AWOL

by Traci Harding

‘Oh, sweetness.’ Sidetracked, Mythric fell to one knee to hug her close. ‘I don’t know what upset your grandma, but I’m fairly sure you had nothing to do with it. It’s your father who has a lot to answer for,’ he concluded, under his breath.

  Ray used that as an excuse to howl anew. ‘Please don’t be mad at Daddy … he didn’t do anything wrong!’

  ‘I’m not mad so much as frustrated.’ Her grandfather attempted to diffuse her distress as she clung tightly to him.

  ‘Shall we go get some breakfast?’ he suggested, rising with her still in his arms.

  ‘No!’ Thurraya objected, letting him go to slide down his body, while still clinging on to what psychic charge she’d built up from their energy exchange. ‘I have some homework I have to finish first. I’ll catch you later.’ She stepped back into her room, waving and forcing a smile.

  ‘You okay?’ Mythric double-checked before departing.

  ‘Yeah, I’m good,’ she assured, with a sweet smile. ‘Thanks, Grandpa.’

  Ray shut the door, and waited to hear him walk away. She clapped her hands to applaud her success and closing her eyes, she focused on finding her father’s new friend.

  It was the crack of dawn on Frujia when Khalid’s eyelids parted. There was just a hint of light in the sky, as the sun had yet to peek its fiery body over the horizon.

  Before this week, Khalid had lived his life by the time and alarms; he’d not imagined he had an internal body clock. But during his stay on Frujia he’d gone from being a night owl to a lark.

  His captors were still fast asleep in their hammocks — Zeven had the canister containing the remains of Chironjivi in his possession and was cuddling it like a great treasure. The rainbow monkey was alert, however, and was all over Khalid the second he sat up.

  ‘Shhh!’ he urged her to stop squawking. As he swung his legs over the hammock to climb off he realised his leg brace was gone and his ankle was as good as new. When did that happen? He stood up and walked around, then suppressed a laugh of relief to be mended. ‘Look at this,’ he appealed to the monkey, who clapped excitedly for him. But truly the most thrilling thing was that his captors had not replaced his restraining device, and he felt sure that was not something they’d overlook. They trust me, he realised, and the notion was a little scary, as he wasn’t sure he trusted himself.

  Karisha squawked to get Khalid’s attention and then manifested a piece of fruit in her hand and offered it to him.

  ‘Oh, I see, you’re too clever to go fetch fruit now, is that it?’ Khalid accepted her offering. ‘You’ll turn into a big, fat, rainbow fur ball if you don’t exercise.’

  The monkey blew a raspberry, unimpressed by his advice.

  Khalid bit into the sweet flesh of the stone fruit in his hand, and looked out towards the sunrise as he savoured the flavour. The cool, damp morning air was filled with the smells of nature, and he drew far more delight from the aroma than he had to date; this was the scent he was coming to associate with home. He’d always assumed that scheming and betrayal was what made life satisfying, and yet here he was doing absolutely nothing and he’d never felt so completely fulfilled by the moment. As usual, the whiz kid was right; last night’s events had changed him, he felt renewed right to the core of his being — as if every single cell in his body had been scrubbed clean of all its heaviness. The jungle was starting to hum with the sounds of daytime animals and bugs that seemed to beckon him to explore with new eyes.

  Intent on living in the moment, Khalid headed for the stairs that led to the bank, then paused to reconsider. If they wake and find me gone they’re going to think I’ve taken off. He moved to write a note, and then called himself out on it. ‘Idiot.’ He conjured up a note and left it on the desk.

  Khalid waited until he was on the bank and heading down the jungle track before he let loose a yahoo! His captors were right: his powers were his own. And with two good ankles he broke into a run to celebrate.

  The entire world was more vivid today. Instead of repelling him, he sensed nature embracing him as the jungle parted and the track he was running along led onto the beach. He’d always avoided the sun, but the dawn rays — and the sight and sound of the surf crashing against the shore — felt so revitalising to him now that he had to wonder why he had deprived himself of these simple pleasures for so long. The answer was simple really, his demons had denied him. Up until this moment, despite how much control Khalid thought he’d had over his own choices, none of them had been his own.

