Well, the man obviously knew of his presence. His plan to ambush him was out the window. Without any further thought, Thomas stepped out into the clearing. He walked out enough to come within ten feet of the man, who watched him approach with a smile on his face, then stopped. To Thomas, the smile looked strained. Everything about the man looked strained.
The man spoke first. “I’m happy to see you, friend! I was fishing near the island and my motor stopped on me. I’ve been on this island all day wondering how I would get home again. Now God has sent me an answer!”
Thomas watched this man, this Bolo, closely. He was waiting for a lunge and he watched for any sense of the man tensing. But he also considered the man’s words, thinking that it was reasonable, what he was saying. The boat they saw back at the beach had a net and pole, so it obviously belonged to a fisherman. For a moment, he started to wonder if they might not have an ally in all this mess. Another strong man standing beside him when they faced this Daucina thing would be most welcome. Then something tickled at his brain. Something the man had said that didn’t register with him right away.
It was registering with him now.
“You said your name was Bolo.” The man nodded, his smile looking increasingly labored. “You also said friends.” It was a statement, not a question. No, not even a statement. It was an accusation.
This man Bolo, if that was his actual name, looked back at him, obviously puzzled, but he remained silent.
“You said friends, Mr. Bolo. Yet here I stand. Alone.”
The smile faltered now and the man’s white, nearly glowing eyes glanced over toward Thomas’s left, toward the jungle. Directly where Sophie and Noni were now sitting, unaware of the deadly confrontation taking place only thirty or so yards away.
“Looking for somebody, Bolo?”
The man’s eyes returned to meet his. The smile was gone. “It’s only a word, my friend. I didn’t know if there were more with you.” He said this in a way that was so totally unconvincing that Thomas could tell the man knew his words were failing him.
“You’ve got a friend with you, don’t you Bolo?” Thomas felt good. For a few moments he had doubted, not knowing what was happening. Whether he should be fighting the man, or welcoming him. He would have preferred the ally, but he felt better now at least knowing where things stood. Thomas didn’t like ambiguity. He liked decisiveness. He liked to act. Watching the confusion on the man’s face was also satisfying. “Right there, Bolo, behind your leg. You didn’t come alone, did you?”
Bolo brought the obsidian-edged axe out from behind him, staring down at it stupidly like he had forgotten it was even there. Thomas watched him, waiting for the moment he felt sure would come. An animal backed into a corner will always attack. Bolo just stared down at the weapon, unmoving. He’s trying to think how to explain it, Thomas thought, but he can’t. That was enough for Thomas. Enough to know, without a doubt, what the man’s intentions were.
He rushed him. The ten feet separating them were gone in a flash and Thomas was bringing down his own weapon, the heavy spiked club, arcing down at Bolo’s head with a tremendous amount of force.
Bolo was shocked at the speed that the man moved. One moment he was frozen, knowing his plan had failed and wondering what to do. The next moment he was flinging the axe out before him, not to strike, but to defend.
Thomas’s club was deflected at the last moment. Instead of a sure deathblow to the head, the man had brought his axe up and sent the club ricocheting off, where it glanced off the man’s shoulder. He gave out a grunt of pain just before Thomas collided into him. Their bodies crashed on to the wet ground with a dull thud, then they were rolling and grappling with each other. Thomas ended up on top, mounted over the man’s chest. He was bucking and twisting furiously but Thomas floated over him, never giving up his dominant position. It was like trying to ride a giant snake, twisting, and squirming frantically beneath him. As soon as the man’s face was turned up toward him again, he brought his right fist down in a savage blow square to the man’s temple.
Just like that it was done. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head, the glowing whites staring back up at Thomas like those of a man possessed. The body beneath him went rigid, then relaxed.
Thomas stood and located the axe, picking it up and tossing it back behind them where the man couldn’t reach out and grab it. Better to be safe than sorry. It was a pointless action. Bolo lay completely still, making a slight moaning sound.
