“Here there is a curved bite out of the rock facing the land. Let us put the boat here,” Tenko suggested.
They stowed the boat under the lee of the rock.
“Lift one or two big boulders, Birno, and put them inside the craft.”
“Why? Do you think the wind will blow it away?” Birno laughed. “It would take a mighty storm indeed to lift a boat like that.”
“There is no telling how far tonight’s tide might reach,” Tenko said seriously.
Suddenly Birno remembered Lokar’s words and felt uneasy. He helped Tenko to fill his boat with ballast.
They made a second journey with the smaller boat. By the time they returned to the huts of Skara the moon had risen and was casting a fitful light over the turmoil of sea. Their faces were stung by the scouring sand as Birno and Tenko fought their way back to the huts. There was a thin drifting of sand along the tunnel.
“Kali and Stempsi will have plenty to do sweeping the sand away tomorrow,” Birno remarked.
Tenko said nothing but he cast an anxious glance backwards over the sand dunes.
Already Stempsi, Kali and Brockan had gone to their stone bunks. Strange gusty noises came from the thatch. Tenko crept in beside Brockan but he could not sleep. The peat fire glowed a little more brightly than usual, as though the draughts along the tunnel would not let it sleep either. Tenko lifted himself up on an elbow, watching the fire and thinking of many things. The wind rose again. It seemed to Tenko as though wordless voices wailed to them from out of the sea. A shrill note rose above all the others, an undulating warning note. It seemed to summon up a sudden surge of sound. There was a roar of wind and sea in wild thunder. Suddenly it ceased and sank to a murmur, fading almost to silence. Then, once again, there was a low stirring of sound, growing and growing till it howled and shrieked in a turmoil. From the sea came a dull boom with an eerie echo among the reefs. Under the stone slab door to the tunnel was a gap. Through it drifted a sifting of sand. It twisted in tiny whirlwinds just inside the hut. The wind died to a sudden silence again. Tenko began to think the storm was dying away. Then, all at once, the wind rose in a mocking shriek. The sea answered, crashing in fury. The skirl of the wind mounted higher and higher. Like a blow from a mighty hammer the wind hit the beehive roof of the hut and lifted part of the thatch and whirled it away.
Everyone was wakened by the noise. Birno sprang from his bed. “What was that?”
“The wind has taken some of the thatch,” said Tenko.
Birno surveyed the damage. “There is a big hole, but the whalebone frame seems firm. We shall have repairs to do tomorrow.”
Once again the wind died down, only to rise to a sudden onslaught of fury. A small cloud of sand blew in through the hole and fell upon the fire.
“It is the worst wind we have ever known,” Stempsi said anxiously.
The wind came funnelling through the hole, bringing another choking cloud of sand and scattering some of the smouldering peats. Tenko and Birno ran hither and thither stamping them out. They could hardly see each other through the drifting rain of sand.
The whole stone hut seemed to quiver as the wind dealt it buffeting blows. The wailing note of the storm rose higher and higher as though all the demons of the air had been let loose. There came another ominous crack from the roof.
“Quick! On to your beds under the shelter of the walls!” Birno cried.
They cowered under the beehive-like slabs of stone. The wind battered the remaining thatch, lifting it up and down. Then there came a terrible crash. Down into the hut fell the great jaws of whalebone, bringing with them showers of sand. For a minute the peats blazed up as the remaining thatch caught fire, adding smoke to the whirlwind of sand. The family choked and spluttered, hiding their faces under their arms.
The hut was now wide open to the storm. Even inside the wind shivered and howled, bringing with it so much sand that it dowsed the fire.
“We cannot stay here,” Stempsi said. “I can hardly breathe.”
“I will go and see if the folks in the other huts have fared any better,” Tenko said, snatching up his cloak from the bed.
He found drifts of sand along the tunnel passage, into which his feet sank. When he reached the end there was a drift that came halfway up the entrance. He squirmed his way through to the main passage. Even here he could not stand upright for the drifted sand. In the meeting place a small crowd of people had gathered, confused, frightened.
