Merritts of Writing 3

Chapter 33

Angie

For the past seven years I’ve run from the reality of my fragile mortality. I didn’t want to face the fact that I could have an early demise.

Until today, I hadn’t realized I’d actually had a choice. And unlike my brother, now that I knew I did, my choice would be to fight. To fight for the new generation of children that I hadn’t thought could ever exist.

Now that my ageing had stopped and my body was returning to my normal age, would any of those children be mine?

THE MOMENT JAM WAS OUT OF SIGHT

I turned my attention back to Stevron. I’d told Jam to trust me. I hoped I was doing the right thing.

“Now what?”

Stevron gave me a gentle smile. “We save Carter.”

I picked up on Stevron’s usage of the plural. My eyes flickered to Mylane. “Meaning?”

“It’s best you don’t know.”

I took a protective step back toward the cot where Carter still lay. “Too bad for that shit. Tell me or you’re not getting near him.” My hand went to the side of my leg. I fingered the handle of my sheathed knife.

“Angie, you won’t approve,” Stevron said softly. “You’ll try and stop us.”

I wasn’t expecting that answer. My eyes went to Mylane again. She had moved to kneel beside Carter’s cot.

“Are you planning on giving Carter one of your ‘treatments’?” I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before for Stevron to try and heal Carter with his healing blood. If that was what he wanted to do, why would I object?

Stevron shook his head. “No, not I.”

His implication surprised me. “Mylane?”

Stevron took a breath. “She will use her blood, but she’s not going to heal him.”

Again my eyes flew to the teenage girl. She had edged herself around the cot so that she was now kneeling at Carter’s head.

My chest tightened. Stevron had told Carter and I that Mylane transferred her blood to the Far Beyond. I guess I was about to learn what Stevron wouldn’t tell me earlier, which was the purpose of Mylane’s unique ability.

Mylane raised her head. The sun had just set and the light from the fyre egg lantern flickered against the walls of the canvas tent. I saw the mute swirl of silver in the girl’s eyes expand.

The sun was almost set, the moon rising. Usually this was the time, between day and night, when I had the most difficulty in seeing, but not tonight. Tonight I could even make out the tiniest of cracks in the teenager’s dry lips.

“Don’t worry, Angie, this is Bartholomew Shipley’s destiny.” Mylane said in the softest of whispers.

I looked back to Stevron. I couldn’t hold back the fear in my eyes. “What does that mean?”

Stevron reached out and put a hand to my forearm. I felt the strength of his palm as he slid his hand down to gently but firmly remove my fingers from the hilt of my knife. I hadn’t realized that I’d unsheathed the weapon or that I was holding it out in front of me in a defensive manner.

“Angie, please, we don’t have time. Carter’s almost gone, and I’m not sure he realizes it, but he’s draining his own life.”

The coarseness of his voice and his warning concerning Carter didn’t deter me. “What’s she going to do to Carter?” I pressed.

Stevron wet his lips. His eyes so dark and beautiful were filled with sadness and concern. “Carter must be turned, Angie.”

Fear spread to my limbs. I started to breathe heavily. “Turned? Turned into what?”

“His true self.”

I frowned. My eyes slid back to Carter. His ageing seemed more rapid. My eyes flickered again to Mylane and then back to Stevron. “I don’t understand.”

Stevron took another breath. “I know you don’t understand,” his coarse voice softened, “but this is necessary. You’ve got to trust us.”

My heart quickened and I shook my head. “I don’t.” I wet my dry lips. “I told Jam to trust you, but I don’t. You’ve done nothing but evade my questions or worse, outright lied to me. And as for her…” My eyes turned to Mylane.

Without hesitation she spoke. “Bartholomew Shipley’s destiny is to become the new Oracle of Death.”

I gasped. The Oracle of Death? The supreme ruler over the Far Beyond people? Carter? Daggers shot through my heart at the same moment that Jake came roaring back into my head.

‘Barty’s-a-shit, Barty’s-a-shit, Barty’s-a-shit’s gonna die.’

