Authors: Dale Furse
Instantly the mutters and whispers stopped.
Nell recognised him. Kandar looked just as he did when she had connected with her father in the library.
‘Sit down, Nadar,’ Kandar said to the murky grey corl.
He didn’t. He pointed at Nell. ‘There is the proof of what I say. The child is cursed and must be taken to the restoration immediately.’
‘I said, sit.’
Nadar looked around the tables at all the other councillors. Only one phib, from the table on Nell’s right, stood in his defence. He had short, fair hair and the same
bronzed skin but he was fat with no neck. ‘I agree with Nadar,’ he flapped. ‘The child and everyone on Corl, Gramlax and Linque must be protected.’
‘Be seated,’ Kandar said. ‘Now!’
At his low commanding voice, both fell back into their seats. Nadar whispered something to the yellow corl next to him. Nell didn’t have to be a mind reader to know it was something nasty about her. She returned the yellow corl’s hateful stare.
Just like the corl woman at the café, Kandar’s mouth was full of numerous pointy teeth when he smiled at Nell. ‘You must be confused,’ he said. ‘I will explain. It has become common practice to test children of mixed wintar and phib species to prove or disprove the existence of dual parental traits. The manifestation of multiple abilities may be dangerous, not only for you, but others.’
Nell gasped. They all thought she was cursed just like Cay-meka said. She looked up at her father’s face. The worry lines across his forehead were deeper. He kept his troubled face turned towards Kandar.
Kandar continued. ‘However, I don’t believe there is any need for fear. I will let Dar-tern of the family Dar, father of Dar-Nellen, decide if and when she is to be tested. Dar-tern, I must ask the child to remain on Corl for at least three months to allay any concerns once and for all.’
Nell’s father nodded with obvious relief.
‘Do you have any questions?’ Kandar asked Nell.
She had many, but knew one could not wait. ‘Can I read the
Book of Wexkia?’
She looked at Nadar.
Everyone gaped at one another as if she had spoken in a different language. She looked up at her father’s perplexed face. ‘Haven’t you heard of it?’ she asked him.
‘No, I haven’t,’ he said, returning his gaze to the tables. ‘Has anyone heard of such a book?’
Not one from any of the three tables answered, but all shook their heads and looked at Nell with bewildered expressions. Nadar also shook his head. She couldn’t contain her anger. ‘He lies,’ she yelled, and pointed at the murky corl.
‘How dare you,’ Nadar said, standing once more.
The room exploded; everyone talked at the same time. Nell couldn’t make out what any of them said. A young wintar gazed curiously at her. A slight smile played on his lips. At the phib table, a skinny hook-nosed woman scowled at Nell.
‘Stop!’ Kandar ordered.
The room hushed but Nadar still stared menacingly at Nell.
Kandar continued. ‘I’m afraid we are not aware of any such book. Why do you want it, sweet child?’
Him calling her sweet child, and not cursed child, gave Nell heart. ‘It is a book about how wintars,’ she looked from the wintar table to the phib table, ‘and phibs were once one race with all the same powers.’
The room erupted once more but this time there was no quieting it. Some stood and yelled. ‘She is cursed. Lock her up. She must be taken to the restoration,’ the skinny phib yelled from her seat, ‘We’ll all be killed.’
Alarm flooded Nell’s body at the hate, fright and scorn that filled the room. Through the mayhem, she noticed neither Kandar, nor the curious young wintar’s eyes held any venom.
Her legs shook and her bottom lip quivered. When she looked at Sam he was shaking his head and his expression told her she should have kept quiet. Cay-meka’s
eyes bulged and her mouth gaped. She looked like a stunned mullet.
Kandar shouted, ‘Silence.’
Nell watched Nadar with narrowed eyes. He sat down in his chair and folded his arms as if he was pleased with the events. She frowned. He was big trouble.
Kandar gave Nell’s father a resigned look before he spoke to Nell. ‘I think it would be in everyone’s interest if your father took you to the restoration for testing.’
Her father’s arm tightened around her shoulders and her stomach filled with dread at the memory of what Cay-meka had told her. The restoration thingy was some sort of prison. That’s where they had the other girl locked up. She gazed back up to her father’s face. He was still frowning and horror filled Nell as he gave a small nod in Kandar’s direction.
‘Dad,’ Nell whispered. ‘I don’t want to go. Please. Cay-meka told me about the other girl.’
