by Joanna Orwin
The Mister was asking, ‘Do you have anything you wish to say?’
A last ember of defiance and pride sparked. Taka lifted his head and repeated what he’d said to the Mister all those months ago.
‘I’ve no skill with words.’
Mister Goddard replied, ‘You’re a dancer. You will dance for us tonight.’
At his signal, the priests helped Taka shed the heavy cape of black and yellow feathers. They unfastened the skirt of scarlet bark cloth and let it drop. They loosened the ties that bound his leggings. They removed the cap of scarlet plumes. He stood there in his loincloth, naked but for the Mara’s wreath of foliage and the fire-jewel necklace around his neck, the emblems of the two gods who held sway over this island.
A solitary drum sounded, a slow, solemn beat.
Lightning flashed and crackled. A flare of eye-searing, white light stretched in a wide ribbon from the top of the ash column to the mouth of the fire-goddess, linking sky to mountain. Narrow strands of white fire stitched their brilliance across the dark fabric of the turbulent mass and the blacker sky beyond. Fire-demons wove and intertwined skeins of scarlet flame up through the ash cloud. Red mingled with black, with white, creating a vast, ever-changing tapestry of fire-colours that spread across the sky.
Against this backdrop, Taka danced his last dance.
He danced love and passion, tenderness and its betrayal. He danced friendship and loyalty, the binding ties of kinship and home. He danced the rising and setting of the sun, the slow wheel of stars across the night sky. Hope and faith inspired his dance, replacing despair. He danced the end of the Dark, the returning light, the life-giving light. He danced rebirth and the child to come. And as he danced, he moved ever closer to the yawning mouth of the fire-goddess.
There, poised on her parted rock lips, oblivious to the heat from the seething, molten rock below that now scorched his skin, his mind at peace, Taka began to spin. Spinning faster and faster, his arms flung wide, feet pivoting as he turned, he whirled until the blood-crimson, the sullen black and the sultry yellow of the fire-colours below him merged then faded before his now unseeing eyes.
The fire-goddess roared.
Taka whirled. He whirled until Tanga the sea-god, Tanga the water-god, once more heard his unspoken prayer and beckoned him home. Spreading his arms wide, he leapt skywards.
For one glorious moment, he soared like the kua the Travellers had followed across the Great Ocean. For one glorious moment he was truly free.
Then the air released him. His arms still spread wide, he fell silently in a long, graceful arc into the chasm below where the fire-goddess was waiting for him.
Acknowledgments
The first draft of this book was researched and written while I held the 2009 University of Otago College of Education Children’s Writer’s Residency, jointly funded by Creative New Zealand. During my six months in Dunedin, I lived rent-free in Titan Street courtesy of the Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage Trust. I am grateful to the university, the college, Creative New Zealand and the trust for their generous support. Trish Brooking and the other staff on Level 2 of the tower building at the college made me welcome and provided an environment conducive to writing. Vulcanologist Glyn William-Jones (Canada) checked and confirmed the plausibility of the catastrophic eruptions that created the Dark, and moki-builder Euan Duff provided vital and visual information on how to build a reed craft. Tania Roxburgh’s writers’ group at Columba College offered useful feedback on some early chapters. Two groups of local trampers shared their love of Dunedin’s landscapes with me on weekly walks, a much-needed antidote to hours at the computer. I owe thanks to the writers, publishers and booksellers with whom I enjoyed meetings and the occasional lunch. The warmth and friendship of so many Dunedin people — too many to name — more than compensated for the coldest winter on record. I thank Ron for his good grace in letting me absent myself for six months, Sue for her encouragement and support, and, as always, John, Sally and Kate for their enduring faith. Lorain Day, Kate Stone and Anna Rogers all contributed invaluable expertise in helping me shape this book to the best of my ability.
Joanna Orwin
December 2010
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanna Orwin’s lifelong interests in New Zealand’s landscapes and Maori history are reflected in award-winning books that range from oral history to historical and adventure novels. She was the 2009 University of Otago College of Education Children’s Writer in Residence. Her usual home is in Christchurch and she has a grown-up family of three. When she is not writing, she spends time tramping and struggling to tame a wild garden.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published 2011
This edition published in 2011
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1, Auckland 1140
Copyright © Joanna Orwin 2011
Joanna Orwin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
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National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Orwin, Joanna.
Sacrifice / Joanna Orwin.
ISBN: 9781-86950-912-5
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9893-3 (epub)
[1. Quests (Expeditions)—Fiction. 2. Science fiction.]
I. Title.
NZ823.2—dc 22
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