Authors: Traci Harding
The world beyond the sacred grove seemed a harsh place in comparison, and Kyle felt strangely drained and stimulated by all the information that he was processing.
‘That was the most abstruse, intense experience of my entire life!’ Zoe had the half-horrified, half-delighted smile of someone who had just disembarked from a roller coaster.
Kyle swung Zoe around and into his arms. ‘Marry me?’ Zoe’s eyes boggled. The question was too much to handle at a moment’s notice. Kyle knew it would be, but it made his next suggestion seem mild by comparison. ‘Or at least have sex with me at your earliest possible convenience?’
Zoe burst out laughing. ‘You read my mind.’ She hugged his muscle-bound body close and kissed him.
Something changed in that moment; their relationship sank to a deeper level and they both realised it was love.
‘I
will
marry you.’ She let him know she intended to take him up on the proposal. She knew he was what she wanted; how could any other man compete after today?
It was not Kyle’s idea of a serious marriage proposal, but it was good to learn that she was all for it. ‘No rush,’ he teased. ‘So long as we both understand where this is headed.’ He tried to sound possessive.
Zoe was growing rather fond of his games. ‘I’ll get you to the altar sooner or later, Kyle Burke, don’t you worry.’ The name just slipped out. ‘I mean … well, what is my second name to be?’
Kyle had a think about this. ‘Well, I’m a Burke now.’ He liked it better than Norton, which he’d inherited from a brief adoption period.
Zoe approved of his decision. Tim was approaching them and she saw by his smile that he’d heard the comment too.
‘Kyle.’ Tim called ahead for his attention. ‘You have to come with us now.’ Tim referred to Rex and himself. ‘If Zoe could give Kimba a lift back to town, that would be great.’
Zoe knew they were off to do secret men’s business and she knew they wouldn’t let her come along. ‘You be careful now, you hear.’
‘I’ve been through worse, believe me.’ Kyle backed away, reluctantly letting her hands go as he followed Tim back to the car.
Kyron waved to her as he pursued his charge.
Don’t be sad … if we’re successful tonight, I’ll give you special permission to enter into Turrammelin’s sacred place, and I’ll assure you safe passage.
Kyle could see that the promise satisfied Zoe by the broad smile on her face. ‘Could I interest you in a date tomorrow?’ he asked.
Zoe laughed out loud. Here they were, talking about marriage, and they hadn’t even dated. ‘Sure. If you’re up for it?’
Kyle looked at Tim for his professional opinion.
Tim looked at Rex and they both appeared to be amused by the question. ‘He’ll be good to go by the afternoon,’ he declared, and climbed into the car.
‘It’s a date then,’ Zoe confirmed. ‘I’ll see you
after
.’
‘A reward at the end of my quest … I’ll look forward to it.’ Kyle waved and joined his father and Rex in the car.
Kimba wandered over to where Zoe stood watching the vehicle depart; she was eager to know Zoe’s mind on her visit with Arika. ‘You’ve got more insight and balls than I first gave you credit for. I thought Arika’s tale would send you packing for sure, but it is clear it has got you thinking.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ Zoe replied, pleased to have proven herself to her new kinswoman. ‘And I’m thinking I need a good solicitor.’
‘For marital advice?’ Kimba jested.
‘Heavens, no.’ Zoe was amused but kind of delighted by the question. ‘I need to know more about land law.’
Kimba smiled broadly and fished in her pocket. ‘How fortunate that that’s what I have a degree in.’ She handed Zoe her card and after reading Kimba’s qualifications, Zoe laughed at the synchronicity.
‘You’re hired.’ She slapped a hand down on the older girl’s shoulder. ‘And while they’re off with the boy’s club, let’s see if we
girls
can figure out a way to save this place.’
Kimba liked Zoe’s attitude, ignorant though it was. ‘What the men are doing will prove every bit as beneficial to our cause as anything we might come up with. Higher forces decide the outcome of everything in this world. Without the support of the Great Spirits our efforts will come to naught.’
‘God, I believe that!’ Zoe wanted to kick herself. ‘I’m so sorry, I —’
Kimba laughed. ‘I know you do. Matong Bargi told me all about you … and my lost cousin,’ she teased with a grin, heading back to the car.
‘What did she say?’ Zoe could hardly contain her excitement, as she galloped after Kimba.
‘What do you want to know?’ Kimba asked, as if she couldn’t guess.
