The Shaman's Secret (Kalika Magic Book 2)

by Karen Hughes

  ‘Where are we?’ Indie whispered.

  Kai pointed out across the plain. ‘Beyond those fir trees is the valley,’ he said. ‘See the tiny houses? And the temple, way over on the hill? That’s the village of Linden. It’s about a day’s ride from the forest.’

  ‘A day’s ride!’

  Kai turned back to the tree. ‘This is the Moon Tree,’ he said slowly. ‘It must be.’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘The Moon Tree. It stands at the foot of the Dasa mountains, near the village of Linden.’ He looked up at the cliff face. ‘This is the gateway to the mountain.’

  There was a rustle in the bushes behind them. A branch snapped.

  Kai spun around. Indie’s face was white. ‘Up the tree,’ she cried.

  ‘It’s too high! We can’t make it.’ Kai grabbed her hand. ‘Run!’

  A grey shadow burst from the bushes. Snarling, spitting. Silver claws, shining teeth.

  Indie screamed. She held on to Kai as he dragged her toward the rock wall. There was nowhere to go, nothing to climb. The wall was smooth and sheer, stretching to the sky.

  ‘Ki-somma. Koko mi ki-somma,’ cried Kai. He pulled Indie in front of him and pushed her into the wall. She threw her hands in front of her face defensively, but the crash never came. Instead she was falling, falling through something that felt like water, only it was soft and cold, touching her skin with delicate fingers of ice.

  She scrambled to her feet, staring at the wall of rock behind them, trying to see the beast. ‘Can it get through? It was right in front of us.’

  ‘No it wasn’t.’ Kai was breathing heavily and his face was pale. ‘It was never in front of us. It was a shadow. A threat.’

  Indie sat on the rocky ground. Kai sat beside her and stared at the wall. ‘We’re here,’ he whispered.

  ‘Here?’ asked Indie. The sky was a clear blue overhead and the mountains rose above them. The only difference was the wall of rock, which now stood behind them, jagged and grey.

  ‘On the shaman’s mountain,’ said Kai.

  ‘But we can’t be,’ said Indie. She was shivering, but she wasn’t sure whether it was fear or the icy wind blowing in her face. ‘We were in the forest a few minutes ago.’

  ‘I told you. It’s Okowa. We passed through a portal in the Seeing Tree, and we came out in the Moon Tree. We’re in the Dasa Mountains.’

  At the edge of the rock wall was a path, which wound up through the foothills. The path was rough beneath their feet. Indie slipped on the stones and watched as they skittered down the mountainside.

  ‘It’s too quiet,’ she whispered, placing her feet carefully one in front of the other. ‘I don’t like it here.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ said Kai. ‘But, remember, it’s supposed to be scary. Brek said the Kalika used to send their children up here to climb the mountain. It was a sort of test. If you made it to the top, the shaman would teach you his earth magic.’

  ‘But I thought the shaman was bad.’

  ‘He wasn’t always that way. Brek said he knew him once, long ago. He said he was different then. And Chief Wicasa wrote about him in his book–’

  ‘Chief Wicasa wrote about him! Then he must be hundreds of years old.’

  ‘He is. Chief Wicasa wrote about how they grew up in the forest together. Chief Wicasa stayed with the Kalika; Shaman Yanti went to the mountains to find a deeper magic. The magic of the forest is all about plants and healing. The magic in the mountains is different – it’s the power of earth and sky. The shaman found something amazing there; something that kept him young.’

  ‘The apiki flower,’ whispered Indie.

  ‘That’s what Chief Wicasa thought,’ said Kai. ‘But he was only guessing. After the shaman left the forest, Chief Wicasa never saw him again.’

  The path narrowed into a thin trail, winding up between huge boulders and piles of loose rock. In front of them, the trail ended in a solid wall, covered in vines. Indie put her hands out to touch the leaves. Kai grabbed her arm and pushed her back. ‘Don’t!’

  ‘Hey!’ she said, startled. ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘This is a creeping wall,’ said Kai. ‘The vines are covered in tiny thorns that latch onto your skin and won’t let go.’

