“What is it?” James asked.
“Meloc’s been injured. They’re bringing him down,” he replied.
Despite the troublesome news, Peroc continued to dance to the rhythm of the hunter’s song back toward the trailhead. James relayed what Peroc had told them. Shortly, two tribeswomen appeared. Between them they held a crude stretcher made simply of sticks and leaves. On the stretcher lie an older man, Meloc. His hair was white, his skin was ashen, and his legs were torn apart and bloodied. The two women carrying the stretcher trotted off toward the camp. Peroc followed still calling out his celebratory cries despite the return of the injured man.
James exchanged concerned looks with the rest of his group and fell in behind Peroc as they headed to the camp. When they arrived, the hunting party had already begun cutting pieces of the creature and setting them on stones positioned around a roaring fire. They had set the head of the creature just outside the ring of fire. Its lifeless green and amber eyes looked on as its flesh was prepared for a feast. Everybody continued about their business as if James, Kilani, Luno, Roger, and William were not there.
The injured man was propped against the head of the creature and left to himself. He appeared to be fading in and out of consciousness as he attempted to remain seated. James called to Peroc several times, who was still dancing around celebrating, with no luck. Finally he grabbed him by the wrist.
“What will you do with him?” he asked, pointing to the injured man.
“Meloc is our eldest. It is an honor to die in the hunt for tampere. He will live to see us feast on its flesh then join our ancestors,” said Peroc.
“Will you not tend to his wounds?” asked James.
“It is against our laws,” said Peroc. “It appears you are upset by this. Please don’t be. Meloc has accepted his fate and will die with honor.”
“But there is no need for him to die at all,” said James.
“We only have the skills to prolong his death with injuries so severe,” said Peroc.
“I would like to try. I believe I can heal him,” said James.
Peroc’s expression changed immediately. He looked over at Meloc, who appeared to be teetering on the brink of unconsciousness again. Luno watched the exchange curiously. While he couldn’t understand what they were saying, it was easy enough to infer what the conversation was about. James said something that made Peroc’s casual tone and posture change immediately. Peroc turned and shouted at his reveling tribesmen. The music and festivities immediately came to a halt.
James turned away from Peroc and made his way to the dying man, who had slumped to the ground beside the teeth, which were exposed in an endless snarl. James put his hand on Meloc’s forehead. Immediately, the little man’s eyes opened. He smiled at James. James took his hand and helped him sit up.
“
Tertiri zé Manukto tupasarri ojala
,” said James. A pink light rose from the palms of his hands and rolled in on itself like a wave in the ocean as it hovered above them. James moved his hands apart. The light stretched and finally broke into two pieces. James sent each piece toward Meloc’s legs where they quickly wrapped themselves like bandages covering a wound. Meloc let out a terrible cry and fell to the ground.
“Tupasarri,” said James. The pink light lifted like a mist from the grass, revealing uninjured legs. Meloc stirred on the ground. Behind him, James could hear the cheering of his tribesmen as he helped Meloc back to a sitting position.
The old man smiled again at James but remained silent.
“Rise,” said James. “You are healed.”
Taking Meloc by the hands, he helped him to his feet. He was unstable for a moment but quickly found his equilibrium. Before he could say anything, he was swept away by his reveling tribe mates who’d reconvened the celebration. Still no one, with the exception of Peroc, had directly addressed James or anyone else in his group. It made James feel almost as if they were invisible. James returned to where Luno, Kilani, and the others stood watching everyone prepare for the feast and celebrate.
“Well done, my boy,” said Luno.
“Does anyone else find it the least bit odd that we’ve been invited here only to be ignored?” Luno asked.
“Oui, zis is not right,” said William.
