Shadows in the Cave

by Meredith

  Sea turtle man pulled up beside them and heaved out a half comprehensible mix of words and big breaths at Aku. Iona signed it.

  “Your sister has disappeared!”

  Oghi got his breath and spoke slowly so that Aku would understand. He was an odd young man, because his nickname was Old Man.

  “What do you know about it?” Aku asked.

  Oghi looked at the sand and fidgeted on his feet. These two had circled each other warily for a reason—Oghi sensed the seer power in Aku, and Aku knew it. “You better hear what the moon women say first.”

  Iona signed those words.

  “Let’s go,” Aku said.

  Aku and Iona ran, outdistancing Oghi, who was short-legged and out of breath. Like raindrops splashing off a boulder, the awful news couldn’t get into Aku’s head. My sister. My twin. Taken? Dead?

  They sprinted into the circle of huts and across the village green. A new friend of Salya’s staggered around making a sound somewhere between moaning and singing. Aku and Iona dashed right by her and out of the circle of houses to the isolated brush hut where women on their moon slept. A ring of men stood at a distance from three moon women, talking.

  “She went out to pee just after the sun went down,” one of the Galayi women told Chalu, signing to be sure to get the facts across.

  “She said she’d be right back,” said one of the other moon women. “We were about to eat.”

  “But she didn’t come back.”

  “We went and checked.”

  “She’s nowhere.”

  Shonan called out, “All right, everyone, have any of you seen Salya since sunset?” Anger licked his tongue.

  No one answered.

  “I’ll ask all around the village,” said Iona. Her tone was despair.

  “Let’s go check the signs,” Shonan said to Aku. They both took burning chunks of wood from the cooking fire.

  The women’s pee place was beyond some scrub and behind a dune, a spot washed by the tides. One look and Shonan said, “Damn, damn, damn.”

  They barely needed the torches to read the signs, which were obvious in the light of the moon. Someone had been dragged away, heel tracks lining the sand.

  “Why didn’t she yell?” said Shonan.

  Aku had never felt so dumb making words in his life. “Maybe they hit her over the head.”

  “Or maybe the sound of the damn surf was louder than her cries.” His father missed the hills and mountains, disliked the roaring ocean.

  The lines of the dragging heels and the footprints led to a place littered with moccasin tracks. In the middle of all the tracks was a smooth, back-shaped depression in the sand. Aku’s mind felt as disheveled as the tossed grains.

  “They laid her down here,” Shonan said, “lifted her up again, and walked that way.” The two followed the moccasin tracks straight toward the trail away from the town. Anyone could read the distinctive moccasin stitch of the Brown Leaf people, who lived on the far side of a big bay to the north, at one destination of the trail.

  “I can’t tell if some of these tracks are deeper than others,” Shonan said, “but I think they carried her on a litter.”

  His voice was half growl. A scar flashed away from the corner of his left eye, the mark of a spear point. When his eyes became embers of anger, the scar turned white and Aku got nervous.

  Shonan said, “Let’s go get her.”

  Aku tried to order his thoughts. “Too tricky at night.”

  “Which is why they picked it,” said Shonan. “All right, at dawn.” He had always wanted to teach Aku the path of the warrior, and often teased his lanky son about learning. Aku didn’t refuse, but he avoided.

  Aku nodded his head yes. He had other thoughts he couldn’t sort out.

  Iona appeared at the top of the sand hill. “This is where it happened?”

  “Right back there,” said Shonan.

  They all stared down at the print of Salya’s back.

  Two words raged in Shonan’s mind. My daughter.

  My twin, thought Aku.

  “They’re going to kill her,” said Shonan.

  Aku hesitated for a long moment. His twin, a part of himself. Though their faces were not the same, their mother always said they had the same eyes. “It’s uncanny.”

  Finally, Aku said, “They could have killed her right here. They want something else.”

  “We’re going after her.”

  Iona said, “Let’s go to the council lodge.” The three walked back toward the village, the younger two hurrying to keep up with the Red Chief. Shonan said, “These Amasos are supposed to be one people with us, but they’re holding out.”

