Outback Spirit

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Abrasive… I like that.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be a compliment.”

  “You know what this is?” he asked, picking up a clump of his hair.

  “Uh, hair?”

  “Blue hair, smart arse,” he drawled. “Blue. Where I come from, all Shri’danann have coloured hair, but we are divided by warm and cool.”

  Eloise had no idea what a Shri’danann was, but she was about to get a lesson no matter what she said.

  “Shri’danann are magical fae. There are two races within—Seelie and Unseelie. Good and bad. Guess which one I am.”

  “C’mon,” she drawled. “There’s gotta be a whole lot of grey in that black and white spectrum. Just because you’ve got blue hair doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy. You’ve just got a sour attitude. Anyone who loves hot chips as much as you do can’t be all bad.”

  “I do like a good, deep-fried potato.”

  Eloise snorted and ran her thumb over her shaped bit of potch. A fleck of purple shone as she tilted it towards the light. Needs a little more off the top…

  Finn was watching her closely. “What’s going on with you and Kyne?”

  “What do you mean?” Despite trying to keep her composure, the question made Eloise blush.

  “You’re turning red, desert pea.”

  “Stop calling me that.”

  A lazy grin spread across his face. “I will if you admit you’ve got the hots for him.”

  “Stop it. I hardly know the guy and you even less.”

  “Kyne was gone for a long time,” Finn said. “He only came back once you showed up.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about that.”

  “You want to know why?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Do you know?”

  Finn leaned close, relishing her rapt attention. “Do you?”

  Eloise curled her nose. “No…?”

  The fae snorted and stood. “Everything went arse up the moment he left. Vera tried to keep things together, but I wouldn’t trust her as far I could throw the witch. Then Drew blew in and brought those dogs with him. Then Kyne finally came back, but he’s all surly with the biggest death wish I’ve ever seen.”

  “Death wish? I haven’t seen anything in him that screams reckless…” She frowned as her thoughts went to the cave-in.

  “You trailed off,” Finn declared. “That means you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  “Why should I know anything? I’ve known you all for like two weeks.”

  “You’re an elemental.”

  “So?”

  “Pfft, whatever.” He plucked a brown and white feather out of his hair and offered it to her.

  She narrowed her eyes at it. “A feather?”

  “I think you’re going to need it more than me,” he replied. “Those Dust Dogs aren’t done with Solace.”

  She twirled the white and brown feather in her fingers. “What can a feather do against a bunch of bikers?”

  Finn shrugged. “Coen gave it to me after I was thumped in the head by Drew.”

  “And?”

  “And if Coen gives you something, you take it, desert pea.”

  Eloise took the feather and slipped it into her shirt pocket. She’d find someplace safe for it later.

  “So, what do you think’s going to happen now? With the Dust Dogs, I mean.”

  Finn ran his hand over his face. “They’ll be back, and next time the message will be louder.” When he saw Eloise tense, he added, “Don’t you worry about it. You’re an innocent bystander. When your house on wheels is fixed in another week, you’ll be driving off into the sunset, which I don’t blame you for. You elementals can slip right into human society and live a normal life.”

  Eloise grimaced and closed her fingers around the potch. Another week until the part arrived for her van, then… Then what? Now she knew the secret about her powers, she could learn how to stop screwing with people’s heads and have a normal life.

  But after the things she’d seen in Solace, could she?

  Finn kicked the sink, the bang making her jump. “Don’t think too hard, your head might explode. You want to stay, you stay. You want to go, you go. Solace isn’t a prison, little mouse. Not for you.”

  She stared after him as he glided out of the workshop. The bell over the door rang and she looked down at the opal.

  It just needed a little more off the top…

  Hardy was leaning against the front of his shop, listening to the shrill silence of Solace when Finn came outside.

  “That was fast,” the vampire remarked.

  “I’m good, that’s why,” the fae drawled.

  “And?”

