The Shaman's Secret (Kalika Magic Book 2)

by Karen Hughes

  ‘Enough,’ Mugadi said, scowling. ‘What use is thinking when you cannot eat?’

  The old man looked at Indie, as if he were trying to tell her something. ‘I’ll see that your bed is made up on the Western side of the temple,’ he said. ‘The sun is strongest on the Western side.’

  ‘Then make a bed for the emperor there,’ said Mugadi. ‘The princess will be happy in the goat shed. I will leave my men at the door, in case she needs anything.’

  The old man bowed his head. ‘As you wish,’ he said.

  She would have escaped, if it weren’t for the elephant. The old man had put a sleeping draught in the cups of wine he brought for the guards and Indie had no trouble creeping past them, past the soldiers on the watch, past the silent temple.

  Only the elephant saw her.

  It wasn’t a vicious elephant; it didn’t mean her any harm. But as it raised its great head in greeting, the beads on its forehead clinked together and the bells around its neck rang out, arousing the whole camp.

  ‘Nice try,’ said Mugadi, clamping a ruthless hand on Indie’s shoulder. ‘But now let me show you what happens to people who do not obey me. Or rather, let me show you what happens to their friends.’

  By the time they had finished with Jabar he could hardly walk. Mugadi made Indie watch, as they beat him and kicked him and shoved him to the ground.

  ‘He’s your son,’ whispered Indie in horror. She kept her eyes on Jabar’s face, never looking away, even when he cried out and begged her to make them stop.

  ‘My son! He does not deserve that honour,’ said Mugadi. ‘He is a weak, stupid boy. I will show you, Princess, what the Dasa do to those who betray them.’

  ‘No,’ she cried, hot tears on her cheeks, as Mugadi took a fistful of Jabar’s hair and flung him to the ground.

  She bit her lip to stop herself screaming. ‘Please stop. I won’t try to escape again. I promise.’

  ‘Good,’ said Mugadi.

  He waved his hand.

  And Indie stood like a stone, watching as the soldiers dragged Jabar away.

  chapter 17

  A Basket of Poisoned Berries

  ‘I’ve figured it out,’ said Kai to Nima.

  They were huddled in a little cave, scooped out from the snow by their hands. The boy was asleep, pressed against Kai’s chest, snoring softly.

  ‘The apiki flower is on the mountain somewhere, right?’

  ‘That’s what people say,’ said Nima. ‘But no one has ever found it.’

  ‘Maybe they didn’t know the right way to look for it.’

  He put his fingers on his forehead and took a slow deep breath. ‘Sisika’, he said. ‘Please let me see the apiki flower.’

  He could feel a flurry of wings around his face; hear the gentle ‘whoo-whoo’ of his owl spirit. When he opened his eyes, there was nothing there.

  ‘Sisika,’ said Nima. ‘You see the truth. You are the messenger between the worlds. You bring wisdom and freedom from beyond the silver veil. Please, show us the flower.’

  There was only silence.

  ‘Please,’ said Kai. He closed his eyes again. ‘Show me the apiki flower, the flower that can heal my father, the flower that can heal this land.’

  There was a shuffling sound. He opened his eyes to see Nima sitting right in front of him, her curly hair in his face.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he said. ‘Why have you moved?’

  ‘I was cold. I was right in the doorway.’

  Kai rolled his eyes and told her to sit still, he was trying to concentrate. He pressed the tips of his fingers together and bowed his head. ‘Show me the apiki flower,’ he cried, but when he looked up there was only Nima, wrapped in her mother’s purple cloak, looking sad and lost and cold.

  The wind howled around the snow cave. The little boy sobbed in his sleep; his hand, where he had touched the shadow, hung black and limp at his side.

  ‘He won’t make it down the mountain,’ said Kai. ‘I should have left him on the island.’

  ‘So he could eat more star fruit until he was a helpless baby and the nightmares ate him?’

  Kai shivered. He gazed over Nima’s shoulder into the night. ‘I’ll be fourteen soon,’ he said at last. ‘In the summer, when the land is hot and dry.’ His voice trailed away. He was thinking of his birthday last year in the forest. Grandma Helki had baked a coco cake, Brek had made elderflower cordial. Dargan had taken him over the Jindi Bridge to sleep under the stars.

