Curse Of Wexkia Read online

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  First published in 2012

  as Curse of Wexkia

  by Dale Furse

  Curse

  Book 1 of the Wexkia trilogy

  this edition published in 2013

  by DCF Books

  Interior layout by

  Publicious Pty Ltd

  www.publicious.com.au

  Cover design by Laura Wright LaRoche

  Catalogue-in-Publication details available

  from the National Library of Australia

  ISBN: 978-0-9923287-1-9 (ebk)

  Also available in paperback

  ISBN: 978-0-9923287-0-2

  Copyright © Dale Furse 2012

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or any events past or present are purely coincidental.

  For my mother. I miss you.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER 1

  Standing in the stirrups and leaning forward over her horse’s neck, Nell burst from the rainforest. She ignored the scratches on her arms from the bushes. This was her first chance in two years. She was going to beat Sam to the end of the beach.

  She glanced back and grinned. He was nowhere in sight. Urging Shrewdy faster, her hands relaxed on the reins and she kicked the mare on. All she had to do was get through the soft, deep sand onto the waterline’s hard, packed sand and no horse, not even one ridden by Sam could catch them.

  About twenty metres from the forest, she glanced back again.

  Sam on his brown pony moved like the wind.

  Nell needed to get to the water as soon as she could. Sam’s horse was faster in the loose sand.

  The earth firmed beneath as they raced along the rising tide. Finally into a full gallop, she felt Shrewdy slow and start to move sideways away from the water. Suddenly he sidestepped, nearly dropping her onto the ground. She fought to stay in the saddle and, just as she regained her seat, Shrewdy propped and came to a complete stop. Nell catapulted out of the saddle and over her mare’s neck. She groped with her fingers for handfuls of mane. Without a firm grasp, her body crashed onto the wet, sandy ground. Air burst from her lungs.

  Pain filled her chest and senses as the tide surged and swirled around her head.

  Fighting to gain control over her body, she gasped for a breath. A part of her knew the air would come as it always did when she was winded, but she still imagined her lungs were burst balloons. The sea sloshed in her ears and over her face. How long did it take to die?

  She tried to take another breath. It still hurt but a little air flowed into her lungs. The balloons would inflate. She opened her eyes. Through the pain, she was aware she wasn’t alone in the water. A shark?

  She sat up. The ocean heaved and parted. Her eyes and mouth gaped. A massive saltwater crocodile bobbed in the water less than two metres away.

  Her throat slammed shut on her scream. Fear gripped her chest so tightly she expected her heart to stop beating, instead, it thundered against her ribs alerting the monster to her presence. Without taking her eyes off the salty, she turned and scrambled sideways and back like a crab. No matter how hard she tried to be quiet, her every movement shattered the silence of the beach. The dark-grey reptile moved closer and another cry choked in her throat; her heart raced faster than Shrewdy could ever gallop.

  Terror sapped her strength. She stilled and sank down once more into the wet sand. Open-mouthed, she froze as the crocodile moved ever nearer with the tide. Her body refused to listen to her frantic orders to move. Although her tender lungs protested, she held her breath as, closer and closer, the wide snout approached. The water vibrated as it danced around the beast. Its gnarly nose touched Nell’s skin above her sock. She shuddered inwardly at the contact, but her body remained as still as a beached whale. Had the croc just purred?

  The crocodile backed up and gazed at her with large, black orbs, not menacingly but with a penetrating interest.

  That couldn’t be right.

  ‘Good morning, Dar-Nellen,’ the crocodile said in her mind.

  A tiny squeak passed through her lips. She shook her head. What did he call her? Nothing, numbskull, she thought. Crocodiles can’t talk.

  ‘You are correct,’ he said. ‘Crocodile’s can’t talk. However there are some who can find other ways to communicate.’

  ‘So, you’re not a crocodile?’ she said aloud.

  ‘I am at this time. Be quiet and listen. You are growing physically but you must also grow from within. It is time to take responsibility and cease behaving like a spoiled child.’

  Nell spluttered, ‘I don’t.’ Ugh. Whatever he was, he wasn’t nice.

  ‘Do not interrupt, child,’ he roared. ‘Be proud of who you are. Embrace your heritage and stand tall in the knowledge that you can overcome the dark trials that lie ahead. Listen and weigh all possibilities but make your own decisions. Remember this above all else, there are some who will harm you.’

  ‘What sort of harm?’

  ‘That, I am unsure of.’

  He turned but swished back to eye her.

  ‘By the way, you are growing into a beautiful woman.’

  A deep throaty bellow, a laugh, filled her mind and the, whatever it was, flicked its tail and headed north.

  A horse’s hooves reverberated through the ground. She looked up. Uh-oh. Sam wasn’t happy. Aware of the millions of grains of sand she held in her fists, she straightened her fingers and let the water wash them away.

  ‘Get up!’ Sam jumped off his horse and yanked her to her feet.

  She stood on marshmallow legs and glanced up at his furious face before gazing after the rapidly disappearing crocodile. Maybe her terror at the monstrous thing gave her some sort of weird reaction to the adrenaline that must have surged through her body, making her think she had a conversation with a crocodile. At least Sam wasn’t close enough to hear her talking to herself.

