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Nick landed hard on one of the boulders, jarring his ankles. Cal slammed down beside him and let out a strangled cry. Artemis toppled past them both and fell straight through the song gate. Nick shoved Cal off the ledge into the shimmering air and jumped after him. For a second, the drone blasted Nick’s ears. Then he splashed into the waterhole and the sound vanished as he sank beneath the water. An arrow whizzed past his face in a spray of bubbles. He swam to the surface, scrambled back up the slope. He was still clutching David’s Bandála necklace. He scrubbed it on his trousers till it shone then held it between the rocks beneath the song gate. Arrows hurtled past him and plopped into the waterhole.
‘Come on,’ he said through clenched teeth. He barely had enough strength to hold up the copper disc, let alone the energy to shield.
‘Come on, come on, come on!’
Another volley grazed his dreadlocks and he covered his head with his free hand. This was it. Soon the Arai would reach through the song gate and drag him back to kill him. Or worse, keep him alive to use as leverage against the Bandála.
Several agonising seconds passed before the humming ceased. Nick peered between the boulders to the ridge above where the snow gums rustled in the morning breeze. The gate had vanished. He rolled onto his back and, with trembling fingers, threaded David’s broken Bandála necklace beside his own. He clutched the beaten scrap of metal, and sobbed.
When his tears were spent, he made his way through the waterhole, crawling onto the far bank to collapse next to Artemis and Cal.
‘Are you alright?’ Artemis asked.
Nick shook his head, sat up and hugged her, feeling as though his heart was about to crack.
‘Are they gone?’ she asked.
‘Yep.’
‘Where are we?’
‘I have no idea.’
They were safe and alive. They’d escaped Thanos, the Arai had failed to seize Auremos, and the Bandála had not been crushed. That was all that mattered to Nick right now. He filled his lungs with sweet morning air and gave a shuddering sigh.
Cal rolled onto his side and groaned.
‘What’s wrong?’ Artemis asked, crouching over him.
Wincing, he replied, ‘I think my ribs are broken.’
‘Shit,’ Nick muttered. ‘Hang on.’
Nick tried to stand, but his knees wobbled and he fell over. His second attempt was more successful, though he had to hold onto a tree trunk for support. When he looked down, he was startled by what he saw. His trousers had slash marks all over them, which must have happened when he’d pushed past the Arai. His shields had protected his skin but not his clothes.
‘Can you walk, Cal?’ he asked.
Cal sat up, hissing with the effort. ‘I think so.’
Nick and Artemis helped Cal to his feet and together they limped off. They passed a rusty sign, which Nick paused to read. He had to blink several times before he could get his eyes to focus on the words. It was a warning about falling rocks. Down the bottom was an arrow next to the word ‘carpark’. The sign was written in English.
‘This way,’ he said.
They trudged down the dirt path, circled a clutch of thorny banksias, and stumbled to a halt. Artemis and Cal gazed in wary astonishment at the rusted hubcaps, dented bumper bar and scratched red bonnet of a Landrover. Headlights illuminated a corrugated tin toilet block.
‘Get a move on, Maddy!’ an old woman shouted in English.
‘There’s no loo paper!’ a girl called.
The woman dislodged a box of tissues from under the passenger seat and lobbed it over the toilet door.
‘Thanks, Tilda!’
Tilda, the old woman, turned back around and stopped dead. ‘Holy mackerel. Where did you kids come from?’
Nick groped through the exhausted recesses of his brain for a plausible explanation. He looked at Artemis and Cal for inspiration. Cal clasped his chest like he was trying to hold his ribcage together, Artemis’s face was a mess of ochre and blood, and they were both dripping wet and shivering. Before Nick could respond, the toilet door crashed open and a girl walked across the gravel, adjusting her blue beanie.
‘Cool body paint,’ she said, staring. ‘Is that from a party?’
Nick glanced down at his bare chest. ‘Um...’
Cal coughed and doubled over.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Maddy asked.
Nick said the first thing that came into his head. ‘We were camping and Cal fell down a ravine. Artemis and I cut ourselves up trying to get him out. We reckon he’s got broken ribs.’
Tilda tutted. ‘Oh, you poor things. Maddy, grab the picnic rug, will you? These kids are freezing. Get in the car, loves. That’s the way.’
While Maddy rummaged through the junk in the boot, Nick helped Cal and Artemis with their seatbelts.
