The dark spell was broken. Tenko leaped to his feet. “Look! The tide is high. Help me to haul the boat into the water.”
5. The Day of the Tree
Tenko and the children smoothed the sand, moving stones and pebbles out of their path. Then they pushed the logboat down the slope to the sea. The tree trunk was thick and heavy, but foot by foot it went down to the water. Once it was at the edge the rest was easy. The moment it floated it seemed to be a live thing. They pushed it into slightly deeper water. Tenko got in the stern and pulled the boat round by the paddle so that it faced out to sea.
“Get in!” he cried to the other two.
Kali and Brockan had brought with them improvised paddles made from the shoulder blades of an ox. With these they dipped into the water on either side of the craft. From the stern Tenko swung his wooden paddle to either side, giving a sharp twist of the blade to direct the boat.
They paddled round the bay to the north, where an outcrop of rock lifted between the sea and the sandy shore. Flatfish were often trapped in the rock pools left by a shallow channel between the outcrop and the shore.
Tenko rested his paddle and peered down into the water as the boat quietly drifted.
“There, Tenko!” Brockan’s quick eyes spotted the first movement in the water below them. A plaice was trying to scurry away. It sank motionless on the bed of the channel, so that its spotted skin would make it invisible in the sand. Tenko fitted an arrow to his bow. The children watched silently. The bow twanged and the arrow cleft the water and pinned the plaice to the sand.
“Got him!” Tenko exclaimed with satisfaction. “Hold the boat steady!” He flung off his tunic and dived overboard, shattering the sunlit water into a thousand golden flashes. The sea closed over his heels. He grasped the arrow and brought the fish up impaled on the end of it. He came swimming upwards.
“There’s one for our supper, Kali!” he cried, as he grasped the side of the boat. “We’ll get more yet.”
Tenko climbed into the boat again. Now began a competition among the three of them to be the first to spot another fish. The one who saw the fish had the right of the first shot with the bow and arrow. Kali added two haddock, Brockan a sole, while Tenko brought up three more plaice.
“That’s enough, Tenko!” Kali laughed. “Another fish and there’ll be no room for us in the boat!”
At last they tired of fishing with bows and arrows.
“Let us push further along the coast,” Tenko suggested. “I want to see what is beyond the rocks to the north.”
“Those are the rocks of Verron. There is often rough water off those rocks,” Kali said doubtfully.
“If my boat would stay afloat in the storm I came through to reach your island, it will stay afloat now,” Tenko said confidently.
“Maybe there will be good limpets and crabs by the rocks of Verron,” Brockan said hopefully.
“Brockan, you are always thinking of your stomach,” Kali laughed.
“So am I! So are all of us! Paddle your hardest!” Tenko exhorted them.
They reached the rocks of Verron and found a funnel-shaped opening leading deep into the rocks. Along the gully ran a narrow shelf of rock. Here they were able to land. As the tide was still dropping they pulled the boat up on to the shelf.
“How shall we get it launched again?” Kali wanted to know.
“Just roll it over into the water!” Tenko laughed. “It will be a lot easier than pulling it across the beach. Then we’ll dive in and swim to it.”
They clambered along the rocky shelf. Brockan was quite right. There were good limpets to be had there. Soon the flint knives were out and they were chipping away. Tenko climbed further along. Suddenly he gave a shout. “Come here! There’s a cave!”
The other two came as fast as they could over the slippery rocks.
“Let’s explore it!” Brockan cried eagerly.
“We cannot go very far inside. It is too dark,” Kali demurred.
“We’ll go a little way and then wait till our eyes get used to the darkness,” Tenko persuaded her.
The shallow shelf of rock continued into the cave. Peering ahead, half feeling their way with hands and feet, they pushed on step by step into the darkness. Tenko went first. The shelf was becoming narrower.
“We’ll wait here till our eyes see better,” Tenko suggested.
For a few minutes they stood, staring into the darkness.
“Tenko, is it quite so dark further on? I think I can see the shape of a rock ahead,” Kali said.
