Starlight & Promises (40 page)

Samantha, Steven, and their contingent of bodyguards floated down the river for four days, past tremendous Huon pines, some more than eight hundred years old, carpeting the rolling hills on both banks, creating dense forests that often crept up to the river’s edge. Myrtle beech and swamp gum vied with the pines for space and light, along with the occasional leatherwood, swathed in white and pale pink blooms. Samantha drew in the heavy fragrance they threw across the water.

In infrequent grassy meadows, wallabies grazed, hopping on powerful back legs. Shorter rufus wallabies and shy pademelons flitted through the forest underbrush. Samantha watched with wonder as an impossible-looking creature foraged on the river bottom. It had a sleek, furred body, a beaverlike tail, a duck’s bill, and webbed feet. Parrot, cockatoo, honeyeater, and scrubtit cries swirled about them, and the sporadic eagle or falcon wheeled overhead.

At night they pulled the raft to shore and tied it to the trees before bedding down on the pine needle-covered ground. Samantha huddled in her bedroll close to Steven at the feet of the pines and tried to ignore the lecherous looks cast her way by the others in the party. The farther they traveled from Hobart and civilization, the greater her apprehension.

Steven’s friends remained taciturn, rarely uttering more than a few words and never to her. Steven stayed close, presenting a buffer between her and the rough men. She welcomed his protection, for though the men kept their distance, their hungry eyes caused her heart to pound painfully. She failed to shake the worry that some malady might overtake Steven before they reached their destination. What would she do then, unarmed and alone with these men?

Even Steven’s company failed to completely erase her anxiety. Though gentlemanly, displaying an outward solicitude toward her and concern for Richard’s fate, he grew more remote each day. At first she believed he fretted over the coming negotiations. However, she soon suspected he hid some dread secret. Something she should know. Why did she leave Hobart in such haste? What if they should reach the ship and Richard was already dead, no longer there, or had never been there? If that were the case, what could be the pirate’s reason for insisting she appear in person?

In spite of her welling reservations, she never once considered departing the company and making her way back to Hobart alone. Even asking Steven to return to Talmadge House was unthinkable. Such a move would be a step backward to exactly where she was before, if, taking into account Steven’s determination to push forward, he even respected her request. If nothing more should come of it, she would learn more about Richard’s fate than she had known before.

One night after many days of travel, they roasted a wombat over the fire. Samantha had suffered from nausea from the journey’s onset and had eaten little. This night her appetite returned, and she consumed the marsupial meat with relish. When Steven offered her a cup of warm ale from a canteen, she drank deeply despite its sour taste.

With a full meal in her stomach and the ale’s warming effect, she moved to her bedroll and stretched out. She fell asleep a short time later and descended into a benumbed state of oblivion.

Lau’ele’ele i sami

T
he day dawned bright and hot, the sky painfully blue.

A young girl with a shy smile emerged from the shadows of Tapia’s hut. Garrett eyed her with a rake’s appreciation. She appeared no older than sixteen, slim and tiny and as graceful as a swan. Sooty lashes rimmed liquid black eyes. Her golden skin and black tresses glowed with health, and her firm breasts thrust up proudly from her chest.

“My word,” Garrett said, bestowing his most devastating smile on her and turning to James. “Who is this exquisite creature?”

The girl ducked her head and pressed herself to James’s side. “Masina,” James replied with a note of reservation. “Tapia’s daughter. Her name means ‘moon.’”

Garrett caught the possessive undercurrent. “I see,” he said, his smile fading. “Not to worry, old chap. I don’t require a weather vane to determine which way the wind is blowing.”

James nodded, and his adoring gaze settled on the girl.

When Richard and Christian joined them at the cook fire, James turned to Masina. “Will you show us the path to the top of
fanua i afi.”

Masina touched each man with a wide-eyed gaze, and her eyes came back to James. “It is
tapu
to climb
fanua i afi
. This you cannot do.
Tagaloa
will be angry. He will punish you and the
o tagata o fanua o la’ua.”

James grasped her hands and looked into her fright-filled eyes. “We must, Masina. My friends wish to leave
lau’ele’ele i sami
. You must help them.
Tagaloa
does not exist. You know this. You studied with the missionaries who taught you of the One God.”

“Your god will not help us.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Will you leave with Richard and your friends.? Will you leave Masina.?”

His throat bobbed, and he swallowed. “Will you come with me.?”

She bowed her head, face stricken with sadness. “I cannot. I am
o tagata o fanua o la’ua
. I cannot live in
lalo’lagi.”
When they turned to depart, she pushed past them, looked back over her shoulder, and dashed the tears from her cheeks. “But I will lead you because James wants it so.”

She started up a narrow trail leading into the jungle. The route appeared little used, no more than a track for the wild pigs brought to the island by the missionaries, overgrown with ferns and lianas. Richard and Christian slashed a path with daggers through the foliage where no passage seemed to exist.

The forest air was heavy and moisture laden, the way ill defined and shadow filled. At the passage of a goshawk, great conclaves of horned parakeets, red-fronted parakeets, and rainbow lorikeets screamed like demented lunatics from the uppermost canopy, resulting in jumpy muscles and unsettled nerves among the company. Several of the giant geckos scurried beneath ferns and drew Christian’s gaze downward. Overhead under the broad leaves, like ripe, russet coconuts, hung fruit bats the size of a man’s hand, wings secured about their bodies, awaiting dusk. Large and small rats, feeding on insects and succulent vegetation, scampered along branches beneath the bats, creating a noise like wind rustling the foliage. As most oceanic islands had no indigenous mammals other than bats, the rats were clearly another fauna introduced by white men.