  ‘I don’t know how old I am,’ said Nima. ‘I think I’m about the same age as you. When I lived with Jabar we had birthdays, but I – ’

  ‘You lived with Jabar?’

  ‘Yes. My mother left me there when I was a baby. When Jabar’s mother died, I ran away to Baba’s cave.’

  ‘Why do you call him Baba?’

  ‘It means “Father”.'

  'Shaman Yanti is your father? But he's so old!'

  'He wasn't always like this,' said Nima. 'I can’t believe how he much he has changed. He was young and strong like Mugadi when I last saw him, and that wasn’t long ago. Now he is old and blind and he has lost all his power.’

  ‘He has not lost his power.’

  ‘Yes he has. He said he lost it when my mother died.’

  'How did he take me to Undaba, then? And to Madaba? Where did that power come from?'

  'That wasn't his power,' said Nima. 'It was yours.'

  Kai pushed past her and poked his head out of the cave. There were no stars, only thick dark clouds and a full moon the colour of blood.

  ‘I wish I was back in the forest,’ he said.

  He slept heavily, without dreams, and it wasn’t long before Nima was shaking him awake. ‘You have to get up,’ she said. ‘There’s no food and no wood for a fire. We have to keep moving.’

  The sun was rising. It was very cold. The little boy cuddled up against him, his eyes tight shut.

  ‘I don’t need wood,’ Kai mumbled. ‘I can make a fire without it.’ But when he tried, the flint turned to ice in his hands.

  Nima saw the disappointment in his eyes. ‘Come on,’ she said softly. ‘We don’t need a fire.’

  There was nothing to pack and nothing to eat, so they left the cave and walked out into the snow. Kai saw the stone tower standing high above them.

  ‘We’re at the top of the glacier,’ he said, and for a moment his heart was filled with hope. They had only to climb down the glacier and walk through the ice caves and they would be in the foothills, not far from the Moon Tree.

  But the portal in the tree only opened at Okowa, and it was not Okowa any more. The little boy would never make it. Even if they could get him down the mountain, it was at least two days ride to Ballyndor and they didn’t have a horse.

  He slumped to his knees, staring out at the glacier. Winter was coming. New towers, tall and thin with sharp crystals at the top, had replaced the fallen seracs. Melt water flowed in deep milky channels. Snow bridges criss-crossed the tumbling streams, forming a crooked pathway down the ice.

  ‘I’ve never been down the mountain,’ said Nima. ‘I didn’t know it was so beautiful.’

  ‘You’ve never been to Ballyndor?’ Kai’s fingers were numb, and his teeth chattered. He put his hand on the boy’s forehead.

  ‘No,’ said Nima. ‘But my mother lived there, I think.’

  ‘Why didn’t she take you with her?’

  ‘She was a beautiful princess. She left me with Jabar’s family while she went back to claim her kingdom. That’s what Baba said.’

  Kai stared at her. ‘Was she Dasa, your mother?’

  ‘No. She was Kalika. She grew up in the forest. She was magical, like you.’ She smiled at him and he saw that her eyes were filled with tears.

  Kai shook his head. It couldn’t be true. Grandma Helki’s words came to him, ‘When the young king of Ballyndor fell in love with your mother, Sofia was bitter and jealous. She refused to come to the wedding. Instead, she ran away to the mountains. She only came
back after you were born.’

  Four years in the mountains. Long enough to fall in love and have a baby.

  Nima was gazing at the ice. ‘Mugadi said my mother traded me for a basket of poison berries and a spell. He said she wanted to be a queen, not a mother.’

  Kai didn’t know what to say.

  The little boy moaned, his forehead clammy and hot. ‘Mugadi is mean,’ he whispered. ‘I hate him.’

  Nima tried to smile. ‘I hate him too,’ she said. But there was something funny in the way she said it, as if it hurt her to hate anyone.

  ‘Well,’ said Kai. ‘At least this explains why you look so much like my mother.’

  ‘Like the queen?’ asked Nima, her eyes wide.

  ‘Yes. I think your mother was my Aunt Sofia – the queen’s sister.’

  ‘The queen’s sister,’ whispered Nima.

  Kai dragged the boy across the ice. ‘Help me carry him,’ he called to Nima. ‘Here, cross your arms with mine and we’ll make a chair. See? He can loop his arms around us.’