  ‘Did Brek tell you what to do?’

  Kai frowned. ‘Yes, but Aunty Mai said forest magic won’t work on the mountain.’

  They were silent for a moment, staring at the vines.

  ‘I can still feel it,’ said Kai at last.

  ‘Feel what?’

  ‘The magic.’

  ‘Maybe it does work,’ said Indie. ‘Maybe Aunty Mai was wrong.’

  Kai took the spell book from the pack on his back and sat cross-legged before the wall, the book open on the ground in front of him. Closing his eyes, he began to chant.

  Twisted, locked and rank with age,

  Pull the curtain, set the stage,

  Show the way to those who seek,

  Dark and cold, the shadow peak.

  There was a slithering sound and the vines began to tremble. Each one slipped and writhed around the others, shaking and twisting so violently that the rock wall seemed to crumble behind them.

  ‘Mottaka,’ Kai whispered. ‘Mottaka.’

  The vines lifted into the air, spinning and whirling around their heads. A train of thorns whipped across Indie’s face, barely missing her eyes. She cried out and threw herself to the ground. Kai crouched beside her, hands over his head, breath fast and low.

  ‘It’s over,’ he said at last, pulling her to her feet. ‘Look.’

  Indie stared at the wall. The vines were gone. In front of her was an opening, wide enough for an army to pass. At the top she could see letters carved into the rock.

  ‘Ki-somma,’ Kai read, reaching out to run his fingers over the rock. ‘Koko mi ki-somma.’

  ‘Courage,’ whispered Indie.

  Kai nodded. ‘Courage,’ he said.

  chapter 7

  The Ice Caves

  The cavern was even colder than Indie had expected. It stretched on and on into the mountain, climbing up through the rock. But it wasn’t dark. Here and there shafts of light broke through, forming an eerie lattice of shadow.

  A layer of ice covered the walls, white and smooth, shimmering in the light. The ice was wider than the great doors of Ballyndor Castle, and it sparkled and shone like a jewel.

  Indie stepped closer. She peered into the ice, took a sharp breath and jumped back with a cry.

  ‘Don’t touch the walls,’ whispered Kai.

  ‘I can see something,’ she grabbed his arm. ‘Look. There. It’s moving.’

  Kai swallowed. He stared at the ice.

  ‘Walk slowly,’ he said. ‘Don’t make a noise. And whatever you do, don’t turn back. We have to keep going.’

  Indie’s heart beat faster. She could see figures, moving behind the ice wall, pounding against it with their fists.

  Kai pulled her through the cavern. ‘Hurry,’ he said. ‘We can’t help them.’

  She could hear the hammering now, dull heavy thuds against the ice, a desperate sound that called to her. She could hear voices. ‘Help us. We are trapped. We need you.’ She tried to pull away from Kai and run back towards them, but he held her tight.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘They will pull you into the walls.’

  Indie struggled against him. She dug her fingernails into his hand, saw him flinch and close his eyes. But he wouldn’t let go.

  ‘They are our soldiers,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t know how many of them are trapped here. But if we turn back, if we give in or think we can’t do this, even for a second, the ice will pull us in as well.’

  ‘We can’t leave them here.’ Indie stopped struggling. She looked at her brother with angry eyes.

  ‘We have to,’ said Kai. ‘We have to keep going. It’s the only way we can help them.’

  The ice caves climbed up and up, winding just below the surface of the land, deep into the mountain
s. Indie walked beside Kai, blocking her ears against the hammering fists and the muffled cries. Gradually the sounds faded, and the ice became thinner.

  ‘Isn’t there something in Chief Wicasa’s book that you could use?’ Indie asked at last. ‘Like when you released all those people in the castle garden from Aunt Sofia’s spell?’

  ‘I’m not sure what would happen –’ Kai began.

  ‘You’re afraid,’ said Indie.

  ‘I am not.’

  ‘You’re worried that your magic won’t work.'

  Kai frowned and looked away.

  ‘Then try it. I bet there’s a spell in there that you can use.’ She nodded toward the book, which Kai had tucked back in the top of his pack.