  ‘I like sun,’ he decided. ‘I like nature, and water, and animals! I love the elements.’ He threw his arms wide to absorb the sunshine. ‘I love!’ he cried out in victory, and fell to his knees in the sand as tears of relief overwhelmed him.

  ‘I am alive,’ he mumbled, ‘I am free.’ He wiped the tears from his face and breathed deeply to contain his overwhelming relief. ‘Thank fuck for that.’

  ‘Who is fuck?’

  The little voice startled him and he looked aside to find Thurraya standing there, and immediately covered his own mouth in a fruitless bid to withdraw the statement. ‘No, I didn’t say that, I said … Frank, thank Frank.’

  Thurraya was grinning at his discomfort.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ He looked about to see if she was accompanied.

  ‘I had to see if you were all right after fighting those demons,’ she replied.

  The concern in her voice made him want to weep all over again. ‘How do you know about that?’

  ‘I dreamt about it.’ She came to kneel beside him on the sand. ‘How you kept asking for forgiveness but the demons wouldn’t listen.’ She threw her arms about him and gave him a hug.

  Khalid’s heart shot into his throat and his eyes and nose started running, he couldn’t contain it. ‘I needed to be punished,’ he admitted. ‘And I felt I might not endure it, but the thought of you saved me.’

  ‘Really?’ Ray pulled back to see if he was serious. Seeing how upset he was, she reached in her trousers and handed him her skull-patterned handkerchief. ‘If you were thinking of me, maybe that’s why I dreamt of you?’ she theorised, then noting the design on the hanky she’d handed him, she grimaced. ‘Oh … that seems a little in bad taste, but at least it’s not too girly.’

  ‘It will certainly do the job.’ Khalid swiped his face, and then wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  ‘You should toss it to the breeze,’ she advised. ‘So that air elementals can learn from your experiences. They’re not very good with emotions, like water spirits are, but they’re good communicators, so it pays to have them onside.’

  ‘Really?’ Khalid was fascinated.

  ‘Yep. And they’re real good at finding parking spots too.’

  Khalid laughed at this, not because he didn’t believe her, but because he found her conversation so delightful. ‘And how do you know this?’

  Thurraya shrugged. ‘Just do. But I know it’s true, ’cause I even see them sometimes during the rare times I’m in nature, or Ringbalin’s greenhouse.’

  Khalid found her answer rather curious, but he didn’t want to pry — the less he knew about his keeper’s daughter the better. ‘Well, that does sound like it would come in handy.’ He held the tiny cloth up and let it go; they watched it tumble off down the beach.

  ‘Now all your troubles have blown away on the breeze.’ Thurraya clapped her hands, and Khalid wished that were so. ‘Now what should we do?’

  Khalid laughed out loud as the answer was very clear. ‘As happy as your visit has made me, you need to pop back from whence you came. Your parents would have a fit if they knew you were alone with me.’

  Thurraya stood up, appearing not entirely pleased with the suggestion. ‘Show me some jungle first.’ She grinned and bolted for the gap in the trees behind them.

  ‘Here I am trying to be good —’ he dragged himself up to his feet ‘— and you’re encouraging me to be bad.’

  She turned about and ran backwards, waving him after her with both hands. ‘
A walk in nature is good!’

  ‘Your parents won’t see it that way.’ He used his PK to make her stop, but she only laughed as she broke free and kept running.

  ‘What the?’ He took off in pursuit.

  ‘Come on, come on,’ she called from down the track. ‘There is a pool with fish!’

  Khalid slowed his pace, quietly thanking goodness that she’d come to a halt and he could catch up with her.

  ‘Come look at this.’ Ray was kneeling near the pool, beckoning his approach, but as he got nearer he noted something grey moving around in the tree close by her.

  The creature was eyeing Thurraya, but stilled and froze as it spotted Khalid. It was a monkey that rather resembled Karisha if she’d been dipped in grey soot. The monkey opened its mouth and there was something gleaming on its tongue. ‘My amulet.’ A pang of fear reverberated through his entire being as he realised the blood-sucking monkey had got its hands on the canister containing the evil spirit of Chironjivi.

  ‘What is wrong?’ Ray noted his horror and turned around to see the filthy monkey snarling at her.