James looked at Kilani, who appeared to be daydreaming and not paying the least bit of attention to the goings-on around her. The revelry continued for some time—as did the ignoring—until James finally lost patience and went in search of Peroc, who’d wandered off behind one of the structures, each slung with dried animal hide. At the peak of each tent, James saw stacks of human skulls, one on top of the other, skewered by a pointed spear. The sight was unnerving and for the first time since they’d arrived, he was concerned for their lives. He dodged men and women dancing in circles as he made his way in the direction he’d seen Peroc walk. James noticed the tall, stern-looking woman he’d seen at the head of the hunting party staring at him as he passed.
A loud boom froze James in his tracks. Everyone around him appeared immobile as well. The afternoon light went dark as if someone had thrust the sun behind the horizon in mere seconds. The fire, which had been low and steady, grew until its flames reached high into the air. The native closest to James brought her hands together. Her claps resounded as if she were banging on a large drum. Soon all the tribe were clapping in rhythm and forming a line on each side of the fire. James could not see Kilani, Luno, and the others.
The tall woman stepped out from her place in one of the lines and stood with her back to the fire, facing James. She continued to clap as she spoke.
“Since our mother’s, mother’s, mother dwelt here, the island foretold of the coming of one who would lead us. All this time we have, by law, never had a rightful chief. All this time we’ve waited for the one foretold. Peroc, our brother, believes this day will see us our leader. He could travel across the water, it was said. He would speak the language of the land. He would master the spirit of the island. Peroc believes he is found. Peroc, step forward.”
The clapping stopped and in a burst of orange light and smoke, Peroc appeared just in front of the woman.
“Show us why you believe,” said the warrior woman.
Peroc turned to James and beckoned him to come forward. Reluctantly, James stepped into the center of the rows of tribesmen and walked toward Peroc.
“You speak our language, do you not?” Peroc asked.
“I speak your language,” James replied in the native tongue.
“Tell us how you arrived here.”
“We traveled from the main island,” said James.
“And by what means did you travel?”
“My friends constructed a ship,” James said, realizing as he heard himself speak the word “ship” he’d spoken in English because there wasn’t a word for something that travels over the water in the native tongue.
“I traveled over the water,” James said to the curious expressions of the crowd.
“Now,” said Peroc, “show us.”
James believed if he refused to display his powers, none of them would ever leave alive.
“
Tertiri zé Manukto vinka
,” said James.
Thousands of pinpoint light orbs rose from the palms of his hands. He sent them into the air with a tossing motion. They rose into the overhanging trees above their heads, where they hung like stars. They grew brighter and larger until the ground below was lit like the day. James could hear reactions coming from the onlookers. The lights dimmed and shrank. They began to fall like snow all around the tribe. Several men and women reached up to catch the falling stars.
With a wave of his hand the miniature orbs quickly rose and began to swirl above their heads. They swirled closer and closer until they had all joined together. The single orb shot high into the air and exploded like a firework. This drew applause from the onlookers.
“We have been watching them since they’ve arrived and seen things we cannot explain. Now you must believe the explanation is simple. Before us stands our new leader. Our chief. Are there any who doubt this proclamation?” asked Peroc, looking at his tribe. Nobody spoke. James could see the warrior woman looking at him. She was the only one with a hostile expression.
“Then let us welcome he and his friends,” Peroc shouted.
Cries of approval were shouted as the tribe quickly ran about. Someone placed a gentle hand on James’s back and coaxed him forward. The darkness that had consumed the area at the beginning of the ceremony lifted slightly allowing James to see Kilani, Luno, Roger, and William being ushered in his direction. A blanket was unrolled just in front of him and hands from all directions placed food of various types upon it. Soon James’s group stood surrounding the blanket. They sat upon request. Each of them was adorned with a headdress similar to the one the warrior woman had been wearing when she’d returned from the hunt. James wore by far the largest and most ornate.
The group was instructed to eat while the tribe danced around them in a choreographed display.
“Ho, Chief,” Luno chortled. “Seems you’re wanted just about everywhere you go.”
“Ze are cannibals,” said William. “Did you see ze skulls?
Nique te mere
!”
“We’d be premature to pass such a judgment. They could simply be how they honor their dead. Let us not jump to conclusions,” said Luno.
