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It was midday when Nick trudged back to the camp, unanswered questions and unfinished plans percolating in his mind. The sun was high overhead, baking the bush till it crackled and spat in the heat. When he heard a horse whinny, he stopped and stared. There it was, brown and twitching and hitched to a tree. Next to it stood a wagon draped with an array of dazzling silk. A pale, wiry man with grimy hair studied Jinx with interest.
Nick retreated behind an ironbark.
‘Come look at my silks, darling,’ the man said. ‘They’re top quality. And they’d go nice on a pretty little thing like you.’
Jinx had swapped her trousers and singlet for a long pink sarong that in Nick’s opinion made her look like a musk stick.
‘These treasures have come all the way from Auremos. Real luxurious they are, with the finest thread you’ll ever run your fingers over.’ The man spoke Korelian, but his accent was thick, and some of the words he used were hard for Nick to understand.
‘Maybe I’ll get one next time I’m in the city,’ Jinx said.
‘You do that. The name’s Felix. I’m well-known in Auremos.’
Nick leaned further around the ironbark. The words ‘city’ and ‘Auremos’ had caught his interest, but before he could venture out, a small crowd gathered around Felix and his shimmering material. Everyone else was dressed in bright colours like Jinx. It was as if they’d all woken up this morning and decided to have a day off from being earth-powdered warriors.
‘Now, now. Don’t shove,’ Felix said as several people gathered around the fabrics. ‘Nah, I’m awful sorry, but I can’t be taking no currency except coinage in exchange for my goods.’
When Jinx translated this, a few people muttered to one another and ambled away, taking their reed baskets and seedpod necklaces with them. Nick frowned. Where were the spears and hunting knives? Where were the bows and arrows?
‘Such a shame,’ Felix said to Jinx. ‘I don’t often come out westaways, but I stumbled upon this here track so thought I’d see where it led. Never knew there was a village here.’ He grinned, displaying an array of blackened teeth. ‘I guess coinage doesn’t make it out this far, eh, love?’
Jinx just shrugged.
Scratching behind his ear, Nick sat back on his haunches. He had to somehow grab that horse. Xanthe had said the nearest town was a day’s ride away. The city must be even farther. Maybe there he’d find the answers he was searching for.
When he peeked around the tree again, Jinx was gone. So was Felix. Nick strolled over to the horse and let it nuzzle his hand to get used to his scent then he stroked its mane and flanks, all the while checking the stirrups, reins and saddle with his eyes. The equipment was old-fashioned but looked pretty decent. He checked a couple of rucksacks in the wagon, searching for riding clothes that might fit him. One was full of copper bangles, another was packed with food. He was about to open a third when a muffled squeal made him jump. He spun around, anticipating accusations of theft to bludgeon his ears. No one was there. He heard another squeal, this time fainter. He scanned the area. Through the trees, he saw Felix wrestling with some sort of animal. Felix growled something unintelligible. Then Nick saw a flash of pink and heard a girl’s shriek.
Nick abandoned the rucksacks and bolted. Felix had one arm clasped around Jinx’s waist and a hand clamped over her mouth. This was all Nick had time to register before he slammed a fist into Felix’s face. Jinx broke free and scrambled away.
Felix regained his balance and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze flicking from Jinx to Nick. ‘She your sister, eh?’
Nick didn’t respond. He was still deciding whether to pulverise Felix or leave it to the warriors.
Felix seemed to interpret Nick’s silence for uncertainty, because he straightened and said, ‘You look hatched from the one brood. You half-breeds are all alike. Same mother, different fathers.’
Jinx charged. Nick saw a flash of metal. He caught Jinx’s dress, yanking her back as a knife filled his vision.
‘Well, well, well,’ Felix said, tapping the point of his knife to Nick’s copper necklace. ‘I knew there was something different about this here village. Why ain’t this secret little Bandála outpost marked on any Yándemar maps?’
