Islands of Fire Read online

  “Silence! You’ll speak only when asked a direct question, or I’ll have my warriors kill you on the spot. Do you understand?”

  Kina nods.

  “Then I shall repeat myself. One of you is lying.”

  He stands and walks slowly around them. “Yesterday, my warriors found you caught in one of our traps. You had come onto our island without consent, breaking our kapu in the process. You claim to have come in peace, seeking only the wisdom of our god, To`o. And yet you carried with you this weapon of the devils themselves.”

  At this, Kuanatuku raises the pahi. Kina can see it is still encrusted with Nakali’s dried blood.

  “You told me you were the servant of this woman, and said she was the high priestess of the Cult of the Ebon Flame—of the Burning Warriors of Keli`anu. Your canoe did, indeed, bear the standard of that nation, yet it was not a voyaging canoe. It was a scouting canoe. It is the kind of canoe a warrior or two might use to sneak onto an enemy island to raid it, perhaps take something from the people. The canoe told me there were lies buried beneath your truths. And then, I took a closer look at this.”

  Kuanatuku stops in front of Kina and holds the blade with the point toward her. “The work of a devil, for sure. A devil like Mokolo. Look at the color. Feel how light, and yet so strong. And see, also, the dried blood along the cutting edge. Is this not the blood of your supposed mistress, the high priestess?”

  Kina says, “It is, but it’s because-“

  “Be quiet, before I slice out your tongue. Your words are full of half-truths and deception. I made my mind up last night that I would ask your supposed ‘high priestess’ how she came to be on the island, and compare your stories. And do you know what she told me?”

  Kina decides not to answer.

  Kuanatuku keeps going. “She told me she you are a devil who has taken the body of a woman, and that you’ve come here to destroy To`o. That you brought her to sacrifice to Mokolo, and that she almost escaped by tying your hands together in your sleep, but you cut her with your devil blade.”

  Kina raises her eyebrows and glances at Nakali, who is doing her best to look innocent.

  “She said that, did she?”

  “Yes,” the ali`i replies. “That’s what she told me. I can clearly see the work of your weapon on her face. And her arm is broken near the wrist, which she also claims was your handiwork.”

  “It wasn’t from falling into a pit?” Kina asks. “And, by the way, what kind of devil can get caught in a hole in the ground?”

  “She’s trying to twist your mind,” Kina tells Kuanatuku. “That is her power as a devil. She knows how to get into your mind with her words.”

  “Be silent!” Kuanatuku shouts at her.

  Nakali stops speaking and the two of them watch Kuanatuku as he circles them one more time.

  “It is obvious there is treachery here,” he says. “If you are as this one says, you should die now. But if she is, in fact, the high priestess as you claim, perhaps it is her who should die. I will grow very powerful off her soul and To`o will have his sacrifice.”

  Kina looks around at the villagers, who eagerly await their leader’s words.

  Kuanatuku continues, “So I have decided you two will fight to the death.”

  This rouses the villagers to a lusty cheer.

  “What do you mean?” Nakali asks, stunned. “Surely you don’t expect me to beat a devil in combat, especially with a broken arm?”

  “If she truly is a slave, as she claims, you should be able to kill her easily. As high priestess, surely you have been trained in combat. And if she is a devil, as you claim, she will slaughter you and then we will know her for the devil she is and we will kill her on the spot.”

  Kina asks, “So I die no matter what the outcome?”

  But Kuanatuku doesn’t answer. He whistles and two warriors step forward. He takes from each of them a brutal-looking shortspear tipped with a row of shark teeth. As Kina and Nakali stand up, he tosses a spear to each of them and they are brought to opposite ends of the square. By now, the villagers are fanned out to form a loose ring. They seem excited at the prospect of this fight. Kina wonders if it would be possible to escape between them, if she moved quick enough to catch them by surprise. But, no, she is sure she wouldn’t be able to outrun them in her tired state.

  “To the death,” Kuanatuku repeats. A drum begins to beat and Kina slowly steps forward, eyes locked on Nakali, who does the same.

