Gray took a few deep breaths to try to clear his mind. He inhaled the strong, salty scent of the ocean, and he let his gaze wander down the coast of Maui to the sharp, verdant mountains rising through the haze in the distance. “You know, Hawai’i would be a really nice place if it wasn’t trying to kill me so hard,” he mused.
“Everything worth loving is worth working hard for,” Polunu pointed out.
Gray nodded. “Okay. I’m going for it.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Hand me that oar.”
Polunu screwed up his face in confusion, but he trotted off down the pier, picked up an oar that had been left on the planks, and handed it over. “What you gonna do with that?”
“I’m gonna hook the hook,” Gray said, shaking out his arms and popping his neck. “Stand back. I’m going for it.”
Polunu took two steps back. Gray paused, then waved the Hawai’ian closer. “Never mind, come back. If I start to fall, you grab me.”
“What do you mean, if you start to fall? Ain’t you going in?”
“In there?” Gray cried, jabbing the oar toward the evil sharks. “Hell no! I’m just gonna...you know...” He wiggled the oar through the air. “Flip it up.”
Polunu squinted and scratched his head. “I don’t think that’s gonna work, haole. Maui said you need to get in the water.”
“Well with an oar, I don’t have to get in the water,” Gray said irritably.
“Yeah, but this is probably, like, a test or something, don’t you think?”
“Look, why are you fighting me on this? Are you going to help me or not?”
“I guess so. What you want me to do?”
“Hold my shirt. Don’t let me fall in.”
“You got it, brah.” He grabbed the back of Gray’s t-shirt with such force, Gray pitched forward with a screech and nearly toppled over the edge of the pier. But Polunu held firm.
Gray stuck out over the water, wheeling his arms in panic. The oar swung around and nearly bashed Polunu in the head. “Pull me back, pull me back!” he screamed.
Polunu reeled him back in. “Sorry.” The big man blushed, wiggling his fingers in the air. “Clumsy hands, you know?”
Gray glowered up at him. “Hey. I have a new idea. Why don’t you get the stupid hook?”
“Nah. We have another saying, when it comes to dangerous things like this: ‘Let the mainlander do it.’”
“Okay. Okay.” Gray closed his eyes and inhaled, exhaled...inhaled...exhaled. “Let’s get this over with.” He dropped to his knees and crawled to the edge of the pier. Then he lay down on his belly and stretched the oar out over the water. “If they pull me in, find a gun and shoot me.”
He lowered the oar into the water and pushed it down toward the hook. He winced as he threaded the paddle through the squirming throng of shark-monsters. They bumped and slithered up against the wood, and he paused with a sharp breath…but they continued to swim around it, and he resumed easing it down toward the hook. He pushed until his arm was fully extended, but the edge of the paddle was still a few inches away from the curve of the hook. He wriggled himself out a little further over the edge of the pier, until his chest was hovering above the water. He gripped the wood beneath his belly with his free hand and pushed the oar further in. “Come on,” he whispered, the tip of the paddle quivering just centimeters away from the hook. “Come on...”
He pulled his hand back on the oar so he was gripping just the knob on the end. He pushed the oar down, and it scraped against the inside curve of the hook.
The shark-monsters flew into a frenzy. They screamed beneath the water, and their shrieks broke the surface as a choked, garbled cacophony, like nails against stone. They swarmed the handle of the oar, wrapping their sickly fingers around it and pulling it down into the water. Gray was caught off-guard and went tumbling forward off the pier with a cry of surprise. Polunu caught him by the waistband of his shorts before he plunged into the ocean. He hung there, suspended, while the demons dug their teeth into the oar and snapped it in half.
“Pull me up, pull me up!” Gray cried.
He kept hold of his end of the handle as Polunu dragged him back onto the dock, with three of the shark monsters holding on. Their eyes flashed up at the human pair through the water, and they began pulling their way up the handle, hand over hand. One broke through the water and screamed; Gray could see down its red throat through three rows of pointy, glass-sharp teeth. The thing writhed and twisted like a creature in pain. It scrabbled up the oar and swiped its claws at Gray’s wrist. Gray screamed and dropped the handle, and the creature missed by less than an inch. Polunu yanked him back onto the pier, and they tumbled backward. Gray bounced off of Polunu’s belly and rolled across the pier, almost falling clear off the other side. He slapped his hands onto the wet wood and pulled himself back into the center, breathing hard.
