“I think that they’re honest and decent people. Otherwise my brother wouldn’t have lived with them for all this time. I vote yes to letting them stay.”
She raises her thin hand in the air and soon the rest of the group follows. No one votes against Dagwood’s suggestion. Knox runs to the hut after the vote and fetches the guests. They’re all happy to hear the news and join the others by the fire. The clan is now reinforced with a handful of new members.
Skye can’t find an opportunity to sneak away from the fire without Dagwood noticing. His eyes are following her all the time, and she can’t help laughing at him and all the sweet smiles he sends her. An eager conversation between the new guests and the old group drowns out the blazing of the fire and the mood is happy and hopeful.
Salomon stands a bit away from the others on the path to the river. He’s carving a piece of wood as he waits. Skye knows he’s waiting for her, but she doesn’t know how to tell him that she can’t get away. They need to postpone their talk until tomorrow. She tries to signal to him, but he doesn’t see her signs.
Suddenly, Dagwood grabs her hand and whispers to her: “Do you want to go to the river?”
Skye nods hesitantly and smiles at him insecurely. She nervously turns her head towards Salomon, but he’s gone and she can’t see him anywhere. Dagwood eagerly takes her hand and pulls her with him away from the fire. They quickly reach the river and Dagwood finds a spot of grass and sits down.
“Come sit down … next to me.”
He smiles at her and pats the ground next to him. Skye’s thoughts race through her head. She’s embarrassed about the episode earlier by the fire, but she’s in even more despair about not being able to speak to Salomon. Her face shows her frustration and Dagwood’s smile quickly disappears.
“Is there something wrong, Skye?”
Once again Skye’s able to focus on the moment with Dagwood and she tries to let go of her worries.
“I’m sorry, Dag. I’m just sorry about what happened at dinner. I hope you don’t think of me differently now … I mean it wasn’t true what Flo said about me. I hope that you know that!”
She sits next to him and takes a deep breath. He gently puts an arm around her shoulder and pulls her close to him. Carefully he removes her hair from her face and kisses her forehead.
“I don’t think that anything can change the way I look at you. At least not a small discussion about some dinner.”
He hesitates a little before he continues: “And I meant what I said earlier … I really like you, Skye.”
Their eyes are locked to each other’s for a moment, and slowly Dagwood leans towards her face and kisses her lightly. Their lips are hardly touching but Skye can still tell that this kiss is different from the kisses she’s had before from her mother or Ecco. She suddenly becomes more aware of herself and the entire situation, and she doesn’t know what to do or how to react. A feeling of insecurity and panic grabs her, and she looks down to avoid Dagwood’s eyes or another kiss.
She lies down on her back and looks at the night sky. Dagwood lies down next to her and takes her hand. It feels nice to lie next to Dagwood looking into the night without thinking about what she’s done in the past or her guilty conscience about keeping secrets.
The self-hating thoughts of Dagwood also seem to disappear from his mind for a while. But it doesn’t take long before the guilty thoughts overshadow the happy. They constantly reappear, like a stubborn little monster trying to steal the happy moment with Skye. He’s finding it hard to forgive himself for not telling her about Salomon’s role in her rescue, not until both Skye and Salomon have forgiven him for withholding the truth. Skye looks at him and smiles, and he feels like kissing her again. His thoughts are a mess, and he’s torn between his feelings for Skye and his conscience.
At that moment dark clouds drift in front of the clear moon, and soon all light in the sky is gone. A drop of rain hits Skye’s cheek. And then another one. Soon they’re bombarded by heavy raindrops soaking their clothes and their hair. Dagwood starts laughing as he gets up. He pulls Skye up with him and they run quickly back to the hut to find shelter from the sudden nighttime storm.
Salomon arrives shortly after. His clothes are soaked and his hair clings to his skin, hiding most of his face. Skye can’t tell whether he’s sad or not, and she feels like walking over to him. Instead, she remains sitting by the fire with Dagwood for the rest of the evening. But her thoughts are not with him, they’re with Salomon.
CHAPTER 37
The violent rain continues throughout the night with no break or decrease in strength. Further down the river, all the way up where the flat-tailed rodents live and where no man ever comes, a large pile of branches and fallen trees have gathered in the cold water. Only in a few places does the water trickle through the uneven dam and run further down the river, filling it with enough water so that swimmers and other water animals can live. But most of the water is held back by the dam, and it’s been like this for a very long time.
Now the unusually large amount of rain that’s poured down barely without a break has gathered in the lake, increasing the weight of the water behind the dam and putting pressure on the strong branches and trunks. Little by little the large dam is pushed out of place, and no matter how hard it fights to hold back the water, it’s losing its fight against the enormous mass of water. But for a little while longer, it’s holding on …
Finch wakes up screaming. He jumps from his bed and rips his sleeping place up from the floor.
“There’s water flooding into the hut!”
He shouts so loudly that the others wake up too, and soon the panic spreads in the hut. Knox runs to see the unwelcome water trickling through the door and throws some blankets on the floor.
“We must stop the water before the entire hut’s flooded.”