  “It all checks out,” Finn told him. “She knows what she’s doing now, though not quite how to control it. Seems to be getting better at spotting it.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Sure,” he drawled.

  “C’mon, Finn. You’re Unseelie. There must be something you’re not saying.”

  The fae rolled his eyes. “Just because I’m Unseelie doesn’t mean I’m a duplicitous a-hole, za’adei.”

  Hardy sighed. “I know enough fae to understand you just called me something foul.”

  Finn chuckled and picked at the dirt underneath his fingernails. “She likes rocks, but she’s not just using earth to guide her hand.”

  “Then what?”

  “Perception, but… There’s something else wound around her, but I’m not even sure it’s there.”

  “Something else?”

  “Something cold.”

  Hardy frowned. He knew a lot about many things, but magic wasn’t one of them. Supernatural creature were often secretive about this history and the mechanics of their power, and for good reason. There were things about vampires—specifically how to kill one—even he wouldn’t tell his best friends.

  “Whatever it is, it’s dormant,” Finn went on. “Buried so deep it’s nothing but a prop for her other abilities. Gives her a little extra kick. Don’t worry about it, old man. I’m not going to.”

  “If you’re not worried, then I’m trusting you.” Hardy pushed off the wall, moving too fast for Finn to react, and shoved the fae against the wall.

  “Hey,” Finn exclaimed, holding his hands up. “Give us a break, vampire.”

  “I’m trusting you, Finn,” Hardy said, “but I can just as easily decide you’re untrustworthy.”

  “Give it a rest. We’re on the same side.” He shrugged off the vampire and scowled.

  “What else aren’t you saying?”

  “Coen gave me a feather after Drew smashed me one. I gave it to her, though why you need to give a toss about it, is a story I don’t care for.”

  “What’s it for?” Hardy wondered. Coen never gave people gifts unless they were needed for something. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time the Indigenous man had given anyone anything.

  “It was a tail feather from a wedge-tailed eagle,” the fae replied. “Coen’s always crapping on about some bloody eagle like it’s the creator of the universe. I figured if anyone needed it, it’s the little mouse. I didn’t want it. The thing didn’t match my colour scheme.”

  “Not high fashion enough for you?”

  “She’s here for another week,” Finn said, ignoring him. “It’ll help her and keep the seal all snuggly under the ground until she’s gone.”

  “Help her how?” Hardy narrowed his eyes. “Finn.”

  “Coen loves talismans. I figure it’s one, but I don’t want anything that doesn’t mix well with my own magic, thank you very much. Nature is one thing, but I’d prefer the nature of my own world.” And as a literal exile, Finn wasn’t going back any time soon.

  Hardy eyed the fae. “All right, but one day you’re going to have to quit the attitude and admit you’re one of us.”

  Finn grinned and backed away. “Never!”

  When Hardy returned to the workshop, Eloise rolled her eyes.

  “Finn’s a joy, isn’t he?” she
drawled. “What’s the verdict?”

  “On?” Hardy asked, raising his eyebrows. He noticed the tip of the feather poking out of her shirt pocket.

  “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

  He chuckled and rounded the table. Picking up a piece of the raw back opal he hadn’t begun working yet, he set it on her workbench.

  Her eyes widened. “What’s that?”

  “Raw black,” he replied. “For you.”

  “You want to give me the rarest, most expensive bit of opal on the planet to cut?” She snorted and screwed up her nose. “Why?”

  “Thank Finn,” Hardy replied. “He convinced me you were ready.”

  This seemed to amuse her and she laughed. It was good to see the colour returning to her cheeks, and by colour, he meant a healthy flush, not raw sunburn.

  Hardy pulled up a chair and tapped the side of the grinder. “Once you’ve cut that, I’ll teach you how to polish for real.”

  “Really? I’m not a sure bet, you know.”

  “Still thinking of leaving, hey?”

  Eloise bit her bottom lip and picked up the opal. “Still want to give this to me?”