The irritation crossing her father’s face had Nell in a dilemma. Was it because of Cay-meka or was it meant for her?’
‘Nell, you can trust Kandar. He is your friend as much as he is mine.’
‘Why doesn’t he believe me about the book? And why don’t you believe me? I have seen it and that corl, Nadar, has it.’
‘Nell, stop. You’re only making things worse. Do not speak again.’
As her father spoke, Nadar’s face wore an ugly smile. That’s what he wanted. He wanted her locked up. Nell glared at him and wanted to scream, he has the book.
‘Listen to me, it will be all right,’ her father said quietly. ‘I will not leave your side.’
Panic gripped Nell. She needed to show these people the book. Why would her father let them put her away? Was he frightened of his own daughter? She squirmed out of her father’s grasp. Her heart thundered in her ears as she ran down the aisle past Sam and Cay-meka’s stunned faces.
Nell yelled at the elevator, ‘Carlan!’ She had no idea where the word came from but the elevator opened.
She turned back to the room as she stepped into the elevator. Everyone was on their feet. Their voices became gibberish in the mayhem. Sam jumped in beside her. Maybe she was having another nightmare and she would wake up any moment.
Cay-meka shouted, ‘Dar-tern, please find Mother.’ She only just managed to squeeze in before the doors closed.
Before the doors shut completely, immense emerald wings erupted out of the young wintar’s back. Sick in the stomach, she was sure he was going to chase her just like in her nightmares.
T
he elevator doors opened to Corl’s night. The lights, noises, music and laughter of the trading corridor smashed in on Nell’s senses. She didn’t care that a passing young phib male took a second look at her and her tear-stained face.
She tried to block out the sounds of laughter and music. What was she going to do? The excitement around her was an insult to her grief over her treacherous father and his friends.
Neither Sam nor Cay-meka spoke. Nell glanced at her cousin. She looked like she was pumping up the nerve to say something. Nell ignored her and thought about the corl, Nadar. He had the proof she wasn’t lying. Why would he refuse to tell the council about the book?
With the
Book of Wexkia
, other images skipped in and out of her mind. She tried desperately to cling to the ones she thought she might need: Nadar; the book; the words in the book; Nadar yelling at the ugly wintars of her nightmares. ‘Catch her or kill her.’ His voice was cold and raspy.
A deep ache appeared in her stomach. She groaned and her hands flew to the top of her stomach under her shirt. She gasped. The pain disappeared.
‘Are you all right?’ Sam asked, sounding more like his father than ever.
Nell stayed perfectly still for a moment longer. She shook her head at her foolishness. It would have gone away anyway.
She gazed hard at Sam. ‘If I don’t get that book, no one’ll ever believe me.’
‘We’ve got to go back,’ Cay-meka said, her eyes worried.
‘What? Do you think I’ll hurt you?’ Nell couldn’t believe the menace in her voice. She laughed a surprisingly evil laugh, ‘You’d better go back, Cay-meka, or I just might.’
A dark cloud passed over Cay-meka’s sea-blue eyes but she stood her ground. It impressed Nell that her newly found whining cousin didn’t run away. She laughed again without a hint of malice.
‘Maybe you should go.’ Nell tried to sound pleasant and not in the least crazy. ‘You too,’ she said to Sam. ‘That Nadar’s got the book and I’ve got to get it off him.’ She started down the corridor.
‘Not without me, you don’t,’ Sam said, and trotted up beside her.
‘Or me.’
Nell stopped and raised an eyebrow at Cay-meka.
‘I—I want to see the book for myself and—and if you’re not going insane, I can tell them that when they find us.’
‘And if I am?’
Cay-meka looked at Sam. ‘Sam doesn’t think you are and he knows you best, and you don’t think you are, do you?
Nell had to smile at her cousin’s tiny voice. She shook her head.
Cay-meka held Nell’s gaze, ‘Then I don’t think you are.’
Sam grinned at Nell. ‘We’re we going?’
‘We could go back to the skark,’ Cay-meka said.
‘Anywhere, as long as it’s away from this noise,’ Nell said, and continued down the corridor. Stopping suddenly, she asked, ‘What about your mother, Cay-meka?’
‘I think they only took her to make you come to Corl so they could put you away. They knew you’d want to find your father. I can feel her here and he will too, now that he knows to look out for her.’
‘You could be right,’ Nell said, looking in every direction for anyone who might be following. ‘But he’ll also be looking for us, so hurry up if you’re coming.’