  ‘There you go,’ he said to the boy. ‘You’re the king. You can do anything.’

  The boy whimpered.

  Kai tried to keep his voice bright. The seracs were already melting. He remembered the crashing towers, the molten rivers of ice. It would only be a few hours before it all started moving again.

  ‘We have to hurry,’ he said. ‘Come on, link arms.’

  Nima wrinkled her forehead. ‘He’s too heavy.’

  They took their first fumbling steps onto the glacier, feeling their way. The air was freezing. There was no sound, only the creak and groan of the seracs, the trickle and rush of the melt water.

  Nima staggered. The ice cracked beneath her feet. She was slipping, falling.

  ‘Kai,’ she screamed. ‘Help me.’

  Kai twisted the boy onto his back, throwing both hands out to catch her in automatic reflex. The ice fell away beneath them as they scrambled to a snow bridge, jutting out and down.

  The snow bridge shifted under their weight, but it held. Kai edged his way across, one arm clutching the boy who flopped against his back.

  Nima climbed up beside him and they sat on a pile of rock, the ice shifting all around them.

  Kai lowered the boy from his back. The boy’s face was grey, his breathing fast.

  ‘We’ll take it a little bit at a time,’ Kai said.

  Nima said nothing. Placing her hand on the boy’s forehead, she closed her eyes and whistled long and low.

  A white leopard sprang out of the snow; she gave a soft growl and pushed her nose against the boy’s cheek.

  ‘Usha,’ croaked the boy.

  ‘How can she be here?’ asked Kai. ‘I thought you had to go to Undaba to find her.’

  ‘When you really need the animals, they will come,’ said Nima. ‘No matter where you are.’

  Kai stared at the big cat, at her broad back and her strong legs. ‘Do you think she could carry him?’ he asked suddenly, pulling the boy into his arms.

  ‘You’ll have to ask her,’ said Nima, but her eyes lit up.

  ‘Please Usha,’ said Kai, stroking her thick white fur. ‘We have to get him down the mountain.’

  Usha dipped her head and sank onto her front paws. Kai laid the boy on her back, his arms dangling around her neck.

  ‘It’s no good,’ said Kai. ‘He can’t hold on.’

  ‘Yes I can.’ It was the boy’s voice, thin and weak. ‘I’m the king.’

  The little hands tightened around the leopard’s neck. The little face pressed against her fur. Usha sprang away across the ice, leaving no trace – even where the glacier was covered in fresh snow.

  Kai breathed a heavy sigh and fell back against the rocks.

  ‘Come on,’ said Nima, holding out her hand. ‘We have to keep up.’

  ‘How can we keep up?’ Usha was already a dark speck, far far below.

  ‘We have to,’ said Nima. ‘He needs us.’

  With a mighty crack, one of the seracs beside them toppled to the ground. The roar of melt water grew louder. The ice opened into a torrent of white water, winding down the glacier. There was a creak and a smash, and another tower collapsed into the ice.

  The melt water rushed faster, the ice split into a deep chasm.

  ‘We’re cut off!’ cried Nima.

  Grabbing her hand, Kai dragged her across the rocks. The ice fell away in front of them. A raging river opened up behind. They were stranded in the middle of the glacier.

  ‘Call on your owl,’ screamed Nima. ‘Use the magic of the mountain.’

  Kai called. He whistled and yelled. He threw his arms in the air and shook his body and danced. There was no sign of the bird with the brilliant red feathers.

  ‘I can’t do it,’ he said. He watched the ice split further, the river rise higher. ‘Ki-somma,’ he whispered, closing his eyes. ‘Koko mi ki-somma.’

  This was it. The melt water was too cold and fast to swim. His spells didn’t work. His owl wouldn’t come. He didn’t understand the mountain – it was too angry, too dangerous.

  ‘Ki-somma,’ he whispered again.

  But he knew that it was hopeless.

  chapter 18

  Sisika

  Nima was shaking him, pointing across the raging water. ‘Hey! There’s someone over there.’

  On a snow bridge at the edge of the water stood a man. He balanced easily on the ice, stringing out a long rope from the pack on his back. The rope whistled through the air, slipping from the rock into the water.

  The man hauled it back and threw it again. This time Kai caught it.