  Hardy chuckled and switched on the grinding wheel, the noise drowning out her complaints. He trusted her…and in the end, he trusted she’d make the right decision for herself. If that was Solace, then so be it. He’d be glad to have her around.

  Chapter 17

  Eloise sat on the step of her van as the sun began to set.

  She rolled the rock Kyne had given her around in her palm, her newfound senses playing over the minerals locked within the stone. In time she’d learn how to tell each apart, but right now, they were just different layers all mixed into one egg-shaped hunk.

  Her toes buried onto the ochre dirt as she thought about the day she’d just had. Finn and his special way with conversation, Hardy and the black opal he’d trusted her with, and the feather. She’d pinned it to the grey felt headliner above the front seats, right beside the pin collection she’d begun all the way back to her first stop five years ago—Halls Gap, Victoria.

  Five years of travelling in her motorhome. Five years of searching. More had happened in the last two weeks than in all that time. Nothing, then everything all in a hurry.

  Recalling the ancient rock paintings she’d seen amongst the rocky crags of the Grampians National Park, she smiled despite all of it. Drawings of kangaroos, koalas, lizards, people, and birds. Maybe one of them was the great wedge-tailed eagle Coen had told her about.

  “Bunjil,” she whispered.

  A shadow fell over her and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Kyne lingering.

  “Can I?” He nodded at the step beside her.

  “Sure.”

  Kyne took off his hat and lowered himself into the space beside her, leaning his elbows on his knees. The warmth of his body wasn’t unpleasant, despite the lingering heat of the early evening. She expected him to smell like dirt and sweat, but he smelled like the outback after a storm—that strange, unexplainable scent that came either side of the rains.

  “I hear you went back to work today,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “I also hear Hardy graduated you to real opal.”

  Eloise smiled and let out a small laugh. “Yeah. Some of your precious black.”

  “You must have a gift.” He smiled, the rare gesture warming her insides.

  “I’ve just shaped it. Hardy’s going to teach me how to polish tomorrow.”

  Kyne let out a low whistle. “The old dog is teaching you all his tricks, eh? You must be special.”

  Eloise’s smile faded.

  “Opal mining is a secretive business,” he went on, “and I’m not just talking about the digging part. If Hardy is teaching you how to cut and polish, then that means he trusts you. Trust is the next most valuable thing than opal itself in this game.”

  And here she was thinking Hardy just needed help for his charity project. Opal wasn’t the only thing being cut and polished around here, and Eloise wasn’t sure she liked it. Did they want her to stay that much? For the life of her, she didn’t know why.

  Deciding to steer the conversation in another direction, she asked, “Where do you stay when you’re in town?”

  “With Hardy. Sometimes at Blue’s.”

  “Where does Hardy live exactly?”

  “He’s got a place about a K up the side road past the shop,” Kyne told her. “Yet another dugout.”

  “It’s cooler down there, huh?”

  He nodded. “Just the right depth.”

  Eloise mulled over it for a moment, deciding it’d get hotter the deeper the tunnels went, with the Earth’s core being partially molten and all. It was a fine line between keeping cool in summer and baking on a bed of lava.

  “Why do you stay in Solace?” she asked. “Why does anyone? Surely there’s somewhere out there for all of you that isn’t in the middle of nowhere.”

  He glanced at her. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Finn mentioned something.”

  “Ahh,” he said knowingly. “Finn.”

  “He’s a special sort of person, isn’t he?”

  “Special as in strange,” Kyne replied. “His world is different from ours. The fae don’t always understand our human ways and us theirs…but we try.” His expression turned serious as he looked towards the setting sun. “We stay here because we don’t have to hide who we are. We can be open and without fear.” He said it like it was a line he’d rehearsed. A line that was designed to placate. A line that hid more than it revealed. “Anyway, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine. Vera’s magic—”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  She snorted and dug her toes deeper into the dirt. If she was going to tell anyone, she supposed it would be Kyne. Not for obvious reasons, but because he hadn’t told anyone the things she’d confided in him after the mine collapse the other night.