  It is obvious Nakali isn’t up to this fight. Under other circumstances, Kina is sure the high priestess could possibly kill her, but with a cracked bone and tattered wound on her face, Nakali is barely able to step forward.

  “I’ll make it quick,” Nakali says.

  “We don’t have to do this.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Killing you is the only chance I have for survival.”

  Kina says, “You won’t survive this any more than I will. Once I’m dead, they’ll eat your soul.”

  Nakali remains in a battle-ready posture, but stops in her tracks. “What are you talking about?”

  “When they were throwing me in that pen last night, one of the warriors said Kuanatuku intends to eat your soul.”

  Nakali grunts. “And the lies still flow, do they? Not even facing your death will get you to speak the truth?”

  “That is the truth. They have some sort of ritual here, and Kuanatuku looks forward to eating the soul of someone as powerful as you. Believe me or not. The truth awaits you either way.”

  Nakali rushes Kina, who easily sidesteps her. She is still hoping to somehow turn the high priestess into a temporary ally, so she declines to attack. The high priestess spins around and comes at her again. This time, Kina rolls away and cracks the flat of the spear against Nakali’s back to send her a message.

  The high priestess staggers under the blow, eyes lit with rage.

  “You dare strike me?”

  “Did I break another kapu?” Kina asks, in a mocking tone.

  Nakali answers by rushing at her again. This time, Kina meets her with her spear to knock Nakali’s aside. Both spearpoints scrape along the ground. Kina grabs Nakali’s weapon and the two begin wrestling in circles.

  “If we don’t work together, we both die on this ground,” Kina says.

  “The only one to die,” Nakali replies, panting, “will be you.”

  “Wrong again,” Kina says, and shoves Nakali back. The high priestess stumbles to keep her feet, attempting to ready her spear for another attack.

  Taking her eyes away from Nakali for a second, Kina spins on her heel and throws her spear as hard as she can muster right at Kuanatuku.

  Stairway in the Sky

  There is a loud gasp as all the villagers assembled in a great circle around Kina and Nakali take in a horrified gasp. Kuanatuku is still seated at his throne. He slowly looks down in horror at the spear protruding from his side, mouth open in a wordless howl.

  Kina doesn’t hesitate. Racing across the square, she hurls herself at the ali`i and pries the pahi from his fingers. By the time the shocked warriors are recovering their senses enough to ready an attack, Kina pulls the throne backward, tumbling Kuanatuku onto the sandy stones.

  There is a thunderclap, as though lightning struck nearby, and Kina is shoved to her knees. When she looks up, she sees the strange pale advisor, still standing near his ali`i, is looking down at her with a raised hand. In his palm, Kina can see a gathering vortex of wind and light.

  He was a kapua?

  His markings look familiar, and now she is beginning to understand why.

  Kina gathers up the pahi. Kuanatuku has rolled to his side and is trying to pull the spear from his body. All around Kina the village is mobilizing, coming toward her with their weapons. She won’t have another chance—she needs to do this right the first time.

  She gets back to her feet before the kapua can gather the mana for another of his dark spells. Kina almost tackles
him, throwing her arm around his neck and digging the point of the pahi into his back.

  “Call them off!” she hisses in his ear. “Call them off, or you die right now, sorcerer!”

  He weighs the situation for a moment, but it doesn’t take long before he raises his hands. “Hold!” he shouts to the advancing mob. “Stay back!”

  “Good boy,” Kina says.

  She looks over at Nakali, who has been surrounded by warriors who, suspecting she might be in on the surprise attack, have shoved her to the ground and are holding her in place by the tips of their spears.

  “Let her up!” she shouts to them. They hesitate, so she pushes the pahi another inch into the sorcerer, who screams in agony while se repeats her command. At this, the warriors back off. Nakali slowly gets up, holding her broken arm tightly against her stomach.

  By now, Kuanatuku has pulled the spear through his body, dropping the blood-slick shaft to the ground. He waves away assistants who try to help him up.

  “You just killed yourself,” he says to Kina.

  She looks at him. “Did you ever offer any different fate?”