‘Well, you know …’ Zoe shrugged coyly. ‘Will Kyle and I end up together?’
Kimba laughed, as the girl had proven predictable. ‘I think you already know the answer to that.’
Zoe’s smile was making her face ache. ‘But did Arika predict whether it would be a lasting relationship?’ She wanted Kimba to be more specific.
‘You’re not ready to know the answer to that question,’ Kimba said, strolling around the car to the passenger door and hopping in. ‘The truth is too deep for a relationship so new.’
Now Zoe was doubly interested. ‘Look, I know I haven’t known Kyle long.’ She quickly climbed into the driver’s seat to appeal to Kimba to spill the beans. ‘Ours has been a short intense friendship and yet it is the most meaningful relationship of my life! Nothing you could tell me is going to scare me away from your cousin.’
Kimba still wasn’t entirely convinced.
‘I’ve been shot at, chased by police, confronted by a yowie, and introduced to an oracle, who informs me that my ancestors murdered her entire clan. If I was going to abandon you all, I think I would have done it already.’
‘You can see the yowie now?’ Kimba queried, as this was not the case in the morning.
‘Kyron granted me leave to see him on the way down here, just so that I’d know Kyle wasn’t conning me,’ Zoe explained. ‘Not that I ever thought he was.’ She gazed fondly into space, recalling all the otherworldly incidents that had inspired their romance. ‘I’d never met anyone as psychically gifted as Kyle, until today, when I met his great-grandmother.’ She started up the car.
‘I guess I’ve been a little hard on him,’ Kimba admitted. ‘I just hadn’t expected the lost one, the saviour of our ancestral lands, to be so
white
. Racist, I know, but there you have it.’ Kimba realised an apology was in order.
‘I wouldn’t worry. Kyle does have a tendency to rub people the wrong way upon first impression … me included,’ Zoe admitted, wanting to get back to their original subject. ‘Now, are you going to tell me what Arika said about my future with Kyle or not?’
Kimba shook her head. ‘Just know that it’s all good and as it should be.’
As the Aboriginal population in this, as in every area of Australia, had dwindled, the members of different neighbouring clans had been ordered, persuaded and bullied into a few small settlements in each district.
So it was that Kyle found himself at an Aboriginal community to meet the male elders of the local clan. This was the same settlement that Arika had been taken to to see out her pregnancy. All the members of this community had been done out of their ancestral lands long ago — Mount Turrammelin had been one of the last bastions where they had been allowed access to a sacred site. Since the systematic slaughter of the Turrammelin clan in the 1920s, the locals visited their sites to perform rites at great risk of arrest, a beating, or worse.
Kyle met many relatives this afternoon: uncles and aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews and in-laws. He bore the brunt of many jokes, half of which he didn’t understand as he didn’t speak the language. He was very pleased to have his father there to speak for him, though, because Tim brought an end to their mockery and disbelief quite a few times with a few well-chosen words; everyone would just suddenly stop laughing and look Kyle’s way, wearing the same awed stare Rex and Kimba had worn after speaking with Arika about him.
‘We cannot delay,’ Tim concluded in English for his son’s benefit. ‘We must make this happen tonight.’
‘Aw.’ The younger males threw down or placed aside their beers and bottles of drink. ‘There goes Saturday night,’ whined one.
Although a drink and a smoke had been offered to Kyle, he’d declined. He felt on a high and he knew his old vices would drag him back down if he went anywhere near them. As far as his old demons knew, Kyle was dead and he had no desire to attract them into his life again.
Still, most of the men here gathered seemed well disposed towards the idea of an impromptu sacred rite. The elders had much preparation and planning to do beforehand, so Tim offered to brief Kyle about the forthcoming event and invited him to take a walk.
‘I suppose Arika has already prepared you for tonight,’ Tim asked, unsure of how in-depth this discourse had to be.
‘Book did, yeah,’ Kyle confirmed with a casual shrug and a nod, not really too worried about it.
Tim found Kyle’s easygoing attitude amusing. ‘I was far more nervous than you are about my audience with Baiame,’ he admitted. ‘You’re about to meet a mighty architect of the universe. Don’t you find that daunting?’
Kyle stopped, disconcerted. ‘Well, I didn’t until you put it that way.’
Tim laughed out loud. ‘It will not be at all as you expect, and you shall remember only that which the Great Spirit deems essential to your quest.’
