by Matt Larkin
Pele struggled to breathe in his grasp. Moho pushed her onto her back with one hand, then eased his tongue into her mouth. It tasted of smoke and steam but filled her with such delicious warmth she could only moan at its explorations.
The akua pulled her kihei up, exposing her breasts, and then licked his rough, hot tongue between them.
An instant of uncertainty struck even as she shuddered from the touch. What would it be like to lay with a god? What would it do to her?
Some dim part of her mind wanted to warn him off, tell him she was afraid. But she couldn’t say it. He pulled up her pa‘u and traced a finger of liquid flame between her legs. Then he spread them wide with his palms and pushed himself inside her, pumping with a frenzy so primal all she could do was hold on, intoxicated by his passion, giving in to her own. Acrid smoke stung her nostrils. Her hands were searing the flesh from his back and still he didn’t even slow.
He was on fire. The snows had begun to melt beneath them, leaving them in a pool of water that squelched with each thrust. His pounding was tearing her apart.
Oh, ‘aumākua, the heat! He was so hot! She couldn’t hold on any more …
His release came almost immediately following her own. Steam billowed from her mouth, enough she felt she was choking on it. She felt her mana flow into him and, more, his slammed into her like the eruption of a volcano. A torrent of images she could never hope to make sense of flooded her mind and suffused her soul.
As he had described, a world beneath the world, an inferno of constant eruptions and flowing magma all around. And some aspect of that Fire world had seeped into her through him.
Trembling, she crawled out from under him. Then she gasped at the smoke rising from twin handprints burned into his back. His flesh was not merely red, but blackened, charred and ruined.
Moho’s chuckle was dark, and had her stomach twisting in discomfort. As if he enjoyed her fears.
The impossible heat between her legs had continued, as if it now flowed upward through her, boiling her insides.
He moved, holding her with his eyes—they were on fire!—and another climax hit her, spontaneous and scorching. She tumbled onto her back and moaned in ecstasy, writhing in the melted snows.
WHEN SHE OPENED her eyes in the morning, she saw no sign of Moho.
Had he abandoned her? Had he gotten all he wanted from her? Pele shook her head. The whole experience felt like a dream, lurid and sweltering, but leaving her chilled upon waking.
Yet his absence now left a hollow ache in her gut.
For hours more she climbed. Exhaustion was a word, a point of reference she had left behind some time ago. No. Don’t look up, don’t look down. Just keep climbing. Just keep remembering why she had come here.
At last she crested a slope that, if not level, was at least a shallow enough incline to allow her to collapse on the snow. Eyes shut, she faced the sun and let it warm her face. The nipping breeze up here made even that comfort a pointless effort.
“Who are you?”
Pele opened her eyes to see a woman staring at her. That had to be Poli‘ahu, garbed in a white kihei, face glittering in sunlight with exotic beauty. The Snow Queen of Mauna Kea. Right there. This close, Pele could almost feel the mana in the woman. It flowed beneath her skin like rivers of magma.
But if she were to burn Poli‘ahu now, to reduce her to ash, might all this be ended?
Still, she had promised Lonomakua to try another tack.
With a grunt, Pele rolled over and rose to her feet, pulling her kihei closer around herself. “I am the Flame Queen Pele, now queen of Puna.”
Poli‘ahu scowled so deeply Pele could have sworn the wind intensified, carrying with it a fresh chill. “What do you want? I make it a practice to receive supplicants who manage the climb.”
Supplicants! Who did this bitch think she was? Pele clenched her fists, trying not to let them, or her hair, ignite with her rising ire. “Fine. I made it. We need to discuss the political situation here on Vai‘i.”
“What is there to discuss? Take the invaders and go back to Kahiki. Leave, and no further harm will come to you.”
“We can’t.”
Poli‘ahu folded her arms for a moment and cocked her head to the side. “Tell you what. If you can defeat me, I’ll agree to discuss a truce with you.”
Now Pele took a step forward. The other queen didn’t seem to know who she really was. “You want to fight me?”
