I was going to grant them quarter, Melcorka said to herself. Not now. There will be no more mercy.
'Follow them!' Melcorka countermanded Bradan's words. 'Teach them not to come here! Make them so afraid of you that they never come back.' Chasing after the fleeing warriors, Melcorka swung Defender right and left, cutting off legs and arms, slashing deep, bleeding wounds in backs and shoulders, slicing off heads and hands without opposition. What had been a retreat turned into a rout as the Kalingos fled from Defender's blade.
'Face me or flee from me, I still bring death!' Melcorka shouted.
The Kalingos ran to the beach, dropping their weapons in their panic. Some of the Taino villagers followed, thrusting with their spears, killing or wounding a man here and there, shouting to encourage themselves and muster the courage to continue. Other Tainos retched at the sight of so much carnage, gagged at the stench of raw blood and closed their eyes as they saw once-bold Kalingo warriors writhing and screaming on the ground.
The Kalingo pirauas were pulled up beyond the high-tide mark on the beach, rank upon rank of long, lean piratical craft. The raiders ran to them, pushing the fragile boats into the pounding surf without looking back as Melcorka and the villagers harassed them, killing and maiming.
'Come back!' Melcorka yelled, as the surviving Kalingos paddled desperately away. 'I want to kill more of you.' Charging into the water, she slashed at a piraua, slicing through the hull so it split and the occupants tumbled out, to swim frantically to their colleagues for help. Melcorka watched as Kalingo warriors fought each other with the broad-bladed paddles, refusing to allow others on board their piraua as fear overcame friendship.
'Enough.' Bradan took hold of Melcorka's arm. 'You've killed enough.' He pulled her back as she swung at a final target. 'You don't kill for killing's sake.'
'Let go!' Melcorka pushed him away and dashed deeper into the sea for a final attack on a piraua.
'Melcorka!' Bradan followed, hauling her back, until she lifted Defender to threaten him.
'Melcorka!' Bradan had never seen such madness in her eyes. 'Enough! This is not like you!'
Melcorka nodded. 'Yes, enough.' She was panting, her face and body painted red with the blood of the men she had killed. 'They've learned.' Melcorka took a deep breath. 'I don't think they'll return to this island.'
'I think you are right.' Bradan looked around. Bodies, dead and dying, bobbed on the surface of the sea and the surf, once pristine yellow but now stained crimson with blood, carried yet more corpses onto the beach. Land crabs were already scuttling down from the trees to feast on the bodies.
'This is a beautiful place.' Bradan deliberately looked away from the beach, past the village to the verdant slopes that rose to a range of jungle-clad hills, gilded silver-grey with mist. 'Why does mankind spoil perfection with violence and killing?'
'Because human nature demands it.' Hadali had waded out to join them. Years had added lines of wisdom to her face and sadness to her eyes. 'Long ago, our people decided not to follow the path of violence, even though we knew our decision meant that the Kalingos would hunt us as prey.'
Like the rest of her people, Hadali was naked save for a twist of cloth around her loins. Melcorka tried to guess her age; anything from thirty-five to sixty, although the profound wisdom in her eyes argued for another couple of decades at least.
Hadali put a small hand on Melcorka's shoulder. 'You have done what you think is right, Melcorka of the Cenel Bearnas, but you cannot stay here any longer.'
Bradan sighed. 'I am called the Wanderer,' he said. 'I follow the road seeking knowledge and here, I have found wisdom and the most peaceful people I have ever seen.' He gestured to the Tainos who thronged the beach, shocked at the carnage.
'You defended us,' Hadali laid a small hand on Bradan's arm, 'and you saved our lives. If you had not been here, the Kalingos would have killed us all and eaten our flesh.'
'That is correct.' Bradan ducked under the surface of the sea to wash off the blood that covered him.
Hadali shook her head. 'Despite your help, in killing as you did, you broke our code and you must leave. Your presence as killers would pollute our village.'
Melcorka copied Bradan in washing off the blood. 'We saved all your lives,' she reminded Hadali.
'Sometimes, lives are not the most important things. Beliefs, morality and the human soul matter more. By encouraging our young men and woman to kill, you have damaged those parts of them that are vital to our culture.' Hadali sighed. 'These of my people who fought will have to endure weeks or months of purifying, before they can rejoin the community.'