As they pushed their way through the crowd, Sam sidled close to Nell and whispered in her ear. ‘You really believe her? She could be a spy.’
Nell gave her friend a look that said, now-
you’re
-being-ridiculous. She stopped at the same elevator that first brought them from the skark.
‘Are we going back home?’ Sam asked. He dropped out his bottom lip.
‘No, I just need somewhere quiet to think. We can hide here for a while. Carlan,’ Nell said to the elevator.
‘What’s that mean?’ Sam asked.
‘I think it means open.’
Cay-meka nodded.
Sam frowned. ‘How do you know?’
‘I have no idea,’ Nell said. ‘But I think I’m going to know a lot more by the time I’m seventeen.’
Sam shook his head as he stepped into the elevator. ‘So you are changing, then?’
‘Yep. Scary, isn’t it?’
When Nell stepped on the moving walkway, the hairs all over her body quivered. It wasn’t until they were nearly at the skark that she saw what put her body on alert. Three black-haired wintars skulked amongst the skarks ahead and
to the right. Before Nell could react, they unfurled great wings and flew above them. They didn’t look friendly.
‘Run,’ Nell yelled.
They all wheeled around and ran back against the walkway. The wintars remained above them, laughing. Nell jumped off the walkway and made better progress. She looked back over her shoulder and stopped. Sam and Cay-meka dangled from two separate sets of orange talons. They flew over her head with Cay-meka screaming.
Nell looked around the ship-park. Surely somebody would hear the girl.
A scrawny, long faced wintar played with Nell as a cat would a squeaky toy. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her but he easily flew ahead of her. When she took a different route, he flew above her and circled.
‘Run, little girl,’ he jeered after the third direction change.
He flew in front of her once more.
‘Stop playing and get her,’ a voice rasped from Nell’s left. Before she could search for the source of the sound, the scrawny wintar lunged. He caught Nell’s shoulders in his claws with so much force, she let out a cry. The pain burned her shoulders and she wondered how many bones had broken.
He took her high above the rows of skarks and she was thankful he adjusted his grip on her shoulders. The pain eased and was replaced by a sucking sensation, as if his claws held her in a vacuum. So that was how they carried their children around without hurting them.
The scrawny wintar flew over a grey wall into the countryside and soon caught up to his comrades. Cay-meka was quiet but Sam threatened to break his captor’s legs as soon as they were back on ground.
Nell thought they would be taken back to the
chambers but they flew in the wrong direction. The thought that her father had given them permission to take her to the prison couldn’t be put aside. Tears welled in her eyes. She’d be alone. No family, no friends.
Weeping quietly, Nell was certain her heart had died. The idea that her father knew the changes would happen to her and didn’t tell her sooner didn’t help. It was probably why he hardly spent any time with her. He’d known from the moment she was born. A violent sob raked her body. That’s why he wished she’d died instead of her mother. Why did he even bother keeping her at all?
Her thoughts turned to the wintars. They had lain in wait for Nell, but how did they know where she would go? Cay-meka. She was the one who suggested they go back to the skark.
Their captors laughed as Sam shouted at them to let them go.
Nell caught sight of her cousin’s terrified face. Cay-meka’s mouth was wide and she looked like she was still screaming, but there was no sound. Nell supposed she’d run out of breath, hadn’t had the brains to inhale. The podgy wintar who held Cay-meka was the same one Nell saw from the bedroom window at home, the one that took Dar-seldra. The girl’s lips turned blue and Nell fought her conscience. The argument to let her cousin pass out was tempting. She had taken Nell into a trap. Nell’s lips tightened and Cay-meka’s mouth darkened.
Nell sighed. She couldn’t hang by and watch. ‘Hey,’ she yelled up to her captor. ‘My cousin isn’t breathing. Take me closer.’
He descended low enough to see for himself, gave a low whistle and called to the orange-winged wintar. ‘Hey, Galag. Shake that phib. She’s not breathing.’
The fat wintar holding Cay-meka looked down at his prisoner and started shaking vigorously. Cay-meka’s panic-stricken face contorted in pain but she didn’t appear to start breathing again.
Nell yelled again, ‘Take me closer.’
Her captor positioned her so that she faced Cay-meka. Without any hesitation, Nell slapped the girl hard on the cheek. ‘Breathe, you little traitor, breathe.’ She slapped her again. Cay-meka took a quick, sharp breath and coughed.