Desert Flame

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “I want to get about a metre in so I can hook up the hoist and get a bucket down here. We’re gunna need a bit of room to move.”

  Eloise glanced over her shoulder at him. “That’s that big metal conveyor belt thing?”

  “The one and the same. It’ll get all this rubble out.”

  “Okay, boss,” she declared and lifted the jack, “your wish is my command.”

  That night, Kyne and Eloise set up a campfire in a clearing not far from the drive. The horizon glowed with bands of greyish blue, muddy yellow, and burnt orange as the last sliver of sun dipped out of sight. The heat of the day still lingered in the earth, the red dirt warm to the touch.

  Eloise sat in one of their camp chairs as Kyne set the billy on the fire. Nestling it into the coals, he tipped some water in and sat back on his heels.

  “You did good today,” he told her.

  “You reckon?”

  “Sure. Your powers are growing fast.” Faster than he’d anticipated, which he wasn’t sure was entirely a good thing. As far as elementals went, she was the strongest he’d ever met by a long shot—though there weren’t that many of them out there.

  “That’s good, I suppose.” Eloise picked up the small plastic container of tea he’d sat on the ground and took off the lid. Sniffing the contents, she asked, “What’s this?”

  “Jilungin tea,” he replied. Whatever was happening with her power was irrelevant. He trusted her ability one hundred percent. “Have you had it before?”

  “No.”

  “Vera orders it in from a business in the Kimberly. It’s a traditional indigenous tea used to aid sleep.”

  “So only drink it before bed?”

  “I reckon that’s wise.” Kyne chuckled and sat in his camp chair.

  “It’s earthy. A little tangy…” Eloise sniffed the tea again. “It reminds me of the paperbark tree that grew in the playground of the primary school I went to as a kid.”

  “A paperbark tree?”

  She nodded. “Hot summer days, peeling the layers off the trunk and getting into trouble. I wanted to see if it was really paper and tried to draw on it.”

  Kyne smiled, trying to picture Eloise as an eight-year-old. “How’d that work out for you?”

  “Terrible.” She set the container of tea back down. “It was all soft, and the pen went straight through. Turns out, paperbark isn’t a very literal description.”

  He laughed and leaned his head back. The sky was ablaze with the tail of the Milky Way, the dusting of stars beautiful to look at. Sometimes, he couldn’t help being drawn into the infinite spaces between the light and feeling insignificant compared to it all.

  Coen had told him that the stars were important, but it was actually the dark places where memory lived. The Dreaming was a complex and mysterious place to Kyne, and he didn’t dare try to understand all of it. He doubted any one man could…except maybe Coen. He’d be a fool to disregard anything the Indigenous man had to say.

  “I like it out here,” Eloise murmured, breaking through his reverie. “It’s quiet. I can almost believe we’re the only two people in the entire world.”

  Kyne glanced at her and felt an overwhelming pang in his heart. “I know what you mean.”

  “I’m worried,” she whispered.

  “About?”

  “EarthBore.” She shrugged. “I know we discussed it all last night, but we didn’t get anywhere. Not knowing what to do…it frightens me.”

  Kyne knew it took a lot for Eloise to open up, let alone admit her feelings, so he edged his chair closer to hers. “The answer will come to us. It’ll just take some time.”

  “I know, but…” she trailed off, her brow creasing.

  “You have doubts?”

  She nodded.

  “About what?”

  “We don’t know that EarthBore has anything to do with the seal,” she told him. “For all we know, they just want to mine.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Kyne said. “All that activity would screw with the seal, and we’d have to go back to hiding ourselves. Most of us can pass as humans easy enough, but the fae would have a hell of a time.”

  Her expression fell. “And Wally wouldn’t be able to turn without raising suspicion.”

  “I don’t think it’s coincidence that a massive iron ore deposit is so close to the seal,” he went on. “All of it’s connected, even if we can’t see or understand it yet.”

