The Shaman and the Droll

by Jack Lasenby

  A huge woman sneered and whipped the back of her knife across my throat so it burned. Another flogged a bit of deerskin across my eyes, tied it behind my head. Someone pinioned my arms. A rope around my neck. My captors had used the girls and their nakedness to lure me into the current, intending us to drown. How many others had they sung to death?

  There was no warning. The rope was yanked so hard I stumbled. Blindfold, unable to balance, I tripped. Tried to right myself and trot after. Beneath my feet, the island seemed a series of rounded surfaces, one after another. The women dragged cruel-handed. When I slowed, spears jabbed through my tunic. At my heels Jak growled, and Nip gave an occasional squeal, so they were being pricked along, too.

  “We came,” I said, “looking for friends.” A tug on the rope made me fall. A harder jab. Under my tunic, an itch like an insect crawling down my back. Blood trickling.

  “I am not a Salt Man!” The anger in my voice hid its quaver. “They’re all dead with Squint-face.”

  “He lies!”

  “Don’t listen to him!” A jeering chorus of obscenities. The rope jerked me to a stop. Jak and Nip bunted against my legs. A hand ripped off the blindfold. I blinked, reached down to touch Jak, reassure Nip. She shoved against me, whimpering. Rough hands wrenched up my head.

  We stood at the feet of a colossal statue like the Guardians we had seen in the mountain pass. Instead of drums of stone stacked upon each other, this monster was carved out of a single shaft. It seemed to have two faces. One staring west up the lake at the snow-covered mountains; the other at the black cloud above the snow-speckled range mounded like a grave.

  Out of the nearest mouth drifted the same blue smoke I had watched as we rafted down the lake. The same smell that tainted the air from the rolled leaves the women smoked.

  A voice huge as the statue itself rumbled and shook until the ground beneath my feet seemed to move. “What do you bring?”

  I remembered the way Taur had magnified his voice through a bull’s horn and was unimpressed by the boom. Despite my predicament, I smiled – a sneer. The big woman cuffed me. “Pay respect to Hekkat!”

  I lost my balance. Looked down and saw why I had stumbled as the women dragged me. The island was afloat – great logs chained together. They moved ever so slightly now. Only the statue was solid.

  “We bring a man,” the same woman replied.

  “You know the rule.”

  “We led him into the current,” said the spearwoman. “He should have drowned, but Lutha saved him.”

  “Why?”

  “She saw the man had two dogs on his raft. She says she saved them, not the man.”

  “Men are forbidden,” boomed the empty voice. “At midnight Lutha must leave the man and his dogs on the Island of Bones.”

  A mist of blue flowered out of the mouth I could see. Turned to a heavy smoke which swirled down in tendrils. The women inhaled greedily. The sweet vegetable smell turned my stomach.

  “We hear, Hekkat!” the big woman said. They blindfolded me again, dragged me across the logs. Now I knew my footing, I could keep my balance. I spoke to Jak and Nip, was told to shut up, and somebody struck me across the mouth with a spear shaft. I tasted blood.

  “Lutha risked her life to save him. Now she must risk it a second time to get rid of him.” It was the same voice that had ordered me to be quiet. It chuckled, a cruel gurgle. “Shove him in there.” Hands still tied, I went forward on my face. A door slammed heavy.

  In the silence, lip throbbing, I managed to nudge off the blindfold against the wall, but found only darkness. I squatted between Jak and Nip.

  “We’re in trouble, I’m sorry.” Nip’s tongue licked a spear scratch on my hand. I found Jak’s saw-edged row of teeth and rubbed the rope that tied my wrists together. A few moments, and the flax strands fell apart. “That gives us a chance.” Jak’s tail knocked on the wooden floor. “We’ve got to think of something before midnight.”

  By the time they finished learning the shape of our wooden prison, my fingers had several splinters in them. “I wonder what their Island of Bones is? Oh, stop wagging your tail! Think of something useful.” Poor Jak crawled and licked my hand, and I patted him. “I didn’t mean to be nasty. It’s not your fault.”

