Papa Bois walked slowly back out into the rain, as if time didn’t matter at all. He looked up into the sky. Another lightning flash illuminated the clouds. The outline of a body appeared in light and shadow, and the bolt of lightning shot out of its arm. Every line was sharp and pointed directly at Corinne, like a blade approaching its target.
When the lightning ended, Papa Bois had vanished.
• • •
“Wake up, Corinne,” Dru said.
Corinne felt like she was floating far off, and Dru’s voice wavered in the distance, hard to catch on to, like the tail of a kite. Dru called again and Corinne opened her eyes.
“You’re missing breakfast,” Dru said. “The boys are already up, and you know them. They will eat everything.”
Corinne squinted at the bright sky outside. The salty scent of freshly cooked eggs mixed with the fresh, wormy smell of rain-sodden dirt. Her body felt wrecked, like the mountain itself had rolled over her. She gasped and lifted the covers. She was whole, not the raw creature of flesh and blood who had stood in the fire last night and not the fire creature that had returned to the house. She was herself. Corinne.
“Did you have a bad dream?” Dru asked.
Corinne shook her head. It had not been a dream. She was sure of that. It was no wonder that her body felt like it had been turned inside out and back again. It had been.
“Then what?” Dru asked.
“I don’t feel well,” Corinne said.
Dru put her hand on Corinne’s forehead. Corinne cringed, expecting Dru to pull back burned, but nothing happened. “You don’t feel hot,” she said. Then she looked in Corinne’s eyes for a few seconds, her brow knit with worry. Corinne imagined that Dru was mimicking what her own mother did when any of the Rootsingh children were ill, but she knew that what she had wasn’t detectable by the usual methods. “Maybe Aunty Lu will let you lie down longer,” Dru said. “I’ll tell her you’re feeling poorly.”
“Thank you,” Corinne said. She rolled over again and went back to sleep. When she woke the next time, she heard people walking outside her room, and the sun was brighter than before.
“Good morning!” Aunty Lu’s voice boomed through the small house. “I thought you were dead away.” She laid a plate of eggs, steaming hot and fragrant, next to Corinne’s head. “Eat. You will need your strength.”
“For what?” Corinne asked.
Aunty Lu looked surprised. “Don’t you want to get back to your father? Your friend is anxious to find her family.”
Corinne’s face flushed. In all her thoughts that morning, she hadn’t given a single thought to her papa below. “Yes. Of course.”
“It’s going to be a long day for you if you want to go back down the mountain.” Aunty Lu exited the house, and Corinne caught a glimpse of her friends outside, playing in the slippery grass with other children, kicking up red mud. Dru had picked up her tunic and was running from a much smaller child. Malik was in the middle of a scuffle of giggling boys and girls. Bouki stood off to the side, watching them and laughing.
The boys looked so comfortable. They looked like they belonged.
Corinne ate quickly and strode out of the house. “We have to go,” she said.
Dru immediately came to her side. “I’m ready.”
Bouki looked at her but didn’t move.
“We have to go,” Corinne said again.
“You just woke up and you’re barking orders?” Bouki shook his head.
“Uncle Hugo is going to be worried about you,” Corinne said loudly.
Malik and the other children looked up, as did a few of the adults nearby, including Aunty Lu.
Bouki’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you think I know that?”
“Well?”
“You’re the one who’s been sleeping all morning!” Bouki said.
“She wasn’t feeling well,” Dru said.
Bouki shrugged and called roughly to Malik. “Come on. It’s time to go.”
Malik shook his head. He pressed back into the little muddy knot of playmates and planted his feet.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Bouki said. “We have to go home.”
Malik shook his head again. He squared his jaw and shoulders.
“Hugo will be waiting,” Bouki said.
Malik slackened a little. He didn’t move, but he didn’t shake his head, either.
Aunty Lu approached the two of them, smiling. “You know where we are,” she said. “You can always come back for him.” She put her hands on Malik’s shoulders and faced Bouki.
“I don’t know you,” Bouki said. “I won’t leave my brother here.”
Malik puffed out his chest and jutted his chin toward his brother now that he had Aunty Lu on his side.
Bouki turned to Corinne and Dru. “I can’t leave him here.”
“We can’t get down without you,” Corinne said. “We’ll get lost.”
“Not so,” Aunty Lu said. “There is another way down the mountain. You won’t even need a guide. And it’s the fastest way down . . . well, other than falling.”
Corinne felt a twinge in her stomach. It was a strange thing to say. She looked to Dru for agreement, but Dru was staring wide-eyed at Aunty Lu. Corinne pulled Bouki aside. “You’re going to stay here?” she whispered. “You don’t know these people.”
“They’re family.”
Corinne felt the wind knocked out of her. “Just like that? They left you all by yourselves.”
“They looked for us, Corinne.”
“Not well enough!” Her voice rose and caught the attention of everyone nearby. “They should have looked longer,” she added quietly.
Bouki put a hand on her shoulder. “They’re family. You give family a chance to be forgiven.”
