Kora stood with her back to the sun, the golden rays forming a shimmering halo around her. She lifted her arms and centred her power. The location was easy to find. They were going back to the cave where they had found his father’s blood. But the time would be harder. They had to go back five years, to the day his father had been reported missing. The time of day had been an even harder decision to make. They knew from the official Army report that he had last been seen at 3.00 pm. David’s watch had stopped at 3.17. In the end they had decided they would return to 2.50 pm and, with a little luck, see David’s father in the last moments of his life.
Kora focused, summoning all her power until her chest ached with the force of it as she pushed her way back through the heavy glue of time. She gasped for air as the weight of the years squeezed her lungs. She felt like she was drowning in time. Finally, there was a flash of light and a tiny pinprick of a portal opened in front of her. She closed her eyes, summoned every last drop of her power and forced it to open further. She groaned with the effort, it was like swimming through mud. Then finally, with an exhausted moan, she dropped to the ground.
‘You did it.’
David’s excited voice reached her and she struggled to pull herself up. ‘Vennum,’ was all she could manage to say.
She felt David’s strong hands clasp her and pull her to her feet. They only had seconds before Vennum would be after them. Without hesitation David dragged her to the portal and jumped through, pulling her with him.
They landed on the other side with a thud and covered in a sticky layer of something that resembled a spider’s web. She immediately turned back to the portal and, with a sigh of relief, closed it down.
‘Are you okay?’ David was kneeling beside her looking worried. ‘Was Vennum there?’
‘I am okay, I think.’ She sat for a moment resting her head on her knees. ‘I did not see Vennum, but he will be there now.’ She lifted her head to give him a small smile. ‘That was a lot of power. I thought for a moment I was not going to be able to do it.’
‘But you did do it, Kora.’ David reached out to help her to her feet. ‘I think we’d be safer inside the cave. In case someone sees us.’
Kora scanned the barren landscape. ‘Only a human would want to go to the middle of a war zone.’
‘Come on,’ he said. He pulled her towards the cave.
They stepped into the familiar darkness. ‘There is no one in here,’ she said.
David walked to the wall of the cave. ‘There’s no blood on the wall.’ His voice was hoarse. ‘My father — he’s still alive!’
a blast from the past
Kora stepped out of the cave into the bright sunlight. Hot wind whirled around her, lifting the dry, powdery sand and whipping her hair into her eyes. She would have shielded herself from the heat, but she needed to save every ounce of magic to open the time-travel portal to return home. She squinted into the afternoon glare.
David stepped out of the cave and stood beside her. Below them the desert sands stretched away for as far as they could see, disappearing into a cloudy haze on the horizon.
‘Come on,’ said Kora, clambering down the hillside. She was exhausted but knew they did not have much time. ‘We have found our hiding place inside the cave, now we need to find somewhere out here to hide before your father comes.’
David nodded. They scrambled about two hundred metres from the cave to a place where five tall boulders jutted up from the ground like the grotesque fingers of some long-dead giant. They squeezed in through one of the wider gaps to stand in the centre. The fingers of rock towered around them like a cage. ‘This should give us some cover,’ she said, ‘no matter which direction your father comes from.’
‘How long do you think we have to wait?’
‘Not long. A few minutes at the most.’
David dropped his backpack onto the sand and leaned against one of the boulders, his eyes scanning the desert. ‘You know, Kora, I still can’t believe I’m about to see my father again, after all these years. It seems like we are doing the impossible.’
‘I know. Even for a genie, this is an unbelievable thing to be doing.’
David turned to face her. ‘I keep wondering, if my father wasn’t killed by an enemy soldier, then how was he killed? Was it an accidental death? Did he fall off a cliff? Did a wild animal attack him?’
Kora nodded. ‘At least we will not have to wait and wonder for much longer.’
