“You right. It always have another way.”
“Huracan said he could only be himself,” Corinne said, frowning. “We must be ourselves—our true selves—too.”
Mama D’Leau sighed. “He will tire of these storms, you know. He can’t blow forever.”
Corinne bit her lip. “I will do everything I can,” she said, looking at Papa Bois. “You said that you can’t go into the sky? Well, now I can.”
“He will kill you, Corinne.”
“Not if you help me,” she pleaded. “Both of you. We can do this if we do it all together.”
Mama D’Leau closed her eyes and set her jaw. “I don’t have the strength.”
“Then I will do what I can alone.”
25
The Belly of the Mountain
The people of the villages moved achingly slow, as if every droplet of rain was pushing them farther into the mud.
Corinne followed toward the back of the line. When they went past the bakery, she knocked softly. Hugo opened the top of the Dutch door and looked out, a gas lamp in his hand. At the sight of Corinne’s and Pierre’s faces, he didn’t hesitate. He called the boys, and they all fell in line with Corinne’s neighbors from the fishing village and all the other people they had picked up along the way.
The boys pushed to the front and led the way.
The going was unsteady and dangerous in the dark. Paths and traces had been cut off by mud and rock slides. Rivulets flowed in places that had been dry land, quick and strong despite their small size. Handheld gas lamps, empty of fuel or doused by the rain, flickered out. Some broke when their owners slipped on the slick ground, leaving shards of glass on the already tricky paths. Fat fish lay with their mouths open among the rocks, far from any water. A large cow was on its side, as three corbeaus pecked at its bloated stomach. Most of the crowd averted their eyes from the corbeaus’ meal. At least the rain didn’t begin again until they reached the other side, in the shadow of the mountain, where the brunt of the storm fell against its great stone back.
The landscape was totally different. The path they had taken the day before was cut off by several fallen trees.
Bouki lifted his lantern, looking for a way forward, then turned back to the crowd and shook his head.
Malik tugged his brother’s shirt and made a curve with his hand, pointing around the mountain.
“There is another way,” Bouki announced. “But it is not easy.”
There was grumbling in the crowd, but Hugo fell into step behind the boys and everyone followed. The rain came down harder. Mud covered everything: the path, the trees, the people—even their lanterns were splattered with it. The going was slower than the last time. The ground, ravaged by the first two storms, was like an open mouth of sharp, broken teeth. Not one person escaped without a cut or bruise.
When they reached the place where Malik had found the slit in the rocks, fallen trees and rocks had changed the face of the wall, making it unfamiliar. They felt their way around until Malik’s arm slipped through.
The entrance seemed even thinner than it had before. Hugo moved to the front and put his shoulder against one of the boulders, while Pierre and Victor heaved at the other side. They grunted and pushed until the rocks gave way, widening the path just enough for one person to squeeze through at a time.
Bouki held his lamp high as he ushered everyone into the belly of the mountain. In the darkness, dozens of gas lamps bobbed and swayed, illuminating frightened faces as people tripped over stalagmites and worried about stalactites that hung dangerously over their heads. All around them thunder boomed and shook the mountain to its core, making the red mud drawings of hunters throwing spears into beasts tremble, in what seemed like a warning.
From ahead of Corinne came the noise of a scuffle. Corinne found Dru and her family in the crowd and together they pressed forward to find out what was going on.
Victor was standing in the way of a couple, his fists tight and ready. “You think I don’t know who you are?” he asked them. He moved one hand to the fisherman’s knife looped into the waist of his pants and drew it partway out of its leather sheath. It was sharp enough to cut tangled nets, or to gut a fish in one slice. Even in the low light, its edge gleamed like a stroke of lightning. “Do you want to tell these people the truth? Or should I?”
“It’s Mama D’Leau and Papa Bois,” Corinne whispered to Dru.
“What are they doing here?” Dru asked. “I didn’t think she could get so far from the water.”
“They are hiding,” Corinne said. “Even they can’t stand up against Huracan.”
“I asked you a question,” Victor demanded.
“Victor.” Pierre held up his hands. “This is not the time. We need to get everyone to safety.”
“We will never be safe with jumbies among us,” Victor said loudly.
There were gasps from the crowd, and then everyone hushed. The only sounds were the wind howling on the other side of the rocks and the drip of water from the cave ceiling to the rocky floor below.
Papa Bois tried to sidestep Victor, but the fisherman caught his arm and shoved him to the floor. Papa Bois’s skin turned sallow and wrinkles creased around his eyes. Gray hair threaded through his dark braids.
Victor’s eyes were wide. “You see?” he called out. His voice echoed on the walls and rung through the mountain.
Mama D’Leau ran to Papa Bois and pulled him up. Papa Bois’s body returned to that of a strong young man.
Victor wheeled in the crowd. “So who else here is a jumbie?” he asked. “And when are you going to turn?” He moved to a man so tall he had to duck beneath a stalactite to stand in the cave. He had a thick beard and hairy arms. “And what happens to the rest of us when you do?” He stared at the man, but the man simply blinked back at him.
“You are frightened, Victor,” said Miss Aileen, the eddoes seller who sat near Corinne at the market.
