Catastrophe in the Firesnake Page 11

  The ground vibrated, and another explosion shook the island.

  Akachi glanced up towards the ash and falling debris. “I have bullet and explosion protection on my aurashield. I’ll come with you.”

  Her thoughts froze. Explosion protection? He’d come too? Not many would risk their lives for strangers. “Lie beside me.”

  He pushed her to the edge of the boulder to give him space to lie on the rock. He remained sitting. “Will my aurashield protect us at the volcano?”

  “No. Only here at the river.”

  “If you could turn into a spider, does that mean you can give us safety clothing for the mission?”

  She nodded.

  “Choose Mayleedian Secret Service fire-suits and MSS aurashields for explosions and bullets.”

  Her breath hitched, and she paused to examine his clothing. Casual, not hi-tech.

  She told him about the breathing technique, and he took the spare amethyst from her pocket. He held her hand, and they travelled from within each other’s aurashields.

  They floated above the ocean, upwind from the volcano. Brown steam exploded from the seawater beneath them as a boiling mudslide with tumbling boulders gushed down the north face.

  The caldera shone bright red on the south side where it had blown. It spat lava, gas, and steam.

  The wind blew clouds of ash and hot gas south devastating everything in its path. The pyroclastic flow rolled over forests and villages.

  Lava cascaded down river channels.

  Her spirit-body could move and feel, so she felt the flutter of her belly. She clasped her hands tight in prayer. “The camp is north-west, and the lava’s flowing south-east.”

  They flew farther north over the ocean, and increased altitude, remaining outside the flying debris, lava, and gas. The MSS-wear protected them from heat.

  The west coast had been scorched black and grey like the charcoal in a barbecue. Trees blackened like burned twigs, and sand transformed to molten glass.

  Akachi grabbed her as they floated above the area.

  Labourers and guards with melted skin lay strewn amongst the wreckage. Bodies floated in the ocean like boiled meat in a Jerjen hotpot.

  Aedre pressed a palm against her chest and gasped to control her breath.

  They decreased altitude over the area until the MSS warning alarms rang out.

  Akachi took her by the shoulders and pulled her around to face him. “If anyone is alive down there, they’ll soon die. Can you transport people with you?”

  “No. It doesn’t work that way.”

  “We don’t have long. You wanna save Gus and the villagers, we’ve gotta find that key.”

  She nodded. “Hold my hands.” Then, she mind-spoke, “I intend to travel with Akachi to the crow woman in Eeporyo.”

  ***

  Biluglass glow balls lit the cavern from notches between stalagmites, stalactites, and columns. A six-foot-tall sat sharpening a knife on a swollen rock formation.

  Apart from her human arms and hands, everything about her was birdlike. Nothing like Sharr Shuvuu—no human face, legs, or feet. On the ground beside her lay a jumble of swords, daggers, and arrowheads. Three amethyst stars sat on a shelf of hardened mineral.

  Aedre squeezed Akachi’s hand in the silence. She moved closer and reached out, but Akachi gripped her wrist and nodded towards the weapons.

  The crow woman looked up. Her hands froze, then she continued to rub her knife with a whetstone. “Roobish, you came back. You’re much younger. Oh, Aedre, I mean. You came.”

  “The volcano in Giok has blown ten years too early. I need that key. Now.”

  The crow stood slowly and perched a taloned foot on the boulder. Her wings covered her arms. “No. That was a ploy to make you come. Roobish never really planned to save the villagers. You need to collect the keys so we can dispose of them.”

  Aedre narrowed her vision at the crow. “If Roobish was me, I’m sure she did want to help them. I became paralysed, saving Bamdar’s slaves. I’m sure Roobish would’ve too had she known the means of travel.”

  “Rubbish. The Lass only had one intention—helping the stinking Satsang invade, until she met me, that is. I put her on the straight and narrow. Those Satsang are dangerous.”

  “We don’t have time.” Akachi pointed at the stars. “Those are the keys?”

  The crow nodded. “Three of the eight.”

  “Give us one,” he said.

  “You can’t carry things by river and rain,” Aedre said. “Only through pyramids in time travel. But she knows where the key in Giok is hidden.”

