“The Moja hit him here,” Naja confirmed. They had finally given up and struck him, probably in the head, and he had bled quite a lot. Sasha swallowed and reminded herself that head wounds did bleed a lot. He was probably all right. Probably.
“What happened after that?” Sasha asked. There was more scuffling, but she couldn’t tell much in the confusion, not the way Naja could. But then, Naja was a tracker.
Naja pointed up a steep ridge. The footprints resumed, this time wending up the beach toward the cliff heads. She pointed out the marks that indicated that Quinn’s unconscious body had been dragged. The Moja had taken Quinn over the cliffs, through a line of horsehair conifers, and out onto the plains beyond.
Sasha shielded her eyes and stared out at the plains. It was warming up quickly, which meant the cold-blooded predators were slowing down and seeking shelter from the sun—she knew from experience that they preferred hunting at dawn and dusk—leaving just the big sauropods and smaller armored dinosaurs to wander the plains. The smaller dinosaurs seemed better able to regulate their body temperature, and the huge sauropods, like the pod of Diplodocus in the far distance, were so vast they threw off body heat better than the fast-moving predators. But that didn’t make her feel any better about leaving the shelter of the beach and traveling across the plains. Out there somewhere was She. And she was waiting for them.
As if sensing her distress, Newton put his nose to her ear. She petted him. If she went out there, Newton would be her only alarm to ambush predators. She didn’t know how she felt about putting her life in the hands of a tiny prehistoric mammal.
“Why would they take Quinn out on the plains?” she asked Naja. “Isn’t it dangerous out there?”
Naja raised her face and almost seemed to sniff the air. “There is much danger. But also much meat. My people make their stays on the plains.”
“You mean camp.”
“Yes,” Naja answered with a short nod. She still struggled with her English.
“How do they survive? I mean, amongst the big predators?”
“My people move much. Not stay in one camp often. And we have ways.” She narrowed her eyes. “There are scents big ones don’t like. And we use fire sometimes. The meat is good on the plains.”
“Do you know if there’s a camp nearby where they might have taken Quinn?”
“There was drums the night last. They are near. Out there.” She pointed east, where the sun was almost fully up. “Beyond mountain, maybe.”
“You don’t know?”
“Moja may have moved on now. They will go to the sea soon. They will go to sacrifice to Bolaja, the One Below.”
Again, Sasha shivered. Naja had said they sacrificed their red-hairs to Bolaja, their sea god. They would most definitely sacrifice Quinn; he had the reddest hair she’d ever seen.
She swallowed against her sore, tired throat. “How long…how long before they’ll take Quinn to the sea?”
Naja shrugged. “I do not know. There will be a ceremony first, the Moja will eat and dance, but it could be very short or very long.”
“So there’s time,” she said. “Maybe there’s time.” She didn’t feel better, only slightly more hopeful.
“We’re not going out on the plains,” Toby stated, stepping up beside her. He’d been so quiet she had nearly forgotten he was there. He put a hand on Sasha’s shoulder as if he would restrain her. “You saw what that…thing did to those animals it killed. You’d be mad to go out there.”
Sasha’s grip on her javelin increased until her knuckles turned white. “Toby, I can’t not go out there. They have Quinn.”
“He could be dead already. They might have killed him on the beach.”
She shuddered, closed her eyes for a second. She couldn’t afford to believe that. “He’s not dead. They don’t want him dead. They need him for a sacrifice.” She turned, but Toby’s grip on her shoulder increased. She looked at him. Her face felt like stone. “Toby, unhand me.”
“You can’t go out there!” he shouted. “Either She will kill you, or the Moja will.”
“Then come with me.” She looked to Naja, then back at Toby. But it was obvious to her that they were far too frightened to go out onto the plains. She felt the first nibbling of despair, then sucked back at the sudden tears in her throat. She would not fall apart. She would not be afraid. Not when Quinn needed her to be strong, a huntress. She shrugged off Toby’s touch. She had her answer. But she had no more time to waste.
Turning her back on Toby and Naja, she headed back to camp to collect supplies for the long, lonely trek ahead.
CHAPTER 16
She took two waterskins, a supply of food that would keep her three days, and two javelins. She bundled everything up in her homemade rucksack and shouldered it, testing the weight. She took up her favorite javelin for protection. Before she left, she stripped away the remnants of her dress so she was paired down to just her chemise and the homemade Moja boots that Naja had made for her. She was done with modesty, and the shredded dress was becoming more a hindrance than anything else. For protection against the night’s chill she took Quinn’s frock coat, tying it about her waist. She had everything she needed for at least three days of hard travel. Newton leapt up onto her shoulder as if to assert that he was ready. Newton, her only alert to danger on the plains. And now, her only companion.
She emerged from the cave and saw Toby and Naja waiting for her on the beach. They too were ready to move on, though they’d be going in a different direction today.
