Fire in the Sea

by Myke Bartlett

  Sadie’s spine straightened. ‘Us?’

  ‘Oh yes, there’s someone in the car you might be surprised to see again so soon.’

  Sadie pulled herself free from Agatha and ran into the light. A little spark of hope remembered itself. It couldn’t be. Maybe the Gods hadn’t blamed him for trying to use the demon. Maybe they understood. Or maybe they hadn’t noticed.

  Agatha’s jeep was a few decades old, but as well-polished as a soldier’s boot. Sadie could see a young man sitting in the passenger seat. He was tall and thin, with a powerful nose and thick dark hair above a high forehead.

  ‘Jake?’ It didn’t look like him but, of course, it wouldn’t. He was someone else, again.

  ‘Sadie?’ The boy leaned out through the open door. ‘Oh, man, it’s true then. He’s gone,’ he said.

  Sadie’s heart stuttered in her chest. ‘Jake? Tell me it’s you.’

  ‘It’s Vincent,’ the boy said. ‘I went straight to Agatha and told her what happened. Said she had to come and rescue you.’

  Words formed on Sadie’s lips, then dissolved in silence. It wasn’t fair. Vincent, coward and cheat, had come back and Jake was gone.

  ‘For once, Vincent is actually speaking the truth,’ Agatha said, coming to stand by Sadie’s shoulder. ‘When I realised that, I knew things had to be serious. Sadie, this must be hard for you. You should know Jacob never has had much luck with his,’ she considered the word carefully, ‘bodies.’ She put a hand to Sadie’s forearm. ‘I felt him go.’

  ‘You did?’

  ‘I always do. We were very close once.’

  This wasn’t what Sadie wanted to hear. She had but the briefest of claims on Jake. Agatha had known him for longer than she had lived or would live.

  ‘You felt him go,’ she said, trying to hold back a note of hope. ‘Did you feel him come back?’

  Agatha considered the question. It seemed to unnerve her. ‘No. Not yet.’

  Sadie’s knees sagged and Agatha had to dart forwards to catch her. ‘Oh you poor dear. Let’s go. I fear this night isn’t over yet.’

  22

  RAIN

  Agatha did her best to heal Tom’s throat. His voice returned, as if breaking through a bad cold, but a raw welt remained, like a cruel smile beneath his chin. Sadie tried to smile encouragingly.

  ‘It’ll heal,’ he assured her. Each word still scraped in his throat.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said, eyes down, and he started to worry.

  He had nearly died, he knew that. The strange thing was, when it came to it, he had almost felt calm. He wasn’t going to go easily, but part of him had just nodded and thought yeah, fair enough. But then he’d seen Sadie, seen her distress, and he’d fought back.

  As they approached the city, the road shook beneath them, rattling the jeep. Car alarms honked and rubbish bins tipped over on drenched pavements. Agatha pulled up on the kerb until the quake subsided.

  ‘Our friends are getting a mite impatient,’ she said.

  The relic had fallen from the dashboard to Sadie’s lap. Tom saw her reach to pick it up, then hesitate, as if fearing it.

  ‘I hate that box,’ Heather said. ‘It makes me feel sick just looking at it. Like it doesn’t want me looking at it. It doesn’t like me.’

  Kimberley snorted. ‘You are such a freak. Who else feels picked on by furniture?’

  ‘No,’ Sadie said. ‘It’s alive. Seriously. I can hear it talking to me. It says it’ll help us, if we do what it wants.’

  Tom saw Sadie’s hand tremble again over the lid. When he had held the box, he’d felt nothing but cool wood.

  ‘What does it want?’ Kimberley asked.

  In the space behind the back seat, Vincent stirred. ‘It wants to be free. But it won’t be freed. Not without Jake.’

  ‘No,’ Sadie said. ‘Jake did something to it. I think it’ll open for me. We have to try.’

  Heather looked to Sadie. ‘You’re not going to let it out?’

  Sadie shook her head. ‘Not yet. It isn’t ready. It wants the water.’ She put the box back on the dashboard. Goosebumps prickled the back of her arm. ‘It’s all we can do. If it doesn’t help us, the city drowns.’