Dagwood runs outside and looks around the hut to assess how bad the situation is. When they built the hut, they built it in a small hollow, but they’ve never had any problems with the rain. Not until now. The hollow seems to suck all the excess rain to it and a small lake is forming around the hut.
“We need to dig some channels so we can lead the water away from the hut. Knox, Carrick and Finch, start over there. Skye and Flo, you can start there. Salomon and Evi, try to get as much water as possible out of the hut.”
Dagwood quickly delegates the work, and before long they’re all busy plowing channels with pickaxes, large branches and sticks. The new clan members are also working hard. The rain finally stops but the ground is muddy and slippery, making it hard to stand firmly.
Flo and Skye are helping each other push down a large, crooked branch into the mud so they can easily plow the ground. The ground is wet and full of clay, and Skye’s struggling to force the branch down deep enough.
“Come on, Skye, get a decent grip! Use some more power. I’m doing all the work.”
Flo is shouting at her, and Skye can feel her temper growing.
She snarls back at her: “I can’t force it any deeper than I already have. The ground is way too hard.”
Annoyed, Flo removes Skye’s hands and grabs the branch. She starts rocking it back and forth to loosen some of the wet mud. Skye puts her hand on the branch trying to help Flo. She’s using her entire body and can feel that it’s finally moving.
Suddenly there’s a large sound and the branch breaks. Flo loses her footing and her balance, and soon she’s lying on the wet and muddy ground. One side of her is completely covered in dirt and her hands are buried in mud and filth. She tries to get up, but once again loses her balance and she falls like a stone to the ground. Skye can’t help laughing a bit even though she can tell that Flo isn’t finding the situation funny at all. Clumsily, Flo walks over to Skye.
“You did that on purpose. Are you trying to make a fool out of me?”
Skye stops laughing and frowns.
/> “No, of course I didn’t do it on purpose! The branch broke, Flo. By itself!”
She’s had enough of Flo’s unpleasant and nagging remarks, and she thinks their rivalry has gone too far. She fought and argued with Ecco many times, but it was never like it is with Flo. It feels much more personal and vicious than she wants it to be. They ought to be able to resolve their differences somehow. She doesn’t want them to be enemies, even though they’ll probably never become best friends, like she is with Puk and Evi. Or rather, she doesn’t know whether she can trust Evi after last night.
Their argument is escalating, and their voices are growing louder and louder. The others around them stop working and turn their attention to the two girls, and they slowly start walking closer to them. Neither Flo nor Skye notices that their argument is becoming the center of attention. They’re only focused on each other. Not until Dagwood’s voice interrupts their verbal fight do they go quiet.
“What are you fighting over?”
Flo turns around and looks surprised, as she discovers everybody looking at them.
In a loud voice she answers: “Skye deliberately pushed me down into the mud. And then ridiculed me!”
Skye quickly answers back: “That isn’t true! And you know it, Flo! That branch broke and you lost your balance. It’s entirely because of the branch. It’s nothing to do with me. It was wet and rotten.”
She hesitates a bit before she says: “But I’m willing to apologize for laughing. That wasn’t nice … but only if you admit that you lied at dinner yesterday!”
Flo scowls, observing the faces of the others, and sees that Dagwood’s looking at her with anticipation. She sees that he longs for Skye to be absolved of her selfish action so he can look at her innocent face again. It’s physically painful to see the way he looks, and she feels all the air disappearing from her body, as if she’d been punched in the stomach.
She turns to Skye and hisses in her face. “But I didn’t lie. Are you afraid the others will find out how greedy and selfish you are? That you aren’t thinking about what’s best for the clan but only about yourself? Everything was better before you came!”
A shiver runs through the group, and Skye can’t believe what she just heard. She knows that Flo sees her as a rival, but she didn’t know that Flo’s hatred for her was this deep. She stares back at Flo with squinting eyes.
Controlled and composed, she answers: “Better for who? For the others or for you?”
Flo snorts loudly and throws her head back.
“You and your pretty face. You think you can fool them all, but I’ve figured you out.”
Skye quickly answers back: “Who am I fooling? You’re the one who keeps turning the others against me. The only liar here is you!”
Skye sees that Salomon stands by the others, listening, and she tries not to look at him. She’s embarrassed that he knows she’s not telling the truth. She’s a liar too. But right now, it’s about another truth than the one she’s hiding. And in this case she knows she’s innocent.
Flo suddenly smiles at her with a weird look and she gets nervous. She has a look on her face like she’s already won the fight and beaten her opponent.
With mockery in her voice, Flo answers her: “So you’re honesty itself?”
She stares at Skye with an unpleasant, self-content look. Calmly, she lifts her hand and points at Dagwood.
“Have you told him where you sleep at night?”
Dagwood quickly turns his face toward Skye and looks at her as Flo goes on.
“… or what secrets you and Sal have together. I’ve seen how you sneak around, meeting in secrecy. Like the night by the river, where Dag and I found you whispering into each other’s ears.”
The surprise of hearing Flo’s words out loud is turning into an uncontrollable anger and desperation inside Skye, and she can feel a burning heat in her face. She sees a disappointment in Dagwood’s eyes like none she’s ever seen before. In despair she turns towards Flo again, and starts running at her with her fists clenched. With an astonishing force, she hits her in the middle of the chest, and Flo falls backwards and lands heavily on the ground. Her head slams into the muddy ground, and she screams loudly. For a brief moment she lies still with her eyes closed, and Skye feels the panic rising.