“Let us go on a bit. Be careful, though. The ledge of rock is narrower and there is water below in the gully.”
They followed in Tenko’s wake, their voices echoing eerily in the cave.
“The cave bends to the left here,” Tenko warned them. “Keep feeling for the cave wall.”
They rounded a rock and the darkness turned to a dim twilight.
“You’re right, Kali! There is light coming from above. The cave slopes upward to an opening,” Tenko cried.
It was Brockan who first saw the strange thing in the water below their ledge. “Oh, look! What’s that?” he cried in terror, clutching at Tenko. “What is that dark thing, waving terrible arms? Is it a spirit of the cave come to snatch us?”
He turned to run and would have fallen into the water below if Tenko had not grabbed him. Tenko’s heart had leaped and thudded for a second, but he saw that the object did not move any nearer to them. All at once he knew what it was.
“Stay here!” he said to the other two. “I am going to have a closer look.”
“No, no, Tenko!” Kali implored him. “It might seize you!”
“I do not think it will. If it is what I hope, it will do us no harm.”
Tenko drew his bronze axe from the deep pocket of his deerskin tunic and held it ready. Though the arms of the thing swayed a little in the moving water they were not extended to grab him. Tenko crouched down, crawling nearer and nearer to it as he would creep up on an enemy. One of its arms was outstretched towards him. Suddenly Tenko dealt it a blow with his axe. There was a splintering sound but the arm did not move. Tenko stood up and gave a cry of joy.
“Come here! Come here!” he shouted. “It is what I thought.”
Kali and Brockan came slowly, timidly, not quite sure of their safety.
“What is it, Tenko?” Kali whispered. Even her low voice echoed mysteriously round the cave.
“It is a tree!” Tenko shouted triumphantly.
They drew closer, staring.
“But trees do not grow on our island. Even bushes would not grow in a cave.” Kali’s voice was incredulous.
“I did not say it was growing. It is a tree, though, a dead tree.”
“But how would it have got in here?” Brockan asked.
“It must have come from some other land, perhaps even my old land. It has been uprooted in a storm and the wind and the waves have brought it here, just as they brought me. It must have been washed into this cave and become wedged at the end of it. Now we shall have to try to get it out again.”
“Get it out?” Kali was astonished.
“Yes. It would be foolishness to leave it here. We can use the trunk to make a small boat. We could use the branches too and with the strong twigs I can make more bows and shape arrows too.”
Kali and Brockan saw the sense of this at once. “Another boat? Perhaps for me!” Brockan thought, boy-like.
They bent down and tugged with Tenko. The tree moved about a foot and then it stuck. Not all their efforts would dislodge it.
“It is wedged in some crack in the rocks below the water,” Tenko decided. “I am going into the water to find out what is holding it.”
“Into that dark water? Oh, Tenko!” Kali feared for him.
“Do not be afraid. I shall be all right, Kali.”
Tenko lowered himself into the gully. First his knees were covered by the water. He took a step forward and sank to his waist. Another step and he was up to his
armpits, but a fourth step took him into water up to his waist again.
“It is not too deep for me.” He took a deep breath and stooped, thrusting his head and shoulders under the cold water. He felt about with his hands and then rose, gasping but triumphant.
“I’ve found it! Only one branch as thick as my arm is wedged between two rocks. That is what is holding the tree.”
“How will you get it loose?” Brockan asked. “Shall I come in the water beside you to help?”
“No. You stay where you are. You and Kali tug gently at the branches. I’m going to cut off the branch that is wedged.”
It took Tenko a number of shallow dives and blows with his axe before the branch was severed. The tree responded at once by rising higher on the surface of the water. Kali and Brockan grabbed at it to prevent it floating away down the cave. Tenko emerged from the water, clutching his axe. He climbed up on to the ledge beside them.
“Now to haul it down the cave to the gully mouth,” he said. “Whatever happens, we must not let the tide take it away from us.”
