by Rada, J. R.
Something hit him in the back of the knees. He fell forward, the remaining flashlight flying from his grip. He didn’t wait to see if he could recover it. He rolled in the direction where he thought he had entered the darkness.
He rolled over some small objects on the ground, and then he could see the light and he was out of the darkness. David felt a hand on his face and saw Sarah. He managed a smile and the look of concern on Sarah’s face changed to a smile.
“Where’d you come from?” David asked.
“There was an earthquake and it let some light in the dark kachinas’ chambers. It nearly shook the whole place apart.”
“That was no earthquake. Gary blew a hole in the temple,” David told her. “Are you hurt?”
Sarah shrugged. “A little, but I’ll get over it. What about you? Are you hurt?”
David pushed himself into a sitting position. His arms shook and he nearly fell back. “I’ll be fine.”
He looked over his shoulder. The darkness had stopped at the edge of the light cast by the light sticks. It seemed to churn and surge, and with a scream, it passed the first light stick. The dark kachinas were determined to be free and the light from the stick wasn’t bright enough to hold them back.
“We’ve got to get out of here. That won’t hold them for long.”
Sarah nodded and helped him to his feet. Together, they ran toward the hole that Gary had blown in the outside wall.
When Gary saw them come out of the central temple, he smiled. “Now let’s get out of here.”
“There’s a problem,” David said.
“Another one?”
“The explosion didn’t only open up the temple, it freed the dark kachinas. This was their prison. The light from Kuskurza will hold them off for a short time, but it may not be as long as we would hope. If they get free, they’ll destroy the Sun Clan.”
One of the Sun Clansmen screamed and pointed behind David. David turned and saw the ink-black darkness creeping toward him. The dark kachinas had managed to get past all of the light sticks.
Gary aimed his pistol at the darkness and squeezed off three shots that sounded like thunder in the temple. The blackness recoiled slightly. David guessed it was more from the muzzle flashes than the bullets. The blackness continued forward. The Sun Clansmen turned and ran. David pushed Sarah to follow them.
David turned to Gary. “It’s the dark kachinas. We’ve got to get out of here. Bullets won’t stop them, but we can outrun them. I have an idea that will hopefully buy us a little time. I’ll need your help.”
Gary hesitated an instant and then shoved his pistol into his waistband. He grabbed David around the waist. David slung his right arm around Gary’s neck and they stumbled as close to the pyramid as they could.
“Will they stay inside the temple?” Gary asked.
“I don’t know,” David told him.
As if in answer to his question, the darkness began to ooze through the opening in the side of the pyramid. It reminded David of an oil leak his Camaro had once had.
“Use the light!” Sarah yelled. “It hates bright light!”
“Give me a flashlight,” David asked Gary.
Gary reached under his tunic and pulled out his flashlight. David took it, aimed it at the black blob, then turned it on.
A shrill yell sounded through the large chamber. David took a step forward and the blob backed off. David kept walking forward. The blob would scream, then retreat, tucking itself back into the hole in the pyramid. When David had reached the edge of the pyramid, he set the flashlight down on the ground so that it shined into the pyramid. He couldn’t tell if the circle of light cast by the flashlight was a natural circle of light or if the black blob was pressing the limits of the light.
David started to back away. He stopped and pulled a hand-held battery-powered lamp from pack and switched it on. He set the lamp on a rock just outside the pyramid next to the flashlight. A little extra insurance. They should have at least seven more hours, no more than fifteen, to get started. After that the batteries would die and the dark kachinas in the pyramid would be free.
David tried to run back to Gary, Sarah, and the Sun Clansmen. His legs were still shaky and it was not easy. When he reached Sarah, he gave her a quick hug, and turned to Gary.
“Let’s get back to the pueblo,” David said. “We have to warn the others, and we need time to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?” Gary wanted to know.
“The Bow Clan will come after us. Just because we trapped the dark kachinas doesn’t mean they still can’t control the Bow Clan. They’ve been doing it for centuries.”