  By my hunger we must have been imprisoned all day. There was no other way of knowing time had passed. When Jak stood, I knew it by the sound of his coat, hairs rustling against each other. He growled. The door creaked. Surely it was still too early to be the middle of the night?

  A lighter patch, the half-open doorway. I sprang, Jak with me.

  The body beneath us was warm, soft. I jerked one hand up behind its back. Long hair switched so my eyes stung and watered.

  “Idiot!” She made no attempt to fight back. “I’m here to help you. How did you get your hands undone? No, don’t waste time telling me.” The door closed again. “Listen,” said Lutha.“In a few hours, I have to take you back to the river.”

  “How did you get in?”

  “The guard smoked herself silly. She won’t wake up for a couple of hours.”

  “What are hours?”

  “He asks what are hours! At midnight,” Lutha’s voice said, “I am to leave you on the Island of Bones.”

  I nodded in the dark.“What’s the Island of Bones?”

  “The island where I rescued you this morning. Tomorrow the river will rise and cover it. You will drown.

  “Keep this knife hidden under your tunic. When they come for you, while they are tying your hands and feet, don’t let them see it.

  “They’ll search me before I get in the canoe, so I can’t give the knife to you then. Before I leave you on the island, I’ll get it from round your neck, cut you free. You must swim to the other side of the river before it is light, before the Island of Bones sinks. That’s your only chance.”

  Her hands at my neck, she slipped the knife on a cord around it. Worked it to hang under my arm.

  “Where did you come from?”

  I heard pity in her voice. I had been alone so long, had lost Taur and Jess. I swallowed to keep my voice from shaking. “From the North Land…”

  “Why do you cry, boy?”

  “I am not a boy!” I gulped and found myself telling a girl I had only seen once before the story of how Squint-face and the Salt Men had killed Tara, whom I loved. As I told her that, Lutha felt for my hand in the dark.

  I told her how I had run from the Hawk Cliffs, made friends with Taur the Bull Man. How we fled to the bottom of the North Land, to Marn Island, crossed the strait of the sea to the South Land and fled down the Western Coast, still chased by Squint-face.

  Whenever I paused, Lutha pressed my hand. I told her of crossing the desert and finding the Garden of Dene. I did not tell her of my carnal enslavement by Sodomah because I knew Lutha would despise me, but she dropped my hand, sniffed, and I wondered if she guessed. I told her of how Taur led us out of the the Garden, up the Opal River. How Jess was killed by the Salt Men, and how Taur brought down the statue of the Guardian in the pass, destroyed Squint-face and his followers, and died saving me.

  My voice shook again, but I held it firm and told her of how Jak and I climbed down to the lake, built the raft, and stole Nip. How we saw the smoke, the children, the Floating Village, and hoped at last we had found safety.

  Chapter 4

  What Is a Salt Man?

  Lutha had taken my hand again, held it against her cheek when I told her how Jess and Taur died, still held it. I had probably said too much, but the need to tell our story had been great. At least I had not let my voice shake again so the girl could call me a boy.

  “The Salt Men killed many of our people, too,” she said. “That is why men are forbidden on the Floating Village. We do not know who is a Salt Man and who is not.”

  “They are dark-skinned – ” I stopped. Some of the Travellers had been dark, too. The Salt Men looked no different to the Falcon People. Some of Tara’s Metal People, were dark-skinned. Tara
herself was brown; Dinny, her father, dark-brown. Taur had been dark-skinned. What was it made a Salt Man?

  “Killers!” I said. “They are killers and eaters of people.”

  “Cannibals?”

  I told Lutha of that night on the terrace above the Green Stone River.

  “Have you known other killers?”

  I thought. “The Falcon People killed all the other Travellers. And Karly Campy who killed my father, he was a Traveller.”

  “Then it’s not just Salt Men who kill people?”

  “I suppose not.” I was pleased we sat in the dark because my face felt hot.

  “You have killed. You said so.”

