Islands of Fire

by Eldritch, Brian

  “Lord To`o, I present to you the teeth of the vile devil Mokolo. He will plague these shores no more.”

  “YOU HAVE DONE WELL. TO`O IS GREATLY PLEASED. PLACE THE TEETH UPON THE SACRIFICIAL PILE BESIDE YOU.”

  Kina does so, scooping up the teeth and resting them on the huge mound of bones adjacent to the platform.

  A long, sibilant hiss issues from the statue. From unseen pores in the stone begins to seep a black mist. Kina realizes the hissing is a jeering laugh, squeezed through the solid stone.

  The mist pours out and makes a cloud that sinks low to the platform. Hekalo and Pupo scramble out of the way as it begins to fill the air around them. Kina steps back, her hand straying toward the pahi.

  “Great lord To`o, you promised us answers to our questions.”

  To`o doesn’t answer, or perhaps cannot, as he has now emerged from the stone as a poisonous black mist. The mist roils across the ground until it encounters the pile of bones and starts to ooze into the space between them.

  “Run,” Kina says to Hekalo and Pupo.

  But it is too late. Believing itself free of Mokolo, To`o has come out of its hiding place and is now assembling a new body—a body which it has been gathering, through the willing aid of the duped Life Eaters. The bones rattle and grate and then shift into a vaguely boar-shaped frame. Skulls, femurs, rib cages—all of it locking together into a towering figure propped up on four stout and powerful legs. A head forms from a lattice of hip bones, the lower jaw made of shoulder blades. Kina can now see Mokolo’s teeth lined up along this makeshift mouth, forming a razor wall of fangs nested two rows deep.

  To`o lowers his huge jaw, easily large enough to scoop up Kina. Kina decides it is the moment to strike. She lifts the pahi and swings at To`o, a solid blow that should have cleaved through its bony head.

  But the bones shift like blowing sand out of the way, reforming after her pahi has passed.

  To`o swings its head back to her and drops its jaw once more. “TRAITOR,” it bellows. “MOKOLO IS NOT DEAD!”

  At that moment, the wind begins to pick up, howling down through the rocky caldera like a sea squall. Obscured by sheets of rain, Kina can see a towering man, easily three times the height of a normal human, striding across the old volcanic stones. As he grows closer, Kina can see the man is nude except for a cloak made of brilliant yellow feathers and a matching curved helmet atop his head. In his hand is a club cut from a palm tree.

  To`o turns his head to look at this giant, a low growl issuing from his throat.

  To`o, a voice says, seeming to fill both the air and the earth and Kina’s own body. You are the traitor, and you will die this day.

  To`o reassembles his body so that his head now faces the opposite direction, ready to face Mokolo head on.

  Kina is backing away, eyes locked on the two powerful beings squaring off, causing her to stumble over rocks and fumble to the ground. Distantly, she hears Hekalo yelling in alarm. She is able to look away long enough to see him running back toward her, Pupo by his side. They are yelling something about Burning Warriors.

  “What?” Kina shouts. She can hardly hear over the howl of wind and another sound, like a rumble coming from deep in the earth.

  “Burning Warriors! They’re here!”

  Kina looks past Hekalo and sees dozens of warriors emerging through the narrow gap in the crater wall. They fan out, unwilling to move any closer once they see what is happening. Among them is Nakali and her kupuna. Nakali still looks weak. She has been carried up here on a crude palanquin by several burly warriors. She is ordering them to do something, but from this distance, and with all the noise, Kina can’t make out what it is.

  She looks back toward To`o and sees the hideous devil has charged Mokolo. They are locked in a struggle, To`o’s jaws clamped down on Mokolo’s massive arm, and Mokolo trying to pry To`o’s limbs from its body.

  Hekalo and Pupo drop down near Kina. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she replies. “Just a little stunned. We should get out of here.”

  “Agreed,” Pupo says. “You know another way out?”

  “Last time we were here, we climbed the crater wall to get out. We were being chased by warriors then, too.”

  Pupo looks up at Mokolo. “Why doesn’t he just smite that thing, or wish it out of existence?”

  Hekalo says, “He’s far too weak. The mana here is almost gone. I’m sure he is barely able to form a body and bring down this rain.”

  The rumbling underground is getting louder. Then, pouring out from cracks in the old volcanic crater floor itself, comes warm water. It smells of rotting eggs and flint. Kina stands up quickly, astonished at how fast the water is coming in.

  “This volcano is going to erupt,” Hekalo says.

  Kina shakes her head. “No, this is something else. Mokolo is doing this!”

  The sky has opened up, rain coming down so heavy that Kina can hardly see the old impassive statue where To`o had been hiding. The battling god and devil are lost in the blurring rain, as are the Burning Warriors. Water from the sky is merging with the upwelling ground water, and in just the short time since all this began, water is already ankle-deep in the crater.

  “He’s flooding it!” Kina says.

  Pupo sloshes around in the water. “Then we really need to leave, and fast!”

  “Why would he do that?” Hekalo asks, but Kina has no answer for him.

