Telesa - The Covenant Keeper

by Lani Wendt Young

  Sarona was disbelieving. “Nafanua, are you still clinging to your plans? Can’t you see this girl is not capable of what you are asking her to do?”

  I gazed at Nafanua from my numb daze. I wondered if she was worried about them killing me? Or just really eager for me to summon a volcano? But then, did the difference really matter? Probably not. I slumped back down and waited for the death strike. Wished for it. Prayed for it. But even so, I wasn’t ready for it when it did come. Sarona stabbed with a lightning bolt, but not enough volts to kill. Just enough to serrate my every nerve with the kind of pain that took on a life of its own. I hadn’t meant to scream, but agony ripped from me anyway and from far away I could hear myself begging. For mercy. For death. But that had never been Sarona’s plan. No, again and again she sent lightning rippling through me, juddering my teeth, yanking every fiber of my being through a meat mincer until I couldn’t tell where light ended and darkness began.

  For a moment there was a reprieve as Sarona paused in her attack and I could hear voices.

  Nafanua. “Stop it. You’re torturing her. Stop it!”

  Sarona taunted. “Oh, what’s the matter Nafanua? Can’t you handle it when someone else is administering the torture? You didn’t seem to mind that time I was on the receiving end of lightning – remember that time when you and the sisters decided I needed some humbling? Hmm? Oh no, you didn’t have a problem with it then. Or how about that time you ordered death for that little upstart telesā from Aleipata? The one who didn’t want to leave her mommy and daddy and join our sisterhood? Oh no, you had no trouble with killing wayward telesā then.”

  Nafanua’s voice was strained. “Those times were different. This is different.”

  “No, the only thing that’s different is she’s your daughter. And you want us all to ignore centuries of tradition and sacred rules just so that you can have her be your little pet. Go on Nafanua, do it! You know you want to strike me. Go ahead.”

  Nafanua stood with head bowed. Sarona called to the others to join her. “Come on, let’s finish this.” One by one, each of them added their lightning strike to hers so that the entire rocky shore was lit up in startling, blinding light.

  This increased attack jerked me to an upright kneeling position. I turned my head and begged Nafanua to end this. “Mother, please. Just kill me. Please. I’m begging you.”

  Nafanua turned her head slightly towards me, a soft smile on her face, far gentler than any I had ever seen.

  “Leila, I may not have loved your father. But always remember, I loved you.”

  Before I could register her intention she stepped directly into the path of lightning that seared through me. Sarona and the others were so shocked their onslaught faltered slightly. Nafanua used their momentary pause to her advantage. Eyes closed, hair flowing in the swirling tempest, she raised her arms to the heavens. A jagged flash lit the sky and thunder shook the very ground we stood upon. She turned white eyes towards the line of women, eyes that bled with white fire, uttering words I could not understand. The very air shivered as electricity ripped through it. Searing the nearby trees. Striking the telesā straight on. Knocking them all to the ground. All except for Sarona. She stood and laughed, appealing with widespread arms to all around her.

  “May the earth and all my sisters bear witness, Nafanua has become the Covenant Breaker and we are no longer bound in sisterhood. What was sealed is now broken. What was done is now irrevocably undone.” She turned to face the woman who had raised her and nurtured her gifts since she was twelve years old. “Is that the best you can do, Nafanua? You are tired and weak, you old woman. I knew I was right to take the lead. You are not strong enough to do what needs to be done any longer.”

  My mother did not reply. She was gathering the currents around us, drawing electromagnetism down from the atmosphere for another attack. Again, she sent a charge of lightning blazing towards the women she had spent several lifetimes with. Again the women were knocked back on their knees. Fouina and Manuia screamed as their skin caught fire and they ran blindly towards the trees, beating at the flames. But still Sarona shrugged the attack off easily, blocking with her own lightning charge. With bated breath, I realized what the others had known all along. My mother’s powers were eclipsed by another. Salamasina’s words resounded in my mind, when a leader ages, her powers weaken. Either she will step down and pass the covenant on to a younger sister or else she will have it taken from her in outright battle …

  Nafanua spoke, “We were wrong, Sarona, I was wrong. This plan is not the way. Let us stop this and reconsider.”