Hours later, when they finally reached the entrance to the hidden pueblo, David wanted nothing more than to sleep, but he knew there was no time. His skin still tingled from the electrical charge, and he wondered if the electric field had caused permanent nerve damage, not to mention the bruises and bites he received from the dark kachinas.
He looked over his shoulder and saw a small black patch slowly growing and swelling in the center of Kuskurza. It nearly covered the largest of the pyramids. The dark kachinas had escaped.
In front of the blackness, David could see hundreds of pale-white men racing toward the pueblo. The blackness they might be able to outrun, but not the Bow Clan. There would be a battle.
Ma´saw met them at the hidden wall that allowed access into the pueblo. He looked at Sarah and then over her shoulder.
He said something David didn’t understand. Then he thought, Pahana, what have you done?
We must all leave now. All of the Bow Clan are massing against you, and the dark kachinas have joined them. You wanted to go to Tu´waqachi. The time is now.
Taiowa, we need you, Ma´saw thought.
CHAPTER 60
A silent, telepathic shout went through the hidden pueblo telling the Sun Clan to prepare for an attack by the Bow Clan. No one was sure how long they would have before the attack by the Bow Clan and the dark kachinas began, but they knew the attack would come. The arsenals were opened and the men, and even the women, were armed with langhers, jotas, takles, and bows.
David was happy to see that the Sun Clan was willing to fight for their freedom even in the face of incredible resistance. He could not imagine defeating spirits so powerful that it took Taiowa to beat them before.
Ma´saw divided the Sun Clan into four groups. He sent the first group outside the false wall to act as a diversion from the hidden pueblo. This would give the rest of the Sun Clan time to start their evacuation from the hidden pueblo into the caves. The diversion group was also tasked by Ma´saw to cause as much damage to the Bow Clan as possible before the Bow Clan reached the pueblo. David warned them to stay as far away from the dark kachinas as possible because their weapons would be useless against them.
The second group took up their position just behind the false wall to provide assistance to the diversion group when they began their retreat back to the pueblo. The third group stood guard at the entrance to the hidden pueblo to destroy the ladder and seal the entrance once the last of the Sun Clan had retreated into the pueblo. The final group had the job of disarming any traps in the cave passages set by the Bow Clan so there would be no hindrances as the Sun Clan left the pueblo and headed for the surface.
Ma´saw assigned David and Sarah to the second group. Gary was assigned to the fourth group to help lay out the path that the Sun Clan would follow to the Fourth World.
There were nearly two-hundred Sun Clansmen in David and Sarah’s group, enough to fill the passages of the maze and form a human barrier to face the Bow Clan. David had wanted Sarah to go with Gary because he thought it was safer for her, but she insisted on staying with him.
David watched the decoy group, led by Polanque, march under the false wall. Polanque nodded to him as he passed David in the maze.
May the power Taiowa strengthen us, Polanque thought.
God’s speed, replied David.
Polanque’s group would take
the heaviest losses. They knew it as they left, but they did not show their fear of dying or their doubt that they would return. The wall slid to the ground as the last man passed under it, and David settled down to wait along with the rest of his group. Many of the men in his group were armed only with bows, arrows, and spears. The more-lethal weapons in the arsenal had been given to everyone in the decoy group so they would at least be evenly matched with the Bow Clan. The remaining weapons were spread among the remaining groups. David was one of the fortunate who had been handed a langher. He also had his pistol, but the weapons wouldn’t help much against the dark kachinas. The decoy group would light fires, but those would eventually burn out. The sparks from the langhers might delay the dark kachinas, but they appeared and disappeared as fast as the lightning bolts they resembled.
After he waited for what seemed a long time, David began to grow anxious for the coming attack. The attack was imminent and he just wanted to get it over with. Sarah sat next to him nervously plucking at the string on her bow. Some of the other Sun Clansmen were pacing in small circles within the tightly packed group while others simply laid down and slept. Some wanted to leave the maze and join Polanque’s group. The majority, however, decided to obey Ma´saw’s orders and wait for their time to fight.