“How is it with you?” Tenko asked. “Our roof has been carried away.”
“All the thatches have gone,” Lemba told him. “The houses are filling with sand. What are we to do, Tenko?”
“I will go back and bring Birno,” Tenko said.
There was a slight lull in the wind, so instead of going straight back, he made his way along the passage that led to the sand dunes. Tenko felt he had to see what was happening outside. He covered his nostrils with his sheepskin cloak and stepped from under cover. Even though the wind had dropped a little the sand stung him pitilessly. It seemed as if the whole world was in motion. The sand dunes were heaving up and down like giant waves, piling up sand against the stone huts. Some drifts were level with the holes on the roofs and the sand was pouring down into the huts below in a constant stream. A whole sandbank was threatening Birno’s house. Tenko saw what was bound to happen. There was no time to lose. He fought his way back along the passage. When he reached the tunnel to Birno’s hut he almost passed it by. A drift was within inches of the top of the entrance. Tenko scooped aside the sand with his hands as fast as he could and worked his way on his hands and knees to the hut.
“Quick! Quick! Get out of here!” he cried. “The sand dunes are shifting and burying the huts! They are all on the move like the sea. You’ll be buried alive if you stay!”
Even as Birno and the others sprang to their feet a stream of sand poured through the hole where the thatch had been. It almost smothered them as it fell, spreading over the floor of the hut.
Birno seized Stempsi. “Hold on to my tunic, Brockan!” he shouted above the crash and thunder of the tempest above. “Bring Kali, Tenko!”
They dashed for the opening to the tunnel, climbing over a mound of sand. Tenko followed, pulling Kali by the hand. When they reached the door Kali gave a shriek. Something had seized her by the throat and was pulling her back from Tenko.
“Come on! Come on!” Tenko cried, tugging at her.
“I can’t! My beads have caught in the stone. They’re choking me.”
Tenko turned round, made a grab in the darkness and caught hold of the string of bone beads. He wrenched them apart and they went cascading to the ground. Kali was freed.
“Oh, my necklace! You gave it to me!” Kali cried, stopping to scoop up her beads. Tenko jerked her roughly to her feet.
“Come on, Kali! There is no time! Quick, along the passage before it is filled with sand! If you stop for your beads, you will be buried alive with them.” He pushed her along before him. They had barely gone a few paces when there was a roar and the banked-up sand crashed down into the hut. Gasping and spluttering, spitting out sand, the family crawled on hands and knees through the main passage and along to the meeting place. This was open to the sky and was already knee-deep in sand. The folk were there trying to fight their way back to the huts to get some shelter.
“Out! Out!” Birno cried. “Get out of your houses or the sand will bury you!” He drove them before him like a flock of sheep. They struggled out on to the shifting, billowing sand dunes.
“Oh, where shall we go? What shall we do?” Stempsi cried.
In the darkness and sandstorm all was confusion.
“Keep hold of each other’s arms,” Birno cried. “Do not let go! We will pull each other up if we stumble.”
Lemba hooked his arm on to Brockan’s. It was difficult to know where they were in all that turmoil of land and sea. Tenko thought quickly.
“I know a place where we might be safe,” he cried. “Keep
heading into the wind. Do not turn your backs on it. Above all hold on to each other.” Tenko knew that so long as they kept their faces to the wind, they would be heading westward and sooner or later they would encounter some landmark.
“No! No!” Tresko cried. “We must turn our backs on the wind and run before it. That stupid lad knows nothing! He will lead you to your death in the sea. Every man for himself and run!”
