Sanguine

by Carolyn Denman

  He shook his head. ‘Sorry, Tessa, I have no idea how she did it. I can’t see how it would be necessary to protect Eden, and to be honest I don’t really want to mess around with him anyway.’ He stopped his labour briefly and caught her hand in his, looking up at her for assurance. ‘It frightens me, Tess. I don’t know what I’m doing. I wish I never needed to do anything with this power I’ve been gifted with. It’s too great a responsibility. What will I do if Lainie’s really gone?’ A fretful tear ran down his grief-stricken face.

  Kissing him swiftly on the lips, she smiled. ‘You’ll do whatever it takes to care for the ones you love. And you’ll rise to the challenge and fight to preserve the sanctity of Eden. It’s who you are, Noah, just go with your gut. You’ll do fine.’

  Fifteen minutes later they were bumping along the fence line in the paddock-basher. The ground was uneven and they had to keep dodging fallen trees and wombat holes. It had only been four days since she had given birth and Tess was convinced Dr Vertan would have had a thing or two to say about her being shaken about like a can of whipped cream. Given what it had been put through in the last few weeks, her body had healed incredibly well. Even so, her muscles felt frighteningly weak and all her joints were still kind of loose. Also, her milk had only just come in and she was rapidly learning a whole new dimension to the word ‘uncomfortable’.

  ‘How come you’re still following the fence line north?’ she asked. ‘Don’t we normally find somewhere near the river to park?’ She tried to brace herself firmly enough to prevent her head from hitting the window again.

  ‘We won’t get there in time that way. I can feel them getting closer to the cave. We gave them too much of a head start so I’ll need to make a short cut,’ he explained.

  ‘Them? I assumed it was just Jake. Do you know anything? How does he know where to go? He can’t have found out from Bane.’ But even as she said it she realised what must have happened. ‘Dallmin? He captured Dallmin? No.’ The swearing that flew from her lips even seemed to shock Noah a little. Dallmin was so innocent. The thought of Jake torturing him for information was unthinkable. He was like a child in so many ways. He had no defence against pain and suffering. They should never have let him leave.

  ‘Dallmin wants to cross, I can feel it. I need to stop him too.’

  ‘Well of course he wants to cross! Please don’t hurt him, Noah, he’s just frightened. Promise me you’ll try to remember that,’ she begged.

  His response was to drive even faster, until a tan streak cut in front of them, and he slammed on the brakes. ‘What’s Wendy doing out here?’ he asked.

  ‘I guess I forgot to close the gate when the ambulance arrived,’ Tessa admitted. She wound down the window and whistled, and Wendy jumped up onto the tray. Noah barely let her find her feet before he shot them all forward again.

  A long twenty minutes passed before Noah spun the ute around in the narrow cleared strip between the paddock fence and the impenetrable scrub between them and the river. Did that mean that they were level with the waterfall already? She was surprised at how close it was when you didn’t have to scramble on foot through blackberries, tea-tree and bracken fern. She started to open the door to get out, scanning the dense vegetation for a way through, but Noah grabbed her hand before she could move.

  ‘Stay in the car. We’re driving in.’

  ‘Are you crazy?’ she croaked, looking again at the massive gum trees and piles of dead wood blocking their way. The last twenty minutes had been torturous enough; neither she nor the ute were likely to survive this bush-bash without shaking loose some vital components. But when she turned to her husband to argue, he had his eyes closed and was whispering in an unknown language. The Words sounded poetic and beautiful, and were pouring out of his mouth so fast that she couldn’t distinguish a single one. All she knew was that her skin felt like it was buzzing, and the breath in her lungs felt fresher and somehow richer, like stepping into an air-conditioned room on a humid day. Utterly fascinated, she watched as the trees began to shiver and shake, and she felt the ground tremble. There was a massive manna gum right in front of them that looked like it could be the founding grandfather of the ancient bush. Its bark was slashed with scars as if it had been decked out with botanic war paint, and yet with a loud crack it jolted like a startled rabbit, and then crashed to the ground in a violent explosion of broken branches.