  As they walked, Aku’s mind leapt back to when he stood at the edge of the river tying his breechcloth on. From one pine needle a single raindrop had fallen, and pinged him. Now he felt like it seeped through his skull and trickled down his veins to his heart.

  7

  Red Chief Shonan, Amaso chief Chalu, and the seer Oghi sat at the center of the run-down council house and smoked the pipe. Until now, the Amaso had never had a red chief for war, as Galayi towns did. Aku wondered how they felt about this change, and about listening to a governor who was still in truth an outsider. Aku watched the sea turtle man checking the rising smoke for omens.

  Aku and Iona stood next to Chalu to sign to both peoples. “This happened three years ago,” said Chalu.

  “The Brown Leaf people have stolen your women before?” Shonan’s thick eyebrows bristled.

  Chalu stared into space. Beside him the sea turtle man drew his head almost down to his knees.

  “And two years before that,” said Chalu.

  Now the white scar blazed against Shonan’s red skin. “How long has this been going on?”

  Aku wanted to apologize to Iona for his father, but he said nothing.

  “Three times altogether,” said the sea turtle man.

  “So that’s why you wanted to join villages with us.”

  People stirred.

  Pride flickered in Chalu’s eyes. “We have something to give in return.”

  Shonan’s comment was hypocritical. Everyone knew the bargain was fair, and protection was Shonan’s job.

  “Always in midsummer?” said Shonan. Meaning, This moon, when you suggested we arrive?

  “Yes.”

  Shonan said something under his breath. To Aku it looked like, “Bastards.” He didn’t sign it.

  “You never saw any of the women again?”

  “No.”

  Iona looked into Aku’s eyes. She wanted to slip her arm around Aku’s waist, but resisted. He took a deep breath and felt his mind get less jangly. For a moment he took her hand in his.

  Shonan turned to Oghi.

  “What do you think?”

  Oghi tore grasses out of the ground, bunched them up, and dropped them. Then he glanced slyly at Shonan. “There are old stories. The mountain peoples used to raid their neighbors and steal one unmarried woman every summer. Stories said … they sacrificed the woman to the Uktena.”

  Every Galayi and every Amaso man, woman, and child knew about the Uktena, though few had seen him and none lived to tell about it. This creature was a horned dragon with the girth of a tree trunk. Its fish scales, spotted with great daubs of color, were thick as slate. Its one eye was a blazing diamond, which blinded anyone who dared to attack the monster.

  The tales came down from long ago. All the people of the western mountains told similar stories. The Uktena had many names, bedded down in many places, haunted many mountain passes, plagued many villages. It was said that the Uktena, or Uktenas, lived in caves in the mountains and left the nearby tribes alone on one condition—that the tribes bring human sacrifices.

  “Those are children’s stories,” said Shonan. “My people live in the mountains, and we have seen no sign of any dragon.”

  Oghi shrugged. “The stories died out before the memories of the grandfathers of the oldest men but …” Suddenly, he looked directly into
Aku’s eyes. “Maybe the Uktena has come back. Maybe he lives by the sea now, not in the mountains.”

  “You’d be losing an unmarried woman every year,” said Shonan.

  Aku squeezed Iona’s hand.

  Oghi seemed to draw his head back into his body. “Maybe the Brown Leaf people steal women each year from different neighbors.”

  “If it is the Uktena, what will happen?”

  Oghi shuffled his feet in the sand. Aku noticed for the first time how odd they were, short and wide, with big toenails. “They won’t kill her right away,” he said. “It’s a ceremony, it takes a couple of days. Then the Uktena doesn’t eat her body—he sucks out her spirit. He uses her life force to make himself stronger.”

  “Her body goes to the Darkening Land?”

  “Without a spirit.”

  Shonan turned to Chalu and let his disgust curl his words. “This is childish talk.”

  The Amaso chief glared back. He had thoughts, but he didn’t speak them.

  “A chief who is a true ally would warn us before inviting us to live here.”

