Albert fixed Andy with a steely gaze. “Professor Phink is the opposite of your grandfather in every way possible. He’s unlike anyone in the Society. We are tasked with finding and protecting powerful objects. Phink just wants to find them and use them for his own gain. He’s diabolical. If he gets his hands on the artifacts, well, let’s just say I don’t think the world as we know it will exist anymore.”
Albert’s voice broke again and he looked away. “Phink lied to Abigail about me. He knew she had talent. She’s…she’s working for him now.” Albert turned his gaze from Andy and stared out the window. “She ran away before I could tell her how sorry I was. I would give anything to tell her how much I love her.”
Andy stared at the photograph of the smiling girl. Suddenly, he knew where he’d seen that smile before.
It’s the pilot who shot down the zeppelin!
Andy looked at Albert, unsure whether he should mention the incident. What did it matter? He could see that the man’s heart was broken over the loss of his daughter. Telling him that she’d nearly killed Andy wouldn’t solve anything.
Andy’s thoughts wandered to Professor Phink. If he was indeed the one behind the zeppelin attack, then he would likely resort to any means necessary to keep Andy from finding what he was supposed to protect. For the first time, Andy realized how important it was for him to complete his quest.
“Mr. Awol, if this person is as dangerous as you say he is, then I’d better find that Tiki Key as soon as possible,” Andy said.
“Are you sure that you’re up to it?” Albert asked.
Andy nodded. “I’m a little sore, but I can handle it.”
Albert rested a big hand on Andy’s shoulder. “Your grandfather would be proud of you, son.” Then he turned to Hoku and gave the bird a serious look. “You know what to do,” he said.
Hoku bobbed her head and flapped over to Andy’s shoulder. “Follow me close,” she said. “Close. Follow. Follow me close.”
Andy nodded. Hoku seemed about to fly away, but then she turned to Andy and fixed him with an intense gaze.
“Follow close, Andy, follow close. Follow Hoku, or you will die.”
With that, she flew from Andy’s shoulder toward the door. Andy followed as fast as his legs could carry him.
The path Hoku led Andy down was littered with twisting roots and vines that seemed almost to reach out and grab at his shoes, causing him to trip. Andy soon found himself covered with scrapes from falling down and skinning his knees.
“Ow! Wait up, will you?” he shouted as a particularly large vine sent him sprawling into a mass of thorny jungle plants.
Hearing his cry, Hoku fluttered to a nearby branch to examine his latest injury.
“Not bad, not bad,” she chirped. “Could be worse. Ned’s grandson is a clumsy one, isn’t he? Not so much like his grandfather, is he? No, not so much.”
Andy glowered at Hoku. “I never said I was like him,” he replied. He stood up and brushed off his knees. “How much farther do we have to go?”
“The Tiki Room is not far,” Hoku said. “Easy for birds, but hard for boys, yes…difficult for you but not for Hoku. But getting inside will be dangerous. Very dangerous. Must not anger the tikis, Andy Stanley. No, no, must not!”
The tikis? Andy thought. Until then he’d thought of the Hawaiian gods only as elaborately carved wooden statues. How could they be angered?
As Hoku set off again and Andy followed, he decided not to bring it up. He figured the best answer he’d get from Hoku would probably be to wait and see.
And she’ll probably repeat herself a dozen times when she says it, Andy thought. He’d already grown used to the idea that a bird could hold a conversation, and the novelty had worn off. Now Hoku was irritating him. She talked to him like he was stupid.
After several more minutes of stumbling through the dense jungle growth, a very scratched-up Andy emerged in a clearing. In the center stood a quaint Polynesian hut with a thatched roof.
Would you look at that! Andy mused.
The pitch of the roof was very steep, and Andy could tell that it had been constructed meticulously. Exotic lamps and painted fabric with swirling Polynesian figures decorated the exterior. Flanking the entrance to the hut were two pillars, the images of grinning tribal shields, their long tongues sticking out, carved into the columns.
They almost look friendly, Andy thought. But there was something about the carvings that seemed mystical, like they were guarding an ancient place of great significance.