‘There’s something else I keep wondering about, Kora.’ David spoke quickly, his voice strange, wavery. ‘What if my father can be saved? What if he is attacked by a wild animal and we can stop it?’ She heard the hope creeping into his voice. ‘What if he is injured, and bleeding to death, but we can get him to a hospital?’ He reached out and grabbed Kora’s hands. ‘It’s possible, isn’t it?’
‘I do not know, David.’ She smiled sadly at him. ‘I just do not know.’ Kora thought about everything she had learned on the theory of time travel. ‘It is not known whether history can be changed during time travel. But most Genesians believe that it cannot.’ She watched his face. ‘They not only believe that you cannot change history, they believe it would be wrong to do so.’
He nodded, but she could still see the hope in his eyes. He turned to gaze out between the boulders again. ‘Where are they?’ he murmured. ‘It must be almost time.’
She turned to scan the horizon in the other direction. The hot wind whipped the dry desert sand up into squalling dust clouds. Finally a few faint sounds came to them.
David grabbed her arm. ‘Did you hear that?’
She nodded. They peered in the direction of the sounds. Then they saw them. A small contingent of soldiers materialising out of the swirling dust. They were mostly on foot, marching in front of a jeep, and were heading out from around the base of a distant rocky outcrop.
‘We’re miles away, Kora,’ said David. The glare from the afternoon sun was blinding and he shielded his eyes with his hand, straining to see. ‘And they’re not even heading this way.’
She glanced up at the nearby cave where they knew his father was soon to die. ‘No wonder they did not ever find your father,’ she whispered. ‘It is so far from where they would have been looking for him.’
David turned to her, his face anxious. ‘We’ll never see anything from here, Kora.’ He grabbed her hands. ‘Can you spare the energy to shimmer us a bit closer?’
She looked at his panicked expression. She couldn’t let him down. Not now that they had come this far. She gave one quick nod. ‘I have to be able to.’
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and she shimmered them both into a position slightly ahead of where the men were marching. Further out in the desert there were less places to hide, but they managed to find a boulder just big enough for them both to crouch behind.
They huddled down, back to back, peering around the rock. The Australian soldiers were marching almost directly ahead of them now, trudging heavily, guns slung over their shoulders.
‘Can you see your father yet, David?’
He shook his head. ‘But I know he was rostered on as one of the rear guards the day he died.’ He glanced back at her. ‘Today, I mean.’
Kora nodded. Some distance behind the jeep, almost completely shrouded in the clouds of dust, she could just make out the ghostly shapes of two or three soldiers. One of those men had to be David’s father.
David was tense beside her. ‘Stay here,’ she whispered. ‘Do not do anything stupid.’
The jeep rolled by them, and then the rear guards were there. They could make out the men more clearly now they were closer.
‘I see him, Kora,’ he said. ‘It’s him, there, the one closest to us.’
For one wild moment Kora thought David was going to sprint the short distance across the sand to his father. She turned to grab at his shirt, but then everything dissolved into chaos. A flash of light streaked through the air above his father’s head, slicing open a hole in the empty sky
, and a man wearing a strange, bright red coat fell through it. He dropped out of the sky right on top of David’s father, the two of them falling to the ground in a tangled heap. It happened so fast that David’s father didn’t have time to react.
Kora stared, mouth gaping. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She recognised the man in the red coat! ‘It is Rihando,’ she croaked.
David’s father barely had time to yell before another group of Genesian men materialised out of thin air just metres away from them. Rihando sprang to his feet and grabbed David’s father, hauling him up by an arm. He waved his hand in the direction of the men charging towards him and an explosion of sand flew up from the ground in front of them. The flying sand surrounded everyone in a thick blanket that was impossible to see through.
David and Kora stood staring into the swirling cloud. It had all happened in less than ten seconds, and the other Australian soldiers must have seen or heard something unusual because they were returning to investigate. But when the hot wind cleared away the dust cloud everyone, David’s father included, had vanished.
murder on the dark
David grabbed her arm. ‘We need to get back to the cave.’