  “If you run, my warriors will hunt you down.”

  “I won’t run. I’ll walk. Nakali, come on over here.”

  Nakali makes her way to the throne, nearly leaning on it in her agony. She searches Kina’s eyes for some hint of a plan, but Kina just nods her head toward the forest.

  “We’ll be going, now. If you want your sorcerer returned, let us go in peace.”

  “You’ll kill him as soon as you’re out of sight.”

  “That’s not my way. He’ll live, if you hold back.”

  Kuanatuku says nothing more. Kina gestures for Nakali to follow, then then three of them—captive, captor, and erstwhile ally—head away from the village into the dense forest that surrounds it.

  As soon as they are out of sight of the village, Nakali turns to Kina. “If you think saving me has changed anything-“

  “You mean saving you again?” Kina says. “By my count this makes two times. I believe you owe me.”

  “I owe you nothing. It is no more than any kaua should do for her mistress.”

  “Well you’re wrong, there,” Kina says. “Any kaua would have let a mistress like you be speared like a hog in that filthy village square. But I’m not a kaua, certainly not yours at any rate, and I would rather give you a clean death myself than have those wretches eat your soul.”

  Nakali says, “I have a spear. Perhaps I’ll kill you right now.”

  “Go ahead,” Kina says. She is pushing the sorcerer along, the tip of her pahi still in his back. “As soon as you do, this kapua right here will flatten you with one of his spells, and you’ll be food for cannibals before nightfall.”

  “He is a blasphemer,” Nakali says. “He steal his power from the gods themselves. I can think of no greater kapu. Once we’re away from those pigs back there, I’ll kill him myself.”

  “Try it and you’ll join him in the Land Beyond.”

  Nakali keeps pace with her, barely keeping her rage in check, though she doesn’t attack.

  “So, sorcerer,” Kina says Hekalo, “how do we find To`o?”

  When he doesn’t respond, Kina asks, “What is your name?”

  “Hekalo.”

  “Does Kuanatuku know what you truly are?”

  Nakali cuts in. “If he’s a sorcerer, that’s all the more reason not to trust him. Their deceitful ways are known to all. How can you be sure he’s even in his correct form now? Who can say what he really looks like?”

  “I guess we’ll just have to find out, won’t we Hekalo?” Kina prods him forward as they walk. “And how,” she asks, “did a sorcerer end up out here, debasing himself with cannibals on an empty island in the eastern ocean?”

  “I came for the same reason anyone else comes,” he replies. “Because I heard that To`o can provide knowledge.”

  Kina says, “Something tells me most of those halfwits back there came here for something else.”

  Hekalo nods. “Yes, most of them heard that Kuanatuku knows how to eat souls.”

  Nakali asks, “So? Does he?”

  “No,” Hekalo says. “He has them all pretty well fooled. He takes prisoners to To`o, and offers them up as sacrifices.”

  “He kills them?”

  “Not exactly. He sets-”

  He is interrupted when Nakali abruptly keels over into the bushes, crashing to the ground. Kina whirls, expecting treachery, but Nakali is motionless where she fell.

  “Get up,” Kina says, nudging the woman with her foot. Nakali moans.

  “I can’t. I feel too faint.”

  “What’s going on?” Hekalo asks.

  Kina says, “She’s in a lot of pain.”

  “It’s her arm.”

  Kina says, “Can you fix it?”

  “What makes you think I can do that?”

  “Aren’t you a sorcerer?”

  Hekalo turns around and looks at her. His stringy, black hair falls down to his shoulders. “What do I get in return?”

  “How about I don’t kill you?” Kina says.

  “You’re already using that threat for something else. Besides, don’t you hate her?”

  Nakali shakes her head. “You won’t use your sacrilegious magic on me!”

  Kina says, “Quiet. You don’t have a choice.”

  “You city folk are an odd lot. Let me go, and I’ll do it.”

  Kina shakes her head. “Do it, and I’ll let you go.”

  “Done.”

