"Are you brave, orfoolish, benighted or bold, that you come to meet danger from whichall others flee?" the grisly figure inquired of Tahano.
Tahano was notafraid. His only thought was to find Palao and he had no concern forhis own life. He answered the figure without hesitation: "What haveI to fear, when the one thing I dreaded has come to pass? What do Icare for my life, when without Paloa there is nothing?"
"Unhappy human,you are either very fortunate or cursed. Whichever is true, you willdecide as the centuries pass. I shall reward your folly with adubious gift, the gift of life, but not a life like anything you haveever imagined. You will not return to your people, for there will beno one like you among them. Your kind will be those you now call ‘thehorror'."
The figure claspedTahano with sharp talons and lowered its massive head. Tahano feltsharp pain and then nothing as his mind collapsed into abysmaldarkness.
Chapter 3
The broad canoemoved across the sea with Dopali at its helm. Palao slept until thesecond day, and when she woke all about her was seamless sea.
"What have youdone?" she wailed. "The curse of Sana will be upon all of you,for you have broken the betrothal which was sworn before his sacredrock."
Her mother answered."You and I are descendants of great chiefs. It is not our destinyto follow the counsel of fools. Our elders have misread the signs ofthe bark and have become deaf to the entreaties of their people. I,Princess Morai, claim the right of my ancestors to lead my clan tosafety."
"Mother, what youhave done I cannot undo. But I will never lie with a man other thanTahano. By taking me from him you have ensured that our bloodlinewill end with me."
Morai did not answerher daughter. She was confident that the passion of youth spoke andthat with the passage of time, Palao would seek love once again, asis natural for any woman. Morai reflected upon her union with Dopali.She would not have believed that new love at her age was possible,and yet she had found it with Dopali, love as strong and dedicated asany she felt in her life.
The canoe traveledswiftly toward the horizon. The rowers alternated so that the boatwas never still but moved constantly day and night toward an unknownland. On the seventh day provisions became scarce and rations werecut. On the ninth day one rower fell ill with fever. He raved throughthe night and by morning expired.
The boat was one manshort, but also had one less mouth to feed.
On the eleventh daythe unmistakable outline of land appeared.
"We do not knowthe nature of this land," Dopali declared, "or of the people whomay live upon it. Let us approach cautiously. We will wait tillnightfall and then we will explore the coast, sending our best scoutsahead."
And so the canoeentered into a cove that was shrouded by broad trees. The scoutsdisembarked and disappeared into a dense forest. Hours later theyreturned.
"The island isinhabited," the lead scout, Tomali reported. "It is impossible totell whether these people are peaceful. There are signs ofdomesticity, but in the dark it is not possible to determine thecharacter of the population."
Dopali consideredthe information. Provisions were exhausted. If the canoe returned tosea, the group would surely perish. Before they cast off again, theyhad to somehow collect supplies. He arrived at a decision, which heexpressed with more confidence than he felt.
"Find a protectedarea. We will set up camp and keep ourselves out of sight. We willcover the canoe and our tracks with brush and tomorrow we will get abetter view of the terrain and the natives."
The canoe wasdragged into the wood and a brush was made of branches to erase itstrail. As the group progressed into the forest, scouts followedbehind and covered their tracks so that even the most skilled amongthem would not have detected their presence.
Paloa lay her headuneasily on straw as a cordon of guards was established around theencampment. Her heart ached for Tahano and she was filled with dreadfor the retribution that she knew Sana would demand of her mother.
She woke to thesound of pain. All around her the agonized cries of fallen warriorsfilled the air. She did not long dwell upon these wails for shortlyshe was herself apprehended and bound with ropes so that resistancewas impossible. She called to Morai but received no reply. Acrossrough terrain she was dragged until she was thrown into a large tent.Soon the tent was filled with women from the canoe and she saw Morai,insensible, among them.
Through the longnight Paloa waited to learn her fate and that of her mother. Wherewere Dopali and the other men? What kind of people were these totreat visitors so harshly?
The visages thatappeared at the opening of the tent were fearsome. The faces werepainted and pierced in grotesque designs.