‘No, it is too dangerous. I think I saw —’
‘I wish,’ said David, before she could finish, ‘to return to the cave, now!’
Using the tiniest amount of magic possible she shimmered them into their hiding spot inside the cave. She blinked, willing her eyes to adjust to the darkness after the glare of the sun outside.
The previously empty cave was now crowded and noisy. ‘Far out,’ said David, squinting. ‘That’s Vennum!’
‘That is what I was trying to tell you,’ she whispered. ‘And his harnessed genies have got Rihando surrounded.’
A younger-looking Vennum stepped out from the darkest shadows of the cave. ‘Well, isn’t this lovely,’ he said to Rihando. ‘The Emperor’s most trusted and loyal genie will be helping me rule Genesia.’
Some of the genies laughed but many of the others looked sympathetically at Rihando. ‘You are truly mad if you believe you can, or ever will, rule Genesia,’ said Rihando, quietly. ‘You will never conquer the city walls.’
‘It is you who is mad if you thought fleeing to Earth would save you from me.’ Vennum sneered. ‘And harnessing yourself to a human won’t work either.’
All eyes turned to David’s father who was leaning against the back wall of the cave, holding his arm with its burning welt from harnessing.
‘I did not harness myself to him,’ spat Rihando. ‘I fell on top of him by accident trying to escape you.’
‘It matters not. What is done is easily undone.’ He turned to the genie on his right. ‘I wish for a dagger.’
‘No!’ Rihando and David both cried out at the same time as the deadly weapon materialised in the palm of Vennum’s hand.
Kora felt David move beside her and she gripped tightly onto his shirt to hold him in place. ‘You cannot let him see us. If Vennum finds us here together now he will recognise that I am from the future.’ She whispered the words hurriedly at David to hold him still. ‘That means he will be able to find us, and the rest of your family, when he comes looking for me in the future.’
‘Then you stay here.’ David shook free of Kora. ‘He doesn’t know who I am.’
Rihando had moved to stand between Vennum and David’s father. ‘It is not the human’s fault,’ he said. ‘If he simply wishes me unharnessed you can spare him.’
Vennum shrugged, but as Rihando turned he came face-to-face with David’s father’s machine gun. ‘Back out of the cave,’ he said. ‘All of you.’
Vennum laughed and David’s father stepped closer, his gun held steady, finger on the trigger. ‘Back out, I said.’
‘Your weapon will not harm us,’ said Rihando.
Vennum spun the dagger in his hand. ‘I had forgotten how entertaining Earth can be.’
Rihando ignored him. ‘You must understand,’ he implored David’s father. ‘I am a genie and when I fell on you it accidentally harnessed me to you. Unless you wish to set me free he will kill you.’
In that moment everything changed. David’s father opened fire on the genies but all the bullets fell uselessly to the ground. The noise in the cave was deafening. Vennum ordered his genies to control Rihando and an enormous genie fight broke out leaving David’s father completely unprotected. And then Vennum threw the dagger. It hurtled through the air and lodged deep into his father’s chest. Blood oozed everywhere and David’s father slumped back against the cave wall.
‘No, David,’ croaked Kora, as David flew out from their hiding spot and ran to his father.
David pushed his way through the genies to reach his father. ‘Dad,’ groaned David, helping his father to the ground.
‘David?’ asked his father. ‘Is that really you?’
‘Yes, Dad. Don’t ask how, but it’s really me.’
‘I must be dreaming,’ said his father. ‘Because my only wish was to see you again before I die.’ He lifted his hand from his wound and stared at the blood that dripped from his fingers.
‘You’re not going to die,’ said David, fiercely. ‘I won’t let you.’ David looked up frantically at Rihando, who was heavily surrounded by genies, and then looked in Kora’s direction. ‘Do something,’ he shouted.