  Another tremor, stronger than the last, knocked them about in their seats. Tom leaned forward and put his hand on Sadie’s shoulder to steady her. She looked out, beyond the dark glass towers of the city.

  ‘We’ve got two hours,’ she said. ‘If the sun comes up, we’ve had it.’

  ‘And if it doesn’t open?’ Tom whispered.

  ‘It’ll open. It has to.’

  Agatha had been listening to this conversation, not remotely fussed. But Tom had the feeling that, if asked, she would have turned and fled for the hills. She put her foot down, the jeep moved forwards and rain pelted at the windscreen.

  There were roads that couldn’t be taken. They were choked with traffic or flooded by dark, murky water. Yellow tape or orange barricades bisected intersections. Defunct traffic lights flashed silent warnings.

  A short distance from the yacht club, flashing blue lights appeared through the downpour, and a plastic-coated policeman stepped out to flag them down.

  ‘You’ll have to turn back,’ he said, peering in as Agatha wound down the window.

  ‘It’s an emergency,’ Sadie said, leaning across. ‘We need to get to the yacht club ASAP.’

  ‘Yeah, every smart arse wants a boat.’ The policeman flashed his torch in her face, making her blink. ‘The club’s closed off. It’s flooded.’

  ‘It’s a yacht club,’ Sadie said. ‘It’s supposed to be flooded.’

  It was meant as a friendly joke, but Agatha waved a palm, hushing her. ‘We won’t be any trouble constable, and it is very important.’

  The policeman gave a bored sigh. He turned his torch around to the back seat. ‘Leaving town?’

  Agatha remained a picture of innocence. ‘Should we be?’

  ‘Lotsa people are. Packing light, aren’t you?’ The torchlight glanced across Vincent’s new, squinting face. ‘Kid in the back there’s not wearing a seatbelt. He’s gonna have to get out.’

  Sadie’s frustration was boiling over. Dawn was barely an hour and a half away. ‘Look, he just needed a lift. We’re trying to get somewhere safe. You can understand that, can’t you?’

  The policeman ignored Sadie. His torchlight was on Vincent. ‘Seen you before, haven’t I, mate?’

  Vincent shook his head.

  ‘Stay there,’ the cop commanded. He walked back towards the police car and reached through the driver’s window for his radio.

  Sadie turned in her seat. ‘Okay then, so does he know you?’

  Vincent shrugged. ‘How would I know?’

  ‘Who did you steal that body from, idiot? Who were you?’

  ‘Don’t have a clue. First thing I knew about this one, he’d been pushed under a train. If I hadn’t ducked in, got the body out of the way, it’d be nothing but cold cuts.’

  ‘You came back here,’ Sadie realised. ‘You could have gone anywhere, but you came back here, knowing we’d probably be underwater by morning. Why?’

  ‘I wanted to help!’

  ‘Yeah, right.’

  The policeman was watching them. Sadie tried to judge how serious his expression was.

  ‘You could be a murderer sitting there,’ she said, watching Vincent in the rear-view. ‘You could get us all arrested. Why didn’t you use your magic on him?’

  ‘I couldn’t see his eyes. I need to see the eyes.’

  The policeman’s conversation was over. He put the radio back, keeping his eyes on the jeep, and felt for the gun at his side. The holster stayed buckled, but his hand hovered over it, just in case. On the other side of the car, a policewoman got out into the rain.


  In the back seat, Kimberley was already putting her hands up. ‘Why does everyone want to shoot me all of a sudden?’

  ‘What’s with the all of a sudden?’ Heather muttered.

  It didn’t occur to Sadie to feel scared. The relic sat on the dashboard in front of her.

  ‘We need to get to that boat, now,’ she said.

  Agatha squared her jaw, feeling about for the gearstick. ‘Eight thousand years, Vincent, and you’re still a pain in the arse.’

  As the engine roared, both cops tensed, their hands snapping magnetically to their guns. Agatha pulled hard right. The car jerked as it mounted the broad traffic island. The rear wheels spun frantically, spitting yellow mud, before biting down on the wrong side of the highway.