You would have killed me, huh? You would have killed my little sister. The thought infuriated him. He scanned the ground for the missing club and found it several feet behind them. Picking it up, he returned to stand over Bolo, looking down on him without an ounce of mercy. “I don’t know if you can hear me, you sick fuck, and I don’t know why you would want to attack us, but I’ll be damned if I ever give you the chance to do it again!”
Thomas brought the club up high over his head in a two-handed grip, intending to get this nasty business over with one strong swing. Then he felt a strong tug at his back, causing him to swing around in alarm, thinking there might be a second attacker.
Standing in front of him was the little old witch. She pushed at him, wanting him to step aside. Thomas looked down at her, astounded at the command, but he lowered the club and stood aside anyway.
Noni moved over the unconscious man and moved her hands around his face. The eyes were closed now and the moaning had stopped, but the man remained perfectly still. Then Noni stood and faced Thomas. First, she pointed at the fallen man, then pointed back at the forest.
Thomas followed her outstretched arm. Standing at the edge of the trees was Sophie, watching him in wide-eyed shock. “Are you okay, Thomas?” He simply nodded back at her. “I think she wants you to bring him back to our … spot.”
“No way …” Thomas started to say, but then saw it was true. The old witch was still gesturing at him, pointing at the man, then back toward their spot where Sophie had exited the jungle. Then she made a two-handed scooting motion. Hurry up, is what that meant.
I must be goddamned crazy, Thomas thought, as he slipped two strong arms under the man’s armpits and dragged him back into the cover of the trees.
27
The three of them huddled in a loose circle beneath the umbrella of tree branches overhead, surrounded by thick brush. The old woman, Noni, was intent on the care of the unconscious man splayed out on the ground between them. Sophie and Thomas packed tighter together, slightly off to the side. Sophie cast furtive glances between the man on the ground and her big brother. Silent lightning still flashed periodically, giving her face the occasional charged and supernatural appearance.
“You could have been killed, Thomas.” She was staring hard at him now, the furtive look replaced by a reproachful one. “You might have died out there, fighting that guy by yourself.”
The incessant battering of the rain on the thick leaves of the tropical trees had died down shortly after they settled back in to their makeshift encampment and her words carried out much more clearly than before.
“I couldn’t risk coming back to tell you, Sophie.” He caught the glare in her eyes and jumped ahead quickly to explain. “Not because I didn’t think you could help. Because if I did, I might have lost track of where he went. I didn’t want him reaching the trees and disappearing. I needed to act while I still knew where he was. I’m sorry if I worried you.”
“Terrified me is more like it! Thomas, it’s not just that you could have been killed! I saw you standing over that man, ready to …”
Bash in his skull? he finished for her in thought alone, leaving it unsaid. “I know, I’m sorry. What else could I have done? We have nothing to tie him up with, and even if we had left him behind we would have been watching our backs the whole time.” He reached out and took her hand. “Sophie, this man was going to kill us. I have no doubt. Only one thing matters now and that’s getting Kai and getting out of here. Right?”
She hesit
ated for a few short seconds. “Right.”
The flashes that lit the sky like that of a celestial fireworks show were gone now, along with the rain, and the forest was quiet again. The sky must have been clearing because a soft light creeped in through the trees, enough for Thomas to see the troubled look on his sister’s face.
“Sophie, I just didn’t know what to expect when we got here. With all the details you were giving about your visions, I was half expecting this place to be some nightmare turned real. What I’m trying to say is, I was ready for this. For the worst. Your little Kai, my little nephew, was stolen from us by god knows what kind of twisted creature. We should be ready for anything. To do anything. We can’t turn away from what needs to be done, no matter how nasty it gets. Agreed?”
Sophie met his eyes again. Her face hardened. “Agreed. I’m sorry. I just wasn’t prepared to see that. I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t know what to expect, but nothing will stop me from getting Kai back.” She turned to look at the unconscious man sprawled out behind them. “If I have to brain him myself, I will.”
