Second Heart: Bones of Eden

by Zaide Bishop

  Romeo relaxed enough to meet William’s gaze, then it overcame him again. This time he cried out. With every thrust there was another climax, and William’s own hips lifted off the furs, bucking up into Romeo, driving into him deeper and deeper.

  “I’m yours now,” Romeo whispered, and William lost all control. He cried out and lost himself in this new and sacred kind of love.

  Chapter Seven

  Fox had gathered four of his brothers—Dog, Nab, Maria and King—to travel to Pinnacle Island and hunt down the leviathan prehistoric crocodile that had built a nest there. Zebra and Xícara should have come too, but they were missing, and he was irritated by their absence. They had promised him they would return from eel trapping in time for the hunt.

  He had briefly considered traveling to the Varekai island and asking Whiskey if he wanted to bring his dogs and his own hunting party. Together, they would be safer. More hunters, more weapons, more eyes and ears to watch for danger. However, the two tribes had not worked together on a hunt before, and any competition or mistrust could lead to a fatality. Besides, Fox did not want Whiskey to be the one to claim this glory for himself. They had been trapped by the monster together, and they had both shown considerable bravery in escaping. Whiskey had come back for Fox when he was trapped, when Whiskey could have fled to safety. Then, when Whiskey had collapsed, Fox had carried him out of the nest and back to a temporary camp to wait for help.

  Now Fox wanted to prove he was the superior one. He wanted to prove that he could bring down the monster and destroy the clutch of eggs without the Varekai’s help.

  Maybe he’d pull out some of the crocodile’s teeth and give them to Whiskey. He smiled, thinking how much that would irritate the red-haired Varekai.

  “I’m not sure why you think this is a great idea,” Dog muttered. He had agreed to come without any hesitation but had been disparaging the plan from the moment the canoes had hit the water. Dog wasn’t afraid—not like King, whose hands trembled and who jumped at every splash. Nor was he enthusiastic like Maria, who was excited to be a part of the hunting party that took down the biggest predator on the archipelago. Dog was, Fox supposed, sensibly pessimistic. About everything.

  Which still made more sense than Nab, who had the same dreamy faraway look on his face now that he did when they went fruit picking or pipi collecting.

  “Because if the young hatch and populate the islands, we’ll all be extinct this time next year,” Fox said.

  “If we waited a little longer, when the Varekai have finished their mourning, Whiskey would probably take his own hunting party and the problem would be solved without us risking our lives,” Dog said.

  Maria scoffed. “There’s no glory in that.”

  “There’s no glory in being dead either.” Dog paused. “Wait, tell me again how there is glory in slogging through mud to smash crocodile eggs?”

  “We will be the greatest hunters the Elikai have ever known,” Maria said. “Or the Varekai. No one else is ever going to find another prehistoric monster crocodile to slay.”

  King’s lips were pulled back in a terrified grin. “We’ll be heroes.”

  Dog arched an eyebrow. “Uh-huh. I’m all for pest eradication, I really am. But I’m really not sure who you’re trying to impress here.”

  “Whiskey,” Fox muttered under his breath, but thankfully the others didn’t seem to hear him.

  They docked on Pinnacle Island, not in the usual place, but much further west, closer to the mangroves and the den Fox and Whiskey had been trapped in.

  They paddled into a large bay, the water as thick and brown as mud, and tied the canoes to trees. Fox saw the wide, spiked tail of a large crocodile as it slid into the water without a sound or a ripple. The bay would be swarming with them, unseen and lurking. Wading through these waters would have been a short and fatal exercise.

  The team picked their way carefully through the mangroves, sticking to the higher, sandy ground until they found the path through the trees that Fox had fled down, running from Whiskey. Big purple crabs as large as their heads scuttled away from fallen fruits and dropped into the water with loud plops. There was a sudden splashing and churning in the water further out as a larger fish charged a school of smaller ones. Each sound made King jump and gasp, his hand clenched so tightly around his spear his knuckles were white.

  Dog seemed annoyed with his anxiety and kept prodding him in the back when he froze.