  As Ray let loose an ear-piercing scream, the world seemed to slip into slow motion and Khalid could hear his heartbeat thumping in his ears as the monkey leapt towards Thurraya. With a split second to consider his options, Khalid envisioned himself in Ray’s place, and in the next moment he felt the monkey land upon him and sink its teeth into his flesh.

  When Zeven woke he felt groggy, but as the sun was just rising he knew it was early, so he hadn’t had much sleep. He moved to rise, but a stinging pain caused him to reach for his neck. The area was tender and it left blood on his fingertips. ‘Ouch!’ He rose to check his reflection in the mirror, and found a large bite on his neck that was already infected. ‘That monkey has to go,’ he mumbled, realising he was too stoned to be angry about it.

  ‘Hold on …’ He wasn’t holding the canister any more. Zeven staggered back over to check his hammock, but there was no sign of the item. His concern escalated as he noted Khalid’s hammock empty, but he was too stoned to be truly panicked.

  Telmo, still asleep, also had a nasty bite on his neck.

  ‘Telmo!’ Zeven roused the energy to stagger over and shake him. ‘Wake up!’

  ‘What’s happened?’ Telmo bleary-eyed, held his head.

  ‘I think Khalid and the monkey are conspiring against us.’ Zeven pointed to his neck. ‘You have one too!’

  Telmo’s fingers made contact with the bleeding mark on his neck, and he sucked in air at the sting.

  ‘The canister containing Chironjivi is missing, and so is Khalid.’ Zeven concluded, ‘I hate that I’m so calm about this.’ He staggered to a seat at the table he used for a desk and found the note from their charge.

  ‘What’s that?’ Telmo half fell out of bed and then crawled over to investigate.

  ‘Going for a walk, back soon, Khalid.’ Zeven looked to his advisor as he knelt and leaned on the side of his chair for support.

  ‘If he was really out to betray us, why would he bother leaving a note?’ Telmo reasoned. He sat back on his haunches and spotted something on the floor beneath the desk.

  ‘I’m stunned Khalid left a note! That’s like a sign of consideration … whoa, progress,’ Zeven said, watching Telmo mucking about under the desk. ‘What are you doing?’ Telmo popped up with the open coffer in his hand and shook it about to make it plain it was now empty.

  ‘No, no, no!’ Zeven was exhausted just thinking about taking action in his current state. ‘I intended to conjure up some manner of bio-containment setup for it last night.’ He held the top of his nose and squeezed it to relieve the stress. ‘I must have passed out after returning Ahura to the other side of the island after he fixed Khalid’s leg. Stupid!’

  ‘I was passed out before you even returned!’ Telmo shared responsibility for the mishap. ‘You are pushing yourself too hard! You may have superhuman abilities, but you are still human.’

  ‘I’m certainly feeling that this morning.’ Zeven touched his wound and winced. ‘How did this get infected so quick?’

  ‘Give me a look at that.’ Telmo inspected the wound. ‘As I thought, this bite is laced with sub-etheric matter.’ He stood to conclude, ‘It’s not Khalid who has the amulet, it’s Karisha.’

  A child’s scream pierced through the morning hum of the jungle, sending the resident birds soaring into the sky in a great plume of commotion, and the sound struck fear into Zeven’s heart.

  ‘Thurraya.’ With the thought of his daughter, Zeven desired to join her and his wish was immediately granted.

  The relief of arriving to find Thurraya unharmed was overwhelming; she looked on as Khalid battled with the soot-covered monkey. Zeven grabbed hold of his daughter and pulled her further from the action.

  ‘Daddy!’ She panicked as she was hauled backward. ‘You have to help!’

  Every time Khalid got a good grip on the monkey it would vanish and attack from another angle. The only way to stop the animal was to kill it; yet killing went against everything Zeven believed in, and in this case the error was his, not the monkey’s.

  ‘Do something!’ Khalid was a mass of bites and becoming too sedated to defend himself.

  ‘Don’t look, baby.’ Zeven covered Ray’s eyes, with the intention of snapping the creature’s neck.

  Closer to Khalid, Telmo appeared, and with a split-second evaluation of the situation, he manifested a psychic restraining device that clamped around the animal’s neck.