“Don’t worry,” Aunty Lu assured them, stepping close to Corinne and Bouki. “The journey down is perfectly safe.” She nodded at a couple of people in the crowd who stepped forward, each holding a bag. They handed one to Corinne and one to Dru, then stepped back. “There’s food and water in there in case you get hungry,” Aunty Lu said. “Keep them tied at the top. They’re waterproof.”
Corinne looked pointedly at Dru again. Dru still didn’t notice.
The girls put the bags over their shoulders as Aunty Lu stepped around Malik and put her heavy hands on them. “I’ll show you the way.”
Aunty Lu led them through the village doorway and then down the stone steps. They followed the brow of the mountain, going around its curve until the sun began to sink again and they came to another set of stairs, narrower than the first. “Nearly there,” she said. The stairs ended at a thin shelf, beyond which was a steep slope. It was bare in spots where trees had been knocked over. Corinne traced the sky from horizon to horizon for storm clouds, but it was clear and bright blue. Maybe Huracan had vented all of his anger.
“Stay close to the side,” Aunty Lu warned. She pressed herself against the rocks and inched forward. Corinne and Dru held hands as they did the same. A warm, gentle breeze tugged at their clothes and hair. But soon they were in a wider spot, bald of grass, with only a few scrubby branches poking through the hard ground.
“Here,” Aunty Lu said.
“Where?” Corinne asked. There was nothing there. Up ahead was a flat rock face that Corinne was sure she couldn’t climb up or go down.
Aunty Lu pulled a lever and a large wicker basket descended from a ledge above them. It was woven around a metal frame and attached to a rope that sloped downward and into the tree line. The basket was large enough for a single grown-up to fit inside, or two small girls.
“Nope,” said Dru.
Aunty Lu laughed. “You will be safe,” she promised. “Smaller ones than you have ridden on this.”
“Where does it lead?” Corinne asked.
“No,” Dru said aga
in.
“The pitch lake,” Aunty Lu said. She walked around the basket, checking its seams and tugging at the rope and pulley it was attached to.
“Is that close to where we came on the mountain?”
“It’s the other side. But it’s the quickest way down.” Aunty Lu held the basket steady in front of the girls.
Dru shook her head.
“You can swim, right?” Aunty Lu asked.
“Yes,” Corinne said.
“Nope,” Dru said.
Aunty Lu looked surprised.
“She’ll be fine,” Corinne said.
“Good,” Aunty Lu said. She opened up a small door on one side of the basket and helped the girls inside.
Dru clutched Corinne’s arm.
“It will be fast,” Corinne said.
“How is that better?” Dru asked.
Aunty Lu latched the door behind them, gave the basket a push, and they hurtled down the side of the mountain.
16
The Pitch Lake
Dru knelt, forehead firmly planted against the bottom of the basket, arms hugging herself. Corinne crouched too, but found a chink in the weaving and peeked through. The mountain looked as if a giant had stomped across it, leaving the red dirt exposed like wounds. Mudslides trailed like tear tracks. In some places, the mud still tumbled down slowly enough that Corinne could see exactly what it would destroy next.
As they approached the end of the line, scattered wood beams and the galvanized roofs of houses came into sight. One house had fallen to the side, leaving the four posts of its foundation and a set of stairs climbing to nothing but air. Curtains billowed from the broken windows as the sideways house stared unblinkingly up at the sky that had brought it down.
A smattering of cows, a few goats and dogs, and some fast-flapping chickens picked their way through the wreckage, nosing what was left of the houses, the trees, the demolished gardens, and the impassable roads.
Corinne’s stomach twisted as she thought of her papa and the others in the caves. Were they safe enough?
The basket dipped low and slowed. Corinne stood on her tiptoes to look over the top. They were descending into a valley that Corinne had never seen before. Around them were hills scoured clean of vegetation by Huracan. Beneath lay a lake like glass that reflected the sky so perfectly, for a moment Corinne thought they were headed back up.
The basket skimmed the lake, ruffling its glassy surface and stirring up the strong scent of sulfur.
“What is that?” Dru screwed up her face and put a hand over her nose and mouth.
“It’s the water,” Corinne said.
“We have to swim in that?” Dru asked.
Corinne looked around. “There’s no other way out. Maybe it’s not so bad.”
The basket rose slightly, slowed to a stop, and then swung back. It came to rest hovering just over the top of the water. Corinne opened the door, holding on to the metal frame that attached it to the pulley and rope, and jumped down. She splashed in a few inches of water, but her feet hit bottom almost immediately, and then began to sink into gummy ground. She pulled one foot out, but her sandal stuck in the gunk at the bottom of the lake. When she bent to retrieve it, her foot slipped from under her and she landed on her back. The ground began to swallow her. Dru jumped down, grabbed Corinne’s arm, and tried to pull her up, but she also slipped in the muck. Corinne was completely beneath the water. She twisted onto her stomach and got up on her knees. Once again, the soft lake bed pulled at her, but at last she managed to get her feet under her and step away.
“You can’t stay in one place for long,” she said.
“We need to get away from here,” Dru agreed. She held the bag from Aunty Lu firmly and took off at a waddling run, prying her feet up and out of the water with every step. “You were right, it’s not so bad!” she said, but with her next step, she went straight under the surface with a huge splash.
