For the first time since creating her haven, she only ventured outdoors during the day to find fuel for her fire. She felt that if the fire went out then so would her soul.
Following the incident with the sky swimmers, Myka and Sendra were left out in the open that night. A woman brought them meals and also food for the two guards. She was much older than he was, Myka estimated, probably a similar age to his own mother. She did not speak to them, but Myka thought her eyes revealed some emotion, possibly sympathy. He was tempted to ask for her name, but he knew it would get her into trouble; however he felt that if their eyes could talk, they would have spoken volumes.
Even after eating, neither Myka nor Sendra could sleep, and the evening chill gained additional bite from an onshore wind. Once again, Myka found himself studying the stars as if he was still navigating across the sea. He was aided by a clear night even though cloud cover would have given them some relief from the cold. Both of them sat with their knees drawn up and their hands clasped about their legs.
Myka didn’t see the guards actually fall asleep; he just became aware that they were no longer standing or even sitting. In fact it took him a while to even see where they were lying on the ground. He hissed at Sendra.
‘Do you see the guards?’
‘No, I don’t. Have they gone?’ Sendra realised that he was hoping that the cold had driven them into one of their underground homes.
‘They’re asleep, see, by the fire,’ and he pointed towards them. Myka grew more confident when he realised that they couldn’t be heard. ‘Come on, Sendra, this is our chance to escape.’ Myka immediately started working away at the vines holding their cages together, and Sendra did the same. Sendra managed to get free first and then he walked over and helped Myka.
As soon as they were free, they moved on down the hill with swift, soft feet. Neither of them had so much as a knife or a spear, but that was of little consequence; they had their freedom, and there was no one afoot to stop them.
They reached the beach, where they had landed, before dawn but already the sky was light enough for them to make out the hills behind them.
Myka was hoping that their craft had been hidden rather than destroyed and knew that unless they found it, their breakout would be in vain. They searched along the beach but it was to no avail. Myka felt a sense of real despair when he realised that fate could play such a wretched trick on them: to allow them to escape only to get caught again.
Sendra also felt the same frustration. ‘We can’t stay here, Myka. They know that this is where we will come; they would have already sent a search party well before dawn.’
Myka knew this was correct; there would have been at least one changing of the guard before dawn, possibly two. But he felt that the sea was their only chance. Their chief, Ryka, had made it clear that his people did not travel on the sea.
‘I can’t believe that they would have destroyed our craft. Are they really that stupid?’
‘Yes, Myka, they are. They don’t fish, it’s too dangerous for them, so of course they would destroy the craft.’
Myka realised that his friend was right. He suddenly saw how much he had wanted the craft to exist, and how he had expected his captors to think just like him, when everything that had happened so far suggested the contrary.
‘I’m sorry, Sendra. I should have thought of that.’
For the first time since they had set out together, Myka was overcome with an enormous sense of guilt that was exacerbated by his despair. ‘I’m sorry I brought you into this mess. I’m sorry that my dreams have become your nightmare.’
‘Don’t be stupid, Myka. You think I can’t think for myself?’ To Myka’s surprise, Sendra was really angry with him. ‘This is not the time for self-pity. This is a time when we have to work together.’
Myka was shaken by his friend’s outburst but also relieved. ‘You’re right, Sendra. You’re right.’ He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, then looked him in the eye. ‘But I have to admit, I don’t know what to do.’
‘It’s all right, Myka. Whatever happens, we have already given them a black eye.’
Myka was able to raise a smile at his friend’s optimism. ‘You’re right, we have.’
He looked around at the pale-turning sky. ‘We really only have two choices, Sendra. We can run or we can hide?’
‘Why don’t we run and then hide.’
‘Okay, I think that’s probably our only option, because there’s nowhere to hide around here.’
At night Elvene wondered if she was becoming delirious because her dreams were becoming more surreal, and she saw them as precursors to her death. She had almost stopped eating, her entire focus now centred on maintaining the fire in her cave. In the morning it took her forever to make a hole in the snow to allow air and sunlight in. When she had finished she asked herself, Why do I bother? Somehow she still maintained a will to live, but it was fading and she knew her days were truly numbered.
Myka and Sendra walked south along the coast because that was the way they had followed it at sea. They also walked inland in the hope of finding a forest where they might be able to hide. But everywhere they looked it was open country, albeit riven with valleys that were revealing themselves as the sun rose higher in the sky. In the end they decided to enter a valley and hope for the best. So far they had not seen nor heard any sign of pursuers.
But as they worked their way inland, they wondered at the wisdom of their decision. The valley narrowed and became more difficult to scale. In the end they seemed to be climbing vertically on a loose stony surface. Perversely, just when they seemed to be getting close to the valley’s crest, the surface gave way in a slithering slide and they half-skidded, half-rolled back down the slope in a clatter of rocks which echoed loudly down the valley, a cloud of dust rising in their wake. Any chance of concealment had just been lost.
When they were inevitably found a short time later by a party of twelve men, they simply gave themselves up. They were severely disheartened but there was little else they could do. They were tied at the wrists and led back to the valley, where they were placed back in their cages.