  She meant to speak normally, but her voice was hardly more than a whisper as she said, ‘Did you see that? I—’

  ‘You’re bloody lucky you’re alive. Why didn’t you move?’

  She adjusted her skullcap and cleared her throat before speaking. ‘I tried to before I realised he wasn’t going to hurt me. He—’

  ‘Really? And how the hell did you realise that?’

  She traipsed through the dry sand to Shrewdy. How could she tell him what had just happened? He wouldn’t believe her anyway. Picking up the reins, she scanned the beach. As usual, she and Sam were the only ones within sight.

  Sam clomped through the sand after her. ‘Well?’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. It was just a feeling.’

  ‘You wanna trust what your eyes see and not some stupid bloody feeling.’

  Her mare snorted and nudged
Nell’s chest. She thought she heard Shrewdy’s rapid heartbeat; felt Shrewdy’s fear mixed with outrage.

  She gaped at her mare then shook her head. She must have only sensed her horse’s feelings but she could have sworn Shrewdy was trying to say Sam was right. No. Don’t be a dummy. She was definitely letting her imagination get the better of her. If her mare could talk, she would probably agree with Sam. Nell was plain stupid.

  To the south, a wedgetail eagle flew low and circled above the shiny, iron roof of Sam’s green house. Another one soared over the horse paddock behind the house and perched on top of a stable. A shiver swept through Nell like a wave and crashed in her mind. The eagles reminded her of her nightmares where giant bird-men constantly hunted her. She pushed the memory away and glanced at her friend.

  Sam’s nearly black eyes filled with concern and his skin appeared to lighten. ‘You okay?’ he asked, his voice calmer.

  ‘I’m going back to your place.’ She leapt into the saddle. ‘You coming?’

  ‘Yep. It’s too hot anyway.’ He whipped off his hat and wiped the back of his hand over his forehead. ‘It must be well over thirty degrees out here.’

  ‘Yeah, it has to be easy that.’ It was hot but then, January in the tropics always was.

  He grinned. ‘That’s probably what’s wrong with you. You white people can’t take too much sun.’

  She couldn’t take offence. He was trying to make up, but she wasn’t going to let him get away with his teasing. ‘Very funny,’ she said. ‘You seem to forget, you’re half white.’

  ‘That doesn’t change a thing. My black half is still smart enough to get out of the sun.’

  ‘Huh. You don’t mind using your mum’s half when it suits you. You’re always telling your dad, you’re too white to go traipsing about the forest eating grubs.’

  ‘I am. Would you like to eat witchetty grubs?’

  She laughed. ‘No way.’

  ‘See? I win again.’

  She shot him a narrowed-eyed glance and pushed Shrewdy forward. Gently pulling the reins back so there was enough tension to feel the horse’s mouth, she tightened her legs just in case her horse shied again.

  With the towering Mount Grief to their right and the never-ending ocean to their left, they rode the horses back to the Frederick’s stables. Well, they weren’t really stables like the ones she’d seen on television. They were timber and iron covered lean-tos.

  Her mind drifted to university. She would miss the beach, forest and water, but she would come back for holidays. She’d never worried about not having friends before but they seemed more important now she was getting older. Oh, she made friends with the kids who rode the Frederick’s horses, but she never had the chance to get really close to any of them. Smiling at her vivid imagination, she realised she really needed to be around people more. Except for visitors to the Frederick’s riding stables, Sam was the only teenager in her life. His parents, Carl and Annet Frederick, were like family, but they were still adults. Huh. If the crocodile was real, he might be some sort of animal spirit watching over her. Maybe he was warning her about life at the university. If he was real, he might watch over her there. She liked that idea. People could be mean sometimes.

  She sighed. ‘I guess there’ll be loads of people at uni.’

  ‘Yeah. About fifteen hundred at last count, I think, but some are overseas students and only stay for one or two semesters.’

  Nell relaxed her hold on the reins and patted Shrewdy on her neck. Noticing her mare had calmed down, she cooed, ‘Good girl.’

  ‘Are you worried about leaving home?’ Sam asked.

  She shook her head. ‘Not really.’

  ‘It’s okay. Uni can be a little stressful for anyone. Even I was a bit apprehensive when I started. You might be smart but one; you will have only just had your seventeenth birthday by then, two; you’ll probably be the youngest there, and three; you’ve never lived away from home. Will you stop rolling your eyes at me?’

  ‘Will you stop treating me like a child then? Anyway, I can’t wait to leave this place. And you’ll be there.’ She tilted her head. ‘You will be there, won’t you?’

  ‘Sure, but we probably won’t see much of each other.’

  Nell screwed up her nose. ‘I guess you’ll be too busy with all your girlfriends.’

  Sam laughed. ‘Yeah, there’s that, and the fact I’m a couple of years ahead of you.’

  ‘And that fact doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do.’

  ‘Have I ever been able to tell you what to do?’

  She giggled. ‘Nope.’

  They hopped off the horses in front of the tack shed. A wet-paint sign was rammed into the ground. Nell touched her finger to the shed. ‘Ugh. It’s still wet.’