A bamboo fence surrounded the grounds. Andy noticed several more carved figures in the tall grass leading up to the entrance.
The statues cast an aura of mystery around the sacred place. Andy couldn’t decide whether he wanted to go in or go away. There was something calming about the hut, but nothing having to do with Ned was easy, and Andy was sure there was probably much more danger surrounding the Tiki Room than appeared at first glance.
Hoku hopped down from a nearby branch onto Andy’s shoulder. She preened her feathers for a bit. “Proceed with caution, boy. Caution, boy, caution,” she said. “Do not anger the tikis!”
“They’re made of stone and wood,” Andy protested. “How can I anger them? By accidentally knocking them over?”
Hoku fixed him with a beady eye. “No joke, Andy Stanley. Not a joke! You must tread carefully. Carefully! There are many traps, many hurtful traps that can snare careless, clumsy boys.”
Andy resented Hoku for pointing out that he was clumsy. Maybe he was, but he didn’t need someone he had just met reminding him of it. He felt a wave of irritation rise inside him as he stared at the field with the scattered tikis. From what he could see, there was nothing to make him suspect a trap of any kind. Eager to prove Hoku wrong, he marched determinedly toward the statues.
“Beware, beware!” Hoku squawked.
As he drew close to the first statue, Andy felt a strange, almost magnetic pull. He was surprised when the little hairs on the back of his neck and arms slowly rose. He looked at the statue’s vague, expressionless eyes.
Suddenly, clouds obscured the sun and there was a crack of distant thunder. Andy’s feet became rooted to the ground. Try as he might, he couldn’t move them an inch. With a sense of rising panic, he struggled to get free, but he was stuck as tightly as a fly on flypaper. What’s happening? I…I can’t move!
Just then, a deep feminine voice echoed around him.
“Bow before me, mortal!” the voice boomed.
Andy felt his knees buckle. His eyes grew wide with terror and he gazed around, trying to determine the source of the voice.
“Who’s there?” Andy asked. But he was so scared his voice was a tiny squeak.
An invisible force like a giant hand pressed him down into a kneeling position in the soft earth. Thunder shook the ground, and Andy heard a loud cracking noise. He looked around in horror as deep cracks opened up in the earth, exposing rivers of molten lava that rose higher and higher from some unfathomable depth below.
“What is my name?” the voice thundered.
Perhaps it was because he was panicked, but Andy was confused by the question. I don’t know what she means. How could I possibly know her name? It’s not a fair question!
He could smell clouds of burning sulfur rising from the rapidly spreading cracks. From somewhere to the east a hot wind began to blow, riffling Andy’s blond hair and bringing with it a terrifying sense of mounting catastrophe.
I didn’t sign up for this! I’m…I’m not prepared!
“Hoku!” Andy screamed.
The bird was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the smoldering vapors were stinging Andy’s eyes, making it nearly impossible to see much of anything around him.
Andy struggled to free his knees from the earth. Think, Andy, think! There’s got to be a rational explanation for all this!
But Andy couldn’t think of one. The situation he found himself in defied logic. It felt as if the Earth’s gravity were working against him.
The hot lava had risen higher in the cracks. Andy could feel the searing heat radiating from the molten rock. It burned his cheeks, and he knew if he didn’t do something soon, he would be overwhelmed by the encroaching lava.
A stone the size of a soccer ball burst into flame, and Andy nearly screamed. He had to calm down. He would never get out of this situation if he just sat there hyperventilating.
He tried to calm his rapid breathing. “Okay, think. Maybe there are clues that could help me answer her question,” he murmured. “If we’re dealing with tikis, then the only logical explanation is that the voice is supposed to belong to some kind of goddess.”
Andy racked his brain for an answer, turning over anything that might trigger a connection.
Another crack of thunder split the air. The heat and sulfurous fumes were making Andy feel light-headed.
Think!
Andy gazed at the storm clouds that roiled above him. He glanced at the flaming stone that glowed with intense heat near his feet.
It’s so hot that it’s practically melting! It’s turning into lava….