  Zeven gave quiet thanks for his comrade’s quick thinking. The monkey attempted to flee but Telmo grabbed the critter.

  ‘The amulet is in its mouth,’ Khalid advised as he collapsed onto the ground.

  Ray ran to him and hugged his bloody form. ‘You saved me! This is my fault … I should have gone home when you told me to.’

  Zeven was stunned and a little disturbed to see his daughter’s open display of affection towards their past nemesis.

  ‘I owed you one, kid,’ Khalid mumbled, patting her head as he struggled to stay conscious.

  ‘Open,’ Telmo commanded the monkey, holding it firm in one hand as he put pressure on both sides of its jaw until it opened wide to expose the amulet on its tongue. ‘Zeven, the coffer.’

  The monkey struggled harder when it saw the container appear, and as Zeven directed the amulet back into containment, all the soot covering the monkey detached and flew into the coffer also. When Zeven slammed the lid closed and locked it, the monkey passed out and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Time for a new containment system, and a safer hiding spot,’ Zeven remarked.

  ‘No, no, stay awake.’ Ray shook Khalid and then looked to her father, with tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘I think he’s dead.’

  Telmo quickly moved to check for a pulse. ‘No, he’s still with us.’ He smiled to reassure the girl, and then looked to her father. ‘But I think he’s so pumped full of monkey venom, he’s having difficulty breathing.’

  Zeven went down on his knees beside Ray. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Please don’t make me leave,’ she appealed. ‘I have to make this right.’

  Zeven realised he could not send Ray home in this state and expect her to act like nothing had happened. ‘We need to have a little discussion before you go anywhere.’ He let her know she was in trouble. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do.’

  But Ray was not fazed by the notion of a reprimand. ‘Thank you!’ She threw her arms around him and squeezed tight.

  Zeven let Ray go and stood to request of Telmo, ‘Take Khalid and Ray back to the hut.’

  ‘I’ll get him rigged up to a respirator, just in case,’ Telmo advised.

  Zeven nodded. ‘I’ll fetch Ahura, and join you presently.’

  Ahura may have seemed a little odd, exhibiting a childlike wonder and enthusiasm for everything he observed on the island since he’d arrived, but according to Vadik he’d demonstrated just about every psychic talent known to the U
SS. If the Dropa Prince couldn’t heal Khalid, no one could, for Ahura had proven more capable than Ringbalin, Zelimir, Kassa and Swithin put together. He claimed to see auras and had reportedly raised dead animals and healed them as good as new, no surgery required.

  On a whim Zeven had chosen to join Vadik, and was so very grateful for that when he discovered where Ahura was currently.

  Vadik was on the beach outside the hut where they had set up a temporary home, and he was gazing at the sea with his jaw gaping open.

  ‘Vadik, where is Ahura?’ Zeven announced his arrival.

  The query startled the big man, but he appeared very relieved to see Zeven. ‘Thank the elements you are here, I was just about to call. He’s done some strange stuff in the past few days, but if this don’t beat all.’ He referred Zeven to the water.

  The beach here was inside a calm little bay, but the surface this morning was churning with activity; there were fins and tails thrashing everywhere.

  ‘He’s in there?’ Zeven nearly choked on the fear the thought invoked in him. ‘Why did you let him walk into that?’

  ‘It was perfectly calm before he entered!’ Valik held his hands up in truce, not prepared to be liable. ‘The man is some sort of nature guru! He keeps attracting this shit! I just control the elements, Mother Nature is not my bitch … but she’s certainly his.’

  ‘So he’s not being mauled?’ Zeven couldn’t see any blood in the water.

  ‘From some of the shit I have seen him do, he’d probably survive it anyhow.’ Vadik cast a questioning eye in Zeven’s direction. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was immortal.’

  Zeven’s attention shifted to Vadik and he forced a laugh, about to deny that truth, when a cry of delight drew his attention back to the water.

  Ahura had shot out of the water on the back of a huge ray shark, and it glided through the air with as much ease as it did through the water. Many of the large sea creatures followed suit, launching themselves into the sky to fall in behind Ahura like a great flock of birds.

  Zeven was completely gobsmacked; he’d never seen a natural event like it.