  “Defending myself, or trying to save others.”

  “Does that make it all right?”

  “You’re allowed to kill someone who’s going to kill you!”

  “Who says?”

  “Everyone knows that.” This girl was stupid. I tried to pull my hand away, but she held it tight. “Your people tried to kill me.”

  “Yes.”

  “And they still plan to kill me tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you can’t trust anyone?”

  “My father,” said Lutha’s voice in the dark, “my father said we must trust everyone and no one. I think he meant we must not cut ourselves off from anyone, but we must be sensible and keep up our guard.”

  I thought of that. “What happened to your father?”

  “The Salt Men attacked our old village. They killed many of us. My father and the other men were returning from up the lake. They chased the Salt Men to the river. But he disappeared, my father and all our other men. Some say they died with the Salt Men, in the river.”

  “And that is why there are no men here?”

  I heard her nod, the sound. “We built the Floating Village. There were a few boy children left alive, but Hekkat ordered them left on the Island of Bones.”

  “What happened?”

  “The island sank.”

  I drew in my breath.

  “I know. But you told me how you were driven out, left behind by your own people. Since then there have only been women on the Floating Village. And every now and again, the Salt Men attack us. Last time they carried off three women. We rescued two of them, and caught one of the Salt Men.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He was used to father children – girls. Then Hekkat ordered him killed. It took a long time.” There was a click in her throat.

  “Why do you cry, girl?” I asked. “Ouff!” Her punch caught me in the stomach, as if she could see in the dark. I struggled to get back my wind. Didn’t want her to go. What could I ask to keep her here? “Why do you smoke those rolled leaves?” I didn’t feel for her hand. Thought she wouldn’t let me have it again.

  “The ones who smoke give up hope.” Lutha’s voice was sharp. “A lot of them say it would be better to give in to the Salt Men than to go on as we are, women without men. They smoke the leaf and talk big. But they lose the urge to fight.”

  “That’s the same smoke comes out of the statue’s head?”

  “The priestesses who are Hekkat’s voices sit over the smoke inside the hollow head. It is supposed to make them wise.”

  “Does it?”

  “What are we to do? We have no men so we have to be the warriors, defend ourselves. Perhaps our men will return some day. In the meantime, any stranger is lured into the river and drowned.”

  “How long ago did your men disappear?”

  “I told you: I wasn’t born. I do not think they will ever return now. Perhaps the smokers are right: we should accept the Salt Men.”

  I heard the regret in Lutha’s voice, realised she was, in fact, asking a question.

  “Could you accept them?”

  “They killed my father!”

  I thought it best to change the subject. “As we came down the lake there was something like a man covered in animal skins. It ran up a hill very fast and disappeared.”

  “You must have seen a bear.”

  “We saw the Bear Man when I was little, in the Travellers’ Cave. In the Animals’ Dance. But I think it might have been a painting, or a man dressed up. I never saw a real one.”

  “Huge animals, very fierce. They came here long ago.”

  “Where from?”

  “An old story says the Shaker broke down their cages in a garden. The bears escaped and crossed the mountains. Some live around the lake. Big, black, brown, grey.”

  “That’s what we saw,” I told Lutha. “Huge and grey.”

  “We keep away from them, and they leave us alone. There are others…”

  “You were going to say something else.”

  “No.”

  “You were. I could tell.”

  “All right. Down the river, there is supposed to be a land of snow and ice. Behind Grave Mountain and the wall of black cloud. The old stories tell of great white bears that hunt and eat people.”

  “Did they escape from the cages, too?”

  “The Shaker threw down the walls. Then the White Bear escaped and ate the sun, and the land of ice and snow was made, the Land of the White Bear. That’s what some of the stories say.”

  “My father and Old Hagar – I told you about her – used to tell me stories about a mountain that ate the sun. My father said we were going to find it, explore the land of ice and snow.