“Fight you? No.” She shook her head, then extended a hand out toward a strange forest of ice trees. Almost instantly, ice began to flow off the mountainside, moving like water but upward, shaping itself. It formed into a sled, glistening and glittering in the sunlight. A second sled rose immediately after that. “Familiar with this?”
Pele frowned. “Yes.” She had tried sledding once, years ago, in Uluka‘a. Lonomakua had carved a sled for her with his own hands. They had spent all day on the snows.
Poli‘ahu pointed down the mountain to a section that leveled off into a plateau. “Race me down there and win, and I’ll call off the raids until we’ve had a chance to discuss peace. Provided you manage not to fall off that cliff.”
There was a huge drop off one side of the mountain, one that would be hard to avoid at high speeds. But, ‘aumākua, Pele was not going to let this queen intimidate her.
“Fine. I’ll race.” She scowled at the sled. It was long enough for her to kneel on it and still have its front jut forward. In fact, it looked as though its bottom was lined with blades of ice. It would no doubt be fast, though those blades looked sharp enough to slice a person’s fingers off.
She glanced at Poli‘ahu as they walked over to the sleds. The Snow Queen smirked. Bitch was so full of herself. Well, fine, Pele would put her in her place if that’s what it took to make sure Vai‘i didn’t wind up like Uluka‘a. She knelt one knee on the sled and almost immediately recoiled from the touch. The surface was so cold it actually stung. And if she used her power to warm her limbs, she risked melting the sled. Shaking her head, she grabbed the handholds and braced herself.
Yes. Lonomakua would be hearing about this.
“Ready?” Poli‘ahu asked with her mocking coyness.
Pele blew out a breath, trying to forestall her temper. Devastation. The utter desolation of an entire island. Focusing on that would help her resist the urge to melt this bitch’s face off.
She nodded, then used one leg to kick the sled forward. At first, it started slow. It had been years since she had tried this, and her attempts to get it moving only nudged it forward.
Poli‘ahu laughed from behind her.
Finally, Pele flung her full weight forward and the sled pitched over the slope, its angle dragging her onward. In a heartbeat, the wind was whipping her hair out behind her, streaking against her cheeks with its icy blast. Her kihei tugged at her shoulders, flying in the passage.
As she descended the slope, trees began rapidly approaching. When Lonomakua had tried to teach her this she had grown frustrated, given up. That had been a mistake. She lurched to the left, trying to edge around a tree. Her motion sent the sled much farther off course than she expected and left her flying wide, heading toward the precipice.
An instant later Poli‘ahu zipped past her on her own sled. The Snow Queen moved with absolute control, as if her sled responded to her every whim. Of course it did! The cheating bitch had made herself a better sled. Pele yanked her sled back, trying to draw a narrower course down the slope.
She had to win this. She wasn’t going to lose to Poli‘ahu. Not today.
As best she might, she followed as the Snow Queen darted between trees, zigging and zagging with ease. Pele could feel her hair trying to ignite, starting to simmer as her frustration mounted. She twisted her sled, trying to cut the path even more narrowly, make up lost ground.
And then a blade of her sled caught a tree root. Without even time to think Pele was flying in midair for a gut-wrenching instant before she crashed in the snow. Her
momentum carried her another thirty feet down the slope, tumbling at odd angles before she finally slammed into a snow drift.
There she lay, gasping, trying not to retch as the world spun around her. It took a moment to even be certain nothing was broken. And several more to recognize the sound she was hearing was the damn Snow Queen’s laughter. Again, from below the slope.
Groaning, Pele rolled over and rose to her knees. Immediately, she pitched forward back into the snow. Everything was whirling around her. She sat on hands and knees for several breaths before struggling to her feet. She should have just burned the damn woman and been done with it. These fool games were a waste of time.
Her clenched fists sizzled, releasing trails of steam she barely managed to extinguish.