When the wall finally slid up, it startled everyone. Bright flashes of light shot back and forth across the dark sky. A few stray flashes of lightning slipped under the wall and into the maze. One Sun Clansman screamed and fell to the ground clutching his shoulder where his arm had been attached only moments before.
A handful of Sun Clansmen scurried under the wall. The front line of the second group lay on their stomachs and fired under the wall at the advancing Bow Clan. The Bow Clansmen screamed as they died, but they continued to charge the wall as the dark kachinas directed them. David tuned out the noises and tried to concentrate on a single Bow Clansman at a time as he fired, instead of the group. He took careful aim with his langher and fired each bolt with the intent of killing a Bow Clansman.
Polanque was still standing outside the wall providing covering fire with a jota while the remaining Sun Clansmen in his group retreated under the wall. When he stood alone, Polanque fired three more shots of an thick, blue, liquid poison, then knelt down to slide under the wall. A bolt from a langher hit him in the neck and he fell on his face. Someone near David grabbed Polanque by the arm and pulled him inside the wall.
Remembering how the lever mechanism in the rocks worked, David thrust his knife into the crack between the two rocks and reversed the process he had seen Scinaro perform almost two months ago.
The wall dropped quickly crushing three Bow Clansmen with it when it fell. There was a heavy silence in the maze after the screams of the crushed Bow Clansmen died off. No one spoke. A few women cried, but they did it softly so as not to disturb the silence.
The silence was broken by a pecking sound that sounded like someone chipping away at stone. David listened intently as the sound grew louder. It was coming from the false wall, and David was afraid he knew what it meant. The sound intensified until a tiny bit of rock flew from the wall leaving behind it a small hole. In the next instant, a bolt from a langher flew through the hole with a whine.
The Bow Clan was destroying the wall.
Keeping his head low, David ran to the hole and stuck the end of his langher through the hole and fired. He didn’t even look where he was firing. He simply wanted to show the Bow Clan that the Sun Clan had not given up. After this shot, he chanced a look outside the wall to take aim. The Bow Clan had backed away from the wall. David fired again and was rewarded with a direct hit on one of the closer Bow Clansmen.
Another hole appeared in the wall, and someone else following David’s lead manned the hole and began firing stone darts from a takle. Within a few minutes, there were a dozen holes in the wall all plugged with weapons firing back at the Bow Clan.
The Bow Clan’s fire finally began to wane. David couldn’t tell if it was because they were losing men or if the Bow Clan was realizing that for every hole they punched in the wall, they allowed another weapon to be fired at them.
By the time someone relieved David at the hole, the Bow Clan had begun their retreat. David started back through the maze to the hidden pueblo. It would be his job, and Sarah’s, to help Gary lead the way through the caverns to the Fourth World. Halfway back to the hidden pueblo, David heard the Sun Clansmen near the wall cheer, and he assumed the final Bow Clansmen had retreated for the time being.
David didn’t have to tell them that the Bow Clan would return soon. They knew that this was the final battle for Kuskurza. Either the dark kachinas would kill the Sun Clan or the Sun Clan would reach the safety of the Fourth World.
After a while, the Sun Clansmen near the wall started their own retreat back into the hidden pueblo. It was time to run for Tu´waqachi.
CHAPTER 61
Flameless torches lit the cave passages to nearly the brightness of morning; a morning on the surface not one in Kuskurza. Every Sun Clansman carried a flameless torch and they all had them turned on. The collection of lights would keep the dark kachinas away from the group, and the Sun Clan would only have to deal with the Bow Clansmen. Most of the male Sun Clansmen were at the rear of the migrating mass to fight the Bow Clan when they caught up with the Sun Clan. The women were near the front of the group hurrying as fast as they could following Gary, Sarah, and David through the caverns. Some of the women were armed, but most carried the meager supplies they were able to gather in the few minutes Ma´saw had given them to prepare for the evacuation of the hidden pueblo.