Grief tore at her heart. What was she supposed to do? She could not heal his father and even if Rihando shimmered them to a hospital, not only did she doubt that the doctors could save him but Vennum would only follow them and kill him the second they arrived anyway.
David’s father gasped for air and David pressed firmly where the dagger was buried in his chest in an attempt to stop the flow of blood.
‘It’s okay, son,’ he said. His father reached up and placed his hand on top of David’s. ‘I’m so proud of you, David. Take my watch so that you will always remember our time together.’ He then lifted both of their blood-covered hands away from the wound and with a loud groan wrenched out the dagger. Blood spurted. His father closed his eyes. ‘I love you, son,’ he whispered.
Tears streamed down David’s face. ‘I love you too, Dad.’ But it was too late. His father was gone.
David swiped at his tears and when he lifted his head his face was a mask of agony. He picked up the bloodied dagger and slowly stood. Revenge burned blue fire in his eyes as he faced Vennum.
‘Good luck, kid,’ said Vennum. ‘Your father was no match for me, and neither will you be.’
Kora panicked. David would surely die if he attacked Vennum now. They had to get back to their own time. At least there they had a plan.
She slipped out of her hiding spot and at that moment Rihando turned his head in her direction. She saw understanding dawn on his face. Rihando rubbed his wrists where the golden bands had only just faded away and then threw himself at Vennum.
The surprise and agony of harnessing knocked Vennum to the ground and Kora used the opportunity to shimmer them out to the top of the rocky hillside above the cave.
‘What are you doing?’ shouted David.
‘Saving your life. You will not win fighting Vennum here. Our only chance is if we follow our plan.’
David’s eyes searched the hillside. ‘Will he follow us?’
‘Maybe. The harnessing will only buy us a couple of minutes.’
‘Rihando gave himself up to Vennum.’
‘He did it to save you,’ said Kora. ‘To save both of us. He saw me in there.’
‘It must have been Rihando that sent me my father’s watch.’ David rubbed his face. ‘I knew it hadn’t been there all along.’
‘Rihando would have felt terrible about your father and would have known his wish for you to have it.’
‘Before we go back there’s something I have to know, Kora.’ He looked her directly in the eyes. ‘Did you know Vennum killed my father before we came here today?’
‘Of course not.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘But I bet that stinking armourowl did.�
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‘How could he have known?’
Kora shrugged. ‘Nobody fully understands the armourowls’ ways.’
‘Don’t be mad at him. I’m glad Amurru chose to make me a part of this.’
‘Do you not see how much Amurru has kept hidden from us?’ Anger shook her voice. ‘How he has manipulated us into his own greater plan?’
‘I’m glad I know the truth.’
‘Even if it ends up killing you?’
‘Vennum has to answer for what he has done. If only he had given my father time to understand what was going on, he could have freed Rihando. Then my father would still be alive today.’
Her eyes scanned the hillside looking for any sign they had been followed. ‘You know Amurru was insistent that we have a plan for our return. I guess that means he knew we would not be able to change the past.’
David shook his head from side to side, examining the bloodied dagger in his hands. ‘I wasn’t able to change the past.’ But then he lifted his head and his face had such a look of brutal determination that it sent a cold shiver hurtling down her spine. ‘But I swear to you, I will change the future.’
The battle begins
Kora and David found a sheltered spot on the hillside above the cave. She was fairly sure that all the genies had returned to Genesia now. They must have decided that one human boy wasn’t worth chasing after. But, just in case, she wanted to be out of sight when she began to summon her magic. She didn’t need to be fighting Vennum on this side of the time-travel portal as well as on the other.
Kora sucked in a deep breath. She was still weak from opening the first portal. Her stomach twisted with nerves. She wasn’t sure she had the energy left to open one big enough for them to return. She closed her eyes, needing a few more moments to gather her strength and steady her nerves. ‘Let us just run over things one more time.’
David’s eyes narrowed impatiently but he simply nodded. ‘You’re going to open the portal in a different place from where we left.’
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