  Akachi glared at the crow woman. “Where’s the key?”

  “I won’t tell you.” The crow woman pulled back her wings to exhibit an array of daggers in a holster running down her feathered chest.

  Akachi’s eyes bulged.

  The crow closed her wings again. “If you let me tell you why we need to collect all eight keys and demolish them, you’ll understand why no one should use the pyramids.”

  Akachi’s aurashield shone, and a spear appeared in his hands.

  Aedre tugged on his wrist. “Don’t.”

  The crow threw a dagger at him.

  He grunted and stumbled backwards as it wedged into his chest.

  Aedre screamed and dropped to her knees, clutching his hands. “Take us back to the river.”

  Holding hands, they flew out of the cavern, through tunnels, and out of a cave. As they lifted into the cloudless Eeporyovian sky, Akachi's grip vanished, and so did he.

  White light flooded Aedre’s surroundings. “This isn’t the river. Take us back to Haunted River!”

  Two figures on the horizon floated towards her. Another Aedre held hands with Mum.

  Her pulse raced, and she took deep breaths. “Mum?”

  “Aedre. Sweetie.”

  “I’ve missed you so much. What’s going on?”

  Mum nodded at her look-alike, who responded. “Aedre. I’m Roobish. I lived the same life as you before Somare asked you to teach union. The reason Somare got you out was so that Bamdar wouldn’t get his filthy hands on you while discovering time travel, and so you’d help the people from Somare’s village. Did Somare. tell you about the volcano explosion?”

  With heat behind her eyes, Aedre swallowed the painful lump in her throat. “The volcano’s just blown, ten years too early. But the crow woman won’t tell me where the key is. She said you never meant to save them.”

  “I was confused. Torn between humanity, the Satsang, and the villagers.” The young Roobish nodded. “When you awake at the river and continue your life, you’ll be unable to move your arms and legs, but I can help you keep your breath and voice. I’m leaving you with the gift of my memory too.”

  A pink light glowed from the centre of Roobish’s chest, surrounded by electric green. She touched Aedre between the breasts, and the green and pink moved through Roobish’s arm, out of her hand, and swirled in Aedre’s spirit-heart.

  Mum embraced Aedre. “I love you.”

  Aedre’s heart ached, and she sobbed. “Don’t leave me again. Let me come.”

  “You’ll join me when the time is right. Take Roobish’s gift and use it to achieve your desires.”

  Aedre’s physical eyes flashed open, and she rolled her head to the side. The rain had stopped, and the stink of fumes had intensified. Lungs obstructed with ash, her strengthened diaphragm reacted to her wishes, and she gasped for breath.

  Akachi lay beside her, clutching his chest. The dagger had vanished, but not his wound.

  Her brows pulled together. They had worn protective gear for the volcano, but not to see the crow.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out his aurashield remote. The ash in the surrounding air cleared.

  A rumbling came from downriver. She couldn’t move to look.

  Akachi struggled to his knees. His head swung towards the noise. “Tidal wave!”

  He scooped her into his arms and clambered up the river bank. His b
lood soaked her dress. He tried to run but gasped and struggled to stand.

  Downriver, a tsunami roared. It knocked down trees and devastated the forest.

  Her pulse pounded in her neck.

  Akachi slowed. They reached a derelict house. He carried her into its concrete verandah. He laid her on the ground, then ran his hands around the sturdy column.

  The rumbling intensified.

  Aedre’s pulse raced in her ears. She was a burden. He could make it to the roof alone. “Leave me here!”

  He ran away and returned with fronds of bamboo and a tangle of climbers. He tied the vegetation around her. He tugged, attached it to his belt, and then climbed the column.

  Her body only moved a fraction when he pulled. So he scrambled over the roof and heaved again.

  This time, her upper-body lifted, and her face scratched against the concrete. Finally, her lifeless legs followed as the tidal wave reached them and battered her feet.

  A final hoist thrust her onto the roof.

  The tidal wave smashed into the house.

  Water thundered through the verandah, pounding the structure with stones and boulders. The house creaked and moaned.

