The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 51

Chapter 46

Tessa had been staring at the burnt body for too long and knew that the sweet meat stench of it would never leave her. The corpse lay level with the sword and was as unreachable as the moon. She’d been warned when she’d tried.

It was not him. It couldn’t be. She’d felt the danger to Noah like an erupting volcano in her chest, and had driven her mother’s poor little Honda right through Lainie’s place, across the paddocks until she reached the other car. Then she’d run like she’d never run before. And then the feel of him had disappeared.

It couldn’t be him. That boot. Melted and charred. It looked like a girl’s boot, didn’t it? God, did she want it to be?

A low groan broke her out of her stupor as Bane finally began to stir. She’d tried to make him as comfortable as possible, resting his head on her knees and wrapping his bleeding forearm in a strip from her shirt, which was still wet from crossing the river. It didn’t seem to have helped much.

She watched him take a hitched breath, regaining consciousness and blinking, but then he jumped to his feet so abruptly that she yelped in surprise, and only just managed to catch him when he began to keel over.

‘Whoa, Bane. I’ve got you, just sit.’

But he didn’t. Instead he shook her off and began to stumble around in a total daze, searching for something. Then his eyes reached the corpse. With a furious yell, he launched towards it, but the sword flared such a violent warning that he skidded to his knees.

‘Bane, no! What are you doing? It won’t let us get that close!’ She grabbed his elbow and dragged him back. It wasn’t that hard—he was as weak as a day old chick. And then he threw up and she almost did the same, but she forced her trembling voice to work.

‘Is that … who … ?’ For at least ten minutes she’d sat in a cave, staring at a corpse, with Bane out cold and no one to tell her where everyone was. Noah, Lainie, Sarah, Nicole … what had happened?

‘It’s Noah’s mum,’ Bane whispered eventually.

Choking sobs erupted from the seething volcano inside her. Despair and relief smashed against each other. ‘Are Noah and Lainie safe? They crossed over, and they’re safe, aren’t they, Bane? Aren’t they? Where’s Nicole?’ She pulled him over to the stream and helped him wash his face.

‘Nicole was never here. Sarah lied.’ He tried to stand up again, but landed in the water instead.

Tessa hauled him up, sat him against a boulder, and made him look her in the eye. ‘Where’s Noah?’

‘He took Lainie’s body across to Eden. She’s dead, Tess. I felt her die and I couldn’t stop it, I just watched, I just …’

‘No.’ Horror caused her voice to crack.

‘She’s gone, Tess. I failed her and she’s … she’s …’

‘She’s gone looking for dragons,’ a jaunty voice interrupted.

‘Noah! Oh my God, Noah! You’re okay!’ Tessa threw herself at him and he caught her and laughed. Laughed.

‘She’s fine, mate,’ Noah assured Bane. ‘A bit loopy, but fine. She just needs some time to—’

But Bane had passed out again.

Tessa breathed out heavily. ‘He said he felt her die.’

‘She did. But I made her eat … you know … from the … the Tree.’

She gasped. ‘But Harry—’

‘Harry said that the Trees were never designed to have to deal with guilt and grief. Lainie isn’t guilty. We have the authority to enter Eden, and she deserves …’ He let her go, and the joy that was behind his eyes began to dim. She wished she could trap and keep it for him but knew she couldn’t. Would the transition between worlds always be this difficult for him?

‘I just know,’ he insisted after a long moment. ‘She can eat it. Harry and Annie, they both have reasons why they can’t …’ He swallowed. ‘She doesn’t have their baggage. I can feel that it’s okay. I just know.’

Was he convincing her, or himself?

Just then, his head jerked up, and his whole body went rigid. ‘Someone’s coming,’ he said. ‘Still far away, but coming.’

‘It’s Lily. When I saw … I had to call her, Noah. I’m sorry, but I had to. We can trust her.’

That was when his eyes finally drifted over to the hideous pile of ruined flesh that still smoked where it lay. ‘Can we?’ he croaked. ‘How can we ever know who to trust?’

A while later Tessa broke Lily’s gaze away from the life-changing spectacle of the miraculous sword. ‘Help me wrap her up,’ she requested softly. She’d had to ask Noah to move his mother’s corpse away from the threshold so they could deal with it, and somehow he had, and she knew he would never be the same. Then she’d sat him down next to Bane who had woken up again and was staring a spot on the ground that was slick with blood.

They set to work with the woollen blankets Lily had brought, wrapping the body and tying it up with hay band so would be easier to carry, and Tessa wondered when she had become capable of doing such a thing so calmly.

Then they all began the death march back to the farm.

The engine revved loudly while the blackened corpse in the driver’s seat flopped to one side and leant against the window. From where they stood on the grassy verge, the face was the most gruesome thing to see, and Tessa gripped Noah’s right hand even more tightly as his words began to falter.

‘Necessary,’ she reminded him, yet again, wishing she could do more to help.

‘Come on, Noah. It’s nearly done. You’re doing great,’ Lily added, coming to stand on his left side and placing her hand on his shoulder. They would have been utterly lost without her—she’d known exactly how to fake a death, having already arranged one with Harry’s help, decades earlier.

Bane stayed back, leaning against a tree. They had dosed him up on the extra sedatives that the hospital had sent Sarah home with, but they hadn’t done much, and he’d insisted on coming along.

Closing her eyes, Tess focused on sending healing warmth through Noah’s skin, but there was nothing physical for her to heal. She let out an impatient breath. She didn’t want to rush him, but if anyone drove past now, things would get very, very complicated. Not that there was ever much traffic along the road between the Gracewood and Ashbree farms, but their luck lately had not been terrific.

Finally, sorrowful words sprang forth from Noah’s lips and the engine revved again and then the car began to roll. There was no shouting, only quiet, heavy command. The four of them stood vigil as the Pajero sped down the road with no living person inside. By the time it reached the next bend it was travelling at well over 100km/h. Noah caused it to hit a large rock, so it flipped over before smashing into a tree, back end first. The fuel tank ruptured immediately and it only took a simple word for a small spark from the battery to ignite the vehicle. He let the resulting fire burn itself out naturally, with just a little help. Finally, as he sank to the ground, Tessa held him in her lap like a child as they watched the car burn.

As soon as they returned home, Lily called Sarah’s husband and lied to him. She said that she’d left Sarah asleep and gone to work outside, but had just come in to find her missing, and her car gone. She told him she was worried because Sarah had been given such strong medication that morning. Tessa wished she could shut her ears, but they were her lies too. She would repeat them if she had to, for Noah’s sake.

David Ashbree made the dreadful discovery soon after.

Harry never regained consciousness, so he never knew what his Guardian had done to try to save him. Tessa waited uselessly when Noah fled back to Eden straight after the second funeral. The revelation that Harry was his real father was just another thing that seemed to push Noah further from reality—she knew he needed to get away for a while.

Everyone seemed to accept the explanation of Lainie’s disappearance. Losing both Harry and Sarah in the same week was reason enough for her to have withdrawn from everyone’s company, and when Lily told everyone she’d decided to leave to travel around Australia, everyone accepted that she obviously needed to get out of Nalong for a while. Nicole was the only one who refused to forgive her for missing her mother’s farewell.