“Well,” Polunu said, gazing up at the blue sky, “that did not work.”
“No. It...did not,” Gray agreed.
They struggled to their feet. Gray looked back up at the fish house. Maui waved down, and though he couldn’t be sure, Gray felt pretty confident the old man was smiling.
“What you wanna do now, cuz?”
Gray gritted his teeth. “I want to get that hook,” he said, glaring up at the old god on the deck. “Because nothing is impossible, dammit.” He straightened his shirt and marched back to the end of the pier. The shark-monsters had stopped frothing through the water, and the surface was calm.
“You’re gonna go in?” Polunu asked, surprised.
“We’re out of options, and you’re a baby and won’t do it for me,” Gray said. He raised his arms straight up in the air. “Come over here and lower me down.”
“If you say so, brah.” He lumbered over and clasped Gray’s wrists. “You sure about this?”
“Nope.”
“What if you get eaten?”
“What if you don’t make me think about it?”
Polunu frowned. “Hey, if this goes bad...I mean...it’s good to know you, you know?” He sniffled back a tear. “You’re not so smart, you know, but you got a good heart.”
Gray snorted. “Thanks. That’s...well. Thanks. And you’re really big, and I was basically terrified of you when you force-fed me pineapple, but you’re a good person, Polunu. That’s pretty rare.” He slapped the man gently on the cheek. “I’ll see you in a minute.”
Polunu smiled. “See you in a minute, brah.”
Then he lifted Gray like he was a rag doll and dipped him into the ocean.
“Slower!” Gray cried, his indifferent bravado melting away like chipped ice in the summer sun. “Take my sandals!” He kicked his feet and flung the flip-flops up onto the dock. It occurred to him that he hadn’t really thought this through. “My shirt’s gonna get wet,” he said, closing his eyes as his feet plunged into the lukewarm sea.
But a wet shirt was pretty much the least of his problems.
He held his breath as Polunu lowered him down, and he felt a rough patch of skin slither against his ankles. He shuddered and suddenly couldn’t fill his lungs with enough air to feed his blood. A second shark monster brushed against his shin, and then a third. He felt the gentle scrape of nails against his flesh, and the smooth glide of a poisoned barb against his calf.
“Should I stop?” Polunu whispered, afraid of upsetting the creatures.
“No,” Gray wheezed, struggling to catch his breath. “Like a lizard. Just go fast.”
“Okay,” said Polunu, sounding uncertain. Then he let go of Gray’s wrists, and the haole fell into the ocean.
He plunged through the mass of writhing Shark-things. His knees buckled when he hit sand, and for a few moments, he was completely submerged. The creatures twisted around his waist and his shoulders, skimmed his neck with their claws, brushed thei
r barbs through his hair. He pushed himself off the bottom of the ocean and burst up through the surface, gasping for air. The sea monsters thrashed around him, hissing and snapping their powerful jaws. Gray stood as still as a trembling oak. The guardians of Manaiakalani began to swim around him in a tight, slow circle.
“What are they doing?” Gray hissed, keeping his voice low.
“They got you surrounded!” Polunu wailed.
“How far am I from the hook?”
“It’s right behind you, brah. Right behind you.”
“Okay.” Gray’s breath began to come more easily. The sharks were circling, but they weren’t attacking. “Okay. Okay. Don’t make a sound.”