‘Are we going to Mount Turrammelin to perform the rite?’
‘We are going into the mountain,’ Tim replied.
Goody, goody, goody, goody, goody, goody, goody!
Kyle looked behind him to see Kyron doing a happy dance. ‘Ron seems very keen on that idea.’
‘The secret cave was once his home and Turramulli has been banished from there a long time. I’m sure tonight has seemed an eternity in coming for your guide.’ Tim let Kyle know that he believed in the yowie, just as Kyle believed in the bunyip.
‘So what did Baiame tell you?’ Kyle probed, hoping to learn a little more about the great entity he was to meet.
Tim’s smile was a little strained as he thought long and hard on the question. ‘I was told about you.’
‘What about me?’ Kyle pursued the topic, although Tim clearly didn’t want to.
‘Many, many good things,’ Tim assured him, before his mood darkened a little. ‘Your mother’s death was never mentioned, however. I thought I was to have something to do with your development, but …’ He took a deep breath and decided not to go there. ‘I was warned that you’d be fiercely independent. I just didn’t realise
how
independent.’
‘Forget the past, Dad.’ The word just slipped out of Kyle’s mouth and surprisingly it didn’t feel awkward to say it. ‘I’m over it. It’s repressing and it will cause dis-ease in you if you hang onto it for too long. So, do us both a favour and give it up. I bear you no malice, or my mother either.’ Emotional tears were welling: Kyle felt like his being had been plugged into an energy grid ever since his encounter with Burn-a-debt. Pivotal revelations seemed to trigger a surge of emotion, which manifested in his physical form as a rise in temperature accompanied by a flood of tears. ‘I’m really happy to finally know who I am.’
Tim couldn’t keep his distance any more. He’d wanted to hug his boy for some twenty years and the moment finally felt right.
‘I don’t know why I’m crying,’ Kyle mumbled. ‘I’m happy, really.’ He pulled away from the long silent embrace first, to find Tim teary eyed as well.
‘Happiness is catchy,’ Tim explained. ‘I never thought I’d ever have your friendship.’
‘Well, you do.’ Kyle slapped his father’s shoulder. ‘No need to doubt that,
ever
.’
Their stroll led to a group of tall gums, which provided some nice shade from the afternoon sun.
‘So do I have to do anything special to prepare for tonight?’ Kyle sat himself down at the base of one of the trees.
‘When I take you back to the gathering, all your male kin will come together.’ Tim sat at the base of a tree close by. ‘Just be respectful and you’ll fare well … in fact, your success has already been foreseen.’
‘By Matong Bargi?’ Kyle asked.
Tim shook his head. ‘By me, during the same rite you are about to take.’
‘Did you partake in this rite in order to marry my mother?’ Kyle wondered what Tim’s motivation had been. ‘Or was it Book’s encouragement that led you to participate?’
‘Book had a lot to do with it,’ Tim granted. ‘Although I didn’t undertake the rite in order to marry her, I undertook it in order to understand Alex’s way of life, and I learnt so much more than I ever imagined I would. A brush with the divine can’t help but change a man.’
‘Are you talking about Baiame, or my mother?’ Kyle suspected the latter by the vague smile on Tim’s face.
‘I knew her for less than a year of my forty-five years on this earth and I had seen nothing as divine in this world until you showed up. I have never quite forgiven Baiame for not warning me of her death.’
‘She is very beautiful,’ Kyle conceded, his gaze lost in space as he summoned her image to mind. He emerged from his reminiscing to find Tim staring at him very strangely.
‘You spoke with her, you said?’
‘She told me you’d met at Turrammelin, been married there and that I had been conceived there.’ Kyle conveyed what he remembered of their conversation.
Tim chuckled. ‘Not necessarily in that order. I found out about you the night we were wed.’
‘Some wedding present!’ Kyle hammed it up.
‘It was the best wedding present I could have asked for,’ Tim assured him, leaning his back against the tree to stare at the clear blue sky. ‘Those were good times.’
‘So what happened?’ Kyle fished for the part of the saga that had only been touched upon thus far.
‘James Nivok.’ Tim looked at Kyle. ‘I would never have imagined that one man could do me so much damage, especially someone I originally got along with so well. I suppose I did turn on James unexpectedly, but had he not lied to his brother, David, then I would not have had to go behind his back.’