  Chalu had nothing to say. Aku knew he held himself back out of sympathy for Shonan’s grief.

  “What do you think we should do?”

  Chalu pieced words out. “You can send a runner to your nearest village and get enough men to go against the Brown Leaves.”

  “My daughter would be dead before they started.”

  No one had anything to say.

  Shonan turned back to Aku. “My son and I will leave at first light. We need to know where to go.”

  “Come eat at my hut,” Oghi said, “and our men will tell you what we know.”

  Aku saw a flicker in his eyes, the eyes that were old and young at once, serious and funny at once. He wondered what this meant.

  Outside the council lodge Iona wrapped both her arms around Aku and looked at him with love. “I’ll miss you tomorrow evening.” At every sunset they slipped away and took pleasure in each others’ bodies.

  “Every evening,” he mumbled.

  “I better kiss you good-bye now.”

  Oghi gave everyone roasted chestnuts and tea. His uncles and cousins had to crowd into the small hut.

  Aku nibbled at his chestnuts. Shonan waited hardly longer than he could have held his breath, while the Amaso men spoke of where the Brown Leaf village was, how many people the Brown Leaves had, and how many fighters. At the first pause Shonan asked in the Galayi language, “What way will they go?”

  Feeling embarrassed for his father, who resisted learning the Amaso tongue, Aku signed the words haltingly. Though Oghi understood some Galayi, a host had a right to use his own language.

  Taking his time, Oghi got a hairless deer hide from a pile at the back of the round hut and took a half-burnt stick from the fire. He sketched a very irregular first line and said, signing his own words, “This is the shoreline.” He drew lines to show two streams flowing to the sea. “Two wide rivers. There’s a trail here that warriors use sometimes,” he said. “It’s shorter, but you’d get lost. There are big stretches to swim. For sure they won’t take a captive on a litter this way.”

  He kept drawing until he made a third stream. “This is Big River,” he said. “Along it a path runs back inland to the main trail.”

  Now he changed burned sticks and made a thick, weaving line that led from the Amaso village away from the coastline. He sketched in bumps to show where it went through the hills, long lines to show creeks. “This is the main trail. The streams are not too deep or wide,” he said. “Women and children can use this trail.”

  He brought the main trail to Big River. “The two trails meet here.”

  Then he extended the thick line much further north and drew a huge inlet protected by an arc of land. “Brown Leaf Bay,” said.

  He fishhooked the trail line toward the sea and drew a circle. “The Brown Leaf village, near the shore.” He ran his finger along the thick line. “This trail is easy to see, easy to walk. They’ll take it.”

  “You’re sure they won’t worry about us following them?”

  Oghi shrugged. “They’ve never been afraid of us before.”

  “Can we catch them?” asked Shonan.

  “No doubt,” said the sea turtle man. “Carrying a litter, it’s more than a quarter moon’s journey. We can run.”

  “Damn right,” said Shonan.

  They all studied the map, thinking separate thoughts.

  “We have two days after they get back?” said Aku.

  “The stories say the sacrifice is made like that, yes, in a ceremonial way.”

  “That ceremony will never start,” said Shonan.

  His eyes on Aku’s felt like a strong grip. How? Aku wondered. How, with two men against a dozen or a score? Shonan the Red Chief was sure of everything. Aku was sure of nothing.

  Oghi said, “Why not get ahead of them? Use the coastal route and beat them to the junction of the two trails?”

  They looked at him. His eyes were jumping and hallooing now.

  “I like surprises,” said the sea turtle man.

  “You said we’d get lost,” said Shonan.

  “Not if you have a very good guide. Such as me.”

  8

  Salya was gone, gone, gone. Shonan let that single word be the mark of his rhythm as he loped along the sand behind Oghi. As far as he was concerned, the sea turtle man didn’t run hard enough. On the other hand, Oghi was small, and at least he never stopped. He trotted step after step over the dunes, through the marshes, and across the creeks. He waded into the river without even slowing down. Their dog Tagu, with elk blankets and deer hides wrapped around dried meat, stayed at Oghi’s heels, as if following a new master. At the rear Aku kept up, relieved that they didn’t have to go faster.