He bent his right knee and slowly pulled up his foot. His heel brushed against a monster, and the creature snapped at his foot. A tooth sliced through his skin just below his toes, and he cursed between his teeth. He moved his foot more carefully, more slowly, back toward the hook. He felt the hard, uneven surface of it beneath his toes. The shark-things became more frantic, thrashing their tails as they circled, and drawing themselves in, tightening the ring. Gray passed his toes over the curve of the hook and dug them into the sand on the far side. The sea monsters began to scream beneath the water, and they reared back and snapped at his arms and chest. He seized up in fear, but they seemed to be testing him; they didn’t bite him, and they didn’t scratch, but they rammed their heads up against him, as if trying him for weakness. Tears began to spill out of the corners of his eyes, but he pressed on, tunneling his toes beneath the hook. He lifted his foot, and Manaiakalani came with it, peeling up from the sand. One of the creatures thrashed its way to the surface and lifted its horrible head. It curved its spine and raised itself to Gray’s height and opened its mouth…he was just inches away from the triangular teeth that dripped with water and foam. Gray squeezed his eyes shut and tilted his head back, away from the monster. He lifted the hook up through the water, and the creatures began to nip at his foot. He cracked open one eye, and the slavering shark-monster before him began gnashing its jaws, flinging strings of spit and saltwater against Gray’s cheek. The monster snapped its teeth, then hinged its jaw open wide and dove forward, lunging at Gray’s face. Gray plunged his hand down and grabbed Manaiakalani, grasping it around the curve. He hauled it out of the water and held it up like a shield.
As soon as his hand seized the hook, the monsters stopped thrashing. They suddenly became docile and quiet, and they began to sink through the water. They floated down to the sand, and even the shark that had been gnashing just inches from Gray’s eyes went slack and fell against him weakly, like its batteries had just died. It fell back into the ocean with a quiet splash and drifted away with the pull of the waves.
Gray opened one eye. Then he opened the other. “What did I just do?” he whispered, staring down in amazement at the blanket of sleeping sea monsters at the bottom of the ocean.
“You silenced the water demons,” Polunu said, equally confused. “I think maybe you passed the test! And braddah, you are holding the Hook of Maui.”
Gray lifted the hook out of the water. Crusted with age but still smooth to the touch, jagged and sharp but elegantly curved, Manaiakalani gleamed in the sunshine when Gray scraped the scales away and thrummed with a primeval power that he could feel tingling through his entire body. “This is the weirdest day of my life,” he breathed.
“Sure is,” Polunu said, wiping a tear of joy from his eye. “Think we earned some mahi mahi, yeah?”
“Oh my God, I’m so hungry,” Gray laughed. He waded back toward the pier, and Polunu helped him out of the water.
“We’ll eat up, cousin,” Polunu said, giving Gray a big, squishy hug. “Big dinner for both of us. Big dinner! Gotta build up that strength!” He patted his belly happily. “Gotta be prepared, you know? We got an uphill climb from here.”
“That’s great,” Grey said sarcastically, heading back toward land. “I was definitely hoping it would only get worse.”
Chapter 11
Hi’iaka spat into the dirt. “You are a coward,” she declared, thrusting out her chin.
“I am your god and your king; your akua and ali‘i. I will not be spoken to with such a tongue.” Her captor stepped forward from the shadows, and light from the ceiling fell across his shoulders, revealing his true face: gray-brown fur, a blunt snout flanked by two upturned tusks, and two beady, wide-set eyes sunken below a pair of triangular ears. Kamapua’a carried himself like a man, and had the lean, muscular body of a true god, but he had the head a wild boar perched atop his powerful shoulders. Hi’iaka did not draw back from his grotesque face, but stood at the very front edge of her circle, her hands planted on her hips.
“Remember that you are a guest in my home,” he warned, drool spilling out from beneath his tusks. “I need you alive, but only just.”
“Why?” Hi’iaka shot back. “Will you bargain with me to win back the love of your former wife?”
“Pele has nothing to do with this!” he squealed, and the sounder of boars near the fire took up the call, screeching and screaming into the flames. “She is a petty, small-minded pelapela dog!” He stamped his feet like a child in a tantrum.
Hi’iaka smiled. “She is more powerful than you can ever hope to be, and soon she will come to set me free. And this time, she will roast you alive.”