And then, suddenly, he had it. He knew the answer to the question the voice had asked. He had seen it in the book on Albert’s table, the one about Hawaiian mythology!
But in trying to answer, he let out a series of coughs instead.
With a thin voice, strained to the point of breaking from the fumes, he answered, “You’re Pele!” And then he added, “The…g-goddess of fire and volcanoes.”
As suddenly as it had come, the heavy force that had pinned him to the earth lifted. The cracks in the ground around him rumbled to a close, and the winds died down. Within moments, the world around him had been restored to its previous, tranquil state.
Andy got up and looked directly at the carved effigy of the Hawaiian goddess that stood a few feet in front of him. It stared back at him, as lifeless as it had seemed before. Evidently, Andy had answered correctly, because the thundering voice didn’t speak again.
Somewhere above him, a bird chirped. Andy heard a flapping next to his ear and felt Hoku settle on his shoulder. He looked reproachfully at the bird, angry that she had deserted him when he’d been so close to death.
“Decided to come back?” he snapped irritably.
Hoku glanced at him. “I warned you, boy. Warned you, I did. But you ran off and didn’t listen, no. No, the boy didn’t listen!” Hoku replied.
Andy looked away. He didn’t want to admit that she had a point. He hadn’t taken the danger seriously, and it had nearly killed him.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t realize….”
“Apology—awk!—accepted,” Hoku squawked cheerily. “Now Andy knows, knows he does. Traps all around and very dangerous. Danger, danger, dangerous!”
“Yeah, ‘danger, danger, dangerous.’ I understand,” Andy said. “But what I don’t understand is how I was forced to the ground and how the ground opened and closed so quickly. I couldn’t move! It’s not scientifically possible!”
Hoku gave him another of her piercing stares. “Didn’t Grandfather tell you? Grandfather didn’t tell you, boy? He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?” Andy asked. But as the words left his mouth, he remembered what his grandfather had said when they’d first met. He recalled Ned’s serious expression and the glint on his monocle as he’d replied to Andy’s question about the impossibility of his grandfather’s new, shrunken-headed existence. Andy hadn’t known what to make of it at the time, but now the answer came back with more force and relevance than before.
“There are many types of magic in the jungle, some more mysterious than science can readily supply us answers to,” Andy murmured. “Wow. I guess he was right after all.”
Having experienced for himself what the tikis could do, Andy made a mental note to tread more carefully going forward. He could see four more statues remaining between him and the door of the hut. The way between them had a clearly worn path.
Andy walked along the narrow trail, praying that his clumsiness wouldn’t surface. He could only imagine what might happen if he bumped into one of the wooden effigies—or, worse, knocked one over!
Andy’s every step was slow and focused, and soon sweat was beading on his forehead from the effort not to trip. But often the harder one concentrates on not doing something, the more likely it is to happen.
Andy was so intent on avoiding the gnarled tree branches that he didn’t see a small stone in his path. The toe of his brown boot slipped on the pebble, and he flew forward.
Hoku, caught by surprise, let out a terrified squawk and flapped from Andy’s narrow shoulder.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Andy yelled. His arms windmilled like crazy as he tried to find his balance.
Despite his best efforts, Andy smashed into a tiki. The name NGENDEI was carved into a small wooden sign next to it. As he collided with the wooden effigy, a booming voice filled the air, howling with rage. There was an almost impossibly bright flash and a crack that Andy thought was thunder. But the disaster wasn’t over yet. As Ngendei toppled, Andy’s legs went with it, and he rolled down the short slope that led to the other tikis. He crashed into them and they fell to the ground.
“Aaah, ow! Agh!” Andy screamed. His heart pounded with dread. He’d desecrated the sacred grounds! They’re not going to like that!
A loud crack of thunder split the air. A torrent of rain came out of nowhere, and lightning flashed all around him. Andy heard a chorus of deep unearthly voices crying out in alarm, and he felt the earth beneath him start to shake and pull apart. It looked to Andy like the entire world was about to come to an end.
“Aaah! Somebody help me!” he screamed.
