Into the Darkness

by Margaret Daley

  “I’m ready to try anything. I’m wiped. A wet noodle has more strength than I do.” She tipped the vine, and a clear liquid flowed into her mouth. Its metallic taste was different but not unpleasant.

  After draining the liquid in her vine, a warrior motioned them toward the water. Hidden in the underbrush by the river’s edge were four canoes. Kate and Slader were instructed to get into one while Zach settled into another.

  Kate knew it was still midafternoon when they headed out onto the narrow river, but the thick canopy overhead blocked most of the sunlight, creating an eerie darkness. The sounds coming from the jungle—a few she hadn’t heard before—heightened her fear and feeling of total isolation. One series of five sharp barks sent her nearly to her feet in the canoe. Slader’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.

  “Nothing to worry about, Kate. It’s a capybara.”

  She forced herself to relax, beginning to feel the restorative effects of the strange liquid from the vine. At least now she could sit straight in the canoe and keep her head and shoulders from sagging forward in exhaustion.

  Kate looked back at Slader. “This river is completely hidden from the air. I feel like we are traveling in a tunnel of trees.”

  “We are. I’ve heard of this river for years, but I’ve never known anyone who has been on it. Rest, Kate, I have a feeling we still have a bit of walking to do.”

  When the Indians rowed toward shore an hour later, Slader’s prediction came true. Kate climbed from the canoe with Slader right behind her. Zach stood on the bank waiting for them, then they followed the Quentas into the thick rainforest.

  As the jungle grew dark with the approach of night, Kate wanted to collapse in the middle of the narrow path. The only thing that kept her going was the danger such a move would put her in. Somehow, she managed to place one foot in front of the other.

  When the lead warrior stopped at the base of a cliff, Kate scanned the area, dense with undergrowth, and wondered where in the world the village was. It would be completely dark in fifteen minutes. Then a Quentas disappeared into the side of the cliff. Kate squinted, trying to see more clearly. Under a crag there appeared to be a narrow hole in the rocks.

  “We go up now,” Zach said, motioning toward that hole.

  “How?” Kate thought of the darkness and didn’t understand.

  “The village is at the top of this cliff. There’s a pathway through the mountain to the village.”

  Suddenly a flare of light lit the opening in the cliff.

  “They’re an amazing people, but even they can’t see in the dark.” Zach took Kate’s hand to help her toward the entrance.

  “I can see why these Indians have been so isolated,” Slader said behind Kate.

  As the dank walls of the cave closed in on Kate, her heart rate accelerated and even more sweat drenched her body.

  “How long?” she managed to ask her brother in a raspy whisper.

  He paused and turned toward her. “I forgot about your claustrophobia. I’m sorry, Kate. This is the only way up, and it takes about an hour. At some places it’s a steep climb.”

  “I’ll make it.” And somehow, she would. She knew her fear was irrational. Nothing would happen to her. But still she was scared.

  As she climbed, she was aware of three things. Zach was in front of her carrying one of the torches, setting an easy pace. Slader was behind her, helping her when the rocks and path were steep and difficult. God was inside her, giving her the strength she needed to traverse the cave system, to not care that she was inside a mountain where tons of heavy rocks could come crashing down on her.

  When she emerged from the passageway into the open, she took her first decent breath since their trek through the cave had started. She drew in gulps of the oxygen-rich air, heavy with the scent of vegetation. In the distance she saw lights from several fires. The village, beneath towering trees, was completely hidden from above.

  On the village’s outskirts she fell to her knees, her shoulders drooping forward, so exhausted she didn’t think she could go another step. She buried her face in her hands and sank to the ground. Someone put a hand on her shoulder, then knelt next to her. She didn’t have the energy even to see who it was.

  “Kate?” Slader’s voice penetrated her weary mind with his concern.

  “I’m okay,” she murmured, but her voice belied her words.

  “Sure you are, but I’m going to help you anyway.”

  She started to protest his assistance, then decided a little help into the village was all right. He bore most of her weight as she came to her feet with his arm now around her shoulders. Leaning against him, she stepped forward, but the world tilted and faded out of focus.

  Before she realized what he was doing, he swung her up into his arms and strode toward the center of the village. She should have objected, but the effort to form the words was too great. Instead, she wilted like a water-deprived plant against him, her head cushioned on his shoulder.

  For a moment she closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the village. Soft murmurs, a baby’s crying punctuated the noises of the jungle beyond. Slader’s familiar scent dominated the smells that assailed her—smoke, roasting meat, decomposing vegetation.

  When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a dimly lit, large, oblong hut. A hole cut into its high ceiling allowed the smoke from the many fires to escape. Around the center were numerous hammocks slung from poles that held the structure up. Several Indian women, all staring at them, fanned the air with large palm fronds.

  “Put her there,” Zach said, indicating a hammock not far from the doorway.

  “That’s okay. I don’t want to take someone’s bed.” She straightened, aware that the whole hut full of people were now watching them.

  “It’s my bed and you can have it,” Zach said. “Slader and I will sleep on the ground.”