  The police ran back to their car and gave chase, siren blaring. Another police car, further up the road, did the same. Its headlights glared ahead of the jeep’s. To avoid a collision, Agatha pulled right again, tipping the jeep up onto the kerb.

  The university was between them and the yacht club and they were heading into it. A flooded lawn spread out in front of a limestone chapel. They lurched down a grassy bank, leaving a frothy path across the green. Through the spray on the rear windscreen, Sadie could see the police, already too close behind them. Agatha wrenched the wheel left, bumping up a smaller slope onto a pavement. The back of the jeep fishtailed on the concrete and the passenger door slammed against the edge of a stone archway. Agatha managed to straighten up, remarkably relaxed. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

  As soon as the jeep had ducked through the arch, its headlights picked out a row of steel bollards, blocking the way to a brick path. Agatha dragged the car around, off the paving. The wheels juddered over the roots of a Moreton Bay fig tree.

  Back on the path, the rush and wash of deeper waters sloshed through the jeep’s steel floor. A high tide crept in around Sadie’s boots.

  ‘Oh blow.’

  Ahead there was another set of bollards, with no path around them. Agatha checked the rear-view.

  ‘Sadie, how far is it to the yacht club?’ she asked, still pressing the accelerator to the floor. ‘If you had to walk?’

  ‘Ten minutes?’ Tom guessed.

  ‘Splendid,’ Agatha said. ‘Vincent, I want you running in the opposite direction. Make it look good, but let them catch you.’

  ‘No way. I haven’t done anything.’

  ‘You don’t know that, and it should keep them happy.’

  ‘They have guns.’

  ‘And if they use them, that should keep me happy.’ Agatha looked across at Sadie. ‘Be quick,’ she said. ‘And good luck.’ She pulled on the handbrake and swung the car around.

  Sadie was already clutching the relic, trying to ignore its tingling electricity. She shoved it back into Jake’s satchel, put the strap over her head and wrenched at the door handle. It wouldn’t budge. The collision with the archway had bent the frame. The door was jammed fast. She twisted around in her seat and kicked out with her boots. Nothing. Police lights scattered blue shadows about the jeep’s cabin.

  Knee deep in filthy water, Tom tore the door open. Kimberley, Heather and Vincent all stood behind him.

  Sadie rounded on Vincent. ‘What are you waiting for? You heard Agatha—you’re our distraction. So get distracting.’

  ‘But I don’t know where the yacht club is.’

  ‘It isn’t that way,’ Sadie said, pointing west. ‘Go. Run!’

  Vincent splashed off and away from them. In the floodwaters, he couldn’t see the narrow duck pond that ran along the front of the library. He hadn’t gone two metres before he tripped on its edge and plunged into the khaki murk.

  So much for the distraction, Sadie thought.

  She was already wading as quickly as she could, towards the car park, which was now more like an Olympic-sized pool. Behind her, car doors slammed and angry voices skimmed like vicious stones across the water. It was more difficult to run than she’d imagined. With each step the flood sucked at her boots and she had to fight to get them back. The satchel didn’t help, thumping against her back as if chiding her. Her cousins were whimpering behind her, but Tom had surged ahead. He glanced back over his shoulder to make sure they hadn’t drifted off.

  Vincent was quickly caught and bundled with Agatha into the back of the police car. Even being shoved about, Agatha kept her grace.

  Two cops—a man and a woman—had broken away and were plunging after Sadie, Tom and the twins in great strides. The man called out, but his words were lost in the rain.

  Finally, reaching a set of pale brick buildings, Sadie was on solid ground. Her toes squelched in her sodden socks.

  ‘Sades, look.’

  Tom was looking back. Heather was lagging miserably, struggling to lift her knees. By contrast, the policeman was charging forward. Within seconds he had snatched the back of her T-shirt and held her mewling against his chest. The policewoman dived for Kimberley and tackled her down into the water.

  Sadie faltered. Could she leave her cousins behind?

  Forget them, a voice said. Get me to the ocean.

  Sadie glanced towards the city’s glass towers. There was little night left in those windows. She had to keep going.

  Chasing Tom’s heels, she could hear the stuttered fragments of an argument. ‘My dad…lawyer…sue…your arse…’

  They turned left, splashing across a concrete plaza. From here it was another five minutes, if they could keep running.