'I see.' Bradan took hold of Melcorka's arm before she began to argue. 'It is never our intention to make a custom or to break a custom, so we will do as you wish.'
'We have a prophesy,' Hadali said, 'that sometime in the future, men with clothes will come to our lands and they will kill us all. We know that will happen and we accept that is our fate. Until then, we will live the way we have always lived, in peace and generosity.'
'It is a good way to live.' Melcorka cleaned the blade of Defender as she walked back to the beach. 'One day, humankind will learn to live in peace.' She indicated the carnage between the beach and the village. 'One day, good will vanquish evil. One day, there will be no need for people like me.'
Hadali followed, with a frown furrowing her brow. 'That day is far in the future, Swordswoman. Tell me about the Kalingo woman that did not run. What did she say to you?'
Melcorka checked Defender and returned the sword to her scabbard. 'She told me her name was Kanaima, and she tried to curse me.' Melcorka shrugged. 'I killed her before she finished the curse.'
Hadali's frown deepened. She sighed and shook her head. 'No, Melcorka, you did not kill her. You cannot kill a kanaima.' She stepped back. 'Kanaima was not her name. A kanaima is an evil spirit that enters people and makes them do terrible things, or turns them into beasts.'
'Oh?' Melcorka glanced over at the casualties. The woman she knew as Kanaima lay as she had fallen, with her head detached from her body. 'Well, she's dead now. Defender is not an ordinary sword.'
'I hope you are right,' Hadali said.
'You are good people,' Melcorka said. 'I am sorry if we have caused you pain.'
'You meant well,' Hadali woman said. 'We will repair the harm you have done.' She smiled again. 'We will provide provisions for your great piraua and pray for you.'
'Thank you,' Bradan said.
Hadali placed her hand on Bradan's shoulder. 'You are seeking, Bradan, but you do not know what you seek.' Her face contained a wealth of wisdom. 'You seek more than knowledge.'
'That may be so,' Bradan said.
Hadali's expression altered to sympathy. 'Then let me tell you what you seek.'
'If you would.'
'You are seeking a truth you will never fully find and a peace you cannot obtain.' Hadali's eyes were compassionate. 'Not until you have fulfilled your destiny.'
'I did not know I had a destiny,' Bradan said.
Hadali touched his forehead with a cool finger. 'We all have a destiny,' she said. 'It is knowing what we seek that guides us toward what we should ultimately become.'
'I see.' The explanation meant nothing to Bradan. 'Can you tell what we should ultimately become?' He included Melcorka in his gesture.
Hadali put both hands on Bradan's shoulders. 'You cannot be greater than your destiny, Bradan the Seeker. What is the greatest thing you desire?'
Bradan returned to his earlier statement. 'I thought that my greatest desire was knowledge.'
Hadali smiled. 'There is much knowledge in the world, Bradan. You are seeking to fill a bottomless pit. You will never satisfy that desire. What else is important to you?'
Bradan met Hadali's dark eyes. 'To share the knowledge I gain.'
'That is a good desire.' Hadali placed both hands on Bradan's head, frowning.
'What's the matter?' Melcorka had been an interested spectator.
Had
ali moved her hands slightly. 'There is trouble and great danger ahead of you both.'
Melcorka smiled. 'We always have trouble and great danger ahead of us,' she said. 'We have trouble and great danger behind us as well. As long as I have this,' she tapped the hilt of Defender, 'we can handle whatever fate throws at us.'
Hadali touched Melcorka on the shoulder. 'You are a brave woman, Melcorka. You only need to learn humility to mature beyond your over-confidence.' She looked directly into Melcorka's eyes. 'You have strength beyond your sword, Melcorka. If you find that, you will become a full woman. If you depend only on Defender, you will stagnate into a sword-for-hire.'
'I am no mercenary swordswoman,' Melcorka said.
'You are capable of becoming much more,' Hadali agreed. 'Or much less.'
'You spoke of destiny,' Bradan said. 'What is the destiny of Melcorka?'
Hadali stepped back a pace. 'Although fate will guide Melcorka, she is a woman who will create her own destiny. Her life is in her hands, not in the blade of her sword.' When Hadali touched Melcorka's head, her expression altered.
'What is it?' Bradan asked, suddenly alarmed. 'What did you see? What can you see?'