“Dru!” Corinne moved to where Dru had sunk and found the bottom curving downward. She inched forward with her feet and moved her hands beneath the glassy water, hoping to feel her friend. When she was submerged to her chest, the slope sharpened. Corinne tried to grip with her toes, but she slid deeper.
She took a deep breath as she slipped under the surface of the murky lake.
Everything below was a blurred yellowish green. Corinne could see more now than from above the surface, but not by much. Her foot touched a little lip of ground and she used it to push herself forward, looking for any shape that resembled Dru. Corinne’s hands moved in large slow arcs in front of her, trying to feel for Dru, more of the mucky ground, anything that might be in the way.
At last, out of the corner of her eye, Corinne saw something flick, like a hand waving. She turned toward it and touched a small sandal. She kept moving in that direction until a fluttering piece of cloth brushed her hand. She grabbed it and pulled hard. Dru crashed against her and her eyes widened with surprise. Corinne kicked to the surface, dragging Dru by the end of her tunic.
As she breached the water, Corinne took a huge gulping breath, then pulled Dru out. Dru coughed and sputtered. They swam back toward the basket and pulled up onto the sticky black ground.
“It’s all over you,” Dru said.
Corinne looked at herself. Shiny black tar streaked her skin and clothes. She tried to pick it off, but it stuck on her fingers and clung beneath her nails.
“You too,” Corinne said.
Dru rubbed at the hem of her tunic where black tar stuck to the embroidery. “It’s really ruined now,” she said.
Corinne got up and pulled Dru with her. Together they waded through the lake, feeling their way with their toes to make sure there was solid ground beneath them. With every step, the pitch sucked their feet down, so they had to pull with force to move forward. It was slow and frustrating, but better than being swallowed by the lake.
They got closer to what looked like solid ground with a few patches of grass growing up between rocks. Relieved, Corinne leapt toward one of the rocks. Her toes hit the surface, but the rest of her foot came down in soft, slick tar. She teetered on the edge, trying to keep her balance.
“Corinne!” Dru shouted.
Corinne felt her friend’s hands groping at her as she slipped down a narrow shaft between two huge lumps of tar, barely splashing as she knifed through the water. Dru’s face peered down, large panicked eyes atop a shadowy body. Corinne could read Dru’s expression clearly, but it was obvious that Dru couldn’t see her at all.
Corinne spread her arms and legs to slow her descent. She slowed, then kicked upward again, focusing on the sliver of light that separated her from Dru, and from air, but the farther up she went, the thinner the sliver became, until it disappeared entirely. She reached up and touched the underside of a layer of tar. She tore at it with her fingers, sure she could somehow peel herself free, but it was huge and solid, and her efforts didn’t bring her any closer to the light, or to the air that she was beginning to desperately need.
Corinne turned. She would have to find another way up. But all around her, the ground was shifting like a huge, lumbering creature. She dove again as the black pitch coated even more of the surface. She looked for any opening. Every time she saw light and swam to it, the path closed.
Corinne put her hands to her neck, feeling for her mama’s necklace. It had saved her before. She forgot it was gone.
Her vision dimmed. She needed air. She reached a hand toward the only light she could find, but the surface was no closer.
There was only one thing she could do. Darkness closed in around Corinne’s vision. With her last breath, she murmured a name.
17
A Quick Rescue
Corinne’s call rippled out through the brackish water, undulating over the tar hills and stretching out to sea.
It was enough.
The next thing she felt was the rough scrape of scales against her body and a pair of soft arms buoying her up. She was pushed into the air, where she gulped breath and sputtered water. She fell on a soft bank right at Dru’s feet.
“You’re alive!” Dru shouted.
Two mermaids pushed themselves halfway out of the water next to Corinne. Their faces were deep brown with dark eyes, and their long, thick hair was braided in dozens of plaits that fell over their shoulders and down their backs. The smaller of the two mermaids lifted herself out of the water to the dark yellow scales that began at her waist, and slapped Corinne on the back. More water sprayed out of Corinne’s mouth.
“There now, you’re fine and we’re covered in pitch. It’s going to be impossible to get this out.” The other mermaid, Addie, flicked her green tail out of the water and rubbed at its scales, but the pitch only smeared against her shimmering body, dulling the color.
Corinne spat up the last of the water and took a deep breath. Her lungs and throat burned, but the air was fresh and sweet. “Thank you,” she said.
“You know I will always come,” Sisi said. “I promised.”
“What about my papa?” Corinne asked. “Have you seen him?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Sisi said. “Don’t worry.”
“How do you know?” Addie asked. She turned to Corinne. “What she means is he’s not dead in the water.”
Sisi flicked her tail and splashed dirty water onto Addie’s head and arms. “That was a terrible thing to say!”
“Now it’s in my hair, too!” Addie complained. “It’s true. You can only track Pierre in the water,” Addie said, picking a piece of pitch out of a long, thin plait. “What is the point of lying?”
“How come there are only two of you?” Dru asked. “Where’s Noyi?”
“You know how Noyi is,” Addie said. “You land fish are not her favorite.”
The Jumbie God's Revenge Page 8