The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 23

Chapter 21

Gasping panicked breaths, I jumped right out of bed before I even realised I was awake, tripping over the denim shorts I had left on the floor. I looked at the clock. It was 4.25am and something was very, very wrong. I dressed so fast I whacked my elbow on the corner of my desk twice, and then headed down the hall to wake the others, but Bane was already up.

‘What’s the problem?’ he asked in a husky voice. ‘I just woke up needing to find you. Why are you up?’

Rubbing crusty sleep tears out of my eyes and trying to focus, I stumbled into the kitchen. ‘There are people where they shouldn’t be. Just a couple of them, but they’re up to something. I … saw them. I need to check it out.’

Just then the phone rang. Aunt Lily emerged from her bedroom looking rumpled and confused as I lunged for the phone. It was Noah.

‘Bushfire, Lainie! Northwest of here. Liam and Caleb are here so Dad’s sending me over to you. We’ve already called the CFA.’ I could hear the sound of a dirt bike starting up. Was he riding and phoning me at the same time? I glanced out of the kitchen window. I couldn’t see anything but blackness, broken by a few washed out stars, but that didn’t mean much.

‘Can you help Aunt Lily with the generator?’ I asked him. ‘Ben and I need to take a look.’ I couldn’t think of any good reason to give him as to why I was abandoning my aunt and heading straight into the bush during a fire so I just hung up. All I knew was that I had to go. After I explained what was happening to Aunt Lily, she handed me the bushfire pack that was always ready by the back door. It was a backpack that contained water bottles, a battery operated two-way radio, a fireproof blanket, a first-aid kit and torches.

‘I know you have to go, Lainie, but please try to keep some common sense while you’re out there,’ she pleaded, looking vulnerable in her cotton summer nightie. Nodding as confidently as I could, I kissed her on the cheek and ran out of the house. Bane was still trying to pull on his second boot as he stumbled out to the shed to catch up to me.

The shed was full of birds. Every rafter fluttered with wings fighting for a place. They knew what was coming and were seeking out whatever shelter they could find. They were much more sensible than me. After a quick check that the petrol tank was full, I wheeled my dirt bike out from behind the ute and started it up just as Bane handed me my helmet. I hoped the spare one would fit him.

As soon as he was settled behind me I took off across the paddock towards the track to the state park. At least he hadn’t argued about who was driving. I knew where I needed to be and I didn’t have time to give directions.

The ride was torture. It was just as well we’d spent so much time exploring the area recently because tearing through the bush in the dark at full pelt was not very OH&S friendly. And yet somehow I could sense exactly where to go. Sweaty palms made it difficult to keep control at times but Bane’s arms were locked around my waist reassuringly. When he tugged on my sleeve to make me veer slightly, I realised he was using his sense of threat to me to guide us past hidden obstacles, and at one point he frantically pushed my head down from behind just in time to avoid a sharp low hanging branch. He never put me off balance, or asked me to slow down. My heart raced as if trying to set the pace, calling me to move faster. Loose rocks and dust scattered behind us in a cloud of petrol fumes while the wind gusted through the branches above us.

Three quarters of a stretched out hour later we finally reached the top of the ridge that overlooked my valley. The sun should have risen by then, but everything was still dark due to the fat cloud of smoke blanketing the world. The only thing visible was an eerie glow from behind the next hill, a little to the north. The air was so sharp that it hurt to breath. The fire was definitely headed our way, and despite the length of time it had taken us to reach the ridge, I knew that the fire would race its way back to our farm much faster. Worse than even that horrific thought, however, was the realisation that the valley below me was about to be decimated.

The wind whipped the trees into a wild frenzy as if they knew what was coming and were trying to uproot and run away. They had more chance of leaving than I did, and I was terrified. Or was I? My brain was filled with nightmarish scenarios and logical arguments for turning tail and running, but my body felt strangely calm.

‘Ben. Please. You can’t stay. At least head back down to the caves. Please?’

He just stood next to me and took my hand in his. It was way too late to get away anyhow. Fire travelled quickly when it got to steep inclines, and the bush was incredibly dry. It would reach the far side of the valley in a matter of minutes. The top of a hill was one of the worst places to be. And yet I felt his strong hand gripping mine, soothing, reassuring. Which was strange considering he couldn’t even watch me clean the gutters out without getting snippy.

Looking down at my valley I thought about the devastation that was about to occur and began to feel deeply angry. The one pocket of truly undisturbed land that I was custodian of was about to be torn apart by violent winds and flames. Already I could see the fire front writhing its way towards us like a red glowing snake, searching for prey to devour in the dim light. I imagined it burning its way down, seeking a way into Eden so it could swallow it up, and the thought was so distressing that an uncanny sense of purpose wrung the fear right out of me. I knew what I wanted to do and I suddenly felt like it was the most obvious thing in the world, so I closed my eyes and started to whisper. I had no idea what I was saying, I just pleaded with the world to listen to my request. Words were pouring out from my lips that I had never heard before. I didn’t know what they meant and yet at the same time I did. Before long I was shocked to feel tears streaming down my face as I begged, commanded and authorised. I thought about Eden, and all that it promised, and I cared.