  Maria was alert and keen at Fox’s shoulder and trying to slip past him and take the lead, even though he didn’t know where they were going. Nab, who had said nothing and given no reaction beyond the serene, blank look he always had, stopped to pick some yellow flowers.

  “Nab, really?” Dog hissed.

  “Mmm?” Nab glanced up, tucking the flowers behind his ears.

  “What are you doing?” Dog demanded.

  “They might make yellow dye.”

  “You’re just going to drop them,” Fox said. “We’re going to kill a very big crocodile.”

  “I know.” Nab lapsed back into silence.

  They approached the nest with exaggerated care, taking time with every step, examining every rock, bush and mud pool before continuing forward. The nest was a deep, wide pool. Once an ancient tree had stood on the western bank, with Pinnacle Island to the east. There had been a wide, grassy knoll to the north, and the egg mound had been on the south of the pool. However, the tree had been ripped up in Fox and Whiskey’s escape, as the crocodile had tried to drive them away from its nest.

  It had been a month since Fox had been here, and the grassy banks, as well as the path leading to the pool, were now a mess of broken logs and branches. The crocodile had been busy excavating the pool again, clearing away the debris. Now most of the tree had been broken down and only its extensive roots, pointing out toward the open ocean, and the massive core of its trunk were left.

  “What could have done this to all these trees?” Dog said, touching the wood with quiet awe.

  “The crocodile,” Fox said grimly. “He knocked the tree down. Now he’s moving it all out of his den.”

  “He can’t be that big, Fox.”

  Fox pointed to the mound, which rose up nearly twelve feet and was four times as wide.

  “That’s not—” Dog started, but Fox redirected his gaze to the foot of the mound, where the leviathan crocodile’s head and fore claws were resting on the shore. Its eyes were closed, its body entirely motionless. It did not even appear to be breathing, but reptiles were deceptive that way.

  “No,” Dog breathed, blue eyes wide. “It can’t be.”

  “I told you it was big.”

  King was shaking so hard his spears rattled on his back. He reached back to hold them still, but Fox could still see the tremble in his shoulders. “It’s too big. We can’t kill that thing. The Varekai can’t kill that thing. You were wrong to bring us here, Fox!”

  “Keep your voice down,” Maria snapped under his breath.

  Fox gave his brother a questioning look. If they all thought the crocodile was too big to face, they would go home. Fox had no authority to force them, and he would not face it alone.

  “Maria?” he asked.

  “We need a plan, Fox. Our spears won’t go through that hide.”

  “Dog?” Fox asked.

  “You’re sure it has eggs in there?”

  “Lots of them,” Fox agreed.

  Dog hesitated. “Can we get enough fat and oil to coat the pool and the egg mound? We can’t fight this thing, Fox. We’d have to set it on fire or poison it somehow.”

  Fox nodded. “If we caught enough stonefish and blowfish, then killed a goat—”

  Maria clapped his hands over Fox’s and Dog’s mouths. His eyes were wide and urgent. All five of them went deathly still.

  Be
side Nab one of the flat gray tree trunks shifted itself and hissed, rising up from the mud. There was a corresponding sound somewhere behind them, though Fox didn’t dare to turn and look.

  The sound of something large breaking small branches and hauling itself through the mud was amplified by the sounds of others and, in the pool, the massive crocodile opened his eyes.

  He was almost blind, Fox knew. The saltwater burned his eyes, but he had excellent hearing—or, Fox supposed, touch. Crocodile snouts could feel the tiniest of vibrations, in the water or on the land. It could “feel” the fish swimming nearby. Or canoes in the water. Or even small animals dipping their noses into water to drink.

  Whatever was dragging itself through the mud toward the crocodile must have felt like a beating drum, loud and impossible to ignore.

  “Are they crocodiles?” King breathed, his voice barely a whisper.

  Nab pointed to the roots of the fallen tree. Scrambling into view was the biggest goanna Fox had ever seen. They had large goannas on the islands—some were nearly six feet long, and they were good to eat, when you could catch them. This one was closer to twenty feet, with a huge, low-slung body, as big as a bull crocodile.

