"You're just feeling the effects of the distracter spell that shields the preserve," Camira answered. "I feel it too. We're on the right road. As long as I focus on staying on the road, we'll be fine. The sensation will pass once we're beyond the barrier."
Kendra felt no such effects, but she knew better than to reveal her immunity to a stranger. Sure enough, once they passed the row of rock piles, everyone in the jeep relaxed.
Beyond the rocks, the terrain became more welcoming. Wildflowers brightened the ground, the shrubs looked more robust, and trees came into view. Kendra saw a few mothlike fairies flitting around on speckled gray wings. Near a muddy water hole, she spotted a pair of animals that looked like large, striped greyhounds with long tails. "What are those?" Kendra asked, pointing.
"Thylacines," Camira responded. "Tasmanian tigers. We have many of them here. They're extinct elsewhere. Some have the power of speech. Look up that slope, by those bushes."
Kendra followed Camira's gaze and saw a hairy humanoid figure. As Elise shaded her eyes, squinting up-slope, the creature withdrew from sight.
"What was that?" Elise exclaimed.
"A Yowie," Camira said. "Kind of like a Sasquatch. They're timid, but curious. Elusive creatures. You often glimpse them, but they'll flee if you show too much interest."
"It seemed sad," Mara observed.
"Their songs are mostly forlorn," Camira agreed.
As the jeep neared the top of a gradual rise, the main house of Obsidian Waste came into view off to the left. Occupying high ground, the wooden house had numerous steep gables and a generous porch. An enormous barn was visible behind the house, along with a wide stable connected to a corral.
Ahead and off to the right, the river Kendra had noticed from the plane could now be seen, and behind it loomed the geometric form of the giant obsidian block.
"I don't recall a river in the area on the maps I studied," Elise noted.
"The Rainbow River runs mostly underground," Camira replied. "But it surfaces here at Obsidian Waste, a gift from the Rainbow Serpent."
"Rainbow Serpent?" Kendra asked.
"One of our most reverenced benefactors," Camira explained. "An entity of tremendous creative power."
The engine revved, and the jeep raced across the distance to the house before sliding to a stop. The jeep with the boys had almost caught up, and it swung in to park beside them. Kendra jumped down to the ground.
"Seth says he's hearing voices," Trask said.
"Like dead voices?" Kendra asked. With help from the demon Graulas, Seth had become a shadow charmer, which, among other things, enabled him to hear the minds of the undead.
"Exactly," Seth said, brow furrowed. "It's weird. They're not talking to me, not directly, but I can hear them murmuring, thirsting. At first the voices were distant. Now they seem to be all around us."
"Do you have zombies buried around here?" Trask asked Camira.
She met his gaze with wide eyes. Her mouth worked for a moment without speaking. "I don't know much about what's buried here. I don't like to speak of the cursed ones."
"We don't usually discuss such things," Berrigan agreed.. The main door to the house opened and a woman emerged. Her honey-blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a khaki shirt with matching shorts. Her tan skin was lightly burnt, and although she had to be nearly fifty, she was very fit and walked with a spring in her step.
"Laura," Vincent called.
"Hello, Vincent, Trask. Welcome back to Obsidian Waste. Greetings to the rest of you as well." She joined them beside the jeeps, hands on her hips. "I trust you're all travel weary and ready for a rest."
Trask gestured at Seth. "Seth says he hears the undead all around us."
Nodding, Laura shot a brief glance at Camira. "At least one of us has some intuition," she muttered.
"Excuse me?" Trask said. Camira scowled.
In a quick motion, Laura yanked Berrigan's knife from its sheath and plunged it into Camira. "It's a trap," Laura warned. "They're waiting for us in the house. Subdue Berrigan. Don't kill him."
As Berrigan tried to dodge away, Trask seized the young man, whirled him around, and slammed him against the side of a jeep, levering one arm into a painful hold behind his back. Laura withdrew her blade, and Camira crumpled to the ground.
"Into the jeeps," Laura commanded, retrieving the keys from Camira. "Make for the Dreamstone. Don't harm Berrigan--he's under the control of a narcoblix."