  Akachi picked her up from under her arms and backed away onto the roof of the main building. But it went into a steep peak, so he sat on its edge with her in his lap.

  The waves washed around them below, knocking over trees along the way. Monkeys, goats, and dogs howled in distress, while dead bodies surrendered to the currents—humans too.

  Aedre wailed, joining the other screams which echoed through the village.

  Protected in Akachi’s arms and aurashield, Aedre lost consciousness.

  Memories flashed through her mind—mining selenite in the Shard of Swords. Bamdar buying her from Somare and giving her a home in central Rajanakki—a tropical paradise with a river running through its gardens.

  Her eyes fluttered.

  Images of doing union on her bridge. Rain pouring down and using her aurashield. Laying on her back and journeying to the Otherworld. Lucidity. Discovering river and rain travel.

  Her body jerked from something within.

  Recollections of Bamdar raping her, taking her on luxurious holidays, taking her to Sa Sa Ain’s amethyst pyramid. The pyramid’s altar with an indentation of an eight-pointed star. Her dream of the Satsang and their message. Taking Bamdar’s star-key from his museum of Satsang relics.

  She had the sensation of floating.

  The remembrance of getting Bamdar’s permission to practice union alone in Sa Sa Ain’s pyramid. His guards waiting outside. Slotting the key into the indentation and following Maharaanee’s instructions from her dream—leaving the silver point at the top, pressing that point twice. The dial opening from that location, scrolling to -1,000,000.

  Akachi called her name in the distance. But as her sensations floated, her mind sank into Roobish’s consciousness.

  She recaptured the scene of walking into the indigo light and appearing blind in another world. Light-intensifying goggles giving her sight. Mount Alimazi’s pyramid, Artheus. Befriending the Satsang. Them naming her Roobish. Living with them for many years, then returning to Sa Sa Ain’s pyramid to find the guards still waiting and time frozen. Looking in the mirror to discover she’d aged.

  Memories from Roobish flooded through Aedre’s mind like the tsunami through the forest.

  Flashbacks of searching for another key in Eeporyo. Bamdar following her through and making slaves of Eeporyovian hybrids. The clay people branding her with a pentacle across her original scar. The crow woman, Crowleen, saving her from hanging, then healing the blindness in her eye, showing her the cavern, telling her how dangerous the Satsang was, telling her to gather the eight keys so they could destroy them. Crowleen giving her a key to hide in Giok, for her future self to bring back. Finding a Giokese stonemason to hide the key in a statue.

  Aedre opened her eyes. Most of her white dress was black with Akachi’s blood. Beads of sweat rolled down his face, catching the light of the two half-moons.

  “I know where the key is,” she said.

  The river flowed just under the roof. How would she and Akachi ever reach the underwater altar of the Bee Goddess?

  Chapter 15*YuFang

  Disguised as a Feili monk in a maroon robe, straw hat and sunglasses, YuFang joined Yasmin and Apek on their excursion to the Yakar River in Central Rajanakki. Through the cab’s window, muddy brown rain poured from the ash clouds that blackened the sky since the eruption in Giok three days ago.

  Their cab drove through highland tea plantations and downhill through rice paddies before entering a forest and coming to a halt outside a wooden cabin. The driver helped with their bags and placed them on the verandah. “You’ve chosen the wrong season to stay here.” He looked at the sky. “Gonna be rain, rain, rain.”

  “Good,” Apek said. “Better for meditation.”

  The driver shrugged, returned to his car, and drove away.

  As Yasmin and Apek settled into the dwelling, YuFang limped to the gulley’s edge to view the river five metres below.

  Without a way to reach the water, he followed a path upriver. As he walked, the river shallowed. After half a mile, a second footpath from the forest intersected the first and continued to the gully’s edge. Furrows dented its clay, so he climbed down.

  Banks of silt arose from the water, perfect to lie on. Driftwood, some of it the size of tree trunks, lay grounded near the river’s centre.

  Ripples radiated from one of the logs. He took off his shoes, rolled up his pants, and waded to the centre. A water snake with red, black and white stripes slinked on the surface.

