by S. A. Carter
I shake my head. ‘I don’t care. She has to come. It’s important.’
He looks at me questioningly. ‘Okay, if that’s what you want. But just be mindful that Magi may be quarantined for up to three months upon our return. Is that what you want for her?’
My stomach lurches at the thought of Magi not being with me. I lower my head. ‘No, that’s not what I want.’ I sigh and look upon her furry face. She is gazing at me intensely and puts another image inside my head.
We are standing on a precipice of a cliff. The moon is shining down upon us, revealing the dark ocean beneath. I hear the sound of the waves breaking against the cliff face. I search the nightly beyond, the water seems to go on into an endless abyss where there is no horizon, yet I am not afraid. Magi’s fur is being windswept by the oncoming southerly swell and my clothes are starting to stick to my skin with the force of the gale. Magi takes one last glance at me, her amber eyes shining with courage, before she launches herself off the precipice into the dark sea below. The vision ends abruptly.
My hands cover my mouth.
‘What is it?’ Uncle Jo stands up quickly. ‘Ellie, what’s wrong?’
I shake my head. Words fail me but comprehension dawns on me and I understand Magi’s meaning. If you jump, I jump.
‘Ellie?’ He grabs my arm.
I lower my hands. ‘Uncle Jo, Magi is coming, no matter what. So I suggest we find a way to take her that doesn’t involve the authorities.’
He takes a step back and frowns, surprised at my reaction. ‘Alright, but can I ask why it is suddenly so important?’
I look down at Magi. ‘Because she spoke to me.’
He looks between us. ‘Sorry, did you say that Magi spoke to you?’
I nod my head. ‘She can project images to me.’
He scratches his hair and I see confusion cross his face before he says, ‘The kuthun?’
‘I think so.’
He shakes his head lightly. ‘Well, after what Taqôq Wiyon said I’m not surprised. So how do you propose we get Magi there then?’
I think about it, knowing that there must be a way, there has to be. And then an idea presents itself. ‘What about the kuthun?’ I ask. ‘What if I could channel its power somehow to teleport us there?’
Startled he says, ‘The kuthun! But it only teleports you back in time, and you have no control over that.’
I know he has a point but I believe it can be done. ‘Yes. But you said earlier that the kuthun helps my power to expand. If I were to focus, would it be possible that I could use the kuthun’s ability to teleport to our advantage?’
He watches me closely, his finger finding its way to his chin in thought. ‘It may work.’ He puts his hand up. ‘I’m not saying it will, only that it could be possible, especially now that your powers have increased in strength.’ He regards Magi for a moment. ‘There is only one way to find out.’ He quickly turns his attention back to me. ‘We need to practise.’
He strides over to the back door and holds it open, jerking his head at me. I do as he suggests and follow him outside, where the daylight hits me with its midday force. I shield my eyes with the back of my hand, adjusting to the glare. ‘Where are we going?’ I ask him, trying to keep up.
He doesn’t respond. I follow him obediently to the far side of the property, to the back of the barn where the pile of built up timber that he collects for the fireplace sits undisturbed. He stops and turns.
‘Alright. What we are going to do is practise with the kuthun from this side of the property. Hopefully no one driving past will see us here.’ He looks around, satisfied that the barn is covering us from the road.
‘I want you to focus your magic into the kuthun. See if you can teleport to the other side of the property where we found Magi the other night. Can you do that?’
I nod. ‘I think so.’
‘Try to focus on that area, imagining it inside your mind. When you feel you can see it clearly then take the kuthun and connect with it. Please try not to disappear to another time though. Really focus, Ellie,’ he says.
I take a deep breath and shake my arms out, trying to calm all my senses. I keep breathing deeply until I feel my energy relax and then I close my eyes, focusing on the destination.
I picture the grassy area where Magi lay only two nights ago, the tree line alive in the background. I feel the soft grass beneath my feet and the light breeze flowing from the mountains. I hear the birds and cicadas talking amongst themselves high in the surrounding canopy. I take my time, listening to the sounds around me, feeling them ripple through me as I attune myself to the natural elements.