Then, just as he was about to be swallowed up by a particularly large crack in the ground that was spreading toward his feet, everything stopped. The rain disappeared, the thunder ceased, and the supernaturally loud voices were silenced.
A soft, almost amused voice came from the hut. “Hoku! You silly bird. Why didn’t you tell me you were bringing a guest? I would have turned off the security system.”
Security system? Andy wondered.
Andy stepped away from the long crack of earth his feet were straddling. Turning around, he saw a kind-looking elderly woman standing in the doorway of the hut. She was wearing a blue muumuu and had a lei of pink hibiscus blossoms around her neck.
The woman smiled. It was such a bright, beautiful smile that Andy couldn’t help smiling back.
“I hope you weren’t hurt,” the woman said. She motioned for Andy to come closer.
Andy hesitated, glancing at the tikis lying facedown in the tall grass.
“Oh, don’t worry about them,” she said, chuckling. “They won’t bother you now.”
Andy walked carefully toward the old woman, stepping gingerly around the fallen statues. “Are you sure you can control them?” he asked. “They seemed awfully angry.”
“Of course I can,” the old woman replied. “They are meant to keep out those who aren’t wanted, and you are welcome here. You didn’t think…” She turned and gave Hoku a stern glance. The bird fluttered to her shoulder, looking embarrassed.
“Hoku! What did you tell him?” the woman said sharply.
Hoku hid her head beneath her wing. The old woman shook a gnarled finger at the bird. “I’ve warned you about this kind of mischief before. If you don’t stop with your tricks, I’ll have you put back on your perch for good, do you understand me?”
Hoku nodded, her head still firmly beneath her wing.
“You knew?” Andy shouted. “I trusted you, you dumb bird! And I nearly died for it!”
Andy was angry that she’d tricked him into thinking he was being attacked by supernatural deities. There was no doubt the danger had been real, but it would have caused Andy a lot less anxiety if he’d known that the tikis were just part of an elaborate security system.
Hoku shot Andy a sheepish look and said, “Hoku is sorry, sorry she is. Just having
fun, fun with Andy.”
Fun? Andy had some strong words to share with Hoku about her idea of fun, but he decided to let the issue rest. He sighed, letting his irritation fade, and said, “Don’t worry about it. Just tell me next time.”
Hoku removed her head from under her wing and hopped happily on the woman’s shoulder, apparently glad that all was forgiven.
The old woman motioned for Andy to enter the hut, and Andy stepped up the wooden stairway toward the bamboo door. As he drew close, the woman held out her hand.
“I’m Madame Wiki,” she said. “You are welcome here.”
Andy shook her hand. “Andy Stanley,” he said.
Madame Wiki’s eyes widened with surprise. “Ned’s grandson? Albert didn’t tell me who you were when he found you. He only said that he’d rescued you at sea. I had to perform one of my most powerful spells to drive the chill from your bones.”
“Spells?” Andy asked, confused.
Madame Wiki gave him a shrewd look. “You sound surprised. Don’t you believe in magic?”
Andy shifted his feet uncomfortably. “I’ve always assumed magic is no more than superstition.”
The old woman laughed. “Superstition has nothing to do with it!” Her eyes twinkled as she looked deep into Andy’s. “These islands are filled with magic. Come inside the Enchanted Tiki Room and see for yourself.”
The first thing Andy noticed when he walked inside the hut was how dimly lit it was.
Unable to see much of anything, Andy was forced to rely on his other senses. He smelled a faint whiff of coconut, pineapple, wet bamboo, and fragrant tropical flowers.
He allowed Madame Wiki’s hand on his arm to guide him along, and soon his eyes adjusted to the dim light. In the center of the room was a large fountain surrounded by orchids. Madame Wiki ushered Andy to a chair nearby.
Andy took his seat and watched as Madame Wiki began waving a bamboo stick in an intricate pattern and murmuring some words in what he could only assume was Hawaiian.
What is she doing? Andy wondered. A moment later he realized what it was. Oh, I see. She’s reciting some kind of magic spell. Doesn’t she know there’s no such thing as—
The Perilous Polynesian Pendant Page 7