Keena hears wood splintering and Shinoni screaming, “Eeeeiiii-yaaa.” Then, silence.
“Shinoni, are you all right?” Keena shouts. Is this one of her tricks or is she hurt? She rushes around the brush pile and finds a gaping hole half-hidden by a broken cover of woven vegetation. Keena holds her breath, heart pounding, as she peers over the edge. Her friend lies bruised and still on the floor of a deep pit.
After a few heartbeats, Shinoni sits up slowly, aching and winded. She rubs her bleeding elbow and looks up.
High above her, Keena’s pale face appears at the rim. Her voice floats down with the debris. “It’s a trap. Someone set a trap to catch anything stupid enough to jump the brush pile.”
Keena’s voice seems to be coming from a great distance. Shinoni’s ears are ringing, and the walls of the pit spin wildly around her.
“You’re lucky.” Keena sounds both relieved and angry. “Hunters sometimes put sharp spikes in these pits to kill animals that fall in.”
“I certainly feel lucky,” Shinoni says. She struggles to stand up, then uncoils the rope from her pouch and tosses one end up toward the rim. “Take this, but be careful not to fall in.” The rope falls back into the pit, coiling uselessly at her feet. She bends over to pick up the rope, but pauses as she’s overcome by dizziness.
“You’ll have to throw higher so I can reach it.” Keena wriggles closer to the edge and leans over.
Shinoni looks up quickly as Keena’s shadow looms large in the pit. “Don’t get too close!” Her warning is too late. The crack of breaking vegetation claps in Shinoni’s ears.
“Aaaaa-yeeee!” Keena’s shriek of terror announces her free fall into the hole. She lands with a thud beside Shinoni.
Keena moans as Shinoni pulls her up to a sitting position and looks her over. Shinoni gingerly pokes and prods Keena’s arms and legs.
“You’re all right — but now what do we do? Who knows when whoever dug this pit will be back?” Dangling strands of broken vegetation sway mockingly out of reach.
“Yes, and who did dig this pit?” Keena squints anxiously up at the rim. “They’ll be angry we wrecked their trap.”
Shinoni and Keena get back on their feet and examine the four walls of their prison. They’re slippery clay, mixed with shale, and cut at a steep angle. The girls gouge footholds on the wall with their hands. Blood drips from their fingers and the shale crumbles under their feet as they try to climb.
“These walls are higher than the tallest Kula hunter’s reach. Who could dig such a deep hole?” Shinoni sits on the floor, which is strewn with brush and plant debris from the broken trap cover.
“Perhaps it was already here and they just made it bigger.” Keena flops down beside Shinoni. “I’ve seen hunters set such traps before in pits that Leeswi provides when she shakes the earth.”
Shinoni stares at the pit walls. There must be a way out. “Get up, Krag. We’ll show them their trap can’t hold us,” she says. She stands up, her face smeared with dust and sweat.
“I think it is holding us, Kula. Are you going to fly?” Keena asks.
“Get up. I’ll stand on your shoulders and try to reach the opening.”
“Why will you stand on my shoulders? Perhaps I should stand on yours.” Keena gets up slowly, her bruised body aching.
“Oh, you’re difficult, Krag. You’re heavier than me and I can stretch farther. That’s why I should stand on you.”
Keena gives in. She squats with her back against one wall while Shinoni steps onto her broad shoulders, facing the side of the pit. Keena braces herself against the slippery shale and clay. She slowly pushes her body upright and lifts Shinoni high in the air.
“Can you reach it?” Keena gasps for breath in the dusty, stale air. She struggles to hold Shinoni steady against the wall.
“No, can you push me higher? Maybe jump or stand on your toes?” Shinoni stretches as high as she can but is still an arm’s length away from the edge.
“I can’t. I can’t even breathe.” Keena’s legs buckle and both of them land in a pile back on the floor of their prison.
Several failed escape attempts later, Shinoni sits on the floor of the pit, head down, shoulders slumped. Keena sits a short distance away, resting her head on her arm. They’re both exhausted.
“The sun’s going down.” Shinoni’s voice trembles as the light dims in the pit.
“The beasts will prowl soon.” Keena stares up at the opening. “Do you think we’re safe here?”