  ‘Hold on,’ came Dargan’s voice. ‘I’ll pull you across.’

  A wind had risen, howling in from the south, and it buffeted them back against the rocks. Snow came down in a flurry. It was as if the mountain was determined to keep them there.

  Slowly, painfully, Dargan pulled them across the icy water. The rope tore their hands. The snow whipped their faces. They bowed their heads and held their breath, clinging on until they reached the other side.

  Kai fell against Dargan. The big man put his arm around him. ‘There’s a blizzard coming,’ he said.

  They staggered across the glacier and down the mountain. The snow grew heavier. Pellets of ice drove into their skin. The cold from his drenched clothing seeped into Kai’s body, so that he couldn’t think; couldn’t see. He stayed close to Dargan, stumbling along behind him.

  At last the glacier fell away. The caves loomed ahead with their frozen faces, their dark secrets.

  *

  Kai and Nima huddled at the entrance to the caves, soaked and shivering. Their clothes were frozen to their skin. Tiny icicles formed in their hair.

  Dargan pulled them to their feet. ‘We have to keep going,’ he said. ‘If we stop here we'll freeze to death.’

  ‘How did you find us?’ said Kai, trying to control his chattering teeth. He thought he’d never been so happy to see anyone in his life.

  Dargan frowned. ‘I was angry. I told you not to go the mountains, I absolutely forbid it, but you went anyway. And you took your sister with you. And you used some kind of spell to stop me following you!’

  ‘The spell wasn’t mine –’ Kai began, but stopped when he saw Dargan glaring at him.

  ‘I rode straight for the mountains,’ Dargan continued. ‘It took me three days. And when I got here I saw the strangest thing. A red owl. In the snow. I never thought I’d see a forest bird flying around out here.’

  ‘Sisika,’ whispered Kai.

  Nima smiled, her lips blue. ‘I told you she would come.’

  The ice caves rose from the edge of a deep glacial lake. The colours of the lake reflected on the white walls, turning the whole place a brilliant turquoise green.

  ‘People used to come here looking for treasure,’ said Dargan, shaking the snow from his hair.

  ‘Did they find it?’ asked Kai. He was walking with his head down, watching his feet. He kept his mind completely b
lank. ‘I am enough,’ he whispered. It was a mantra, a protective spell so that he wouldn’t get sucked into the walls. ‘I am enough, I am enough.’

  ‘No,’ said Dargan. ‘There was never treasure here. Just like the apiki flower –’

  Kai’s head shot up. ‘The apiki flower?’

  ‘People have been looking for it for centuries. But it’s just a story.’

  ‘Sometimes stories are true,’ said Kai. ‘Look at Indie. She really is the Emerald Child. She used her father's sword to defeat Aunt Sofia. The legend was all true.’

  Nima stared at him. ‘To defeat her Aunt Sofia? Why did she do that?’

  Kai didn’t answer. He thought of how Aunt Sofia had used the spells of Chief Wicasa to take the throne, how she had burned the tree houses and threatened the Kalika, her own people.

  And he saw again the chilling fury in Sofia’s eyes as she turned on her favourite general, changed him into a slug and squashed him with the heel of her shoe.

  How could he tell Nima that? How could he explain all the terrible things her mother had done?

  Dargan took off his cloak and wrapped it around Nima’s shoulders. He looked closely at her face, at her clear blue Kalika eyes. Then he turned back to Kai.

  ‘We need to move faster,’ he said. ‘We have to find your father and your sister. Aunty Mai looked into the smoke. She said they would be in Linden. The army of Moto was riding into the village when I came past, but I had to find you first.’

  ‘How did you know we were still on the mountain?’ asked Kai.

  ‘I didn’t,’ said Dargan. ‘I followed the owl.’

  When they reached the soldiers trapped behind the ice, Dargan stood still, cursing under his breath. ‘I tried to help them,’ he said in a tight voice. ‘I battered the ice with my knife, almost broke the blade. I ran out and found rocks to smash against the wall, but it was no use.’

  ‘They’re still alive,’ he said, his eyes dark. ‘Look at their faces.’

  Kai saw the soldiers’ mouths moving behind the ice, but in the caves there was only silence. The men blinked their eyes. Their faces had been twisted into anguished masks, their bodies frozen.