Gradually I felt a sort of … cool heaviness press in from the sky to the south. I pulled on it with my words and with my spirit, but it was so heavy that I felt as if my heart was made from brittle clay and would just shatter under the weight of it at any moment.

I risked it anyway.

Standing entranced on the edge of the cliff, I lost all track of time. I could have been there for minutes or years. Desperately I raised my voice from a whisper to a cry, and then to a shout until my throat was raw and slowly, slowly, I felt the heavy cloud mass fight its way across the sky towards us. Electricity stabbed me viciously as the cooler moist air clashed with the warm wind. It felt like the lightning was passing right through my body as I struggled to keep hold of the storm, pulling it with agonising violence through the high pressure system. Thunder rattled my bones at exactly the same time as the lightning bolts struck me, but my ears didn’t catch the sounds until seconds later. I was inside the heart of the storm itself, but at the same time the storm was too far away. Terrified, I knew I would never be able to bring it fast enough before the cold air was overwhelmed by the desolate heat from the north. My fear fed on itself until doubt crept its way back into my mind. What did I think I was doing?

Another cloud dissolved away and I felt so tired. It seemed as if I had been struggling for an eternity. As soon as I gathered one storm cloud in, another would be wrenched from my grasp by the selfish northerlies. My skin quivered with tension and when I stole a glimpse of the fire I saw no less than four places where burning embers had started new spot fires along the far ridge. At any moment now, the multiple fire fronts would join up and tear the valley apart. Despairing, I fell to my knees, lost in my madness but screaming at the sky to do my bidding anyway.

Strong arms lifted me to my feet. I opened my eyes to tell Bane to leave me alone but it wasn’t just him.

‘Noah?’

He smiled grimly, his pale hair slick with sweat from his helmet and his green eyes wild with fear—or was it anger? He had ridden his dirt bike right up to where we were. Perhaps he had come to force me to take shelter, but how could I explain to him the overwhelming need I felt to stay and fight? All three of us were in terrible danger now because of me, but how could I have stopped either of them from coming? For that matter, how had Noah even known where to look for us? I hadn’t felt him approach despite being so close to Eden—the storm had taken every shred of my concentration. Even now I could sense it slipping back to the south, unable to make war on the northerly gusts without a commander. Slamming down my doubt and guilt, I closed my eyes and started to pull patiently again at the tangled threads of air currents. Giving up was simply not an option.

To my intense relief they began to move much more easily. I felt Bane’s hands gripping my shoulders, holding me up, as well as Noah holding my hand. A distant part of my overwhelmed brain noted that Noah was speaking confidently in the language I had never known existed until now. His words joined with mine, wrapping my appeal in powerful expressions of uncompromising support as together we commanded and cajoled the clouds into submission. His self-assurance was exactly what I needed. He was Noah. The same Noah that always, always made me see things the way he did. I trusted him much more than I trusted myself. I always had. And now his words were throwing out the same call to arms as mine were, and everything became absurdly easy. Quickly now, the cold air pummelled its way to the north, building up moisture as the storm system grew. A sharp crack of thunder split the air and madly I fought to bring the clouds closer. Lightning without rain would be disastrous. But finally a welcome splatter hit my face as we both shouted at the sky.

With a cry of relief I threw my heart out to the storm, and the rain obeyed and began to pelt down like a volley of arrows on a war host. Very soon we were soaked to the skin, laughing hysterically at the sky in the innocent way children do when they’re chasing bubbles. I couldn’t believe we had done it! Bane picked me up in his arms and spun me around, utter relief shining through his laughter while Noah fell to his knees with a gigantic grin on his face, looking out over the drenched valley where the impossible tempest was soaking the dry foliage.

Putting me down, Bane whispered in my ear. ‘I told you so.’

I tried to stomp on his foot, but he was ready for it and danced aside. But he didn’t let me go. Instead, he began to waltz me around the rocks, his wet cotton shirt clinging to him in a very intriguing way. He sang as he spun and twirled me around, making me laugh.

‘Is that Boom Crash Opera?’

‘Well we are dancing in a storm,’ he defended. ‘If you can hum the Man From Snowy River theme whenever you’re nervous, I can have this.’

‘Is that what I hum?’

He just laughed, deep and throaty, and I finally got a real taste of what he was like without all the angst, and he was glorious. We danced with rain pouring down our faces and I wanted it to last forever, but as we passed behind a massive granite boulder, he stopped singing and froze. Lightning reflected from his silver irises, as if they were backlit by something deep in his soul. Utterly lost in his intense gaze, I couldn’t even blink away the rain. Could he see what I was feeling? It wasn’t fair! My defences were non-existent in the aftermath of what had just happened! After a long moment he drew a deep breath and shut his eyes, breaking the dazzling hold he had over me and turning away. His fingers slid from my elbow to wrist as he started to let me go, and an instinctive stab of despair shot through my chest in blatant defiance of what my brain was trying to lecture me about.

At the last second he paused, and his warm fingertips lingered on my palm.

He murmured something huskily under his breath, and then with a sudden firm grip he tugged me in against his chest. Rain dripped from his hair as his lips boldly found mine, and I immediately forgot all about the storm and the fire, and found out just how quickly an entire world could fade from memory.