“Well, if anything jumps in, it won’t be able to get out,” Shinoni says.
“That’s a comforting thought.” Keena moves closer to her.
Just then a shaggy head looms over the opening. Tewa looks down at them. She cocks her ears and whines.
“Tewa, I knew you’d come,” Shinoni calls.
“What will she do, Kula? Lower her tail and pull us out?” Keena asks.
“She’ll stand guard and warn us if something comes.”
“That’ll be a comfort as we starve to death.”
“We won’t starve by going without food for one night, and by morning we’ll find a way out.” Shinoni rubs Keena’s back. “You’ll see.” The girls huddle together and drift into sleep.
Outside the pit the trees and brush rustle with movement as the evening dance between predator and prey begins. The drawn-out, haunting call of an owl floats on the evening breeze, and a rabbit screams somewhere in the forest. A wolf howls in the distance. Another answers, and another, as the pack gathers for the hunt.
Tewa stands near the forest edge, sniffing the tantalizing messages borne on the air, her ears cocked toward the music of the hunt. Reluctantly she ignores the invitation and lies down near the rim of the pit, her eyes alert and glowing in the gathering dusk.
Shafts of muted morning light filter in through the dusty air when Shinoni and Keena waken to Tewa’s growls. The wolf looks over the edge and whines a sharp warning. Then she draws her head back and disappears.
“What’s going on?” Keena mumbles in a sleepy voice.
“Tewa’s warning us. Maybe someone’s coming,” Shinoni says. If it’s hunters, Tewa will be no match for them. Shinoni hopes she has found a safe place to hide.
The sounds of snapping branches and gruff male voices drift in through the opening. Shinoni and Keena rise stiffly and back up against the far wall, trying to disappear into the crevices.
Shadows block out the light. Ropes snake down from the edge, and dirt falls into the pit. Keena and Shinoni stare up into the leering faces of Haken and his hunters.
37
TWO OF HAKEN’S hunters shinny down the ropes, filling the pit with the stench of their brawny bodies. Their faces are twisted into fierce snarls and their eyes are wild beneath brow ridges painted red and black. The bear and wolf teeth tangled in their hair and around their necks clatter as they hang over Shinoni and Keena. There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
“Keep away, monsters!” Shinoni screams. A hunter seizes her. She bites him and spits out blood. He slaps her to the ground, and Keena leaps on his back.
“Leave us be. Leeswi will take your breath if you harm us!” Keena shouts.
The threat of vengeance from Leeswi stops the hunter for a heartbeat, but Haken’s angry cry echoes from above. The men roughly pin Keena and Shinoni on the floor of the pit and bind their hands behind their backs.
Shinoni struggles as one hunter wraps a climbing rope so tightly around her waist and chest she can hardly breath. She sticks her foot out and trips the hunter tying Keena with the other rope, sending him sprawling. Haken’s furious henchmen jerk the ropes. It feels like Shinoni’s ribs will crack. The girls are hoisted up, scraping and banging against the rough rock walls to the top of the pit, where six more hostile hunters wait.
Sunshine blinds the girls after the dim light below. They squat on the ground, surrounded by the fur-covered legs of Haken’s men, who mill about them.
“Aaaaawiiiiyayaa!” Haken howls and dan
ces with glee, thrusting his spear into the air. Some of the hunters start to dance and shout as well, and as they move, the girls can see behind them.
“Look, they have other captives,” Shinoni whispers.
Two bound figures sit at a distance. One looks over at them and struggles to sit up straight. “Keena. Keena. It’s me, Kreel,” he shouts. He’s knocked to the ground by a spear butt. Raucous laughter erupts from the hunters.
“What did he say? Do you know the captives? One’s a Kula!” Shinoni exclaims.
“It’s Kreel and Sabra! I told you about them. They’re friends.” Fear and joy mix in Keena’s voice. She is overjoyed to see them, but she knows Haken doesn’t keep captives alive unless he has a use for them.
“They must’ve been searching for you. Maybe your band’s nearby.”
Rough hands grab Shinoni and Keena and pull them to a standing position. Haken swaggers toward them with a nasty grin twisting his scarred face. He towers over them and utters a string of threats. Shinoni, her eyes pools of fear, turns to Keena. Keena looks back helplessly, her voice stuck in her throat. Haken pushes her close to Shinoni.