Thomas didn’t want it to come to that, but he was relieved to hear it. Something told him that if they were going to make it off this island, with little Kai in tow, they would both need to get their hands dirty. That’s why he’d given the axe to Sophie. She hadn’t wanted it at first, but at his insistence, had kept hold of it. It was a nasty weapon and Thomas had no doubt that a single blow from it could have ended him.
There was a noise behind them and they both shifted their focus to their attacker. The man stirred, bringing his legs up toward him, and placing his hands to his head. He let out a pained moan and his eyes fluttered open. It took a few seconds for the cobwebs to clear before his eyes tracked all three of them, pausing on them each one at a time. Thomas expected to see fear and was prepared to jump on him if he tried to escape. Only it wasn’t fear that permeated from the man, it was anguish. Thomas and Sophie both watched in bewilderment as the man covered his face in two long-fingered hands and began to sob. Muffled words issued forth repeatedly in that strange island language that neither of them could comprehend.
Noni hunched over the man, watching and listening for a moment before reaching to pull both hands away from his face. He offered little resistance. She spoke to him then and his eyes focused on her. He grew quiet and listened. When she was done he responded, still in that other language. This went on for several minutes before the woman finally sat back and the man turned over on his side, his back facing Thomas and Sophie, and appeared to go to sleep.
Thomas was just about to grab the man to shake him and insist on some answers but before he made the move the man pushed himself up on one arm, then settled over into a sitting position. His hands went back up to his head quickly and another moan escaped.
“Head rush, asshole, I hope it hurts.”
The man dropped his hands and looked at Thomas. The anguish in his eyes nearly made Thomas regret his words. Almost.
“You are here with the Vuniduva. If I had known, this might have happened differently. I am sorry.” He looked at Thomas full in the face and Thomas found he believed him. “It is possible my wife is already dead, but if she is still alive, with the Vuniduva here, and both of you, maybe there is a chance.” He looked back and forth between them, then his eyes settled on Sophie. “You are the child’s mother.” It was not a question.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Sophie gasped and cried out. Her arms reached up to cradle her head as she gave herself a brief few moments of tearful relief, then she gathered her senses and stared back at the man with a frightening intensity.
“You’ve seen my baby? He’s okay!?”
“Your baby is with my wife. And they are both with Him. You know who I’m talking about?”
Sophie nodded her head slowly. “Then he’s real. This Daucina. A real person?”
“No person.” His eyes stared back, haunted. “A god.”
Thomas and Sophie shared an uneasy look between them. The last few days were a whirlwind of fantastical ideas about the world they were living in. One where everything presented itself in loose but predictable order. Faced with the overwhelming evidence that things were not as they were meant to be, where the world could be flipped inside out and dark fantasies emerged into the light of day, they had both questioned their own hold on reality. Now the cracks that had appeared in their view of the world had widened into deep chasms that threatened to swallow them up.
Thomas spoke up, his voice so quiet and awed he seemed to be speaking more to himself than to anybody around him. “It’s real then. Truly real. I had my doubts. Even after the baby disappeared, I had my doubts.” He gave Sophie a look that bordered on despair, “I had my doubts about you even. Small, but they were there. The questions. I’m so sorry.”
Their hands knitted together in a solidarity that they both took comfort from.
“Thomas, I had my doubts about myself. What happened to me, how could something like that be real? Even though I knew it happened, my mind wouldn’t accept it completely. Sometimes I wondered if I hadn’t gone crazy and didn’t even realize it.”
“Well, congratulations sis, you’re not crazy. Although it might be better if we both were.” Thomas redirected his attention back to the man he had been seconds away from turning into Fijian stew. “Tell us about your wife, Bolo. Tell us about this God, Daucina. Tell us everything. We need to know what we’re getting into if we’re going to figure out how to get ourselves out of it.”
Bolo told them. Everything. From his first arrival at the island by accident, meeting Daucina, the visions he’d been shown, bringing his wife to care for this strange child, Daucina preventing Sala from leaving, the spirits that hovered around the edges of the lake, their second failed attempt at escape, and finally, the threats against his wife and Bolo’s mission to kill the interlopers to the island.