Most of the tribe of Skara obeyed him, for it was easier to turn their backs than to face the stinging, lashing sand. The minute they left the slight shelter the huts afforded, the wind took those who were not holding on to each other and who had turned their backs to it. It bowled them over, lifting them bodily off their feet. It rolled them over and over like balls. Singly there was no standing against it. Like spindrift they were borne before it. The old and the children soon fell and were unable to rise. The sand fell thickly upon them. Soon they were suffocated by it. They lay, strange mounds and shrouded forms on the ground. The sand blew over them and covered them like snow.
Clinging desperately to each other, Birno’s family and Lemba fought their way into the teeth of the storm, bending towards the wind. Their feet sank deep into sand drifts. It was like struggling through a bog. At last they reached a rocky hollow in the lee of a small hill.
“Let us stop to get our breath,” Birno said.
Breathing hard, they struggled to clear their mouths and eyes of sand.
“Shall we stay here?” Lemba suggested. “We could lie down here.”
“No!” Tenko pointed at the layer of sand which had already drifted into the hollow. “A shift of the wind and we should all be covered as we lay there. No, we must push on!”
Birno remembered what Lokar had said about trusting and obeying Tenko when the doom fell upon Skara.
“We will do as Tenko says. We will push on,” he said.
There came another lull in the tempest.
“Let us go now while the wind has dropped,” Tenko urged.
They plodded on, linked together by their arms, Birno and Lemba at each end of the line, Tenko thrusting forward in the middle like the point of an arrow, with Kali, Stempsi and Brockan on each side. All at once their feet began to move on a slope downhill, the wind seemed to whistle more overhead and the sting of the sand was not so cutting.
“Feel carefully with your feet now,” Tenko advised them.
Hardly were the words out of his mouth than he slipped himself, dragging the others after him. From below came the sound of running water. They slipped feet first down a steeply sloping bank and fell into shallow muddy water at its foot.
“Oh, where are we now?” Stempsi cried in terror.
Tenko let out a shout of joy. “We’ve found it! We’ve found it! Do not fear, Stempsi! This is the place I sought.”
“Where are we?” Kali asked.
“This is the stream of Skara.”
“But the sand is blowing up the stream, filling the space between the banks like a snowdrift,” Birno said doubtfully. “If we stay here, it could bury us.”
“We will not stay. Keep hold of each other and wade up the stream,” Tenko said. “It is shallow but there are one or two pools into which you might fall.”
They made a human chain with Tenko leading them. Mercifully the wind eased a little. Tenko felt his way among the boulders of the stream, putting down a cautious foot whenever he thought a pool might lie before them. Sometimes they were up to their waists in water; sometimes the stream barely covered their ankles. The worst danger was the drifted sand which had sunk to the bottom of the stream and clogged their feet. The wind began to rise again. The banks of the stream had grown shallower and once more the stinging sand beat upon them.
“Perhaps we could find more shelter lower down the stream…” Birno was beginning, when the moon appeared for a minute from behind thick cloud and light filtered through the sandstorm. Tenko gave a cry of relief.
“There it is! The rock where the stream bends.”
A large rock loomed up in their way. The wind almost blew them into it. Tenko pressed on round it. Suddenly the wind seemed to have left them. The stream had taken a complete right-angled bend round the rock.
“This is the place I wanted to find,” Tenko gasped.
The stream came tumbling down from the Hill of Yettna above, cutting deep banks. These banks lay at opposite points of the compass from the direction of the wind. The wind went howling past the bend of the stream leaving them in an oasis of comparative calm where the rock jutted out. The bank behind it curved round a rocky pool.
“Keep close to the rock,” Tenko warned them. “The pool below is deep.”
They found a flat stone where they could all sit in the lee of the great rock, sheltered from the storm and the driving sand. For a few minutes they did not speak from sheer exhaustion. Then Birno asked, “How did you know of this place, Tenko?”
“I came to try to get a fish in this deep pool last summer. While I was here a rainstorm blew up out of the west. The rock sheltered me till it was over. I remembered it when we fled from Skara. I thought it might give us shelter now.”
They sat huddled together, waiting for the dawn to break.
