Kaya Stormchild

by Lael Whitehead

  “You know?”

  “Tike and I had a conversation earlier, as you were packing the canoe. He’s a confiding little chap. He wanted me to know about Tangle Island, and about the nest you built. He’s very proud of you, you see.”

  “Do you…mind?” asked Kaya, her face worried. “I mean, I think you would love Grandmother, and she would love you. But she has always warned me --”

  “She was right to,” said the Duchess gently. “Most of the world wouldn’t understand. Most people have a very low opinion of any creature different from themselves, and most people think their way of life is the only right way. But I think your life on Tangle sounds perfectly splendid!”

  Kaya crossed the path to where the Duchess sat and threw her arms around the old woman’s neck.

  “I’m so glad! It’s such a relief not to have to keep it secret from you anymore!”

  The two friends smiled at one another. The Duchess got to her feet.

  “But listen, I have to tell you. It’s so important!” said Kaya eagerly.

  They began to walk further down the path towards the south end of the island. As they went, Kaya told the Duchess everything she had learned from Grandmother and Kelpie about the Omrith and the Summer Turning.

  As she finished her tale, they came to the end of the forested stretch of the island and out onto the southern tip. Here the trail ended on a low bank above the sea. They stood side by side in silence for a moment, gazing across the small strip of water that lay between Edith island on which they stood and its twin sister, Bella Island.

  “It’s louder here,” said the Duchess, rubbing her forehead.

  Kaya nodded, frowning. They both stared towards the other island. The pulsing vibration was much more noticeable now that they were facing this direction.

  “I have a hunch …” began the Duchess.

  “I know,” said Kaya. “It’s over there. Whatever it is. That is not a drum.”

  “Whatever it is that’s at the root of it all,” the old woman whispered. “My dizziness…”

  “My empty feeling.”

  They looked at one another.

  “The others,” said Kaya quickly, “we’ve got to tell them. Let’s go!”

  Back at the beach, they called for Josh and Tike. The boy and the otter came running, their faces hopeful.

  “We didn’t find it,” said Kaya. “We’ve got to go to the other island.”

  “But we haven’t finished searching this one!” exclaimed Josh. “We can’t leave yet!”

  “I can’t explain,” said Kaya. “I just know we have to go there. Maybe it’s this shell thing, maybe it has something to do with the Omrith. I don’t know. But it’s urgent. Oh! I wish Grandmother were here!” Kaya’s voice caught in her throat. The Duchess put a hand on Kaya’s shoulder.

  “Steady now,” the old woman said gently. “We need to think as clearly as we can, and be brave. Let’s have a bite to eat. Food will give us energy. And then we’ll go across to the other island and find out what’s there.”

  Silently and quickly, they ate their simple picnic. Then they launched the canoe once more. It took them less than ten minutes to cover the distance between the two adjacent islands.

  Once they reached the tip of Bella Island, they paddled west along its rocky shore until they spotted a sandy beach. Approaching the beach in order to dock the canoe, however, was extremely difficult. The air throbbed almost visibly with a deep, insistent pulse that set their teeth and their hearts pounding. Tike wailed and curled into a ball at the Duchess’s feet. Josh and Kaya scowled as they paddled, and the Duchess kept her hands firmly clapped over her ears.

  They forced the canoe forward and had reached the shore when the sound of a motor cut through the throbbing. Kaya swiveled in her seat to see. The white boat! It was coming right towards them! She could see Rex standing at the helm, wearing a thin T-shirt that revealed his huge, pale, flabby arms. Spencer stood glowering beside him. The men seemed hardly to notice the red canoe ahead in the shallow water. Their eyes scanned the sandy beach intently.

  Josh and Kaya leapt from the canoe and helped the Duchess and Tike onto the sand. They stared as the white boat swept in close to the beach, stopping not ten meters away from the canoe. Rex cut off the motor and Spencer jumped out, plunging thigh-deep into the water.

  They all saw it at the same moment.