“I wish you wouldn’t do this,” said Toby. His face was lined with worry. He kept compulsively clutching his bow. “I told you he’d get you killed.”
She stared at him. She refused to be afraid. “I have to find him, Toby.” She swallowed, hard. “I love him.”
Toby looked infinitely sad. “You do, don’t you.” He saw how serious she was, how hard her eyes and spirit were. “You won’t survive out there, you know.”
“Maybe.”
“And even if you do, how will you ever rescue him?”
“I’ll think of something. I’ll negotiate. I’ll show the Moja how to construct better weapons in exchange for Quinn’s freedom. I’ll show them how to get more meat.”
Naja looked sad. “They will not listen.”
She waited for one or both of them to offer her assistance, to join her in this dangerous task, but they only looked on her with pity and sadness. Naja was afraid; she had escaped her people because she feared for her life. And Toby did not care if Quinn died. She was alone in all this. In fact, she’d never felt so alone in all her life. “I have to go,” she said. “Goodbye, then.” With a heavy heart she pushed past them both and hiked out into the plains toward the distant mountains, alone.
CHAPTER 17
She’d gone perhaps two miles before she spotted a lumbering pod of Diplodocus, one of the largest groups she had ever seen. She counted at least thirty adults and twelve juveniles. They filled the plains, somehow making it seem less vast as they bullied each other and switched their long tails in communication. The ground trembled with their passing. Quinn would have suggested moving with the herd for protection, but keeping a reasonable distance. If she kept walking east without taking many breaks, it was possible she’d make the mountains in a few hours with the Diplodocus acting as a living shield. No predator would dare approach such an imposing herd as this. It was difficult keeping up with such gigantic land-shakers, but by nightfall she was within a few miles of the Moja camp, and she could hear the distant thudding of drums.
Newton became more agitated then, and Sasha stopped to let him off in a tall conifer. At first, he was reluctant to leave her, but Sasha shooed him away. If she was taken by the Moja, she wanted Newton, at least, to have a chance at life.
She hiked on alone, taking pains to listen to the drums, which were increasing in volume and steadily picking up rhythm. By the time full dark fell, she was perhaps a quarter of a mile from the looming black mountains and she
could see a myriad of small fires lit all across the Moja’s camp. Naja said the Moja used fire to stave off the night predators, but some of the bonfires were larger than others. She had a sinking feeling there was some religious significance to them. She moved to the shelter of a stand of conifers and started to climb. At least this way, she was hidden from the Moja and still protected from ground predators.
From the higher bows she could see the camp more clearly. It covered the whole foot of the mountain and was comprised of perhaps three hundred individuals of various ages, all of the same overly large, sturdy genetic stock as Naja, all dressed in similar crude saris, men and women alike. They were maintaining at least ten large ceremonial bonfires, with a great many people dancing and offering up praise to their gods. The rattling drums and primitive twittering flutes quickly frightened off any animals that drew near the camp—which was likely its original purpose, Sasha thought. The reverie was likely intended to keep predators away from the camp at night, but like people everywhere, the Moja had attached religious significance to the songs and dances of their people until one day they began taking on a life all their own.
The Moja were nomadic, Naja said. As a result, there were no permanent structures, only a handful of crude wigwams—small, domed-shaped structures built of branches or bones and covered in hides or palm fronds, easy enough to deconstruct and carry with the tribe when they chose to move on. In the middle of the camp, surrounded by a circle of wigwams, was a large, painted man bearing an elaborate mantel of bone around his shoulders. He was directing the largest number of dancers, and she thought he might be the tribal leader.
Sasha watched for over an hour as the chief directed his people to add burning branches to the already enormous bonfire. They danced, and sang, and strengthened the fire until it was as high as a pillar. Then he pointed at the largest wigwam and four of the largest men ducked inside. Sasha felt her breath catch when they emerged. They were dragging a much smaller man with them who was fighting fiercely to be free of their hold…a man with hair as bright as the fire they were feeding. Quinn.
CHAPTER 18
Sasha followed the tribe down to the inland sea, staying as hidden as possible amidst the cycads and conifer pines. She thought many times about rushing into their midst and trying to negotiate for Quinn’s freedom as she had told Toby and Naja she would, but it wasn’t long before she realized how futile that would be. The ceremony was reaching a fever pitch, the Moja shouting and dancing in ever more ecstatic patterns as they marched Quinn with enormous ceremony down to the sea. Some seemed so possessed by their religious zealotry that they began convulsing with the sheer power of song and dance. She was afraid if she approached them now they would simply kill her, or perhaps add her to the sacrifices to Bolaja.
On the beach they lit an enormous bonfire, the light so great it filled the sky like noontime and spilled across the sand and turned it golden. No animals were willing to approach now. They tied Quinn to a sturdy saltire cross that looked like it had weathered many ceremonies similar to this, then fed their fire higher and danced about him, brushing fans of brightly colored feathers against his face.