  ‘That’s not how the mountain works,’ Kai said. ‘Brek said we must go through the caves as quickly as possible. There’s no turning back, no matter what.’

  ‘We’re not turning back,’ said Indie. ‘We’ll sit here and say the spell and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, we’ll get up and keep walking.’

  ‘I don’t know …’

  ‘Oh, come on, Kai,’ Indie pulled at the pack on his back. ‘It can’t hurt to try.’

  Kai remembered the black spell that Aunt Sofia had cast on the castle garden, how difficult it had been to defeat. He remembered how it had sucked him in and taken away all the light, until he had been crushed in the darkness.

  I only beat that spell because the forest voices helped me, he thought. My magic won’t be strong enough in here.

  I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough.

  It was a fleeting thought. It only lasted for a second.

  But the mountain felt his fear.

  A shower of stones fell from the roof of the cavern. Fingers, cold and dripping, stretched from the ice walls and brushed Kai’s skin. A breeze lifted the snow at his feet and swirled it into his face. His heart stood still. He reached for Indie’s hand to pull her away from the wall, but it was too late. The fingers were touching her shoulders, tiptoeing across her cheek, beckoning to her; and she was following with dazed eyes and a crooked smile.

  ‘No,’ Kai cried. He swatted a hand that was reaching for his hair.

  Indie was leaning into the ice, the sleeves of her shirt already wet, her arms deep inside the wall.

  ‘Indie! No!’

  Kai threw his arms around her waist. She shuddered, opening her eyes wide. Kai dug his feet into the earth, pulling backwards with all of his strength. It was no use. The ice crept forward, as if it were swallowing his sister whole.

  Kai began to say words; words he had never heard of, words that rose in his head and tumbled from his lips. ‘Siva tukka romtukka. Siva tukka rom.’

  He closed his eyes and saw shards of light spinning all around him. The voices of the forest filled his mind and his heart.

  We are with you. We are one.

  And he knew his magic was still there. No matter what his mother said. No matter how he tried to deny it. Brek was right – it was part of him and he had to accept that.

  You are enough, the voices whispered. Remember this, Kai. It is all that matters.

  I don’t have to do anything or be anything, he thought.

  I am enough.

  And that thought was so amazing and so shocking that he opened his eyes, let go Indie’s waist and put both hands on the ice.

  ‘Siva tukka,’ he said loudly. ‘I am enough.’

  A great shiver went through the wall. The hands melted back into the ice. Indie fell to the ground, shaking. ‘I’m so cold,’ she whispered. ‘So cold.’

  Kai took a grey cloak from his pack and wrapped it around her shoulders. She huddled at his feet, rubbing her arms and rocking back and forth.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked, through chattering teeth.

  ‘I almost failed the first test of the mountain,’ he said. ‘I thought we couldn’t do it. I thought I couldn’t do it.’

  ‘I knew you were afraid,’ said Indie.

  ‘I was afraid,’ said Kai. ‘But I’m not afraid any more.’

  He put out his hand and she took it, jumping to her feet.

  ‘What about the soldiers trapped in the ice?’ she said.

  Kai closed his eyes. ‘I am strong enough to save them, but not here, not yet. I need to find the shaman first.’

  ‘Do you think Dad is in there?’ Indie looked away. She couldn’t bear to think of the king pounding on the ice with his fists, unable to escape.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Kai said slowly. ‘I think I would feel it if he was.’

  ‘Like you could feel Mum when she was locked away by Aunt Sofia?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then he must be somewhere up ahead.’

  Kai looked back at the ice. He could see gaunt faces staring out at him, hands hanging at their sides, eyes pleading.

  ‘I’ll come back for you,’ he said, turning away. ‘I swear it.’

  The caverns opened into a wide gravel pit, the mouth of an ancient glacier. Indie could see the ice rising into a frozen river, hundreds of metres high. At the base of the glacier was a pool of cloudy water, brilliant turquoise in the sunlight.