  ‘No. We just put up those signs for fun,’ Sam said. ‘Do you have to test everything?’

  Ignoring him, she hosed the sweat off Shrewdy and the cold water reminded her of her crocodile spirit.

  She said, ‘Sam?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Does a crocodile make noises like purring?’

  ‘I think they do when they mate. Mostly they make low roars to each other. Why?’

  ‘Oh, no reason.’ She had definitely had too much sun.

  ‘You’re weird, you know that? Go on in and I’ll make sure the horses are okay. And don’t eat all the pikelets.’

  She grinned and ran to the back of the Queenslander. As she passed Sam’s herb garden she noted how well they were growing in the sandy soil. She slowed. She hadn’t chosen a major yet, preferring to try a number of subjects before she made up her mind. Sam had known what he was going to study since primary school. Music. He had always been able to sing and pick up musical instruments easily.

  She hooked her helmet on a hook beside the back door, glad Annet had made her wear it that morning. After pulling off her boots, she pushed through the screen door. It slammed shut behind her. She jumped and turned around. Huh. Carl still hadn’t fixed the spring thing at the top that made it close smoothly.

  ‘Sam?’ Annet called out from the other room.

  ‘Only me,’ Nell said.

  ‘Help yourself to the pikelets.’

  ‘Okay.’

  A large tray full of pikelets sat in the middle of the round kitchen table, a jar of plum jam and a bowl of cream next to it. Sam didn’t have to worry. No one person could eat all the pikelets.

  She sat down at the table, spread the jam and dolloped some cream on top. As she ate, she sat back feeling completely at home in the Frederick’s home. Of course she did. She spent most of her time there when her father was away. And the whole family spent nearly all their time in the cosy kitchen.

  Oh, they had a formal dining room and a sitting room but that was only used if they had guests or for special occasions. The television and game consoles were set up in the old living room. Sam and Nell used that room the most. Annet liked to cook so spent most of her time in front of the stove and Carl preferred to stay with her when he wasn’t writing in his study.

  Annet entered the kitchen with a small, white timer in her hand. A towel was wrapped around her shoulders and her hair was wet with newly applied colour. She was in her thirties and didn’t have one grey hair, but she loved red rinses. Nell had always wanted fair hair like Annet’s natural colour. She would have also liked Annet’s lightly tanned skin. A lot of North Italians had the same colouring. Sam definitely took after her, in looks anyway, though his personality was a clone of Carl’s mischievous side.

  ‘Hello, sweetie. You caught me. I thought I’d have it rinsed off by the time you got back.’ She looked down at the floor in front of the back door.

  Nell followed her eyes. She’d left wet prints from the door to the chair.

  ‘Speaking of looks, why are your socks wet? And your hair?’

  ‘Um …’ At least her top and riding pants were nearly dry. She sighed. No use in making up stories with Annet around. ‘I fell off Shrewdy.’

  ‘A
re you hurt?’

  Nell shook her head. ‘No. Just my pride.’

  She narrowed knowing eyes at Nell. ‘Was that before or after you kids raced the horses?’

  ‘During.’

  ‘Oh, Nell. You’ve been told a million times not to race. Wait till I see Sam. He’s supposed to look after you, not get you killed.’

  ‘It’s not his fault. I took off before he could stop me. The beach was so still and quiet, I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, Sam’s already ripped it up me.’

  Annet shook her head, a small smile on her face and Nell knew she wasn’t really angry. She had never seen Annet say one real cross word to anyone.

  ‘Oh, but, Annet, I was so close to beating him this time.’ The crocodile’s image sprang into her mind.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  Nell threw her a smile. She had to learn to watch her expressions around Annet. The woman had a weird sense of what others were feeling. ‘Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how close to winning that race I was, that’s all.’

  ‘Never mind. Eat up. We still need to put some meat on your bones.’ She leant against the serving bench.

  ‘Aren’t you sitting down?’ Nell said.

  ‘No. I don’t want to get colour all over the back of the chair.’ Bzzzz. ‘About time. I still have packing to do.’ Annet put the timer on the bench and started out the door.

  Packing? ‘Wait,’ Nell said. ‘Are you going away?’

  ‘Ah-huh. We have a six am flight to Melbourne tomorrow so we’re staying in Cairns for the night.’

  ‘Sam didn’t say anything.’ So that was the reason for the hair colour.

  ‘He doesn’t know yet. Carl only got the call this morning. His publisher wants to see him, something about a movie deal. You know what it’s like. Ooh. They make me so mad sometimes. They never give him any notice. Don’t worry; you and Sam aren’t coming with us this time.’

  ‘You’re leaving us both here?’ They’d only ever gone away without her when her father was home.

  ‘No. No. Didn’t I tell you? Your father will be back from his business trip today. Only Sam will be staying here alone and I think he’s old enough to cook himself a meal or two.’

  ‘Now that, I want to see.’ Her father was coming home. He’d only been gone for a couple of weeks. That was a shorter trip than usual. She wished she knew what he did. All she knew was that his trips took him to different places, some far away and that he researched potential outlets for his employer’s clients.