It surprised David to see the Sun Clan had used an evacuation drill. Ma´saw had created it centuries ago when the Bow Clansmen had nearly overrun another hidden pueblo.
Three quatis of Sun Clansmen led the group through the tunnels in case of an attack from the front, but that was doubtful. Sarah, Gary, and David jogged through the caves at the very front of the group along with Ma´saw.
“We’ll never be able to outrun them,” Gary said between breaths. Running with a heavy pack was exhausting, and he hadn’t slept in over a day.
“There’s too many of us. We can’t move fast enough, and the longer we run, the quicker we’ll tire out,” Sarah added.
David communicated their thoughts to Ma´saw when the Sun Clan leader looked at him oddly.
Some will die, but the Bow Clan will not follow us to Tu´waqachi. Nor will the dark kachinas.
“The Bow Clan will. They’ve already been on the surface when they tried to kill you. I won’t allow the Bow Clan to get out of the caves. Not after what I’ve seen them do,” Gary said when David translated Ma´saw’s thoughts.
Ma´saw didn’t reply.
“You don’t seem to be concerned about your people being slaughtered,” Sarah said.
Ma´saw stared at Sarah while David translated. When David finished, Ma´saw looked hurt.
I do care for my people. My heart feels each death, but for every Sun Clansman who dies, I still have many to care for. If I were to mourn each death, then many others would suffer. I cannot change what will be. It seems throughout our history that every few thousand seasons either a great exodus or slaughter must occur. It must be this way or there would be no room in Kuskurza for the Bow Clan, the Sun Clan, and the slaves. In the days of the first Ma´saw, there was a great exodus of people to the surface. In the time of the eleventh and the twenty-ninth Ma´saws, there were great battles that killed nearly one-third of all the people in Kuskurza of both Sun Clan and Bow Clan. It is only in the past few seasons that both the Sun Clan and the Bow Clan have reached their former strengths. Now, it seems it is time for another great battle, but I have chosen to lead my people on an exodus. Whatever happens, many souls will be free in a short time.
An incomprehensible yell passed through the crowd racing from the Sun Clansmen closest to Kuskurza to those closest to the surface.
What is it? David asked Ma´saw.
The fighting has started.
“What’s wrong?” Gary asked frantically.
“The Sun Clan has started fighting the Bow Clan. We’ve got to move faster if we’re going to get anyone out of here,” David told him.
“We can’t. We still have to go through the sump. That will slow us down to a stop, and there’s no guarantee everyone can hold their breath long enough to get through. We can use our tanks to help anyone who can’t make it at first, but it’s still going to be slow going. What happens if someone gets caught in that crevice? It will seal off the passage just the same as if the dark kachinas did it,” Gary said.
“We can’t let the Bow Clansmen out of these caves, and especially not that...that thing,” Sarah said frantically. David knew without anymore description that Sarah meant the dark kachinas.
David nodded his head fiercely. “I know. I know. But we can’t leave all these people down here. We’d only be trapping them. We might even be killing them.”
David was torn. He felt he owed it to the Sun Clan to help them escape Kuskurza since the Sun Clan had not only saved his life and healed his broken legs, but they had helped him escape from Kuskurza to the Fourth World. But there was no way he would be able to get everyone out of the caves and seal off the entrance and the dark kachinas were only free because of his interference.
David turned to Ma´saw dreading what he had to do. Ma´saw, do you know who I am? David asked.
Ma´saw looked puzzled. You are Pahana.
David shook his head. No, I’m David Purcell. I’m just an Outlander.
But you are from Tu´waqachi.
Yes, but I’m not Pahana.
But you are delivering us from the dark kachinas.
David frowned as he told Ma´saw, No I’m not. I can’t. The Sun Clan is too large to get to Tu´waqachi without also freeing the dark kachinas. I can’t do that.