  “Run for it,” she says.

  “Which way?” Pupo wails.

  There’s no way to tell which direction they are headed, but Kina knows they need to start moving, so she leads them in a direction she believes to be opposite the Burning Warriors.

  They don’t make it far before the water is waist deep between rocks, slowing down their progress even further. Soon the water is cresting even the tall rocks, like a tide rising across tidepools.

  Kina shouts, “Start swimming, if you can!”

  In all the violence, the water is swirling and rushing, making it hard to see stay afloat. Very quickly, Kina and Hekalo and Pupo are torn from each other by the surging water. Kina shouts their names as they vanish into the storm.

  She paddles helplessly for a minute, knees knocking against submerged rocks. Then out of the wall of rain appears a huge, rounded object. Instinctively, she grabs at it, discovering it is the rain-slick statue of To`o. It is hard to find purchase, but she takes hold of the statue’s huge nose and manages to hold on against the pull of water. Already the statue is submerged up to its mouth, which Kina recalls being just over her own eye level.

  Grunting with exertion, she is able to pull herself up onto the statue, climbing up so that she is perched partially on its brow. She shouts for Hekalo and Pupo and scans around but sees nothing but roiling water.

  Out of the deluge something is advancing rapidly. It is a sundered mound of bones, still holding a barely discernible shape.

  “To`o!” she hisses.

  It fights the rising water until its huge head swivels her way. In moments it thrashes across the short distance and leaps up onto the statue. The whole thing totters over under its powerful mass. Kina is flung back into the water.

  When she surfaces, she realizes she has dropped the pahi. Without pausing even to take notice of To`o’s new position, she dives down into the water, feeling her way along the fallen statue until she reaches the bottom. There, visible due to its glowing glyphs, the pahi rests against the rocks. She grabs it and kicks back to the surface.

  To`o is facing away from her. Now that the statue has fallen over, it no longer rises above the level of the water but it is still tall enough to stand upon.

  Kina is soaked and nearly blinded by the falling rain. She struggles up onto the statue just behind To`o. There isn’t time to think. She raises the pahi to strike.

  To`o shifts his mass of bones to reverse his head. Instantly he is face-to-face with Kina. He roars, revealing rows and rows of teeth, steeped in the blood of a god.

  Kina s
wipes at To`o with the pahi and once more he simply rearranges his body to avoid the strike. But Kina is anticipating this, and reaches out with her other arm to take hold of the ribs forming his neck. To`o bellows and hoists itself up, and Kina comes with him.

  “BETRAYER,” it bellows. “TO`O WILL BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD!”

  Kina lifts the pahi and brings it toward the neck for another attack. This time the pahi meets bone, slicing clean through. To`o lets out an unearthly wail and flings Kina away. She flips through the air and hits the water in a stunning clap.

  Like being caught in a powerful wave, Kina can do little except hold on to the pahi tightly and try to right herself. She feels the blade slice across her thigh as her legs kick, then she is up again. She sputters out a mouth full of water and opens her eyes. To`o has once more spun to face her, still standing atop the fallen statue not more than a few strides away. It’s jaw slides open on powerful hinges and she sees it drop down onto its haunches for a pounce.

  It launches into the air. Kina cringes, but To`o never drops onto her. Its body is knocked aside in the air, a huge spear tearing through its torso.

  To`o lets out a shriek and falls into the water. In its death throes, it churns the water, spinning and twisting and gnashing. Out of the sheets of rain strides Mokolo. The water parts for him. He leans over To`o and jerks the spear from its body, then raises the spear for another strike.

  And that’s the last Kina sees of To`o.

  A New Voyage

  The flowing water sucks her away from the spectacle of Mokolo landing the killing blows on To`o’s ghastly form.

  For what seems like several minutes, she spins and bobs around in the rolling lake. And then she hears the rumble of cascading water. She is being sucked toward the tiny gap in the crater rim. Before she has time to resist, she is swept into it, banging against the rocks on either side. Kina realizes it must be pouring out the other end like a waterfall.

  Desperately, she takes hold of the pahi by its waist and turns it so it wedges against the sides of the fissure. It scrapes along until it finally holds. Kina isn’t sure how long this will last. The onrushing water makes hanging on to the pahi almost impossible, but she locks her fingers onto it and won’t let go.

  Minutes pass. Kina begins to realize the rain has slowed down to a thin drizzle. The torrent seems to be losing strength. Gasping for breath, she hangs on to the pahi until the water has slowed enough that she can find purchase with her feet.

  Before long, she is able to simply press herself against the fissure wall and let the water rush by her legs. And then, not long after, it slows to the point that she can jerk the pahi free and stagger back into the crater.

  She is shocked at what she sees. Now that the rain has stopped, she can look out across a newly-formed lake in what was once a dead, rocky bowl. The water is deep enough that boats could float in it, though not so deep that a diver couldn’t reach the bottom easily. Though the surface is still very choppy, she can see the toppled statue in the center of the lake. Everywhere float dead bodies of the Burning Warriors who hadn’t been able to escape in time.