Hadali stepped back. 'I saw you lying on your back, Melcorka of Alba, with your sword beside you. I saw a tall man standing over you, smiling. I saw blood.'
Melcorka nodded. 'Such is the way of the warrior.' She patted the hilt of Defender. 'Until that happens, we will stay together.'
'One day, Melcorka the Swordswoman,' Hadali said, 'you will meet a warrior who will defeat you, despite the skills inherent in your sword. One day, you will meet a warrior whose sword is superior to your own.'
'May that day be far off,' Melcorka said. 'You have given me a lot to think about, Hadali.'
Hadali's smile was enigmatic. 'Then think, Melcorka the Swordswoman.' A shadow crossed her face. 'Take care, Melcorka and Bradan. You have faced the Kalingo and lived; not many do that in these seas. Melcorka, you have also met a kanaima face-to-face.'
'I cut off its head,' Melcorka said.
'I know,' Hadali spoke softly. 'It will not forget. Be careful that you do not meet it again.'
Chapter Two
The islands lay weeks behind them, long sunk beneath the horizon so they were little more than a memory of lush trees, peaceful people and exotic fruit. All around was the sea, languid and flat. High above, the sun hammered down on Catriona, the single-masted vessel that had carried them from Alba across the Western Ocean and down the great rivers of the New World.
'There is not a whisper of wind.' Melcorka lay at the tiller, fanning her face with a broad-brimmed hat. 'No birds, not even an insect. It is as if God has forgotten to put life into this part of His world.' Standing up, she shouted and the sound of her voice was lost in the vast abyss that surrounded them. 'Nothing!'
'It's hot.' Bradan pulled on the oars, looked up at the sail that hung limp and useless, and pulled again.
'It is.' Leaving the tiller, Melcorka slumped onto her rowing bench and pulled at her oar. 'Are we making any progress?'
'It's hard to tell in this ocean.' Bradan swept the perspiration from his forehead. 'How long is it since we last saw land? Three weeks? Four?'
'Three weeks,' Melcorka said. 'Three weeks and three days. It's at times like this that I could long for a good, old-fashioned Alban gale, with bitter, cold rain and a wind that bends the mast.'
Bradan grunted. 'I'll remind you of that when the weather breaks.' He gave a sour grin and pulled again. Catriona slid another few feet through the water, without changing anything. The blue sea merged with the blue sky somewhere on the indeterminate blue horizon.
'How is the drinking water?' Bradan asked.
Melcorka lifted one of their water containers and looked inside. 'Turning green and slimy,' she said. 'I think there are things living in there.'
'Fresh meat,' Bradan said, pulling at the oars again. 'Check the fishing lines, Mel.'
'Nothing,' Melcorka said. 'Even the fish have deserted us.' Her laugh had an edge that Bradan did not like. 'I'll be killing and eating you, soon!'
'That's not funny, Mel.' Bradan rested on his oars. 'You've not been the same since that battle with the Kalingos. Maybe there was something in the kanaima's curse.'
'I killed the kanaima,' Melcorka reminded him. 'I cut off her head.' She made a slicing motion with her right hand. 'Chop! Like that.'
'That's not like you, either, Mel, exulting in killing.' Bradan began to row again. 'I'll be glad to get you to land and back to normal.'
Returning to the tiller, Melcorka suddenly stood up. 'What's that ahead?' She pointed with her chin. 'The sea's changing colour. It's a browny-yellow.'
'I've never seen a sea like that before.' Bradan stared over his shoulder, resting on his oars. 'A yellow sea! Well, Mel, we travel to see new things.'
'It's not the sea that's yellow,' Melcorka said. 'There is vegetation on the surface.'
'The sea is growing plants?' Bradan shook his head. 'Truly, this world is full of marvels, unless it is only seaweed, of course.'
'I'd rather there was a breath of wind than a sea of weed.' Melcorka slumped back at the oars and pulled hard. 'Our lack of progress is terribly frustrating.'
'This is a big ocean,' Bradan said. 'We might be rowing for weeks and travel hundreds of miles and still be only a fraction of the way across.' He pointed to the sun. 'At least we are heading north and east, though. We are heading home.'
'Very slowly,' Melcorka said. 'I would give my arm for a slant of air, something to fill the sail and send us faster over the sea.'
Bradan grunted. 'The old sailor men have a method of calling the wind.'