Kamapua’a snorted. He reached up to the top of his head and pulled his hands down his face, wiping away his true form and leaving his human face in its wake. He was undeniably handsome as a human, with wavy black hair, high, strong cheekbones, large brown eyes, and a small, pinched mouth. But when he smiled, he revealed lower canines that were small, sharp boar tusks, and there was never any mistaking the animal rage in his eyes. “You and I both know that she will not leave her little fire pit—not even to rescue her precious little sister. Pele cares more for her rocks than she does for you, sweetling.”
“She will send a great warrior,” Hi’iaka said smugly, crossing her arms and standing firm. “She will infuse him with her power, and he will set me free, and you will be destroyed.”
“Darling dreams, child. But in case she does, I’ve taken certain measures to stop any hero that might be foolish enough to try. And as for Pele’s power...” He gave her that razor smile now. “Soon that will change. That is why you’re here.”
“Your mana does not have the power to withstand Pele,” Hi’iaka sneered.
Kamapua’a squealed with laughter. “That comes right to the point, does it not? My power is great, but bends like cane to the tiresome Pele. But if I double my mana, then I will have the power to douse the fire of Pele, and of any other who would challenge me. All of Polynesia will fall to its knees before the hog-god Kamapua’a. I will rule our islands and spread terror to the countries who have raped and ravaged our land.”
“Double your mana?” Hi’iaka laughed. “You are the fool you have always been, Lord of Pigs. The life force of every single human on Earth would not give you the strength to destroy my sister.”
“Humans,” Kamapua’a snorted. “Mortals. As worthless as they are pathetic.”
“Then where will you find this magical mana?”
Kamapua’a grinned. His eyes bore black holes into Hi’iaka. “Somewhere quite close to home, I think.”
Hi’iaka scoffed. “You cannot be serious.”
“As serious as death.”
“I am no weak-willed human. I am not even a floundering demigod, like you, pig-lord. I am the daughter of Haumea and Kāne. I am the goddess of sorcery and medicine, of hula and chant; the patron goddess of Hawai’i itself. The thunder and lightning are in my charge. You think you will take my mana, demigod? You are a pathetic, laughable wretch. I am no ignorant hûpô. My shadow will not give up its power. I am Hi’iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele,” she hissed, “and I will not succumb.”
Kama
pua’a, startled, drew back a step, recoiling from her venom. Then his face regained composure, and he gave his prisoner a satisfied smirk. “And yet, for all your power, you are wholly contained by a circle scratched into the dirt. You think you will not succumb? Well, we will see, Little Egg,” he said, laughing and turning his back. “We will see.”
He faded back into his true face and joined his of army of pigs around the fire.
Chapter 12
Gray sat bolt upright in bed. The sheets were damp with sweat, and his heart pounded against his chest. He looked wildly around the room; it was dark, and quiet, and unbelievably comfortable. He was in his bed at the Hyatt.
“Oh my God,” he wheezed. He placed a hand over his heart and willed it to slow before it burst straight through his skin. Then he laughed. “I’m in my room,” he said, falling back against his pillow and spreading his arms across the bed. “It was all a dream!”
“I got dreams too, braddah. Weird stuff.”
Gray screamed and leapt out of his bed. Polunu sat up slowly from his spot on the floor, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “You okay, cuz?”
Reality slowly settled back on Gray’s shoulders, weighing them down as he sank into a seat on the bed. “Yeah,” he said miserably, burying his face in his hands. “Everything is fine and dandy. And real. Everything is real, too.”
“No mistaking that!” the Hawai’ian said cheerfully. “I was right. Sleeping in a hotel is much better than sleeping in a van!”
The memory of the previous night rushed into Gray’s mind like a freight train. After finally sitting down to dinner at Maui and Son, the sky was beginning to grow dark, with the sun sinking quickly toward the horizon. “Think we can still make it tonight?” Gray asked. After his encounters with Pele, Maui, and the shark-monsters, he was eager to either get the girl or get dead trying.
“No way,” Polunu said, wiping dried flakes of smashed sweet potatoes from the corners of his lips. “We can’t get to the upcountry before dark. We gotta take a different road around the mountain. It’ll take a while. And believe me...you don’t wanna be in the upcountry after dark.” The big man shuddered.
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