  It took Fox a moment to realize this was what was rising up beside them—another goanna. And behind them, their legs making sucking noises as they pulled them free of the mud, two more.

  This, he realized with a sudden horrible certainty, was what had killed Juliet. Whiskey had told him the bite wounds contained a black paste, like venom. He had a bad feeling that if one of the Elikai was bitten, there would be no cure.

  “There’s more,” Nab said, voice not even a whisper. “There might be a dozen of them.”

  “Keep. Your voice. Down.” Maria was practically mouthing the words as the first two lizards slithered past them. A hard, flexible tail as thick as Fox’s belly struck him across the calf and then dragged along his skin as one of the creatures passed. His knee almost buckled. The lizard skin was rough, like sharkskin, almost sandpapery enough to draw blood.

  “We have to run,” King tried to whisper, but there was a high whimper in his tone. One of the lizards stopped to look at him, and they all froze again. Its tongue flicked in the air, whip-like and black. In the pool, the crocodile began to haul itself onto the bank, head up, trying to survey the threat with weeping eyes clogged with yellow discharge.

  The lizard on the tree dropped onto the mound, and the creature closest to them seemed to forget all about King, slithering forward eagerly.

  “Eggs,” Fox mouthed. Goannas were well-known egg thieves. They were as bad as snakes for getting in with the chickens in camp, but just as often Fox would see them up cliffs or in trees, raiding the nests of helpless eagles or parrots.

  The lizard that had dropped onto the mound began to dig, sending up sprays of sodden leaves and sticks. The crocodile swung around and made a sound like rock grinding on rock. It lunged at the lizard, teeth as long as Fox’s hand snapping together like a lightning crack.

  The goanna puffed itself up, hissing loudly, and the crocodile came at it again, mouth open. The goanna lunged forward, latching on to the crocodile’s tongue with its poisoned teeth, and the huge jaws snapped shut. Fox could hear the bones snapping as the crocodile tossed its head, pulverizing the lizard’s body. Still, the dead animal’s jaws were locked, and when the crocodile tried to spit it out, the dead lizard hung on stubbornly, taking several head tosses to dislodge. It sank into the black water of the pool without fanfare.

  The other lizards were drawing closer. Fox risked turning his head and counted eleven of them, including the dead one. They varied greatly in size, but all were as large as an Elikai, at least. They slithered forward without fear, even as the crocodile hissed, drawing more of himself onto the bank.

  “This is going to get ugly fast,” Maria said.

  “Any chance they’ll kill each other?” Dog muttered.

  “That big croc is going to rip them all apart,” King said miserably. “We’ll still have to kill him and destroy the eggs.”

  “Something smells,” Nab said. He was looking around, not even looking at the monsters facing off before them. “Something smells like chemical. Like in Eden.”

  “Are you really—” Fox started, then he paused as the leviathan crocodile listed sideways. “What is it?”

  “It’s paralyzed,” Dog said. “On one side.”

  “How?” Maria demanded. The lizards were drawing closer, slithering around the crocodile, who snapped at them helplessly.

  “Venom. I told you,” Fox hissed.

  One of the lizards latched on to the crocodile, biting the soft white skin between its thigh and tail. Another joined it, and Fox could see the black ooze dribbling from their jaws. He could smell it now. Putrid rot and chemical. It tainted the air, overwhelming the pungent mud and filth of the crocodile den.

  The lizards began to tear down the mound, digging to the head-sized eggs and smashing them with feet and jaws. Yolk ran into the water, and the half-formed crocodile young were squabbled over and swallowed whole.

  The crocodile desperately tried to defend himself, to fight for his young. His legs wouldn’t move. His jaw seemed to lock. Fox could still see the spasms of life running through him as the goannas began to rip the skin back from his underbelly.

  His gorge rose.

  “We have to go,” King said urgently. “More of them are coming.”

  He glanced around, and suddenly the world seemed to be full of giant lizards. Dozens of them. Nothing less than a swarm.