Worried, she bends down to her but stops when she sees Flo opening her eyes again. Knox and Evi come running, helping Flo on her feet in the mud. Before Skye’s able to react, Flo is standing right in front of her pointing her finger straight into her face.
“NOW it’s enough!”
She reaches for her knife sitting in her belt and Skye steps back in terror.
Flo continues, obviously agitated: “You’ve crossed the line too many times, and I’m challenging you to an Honor Duel!”
She bends down, and with her knife draws a half circle on the ground in front of Skye. Dagwood quickly steps forward and interrupts their argument.
“Flo, are you certain you want to do this? Can’t we settle it some other way, like we normally do? Talk about it, and shake each other’s hand afterwards. Like friends. Without hatred in our hearts.”
Skye hears concern in his voice and asks nervously: “What’s an Honor Duel? I don’t understand.”
She looks at Flo, standing stiff and emotionless like a statue, with Knox and Evi by her side, and hears whispering voices around her. The expression in their eyes makes her even more nervous.
Suddenly she sees Salomon heading towards them, and Dagwood follows him intensely with his eyes. He walks over to Flo and puts his hands on her shoulders.
Calmly Salomon says: “Flo, you have the opportunity to withdraw your challenge … Think about it carefully before you answer.”
He lets her go again and walks over and stands behind Dagwood. It’s not like him to interfere in the discussions in the clan, or other kinds of fights. He usually stays in the background or is invisible.
Skye’s paralyzed by the entire situation, and she doesn’t understand what’s happening. She feels like she’s in the middle of a theater play in which she unwillingly has the lead role, but she doesn’t know what her next line is or what she should do.
Suddenly Flo starts speaking again, and Skye’s attention is torn back to reality.
“I want my honor back! The challenge still stands!”
Dagwood steps forward. He straightens himself up, clears his throat and starts explaining.
“As you all know, we have rules in this clan and they’re not supposed to be broken. If they’re broken anyway, it has consequences. Two rules are more important than the others. If you steal from someone, you become an Outcast, and if you commit violence against someone or violate another clan member, you may be challenged to an Honor Duel by the violated party. But the challenge must be justified, and it must be accepted by the rest of us first.”
Dagwood stops talking and looks at Skye. He sees in her eyes how nervous she is, and he quickly looks away to not to become affected by her despair. The only thing he feels like is calming her down and telling her that it’s just a silly rule that doesn’t apply to her. But he can’t.
“The nature of the duel is decided by the challenger. However, the violator of honor has the opportunity to make one change to the nature of the duel. After the fight, the winner is allowed to decide the loser’s punishment. If the violated member loses, the honor will remain lost and will have to be restored at a later time, if possible. This means that the challenger has everything to win, but also everything to lose. The winner, no matter whether it’s the violator of honor or the violated member, may choose to be hard or graceful, show petty-mindedness or forgiveness, when the punishment is given. But the punishment must be in line with the offence.”
Skye’s heart is beating faster than normal. She’s scared. Scared of what’s going to happen. Scared what the others may think of her. She feels like ap
ologizing to Flo, asking her if they can’t be friends and forget about their ridiculous rivalry. The situation has taken a completely wrong turn. Flo and the others must understand this too.
She looks at Flo and is ready to apologize when she sees her eyes. There’s absolutely no hint of understanding or forgiveness in them, and Skye suddenly feels her anger returning. What was she thinking! Flo has brought this on herself. She is a liar, and she has deliberately misled the others by telling untrue stories about her. She deserves to be pushed into the mud.
Skye takes a deep breath and says loudly: “I accept your challenge!”
Dagwood is about to say something when Knox interrupts him.
“Let them get it over with once and for all. They’ve been talking nastily to each other for a long time. A duel will end their differences and wipe the slate clean. Like with you and Miner. Isn’t that right?”
He looks at the others and continues: “… and we all saw that Skye attacked Flo first, so the challenge is justified.”
The others agree with Knox’s suggestion, and all nod. Except Salomon and Dagwood. They give each other a quick glance, but they’re not exchanging any smiles. Dagwood lifts his hand and stops the conversation.
“All right, the Honor Duel is approved. It’s to be settled later today when the sun is at its highest. Flo, come to me when you know how you want the duel to be fought. You’re both excused from work until the time of the fight …”
He turns around without looking at Skye and puts the others back to digging again.
Puk stands with Twice in his arms, looking at Skye. She sits on a large stone on the path to the forest, staring into the air. Worry is painted on her face and he can almost sense how she’s feeling. The pain you feel when you’re in the middle of a fight is physical and instant. But the worry of not knowing what’s coming at you is almost a worse pain. By far, the worst for the heart.
He hopes the duel won’t be too hard on her. She’s still too skinny and weak to overpower Flo physically, but Flo knows this too. He’d be surprised if she doesn’t choose a duel that’s to her advantage.
The Dawn of Skye (The Someday Children Book 1) Page 25