  “Is that safe?” she asked, remembering the stories of what crawled on that ground.

  “Yes, sis. We’ll be fine.”

  “Then I’m not going to argue with you because I’m dead tired and all I want to do is sleep.”

  “That’s a first,” Zach said with a laugh. “All you’ve ever done is argue with me.”

  “And believe me, I will first thing tomorrow morning,” she said with a smile. “Then you have some explaining to do.”

  Slader laid her in the hammock, steadying it before stepping back. For some strange reason, she wanted to grab his arm and hold him next to her. Everything around her was so different. Yes, she had read books about the Amazon, but nothing had prepared her for the Indians staring at her or their lifestyle so obviously dissimilar from hers. She didn’t even wear makeup, yet they were covered with paints and beautiful designs.

  “Will you be all right?” Slader whispered, hovering over her.

  She did reach out and take his hand, the concern in his expression unraveling her faster than anything else that had happened to her that day. She wanted to ask him the same thing, especially after all he had shared with her up on the hillside. Instead, she squeezed his hand and nodded. “I’m tough. Nothing much gets me down for long.”

  His chuckle filled the space between them. “I can attest to that. I will tell you I’m not comfortable staying here, not with all I’ve heard about the Quentas.”

  Kate leaned around Slader and caught sight of her brother who was speaking with an elder. “Zach seems to have settled right in.”

  “Yeah, well, we need to convince him to leave immediately. There have been cases where the Quentas have turned on their guests.” He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck.

  “Do you have that itch again?”

  “Not exactly. Just an uncomfortable feeling that we don’t belong here.” He smiled, the look in his eyes totally focused on her. “I’m sure everything is all right. You get some rest and we’ll talk in the morning.” He backed away.

  Now how in the world was she supposed to get any rest with those parting words?
r />   * * *

  Slader couldn’t sleep. He should be dead tired, and his body was. But his mind couldn’t rest. He didn’t like being smack-dab in the middle of a bunch of people who he had last heard were hostile to anyone who came into their territory. And they were definitely in the middle of their territory. Slader took in his surroundings in the large hut with the Quentas tribe all around them sleeping.

  A snore from a nearby Indian penetrated the silence of the hut. Slader smiled to himself. So far, the Quentas didn’t seem so warlike.

  “You’re worried, aren’t you?” Zach settled next to him on a grass mat that would serve as a bed.

  “Are you aware that some men are following Kate and me? They didn’t want Kate to find you. You’re in danger.”

  Zach blew out an exasperated breath. “I knew there were others in the area. Wasn’t sure why.”

  “A man named Slick assaulted Kate in Mandras.”

  “Was she hurt?” Zach fisted his hands, his features set in a scowl.

  “No, I stopped him before he could do any real harm. Someone, possibly Slick, also trashed her hotel room. Slick followed us with three other men up the river, and I’m sure they are waiting for us, no doubt to kill us. Our two porters skipped out on us. I’m not sure if it was because of the men after us or the fact we were nearing the Quentas territory.”

  “Probably a little of both. I had a hard time getting any porters for my expedition and two ran off four days in.”

  Slader pulled his legs up, resting his arms on his knees. “So, what happened? When they couldn’t find you, everyone except Kate thought you were dead.”

  “We were ambushed, and I was left for dead. If it hadn’t been for the Quentas, I would be dead right now. I had two other scientists with me. They didn’t survive. I managed to crawl into the underbrush and camouflage myself. Even then, if it hadn’t been for the arrival of the Quentas warriors, I would have been found and finished off.”

  “Who wants you dead? Who’s responsible for murdering your party?” Slader rubbed his cold hands together, but still the chill burrowed deep into his bones.

  “That’s a good question.”

  “Who benefits most from your death?”

  “Kate. She inherits everything.”

  “Okay. Who benefits if both of you die? And are we talking much money?”

  “Millions. Our only close relative is our grandfather, who is in his eighties, so we have both decided to leave the bulk of our estate to the church in Red Creek with the rest to be divided among a few of our favorite charities. So, I don’t see money as a motive for someone wanting me dead, and believe me, I’ve been thinking about this.”

  “Then there’s something else you haven’t considered. Tell me about your company.”

  “There’s not much to tell. I have three partners, but they don’t benefit from my death. Besides, we’re good friends. We went to college together and dreamed of having our own business. We started the company ten years ago and have been very successful with a couple of drugs we’ve developed.”

  “How about another drug company? I hear the business can be cutthroat.”

  “The competition to create a new drug is fierce, but I can’t see one going so far as to murder me to stop me from contacting the Quentas tribe. The Indians have a few plants they use that might have possibilities, but murder—” Zach shook his head. “I just don’t see it. We’re a small company.”

  Slader kept his opinion—that Kate’s brother might be too naive—to himself. People killed for a lot of lesser reasons than that every day. When he got back to Mandras, he intended to explore that possibility, because whether Zach wanted it to be or not, this was personal. He wouldn’t rest until he got to the bottom of who was trying to kill Kate and him.