  “When I was out there, I… I saw things.”

  “The kadaitcha,” Kyne murmured.

  She nodded. “A shadow person in the dark. It was scary. Everything went silent, the animals, the wind…everything.”

  “I’ve never seen one,” he admitted. “I don’t envy you.”

  “There were lights, too.”

  Kyne nodded. “Min Min. I’ve seen those.”

  “I followed them.” She’d been fresh out of options at that point. Crazy lights in the middle of nowhere should’ve been a warning in itself, but she’d had nothing to lose. Staying put seemed like the worse choice. “But in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have.”

  Kyne didn’t seem to think so. “I think they led you towards Coen. The few times I’ve seen them, he appeared shortly after. Him and that bloody kangaroo that seems to follow him about.”

  “Actually, it was the kangaroo who found me first.”

  Kyne snorted and shook his head. “I don’t doubt it.”

  She saw the animal in her mind’s eye. How it’d sat up on its tail and waited for her. Leading her.

  Before that, Andante had found her and given her water—water that Eloise suspected had been the difference between reaching Coen and dying where she lay. But she’d woken up in the same place she’d fallen… The truth about the old woman was a puzzle that didn’t make any sense.

  “I…” She second-guessed herself. What if he thought she was mad?

  “There’s something else?”

  Her fingers began to worry the rock in her hand. “It’s nothing.”

  “Eloise, you can tell me anything.” Kyne turned slightly, edging himself around in the small space so he could face her. “Anything.”

  She was sitting in a town in outback Australia that was teeming with supernatural creatures. Weird was the order of the day. Maybe it was okay to tell him.

  She took a deep breath but couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. “I collapsed and blacked out, but when I woke, there was someone there. A woman.”

  “A
woman?” Kyne asked. “What woman?”

  “An old woman. She said her name was Andante. We were in a cave. It was like she was living there. Bare bones kind of stuff. A fire, a makeshift bed, nothing modern. There were runes on the wall.”

  “Runes?”

  “Yeah, they looked like old Norse. You know, Viking kind of stuff.” He looked troubled and Eloise began to regret telling him. “She told me about the ocean that used to be here. Then the rivers. There was some other stuff, but I can’t really remember. It sounded like a warning. Like she was warning me about something…something about an ocean.”

  Kyne was silent for only a minute, but it felt like half an hour. “Eloise, no one else lives out here. If there was an old woman living in a cave, we’d know about it.”

  “I don’t know…” She lowered her gaze, feeling like a moron. “It felt real.”

  “The outback has a way of making people see things,” Kyne told her. “It tests you.”

  “Tests?”

  “Yeah. Why do you think Coen is on a walkabout here of all places?”

  Eloise frowned, more confused than ever. Andante had been so real, even though her memories of their conversation had become muddled.

  “The part for your van will be here soon,” he said, an unmistakeable note of disappointment in his voice. Maybe she was misunderstanding. Wouldn’t be the first time.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “Wally said it’s on the next truck from the city.”

  “Where…” He coughed. “Where will you go next? North?”

  She shrugged. Her travel plans usually consisted of working out where to park up and sleep for the night. The road took her in the direction of the next camp spot and that was it. Now that she understood she was an elemental, were there signs she could follow?

  “Are there others out there?” Eloise asked. “Others like us?”

  Kyne shrugged. “Maybe. Probably.”

  “When you left… Was it to find them?”

  He shifted awkwardly. “I went and… And I came back to Solace. That’s all.”

  Eloise couldn’t blame him for not wanting to talk about it. Maybe he was just saving her the pain of the truth. Their elemental parents had dumped them as babies and that was bad enough, but she got the feeling he hadn’t discovered anything…because they didn’t want to be found.