“He wants me to tell you they’ll find a place to build a fire. They’ll force you to tell him your hunting magic. Then they’ll sacrifice all of us to the cave bears. Haken will gain power from Leeswi for his bravery.”
“That doesn’t sound very brave to me,” Shinoni mutters.
Haken roars and pushes the girls apart. Hunters surround all four captives, and Haken leads the group into the valley at a fast pace. The hunters swagger and laugh, shaking their spears and chanting fiercely.
Shinoni and Keena are bruised and dirty from their fall into the pit and the rough way Haken’s men hauled them out of its depths. Their hands, tightly bound behind them, pull on their aching muscles, and walking is difficult. Keena looks over her shoulder as best she can. She and Shinoni are in the centre of the group and hunters march behind them, separating them from Kreel and Sabra, but she can see between the men. Both boys have cuts and bruises and stagger as they try to keep up. They came for her. Kreel came. Now they might die because of her.
Haken’s hunters laugh and threaten all four of them with their spears and clubs. Keena stumbles against Shinoni and whispers a warning. “They’re laughing about how they’ll make you tell Haken your magic.”
“Ah, the magic again. I thought they’d just kill us.” Shinoni sighs, then grinds her teeth.
“They will, but they want to have some fun first,” Keena says.
A hunter pushes them apart again, striking Keena with his spear butt and knocking her to the ground. Shinoni flies at him and kicks him in the groin, sending him reeling backward. Shinoni bends to help Keena up. The shocked hunters raise their clubs, but Haken shouts angrily at his men, pushing them away from the girls.
He brings his face close to Keena and Shinoni, fixing them with his fearful glare. At this distance, his predator scent is overpowering. Shinoni pulls back, gagging, and turns her head. Keena lowers her eyes, her heart racing. Haken sneers and spits out a threat. The hunters roar with laughter as he swaggers away.
“He says they can kill us after he has the magic. Then they’ll feed us to the cave bears and take our skulls back as trophies.” Keena shudders.
“Walk behind me,” Shinoni whispers as she helps Keena stand. Shinoni has that look on her face that means she’s got a plan.
Keena nods and drops back a few paces to move behind Shinoni. Her heart pounds. What does the Kula want me to do? Keena looks at Shinoni, who carries nothing to fight with, just her cape and her pouch. Of course! She must block the hunters’ view of Shinoni so she can move her pouch into a position where she can reach her knife with her bound hands.
A sudden wild trumpeting blares in the distance, stopping Haken and his men in their tracks. They gesture wildly, shouting with surprise and fear as a herd of beasts races across the valley floor, headed in their direction. The earth shakes with the tromping of dozens of heavy feet as the mammoths gallop toward them. Keena gasps when she recognizes the young one she and Shinoni saved a few suns ago. He is running alongside his mother at the head of the herd. The matriarch raises her trunk and blasts another warning.
The hunters stand their ground, spears ready, but Keena can see their nerve starting to waver as the long noses advance ever closer. Panic sets in! The hunters scatter and flee in all directions as the huge beasts reach them.
Sabra and Kreel scream in terror and grovel on the ground, trying to cover their heads with their bound hands. Shinoni and Keena leap in front of them, standing between them and the mammoths.
“Be quiet and stay still,” Keena shouts at them. “They won’t hurt you if they see you’re our friends.”
“Friends!” Sabra shouts, struggling to free his hands from their tethers. “They’ll smash us!”
“Be still if you want to live,” Shinoni orders. “We’ll cut your ropes as soon as we’re free.” Shinoni’s hands are still tied behind her back. She uses her fingers to push and pull the strap that holds her pouch around her waist. Finally the pouch is at her back, but she still can’t reach to open it. “Keena, hurry,” she calls above the din. “Help me get my knife.”
Keena stands back to back with Shinoni, keeping a wary eye on the huge animals milling about so close to them. She grasps the pouch and pulls out the stone blade, transferring it into Shinoni’s hands.
“Good work.” Shinoni saws at her bonds, which quickly fray and fall apart, then cuts Keena free. They exchange triumphant glances as they rush to help Kreel and Sabra.