  Kyne looked up at the sky and focused on the points of light scattered across the darkness. Everything was bound by the same stuff that lived in the dark places between the stars. The iron ore, the seal, the black mountain, it was all connected. Maybe even the opal he mined was a part of it.

  Now that he’d seen Eloise’s vision for himself, he was beginning to believe another power slept underneath the volcanic rock, just like the one that was trapped under Solace. It had a presence, and those tentacles looked like roots to him. Roots that fed the mountain with the energy of the universe.

  That would make them…gods. Was there another word for it that wouldn’t make him sound like a small-minded idiot? Thinking about all that’d happened to them, it didn’t seem like such a farfetched notion.

  Exiles and gods.

  Who created all of this and why? Or was it just all some miracle chemical reaction? What did the seal and the iron ore have in common?

  Kyne looked at Eloise, who was staring into the fire. Maybe they were mining in the wrong spot.

  “Maybe we should go mine that land ourselves,” he said, drawing her attention away from the flames.

  “Huh?”

  “That iron ore. Maybe we should go check it out before EarthBore get here. We’ve got the geological surveys and the reports. And your powers are growing every day. I reckon we’d be able to find out something together.”

  Eloise blinked. “Find out what? Isn’t it just a giant lump of metal down there?”

  “I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “There’s something we’re missing. A link between the seal, the ore, and the mountain. There might be something supernatural about it that we haven’t sensed. Something new.”

  Eloise’s eyes widened and she pulled a face. “Can we not talk about the mountain?”

  “We have to. It’s a part of this. There’s a reason you’re the only one who’s seeing it. I think it wants you for something.”

  “It wants me?” She looked bewildered, as if it hadn’t occurred to her before now.

  “Andante told you it was the heart of the ocean,” he said. “She alluded that it was sentient. She gave us no proof, and I still haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her, but maybe we ought to believe it.”

  “You think the mountain is alive? Like a person alive?”

  “You can’t tell me that the thought hasn’t crossed your mind,” he said.

  Eloise sighed. “What on earth could it want me for? I’m a nobody.”

  She was definitely a somebody, but he didn’t want to frighten her with more talk about unknown entities stalking her dreams.

  “I hope it isn’t one of those light versus dark clichés,” he muttered instead.

  “It would make things easier,” she told him. “Knowing who was good and who was evil.”

  “Yeah, but life isn’t like that. There’s a helluva lot of grey out there. Maybe they’re both as bad as each other where we’re concerned. Maybe humans and us supernaturals are just the equivalent of ants.”

  “Has the billy boiled yet?” she asked. “All this talk of doom and gloom and conspiracy theories has exhausted me. I’m going to have an emotional hangover tomorrow if I don’t get a good night’s sleep.”

  “Let me check.” Kyne got up and knelt by the fire. The water was beginning to bubble inside the billy, and he picked up the enamel cups.

  “I don’t think I can handle all the existentialism,” Eloise went on. “Right now, all I can handle is EarthBore, and even that’s a stretch.”

  Kyne nodded as he tipped some tea lea
ves into each cup. “It’s a lot, I get it. We’re all stressed in our own ways. It hasn’t been that long since all that business with the Nightshade.”

  Kyne busied himself by the fire, retrieving the hot billy from the coals and tipping the bubbling water into each cup. As the tea began to steep, it released a rich earthy scent that now reminded him of paperbark trees on a hot summer’s day.

  “Kyne?”

  He handed Eloise a cup. “Hmm?”

  “I’m worried about Hardy.”

  “Still?”

  “Yes, still.” She rolled her eyes and blew on the hot tea. “He’s different. It’s like…he’s sad but…”

  “But?”

  “But…” She pressed her palm against her heart and frowned. “It’s like he’s sad all the way through.”

  “Maybe it’s his turn,” Kyne said, breathing in the steam rising from his cup of tea.

  “Turn for what?”

  He stared into the fire and thought about everything that’d happened since Eloise had arrived. All they’d faced, from her discovery of her power, the return of his own, Vera’s past with the Nightshade, Drew’s reckoning with the Dust Dogs…all of it. It seemed to him that they would all have a turn at facing what haunted them at their core. Maybe the seal was testing them…or the mountain was.