  “Okay, yes. Let’s move.”

  They scrambled, as quickly as they dared, back toward their canoes. Behind them, the goannas began to fight over the remains.

  * * *

  “Sugar!”

  Sugar glanced up from where he was gutting and scaling fish. The canoe was gliding toward the beach with abnormal haste, and Fox was standing up in the bow, waving his arms. It was a small wonder he didn’t pitch right into the water.

  Sugar put the tools aside, padding down the beach with a few of his brothers to greet them.

  “Fox? What is it?”

  The five of them scrambled out of the canoe, and Nab and Maria pulled it up the beach. All of them were muddy and stank of stagnant, rotting things.

  “Are Xícara and Zebra back?” Dog demanded.

  Sugar shook his head, growing more confused. “No, why?”

  “We saw the creatures that killed Juliet,” Fox told him. “Dozens of them.”

  “I thought you were hunting the monster crocodile?”

  “We did. We were. We found it in its den, still guarding its eggs. But before we could form a plan of attack, the whole den was overrun with giant goannas. Dozens of them. They were as big as bull crocodiles, Sugar. Bigger! They have a venomous bite that paralyzes prey, and we watched them kill the crocodile and raid the nest.”

  They were frantic and muddy. None of them seemed hurt, just on the edge of hysteria. He didn’t know what to make of it. It had been hard enough to believe Fox’s first story of a giant crocodile. Now there were giant goannas too?

  “Fox, how could there be giant goannas on the islands? Dozens, you say? I think we would have seen them before. Where is it you think all these animals came from? Why now?”

  “I don’t know.” Fox sounded frustrated. “But they were there.”

  “We all saw them, Sugar,” Dog said. “It’s true. We already know they’ll kill Varekai—they killed Juliet. Now Xícara and Zebra haven’t come back, and we only escaped because they were distracted, fighting over the eggs and crocodile meat.”

  Sugar opened and closed his mouth a few times, then shook his head. “What is it you think I can do about this?”

  “We have to hide!” King said. “We have to get out of here. They could have followed us.
”

  “We have to fortify the village,” Dog said. “Set up traps and spikes to keep them out. We need more weapons. There are so many of them, Sugar. They’ll turn on us eventually.”

  “After they’ve stripped the archipelago of every edible thing on land,” Fox muttered.

  “You see why I am having trouble believing this, don’t you?” Sugar asked doubtfully. “We’ve never seen anything like what you’re describing. Are you sure they weren’t just regular goannas? We’ve seen them raid crocodile nests.”

  “Regular crocodile nests!” Fox snapped. “Where the eggs are only half as big as bananas. These eggs were as big as our heads. Could a regular goanna eat one of those?”

  “I think they would give it their very best try,” Sugar mused.

  “You’re an idiot!” Fox snapped. “We have to do something. Quickly. Before they catch up to us.”

  “Fox, I think you need to have something to eat and drink. Sit down. Catch your breath. When the five of you are calm, we can talk about what you saw.”

  There was a whoop from the edge of the village, and they turned as one to look. Love was running across the sand, wide-eyed with fear.

  “It’s coming!” he squealed.

  The goanna burst from the underbrush, slithering out onto the open sand, then pausing as it came face-to-face with the entire Elikai camp. Sugar froze. His brain felt stuck, like it was caught in a loop and he couldn’t break free. It was a giant goanna, as big as a bull crocodile. It was huge and fast and drooling black everywhere.

  “It’s clean,” Fox said grimly.

  “What?” Dog said.

  “It’s not covered in mud or egg. It wasn’t at the nest.”

  “How many more of them can there be?” King demanded.

  As if on cue, two more slithered from the brush, following their larger brother.

  “It’s another swarm,” Fox said. “Sugar, we have to get everyone onto the canoes. Right now.”

  “We can’t just—”

  “Right now!” Fox insisted.

  Sugar studied him a moment, then nodded. He hadn’t believed his brother when he said there were giant goannas, now here they were. Ignoring him again, when he said they had to flee, would be folly.