  Cold dread gripped me. There was a note of pleading in my mother’s voice. She knew she could not win. And so did Sarona. She laughed and then slowly, almost lazily, she beckoned and the heavens obeyed. Before I could think. Move. Or breathe. White light shot from Sarona’s upraised arms. So bright and blinding that I could not see. I heard my mother scream. A scream that was drowned by the thunder. I opened my eyes to see my mother consumed in the white fire. Her every particle seemed electrified in a grotesque beauty. Then there was nothing left where she had stood. Just a smoldering pile of ash.

  It all happened so fast. I tried to breathe as I lay there on the ground, looking at the remnants of the woman who had borne me. Smothered my brother. Lied to me. Manipulated and used me. And then, at the very end, died for me. Images flashed. Nafanua brushing my hair and putting a scarlet hibiscus behind my ear. Her proud pleasure at watching me dance. Laughing at my attempts to make fire do my bidding. I thought I had wanted death, but now? Now, I wasn’t so sure.

  I stumbled to my feet. Sarona still stood across the lava rock expanse, asking her fallen sisters if they were alright. I stared at them. The women who had killed the man I loved. I gazed past them at the crashing ocean that was Daniel’s final resting place and somehow, it spoke to me on a salted wind. It spoke of my father’s love for me. Would he want me to give up on life so easily? A white seabird knifed through the air, over and above me it wheeled. I stood and watched it dip and soar. Its plaintive cry resounded through the charred air. It spoke of Daniel’s love for me. Leila, you need to live. To fight. You need to use your fire to protect Salamasina, Matile and Tuala. Will you let them do to them what they have done to me?

  I listened to the voices of the ocean. And rage came. It simmered and boiled. Like the volcano that long ago had formed this lava field. Closing my eyes, I whispered to earth. To her black soil that pushed up gardenias and other green things. Deeper to bedrock. Granite hard and immovable. Then deeper still, to flowing molten red rivers. That twisted and rushed. Hear me, I whispered. It is I, Pele. Hear me and come. And far, far below my feet – earth listened.

  I opened my eyes to hear Sarona’s mocking cry, “Oh look, it’s the daughter of the traitor, the pathetic fire girl. What are you going to do, little girl? Cry more of your useless tears?” she turned to laugh with her sisters. “Or maybe you will blow smoke at us? And spit steam? Ha! If you did not remind me so much of your mother, I wouldn’t even bother killing you.”

  She looked bored as, with a flick of her wrist, she sent a jagged spear of lightning my way. Which I easily deflected with a thought. A fiery thought that wrapped around the spear and choked it to a halt.

  I smiled at Sarona’s puzzled furrowing of her brow. I felt the heat coming. Eagerly. And it felt good. I knew I was going to enjoy this. I took several steps forward, gingerly stretching out my bruised legs. Again, Sarona threw her lightning. This time I didn’t even need to look. Fire caught it without even being told. Only this time I threw it back. With an extra measure. Me being generous.

  There was a muffled oath as Sarona was jolted back by my unexpected ‘gift.’ Her sisters looked bewildered as she yelled back at me.“What are you doing fire girl? You don’t seriously think you can match us? Your mother couldn’t – what makes you think you can?”

  I didn’t answer. Not right away. Because the fire was here. The ground beneath my feet heaved and a jet of orange r
ed lava spurted forth like a geyser. As it caught me, I allowed the fire to consume me, welcoming the now-familiar explosion as every fiber of my being opened its doors to the inferno. The whole mountainside shook. Mafui’e. Earthquake. My earthquake. I slowly stood on tiptoe and spun, danced a pirouette. Loving the flames as they danced with me.

  Across from me, the telesā were struggling to stay on their feet as the earth shook violently.

  “Sarona, what’s happening?” they asked her fearfully. But before she could answer, I called to them.