I am ready.
Without opening my eyes I reach up to grasp the kuthun. I feel my body shudder in response and then I teleport.
I open my eyes and find that I am standing ten metres away from where I stood only a moment ago.
Uncle Jo claps his hands as he runs towards me. ‘Whoa! You did it! I mean you didn’t get too far but you still did it!’ He gives me a high five, smiling from ear to ear. ‘Are you alright? How do you feel?’
I grin. ‘Good. I feel good.’
‘Are you ready to go again?’
‘Sure am.’ He takes a step back and I focus just like before. My energy is stronger now and my senses are heightened. I reach for the kuthun…
I open my eyes and am disoriented for a moment. I can hear laughter in the distance and my eyes follow the sound. I see him and Magi running towards me. I glance around and find that I did it—I teleported to the exact spot where Magi lay. I clap my hands and jump up and down with happiness.
My heart is pumping wildly and I run towards them. ‘Did you see that?’ I shout, as I get closer.
Uncle Jo gives me a bear hug. His eyes are alive. ‘Ellie, you did it! I’m so proud of you,’ he gushes.
I feel the colour come into my cheeks. ‘Thanks,’ I say. Magi’s tail is wagging madly.
‘Well, at least we know it’s possible,’ he says as his eyes comb the tree line for any signs of activity. ‘You’ll need more practise before we can move on to further distances, so let’s go again shall we?’
I nod, still a little breathless but feeling invigorated at the same time. I calm my centre and close my eyes.
I walk out from behind the barn and wave to Uncle Jo. He waves back and signals for me to return. In a blink I am standing right beside him again. We do this back and forth for the next couple of hours, each teleport becoming more easily attainable as my power and the kuthun find synchronicity with one another.
We eventually decide to call it a day and walk back to the house, feeling satisfied that we achieved something pretty special.
‘You did great today, Ellie. Really great,’ he says proudly, his arm wrapped around my shoulders.
‘Thanks. You did pretty well yourself.’
‘We may actually be able to pull this off. Tomorrow I want to try a larger area. That is…if you feel up to it?’ He glances at me hopefully.
‘Of course I will, although I do have school tomorrow.’ Images of skipping school enter my mind.
He smiles. ‘I’m sure you could miss a couple of days. I’ll let the school know. I’m sure under the recent circumstances it won’t be a problem.’
As we near the house I smell Aunt Lily’s cooking. ‘I’m starving,’ I say hungrily.
‘That makes two of us.’
We make our way inside with Magi hot on our heels.
‘I figured you would be hungry after all that vanishing bizzo out there, so I made an early dinner,’ Aunt Lily says as we enter the back door. She looks up from the stove where she is slowing mixing spaghetti bolognaise around in a large pot.
‘You saw us?’ Uncle Jo asks, a little taken aback.
‘Of course, Jo. It was pretty obvious. There was a spark in the air every time Ellie vanished. It was quite remarkable actually,’ she says casually, her eyes turning back to the pot.
I smile. ‘Well…that’s that then.’ I turn my
attention back to Uncle Jo. ‘Something is concerning me a little. I mean, I could do it out there because I am familiar with the area. But to teleport to somewhere like Egypt…’
‘Egypt! What is this about, Jo?’ she asks worriedly. She is holding the spoon out in front of her and the bolognaise sauce is dripping all over the kitchen floor.
‘Uh…honey, the sauce,’ he says. She quickly puts the spoon back into the pot and wipes her hands on her apron. ‘Lil, I was going to talk about it later with you when I had decided how best to approach all this.’
She puts her hands on her hips. ‘I’m sorry. Did you say when you had decided how best to approach all this?’
I purse my lips and move back out of the firing line.
He glances at me nervously and I have to stifle a laugh.
‘Come on, that’s not what I meant and you know it.’
She presses her lips together in annoyance and slowly walks towards him. ‘Josiah Olsen, you better remember that we raise Ellie together. We! Not just you! Do you understand?’ She is scowling at him.