  Hekalo steps over to Nakali and rolls her so she is out of the brush and flat on her back. Nakali resists him at first, but when she tries to jerk her arm away from him she cries out in agony. He lifts her wounded arm and rests it on his palms. For a few seconds he is motionless, but then Kina realizes he is quietly whispering something under his breath. It isn’t a prayer, but more of nonsense syllables strung together.

  This goes on for a minute. Then he lowers her hand and falls back as if drained. He licks his lips and looks at the sky through the trees.

  “Are you all right?”

  “It takes,” he says between pants, “a lot of mana. And mana is very weak here.”

  “I don’t see any difference,” Kina says, looking over Nakali’s arm. “How is it?”

  Nakali is still on her back, her arm tight across her stomach. “Save your false concern, kaua.” She sits up and gingerly examines it.

  “Glad you’re feeling better, then.”

  Hekalo says, “Somewhere else, I might have been able to heal it completely. Here, all I could do was bring the bones back in line and stop the pain. She’ll still need to tie it up and not use that arm for a couple of weeks.”

  “Well,” Kina says, rising to her feet, “you can wait for Kuanatuku here. As for us, we have to keep moving.”

  He sits up. “Where will you go?”

  Kina shrugs. “We’re looking for To`o. He’s somewhere out here, and that’s all I know.”

  “I know where he is.”

  Kina looks down at the sorcerer. “You shouldn’t have said that. Now I’m tempted to take you hostage again.”

  “No need,” Hekalo says. He grunts and gets back to his feet. “I’ll show you where he is.”

  “Why would you do that?” Kina asks, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. “I gave you your freedom.”

  “And I took it. But I want to speak with To`o, as well. I haven’t been up there alone since I came to this island and convinced those mindless savages to take me as their kupuna, instead of eat me.”

  “You’ve seen To`o? The God in the Stone?” Nakali asks.

  “Yes, I’ve seen him. There’s a way up to the mountaintop not far from here. Kuanatuku and his men use it all the time. It’s dangerous, though. You’ll need someone who knows the way.”

  Kina looks down at Nakali. The high priestess stands back up, clearly still woozy but able
to walk.

  “Lead on,” Kina says.

  Hekalo strikes out through the trees, leading in a new direction. Before long, Kina can hear drums starting up in the village. Kuanatuku has recovered enough from his injury to seriously consider a hunt, or at least so it seems. To Kina, the sound of the drums brings up uncomfortable memories of fleeing the temple of the Ebon Flame.

  “Here I am again,” she says.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  They make their way through the forest, crossing a narrow and shallow stream that babbles over smooth stones. This is the river, she figures, the one that empties out near the village downslope.

  Then she sees it: a clear path, cut through the heart of the forest, leading up into the upper foothills.

  “This is the path?” Nakali asks.

  “It is,” Hekalo says. “To`o is up there.” He points up the slope, and through the trees, Kina can see the peak of a tall mountain.

  “How far?”

  “It takes most of a day to get there,” Hekalo replies, already heading up the path. “We shouldn’t delay.”

  “A day?” Kina asks, horrified. “Can we manage that? We have no supplies, no water, no nothing.”

  “Do we have a choice?”

  Kina could see his point.

  With the drums still beating in the distance, she trudges up the path after him.

  Hours later, the heat of the day has built to near fever pitch. Though they are still in heavy forest, the gradual slope has grown much steeper. Kina can see high ridges rising above them, covered in dense vegetation and shrouded at their tops by layers of cloud.

  “How high is this place?” Nakali asks.

  “We haven’t yet reached the stairs,” Hekalo replies.

  Kina asks, “There are stairs? What do you mean?”

  “Stone steps. You’ll see.”

  Before long, Kina can make out a strange, thin line cutting up the slope, visible even from down here. Hekalo confirms that these are the stairs. It is remarkable that they can be seen from so far away, and once their group arrives at the base, Kina can see why. The stairs are made of blocks of hand-cut stone and carefully set in even steps up the steep pitch of the incline. Time and the elements have weathered the stones and shifted some of their positions, and moss and weeds crowd the cracks between the blocks. It is clear these stones are very old.