  ‘Noah, honey, you might want to try to make it look as natural as you can. We’ll still need to keep it hidden,’ she suggested, not even knowing if he could hear her.

  He cracked one eye open and frowned as if to say ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’, but no more trees fell. Instead, a path began to clear in the undergrowth, as thick stands of tea-tree crumpled before her eyes and were replaced with softly curling bracken fronds. The ground still shook and she could see the path begin to smooth out as it wound between the bigger trees. A canopy of thick branches still hid the path from the view of any passing planes or satellites, and a natural-looking layer of mulch covered the newly disturbed earth.

  ‘That’s my boy,’ she said proudly, patting him on the shoulder, and then blinked. ‘Hey, hang on. You let me scramble along the river bank for over two hours in the rain while I was in labour and now you make a short-cut that we can drive through?’

  If she could have made herself punch him she would have.

  Chapter 60

  It didn’t take Tim long to find the trail leading from the bridge, despite the lack of obvious giveaways. His tracking skills had been the pride of the squad and even the Mick looked impressed. They found Bane lying against a tree at the abandoned campsite, with his wrists taped together around it. There was a deep gash below his elbow, which was still bleeding, and he hardly had any skin left on his wrists where he’d obviously tried to scrape them against the tree to free himself. There was also a shallow cut at the base of his throat, and a lump on his head the size of a golf ball that looked incredibly dangerous, and his scalp was bleeding so much that at first glance Tim was certain he was dead. All in all he was a mess.

  After releasing him from his bonds they compressed the cut on his arm and then argued about whether or not to move him until Mick ended it by picking him up and hefting his long frame over his shoulder. Tim was astounded. For a middle-aged man the sergeant was seriously strong, although by the time they made it back to the bridge and laid Bane across the back seat of the police car, the policeman’s arms were shaking and he was panting so hard he couldn’t speak. He didn’t pause for a rest, but threw the cruiser into gear as soon as Tim climbed in, sending a spray of gravel into the bushes that lined the end of the bridge.

  It wasn’t until they were almost back to the farmhouse that Bane began to stir.

  ‘I think he’s coming round, be careful,’ Tim advised, remembering the last time he’d had to wake him. At least this time there were no knives nearby since one of the first things he’d done was to check for any Bane might have neglected to mention. He’d only found one small knife strapped to his left calf and that was now stowed safely away in the glovebox.

  Tim watched in horror as his friend’s body began to spasm. It was terrifyingly similar to the convulsions that Lainie had endured in her last moments. Gasping for air, his friend began to wail, the grief-stricken sound unnervingly predictive of the tragic news he would soon have to break. Clambering over into the back seat, Tim tried to hold him down as he began to throw his arms and legs around, as if fighting off an invisible assailant.

  ‘It’s me! It’s Tim! Stay still—you’re injured, mate.’

  Bane’s movements subsided, and he lay back, breathing hard and staring at him with wild eyes. The expression on his scratched and bloodied face was terrifying enough to make Tim flinch.

  ‘I left her in your care, Tim. What have you done?’ he rasped through clenched teeth. Death and violence charged the air between them, waiting for just the slightest slip i
n fragile control.

  Still pinning him down, Tim scrounged for the words to tell his best friend what had happened. ‘The apples were poisoned,’ he choked out, shattered to be the one to have to relay the bitter facts. ‘The paramedics said it could have been a dodgy mutant apple pip but I think it must have been Jake’s doing, somehow. They did everything they could to try to revive her but it … it was too late. It all happened so fast!’ He babbled so quickly that he bit his tongue. The bitter taste of blood was almost welcome. Pain, to partner painful news. How the hell had Bane known? Had Jake told him? He wished he was anywhere in the world other than in that car with his friend at that moment. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I tried everything and I couldn’t help her,’ he sobbed, not caring who witnessed his tears.