  When they came to the first creek, the turtle and dog swam the same way, head up and legs waggling below. The father and son swam like most Galayi men, on their sides. Oghi got to the other bank first.

  The sea turtle man called a food break, brooking no disagreement. While the warriors munched their deer meat, he waded into the tide pools, popped shelled creatures off the rocks, and scooped out the meat. When he sat back down with them, he smiled and said, “Mother sea.”

  When they came to a big river marked on their map, they faced a high palisade on the far bank. “We can’t land over there,” Oghi pointed out.

  “Let’s swim upstream,” said Shonan. He was leery of the sea.

  “Can’t,” said Oghi. “The tide’s going out. Formidable current.” Aku was tickled by the formal way the sea turtle man talked. “The only way is the ocean,” Oghi said cheerfully.

  Without waiting for a response, Oghi plunged into the salt water and led them, swimming, parallel to the shore. Gradually, the palisade became a hill, a slope, then just some dunes. The sea was calm and glassy. The sea turtle angled toward the beach.

  Just then he rocked in the water and called out, “Riptide!” Bizarrely, he started sailing out to sea.

  In a moment Tagu was bobbing along behind Oghi, Shonan behind both of them, and Aku last. It was an odd sensation. Aku felt like he was flying above the sea floor, riding some sort of water-air to a destination.

  What the hell was happening? He turned and swam as hard as he could toward the shore.

  “Keep …! Don’t ….!” Oghi yelled, but his words were garbled.

  Aku yelled, “What?!”

  “Swim,” yelled Shonan. He waited for a moment while the sea sloshed over his head. “Don’t …”

  Aku stopped swimming for a moment. He felt as if he were sailing as fast as an eagle that launches off a rocky point and soars on firm wings. Except that he was soaring out to sea, and to death.

  He aimed straight toward the shore and kicked hard again. After a furious effort, he stopped, turned, and saw that he was much further from the beach than anyone else, and not as far past the mouth of the river. Tagu issued one ferocious bark. Aku felt himself flying backward into the infinite
ocean.

  He looked down. The water was clear, and probably only two or three times as deep as Aku was tall. He thought for a moment about stretching out on the bottom and not being able to breathe. He felt panicky. The more he looked, the more panicky he felt. And he could see that, all along, he was floating further and further into the ocean that went on forever.

  In a flurry he set himself for one more charge toward the land. He kicked his legs and flailed his arms and kicked his legs and flailed his arms. Then he took a careful look down and saw that he was still sailing out to sea, as a cloud sails the skies at the mercy of the winds.

  He stopped. He looked back toward the familiar land, where a person could walk, talk, find something to eat, and never come to a single place completely without air. The land was getting farther and farther away, and the palisade looked lower, much lower, and vague. He realized that he could float so far out onto the everywhere-is-water that he wouldn’t be able to see the land. As the sky was everything above, the water would be everything below.

  He looked down and saw the no-air-at-the-bottom place drifting along beneath him. He let himself imagine, just for a moment, how much of the no-air place there must be. Some people thought the ocean went all the way around the Earth, to the far side of the rolling country that was on the other side of the mountains where the Galayi people made their home. Some people said that, if you could walk on water, it would be a hundred days’ walk all the way around to that rolling country. Other people said a thousand days. And probably the everywhere-water was as big up and down as it was across. The no-air part of Earth might be as big as Turtle Island herself was. Or bigger. At the very beginning, when all the plants and animals, including human beings, were ready to come down and live on Earth, the entire planet was water. Then Water Beetle started diving down and bringing up dirt, making places to walk and build houses and live. No one knew how much of the everywhere-water Water Beetle had covered with dirt.

  Aku decided he couldn’t swim anymore. He was far too tired in his muscles and he felt woozy in his head, too. He would sail like a cloud. Why not? He didn’t have any choice, and it felt good. He would wag his legs gently and sail and sail and sail until the water was as big as the sky and then … He guessed he would slide down and lie on the bottom.