“I’m not afraid.” Victor pointed at Mama D’Leau and Papa Bois. “I’m not wrong about them, or about you either.” A few people in the crowd shuffled into place behind Victor. He puffed out his chest. “I am not the only one who feels this way.”
Pierre put himself in front of Corinne. “We have to get through this together,” he said. “No one is forcing you to be here, but leaving now is too dangerous.”
“You think they should stay with us?” Victor asked.
“I think we are all better together,” Pierre said.
“Oho!” Victor backed off as he fingered the knife at his waist. “Let’s see how many of you survive.” He moved down the path. “You are all fools.”
“Stay with us, it’s safer,” Pierre said.
Victor shook his head. “It will never be safe with them.” He used his lips to point at the tall, hairy man and continued moving away, alone, until he disappeared in the darkness.
Pierre stared at the people who had backed Victor. They looked everywhere else. “They are all afraid, like Miss Aileen said,” Pierre explained as he rubbed Corinne’s arm.
“The rest of us are afraid, too,” Dru said. “We’re all trying to be safe. The jumbies aren’t any different.”
Pierre found Mr. and Mrs. Rootsingh’s eyes in the crowd and smiled at them. “Just so, eh?”
With Victor gone, the group returned to trudging up the mountain. At the top, where the cave was supposed to be, only a small opening remained. The mouth had collapsed shut.
“We’re stuck?” Dru asked.
Bouki picked up a pebble and tossed it through the opening. He listened to it clatter on the ground. “The cave is open on the other side of this,” he said.
“We can move the rocks,” Hugo said.
“No,” Pierre said. He pointed up at the ceiling. There were long cracks running through the stones, from which dust fell in thin cascades. “The whole thing could
come down on our heads.”
“We can wait it out inside the mountain,” Corinne suggested.
Malik shook his head.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable,” Bouki said. “There isn’t much space to sit here, and nobody brought enough supplies. Lower down, we were close enough to the river, but up here there’s nothing.”
“I’m already thirsty,” Corinne said.
Malik held up his lamp. It was nearly out of oil, and the light had dipped to a low blue flame.
“That too,” Dru said.
“We have no choice but to wait,” Pierre said.
Corinne looked around the crowd and frowned. “Papa Bois?” she called. The jumbie stepped forward. In form he was still a young man, and tall, and dark as coal, nearly the same color as the long hair that fell to his waist. It was amazing how good he was at hiding in plain sight. “Can you take us through?”
“To where?” he asked.
“To the village,” Corinne said. “Straight up.”
Another peal of thunder rolled through, sending shockwaves through the stone. Everyone looked at the cracked ceiling of the cave.
“Will they take us?” Pierre asked. “It was only you four the last time.”
“There’s nowhere else to go,” Corinne said.
“We should still ask,” Mrs. Rootsingh said.
“What if they refuse?” asked Miss Aileen.
“They won’t,” Bouki said.
“Quickly, Papa Bois,” Dru said.
“Drupatee!” Mrs. Rootsingh snapped.
“Please,” Dru added hastily.
“She is right,” Papa Bois said. “I’m not known for speed, but I will try.” He squeezed Mama D’Leau’s fingers a long moment, then removed his hand from hers.
“You can’t,” Mama D’Leau said. She stood taller than he was. Her skirt, in hues of deep blue, folded and smoothed like the surface of water as she moved. “Transporting so many will drain you.”
“We must help, cherie,” he said. “We will do it together.” He reached for her, but she shook her head and kept her arms to her side. It was the second time Corinne saw worry crease her face.
Papa Bois stepped away. With each step he became more jumbie. His toes curled in under his feet and became small, hard hooves. The black of his hair threaded with gray and lightened to a frost. Two small horns pushed through the thicket of braids on top of his head. He hunched forward and from out of nowhere pulled a stick to lean against. In the flickering light of the dimming lamps, he stood before the crowd, small and ancient.
“He looks different,” Dru whispered to Corinne.
“He’s . . . weaker.” Corinne was surprised, too.
“But why?” Dru asked.
Corinne looked at Mama D’Leau. She also looked weaker. She didn’t stand as tall as she had before, but she still appeared to be human, a woman with long legs who held her head proudly. “I don’t know,” Corinne said. “I’ve never seen one of them as a jumbie while the other remained human. They always change together.”
“Maybe they don’t have to,” Dru said.
“Especially since she has some extra help,” Corinne said.
“Like what?”
“The opal.”
Papa Bois leaned heavily against his walking stick. “I can take all of you through the rocks.”
A murmur of questions went through the crowd.
Papa Bois reached a hand out, but no one moved forward to take it.
“I’ll show you,” Corinne said. “He can take me first.”
“I’ll come too,” Pierre said quickly.
The two of them clasped hands with Papa Bois. “It’s better if you hold your breath,” the jumbie said.
As soon as Corinne inhaled, she felt her body pushing against the rocks, and then through them. It was instantly cooler in the cave than it had been in the narrow passage filled with people, but Corinne had the eerie sensation of being in too close a space. Soon Corinne and Pierre emerged in that cup of mountain where the village stood. As soon as she felt fresh air on her face she opened her eyes. Her head was just above the wet grass. She and Pierre bloomed from the ground, slowly and smoothly into heavy rain. When they were completely through, Papa Bois staggered a little, and Pierre caught him by the arm.