Thomas and Sophie took it all in stride. They had fully accepted the truth and the gravity of their situation. Now their focus was on dealing with things as they really were. No hiding from this new reality where gods played with mortals, no pretending it was something that it was not. Their nightmare was fully realized and must be faced that way.
“Bolo, I won’t apologize for what I did, and what I almost did, to you. If I didn’t succeed you would have killed me, you would have killed my sister. But I understand now why you did it. Given the same choice, I would have done the same as you. I forgive you. I think it’s important that you understand that. If we’re going to work together, that needs to be said.”
Bolo and Thomas stared at each other for several seconds. Then Bolo reached out a long arm toward Thomas, hand extended. Thomas took the offering as it was meant, grabbing hold of the hand in a firm shake.
“I am sorry, Thomas. Sophie. You are good people, I can see it. You want your baby back. I want my wife back. Together, with her help,” he tilted his head toward Noni, who was quiet and watchful, “we have a chance. I think.”
Sophie spoke up. “What is this God like? I mean, does he fly around shooting flames out of his mouth? And what are these spirits you mentioned? Do we have to find a way to fight them, too?”
Bolo looked troubled. “I don’t know the whole truth to these questions, but I think the spirits helped me. They are the spirits of my people, those that died here many years ago. They seemed to stand up to Daucina. They came around me once in protection and Daucina did not try to come after me. But I don’t think it was me he really cared about. It was my wife. I think it was even more about the baby. He wants my wife only to take care of your child. The spirits of my people did not, or could not, protect her. Or the baby. I do not know why.” Tears slid down his face, making marks like canals in the dirt that covered him from his battle with Thomas, but his voice remained strong. “About Daucina, he is not like a dragon, Sophie. To be true, I do not know all that he can do. He is a very large man, very strong. His head has flames on the top, but he does not use them. His �
� face … that is something to fear. He has no face, you have seen this? In your dreams?” Sophie nodded, her eyes like saucers. “You must be careful of his face. Do not look at it. He can pull you in and I do not know if you can leave if he doesn’t want you to.”
Thomas jumped in. “Can he be hurt? Can he be injured?”
“This I don’t know, Thomas.”
It was then that the old woman finally spoke up again. Her raspy voice grated on them like scratched record, but they listened intently. When she was finished, Thomas and Sophie looked at Bolo expectantly.
“She says that no living person knows if a god can be hurt or killed, only the gods themselves know this. But, she says there is old magic, dark magic, that might harm Daucina, or cast him away. To have any hope for this, we must call on the spirits of our ancestors to guide us. She says that tonight, the spirits will dance for us,” Bolo said, then shrugged his shoulders. He obviously didn’t understand much of what was going to happen. “She says that I am to build a fire. Once this is done, she will call upon the spirits. We should remain, but be quiet.”
“Quiet. Right,” said Sophie, shaking her head in wonder. “I mean, really, what else is there to say?”
Thomas gave her one of those big brother looks she remembered from childhood. A look that said, Do you have to be such a little wiseass, sis? But it was a look that, as ever, was mingled with affection.
Bolo spoke up again. “Noni has bread and fruit for you. She says you should eat, then get some rest, while you can.”
The old lady was holding a small bag out toward them, which Sophie took, venturing a sweet smile as a thank you she hoped Noni could understand. Noni just looked back at her indifferently, then went back to rummaging through the deep folds of her robe.
As Bolo slipped away into the darkness to find what dry wood he could under the thick underbrush of the forest, the two of them settled in close together to eat the food they’d been offered. Papaya, breadfruit, passionfruit, and a dense bread that tasted faintly of coconut. Then they crawled in halfway under the brush where it was still mostly dry and huddled close together. More for comfort than for warmth. With the rain stopped, the moon out, and the breeze all but gone, the heat and humidity of the tropics creeped back in.
Cave of Bones (Dark Island Series Book 2) Page 18