Ryka told them that, for their trouble, they would receive no food or water for the rest of the day. In fact they were both so tired that all they wanted to do was sleep, but even this was forbidden, and Ryka instructed the guards to wake them noisily every time they fell asleep. It was, in fact, the worst punishment they had received during their captivity. Up until that experience, Myka and Sendra would never have considered that sleep deprivation could be such an effective form of torture, as it continued through the following night as well.
Elvene eventually awoke one morning to find that her fire was extinguished. This had happened previously, of course, but on this occasion she found she no longer cared. She felt like the cave had become a womb and all she wanted to do was sleep. She longed now only to sleep and never wake up again.
For Myka and Sendra, it was the morning after their recapture, that their ordeal reached its spiritually demolishing nadir. Even though they were completely fatigued, everything that happened that morning was to remain in sharp focus for the rest of their lives.
The whole tribe seemed to be assembled on the hillside, with Myka and Sendra looking down at them. Only a couple of guards were positioned above them, and Ryka with a handful of his closest men were standing off to their right between them and the crowd.
But centre stage was reserved for someone else entirely, and Myka could not hide his shock, and even his sense of guilt, when he saw the woman from two nights ago brought into the clearing with her hands tied in front of her. He immediately understood that she had drugged the guards so that he and Sendra could escape, though why she would take such a risk was beyond him. It was obvious that the two guards were now to take their revenge.
A pole had been placed in the centre of the clearing and her hands were tied about it. Both guards carried cruel-looking whips made up of many strands similar to the
vine rope that held together Myka’s and Sendra’s cages. She had been positioned to face Myka and Sendra so that her back was to the crowd. She looked at Myka as they tied her hands, but there was no emotion on her face. They ripped the woman’s shirt to her waist and when she bowed her head one of the guards parted her long greying hair over her shoulders to bare her back. The guards stood either side and it was obvious that they would take it in turn.
At the first lash Myka felt his lip tremble and he heard a stifled cry from the woman. At the second lash she let out a cry; the absolute silence from the crowd only seemed to amplify her pain in Myka’s ears. After the third lash the woman was already on her knees. Myka rattled his cage as if he could shake it apart, but he was only trying to create a distraction from what was happening in front of him. He called out in a loud hoarse voice. ‘Stop. You are a madman.’
Ryka put up his hand and the guards stopped. Myka felt a temporary relief, but also a sense of foreboding.
Ryka walked over to Myka’s cage and stood very close to him. Myka could see the hardness in his eyes, devoid of all sympathy and even humanity, he thought. The eyes of a man who felt no pain and no empathy; whose only joy was in inflicting cruelty. A man solid in the belief that whoever gained superiority gained all rights over other peoples’ lives. ‘Would you like to take her place?’
Myka knew that this was a test and didn’t know that he could pass it. If he said no, he would lose all respect to everyone present, except possibly Sendra who even called out to him.
‘No, Myka, don’t. It’s what he wants.’
Myka knew that he would not be able to withstand the pain, but he looked at the woman and knew that he owed her. She could have been his own kin, he thought. He knew that if he didn’t take her place he would never be able to face any of his kin again. He thought momentarily of Elvene and knew that she wouldn’t have even hesitated. He hadn’t realised how long he had been contemplating his decision, until Ryka made it for him.
‘Carry on,’ he said, and walked away.
One of the guards lifted his lash and the woman bowed her head once more.
‘Hold it,’ Myka heard himself cry out, even though he had a lump the size of a fist in his throat. It was like he had heard someone else’s voice, but he knew that he could not stand and watch this any longer.
‘It’s too late,’ Ryka said and lifted his hand as if to signal.
‘No it’s not, let her go.’
Ryka lowered his arm slowly. ‘All right. Guards.’
They untied the woman who simply collapsed on the ground. Ryka signalled for others to carry her away. Myka assumed that they must have been her immediate family.
The guards came and released him from the cage; he didn’t dare even look at Sendra. They took him to the pole where he saw drops of blood in the dust where the woman had been whipped – a woman whose name he did not even know – and once again he struggled to understand why she had tried to help them.
Myka, who was still suffering from fatigue, felt like he was completely detached from the world; he had already cut himself off from everything that was happening about him. He didn’t even know which way he was facing when they tied his hands behind the pole, but he thought he was facing the opposite direction to her, because when he looked at the ground, he could see her blood. Even before the first lash, he felt like he was in a dream, and if there were voices about him, they seemed a long way away. In fact, he hadn’t realised it, but he had already passed out before the first lash was raised.
He came to when they threw water over him, and he saw Ryka standing over him. ‘What are you?’ Ryka asked, and kicked him in the stomach. ‘Janella has more courage than you.’
So now I know her name, he thought, but he had to admit he felt sick and he was in a cold sweat that made him shiver; or was it fear? He couldn’t tell. He stood to his feet and waited for the first lash on his chilled back, but he never felt it.