‘Nick, what’s this thing we’re in?’ Artemis whispered.
‘It’s a...really modern cart. With no horses,’ Nick replied. ‘Don’t worry. They’re taking us to see a doctor.’
Maddy slammed the boot shut. Cal and Artemis flinched.
‘Here,’ Maddy said, handing Nick a blanket. ‘Tell your friend to keep still. I broke my ribs once falling off a horse. Hurt like hell.’
Tilda glanced at them in the rear vision mirror. ‘I’ll try and drive smoothly, loves.’
‘Thank you. You have no idea what we’ve...’ Nick’s eyes watered and he cleared his throat. ‘Thanks.’
She smiled, her face crumpling under soft folds of wrinkles. The engine growled and the Landrover lurched. Cal tensed. Artemis grabbed Nick’s arm.
‘Relax,’ Nick murmured, switching back to Korelian. ‘We’re safe now.’
A sign flashed by, and amongst the list of place names and distances was Cooma. He’d never been to Cooma, but he knew it was somewhere between Canberra and the ski fields. He wondered fleetingly if it snowed in Cooma. He hoped it did. He’d never seen snow, and was curious to know whether it was as cold and soft as it looked in photos. Then he wondered what month it was. May? June? He’d lost track of time while in Auremos.
Cal and Artemis watched the landscape zoom past till their eyelids drooped and they fell asleep. The hot air blasting from the Landrover’s dash board made Nick drowsy. He was aware of every wounded part of himself, from his right ankle, which felt as though someone had driven a stake through the joint, to his face, which had copped so many hits in the last week he was surprised it was still attached. His ochre-crusted dreadlocks were drying into stiff clumps, and he suspected he’d have to crack a few joints to get himself moving again.
Right now, though, he didn’t care if his body fused to the vinyl seat. Artemis’s cheek on his shoulder and Cal’s shallow breaths beside him were piercing reminders of what he still had – and what he’d come so close to losing.
The engine’s growl changed pitch and the car slowed down. Cal grimaced with the movement and opened his eyes.
‘How are your ribs?’ Nick asked.
‘Still broken.’
Tilda leaned forward in the driver’s seat as if this would help her see past the semitrailer in front. She glanced in the rear vision mirror and raised her bushy grey eyebrows.
‘Everybody alright back there?’ she asked.
‘We’re fine, thanks,’ Nick replied in English. He had to think about each word before saying it. Switching between languages made him feel nauseous.
Maddy twisted around and took off her beanie. She was about fifteen or sixteen, with blue eyes, silver piercings in her ears and nose, and dark red curls that tumbled around her face like two-minute noodles.
‘What language do they speak?’ she asked, glancing at Cal and Artemis.
Before Nick could answer, Tilda braked and the car came to a standstill. Some drivers were braving the frosty mountain air and climbing the embankment at the side of the road to determine the cause of the traffic jam.
‘You kids wait here. I’ll see if I can find out what the holdup is,’ Tilda said. As she climbed out, an icy gust swept into the car. Nick tucked the blanket under his chin and hugged his bare chest.
Artemis sat up and yawned.
‘What’s happening?’ Cal asked.
Nick replied in Korelian, ‘I don’t know yet.’
Maddy swung around again. ‘You weren’t really camping, were you?’
His brain switched language gears.
‘You need pretty decent equipment this time of year,’ she continued. ‘But all you’ve got are the clothes you’re wearing, and they aren’t alpine-grade. It’s amazing you lasted the night.’
He thought about everything they’d endured in the last twelve hours and muttered, ‘No kidding.’
Tilda returned, sliding into the driver’s seat with an exasperated sigh. ‘There’s a tree across the road. They’ve got chainsaws out but it’ll take ages to shift. We’re better off going the back way.’
Maddy groaned. ‘That’ll take forever.’
‘We can ask for a lift from someone else here,’ Nick said, disentangling himself from the blanket. ‘You’ve already helped us enough.’
Tilda shook her head. ‘I’m not about to leave three injured kids on the side of the road.’
‘It’s not like they’re dying,’ Maddy said. ‘Can’t you drive them into town tomorrow?’
Tilda tapped the steering wheel and scrutinised Nick, Cal and Artemis in the rear vision mirror. ‘Alright,’ she replied.