11. The Day of Decision
When daylight came at last it filtered through a veil of flying sand. It was as if fog hid the landscape from them. The wind had lessened but it still blew hard.
“We must wait for the wind to drop before we leave the shelter of the rock,” Birno decided.
They crept down to the pool and drank. The water tasted brackish but at least it slaked their thirst. They huddled together for warmth and waited for the storm to subside. All that day the wind blew and they peeped out from behind the rock at the sandstorms scudding across the opposite low hill. They said little, but hunger grew in them. It seemed a long time since they had eaten supper in the hut. At last night fell. Kali and Stempsi huddled together inside Stempsi’s sheepskin cape, which she had snatched up when they fled. The men and boys kept close for warmth. They slept fitfully, uneasily. Birno lay awake, wondering what had happened to his home.
At last dawn streaked a pale grey sky with primrose. Tenko rubbed his eyes and sat up. The wind had dropped to a slight breeze. He shook Birno.
“Birno, the storm is over.”
Birno woke and rubbed his stomach. “I am so hungry I could eat an ox whole!” Then he remembered. “The cattle, Tenko! When the storm broke Salik had herded them all into the enclosures. Let us get back to Skara at once and see what is left to us.”
They all crossed the stream below the pool and made their way over the hillside to Skara. The grass of the hill was covered by sand. When they topped the hillock and looked towards Skara they gasped and cried out aloud.
“Skara has vanished!” Stempsi exclaimed.
“Where is our hut? Where is our hut?” Brockan cried, near to tears.
Already Birno and Lemba were running down the hillside. They ploughed through drifts of sand which reached above their knees. When they reached the place where the village had been it was as though a whole sandbank had been rolled over it. Below, where the pebbly beach had once been, the sea reached higher than it had ever done before. A great wall of sand was piled up where the sloping green land had once been. Not a thing stirred about the place that had been Skara.
“It is all gone!” Birno exclaimed.
“All gone!” Lemba echoed. “All the pots I made and the oven where I baked them!”
“We will go to look for the sheep and oxen,” Birno said.
They trudged through the sand, slipping and stumbling, towards the pasture. Suddenly Kali pointed a finger.
“Look! Is that the top of the wall of the enclosure?”
They ran to it and scraped away at the sand. It was the enclosure. With their bare hands and a stone prised from the tope of the wall they dug away the sand from a mound inside the enclosure. The horns of a cow emerged. When they got the head free the poor beast’s mouth and nose were cho
ked with sand. She must have collapsed on her knees and died where they found her. Kali recognised their favourite black milk cow. “She’s dead! She’s dead!” she cried and wept bitterly.
“They will all be dead,” Birno said stonily. “All our cattle and sheep are gone! Not one left!”
“Let us push on towards the Loch of Skaill and see if we can find any of our people,” Lemba suggested.
They made their way over the rising ground, now like a mass of sand dunes. They came on several shapeless lumps buried in the sand. Birno scraped away the covering of sand from one. Stempsi let out a cry.
“It is Ilona! How many times have we laughed and sung together as we worked on our sheepskins! If only she had come with us!” Stempsi buried her face in her hands.
There were many other pitiful buried mounds in the sand. At last they came to one body only partly covered. Birno turned it over. It was Tresko. Like all the others and like the cattle and sheep he had been suffocated by the blowing sand and had fallen as he tried to make his way through it.
“There is nothing we can do. Our people are gone!” Birno said heavily.
Brockan began to weep aloud. “I … I am so hungry,” he sobbed like the small boy he was.
This brought Birno back to their own immediate needs. “Have we lived through the storm only to die of hunger?” he said bitterly.
“We can still find limpets on the rocks,” Tenko reminded him.
“If there are any rocks left uncovered by the sand!” Birno shook his head.
“Perhaps we could eat the dead cattle we found under the sand?” Tenko suggested.
Birno shook his head. “It is against the laws of our tribe to eat meat that has died.”
The Boy with the Bronze Axe Page 13