  On the other side of the plaza, headlights flared on a car parked in shadow, startling both Tom and Sadie. ‘Stay right there,’ a loudspeaker voice demanded. Two more policemen opened their doors and stepped out into the rain.

  Tom looked at Sadie, his bottom lip bunched.

  ‘One hour, twenty-three minutes,’ he said, tapping his wrist. ‘Then we all drown, right?’

  ‘We’re not going to drown.’

  ‘You know what you’re doing. Just get to the boat.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid. I can’t sail a yacht.’

  ‘Shut up. It’s easy, okay? You won’t need to sail, there’s a motor. The rest is steering. You can do it.’

  ‘Seriously, don’t be an idiot.’

  ‘Shut up.’ Tom clapped a palm to each of her shoulders, staring into her. ‘Look Sades, I know you like to boss me around.’

  ‘I don’t like to. I can’t help it.’

  ‘But now I’m telling you—you can do this. You have to.’

  Tom’s hands dropped and he ran towards the approaching policemen, veering off at the last second to lure them towards the student pub.

  Sadie didn’t wait to see him caught. She ran back across the plaza, up the brick path, hoping to avoid a dead end. She kept running, not worrying about the breath burning behind her ribs, until she reached the campus edge, where the yacht club waited across the street.

  The yacht club car park was a clay-coloured swamp, its waters reflecting the last of the moonlight. Sadie splashed her way towards the darkened clubhouse. Nearly there, she saw another pair of torchlights dart about the white walls. The no-neck policeman was heading back from the jetty with his partner following. Within seconds, they would be upon her.

  Sadie crouched by the clubhouse wall. The cold water was up to her ribs. There was nowhere to hide. Rain coursed in currents down her spine and she could hear the demon taunting her.

  Is this the best you can do? Stupid, arrogant girl. I am history. You are dust.

  She drove the satchel down into the muddy waters.

  From around the corner of the building, she could hear the policeman, close now. ‘Bloody kids, like we don’t have enough to do. Buggered if I know what they think they’re doing.’

  ‘Sure you recognised that kid in the back?’

  ‘I could
have sworn I’d seen his face back at the station. Don’t know now.’

  Holding her nose, Sadie lay down into the flood. The back of her head bumped against stony ground. She closed her eyes and waited. Submarine hums echoed around her, but they didn’t drown out the relic.

  Always you hide. Perhaps you should just lie down here and drown. Maybe it will take someone better than you to set me free. Someone worthy.

  Her empty chest burned and pressure built behind her eyes. Her fingers clenched. Finally, she felt the police wade past. Sparks rose before her and her lips pursed, but still she waited for silence, for stillness. Finally, she let herself sit up, gasping and dizzy.

  ‘Hey!’

  Torchlight threw her shadow across the clubhouse wall. The policeman was only a few metres away. He had turned back for a final look towards the jetty.

  Sadie clambered to her feet. The jetty was all but invisible beneath the swollen river. Boats rattled against each other; some had grounded themselves on its walkway. She waded quickly across the submerged lawns and plunged into the river. The water lapped at her armpits. Seconds later, the policeman jumped in after her.

  Are you ready to surrender yet, Sadie? As if a girl like you could hope to set me free. The Old One was a fool to have entrusted me to your care.

  The demon was right, but she tried not to believe it. Jake had died to get her this far. Her cousins and Tom and Agatha had all been arrested. Even if she made it onto the jetty, even if she made it to the boat, there wouldn’t be time to get the engine started.

  Her left foot snagged on something and she stumbled, getting a lungful of salty river water. It was a step. She had reached the jetty stairs. Pulling her foot free, she climbed. With each step, the weight of the water fell away from her. Soon she was as light as she could remember ever being, splashing along the pier. Boats poked at her like frightened cattle. One wrong step and she would tumble into the narrow gap between vessels. She could see her uncle’s boat towards the end of the jetty, bucking in its mooring. Just another thirty seconds—

  ‘That’s far enough!’

  Sadie stopped and turned back towards the stairs. The policeman was on the walkway. He had his gun pointed in her direction.