  He blinked rapidly and hobbled back to the bank. Finding the perfect place to meditate wouldn’t be simple. He’d better watch over Yasmin when she visited her mom in Glass City. Not only could her life be at risk on the moon, but also near this river. That water snake could be poisonous.

  When he entered the log cabin, smoke wafted out of the kitchen, assaulting his senses.

  “Fucking hell!” Yasmin shouted.

  He followed her shouts to the kitchen, where she filled a pan of burned rice with tap water.

  He opened a window and limped to the table where overcooked greens sagged on a plate, and red beans sat in a bowl. He picked out a bean and chewed. Still hard. “Never cooked before?”

  She shook her head. “In Glass City, we ate in the cafeteria.”

  “Food like this?”

  “No, decent food.”

  “So, they fed you well, then sold you at the market?”

  She frowned.

  Apek entered the kitchen. He yawned and rubbed an eye. “Would you like some dumplings?”

  They nodded.

  “Aedre loved dumplings,” Apek said.

  “Why do you talk in the past tense?” Yasmin asked. “Do you think she’s dead?”

  Apek gave a watery smile and nodded. He turned away to open a cupboard and rubbed his face before retrieving a box of eggs and a bag of flour. When he went to the table with the ingredients, he averted his bloodshot eyes. “I cook. Like egg with garlic and chives inside?”

  “Sounds good to me.” YuFang told them about what he’d found up the river.

  “You must meditate somewhere higher and safer,” Apek said. “There’s a rope-bridge three miles downriver.”

  “Don’t other people use it?” Yasmin asked.

  “Only school children and farmers in the morning and late afternoon. I thought you could go in the middle of the night.”

  “That sounds scary,” Yasmin said. “How high is it?”

  “Twenty metres.”

  “How deep’s the water?” she asked.

  “Not sure.”

  “Would you come too?” YuFang asked Apek.

  “What? A beefy young man can’t protect himself?”

  “Not when my mind’s somewhere else.”

  “Sure. As long as I nap in the day. I’m not young anymore.”

&
nbsp; Yasmin smiled at Apek and placed her hand on his.

  “Let’s prepare these dumplings, shall we? Don’t expect me to do all the hard work. YuFang fry the eggs, Yasmin chop the garlic and chives. I’ll make the pastry circles.”

  After Apek taught them how to shape the dumplings, they enjoyed their meal on the verandah.

  Smoke sticks chased away mosquitos in the sunset. As the sky darkened, and YuFang got ready to say goodnight, thunder boomed, followed by a downpour.

  YuFang licked his lips and bounced to his feet. “Who’s first?”

  Apek stood too. “We go now?”

  “Why not?”

  “Three miles is too far for me to walk. We can hire a car first.”

  “Take a cab?”

  “Can try.”

  Apek phoned for a cab, but none were prepared to come out so far for a short journey. The only cab in the nearest village was driving tourists to a city in Western Rajanakki.

  Apek leaned towards the door and grabbed YuFang’s arm. “You go with the two of us tomorrow, yes? Listen, we’ll hire a car tomorrow, explore the river more. Apek released his arm and nodded. “The weather forecast says it’ll constantly rain for three days and nights.”

  YuFang’s breathing grew heavy. He gave them a frozen smile. “Fine. We’ll hire a car tomorrow.”

  ***

  Yasmin gazed at the dripping rainforest through the front passenger window. “It’s no good. Nowhere seems suitable.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” Apek steered a little too tightly around a bend.

  “I ain’t lying on that rope-bridge,” YuFang said. The image of seeing it an hour ago blowing in the wind flashed in his mind.

  Yasmin nodded. “That’s a bad idea.”

  “I wanna go back upriver, find the shallow place again. It’s a few miles from where we’re staying.”

  “But the watersnakes!” Yasmin jerked her head around to face him.

  “The road doesn’t go upriver,” Apek said. “It takes a turn towards a town.”

  “How far from the town to the river?”

  “Dunno.”

  “Look, old man. I think you should drop us off, and Yasmin and I will do it together.”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry about us,” Yasmin said. “It’s better the two of us continue on foot.”