Pele stormed toward the Snow Queen. “That was hardly a fair race. You gave me an inferior sled. You knew I wouldn’t win with that piece of junk! Or you cheated and used the snows to throw you forward.” Heat had begun to bubble out of her fingertips, build behind her eyes.
“What? I never cheat. And both sleds were the same. I’ll prove it to you. Take mine. You lived through this attempt, I’ll give you another chance to kill yourself. But when I win again, you grant me a boon. Accept me as the true queen of Vai‘i.”
The Snow Queen stared at her with such feigned innocence Pele considered burning her to death right there. How dare this woman mock her? She was a daughter of Haumea. And this snow bitch was about to find out just who she was antagonizing.
Pele took another step toward Poli‘ahu, to stand a mere breath away. “I accept.”
20
T he amount of mana coursing through this woman meant she was a more significant threat than Poli‘ahu had anticipated. Worse, this Pele had declared herself a queen of Vai‘i, and Poli‘ahu could not let that stand. But an open fight might turn against her. Was there any chance the woman would keep her bargain if she lost?
Probably not.
They trekked back up the slope, dragging their sleds behind them. The other woman said nothing.
No, Poli‘ahu didn’t really expect this Pele to adhere to any agreement. On the other hand, people would hear about her losing, and that would further sway the public into Poli‘ahu’s favor. The last thing the people of Sawaiki needed now was a war between kupua. Not like this.
Could she persuade Pele to just leave, though? Send her back to Kahiki or elsewhere in the Worldsea?
Again, probably not.
These kupua had come from Kahiki and had no intention of returning. Her sources indicated at least two very powerful kupua had come, one controlling the tides, and the other—this Pele, apparently—mastering fire and magma.
A sled race was as good a means to test this queen’s limits as any. Let her push herself in a contest she could never win. Who was the other queen, really? How much power did she hold? Poli‘ahu had to discover the answer.
It took maybe half of an hour to return to her place near the summit. By then, Poli‘ahu’s muscles ached. She wasn’t used to dragging a sled around. She could have simply dissolved the thing and formed a new one at the top, but then her guest might have accused her of switching them again somehow.
So now this other queen carried Poli‘ahu’s own sled, for all the good it was likely to do her. No, the woman clearly had too much pride to admit Poli‘ahu was simply better than her. Indeed, it was the epitome of arrogance to think anyone could defeat her in such a contest. Of course, up here, she could probably destroy this queen with her powers over the snow. Maybe she still would do so, whatever the outcome of this race. Truly, Pele was a fool to have sought her out here.
Smirking, Poli‘ahu hefted her sled. “Ready?”
“Do it.”
Poli‘ahu ran forward a few steps then threw herself onto the sled, kneeling to speed its flight. It skated across snow, rapidly building momentum. She spared a glance over her shoulder to see the other woman lagging behind, glaring at her, eyes burning like red hot coals. What in Lua-o-Milu? Was the Flame Queen possessed by a Fire spirit?
That changed things.
The next instant, Pele punched her fist into the ground. The mountain rumbled at her assault as if she had somehow damaged the stone itself. And it kept shaking, trembling in agony. A crack raced out ahead of the other woman, a spreading crevice that split so deep it swallowed snow from both sides. The crevice sped toward Poli‘ahu, now billowing out a curtain of steam.
She jerked her sled to the side, out of its path, sending herself dangerously close to the precipice. Even as she turned back, the crevice had arced around in front of her. Her sled was racing too fast for her to stop it in time. She was going to crash right through that scorching curtain—and it had to be ten feet thick at this point.
All she could think of to protect herself was enveloping her form and sled in a thick cloud of mist and snow flurries. She summoned it from all around her, forming more and more of the barrier even as the sled leapt the crevice, flying through the air. The mist and snow evaporated faster than she could reform it, allowing steam to scald her flesh even as the sled crashed down on the far side of the gap.
Poli‘ahu realized she was screaming in pain, and still her sled wasn’t slowing. Indeed, the other queen’s own had just raced past her. If Pele couldn’t win a fair race, she planned to cheat.
Well, no one beat Poli‘ahu on her own mountain.