  It lay on a bed of sand, pebbles and dried seaweed, just up the beach from Rex’s boat. It was large for a shell, nine or ten inches long from tip to tip, and spiral-shaped, like some great conch of the tropical seas. Only this was like no other shell they had ever seen. Great stripes of deep black and brilliant white intertwined over its outer surface. The interior of the shell, however, shone with an iridescent, rainbow-hued light that seemed to grow brighter with each passing moment. Around the shell the air faintly shimmered and vibrated and throbbed. Tiny flecks of light, like sparks from struck flint, leapt from it and sank into the sand. With each pulse, the shell seemed to swell and recede, like a heart alive and beating visibly before them.

  “What the -?!” gasped Spencer, staggering backwards in the water. He clutched his head as if it ached. “Look at the thing! It’s …it’s…come alive!”

  “Just get it, you idiot!” shrieked Rex from the boat.

  With a grunt, Spencer propelled himself forward, splashing noisily through the water.

  “Josh,” yelled Kaya. “We can’t let him have it! “

  For a moment the two children stood transfixed on the beach. The sound of the shell pummelled their ears. They both felt unable to move.

  Spencer stopped, too, still knee-deep in the waves. “I can’t!” he gasped. “It hurts!”

  “You get that shell, or you’ll regret it for the rest of you life you idiot!” shouted his companion from the boat.

  With a loud curse, Spencer staggered to shore. He was wearing heavy black cowboy boots that sloshed water with every step.

  “Back off, you brats!” he shouted at the children, stumbling forward in his soggy boots. Then for the first time he recognized Josh. Spencer stopped abruptly.

  “You!” he snarled. “The little deaf kid, eh? Liar! You got off easy last time, but if you know what’s good for you, you’d better scram! That shell is mine!”

  “It is not!” shouted Josh, breaking all at once into a run.

  Spencer and Josh lunged towards the shell. The drumming sound was deafening, but with a huge effort of will Kaya forced herself forward. Her head was spinning she could barely see. Time seemed to pass in slow motion. She was aware of Spencer just ahead of her, swaying and pitching like a drunkard. He seemed about to fall. Josh had slumped to his feet with his head in his hands, moaning. Kaya felt as if she were swimming through air. Slowly, very slowly she approached the shell as if through thick dense water.

  Kaya watched her own hands reach out for the shell. The light from its shimmering interior burst outwards, like an exploding rainbow. Gently, she closed her fingers around its smooth, pulsating surface, as she might cup an injured animal.

  Then suddenly, time lurched into high speed once more. She heard a loud, deep-throated snarl from Spencer, and felt herself knocked aside by a powerful blow that took the breath from her lungs. As she fell, she saw Josh lunge forward and tackle Spencer around the legs. The man crashed to the ground like a felled tree.

  “I’ve got it!” shouted Josh. He scooped up the shell and clutched it tightly in his arms.

  “Run, Josh, run! Get to the boat!” yelled Kaya.

  “Not so fast, boy!” came Spencer’s growling voice. He kicked viciously at Josh from where he lay on the pebbles, causing the boy’s knees to buckle. Josh cried out in pain and let go of the shell. It rolled away down the beach, like a ball of lightning, sending showers of sparks as it went.

  Kaya, who had had the wind knocked out of her, sat up, gasping for air. Spencer was back on his feet, leaning over Josh. She saw him aim another deadly kick at the boy with the sharp, pointed toe of
his boot.

  A blind fury seized Kaya. She leaped up and threw herself, screaming, onto the scrawny man’s back, gripping him tightly around the neck with both arms, so that Spencer began choking and gagging. He staggered a few steps. Then he began to swing around violently, trying to shake Kaya from his back, but Kaya clung to him like a limpet. Tike snarled and screamed at their feet. He was unable to get his teeth into Spencer’s ankles through the heavy boots, but twice he managed to leap up and nip the man’s knees, driving Spencer into an even greater frenzy.

  “Leave Josh alone!” Kaya shouted in Spencer’s ear. She gave a final powerful squeeze with her arms, which were strong from years of padding the canoe. Then she leapt free. Spencer dropped to the sand, semi-conscious, his breath coming in thin rasps.

  Kaya turned around to catch sight of the Duchess, not more than twenty feet away. She was holding the shelll high over her head. Light pulsed from it like a strobe.

  But behind her, Rex was barreling up the beach. His huge body dripped from his plunge into the water.