Sasha slipped behind some boulders on the edge of the beach and watched and waited. She knew she was likely running out of time, and she wondered if she’d be able to pass as a Moja in her dark braids and tan just long enough to get close to Quinn and cut his binds with her knife. But each time she thought the Moja were distracted enough to allow her to creep down to the beach, one broke away from the rest and approached him, flicking him with incense or fluttered their ceremonial fans in his face until he grimaced and looked ready to bite the next Moja who approached him.
She waited another twenty minutes, but no opportunity presented itself. She was running out of time. She was going to have to take her chances by directly infiltrating the tribe. She dropped her rucksack on the ground and stabbed her javelin into the sand. She slid Quinn’s knife into the obi-style belt holding her slowly disintegrating chemise together, and started down the beach.
And that’s when the hands fell upon her shoulders.
CHAPTER 19
Gripping the knife in her belt, Sasha turned, ready to strike the person behind her…only to recognized the familiar plains and worry lines in Toby’s face. She nearly shrieked in surprise, clapping a hand over her mouth to stop herself. “What are you doing here?” she asked, then spotted Naja a few steps behind him. She looked as worried as Toby.
“We came down to warn you not to approach the Moja now,” Toby explained. “Naja said that Quinn is now a ‘sacred object’ to be sacrificed. Anyone who touches him will make him ‘unclean’ to be sacrificed to Bolaja.”
Sasha let out her breath. “Isn’t that a good thing?” She looked at Naja, but Naja shook her head vehemently.
“If Quinn is made unclean by your touch, they will kill him right now,” she said.
“They’re going to kill him anyway!”
Naja gave her a serious look. “They will not kill your Quinn. They mean to send him to Bolaja.”
“What does that mean?”
“You will see.”
“I don’t need to see!” she hissed. “I need to save him before they do…whatever it is they plan to do to him!”
Naja pointed to the horizon where a craggy collection of rocks projected from the sea. “In the early hours of the morning they will take him there and bind him to the rocks, and then call Bolaja. But they will not remain to see. The Moja fear Bolaja too much to look upon him.”
Sasha looked at the other woman. “So I’ll have time to rescue him?”
“You may, if you can swim very fast. Bolaja is…very fast.”
She thought about that. Her head hurt from the continuous rolling thunder of the drums. “I can swim. But Quinn can’t.” She sat down on the sand and clapped her hands over her face. How would she ever tow Quinn to shore in time? She was strong, an excellent swimmer, but Quinn was heavier than he looked, and the swim was at least a thousand feet.
Naja gave Toby a meaningful look. After a moment, he sat down beside her. He took a deep breath that almost seemed to pain him and said, “I’ll help you get Quinn to shore.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why?” She knew he hated Quinn. She did not even think he cared enough about him to help her at this point.
Toby looked unsure of himself, but a glance from Naja spurred him on. “Because I owe Quinn.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. Is this because of what he did in the Sen cave?”
He stared at his feet a long moment before glancing up at her. He hunched his shoulders as if he were expecting physical blows to fall upon him. “No,” he said. “I asked Naja to cut a piece of Quinn’s hair off while he slept and deliver it to a Moja scout.”
The words made no sense to her for a moment. She looked at Toby. She looked at Naja. She said, “I don’t understand.”
Naja averted her eyes.
“When the scout saw his hair,” Toby explained, “the Moja decided they wanted him, that they would hunt him.”
“I still don’t understand.” She stared long and hard at Naja, her friend. The woman who had told her she must take Quinn if she wanted him. “Why would you do something like that?” She stood up and took an unsteady step toward her. “Why would you want to hurt Quinn?”
“It wasn’t Naja,” Toby said, standing up and moving closer to Naja as if he meant to intervene between the two women. “She likes Quinn, Sasha. She only did it because I asked her to.”
She looked at Toby. She felt numb all over.
Toby held her steady gaze. “I lied to Naja. I told her Quinn was a very bad man in our world, that she’d made a dreadful mistake in encouraging your relationship with him.” He took a deep breath and ran his hands over his face and hair. “But I knew it was all a mistake when I saw you run off like that. I knew it was wrong.”
“It was my mistake too,” Naja said, turning her careful attention on Sasha but lowering
her eyes in deference. “I should have trusted he was a good man. I am sorry, Sasha.” She went to one knee and bowed her head in a gesture of contrition.
Sasha stared at them both. She felt a flash of anger so great it made her tremble. “So you made Toby come here,” she said to Naja.
“No, I made us come here,” Toby said, his eyes burning with an unfamiliar pain. “I want to make it up to you. I want to help Quinn, Sasha.”
“I trusted you. Both of you.” She shook her head, hateful tears filling up her eyes. “How could you do this? We were all together in this. We were friends.” She looked directly at Toby.
Toby took a step toward her. “Sasha, please…we want to help you…”
Planet of Dinosaurs, The Complete Collection (Includes Planet of Dinosaurs, Sea of Serpents, & Valley of Dragons) Page 16