  “Kyne?” Eloise prodded. “Turn for what?”

  “His reckoning,” he murmured.

  “Reckoning?”

  “He’s lived a long time. There’s got to be a few skeletons in his closet.”

  She lowered her gaze, her brow knitting as if she knew something he didn’t. If Hardy had confided something to her, then it wasn’t Kyne’s place to ask…as long as whatever it was didn’t screw with the seal.

  “Don’t worry about Hardy,” he told her. “He’s the strongest man I know.”

  “That’s the problem…” she said. “I have a feeling he carries more than the rest of us combined.”

  Kyne sipped at his tea to avoid replying. Hardy wasn’t the most forthcoming bloke. His past was a mystery—as was how he’d become a vampire in the first place—but he’d never once given the Exiles reason to doubt or fear him.

  “I think I ought to go back tomorrow,” Eloise said.

  Her voice had taken on a dreamy tone, and Kyne reached out and took her hand. His touch startled her and she almost spilled her tea.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  She blinked and smiled at him. “I feel stretched out and oversensitive.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I can feel it.”

  “Is that normal? I reckon I over did it with the powers today.”

  “Sure,” he replied. “Good thing I brought the tea along.”

  Eloise watched him for a moment, her eyes glowing dimly in the evening light. She was right about her powers, and that meant he should probably listen to her about Hardy. Her talents lay with spirit and if she felt the vampire’s was changing, then he supposed the opal could wait another day. It wasn’t like it was going anywhere—they’d barely scratched the surface with their digging—and Hardy’s wellbeing was more important.

  “We’ll head back into town in the morning,” Kyne said, letting Eloise’s hand go.

  “Thanks,” she murmured. “I know I’m being dramatic…”

  “No,” he said. “You care. It’s one of the many things I love about you.”

  Chapter 9

  Eloise and Kyne returned to Solace at first light the following morning.

  The golden sun shone into their eyes as they bumped down the track, the ute dipping in and out of the potholes that’d sunk into the baked earth by way of wind, rain, and drying heat.

  Eloise dipped the brim of her hat over her eyes, thankful that Kyne had taken the wheel. She hated to drag him away from Black Hole Mine, but she was worried about Hardy. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The vampire said he was prone to bouts of melancholy from time to time, but it didn’t feel like it to her.

  “Hey,” she said as she spotted the rusty windmill through the gumtrees, “last night you said that you thought we’d all get a turn at facing our pasts.”

  “Yeah,” Kyne said, glancing at her.

  “Do you think Hardy will try to open the seal like Vera did?”

  He was silent for a moment as they bumped over a deep rut in the track. “Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe it’s not related.”

  She wrapped her hand around the edge of the seat. “I just wish I paid more attention to it before we went out to the lease.”

  “Yeah, nah, it’s cool,” Kyne told her. “Elemental magic works in mysterious ways.”

  He turned the ute onto the highway and crossed to the opposite side, pulling up outside Hardy’s opal shop. The handbrake made a crunching sound as he wrenched it up, and he turned to Eloise. “What are you going to tell him?”

  “The truth,” she replied, unbuckling her seatbelt. “I overused my powers and got all existential.”

  “Maybe, but he’s not known to be a talker.”

  “Under all that vampire, he’s still a man.”

  The elemental shook his head and leaned towards her. “Eloise, Hardy is one of my best mates and I would do anything for the bloke, but if he ever lost control, he wouldn’t hesitate…” He lifted his hand and ran a finger across her neck, his touch sending shivers down her spine. “He knows it just as much as I do.”

  “He wouldn’t,” she argued. “I trust him.”

  “It’s not about you. Hardy doesn’t trust himself.” Kyne unclipped his seatbelt and opened the door. “There was a reason he gave you the day off…and wanting to talk to Finn was only part of it.”