“How can we get it out?” Kali asked. “If we lean over the rock and pull it we shall overbalance.”
“Yes, that is true.” Tenko considered for a moment. “The pull of the falling tide is strong. The tree will float down the gully of itself but it might get wedged behind another rock. It might even get swept out to sea and then we should lose it for ever. There is nothing for it but for me to go into the water and hold on behind it.”
Kali looked at Tenko fearfully. “What if you got caught in the branches and drowned?”
“Not I! I will hang on behind the tree and hold on to its torn roots. I can always let go if the tree is too much for me.”
“How can we help, then?” Kali asked.
“I will go with the tree as far as the bend in the cave and try to lodge it against the rock there. That is quite near to where we left the boat. Can you and Brockan manage to roll the boat down into the water?”
“Yes, we can do that.”
“Then I’ll swim in close and grab it. Try to keep up with me as I drift down the cave with the tree but watch your step in the darkness. Hang on to the tree now till I get hold of its root. Kali, will you take care of my axe?”
Kali received the axe and laid it carefully beside her on the ledge. The two children held on to the tree by the branches which rose above the level of the path. Cautiously Tenko let himself down into the water again. He grasped the broken-off, trailing roots of the tree.
“Now let go!” he shouted to the children. “Give the tree a push away from the side.”
The tree began slowly bobbing along the water on its course down the gully to the open sea, Tenko floating behind it, a grey shadow on the dark water. Kali picked up Tenko’s axe and held it tightly to her. The two children worked their way along the path, watching their footing and keeping alongside Tenko and the tree. Now and again the tree caught in a rock and Tenko had to tug it backwards and forwards. Once he had to call to Kali, “Hand me my axe! The tree has got wedged again.”
Kali knelt on the edge of the rocky path and leaned forward as far as she dared without overbalancing. Tenko swam close in to the rock and stretched out his hand to take the axe. The water had fallen lower than when they had entered the cave and Tenko’s reach was a foot too short.
“Drop the axe and I’ll catch it,” Tenko directed her. Kali hesitated. The sharp edge of the axe might wound Tenko’s hand if he caught it by that. If the axe slipped his grasp it might be lost in a deep hole in the gully for ever. She knew what store Tenko set by his axe. Still clutching the axe tightly she slipped over the ledge and into the water beside Tenko.
“Oh, Kali, why did you do that?” Tenko cried.
“Here is your axe.” She thrust it at him. “It will need one of us to hold on to the tree when you release it with your axe or it might float away too quickly.”
“I could swim after it.”
“You would be cumbered then by your axe and have only one hand free. Now there are two of us to hang on to the tree.” She shouted up to Brockan, “You will be all right by yourself, Brockan?”
“Yes, I’m all right. I’ll make my way to the boat.”
Kali held on tightly to the tree root while Tenko swam round the tree to find the branch which had caught. It was difficult to locate in the darkness. At last he found it. It was a forked branch which had stuck in a cleft in the rocks. Luckily it was a very slim branch, no thicker than Tenko’s wrist. With a couple of blows he severed it from the tree. At once the tree began to move downstream again, but this time with Kali pulling backwards on its roots. Tenko took his place beside her, grasping another root with his free hand. Brockan shadowed them along the ledge.
At last they reached the place where the cave took a sharp bend. Here they could see the sky at the end of the cave and the gully where the boat was lying on the ledge. On the point of rock at the sharp bend there were one or two larger rocks lying out in the stream.
“Steer the tree over to those rocks,” Tenko directed Kali.
They got the tree lodged behind the rocks. The weight of the falling tide held the tree against them.
“It will be safe here,” Tenko said. “We can climb out now over the rocks to the ledge again and get to the boat.”
The seaweed-covered rocks were very slippery. Kali found it hard to get a grip and pull herself over them. More than once she slipped and Tenko grabbed her. Then they came to a rock below the ledge. It was sheer on the side facing the water. The top of it was beyond their reach!
“Hold on to the rock and I will see if it is easier lower down the gully. Can you keep my axe?”