  “Hekalo!” Kina shouts. “Pupo!”

  Though she is so tired she thinks she might fall down dead on the spot, Kina somehow finds the strength to walk along the rocky crater wall, fighting for footing as she goes. She scans the bodies, but none of them look like her friends.

  Something is moving in the water.

  Kina pulls away from the lapping lake edge and crawls onto a boulder. She holds the pahi in front of her.

  Be calm, woman, a voice says. Your enemy is dead.

  “Where are you?” Kina calls out.

  I am here, in the water. I am weak. So very weak. I no longer have the strength for a body.

  “I don’t see you,” Kina says.

  There is a flutter of motion in the water, and then she spots a shark-like form gliding along the bottom, seemingly made of water itself. She can only make out its indistinct outline.

  “Will you survive?”

  Yes. But I will have to rebuild by strength and call new people to my domain if I am to flourish once again. It is only possible because of you.

  “I only acted in my own interests,” Kina says. “I must know where this pahi comes from, and the burning bowl, and the meaning of the ruins.”

  You can hide your true nature to yourself, Mokolo says, but not to a god. I can see into your heart and know your real motives. But you have questions, and I promised answers. So please. Speak.

  “Are my friends still alive?”

  They are. They fell out of this crater in the surge of water. You will find them nearby. They are a little shaken, but not hurt.

  “But they could have been. Why did you put us all in danger by flooding this crater?”

  My main concern was defeating the trickster To`o. He was weakened by the waters and unable to resist me. He is now dead. Do not question my actions, young one.

  “My apologies, great Mokolo,” Kina says, wiping tears from her cheeks. She is surprised to find a strange melange of emotions rising within her—relief, anger, joy—and she has to take a moment to fight back sobs. When at last she can talk, she says, “You said something before about Puahiki. That she might not be a goddess.”

  I am forbidden to talk about it.

  “By whom?” Kina says. “Why can’t you discuss this?”

  The one you call Mother Ocean forbids it, Mokolo says. For she jealously guards the truth.

  “What truth? You promised me answers!”

  There is a long silence, as the ghostly form circles in the water. At last, Mokolo says, I put myself at great danger speaking about this, but I have promised you answers and I always hold fast to my word. Ask your questions.

  “Great danger? Will Mother Ocean destroy you?”

  She has that power. Maybe she will use it. That remains to be seen. Ask your questions, before I lose my strength.

  “Why did you say Puahiki isn’t a goddess?”

  There is much your kind does not know. Answering your question will raise a thousand more.

  “Like what?”

  There is another half to the story of Mokukai. Before Father Sky met Mother Ocean, and the two of them came together to create the gods, Father Sky had another wife. Her name was Mother Fire, and she was the mother of all flame and rock and soil. Together they created Mokukai. But back then, even before all the gods, Mokukai was then named Mokuakeahi, and it was a burning world. The naked stone cracked and erupted with lava, forming great seas of fire broken only by jagged islands of steaming rock. And seeing this world they made together, Father Sky and Mother Fire decided to have children, and so they gave birth to the kakonu, the first gods of fire. They were enormous creatures who ate rock and breathed smoke. They warred with one another over control of the lakes and seas of fire and of the islands between.

  Kina listens, horrified, wondering if Mokolo could be lying to her. And yet, something about this story seems right in a way that Kina can’t place. It is as though she has always known this story, but had simply forgotten.

  “But what happened to Mother Fire? Those oceans of lava aren’t there now.”

  Mother Fire was cruel and capricious, and she filled Father Sky with smoke and ash. Father Sky suffocated under this blanket of smog. He grew tired of suffering her fits of rage. He knew of another, Mother Water, she which you name Mother Ocean, and grew to love her. Soon he decided to rid himself of Mother Fire, and so he cooled her with great blasts of icy wind. As she sprawled, unconscious, Father Sky married Mother Ocean and allowed her to replace Mother Fire. Soon the world was blessed with water, and it dropped as cooling rain onto the stones and flowed down the hillsides and collected into great pools and lakes, and eventually the lakes joined together to make the mighty ocean. Plants grew, and new animals flourished. The kakonu were forced into hiding. The islands needed new stewards, and so Father Sky and Mother Ocean made the gods, and granted us the ability to make humans.

&
nbsp; Kina is nearly unable to speak. “What became of Mother Fire? Where are these kakonu now?”

  Most of the kakonu are dead, killed by gods or devils or humans. Mother Fire rages even now, deep inside Mokukai where she is trapped. Her only surviving child, Puahiki, rules Howe`a, which was once the throne of Mother Fire. It is the center of a volcano so massive it could be seen from nearly anywhere on Mokukai. The sister islands around it are all that remain of the rim of the crater, and Howe`a is the cinder cone at the center.

  “I can’t believe any of this. It can’t be true!” Kina says. “Mokukai has always been as it is. The priests tell us, and they get the history directly from the gods. Only your story differs.”

  Is that proof that I am lying? We have been forbidden to speak of Mother Fire. Mother Ocean is jealous, and she wishes to have been Father Sky’s only lover.