  Slader looked over at Kate sound asleep in the hammock. Weariness etched her ashen features. If anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for bringing her into the rainforest. His first instinct had been to get as far away from here as possible, and he should have listened to that inner voice. Now he wasn’t sure they would make it back to Mandras alive.

  “She knew you were alive. Even when everyone else gave up, she didn’t,” Slader murmured, wondering what it would feel like to have someone care that much for him. He’d had it once, and it had slipped through his fingers because of his ambition, because he’d thought of nothing but the recognition and acclaim he and Renee would receive over the archaeological find.

  “Kate and I have a connection,” Zach broke into Slader’s thoughts. “We’ve always known when the other is hurting. I guess it’s the twin thing.”

  “When everyone else would have run back to the States and let someone else search for you, she wouldn’t. She threw herself into the thick of things even when those men were after us. She said God would protect us.”

  “Her faith has always been unshakable.”

  “It sounds like yours has been shaken.”

  “A few times, but not my Kate. After our parents and sister died…” Zach paused for a few seconds, his voice thick. He cleared his throat and continued, “She turned to the Lord and, as is her way, threw herself into her faith. She’s never had one doubt that I know of since the day she rededicated herself to Jesus.”

  She was so strong, whereas his life had been riddled with doubts, Slader thought as he again peered at Kate. One of her arms flopped over the side of the hammock and dangled down. He made his way to her and carefully placed it back under the netting at her side. Through the mesh, her features looked peaceful as though she could finally rest now that she had found her brother.

  Finding her brother had been easy. They still had to get back to Mandras in one piece. That would be the hard job. There was only one way back to the river town, and Slick and his men guarded it.

  * * *

  Through the tentacles of sleep, Kate heard giggling and for a few seconds couldn’t place where she was. Then the past day came flooding back, and all she wanted to do was surrender to the weariness that still clung to her as the mist had the jungle.

  But the sense of being watched penetrated her foggy mind. She had started to open her eyes when a loud shriek pierced the air and something large and furry pounced on her. She screamed, her eyes flying open at the same time she fought the web of netting that held her down with a reddish brown, furry animal on it. Her arms flung outward as the monkey leaped back onto a child’s shoulder.

  That was when she realized she was circled by a group of Indian children, all staring and laughing at her as she tried to untangle herself from the netting. Keeping a close watch on the reddish-brown monkey with a white face, eyes and mouth ringed with black, perched on the child’s shoulder, she relaxed her flailing limbs and drew in a calming gulp of air before trying to free herself from the predicament she found herself in.

  “Need some help?” Slader said from behind the child with the monkey, amusement in his expression, in his voice.

  “Yes, I think I’ve wrapped myself into a knot.”

  While he assisted her, she whispered near his ear, “How long have they been there?”

  “About an hour.”

  “An hour!” In her surprise, her voice rose several levels and the children backed away. Immediately Kate regretted scaring them and offered a smile she hoped would reassure the young ones who ranged in ages from, she guessed, three to ten.

  “There. That does it. You’re a free woman.” Slader took her hand and pulled her up out of the cocooning hammock.

  She spied the gash at the back of his head from the fall down the hill and noticed that it wasn’t red. In fact, it looked good, considering the limited first-aid kit she’d had available to keep infection from setting in. “In a few days you won’t even be able to tell you have a head wound.”

  “Last night, Zach put some salve on it that he had gotten from the medicine man. Your brother said it works wonders on cuts.”

  “From the look of your head, it does. Where is th
at salve? I have some cuts I would like to treat.”

  Slader pointed to her brother’s backpack. “Here. He has been collecting various plants and medicines to take back with him.”

  Kate sat while Slader took the salve and began smoothing some of it over the cuts she had sustained on her own journey down the hill. The children remained watching, and she shifted, feeling as though she were onstage, something she avoided if at all possible.

  “Why are they still here?” she finally asked as Slader stuck the salve container back among her brother’s items.

  “Because you’re a novelty to them, sis.”

  Kate looked around and discovered Zach behind her. “Why?”

  “Your hair reminds them of the flames of a fire.”

  Kate touched the unruly mass. She suspected they had never seen someone with so much curly, thick hair.

  One of the children said something to Zach. He laughed. “They would like to feel your hair. May they?”

  She scanned the beautiful, curious faces of the nine children and nodded. She was the intruder in their home, so letting them touch her hair was the least she could do.

  After each one finished running their fingers through her auburn strands, the eldest child, a girl with long, silky black hair that hung to her shoulders and large expressive dark brown eyes, said something to her. Kate looked at Zach for a translation.

  “The best I can tell, she’s saying she would like for you to come with her. She wants to show you something.”

  “Can you tell her later, after we talk?”

  When Zach finished explaining to the children, they ran off. “They’ll come back later.”

  “I’m amazed at how well you can communicate with them. You’ve only been with them two months.” Slader shifted closer to Kate while Zach sat cross-legged across from them.

  “I pick up languages quickly. I have an ear for them. Their language has some similarities to a few I already knew, but it’s different from any other in the Amazon that I have encountered. I still have trouble, but each day I’m learning more about them and their culture.”