'What was that, Bradan? What magic trick do they perform?' Melcorka grinned across to him. 'Do they sacrifice one of the crew to the sea-gods? Perhaps a long-faced, staff-carrying man?'
'Nothing as dramatic,' Bradan said. 'They stick a knife into the mast and whistle.'
'Oh?' Melcorka looked a little disappointed. 'Well then, if a knife and a whistle can call the wind, we shall try Defender.'
'No.' Bradan shook his head. 'If a knife can whistle up the wind, imagine what Defender could summon!'
Despite their apparent lack of progress, Catriona had inched closer to the browny-yellow sea. As Melcorka had said, it was a plant, but unlike any they had seen before.
'That stuff is moving toward us,' Melcorka said.
'Plants can't move.' Bradan pulled at the oars again. 'Unless the wind shifts them, and we have no wind.'
'This plant does not know it cannot move,' Melcorka said. 'It's reaching out for Catriona.'
Melcorka was correct. Even as Bradan watched, the vegetation was easing toward Catriona, with one tendril creeping up the prow and crawling along the short foredeck.
'I've never seen anything like that before,' Bradan said.
'Nor have I.' Stepping over Bradan, Melcorka unsheathed the dirk from underneath her arm and sliced at the stem of the plant. 'It's tough,' she called. 'Look at that!' The plant had begun to crawl up her arm. 'It's also fast!' She cut harder, lifted a length of the growth and threw it over the side.
'It's at the stern, too.' Bradan hit out with an oar. 'It's grabbing at my oars.'
'It's everywhere,' Melcorka said. 'It's all around us.'
'Time to get out of this patch of sea.' Bradan pulled hard at the oars, only to swear as the weed wrapped itself around the blades. 'Get away!' He hauled one oar free, just as more tendrils of the brown-yellow plant crawled on board.
'Enough of this!' Melcorka replaced her dirk, drew Defender and sliced at the ever-increasing number of plants that climbed onto Catriona. As fast as she hacked, more of the browny-yellow growth arrived.
'Bradan!' Melcorka threw him her dirk. 'Cut us free!'
Even with two of them hacking as fast as they could, the plants continued to advance, crawling up the hull and sending long, yellow-brown tendrils towards Bradan and Melcorka.
'What were you saying about Defen
der calling up the wind?' Melcorka asked. 'It seems like a good idea.'
Bradan sawed through a plant that began to explore his ankle. 'Be careful, Mel!' He held up a hand as Melcorka rammed Defender into Catriona's single pine mast. 'A weapon like that might summon more than we can handle!'
'Nonsense!' Melcorka said. 'We can't handle these plants. Anyway, it's only superstition and the more wind we have, the better! Give me my dirk!' She chopped at a tendril that was curling around the mast. 'It's not working. Is there anything else I have to do?'
'Whistle!' Bradan said, as the air remained still and the growth spread across Catriona. 'Whistle as though your soul depended on it.'
'Whistle?' Melcorka sliced through a plant that was coiling up her leg. 'I can't whistle.'
'Try!' Bradan tried to rip at a stem that curled around the tiller. 'These things are worse than the Kalinga.'
For a second, Melcorka looked over the side of Catriona into the yellow-brown mass that seethed across the sea around them. A ship-length to starboard, she saw the vegetation form the likeness of a human face, and the poisonous eyes of Kanaima were watching her.
'You're dead!' Melcorka said, so quietly that Bradan could not hear. Pursing her lips, she whistled as loudly as she could.
Bradan cringed. 'You may be the greatest warrior in the world, Mel, but you cannot hold a tune in your head, can you? That's a terrible noise you are making.'
'Then join me, Bradan! Make sweet music to call the wind.' Melcorka looked again, but Kanaima's face was gone. All she could see was plant-life covering the ocean and gradually smothering Catriona.
Bradan increased the volume of his whistling. He doubted it would help, but anything was better than not trying at all. The yellow-tinged sea stretched forever in all directions except upward, where the brassy sun powered down on them. Unless they found land soon, the plants would overcome them, or they would die of thirst in this pulsating yellow-brown expanse. Pushing out his lips, Bradan blew tunelessly.
'That's worse than me,' Melcorka said. 'It's like an old crow rasping on a rusty farm gate.'
Stung by her words, Bradan moistened his lips with a mouthful of their precious water and tried again.
Melcorka Of Alba Page 2