She summoned a ripple of snow, using it to fling her sled forward with ever-increasing speed. When the Flame Queen looked backward, her face fell as she realized how fast Poli‘ahu was gaining on her. First, Poli‘ahu was going to thrash her in this race. Then she would freeze the woman to death for her temerity.
The Flame Queen waved her hand and the mountain shook again, breaking apart. A river of lava—lava!—surged forward in front of Poli‘ahu’s sled. The molten earth was quickly turning her beautiful mountain into a wasteland of slush, steam, and toxic vapors.
And she could not stop herself from crashing into it. Instead, she poured mana into the snow beneath her sled, using it to fling herself upward. Her sled flew through the air once again as snow plummeted below her, cooling the lava, though destroying itself in the process.
Her teeth slammed together as the sled touched down with such force it almost threw her free. But it kept its momentum, and she was still gaining on Pele. A fountain of lava exploded in front of her like a geyser, spilling its molten death all around her.
Poli‘ahu jerked her sled to the side, trying to avoid it like she would a tree. Except this tree rained fire on her. Spots of it struck the sled, sizzling and melting through the ice almost instantly. Another fountain blossomed in front of her, and again she darted around it, so close she felt its heat would burn her skin right off.
She glanced back only to see her kihei, streaming in the breeze, was on fire. Kāne! She tore free its clasp and let the cloak fly away in the wind.
Poli‘ahu extended a hand behind herself, using snow to speed her way once again. Her sled launched past the Flame Queen’s and Poli‘ahu cast a withering gaze at the woman who had declared war on her home. Well, maybe it was time Pele learned just what the mountain could do to defend itself.
She eased her power out of the snow behind her and instead reached up to the mountain shelf above. Already the snows were loosened, trembling from the torment the other kupua had wrought. Poli‘ahu jumped off her sled and drew both hands in toward her chest, calling the snows to her.
High above, a curtain of snow rose, accompanied by a cacophony fit to rival any eruption the Flame Queen had wrought.
And then the avalanche began.
Poli‘ahu called more and more of the snow, endless tons of it to cleanse and bury the interloper. She allowed her form to become mist and flew past the Flame Queen, relishing the look of horror on the other woman’s face as she saw her end.
And then the avalanche crashed into Pele and carried her right off the precipice.
21
T he cascade of ice and sn
ow pitched over the cliff’s edge like a waterfall passing over Kamapua‘a’s head as he climbed. Stray rocks and ice chips pummeled him until he lost his grip on the mountain and skittered downward. The skin on his knees ripped open before he caught himself, one hand grasping an icy rock. He was spun around, staring at white oblivion rushing before him.
A glowing ember in the midst of the snow plummeted past him.
The one he’d heard about, who’d come up here. The shitting flame kupua.
The sound of the mountain passing overhead was like the roar of a mo‘o, except unending. A constant, deafening, all-consuming current that swallowed even the sound of his own screams.
“Stupid shit-shitting shitters!” Not being able to hear the sound of his own voice only made the terror worse.
Even as the avalanche finally ebbed, giving way to a few final tumbling pebbles, a fresh pit opened in his stomach. That ember had to have been Pele. Stupid lava woman had gotten herself thrown off a mountain.
Even Kama knew better than to do that.
And if she had lost consciousness in the fall, she wouldn’t be able to melt the snow around her. It would suffocate her.
Well, pig shit.
He looked down. The falling snows had filled in the base of the cliff so that the drop was maybe a hundred feet. If he landed on rock, a fall from that height might kill even a mighty wereboar.
It was not his problem. He’d come here to kill Poli‘ahu. Or else marry her and carry her off somewhere where she couldn’t hurt Kama’s kin anymore. Sure, maybe he couldn’t do much for his nephews what with being banished and shit.
But killing the Snow Queen would’ve gotten all forgiven.
It was a fine plan.
Of course, he’d heard this Pele was allied with Aukele. Kama barely knew his half-brother, but maybe saving her would earn him some reward, too.