The group emerged from the jungle onto a black, glassy plain, broken by fissures through which lava had flowed, rising in a nearly seamless, obsidian wall. The cauldron churned far above them. Masina circled the lava field and took up another faint track. After traversing the mountain’s eastern base, they came across a field of basalt, dark gray and crumbly, with bubbles on its surface formed by steam from the expanding lava. Halfway into the field, she turned into a cleft bisecting the basaltic flow. There within its gloomy interior, rough steps carved out of the rock led upward.

Masina came to a halt at the crater’s top, her body shaking like a palm in a gale. Sulfurous fumes arose in a turbid atmosphere below them. Magma seethed under its surface with flames erupting and burning in the molten soup. Looking into the volcano’s heart was like glimpsing the gates of Dante’s
Inferno
. Heat baked their skin. The arid air scalded their throats. When they took a breath, it seared their lungs, and they inhaled in shallow pants.

Christian and Garrett turned their backs on the cauldron to gaze out over the entire island and beyond. Puffy clouds drifted across the azure sky, against which red-tailed tropic birds dipped and soared. Beyond the rise of the volcano, riotous jungle clothed the land and the nearby green-carpeted peak of
fanua o la’ua
. The coral reef enclosed a turquoise lagoon with transparent water revealing the shadows of large fish swimming beneath the surface. The ocean beyond the reef became emerald with rolling swells breaking in white foam on the coral. Between the trees and the water lay a narrow belt of black volcanic sand. To the northwest, the tsunami’s destruction revealed itself in a swath of broken coconut and breadfruit trees and another lagoon filled with floating debris.

Christian pivoted slowly, shading his eyes with his hands. He wished for a spyglass. Nonetheless, a faint hump of land rose from the sea to the east and another, larger outline far beyond that. He pointed, and Garrett peered in that direction, shading both eyes with cupped hands. “Unless my eyes deceive me,” Christian said, “we’re on a chain of islands. If we travel east, we may eventually make the mainland. What do you think.?”

“That we have no other choice,” Garrett replied grimly, lowering his hands.

Christian nodded.

When the earth beneath their feet trembled, the cloud of gases over the volcano widened and streamed upward. A warm, noxious rain enveloped them. A gust of wind tore it apart, and Masina uttered a strangled scream. Christian whirled around. Her arm unsteady, she pointed down the path they had taken. Far below, Kiha led a heavily armed group of warriors up the side of the volcano.

“The
tapu
,” she whispered. “Now Kiha will sacrifice us to the gods.”

The volcano boiled behind them. The ground shook beneath them. Cinders and ash erupted from the cavity and dropped about them. As the activity increased, James grabbed the terrified Masina, and they sprinted toward the other side of the crater. Flaming lava bombs shot from the magma to fall into the jungle. The warriors making their way upward paused, turned about, and scurried back the way they had come. Lava seeped from fissures and streamed downward, cooling and depositing another layer of volcanic rock. Christian paced along the edge to look out into the jungle. The eruption appeared to be confined to one slope. With lava flowing across the eastern face of the volcano, the four men and Masina dashed toward a less-used path winding down the southern side. Following Masina’s lead, they descended.

The trail was rougher than the one they originally climbed, and they backtracked often around precipitous rock sheets allowing no footholds. Evening fell by the time they stood on the shore beside the lagoon. When the sun dropped abruptly from the sky, darkness pressed in. Only a distant glow from the flowing lava relieved the night.

“Where do the
la’ua
keep their canoes?” Christian asked Richard. “I’ve seen them used for fishing. Now that we’ve violated the
tapu
, we have no alternative but to leave tonight.”

“I will show you,” Masina answered in a melancholy voice.

She took them to a cove hidden by overhanging palm trees. Within its shelter lay several small canoes and two larger catamaran-like vessels rigged with
tapa
cloth sails. James and Masina returned under cover of darkness to the village to retrieve the
Maiden Anne’s
crew while Richard, Garrett, and Christian gathered coconuts. They hollowed out the hairy nuts, filled them with freshwater from a stream trickling into the cove, and plugged the holes with coarse grass. After stripping the trees of fruit, they tossed it into the catamarans. When James and the men returned, they were ready to leave.

“Kiha and his warriors have yet to return to the village,” James said. “The lava must have cut in front of them. The high chief, the
ali’i
, has called his council to debate our whereabouts. Conversation isn’t likely to turn to action until Kiha returns. Tapia apparently suspects, because he’s doing his best to extend the debate. That should give us a head start, though I have little expectation they will follow us. I have yet to see the
la’ua
venture beyond the lagoon.”

Masina’s small body pressed and shivered against James’s. “Will you leave me now?” she asked, tears glazing her eyes.

James looked over her head to the men who waited by the catamarans. The battle waging in his heart between his past life and possible future shone clearly in his face. He released a sigh and tightened his arms around Masina. “I shall stay,” he said.

Richard looked up from where he was tying coconuts to the bulwark of a catamaran with a rope made from twisted vines. “What of Kiha and the
tapu?
If you and Masina remain behind, Kiha is likely to kill you.”

Masina smiled and shook her head. “We will live with my mother’s people and be safe there.”

“Have you set your mind to this?” Christian asked.

James gazed down into Masina’s eyes. “Indeed, I have.”

Richard walked over to him and extended his hand. When James took it, Richard said, “Luck go with you, James. Perhaps we shall cross paths again someday.”

“Should God will it,” James said softly and pulled Richard to him for an embrace.

Christian witnessed the emotional moment between two men who had worked and traveled together for many years; still, the possibility of being caught before they crossed the reef made his gut twist. Having no desire for his limbs to end up in an oven, he loudly cleared his throat.