“Are you sure you can do this?” he asked.
Papa Bois nodded.
A flash of lightning illuminated the mountain’s highest peak. Huracan was not giving up. The people could hide inside the rocks, or on top of it, but the god wasn’t going to stop until something made him.
“I’ll go back,” Pierre said. “I’ll be able to convince everyone to come along.” He placed a firm hand on Corinne’s shoulder and looked into the village. “Be polite when you let them know what’s happening.”
“Yes, Papa,” she said. She turned to Papa Bois. “Remember what I asked you?”
“That will not be easy,” the jumbie said.
“We can only try,” said Corinne.
Pierre and Papa Bois sank into the wet grass and disappeared as silently as they had come.
A lamp came on in the village, and the wide frame of Aunty Lu emerged from one of the houses. “Corinne?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
“When the storm started again, everyone went to the mountains, but the way to the caves was cut off.” She took a breath. “We need a place to stay. Please.”
Aunty Lu nodded quickly. “We will work it out.” People began to grow through the wet grass near them. There was Dru’s family, Mrs. Duval and her children, and Marlene and Mrs. Chow.
“But what is this?” Aunty Lu cried, hop-stepping out of the way of the heads that were popping up like flowers from the ground.
“There are more coming,” Corinne said, as the first group emerged all the way to their feet.
“Come. Follow me.” Aunty Lu hurried toward the village, beckoning everyone with her.
Corinne turned toward the mountain’s peak. At its top, she could be close to Huracan. Then, if Papa Bois and Mama D’Leau did their part, too, she might be able to help. As soon as she started toward the mountain, a bolt of lightning hit it, exploding rocks into the air. Corinne saw a hand in the lightning flash. It was a warning. She stopped.
The rocks hurtled back to earth. “Run!” Aunty Lu yelled.
Most everyone went toward the village, but Corinne ran to the passageway that would lead to the mountain’s peak. She dodged the rocks raining down on her as she went, as well as the ones rolling on the ground across her path. When she reached the passageway, she looked back. Papa Bois was still standing in the grass, calmly facing the stones bounding toward him. He leaned lightly on his stick as the avalanche slowed and then stopped, with the largest rock coming to rest at his hooves.
Papa Bois turned his face to the sky and seethed. Corinne was sure he was looking into the god’s face. Then he turned and nodded once at Corinne.
26
A Plan in Motion
The boys stood with Mama D’Leau, Pierre, and Hugo as Papa Bois ferried people through the rocks. After four trips there was only one small group remaining.
There was another roll of thunder above their heads, and then the sound of crashing. The mountain shook around them and the cracks overhead widened, showering pebbles and dust on their heads.
“Is it me, or is it getting worse?” Hugo whispered.
“We need to move,” Bouki said.
Papa Bois reemerged from the rocks looking grayer and smaller than he had when he began.
Mama D’Leau hung back. “Yuh will kill yuhself,” she said.
Papa Bois reached a hand toward her. The veins in his arms stood out, as if he had strained every muscle to its maximum. “Come,” he said. “She will need us.”
“Are you talking about Corinne?” Pierre
asked.
Papa Bois bowed his head. “Nothing has happened, La Mer,” he said. “But we must all stick together and do what we are best at.”
“I will not go,” Mama D’Leau said.
Malik moved to her and folded his fingers into hers.
“Don’t ’fraid,” Papa Bois said gently. He took her other hand and turned to the others. “Remember to—”
“Hold your breath,” Miss Aileen finished. “You’ve said it every time,” she added, smiling.
Papa Bois steadied himself against his walking stick and his eyes steeled. The entire group moved into the rock wall. Last of them was Mama D’Leau, whose face screwed up with horror as she was pulled inside the rocks.
They reappeared on the surface with the rain pounding them from all sides. Lightning struck the mountain like a hammer, shaking the ground around them.
Pierre and Hugo grabbed the boys and ran to the village, tripping over the field of rocks from the last blast. Aunty Lu met them at the first set of houses. Malik reached toward her, out of Hugo’s arms. She smiled at Hugo, but he didn’t return it. She led them to a large, central building, the same one the children had eaten in the day before with the doors at cardinal points. There was another boom and the entire room shuddered. A series of rumbling crashes followed.
The last two to the building were Mama D’Leau and Papa Bois. They leaned against each other, with Mama D’Leau carrying most of Papa Bois’s weight. His eyes were closed, but his hooves still moved on their own.
Dru and the boys met them at the south door.
“How is he?” she asked.
“He not going to make it,” Mama D’Leau said.
“I will make it,” Papa Bois whispered. “If you do your part.”
Mama D’Leau stiffened. “I go a long way to get what I want,” she said. “Why I should give that up now?”
Thunder ripped across the sky, and everyone ducked and covered their ears at the sound. “You must,” Papa Bois said.
“If we leave each other now . . .” Mama D’Leau whispered.
The Jumbie God's Revenge Page 13