  “Tell them, Sarona. Go on. Tell them what’s happening.” I laughed. And the lava laughed with me. I drew patterns in the air with it and slowly started it spinning towards the assembly of spirit women. Lazy circles. Graceful, delightful circles of flame. And molten rock.

  Sarona did not answer. Instead, she summoned her lightning with a thunder clap that shook the sky. That went through me harmlessly. She sent raging wind, gale force. Hurricane wind.

  “Oooh, trying to blow out the fire?” it was my turn to mock her now. “Please do continue to fan the flames.”

  Next was water. Rain came from nowhere. Buckets of it, drowning tons of it. But nothing can stop a volcano. Nothing. I beckoned and the lava stream lifted me, raising me high above the now-cowering women. All except for Sarona. Still, she tried to use her storm to subdue me. Useless. She screamed with rage as her water showers merely fizzed in a hiss of steam.

  To give them credit, the telesā did try to subdue me. With their storms and water and electricity. One even threw trees at me. But nothing can stop a volcano. Nothing. Sarona called her winds to lift her up to where I stood on my platform of fiery rock.

  “What are you doing? What are you?!”

  I paused then. Surveying my handiwork. The entire mountainside was a raging river of red. The telesā were completely encircled by the lava. I smiled before replying,

  “Why, haven’t you heard? I’m Pele. The creator and the devourer of lands. And you – you and your sisters, you bore me.” With a flick of my wrist, a ball of flame hurtled towards Sarona, knocking her off balance, sending her tumbling to the circle of rock where the others had been shaken to their knees. I looked down at them, idly considering my options. I wanted to kill them. Obliterate them in a fury of fire. I didn’t want even ashes to remain. My mind danced dangerously near to the memory of what they had done to … NO, I would not, could not even think of him. I would not be able to bear it. I had to stay in the now. This moment right here. Hmm, what should I do with them? But as I paused, Sarona turned to scream at the telesā closest to her – Fouina.

  “I call on your life force with the ancient right of the Covenant Keeper!”

  “No!” she had a look of horror on her face as she tried to back away. But there was fire at the rear and she had nowhere to run to. What was Sarona doing? As I watched, she uttered a wild chant of words that made no sense to me but that sent the others into a frenzy of panic.

  Manuia yelled, “Stop it Sarona, you can’t do this!” She went to pull at Sarona’s arm but she was no match for the younger, stronger telesā and Sarona dropped her with a single lightning strike. She then turned back to Fouina, finished her incantation and just like that, Fouina exploded in a blinding flash of brilliant light – a light that seemed to linger now on Sarona’s own form. Netta was next and finally Fotu. Sarona took them all in some bizarre telesā spell, sucking their life force dry. And just like that the Matagi Sisterhood that Nafanua had spent her life building was gone. Sarona’s callous treatment of her sisters stunned me. But I had little time to ponder on it before she was borne aloft again on a swirling wind. This time, her lightning strike was powerful enough to hurt. It scissored through me, carving a tingling path through the lava, like a stab wound through the gut. It caught me by surprise and I stumbled back unsteadily on my mid-air platform. Sarona smiled triumphantly and hit me again. Ouch! Who knew that anything could actually impact on lava?! A different strategy was called for. Focus, Leila. Remember your lessons with Nafanua. Remember, lightning is just another form of energy, and YOU are the mistress of energy!

  Sarona thought she had me as I reeled for balance. She flew in closer for another shot, hoping for a death strike. But this time, I was ready. Instead of flinching against the lightning, I welcomed it, seeking out its components with my mind and when it hit, I was ready – to convert it. Absorb it. Make it my own. Before Sarona could realize her attack had failed, I threw a non-stop rage of fire balls at her that threw her to the ground in a battered heap where she was still. Sarona was finished.