It was the sky swimmers who saved him. This time Ryka’s men were completely unprepared as they swept down the hill, just as they had done two days earlier. Myka sensed them rather than saw them and it all felt like a dream. When a tendril wrapped around him, it felt secure and he said, Lift me, in his mind, which it did, like an angel taking him to Heaven.
His tied hands simply slipped over the pole, and whilst he heard the crowd below him, he didn’t seem to know they were there. Instead he felt in a dreamlike way that he was going back home and he had the completely irrational thought that the sky swimmers would take him to his family over the ocean.
But they didn’t; instead they took him inland back over the hills and over the forest that lay above the hills.
Then Myka remembered that Sendra was still there, and so was the woman who had helped him, Janella. He felt like he had finally awakened from his dream so he spoke to the sky swimmers in his thoughts, Take me back, I have to return. He felt the resistance from the sky swimmers, who thought as a group, not as individuals. We must return, he told them in his mind, and when they sensed his urgency, they reluctantly acquiesced.
When they came back over the hill, Myka sensed the awe from the people below him, and he could see from their behaviour that they were of two minds, unsure whether to run, or to stand and watch. The crowd seemed to sway and retreat momentarily, but there was no panic and they didn’t run for their underground homes.
Even Ryka’s henchmen were rooted to the ground and didn’t know what to do. Myka saw that the woman, Janella, was now on her feet. She stood apart from the others and was looking directly at Myka, as was everyone else. He could see Sendra standing in his cage and holding its sides, as if by his very grip, he could demolish it.
For the first time since he’d met him, Myka could see that Ryka was indecisive. He looked from the crowd to his men to the sky swimmers, but he didn’t know what to do. No one had ever seen a human lifted aloft by the sky swimmers and survive to tell the tale.
The woman, Janella, ran forward as if to meet them and this time no one intervened.
When Myka was set back on the ground no one dared to approach him except Janella herself, who quickly untied his hands. The sky swimmers reeled in their tendrils and hovered overhead; a slight billowing sound could be heard from their grey flapping sails.
Ryka barked an order, ‘Seize him,’ but no one obeyed him at first.
When two of the guards moved forward, the crowd revolted and attacked them. Ryka himself then ran forward with a spear, intent on killing Janella or Myka, but this time a single tendril snaked down out of the sky and caught him mid-stride. Myka saw his whole body go rigid in a monstrous spasm, his mouth grimaced wide, but his final scream was silenced for lack of breath. When he was released, he simply dropped to the ground, already dead. No one, not even his guards, approached the body.
To Myka’s amazement, all the people on that hill fell to their knees. Even Ryka’s henchmen, when they saw the crowd behind them, got down on their knees and bent their heads. Myka looked down at Janella kneeling at his feet. Her blood-soaked garment brought tears to his eyes, and he put a hand on her shoulder, touching her long, grey-streaked hair.
‘Get up,’ he said, ‘I’m not your chief.’ Still she wouldn’t move, so he leant forward to tell her, ‘You are more worthy than I.’
When she raised her head, he saw fresh tears streaking down her dirt-stained face, but still she would not stand.
‘Everyone, get up,’ he called out in his loudest voice, but no one would stand and he was overwhelmed. He had gone from pariah to saviour in one brief morning and he had no idea what to do.
In the end, he said to the guard who was closest to him, ‘Release my friend,’ and he was obeyed.
Myka and Sendra both needed to sleep, but first Janella and her family took them to their underground home and fed them.
‘I am a seer,’ she explained to Myka, ‘And when you came, I had a vision that you would free us from Ryka’s reign. I knew I had to set you free, and after that let fate
take its course. I had no idea where it would end, but I trusted you to free us.’
‘Your trust could have got you killed,’ Myka told her as he ate.
‘I no longer cared,’ she said, but then she smiled with missing teeth. ‘But my trust was rewarded. You have saved us.’
Myka was not so sure, but he was too tired to argue. If the conversation continued, he did not remember, because he fell asleep before he could finish his food.
Both Myka and Sendra slept for the rest of the day and the following night; no one disturbed them. Janella lived with a daughter, who was yet to be coupled, and she also had two married sons who stayed with her that night. Myka later learned that her husband had been killed by one of Ryka’s men many seasons ago. The following morning he found that everyone was gathered on the hillside outside Janella’s home as if they expected he would know what to do.
Myka was very uncomfortable with the idea of being a leader or being seen as some sort of saviour for the Salari people, but he also knew that he couldn’t leave them. He spoke to Janella when he realised that she was preparing to go outside to meet them. ‘We need to treat the wounds on your back; that is the first priority. You should go and bathe in the ocean.’ She looked at him aghast. ‘Sendra and I will go with you. It will be safe, I can assure you.’
‘What about all these people waiting outside?’ she asked.
‘Tell them that when you are well, you will call a meeting and elect a Council of elders.’
‘And what about you? What role will you play?’
‘I will stay here and be your right hand man as long as you need me.’
She seemed satisfied with this, and together they went outside so she could tell the people.
The crowd dispersed, and along with her family, Janella, Myka and Sendra walked down the valley to the sea. A not so small group of people straggled behind. It made Myka wonder how long before he would be able to go his own way in this group without attracting a crowd.
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