"Savages,"thought Paola and she gave up all hope of being treated mercifully.Across the tent she saw her mother stir as light from the openingfell across her face. Paola did not dare signal to her, for fear ofdrawing attention to herself or her mother.
One of the savagesgrabbed a woman near the front of the tent, untied her feet andpushed her out. Other men joined him and they unbound each of thewomen's feet so that they too might follow the first woman into thesunlight. As the women collected in a tight circle they were herdedacross an opening until they faced what appeared to be a large alter.Before this alter sat a rotund figure, a man whose body and face werepierced with innumerable ornaments. He wore a feathered headdress andwas heavily tattooed.
Paloa attempted toapproach Morai, but was discouraged by her mother, who signaleddiscreetly to stay back.
The tattooed manaddressed the women in a strange tongue. Paloa could not discern hisintentions though he did not have a benign manner. As she leanedforward to catch his meaning she noted that her mother's facebecame very expressive. When the man stopped speaking Morai began alow chant, in words that were unfamiliar to Palao. The tatooed manstared at Morai and then signaled to his guard, who untied Morai andled her to the front of the women's circle.
Suddenly, Morai andthe tattooed man began conversing. Morai inclined her head, as shedid to few people, because she was Princess and descended from greatchiefs.
The man with thefeathered headdress and her mother at last stopped speaking and Moraiturned to the Kanakoa women.
"Sisters, we areamong cousins. These are descendants of the ancients who sailed oncanoes and dispersed across the sea. Their language is the ancienttongue that I learned at my mother's knee. Although it has falleninto disuse among our people, here it is still spoken. This greatchief is Kanghauataui, and he is first among the elders. He hasoffered us sanctuary. Unfortunately, the revelation of commonancestry comes too late for our warriors who were slain, every one ofthem, in the ambush last night."
Palao marveled ather mother's demeanor, for Morai had loved Dopali and would havegiven her life for him. And yet, except for a darkness about hereyes, there was no sign of her grief. Paloa realized that her motherwas setting an example for the other women, who had lost their sons,fathers and life mates. In order for the group to survive, it wasnecessary for the women to understand that their grief and fury mustremain buried in their hearts.
Kanghauatauisignaled to his underlings and the Kanakoa women were untied. Moraicalled to Palao:
"Come and stand byme."
Palao obeyed hermother and made her way to the alter.
"Kanghauataui isour royal cousin," Morai continued. "We share the same esteemedancestors. He will bestow upon us the respect due our distinguishedbloodline. You and I are to be sheltered in the homestead reservedfor his family."
Palao assumed adocile posture. She knew that to display displeasure would wouldlikely doom the surviving Kanakao. But she considered Kanghauatauiand his people barbarians. They had slain the Kanakoa men withoutcause. She did not want to dine with them or to regard them as herkin. But, acknowledging her mother's wisdom and the vulnerabilityof her people, she kept silent as a fierce native with sharp eyes ledher and her mother to their new home.
Chapter 4
Tahano wasravenous--he had never in his life felt such a hunger. It gnawed athis gut and consumed his thoughts. He had awakened from a horrificdream, one in which a phantom claimed to have stolen his humanity.
Tahano looked downat his body, at his hands and feet, his fingers and the soft brownskin of his belly. As real as the dream had seemed, it was just anightmare and he was still human. But he was craving food and he wassure no human had ever craved like this before. He searched theground for golden berries, which were his favorite snack and whichwere quite abundant in the forest. He spied a cluster a few feet fromhim, picked them and shoved the juicy morsels into his mouth.
Only to gag. Theberries, he discovered, were inedible. He didn't want berries, herealized. He wanted meat; he needed meat.
Tahano was familiarwith several caves in the area and he entered one that wasparticularly large. The floor of the cave was coated with bat guanoand he knew that he would find the roof of the cave covered with thebats' pendant bodies. Tahano reached above his head and,indifferent to the bites that were inflicted upon him, gatheredseveral of the creatures, which he unceremoniously ingested. Hecontinued this exercise until the gnawing in his gut subsided.