  “He said it was away to the south. But I’ve travelled right down the North Land, and there was no mountain that ate the sun. Only as we came down the Western Coast of the South Land, we saw frozen mountains – and Jak and I crossed them. But I still want to see the land of the mountain that ate the sun.”

  “You’d get into trouble.”

  “I am a Traveller.”

  “You said that before, boy.”

  I was silent. I’d fought the Salt Men and killed them. I’d crossed the mountains on my own after Taur died. And she called me a boy! This girl didn’t know what she was talking about.

  “I came to give you a chance,” Lutha said. Her hands at my neck again, I leaned forward, felt the softness of her breast against my face. “The guard will wake from her stupor. It will be midnight, and I will be caught.” She felt down the cord to the knife, making sure it did not show at my neck.

  “Why do this for me?”

  “Idiot! I’m doing it to save the dogs.”

  “What’s down the gorge below the Island of Bones?”.

  “I told you, the river runs east, disappears under Grave Mountain. The stories say it comes out in the Land of the White Bear.

  “From the Island of Bones, you must swim to the other side. Make sure the dogs get there. I would take you right across, but the women would see. There’ll be enough light for that.”

  I nodded in the dark again.

  “Promise me you’ll save the dogs!”

  “I promise.”

  “And watch out for Salt Men.”

  “Salt Men?”

  “Salt Men, idiot! They hate dogs. You can hunt them with Jak and Nip.” By the sounds she was patting them. For one crazy moment I wished she would pat me. “You’ll have to make yourself a spear, and a bow and arrows. Do you know what a spear is? Can you use a bow?”

  “I made my first bow when I was a boy!”

  “Sometimes you sound as if you’re still just a boy. You’ll have to be a good shot, if you’re going to live.”

  I didn’t want Lutha to go. What could I do to make her stay? “Why don’t they swim out here, to your village?” I asked.

  “I told you before. They have tried several times since our men disappeared, but we keep a watch and shoot them before they can get here. Some came alone, and we sang and danced and lured them into the current so they drowned. When they see women, they become idiots, as you did.”

  “I didn’t become an idiot!”

  “Then you were one already. Paddling into the current and falling off your raft when you saw us dancing and heard us si
nging. I could see your eyes sticking out, looking at us.”

  “I just wanted to be friends.”

  “That’s what the Salt Men say. But we know what they want. I must go. What is your name?”

  “Ish.”

  “Odd name.”

  “Old Hagar said it was short for something else.”

  In the dark I heard Lutha pat Jak and Nip again. “You are lucky, Ish. I only saved you because of the dogs. Till I saw them, I thought you were a Salt Man. The others still think you are. Goodbye, boy!”

  “I am not a boy!”

  There was a chuckle in the dark. Her hands – hard, strong hands – held my shoulders. Something brushed my lips. Had she kissed me? The chuckle again. I felt for her but only found Jak with my hands, standing, looking towards where the door must be. I felt around the cell, found the door locked. If the girl had been there, she had gone. Had I imagined her? There was a stinging in my eyes.

  “I must have been dreaming,” I told Jak and Nip. I fumbled at my throat, felt a cord. My fingers followed it under the tunic to a long knife hanging under my armpit. So Lutha was real.

  Later the door was thrown open. My hands were bound again, and my feet, and I was dragged and dumped in the bottom of a large canoe. Nobody felt the knife. I called to Jak and Nip, to keep them quiet, and they jumped in beside me.

  Three women lowered themselves into the canoe. One was the big woman. She grunted as she sat. In the starlight, I saw a fourth climb in, lighter of figure. She sat in the bow. At the mouth of the river we were dumped into a smaller canoe. The big woman searched Lutha, patting, feeling her all over. She slipped into the canoe behind me.

  As Lutha paddled, the Island of Bones swam towards us out of the mist. She had the knife out on its cord. Slashed my hands and feet free. “Here!” There was a rip as she bent and tore something loosely stitched around and around the hem of her tunic.

  “In the dark, they didn’t see this. Swim for the far side at once. Don’t wait or it will be too late. Watch for Salt Men. And keep away from bears.”