He looks at me for support.
‘You’re on your own old man.’ I laugh.
He faces her again. ‘Yes ma’am.’
She holds his gaze for a few seconds longer and then turns on her heel and heads back towards the stove.
He shrugs his shoulders and sits down next to me. Sweat is lightly beading across his forehead. Venators, odd policemen and the threat of imminent death doesn’t scare him, but my Aunt’s soft wrath does. I laugh softly.
He clears his throat. ‘Uh, back to what I was saying. We’ve discovered that the answers we need to find lie in Egypt. So that’s where we have to go.’
She squints her eyes at him. ‘Uh huh. And when is this supposed to be happening?’ She folds her arms ever so slowly.
‘Well, as soon as we can get Ellie to teleport us there actually,’ he says.
‘Pardon. I thought you just said teleported?’ she says aghast.
‘Honey, calm down. We have to take Magi with us, which as you know could be a long process, plus we need the element of surprise. If Ellie can do this, then we can get in and out quickly without having to leave much of a trace.’
She looks to me for reassurance. ‘Aunt Lily, I can do this. Please trust me. We have to try.’
She turns her back to us and faces the stove again. ‘Fine, but you both better pray that you come and go in one piece or there will be hell to pay. Believe you me.’
Uncle Jo and I glance at each other and smile.
I leave them to talk and go and wash up before coming back to the table where dinner has been served. The atmosphere is happy and relaxed, and for the moment I have forgotten that the Venator is still out there, biding his time until he can strike again. We talk about the events of the day, filling Aunt Lily in on the information that we uncovered.
‘Right, so tomorrow I want to see if you can teleport to Phoebe’s house and back. We can’t risk being outside the property for long as we still don’t know where he is.’
‘Alright, but isn’t that a little risky? I mean, what if someone sees me?’
‘We have to risk it a little considering we need to test how it all works. We also need to see whether your energy can sustain the trip without you becoming over exhausted. You were able to teleport much easier by the end of today, so let’s hope the same happens tomorrow.’ He twirls the spaghetti onto his fork in one swift movement.
I nod, trying to mimic his twirling technique, but I fail miserably and the spaghetti slides all over the place.
‘It seems that Ellie is able teleport to places she knows, but she’s never been to Egypt. How will she be able to focus on it?’ Aunt Lily takes a sip of her wine and waits for a plausible response.
‘I’ve thought about that. The only thing that I can think of is that we get a picture for her to focus her attention on. Somewhere in Egypt that we need to go. Where exactly, I don’t know yet.’
I swallow. ‘I do.’
They both look at me.
‘We need to get to the Temple of Philae, just as Ama said.’
‘Of course. You’re right. That’s where she said the scripture was found. It would make sense that we would find the light there.’ He gets lost in thought.
‘What scripture?’ Aunt Lily asks confused.
I recite the scripture back to her, having committed it to memory.
‘Oh, well, that does make sense then,’ she agrees. ‘So any idea what this light may be?’
‘Not as yet,’ I say.
The worried look that was present on Uncle Jo’s face earlier is back.
We sit in silence after that, contemplating all the possibilities to come. I try not to over-analyse what might happen as I know that it will keep me up tonight. Instead, I bring to mind Mum’s face. I remember her from the dream I had a few days earlier where she was being pulled back into the darkness. A glow appeared behind her and she calmly walked through it, but not before telling me to listen to the light.
Chapter 15
I am standing before the stone door again. The kuthun sits in the top section of its face, highlighted by the silver metallic liquid that flows through it. It starts to glow and pulsate in rhythm with the kuthun at my neck. Slowly my power grows, my hands start to tingle and I feel my body transform. I raise my hand in front of my face and see that my fingers are longer, more slender, with pieces of gold jewellery covering every surface. My skin is darker and there is a tattoo of some sort on the inside of my wrist. There is not enough light to make out its pattern clearly. My clothes feel tighter and heavier, and whatever sits atop my head is weighing me down. I feel like me but then…not me, like there are two of me within one body. I know I must open the door, and this ‘other me’ knows how. I let her take over, trusting that what I need to find beyond this door holds the answers that I seek. The air within the tunnel starts to build and specks of sand are being blown against my legs. She places her hand onto the door and in a soft voice she casts a spell. ‘Omna luna charkra ma. Solemeni senu tema ra.’ The light behind the door brightens. I hear the grinding and movement of stone upon stone. Slowly the door begins to open but I still can’t see what lies beyond. The light threatens to blind me. I hold my breath.