  At that moment the car skidded to a stop in front of the house and Bane threw him off with ferocious disdain, fighting with the door and tumbling out, only to fall on his hands and knees on the gravel. After that, he was too weak and dizzy to resist as Tim and the sergeant lifted and half dragged him into the house.

  Stunned speechless as they entered the kitchen, Tim was faced with the gruesome sight of Lily still pumping Lainie’s chest and breathing for her, long after the paramedics had declared her dead. Lily looked furious, and her eyes red-rimmed from crying, but she continued with cold determination until Bane pulled her away. What was with these people? First Noah, then Lily? It wasn’t healthy to cling to hope for such a long time.

  Instead of fighting like Noah had, however, Lily gave him a relieved nod and moved willingly aside. The sergeant dialled a number into his phone as soon as his hands were free and then held it to Bane’s ear. Tim could hear Tessa on the other end of the line, pleading with him but he couldn’t quite distinguish what she was saying. Bane squeezed his eyes shut as if he wanted to argue, but instead took a deep, shuddering breath.

  ‘I understand. I’ll try to control it. Just hold her here, no more. You’re right, Tessa, thank you, it’s our best chance. I’ll make it work.’ Then he paused, and his expression went from despair to fury. His grey eyes burned. ‘And Tess, don’t trust Dallmin. He’ll do anything to get home.’

  Tossing away the phone, the wounded man tenderly lifted Lainie’s head onto his knees, placing both his hands on either side of her face. The love and grief he felt showed in every line of his body. Tim watched, with unrelenting tears swelling his throat, while his friend grieved for his lost love. A drop of Bane’s blood landed on her cheek as he leant over her. What would this do to him? Tim knew him well enough to have seen some of his darkest times, before he’d even known what had caused them, and he’d witnessed the astonishing change in him when Lainie had returned from wherever it was she’d been. He couldn’t imagine how his friend was going to survive losing her like this.

  The way his eyes were squeezed shut, it looked like Bane was silently pleading with her, perhaps apologising for leaving when she needed him most. The charged emotion in the room made it feel as though the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. Bane was trembling, and looked like he was about to pass out again, so Tim moved to support him, to pull him away from the body so he could finally treat his wounds, but Mick grabbed his wrist, giving him a stern look. How long should they let him do this for? Blood still flowed from Bane’s scalp, although it seemed to be slowing, and Tim was certain the cut on his forearm would need stitching. His head wound alone should have had them rushing him to hospital to be treated for concussion. It was then that he realised that Sergeant Loxwood had not yet called the coroner. He asked the policeman about it in a hushed voice.

  ‘There’s something the family needs to do first,’ Mick said, glancing at Lily as if he was unsure how much to say.

  She nodded, took Tim’s hand and pulled him away into the lounge room, closing the door carefully. She indicated to him to sit down, but he didn’t.

  ‘The sergeant is being very kind in allowing us this extra time to take Lainie out to … a place nearby, and I would be incredibly grateful if you didn’t let too many people know how he’s bending the rules for us.’

  ‘Is this something to do with Lainie’s Aboriginal heritage? A ritual or something?’

  ‘Um …’

  ‘It’s okay. It’s none of my business. You don’t need to tell me the details, but Bane needs medical treatment. Does he need to go with her?’

  Letting out a breath that sounded almost amused, she gave him a quick, grateful hug. ‘Yes, yes, he really needs to be there. Are you able to help me dress his wounds well enough for him to go? We need to do this as fast as possible.’

  ‘Field dressings are not my best skills, but I’ll do what I can.’

  ‘Thank you, Tim. I appreciate your understanding.’

  Raiding the well-stocked first-aid kit again, he was relieved to see just how many supplies were available. Farm life must be very dangerous if they felt they needed this much stuff on hand all the time. Lily handed him a bowl of warm water. He used the remainder of the cotton dressing that Tessa had opened earlier and he pressed it against Bane’s head until the bleeding stopped. Then, dosing the water with antiseptic, Tim began to clean his other wounds, picking chunks of bark and splinters from his torn wrists and frowning at the fact that Bane still refused to let go of the body, even for a second. Rinsing the wad of gauze back into the bowl, he noticed that the water seemed even warmer. He felt Bane’s skin—it was practically on fire.