“Keena, we’ve come to save you! To bring you home,” Kreel shouts.
“Perhaps we should untie you first.” Keena chuckles.
Shinoni quickly frees them with her knife. A huge shadow falls over them, and they look up into the beady eyes of the matriarch. She trumpets and Kreel and Sabra scream. The long nose extends her trunk to Shinoni and Keena, gently touching their heads.
“Come on, Haken will be back soon.” Shinoni steps gingerly onto the matriarch’s trunk and the mammoth boosts her onto her back.
Kreel and Sabra stare, open-mouthed and shaking. Keena grabs their arms. “You’re safe. We’ve ridden her before.”
The mammoth reaches out her trunk again and encircles Keena, boosting her up to join Shinoni. Kreel and Sabra cling to each other, still trembling.
“Please, mother long nose, help the foolish boys. They’re friends,” Keena pleads. The matriarch eyes Sabra and Kreel, then feels their heads with the tip of her trunk. She picks them up, first Kreel and then Sabra, and tosses them onto her back.
Keena cheers. “You see, she’s not smashing us — we’re safe.” She can’t believe Kreel is sitting behind her, his arms hugging her tight. She leans back and smiles at him.
“Hang on or you might fall off and be trampled,” Shinoni snaps at the boys. “She cares for us — she’s our friend — but she might not care for you.” She shoots Keena a look, then turns back and rubs the mammoth behind her hairy ear. “Thank you, big mother. Eeeehaa. Take us away.”
Keena looks at Shinoni’s rigid back. Could she be upset because Kreel and Sabra are here? Keena feels a pang as she realizes that she now has her two friends here while Shinoni has no one. But at least they’re safe. She settles back against Kreel, ready to enjoy the ride.
The matriarch trumpets and the herd rallies behind her, moving off as rapidly as they came. Keena takes one last look back. Haken and his hunters stare, eyes wide in disbelief, from behind the boulders where they’ve taken refuge. Haken’s furious wail echoes as Shinoni and Keena disappear in the distance.
38
FAR FROM HAKEN’S FURY, the mammoth herd stops to drink at a river that meanders through an open plateau. Golden and brown grass and shrubs line the riverbanks and sway in the wind. Nearby, the limestone cliffs Shinoni and Keena have been seeking tower over the landscape. Their steep slopes are crisscrossed with a dark network of caves.
Shinoni
and Keena slide off the matriarch’s back as she grazes by the water’s edge. Shinoni stretches. It’s so wonderful to be free of the pit trap and away from Haken and his hunters.
“Come join us, Kreel, Sabra,” Keena calls. “I want to hear about home.”
“Do you want me to catch you, boys?” Shinoni grins and spreads her arms.
Kreel and Sabra hesitate, then slide off the mammoth. Still grazing, she begins to amble off as they do, sending them tumbling sideways. They hit the ground hard.
“Ha, did you see those cowards run?” Sabra shouts. “Haken’s no braver than a girl.”
“You should be careful what you say, since it was a girl who cut you free.” Shinoni extends her hand to pull Sabra up, but he ignores her and gets up by himself.
“Who is this?” Sabra asks Keena, who’s helping Kreel to his feet.
“She’s my friend. Her name is Shinoni,” Keena says.
Shinoni looks at Sabra and Kreel, both bedraggled and covered in bruises and cuts from their encounter with Haken. They don’t look like much, but they did come to find Keena — and nearly lost their lives for it. Maybe she’ll give them another chance.
“It’s good to see a Kula,” she says. “Keena and I have come a long way since we first escaped from Haken.”
“You escaped from Haken, too?” Sabra’s eyebrows rise.
“It’s a long story.” She doesn’t want to share this yet, even if he is a Kula. “Keena, we must go now,” she calls.
But Keena is hanging on to Kreel and doesn’t respond. “It’s good to see you! How’s Ubra? Did she send you?”
“I wanted to find you, Keena,” Kreel says. “Ubra and Atuk wanted to come and bring you home, too, but they weren’t strong enough.” He hugs her.
“Atuk wanted to find me?” Keena asks.
“Yes, your father was so sad,” Kreel says. “He tried to make it through the snow pass for you, but his leg gave out.”
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