  Eloise bit her bottom lip as Kyne climbed out of the ute. The vampire had wanted to get out of the workshop because he was on edge. He wasn’t anxious; he was hungry…or at least, that’s the vibe Kyne got from him.

  The realisation startled her, but she shook her head and got out of the ute. Slamming the door, she slipped into the shade of the verandah, her concern only deepening.

  She liked Hardy a lot and couldn’t bare knowing he was suffering. If there was something she could do for him, she would do it in an instant. But it wasn’t just him, it was the same for all the Exiles. They’d helped her when she was nothing more than a stranger, knowing she could have been there to open the seal and destroy them all. Hardy wasn’t just her boss; he was her family.

  Kyne stared down the highway to the south, his shoulders tense.

  “What is it?” she asked, following his gaze.

  A truck was approaching in the distance, the metal exterior shimmering through the mirage wavering above the already hot asphalt. Lifting Kyne’s arm, she checked the time on his watch. 8:47.

  “It’s a bit early for a road train,” she mused as the sound of the rumbling engine reached their ears.

  “I don’t think it’s a road train…”

  They waited in the shade, watching the approaching truck that she now saw was leading an entire convoy of vehicles. When the lead truck hit the town limits and slowed from the 110kph highway speed limit to 80, Eloise’s expression fell as she caught sight of the blue and black logo on the door of the white cabin.

  EarthBore.

  She heard Kyne swear, but she was too busy watching the approaching convoy. A large block of machinery was mounted on the back of the first truck, and thanks to Kyne, she knew it was a Caldweld drill. The second truck was transporting a yellow and black excavator, and behind it was a white ute and another small flatbed truck with more equipment.

  “That’s not a core drill,” Kyne murmured. “They’re not sampling. They’re drilling.”

  As they filed past, Eloise’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the EarthBore logo, but there was one final car that didn’t seem to fit with the others. A large black luxury Land Rover with tinted windows brought up the rear, coasting along the highway like a heat-seeking missile. As it passed, Eloise felt a pang of ice shudder through her body.

 
Her breath caught as her gaze followed the 4WD, her sensitive power latching onto something dark and cold…and it wasn’t the air-conditioned interior.

  “Kyne,” she said, reaching out blindly for his hand.

  “What?” He wound his fingers through hers and warmth returned, seeping through him and into her. “Eloise? Your fingers are like ice.”

  “I think we should go inside,” she whispered, backing towards the door.

  The sound of a key rattling in the workshop door forced Hardy’s gaze to rise.

  He’d been staring at a new piece of opal for the past twenty minutes, his focus so broken he couldn’t see the best place to begin cutting. He always knew.

  Eloise appeared in the door and hurried inside, followed by Kyne and a gust of hot morning air.

  “You’re back early,” he said. “Tired of mining already?”

  “EarthBore is here,” she blurted. “A whole bunch of them just drove by.”

  Hardy stilled. “What?” He hadn’t heard anything. Damnit.

  “A whole convoy,” Kyne said. “A couple of trucks and a 4WD.”

  “There was something supernatural in that car,” Eloise muttered, shivering.

  “How can you tell?” Hardy asked.

  “I overused my powers and now I’m all…” She shivered again and shook out her arms. “Over-stimulated.”

  Hardy’s eyebrows rose.

  “There was a black 4WD and…” Her brow furrowed.

  “Your hands turned to ice,” Kyne said. “Like all the warmth had bled out of you.”

  Hardy’s jaw tensed and he dropped the piece of opal back into the plastic Ziplock bag with the rest of the rough. All this anguish he’d been feeling…what if it was his turn? Someone was riding in that car and his bets were on the supernatural.

  “Tell me,” he said as Kyne sat Eloise in her usual chair. “No matter how silly it sounds.”

  “It felt cold. Like…” Her gaze rose to meet his.

  Vampire.

  She didn’t say it out loud, but he knew. Eloise had felt the cold darkness of the living dead inside that 4WD. Her over-stimulated power felt it in him now, so she understood.