  “Watch out!” screamed Kaya.

  The Duchess swung around and held up her hand.

  “Stop!” she said commandingly.

  Rex paused, startled, a few feet away. The old woman’s slender, stooping frame looked almost comically frail next to his massive one.

  “This is not for you, my friend,” she said in a clear, steady voice. “You don’t know what you are meddling with here.”

  Rex’s flat, high-pitched laugh scraped the air.

  “A little old lady, a couple of kids and a slimy-looking dog. Think you can tell me what I’m allowed to meddle with? Going to send me to my room without any supper, Granny? Hah!”

  He took a step forward, looming menacingly over the Duchess.

  “Give it here, you old hag,” he squealed.

  “No,” said the old woman steadily. “You don’t understand. So much is at stake. This must go back to its rightful place or -”

  But she wasn’t allowed to finish. Rex whipped a knife from his belt and lunged towards the old woman.

  “Don’t!” shouted Kaya

  “No!” shrieked Josh at the same moment from where he lay on the sand.

  But it was too late. They saw the old woman crumple to the sand, clutching her arm. The shell rolled out of her grasp and down towards the water. Rex was after it in a second. He pulled off his dirty white t-shirt and wrapped it around the shimmering object. Then, tucking the pulsating bundle under his arm he waded to the boat, which was still floating in the shallows. His huge naked belly jiggled as he clambered aboard.

  “Hurry, you idiot!” he shouted at Spencer, who was finally staggering to his feet.

  “And as for you lot,” he hissed, “I’m gonna make sure you don’t meddle with us again. Grab that canoe, Spencer! We’re going to take it for a little ride.”

  Limping, Spencer dragged the red canoe by its rope over to the boat. As if frozen, Kaya watched mutely as the two men fired up the motor and sped off down the bay, towing the canoe behind them. The urgent drumming subsided gradually to a dull, distant pulse, then disappeared. The shimmering light faded from the air, and with it all hope ebbed from Kaya’s heart. She closed her eyes and sank to the sand. She felt drained, as if a plug had been pulled deep within her, as if all possibility of joy had emptied forever from the world. All that was left was darkness.

  “Kaya!” a voice shouted in her ear. “Get up! Kaya!”

  She felt a soft, whiskered nose nudge her cheek. It was Tike. Kaya roused herself. She opened her eyes and looked at the otter. He stared back at her impatiently.

  “You can’t give up, Kaya. You can’t just lie there. You’ve got to help them!”

  With an effort, Kaya willed her eyes to focus. She got to her feet. Josh lay ten feet away, clutching his leg and moaning in pain. A stone’s throw down the beach was the slumped form of the Duchess. Kaya swallowed hard and shook herself.

  “Josh,” she called to him, her voice hoarse and strange in her ears, “Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a minute to help you.”

  She forced herself to take a step along the sand. And another. Then she began to run towards the Duchess.

  The beach, the sea, the gathering clouds overhead zoomed suddenly into intense focus. Kaya’s ears filled with the murmuring of the waves and the hissing of the wind through the forest beyond the beach. All at once she felt supremely alive, as if she had just woken from a long sleep.

  The Duchess looked up at her as Kaya approached. The elderly woman’s eyes were glazed with pain, but she smiled a wan smile at the girl.

  “Oh, my dear. What bad luck. But I’m – I’m OK. It’s just a cut…”

  The Duchess was clutching her upper arm with her other hand. Kaya could see that the sleeve of her dress beneath the tight fingers was drenched with blood.

  “It’s a big cut,” said Kaya emphatically. “Here, let me help. I’m going to need to take off one of your stockings.”

  Gently, Kaya pulled off the Duchess’s right shoe. Then she removed one of her knee-high nylon stockings. Working with quick, deft movements, Kaya tied the stocking tightly around the Duchess’s arm, just above the wound.

  “It’s a tourniquet,” she explained. “It will help slow the bleeding.”

  Kaya replaced the shoe. Then she took off the light sweater she was wearing and wrapped it around the old woman’s shoulders.

  “Wait here until I see about Josh,” she said gently. “Tike, you curl yourself up against her back to keep her warm, OK?”

  The little otter nodded solemnly and immediately pressed his body up against the Duchess.