Tenko climbed carefully down again. Kali held on to a tangle of seaweed and waited in the half darkness. Then, handhold over handhold, his feet feeling for clefts in the rock, Tenko came up beside her again.
“No, the rocks are sheer above the water lower down the gully too. There is only one way to the ledge, Kali. We must go back to the tree.”
It was a nightmare journey over the slippery rocks, but Tenko took it slowly, steadying Kali now and again. Brockan called out to them, fear in his voice. “Are you all right? What is wrong?”
“We are coming, Brockan. We are finding a way up.” Tenko tried to make his voice reassuring.
They slipped down into the water again. It felt colder than ever. They had to fight hard against the downward surge of the tide to reach the tree. They held on to it, panting to get their breath back. Tenko climbed up the half submerged trunk till he reached the branches. Now began the really tricky part of his climb. The branches were wet and slimy. One or two of them were rotten from submersion in the sea water. Tenko tested each branch with his hands before he trusted his weight to it. Once there was an ominous cracking. Kali, below, cried out in fear.
“It’s all right, Kali. A small branch broke but I grabbed another,” Tenko called to her.
At last he reached the stout branch that overhung the ledge of rock. Like a monkey he curled his arms and legs round it and then twisted his body till he was on top of the branch. His training as a hunter had taught him how to climb trees. He crawled along the branch till he was able to let his feet down on the ledge.
“It is not difficult to reach the ledge, Kali. I’ll come back and guide you up the tree,” he called to her.
Kali still held Tenko’s axe. He had forgotten all about it in his fight to reach the ledge. Kali would have only one hand free unless she left the precious axe behind. She made a quick decision.
“No, Tenko. It will be quicker if you join Brockan and launch the boat, then you can come and fetch me. I … I do not think I could climb over the branches as you did.”
“It might be better to fetch the boat,” Tenko agreed. “Can you hang on to the tree?”
“Yes,” Kali replied, though her voice trembled a little. “Be as quick as you can, though. It’s cold in the water.”
Tenko rounded the bend and hurried along the widenin
g ledge as fast as he dare go on that slippery surface towards Brockan and the boat.
Kali got a grip of the tree trunk with her free hand and threw a leg astride it. She managed to pull herself on to the trunk. Little by little she edged her way along it till she was free of the water. That was better. The bitter-cold water no longer surged about her. It was eerie, sitting in the cave with only a glimmering of twilight about her. Every sound, the rushing water, the snapping of twigs, echoed and re-echoed in the cave. There was always a strange murmuring. Kali tried to keep from thinking of the stories her tribe told of the spirits of the sea and the spirits of the caves; of the strange creatures that came up out of the sea to grab their prey. She gripped the tree trunk, as much petrified by terror as by cold.
Tenko reached Brockan, who was standing by the boat.
“First we must take out the bow and arrows and put them where we can reach them easily afterwards from the boat,” Tenko said.
“There is a place lower down the gully where the rock shelves into steps. I have been looking already,” Brockan told him.
“Good! Take them and put them out of reach of the waves. Take Kali’s paddle too.”
By the time Brockan returned Tenko had the log-boat poised on the edge of the rock, ready to roll into the water below.
“We shall have to leap in quickly after the boat before the tide carries it away. Keep a tight hold of your paddle and grab the boat with your free hand. I’ll do the same. Are you ready? Then over with the boat!”
The boat rolled off the edge and hit the water with a mighty splash. Tenko did not wait for the boat to reach the water before he plunged in after it. Immediately the boat began to float downstream. Tenko was after it like a swift fish. The current helped him. He grasped the stern with one hand and pushed it in towards the rocky wall of the gully. There the tide held it for one brief minute, but it was long enough for Tenko to throw his paddle aboard and heave himself after it. With the paddle he thrust vigorously and brought the craft up to the wall and held it there. Another moment and Brockan was swimming alongside. Tenko stretched out a hand and hauled him into the boat.
The Boy with the Bronze Axe Page 6