  ‘This isn’t good, Lily, he needs a doctor. He’s burning up.’

  ‘Just keep going, Tim. We’ll deal with that later. Let him do what he needs to do for now,’ she advised calmly.

  Shaking his head, he did as he was told, binding the slash on his forearm with as many steri-strips as he could before bandaging it firmly. As soon as he was done Bane opened his eyes.

  ‘We need to get her to the river,’ he announced. Sweat mingled with blood and dripped from his face and he was clearly struggling to see straight. It was getting beyond sanity and yet the sergeant didn’t argue, he just tilted his head at Tim, indicating for him to lift his end of the stretcher that the paramedics had left Lainie on.

  Bane staggered to his feet, still refusing to let go of Lainie’s pallid face. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully, and could wake at any moment.

  They made their way across the back paddock and headed down the hill towards the river. No sheep came to pay their respects, and he could see Alonso sleeping under a tree, resting one hind leg in animalistic indifference. Not fair, that they should be so content, so ignorant. Not logical that he should feel so resentful towards them. A cockatoo, so pristine white for a wild bush creature, protested for no reason at all as it flew overhead. He’d once heard tell of one in captivity that had lived to 120 years old. A whole century more than Lainie had been given. It screeched rudely as they slid down the embankment to the shallow bay where the water slowed around a wide bend. He knew it had been one of her favourite places, but why was it so urgent for them to take her there now?

  Wading in until they were waist deep, they immersed her body, still supporting her weight on the stretcher. It felt unnatural not to see her flinch at the cold. Tim was glad he was at her feet because he didn’t want to have to feel Bane’s feverish skin until he was allowed to do something about it. Perhaps the icy water would help a little in the meantime. Mick was gripping the handles at the top end, while, irrationally, Bane closed Lainie’s mouth, covered her nose and pushed her head under as well. Tim sighed as he realised he was going to have to re-do Bane’s bandage again already, but he wasn’t game to argue against the strange ritual. Then, when they lifted her head back up, it got even creepier as Bane began to talk to her.

  Chapter 61

  A tangled wall of undergrowth lined each side of the unnatural path, forming a gloomy corridor that reminded Tessa of how the Israelites must have felt as they escaped through the parted Red Sea. She had almost figured o
ut the best way to brace herself using the door, the glove box, and both her legs when Noah hit the brakes again.

  ‘What’s happened now?’ she asked. He was propelling himself towards danger, that was all she could feel.

  ‘Nothing. I just don’t want to get there too soon,’ he whispered, sweat pouring down his angelic features.

  ‘What? What are you talking about? The sooner we get there the more chance we have of stopping them before they get anywhere near the cave. I thought that was the whole point of the short-cut.’

  ‘Exactly. If I get there too soon I’ll have to stop them from entering altogether.’ He gripped the steering wheel as if afraid it would fly away.

  ‘And, sorry, but why would that be a bad thing?’

  As he turned to her, she could see the fury in his tortured eyes. ‘Because inside the cave, all the rules change.’

  She recoiled, horrified, as she realised what he wanted. In the cave he would be much more likely to have full access to those incredible Words. He didn’t just want to send Jake away, he wanted revenge. No wonder he looked so conflicted: he was fighting his compulsion to protect Eden so that he would have better access to the power.

  That was very, very wrong.

  ‘Noah, no. Please, we need to deal with this away from the cave. We can’t let Jake know where it is. It’s too dangerous. Don’t fight your compulsion. Your instincts know what they’re talking about, please listen to them!’

  Kissing her hand, he captivated her with his loving gaze as he explained. ‘If we do that, and he tries to hurt you again, I can’t help you. Not well enough. I won’t risk you again, Tessa. If he comes at you this time, I will kill him.’ His tone was unyielding.