“This place gives me an uneasy feeling,” admitted James. “I’m not sure William isn’t right.”
“No sense ’n lettin‘ a good meal go to waste, I dare say,” Roger said, picking up a piece of meat and stuffing it into his mouth. “Fantastic,” he said, chewing.
Reluctantly, James reached down and selected a piece of meat and put it into his mouth. It was, without a doubt, the tastiest thing he’d eaten since he’d arrived in The Never. The others quickly dug in, enjoying the feast. All except Kilani, who slowly picked at the food. When they’d had their fill they were led to the center of the clearing. The ring of fire was long gone as the sun fell below the rim of the crater. The tribe sat in a large circle around the stone platform.
Three women seated just behind the circle played on three drums. Torches stood in the ground around the platform, casting eerie shadows. James and company were seated facing the front of the platform. The drumming changed rhythm the instant they sat. There was a cry of fear in the distance. James looked into the faces of the tribe folk nearest to him and saw no concern. The cries continued. He looked in the direction of the cries and spotted two torches steadily moving closer to the platform.
The warrior woman stood and walked to the base of the platform. She waited silently as the torches approached. The cries had ceased until the two torches, being carried by two members of the tribe, reached the ring of people surrounding the platform. James looked on in horror. They were dragging a woman whose feet and hands were bound. What clothes she wore were tattered and torn. She was very thin and dirty. She had the complexion of a European. Her hair was long and mousey brown. The woman pleaded in a language James was sure he’d heard before but couldn’t understand. She then began screaming and struggling against the two men dragging her toward the platform, but she lacked the strength to gain any real headway.
They finally reached the base of the platform. The drums stopped, and the warrior woman took a step up onto the first level and began to address her tribe. “The island demands this gift in exchange for our good fortune, and tonight we are fortunate indeed,” she said, looking at James. “What was foretold long ago has come to pass.”
The tribe cheered at this. The captive woman looked on in terror at the warrior woman as she spoke.
“Tonight the moon passes for the twenty-second time since our last gift. The time for another has come. The island has been good to us. In return, we must be good to her. If we are not, death will befall us all.”
The drums started again, this time the beats struck in quick succession. The members of the tribe began to sway from side to side. Four tribesmen, two men, and two women, with bodies painted entirely in red, stepped through the circle and grasped the woman. Two lifted her under her arms and the others held each leg as they raised her onto the platform.
James looked at Kilani and Luno, who wore horrified expressions. The red-painted tribesmen reached the top step of the platform. They placed the woman on the table-size stone, which James realized was hovering slightly over the top step. The woman kicked and spat and cried until she touched the stone. The moment she contacted it, she fell silent.
The red-painted tribesmen turned, leaving the woman on the stone. She did not make any attempt to escape. James again looked over at Luno.
“What the bloody hell is going on? Luno asked.
“They said they’re giving the island a gift,” said James.
“Human sacrifice,” said Luno.
James looked back at the platform. The warrior woman had removed a long dagger from her belt and was making her way up the steps toward the woman. James couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He wasn’t about to let it happen. He quickly stood as the warrior woman leaned over the stone table with knife in hand. The woman on the table hadn’t moved.
“Stop,” James cried in the native tongue. “This is not acceptable. You must not hurt this woman.”
“Chief, I have no intention of hurting this woman,” the warrior woman said with a mirthless smile. She took her dagger and cut the bindings on the woman’s wrists and ankles. Held by an invisible force, her arms immediately snapped outward and her legs opened. The warrior woman lifted her head, again smiled at James with her evil smile, and retreated back to the base of the platform.
Perhaps I’m wrong
, James thought. The drumming stopped again and the torches surrounding the circle extinguished synchronously. For an instant, they were enveloped in darkness. Then a bright light shone on the platform. It was a perfect circle, its edge fell just one step below the stone table. The moon was aligned perfectly through the center hole in the trees and cast a beam of light more focused and intense than James or any in his group had ever seen.