  Kaya hurried to where her friend lay on the rough sand. Josh’s leg jutted at an odd angle.

  “I think it’s broken,” he muttered between clenched teeth. “Kaya, those jerks got away! What are we going to do?!”

  “Shh,” said Kaya, “Don’t think about them right now. We’ve got to fix you up first. Grandmother taught me about broken bones, only I’ve never set a human bone. I’ve mended eagle bones and the leg of a fawn, once, who’d fallen down a cliff…”

  She frowned in concentration, then, seizing the frayed hem of Josh’s jeans, she ripped his pant leg right up to the knee. A huge angry bruise marked the place on Josh’s shin where the leg bent at a peculiar angle.

  “Josh, this is going to hurt a bit. You’ve got to be brave, OK?”

  The boy nodded grimly. He closed his eyes.

  Taking hold of Josh’s ankle in both hands, Kaya began to pull steadily and gently.

  “Count to ten, Josh,” said Kaya.

  Josh began to count, then let out a gasp of pain. The leg straightened. Kaya very slowly relaxed her grip.

  “Don’t move,” she commanded. “I’m going to need your belt. Can you manage to take it off?”

  Trying to move as little as possible, Josh undid his belt buckle and slid the belt out of his jeans. Kaya had taken two smooth arm’s-length pieces of driftwood that lay nearby and placed them gently on either side of the broken leg. Josh handed her the belt. Looping it around and around several times, Kaya managed to bind the driftwood sticks together around Josh’s leg, forming a kind of splint.

  “That will have to do until we can find something better,” she said with a shake of her head.

  Standing up, Kaya gazed around her. What should they do?

  It was already nearly six o’clock, in a few hours it would grow dark. They had no way to leave the island and no way to call for help. The Duchess and Josh were both seriously hurt. If only Grandmother would come! But Kaya hadn’t told the eagle where she was going. How would Grandmother know where to look for her?

  They needed shelter. The weather was beginning to change. The blue sky of earlier that afternoon had darkened to a dull grey. The wind was rising. Black clouds rolled in from the west, and Kaya smelled rain in the air. Both Josh and the Duchess would be in shock from their injuries. She had to get them warm. Kaya would have to work fast.

&nb
sp; She found a spot at the top of the beach, above the high-tide mark, where the sand was dry and soft, and began to build a shelter. Luckily, piles of driftwood lay scattered thickly on the beach to either side. Kaya hauled and stacked long sticks of wood, piece by piece, until she had made a rudimentary teepee, about six feet in diameter, with an opening on the side away from the water. Next she broke off branches of cedar and fir that grew at the edge of the forest, leaning them thickly against the driftwood. She stacked green boughs against the inside of the shelter as well, so that soon the little house was snug against the wind. Kaya smoothed the dry sand on the floor with an improvised broom, and went to fetch her friends.

  First she untied the tourniquet on the Duchess’s arm. The blood gushed from the wound once more, although less freely than it had earlier. Kaya waited for a couple of minutes before she retied the tourniquet. Then she helped the Duchess to her feet and led her to the shelter. Tike followed close at their heels.

  “The basket –“ said the old woman. “It must still be on the beach. I took it out of the canoe. I think I put it behind a rock somewhere –“

  Kaya brightened. “I thought we’d lost it with the boat!! I’ll go find it.”

  This was the first good thing that had happened since the fight on the beach. The girl searched along the rocky edge of the little bay until she spotted the handle of the wicker basket protruding from behind a sandstone boulder. She retrieved it just in time. The rising tide had almost reached it and would soon have floated it out to sea. Returning to the shelter with the basket, Kaya found the red checkered cloth and wrapped it around the Duchess. She found the bottled water and helped the woman take a long drink.

  “Now I’m going to go try and get Josh in here,” said Kaya. “He won’t be able to walk. I hope he can haul himself this far!”

  It was difficult, but with Kaya’s help Josh at last managed to heave himself up the beach. Kaya steered him backwards by the shoulders, and he used his arms and his one good leg to propel himself. Finally, he slithered in through the small door and flopped onto his back, groaning with pain. Once he was inside, Kaya stacked some fir boughs across the doorway from the outside.