  I should have felt happy. Triumphant. But all I felt was empty. Alone. I manipulated the river of fire to set me down gently on the sandy beach where I had stood and watched Daniel die. It didn’t seem right. I was the most powerful energy force on the planet but even I couldn’t bring the one I loved back to life. Or turn back time. Silken waves lapped the shore and the moon cast her black diamonds on the waters. It was beautiful. I breathed in the salt air and allowed myself to feel.

  The pain of heartache and loss cut me. Daniel, I love you. How will I live without you? I walked slowly into the ocean and, as the waves embraced me, my fire hissed, spat, and died. I dived and swam out to where I had last seen the boat, hoping for something, anything, of Daniel. But there was nothing. The sea refused to give up her secrets. I was Fanua Afi after all and Vasa Loloa owed me nothing. The salt of my tears mingled with the ocean. Exhausted, I turned and swam back towards the shore, fighting not to give in to my soul’s desire and just shut my eyes and sink beneath the waves. Death called me with its sweet promise and it was difficult not to answer her.

  I was a few meters away from the shore when I saw it. Away to my far right. Flashes of silver as a multitude of something leapt and splashed. What was that? Fish? No, dolphins! I stood in hip deep water, transfixed at the sight of at least six dolphins wriggling, splashing and churning the shallow water. And just beyond them, lying on the sand, with the waves washing over it, was a dark, still shape. A body. My heart leapt and caught in my throat, “No, Daniel?”

  I ran. Through the water, out on the sand and along the beach until I collapsed beside him. Yes, it was Daniel. I hardly dared to touch him, to gently turn him over so I could see what the ocean had left me of my love, unwilling to confront the evidence of the telesā attack. He was almost naked, his shorts in ragged tatters. I had never seen a more beautiful thing. Yes, there were cuts and blackening bruises on his face, his body. And the knife wounds were a violation on a glorious tapestry. But he was my Daniel. And he was breathing. Slow, barely perceptible breaths, but he was alive. How was this possible? How could this be? I had seen them stab him. Watched him disappear into the water. And now, several hours later, here he was, looking like he was asleep in the moonlight. The thrashing sounds in the water sounded more urgent as if calling to me. I turned to look, in time to see the pod of dolphins, leaping, dancing, jumping over each other in an almost frenzied joy. Their piercing clicking sounds intensified. What were they trying to tell me?

  Stop it, Leila, now you’re losing it. They’re NOT talking to you, you idiot. Focus. Daniel needs to get to the hospital. Now.

  I shook my mind away from silver dolphins and moved to carefully drag Daniel further up the beach. I had to get him away from the waves, put him somewhere safe while I went to get hold of a phone. It was no easy thing to move him, especially considering the beating my body had taken tonight. But finally I got him to a sheltered spot under a cluster of trees where I collapsed beside him in a breathless heap. Which is when I saw it. A white birthmark on his exposed right inner thigh, that glowed a burnished silver in the moonlight. A very clear – without doubt – mark of a cresting wave, “the mark of Vasa Loloa – the wave crest on his hip. All water telesa have them.”

  “What?” I sank back on my knees in shock, my gaze moving instinctively back to the ocean. Where silver dolphins still played. Carefree sentinels, watching over him. Waiting to see what I would do, how I woul
d take care of him.

  “Leila?” My name was a weak whisper in the night as Daniel stirred. He was waking up. I moved back to his side, remembering just in time that I was in flesh form – and missing my clothes. Oops. Frantically, I looked around. Leaves, coconut shells, some broken bottles were the sum of all my wardrobe options. Argh.

  “Leila? Is that you?” His query came stronger now, he was trying to sit up. This was no time for modesty. I gathered my long hair and brought it to cover my front, never more thankful than now that it came to my waist, trusting in the night to conceal the rest of me. I bent over him.

  “Hey, it’s me. I’m here, baby. I’m here.” I whispered softly against his cheek and tears came unbidden. “You’re okay. We’re both okay.”

  He reached up and gently caught my tears with his fingers. “Don’t cry. You’re the fire goddess remember? You don’t cry.”

  I grinned and choked on a sob. “Yeah I do. Fire goddesses always cry when the one they love comes back from the dead.”