Sweat is gently trickling down my face, my heart is pounding, and the bed sheets are sticking to my skin. I throw them off and sit on the side of the bed with my head in my hands. I feel like a part of me is still back there.
I hear the tread of Magi’s paws coming towards me and can smell her before she reaches my side. She has always smelt like a combination of geranium and juniper, mixed with a pleasant musky hair aroma. She buries her head into my lap and sits there patiently, waiting for me to respond. Eventually I do, and I exhale—envisioning all the stale air leaving my lungs. My head starts to clear.
I wash up and head downstairs, making myself a tea and taking it into the living room. I snuggle up on the lounge, throw the blanket over my legs and look around at all the photos that adorn the room. Smiling faces of family past and present, all throwing off similar genetic traits of the Cole gene pool, stare back at me. I notice for the umpteenth time that Aunt Lily doesn’t have any pictures of her biological family up here. We have something in common. We are both orphans.
‘Good morning.’ Uncle Jo enters the room.
‘Morning,’ I mumble.
He comes and sits beside me. ‘Did you sleep well?’
‘Not really,’ I say, taking a sip of the warm chai tea.
‘Do you want to talk about it? I’ve been known to listen pretty well.’
I smile lightly. ‘I know. Thanks, but I’m okay.’ I think about needing to let off some steam this morning. ‘Do you think it would be alright if I went for a ride this morning? I won’t go too far but I could really use some alone time and clear my head.’ I wait for the we-can’t-risk-it speech.
Instead he says, ‘I think that would be a good idea. Take Billie for a spin, but Magi is going
with you.’ His eyes turn serious. ‘If you feel that you are in danger in any way then use the kuthun to get yourself out of there. No questions, Ellie. I mean it.’
I know he’s right, but there is a part of me that wants to tell him to stop lecturing me, I’m not a child. Instead I just nod. He gets up to move and as he enters the kitchen I see him glance back at me briefly. I finish off my tea in silence and head upstairs to get dressed. I hear my phone ringing and run to answer it.
‘Hi, Phoebs,’ I say.
‘Hey girlfriend, how was your Sunday? Did you do anything…special?’ she asks, with the purposeful tone of finding out if I did anything that involved magic.
‘Nope. All normal here,’ I respond blandly.
‘Oh.’ She sounds disappointed. ‘Well, are you picking me up this morning?’
I forgot about picking her up. ‘Ugh, sorry. I’m not coming to school today. I’m having a sickie.’ There is no response on the other end of the phone. ‘Phoebs?’
‘Still here. What are you up to Cole?’ she asks suspiciously. ‘And don’t tell me nothing, because that’s a lie. You’re never sick, so you can’t use that excuse either.’
She knows me too well. ‘Uh, well Uncle Jo and I are practising something at the moment. I can’t really talk about it.’
‘Right! That’s it! I’m coming over.’ I hear her hang up the phone.
I try to ring her back to tell her that I don’t think it’s a good idea but she doesn’t answer. She is so bloody stubborn. I quickly get dressed and just as I’m pulling on my Vans I hear the phone ring downstairs. Phoebe. I run down to the kitchen to answer it and pick it up on the fifth ring.
‘Phoebs?’ I answer. All I can hear is the sound of someone breathing on the other end. My skin prickles and my Cole blood surges. ‘What do you want?’ I ask angrily, knowing who it is.
At first I hear nothing. Then in a deep voice he says, ‘You may have bought yourself some more time, Miss Cole, but it won’t be for very long.’ I hear the sound of the line going dead.