  They were about half way up the mountain in a large u-shaped valley. The walls of the valley rose steeply on either side, impossible to climb. Above them, the glacier rose to a cliff face and, higher still, she could see a white peak crowned by a tower of stone.

  ‘We’ll never make it all the way up there,’ she said.

  ‘Shh,’ said Kai. ‘We are enough. We’ll make it.’

  ‘”We are enough!” What does that mean? Strong enough? Smart enough? Magical enough?’

  Kai smiled. ‘All of those things.’ He looked up at the glacier. ‘Look, there’s a pathway along the edge of the ice.’

  ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ said Indie. ‘We’ll have to get through the water, and then over all that rock and mud before we even step onto the path.’

  ‘It’ll be better than climbing the ice,’ said Kai, looking gloomy. ‘There are large cracks hidden in the snow, and chutes of melt water that can trap you if you slip.’ He shook his head. ‘Brek said it wouldn’t be easy.’

  ‘What about Chief Wicasa’s flying spell?’ asked Indie. ‘We could fly straight to the top.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Kai. 'It's a difficult spell, though. It only works if there's no other way.'

  He looked up at the great river of ice, remembering what had happened last time he doubted himself.

  I can do this, he thought. I am enough.

  He sat in the gravel and laid the spell book on the ground, slowly chanting the words of the ancient Kalika spell.

  Hasama kokomi

  Ki ki yama, ki ki yo

  Hasama kokomi

  Mottaka, mottaka.

  Indie stretched her arms, ready to take off into the sky. She remembered how free it had felt last time, soaring below the clouds and above the Shining Sea. Dipping and spinning and floating and …

  Nothing happened.

  Kai frowned. He stared at the book. ‘I am enough,’ he whispered.

  There was a rumble deep within the earth. A voice thundered through the gravel at their feet.

  ‘Who dares use the magic of that fool, Wicasa, on my mountain?’

  There was a splintering sound and a large piece of ice toppled from the glacier, landing with a crash in the water.

  ‘What does that mean?’ said Indie, staring wildly around her.

  Kai looked down at the book in his hands. He had relied on it for so long. He had clung to it; even when the spells didn’t work and the only thing that could save him were the words in his heart.

  ‘I think it means we can’t use this book any more,’ he said.

  ‘Then what are we going to do?’ cried Indie.

  Kai gritted his teeth. ‘We’re going to climb the glacier.’

  Indie watched as her brother led the way. She couldn’t help thinking that she hadn’t been much help to him so far. She didn’t know any ma
gic, and her father had always said she wasn’t ready to use a sword.

  Mum is right, she thought, dejectedly. I should stay at home and wear silk dresses and practise the mandolin.

  The glacier shuddered. Three lumps of ice, each as big as a Kai’s pack, fell from somewhere high above them.

  Crack, crack, crack.

  A warning.

  Indie shook her head, as if to shake her thoughts away. ‘I am the Emerald Child, heir to the throne of Ballyndor,’ she whispered. And she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, and followed her brother into the water.

  chapter 8

  The Climb

  For a moment Indie thought she might stop breathing. The water was freezing; it slashed at her legs like a blade. But it wasn’t deep. It stopped at her knees. With numb legs and aching feet, she took another step.

  ‘It’s not far,’ said Kai, wading ahead. ‘We need to move quickly, so we can warm up on the other side.’

  ‘How are we going to do that?’ asked Indie.

  ‘I have a flint. We’ll light a fire.’

  ‘But you can’t strike a flint on wet stone. And there isn’t any wood.’

  ‘I don’t need wood,’ said Kai.

  When they reached the other side, it was even worse than Indie had imagined. Sand, mud and rock were jumbled together in a heap at the base of the glacier; tiny streams of water broke free and trickled over the surface. The rocks at the edges were giant boulders. Kai climbed to the top of one and sat cross-legged, beckoning Indie to follow.

  ‘There’s plenty of room up here,’ he said.

  Indie dug her fingers into a crack in the rock face and scrambled to the top. She sat beside Kai, breathing heavily.

  He closed his eyes and whispered a few words.

  Indie stared at him. ‘You can’t do magic here,’ she said.