I clenched my teeth and instantly reached for the pouch around my neck but before I could get the bushberry out Jake’s voice continued to boom.

‘The Oracle, The Oracle, The Oracle will rise. At, at, at Carter’s demise. Destiny, destiny, destiny has no bounds. Once, once, once the chosen one is found.’

“Stop it, Jake!” I wailed. Closing my shaky fingers around the bushberry orb I extracted it from the pouch and forced it through my lips. Before the minty taste even touched my tongue I pushed it to the back of my mouth and crunched the bushberry and swallowed the sludgy core.

‘Not, not, not so fast.’ Jake singsonged. ‘I, I, I can no longer be so easily cast. Destiny, destiny, destiny is at hand. Time, time, time to journey to a new land.’

Terror ripped though me. Not only because of the meaning behind Jake’s riddles but because the bushberry hadn’t the effect of banishing Jake from my mind. I searched for my barriers only to discover that they too had disappeared, leaving me with no defences against Jake and his ability to drag me into the Far Beyond.

The pain suddenly searing through my brain had me doubling over and as my knees gave out I groaned a loud croak. “Stevron, please, Jake’s still here.”

‘He, he, he can’t help. You, you, you must know yourself. Destiny, destiny, destiny is here. Go, go, go find yourself a mirror.’

I began gasping for air. Why wasn’t Stevron or Mylane trying to help me? Was I even here in this world? Or had I crossed over and not yet seen the chaos and destruction that usually met me?

‘Carter, Carter, Carter and The Oracle of Death are two,’ Jake continued. ‘Dad, Dad, Dad sealed everyone’s fate on cue. So, so, so now it’s up to Carter. How, how, how much will he have to barter? And, and, and who will he kill to ensure his mate? But, but, but he must hurry before it’s too late.’

I blindly reached out to assure myself of the physical reality of my world when my hand brushed against something solid.

A crack, like the splitting of a rock face thundered in my ears and shattered the pain and Jake’s next words.

I opened my eyes and realized that I was now kneeling beside Carter’s cot, clenching his withered hand. I inhaled sharply and then exhaled on a big yawn. I gripped his hand tighter.

Was Jake right? Was Carter’s destiny to die? Carter had saved me and in the process we’d both had been bitten by a fyre crawler. So why was he dying and not me? What new land needed to be journeyed to? And why all of a sudden was Jake gone? The bushberry hadn’t help dispel him but I was sure he was gone since I couldn’t feel his presence any longer. Had touching Carter…? But why, how?

“What just happened to her? Has she-”

Mylane’s voice tramped my introspection to pieces. I looked up to see her huddled against the far side of the tent several feet away. The fear in her eyes was palatable. It was clear she was terrified of me. But why? And what had she been about to say?

I felt Stevron’s hand rest on my shoulder briefly, then he leaned down to disengage my hand from Carter’s. “Come away, Angie. Let Mylane do what needs to be done.”

When I looked up at him, confusion clouded my mind.

“We have little time,” Mylane’s voice was impatient, but she still huddled against the tent’s wall. “I have to do this…”

“Mylane,” Stevron’s voice lowered, as he settled me back onto the floor a few feet from Carter, and the warning in his tone to the teenager was implicit.

Suddenly defiant the young woman surged to her feet. “You think I have a choice?” She glared at Stevron. “I wasn’t the one who brought this on.”

“No!” Stevron growled back and his glared was far more fierce. “But you are right smack in the middle of this. Something pushed Mikkel to the brink.”

“Dad?” I cried. “What does my father have to do with this?”

He turned back to meet my eyes. “Angie, I will explain, but Mylane is right. She must do this now before Carter’s body degenerates any further.”

“What?” I cried again, this time in horror. “She must kill him?”

He took a breath and swallowed. “Mylane must turn Carter into what he was meant to be, Angie. And yes, Carter will die, but-” he quickly reassured me, “Carter is strong. He will survive the transformation.”