her about.

  Kyne had dug down to the level, then outwards in search of the opal deposits. It seemed simple when she thought about it that way, but there was a great deal of work just getting this deep.

  Kyne scaled the ladder like a monkey, almost sliding all the way down—he was that fast on his feet—but the moment his boots touched the ground, his energy changed.

  “Stay behind me,” he said.

  “What’s wrong? She hadn’t felt anything, but it was her first time underground. What did she know?

  Kyne looked down the tunnel, his eyes
flashing. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Her heart began to beat faster. “Is it ratters?”

  “I hope not.”

  Hoping it wasn’t his paranoia talking, she followed him down the tunnel, keeping a safe distance.

  The mine burrowed deeper than Eloise had realised. More openings led away from the main tunnel and larger pockets showed just how much Kyne had dug.

  Had he really done this all on his own? It didn’t seem feasible, let alone safe.

  It wasn’t long before they came to the site of his recent workings. A jackhammer lay against the wall along with several buckets, a shovel, a pick, and a pair of floodlights on a bright yellow stand.

  “Shit,” Kyne hissed, looking upwards.

  A crack split the ceiling, the fault running through the chamber and into the support. At least it wasn’t ratters, but it was worse. A cave-in would damage and bury the opal, setting his work back months…or stopping it completely. She was smart enough to understand being buried alive wasn’t good for anyone.

  “I’m assuming that wasn’t here yesterday,” Eloise murmured, too afraid to speak any louder in case the vibrations dislodged the tonnes of rock above them.

  “No,” Kyne replied, “it wasn’t.”

  He placed his hand on the wall and looked up, his brow creasing.

  “Is there any way to support it?” she asked.

  “I’m no—” Whatever he was going to say was swallowed up by a thunderous crack, and rock began to fall around them.

  Eloise stumbled backwards, her heart lurching as a huge slab of stone came crashing down, and Kyne lunged towards her.

  There was no time to do anything to stop him. His arms wrapped around her and they fell to the ground, his body shielding hers from the impossible weight of a thousand tonnes of rock and debris.

  A deafening boom echoed through the tunnel and the lights flickered out, sending everything into darkness.

  Chapter 7

  The sun beat down on Drew’s back as he scurried barefoot through the scrub.

  He carried a heavy hessian bag that bashed against his leg as he leapt from stone to stone, trying to obscure his tracks. Using his shovel as a vault, he moved across the countryside like a rabbit, jumping and hopping like a crazy person.