Nick frowned. Bandála outpost? The red-powdered warriors were not even close to his idea of resistance fighters. And what did his dad’s copper necklace have to do with the Bandála?
Felix looked him up and down and added, ‘By the appearance of things but, you ain’t nothing special. Just a regular litter of useless savages. Especially you, runt.’
Then he spat. Spat right onto Nick’s cheek. The day became brighter as adrenalin coursed through Nick’s limbs. Felix had just called him a savage. A savage. Fury scorched Nick like an iron brand. With a flash, the blade spun away. A sharp jab shattered Felix’s nose. A right hook knocked him out cold.
‘Thanks, Nick,’ Jinx said. Leaves were tangled in her hair and her bottom lip was swollen.
‘Are you okay?’
She drew a shuddering breath but nodded. Nick took his shirt off and used it to wipe the spit from his face, then he and Jinx each hefted one of Felix’s legs up and lugged him towards the camp. As they passed the bonfire, people gaped. One of the warriors growled something and pointed at the unconscious Felix then at Nick’s bare chest.
‘Jinx, tell him what happened,’ Nick said.
She relayed the events to the warrior, whose mouth formed a grim line as he listened. More people ambled into the clearing, one with an emu carcass slung across his back. They had an animated conversation then shooed Nick and Jinx away.
‘Nick, why aren’t you wearing your shirt?’ David’s sharp accusation rang in his ears.
Nick gestured to the men by the fire. ‘No one else is.’ Then, noticing that David was dressed in a dusty blue tunic, he added, ‘You look ridiculous.’
‘We need to keep our tattoos hidden from the merchant.’
Judging from the missing weapons and wardrobe change of the entire village, Nick suspected they were trying to hide a lot more than a couple of Arai tattoos. Like a Bandála outpost, whatever that was.
‘The merchant? You mean Felix? He’s unconscious.’
‘Why? How?’
‘I hit him.’
‘You what?’
‘Hey! Before you split my eardrums open, maybe you’d like to stop for a second and ask me why?’
David glared at him with such ferocity that Nick took a step back.
‘And I have a really good reason too. He dragged Jinx into the bush. And he would’ve...hurt her if I hadn’t stopped him.’
‘Oh, gods. Is she okay?’ David asked, searching for Jinx, who had disappeared.
‘Yeah. Plus, he called us savages.’
David’s eyes hardened. ‘Did he now?’
Nick inspected his forearms for cuts, but there was no evidence of the attack. He’d escaped injury twice already, first with the assassin’s sword, and now with Felix’s knife.
‘David, something strange happened out there.’
‘What?’ David asked, still looking for Jinx.
Nick swallowed and rubbed his forearm, remembering the numbness. ‘Felix had a knife and I sort of...blocked it.’
Focusing on Nick, David’s expression grew intent. Interested. ‘With your bare arm?’
‘Yeah. I’ve done it twice now. That Arai assassin couldn’t hurt me either because of...whatever it was.’ Nick sighed. ‘I know it sounds crazy.’
This drew a mysterious, unexpected smile from David. ‘It’s not crazy. Your maléya protected you.’
‘Maléya,’ Nick repeated, then frowned. ‘Wait. You knew I had this maléya thing?’
‘All Yándi have maléya.’
Nick recalled feeling some resistance on his forearm, as if he was pushing a branch aside, but the blade hadn’t pierced his skin.
‘Your maléya protects you. It also allows you to see and hear the song gates,’ David said.
‘Hang on. If you need maléya to see the gates, and I’ve got maléya, why didn’t I come across that gate in the national park years ago?’
‘How often did you go up Striker’s Run?’
‘Never. It felt wrong, as if it was a haunted place. It always gave me the shivers. Mía’s stories scared me too.’
The warriors beckoned to David. Felix had regained consciousness in a fit of swearing, but when David stood over him, he spluttered into wide-eyed silence.
Nick spun away before the merchant saw his Arai tattoo and headed to the creek.