She steered the Landrover into a U-turn and sped down the empty lane. A few kilometres up the road, she turned off the highway, and fences, gates and driveways began to appear. A large white sign announced: Welcome to Mallana! Population: 1304. The trees gave way to a strip of brick and weatherboard shops, and at the central roundabout the town clock read eight-thirty.
Tilda pulled up outside the bakery and shifted around in her seat. ‘How are you holding up, love?’ she asked Cal, who looked to Nick for a translation.
‘You alright?’ Nick asked in Korelian.
‘The pain’s not too bad if I don’t breathe deeply.’
Artemis chewed on a nail. ‘Is there somewhere we can stay till Cal gets better?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Nick replied, then switched to English. ‘Cal says he’s alright.’
With a nod, Tilda said, ‘Then I’ll take you to the police station. I’m sure you’ll want to call your parents.’
Nick’s guts clamped. What if the police thought he’d murdered Mía? Or, worse, if they took Cal and Artemis away? Neither of them could speak English, and they didn’t have any form of identification.
‘Um, could you maybe just drop us at the train station?’ he asked.
‘Mallana doesn’t have a train station,’ Tilda said.
‘Then a bus stop?’
She peered at him, lips pressed together. Maddy’s gaze flicked between Nick, Cal and Artemis with curiosity.
‘It’s just that...well, Artemis and Cal...they’re not from around here, and the police might...not understand.’
Tilda switched off the engine. The rumbling motor died, the heating stopped, and silence crowded the car.
‘Where are they from?’ Tilda asked.
Nick swallowed.
‘You all speak a language I’ve never heard before.’ Her voice was calm and deliberate, like a teacher laying out the evidence before issuing a detention. ‘What language is it, Nick?’
He felt Artemis and Cal’s stares on him, but he didn’t look at them. He had to give Tilda something, otherwise he’d have to explain himself to the police, and he was fairly sure a story about song gates, Bandála warriors and Arai assassins would only land him in more trouble.
With a sigh, he replied, ‘It’s called Korelian.’
‘Where’s it spoken?’
‘Er...’ He glanced at Cal and Artemis, whose expressions told him they sensed something was wrong.
‘Don’t worry,’ he murmured in Korelian. ‘We’re not in any danger.’
‘Is that old woman threatening you?’ Artemis asked. ‘Do you want me to—?’
‘No! No. I can handle it.’
‘It sounds like Greek,’ Maddy said. ‘A girl in my maths class sometimes speaks Greek with her cousin. It’s pretty close to that.’
Tilda shook her head in a way that convinced Nick that she knew a heap more about languages than the rest of them put together.
‘It’s not Greek. Not quite, anyway.’ She drew a deep breath and studied Cal for a moment then said, ‘I’ll put you in the cottage tonight. We usually rent it out to holidaymakers, but bookings are pretty light on this time of year. You can all have hot showers, some decent food and a good night’s sleep. But this is for one night only, understand? And in exchange, I want the truth. Otherwise, I call the police. Fair enough?’
Nick hesitated, then he nodded. ‘Fair enough.’
‘Right. Good. Let’s get some breakfast. Are croissants okay?’
‘Um...yes. Fine. Thank you.’
‘Come on, Maddy. I’ll need an extra set of hands.’
Tilda and Maddy got out of the car and disappeared into the bakery.
Nick relaxed and said in Korelian, ‘Are you two hungry?’
Artemis stared. ‘That was a negotiation over food? You made it seem like it was something way more serious.’
‘Food is serious. I got us beds for the night too.’
She flopped back with a groan. ‘God, I can’t wait to get a proper sleep. I’m so tired.’
‘We don’t have anything to bargain with,’ Cal said. ‘What did you offer?’
‘The truth,’ Nick replied.
Artemis straightened. ‘Really? Isn’t that a bit...risky?’
‘It’s all I’ve got. Unfortunately, certain details are going to get lost in translation.’
Cal chuckled then winced. ‘Ow.’
Artemis peered out at the mist-shrouded mountains and tucked her fringe behind her ears. The skin on her knuckles was broken. ‘We could be anywhere,’ she murmured. ‘How will we get back home?’
Careful not to rearrange the blanket too much, Nick prised the map out of his boot, unwound the oilskin cover, and ran his fingers across the parchment. The corners were a little damp, but the writing was still legible, and the red song gate markings winked up at him like gold dust in the dirt.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’ll find a way.’