First Fall: The Canoe Thief Page 7

  Whiskey touched her shoulder. “Lights,” she murmured.

  Charlie glanced up and saw a burning torch and two canoes sliding through the water. She bared her teeth. How stupid did she have to be, caught in the open by the Elikai like this without weapons? Whiskey whistled so loud the piercing sound echoed across the islands.

  “Who’s there?” one of the Elikai called. Sugar, Charlie guessed.

  “What are you doing here?” Charlie snapped back. “Leave. Now. Or we’ll assume you’re hostile.”

  “Not hostile,” he assured her. “I just... I need to know if you have Tare again.”

  “Tare?” Charlie asked, confused.

  “He didn’t come home. I know he has been... I know he has bloodlust for one of the Varekai. If you have him here—”

  He was cut off by Whiskey, who clutched at Charlie’s shoulder. “She took her!”

  “What?” Charlie was even more confused.

  “Tare, she took India! She’s not dead, she’s kidnapped!”

  “Who’s dead?” Sugar asked, alarmed.

  “Your sister has taken our sister!” Whiskey snarled. “She’s missing! If Tare’s hurt her, this is war, Elikai! I’ll mount her head on a spike and beat you to death with it!”

  The dogs, summoned by Whiskey’s whistle, barreled down the beach and stopped in the shallows, barking and snarling. The Elikai took the hint and splashed rapidly back the way they had come. The lights of their canoes grew smaller as they paddled away, vanishing around the nearest island.

  “Whiskey,” Charlie groaned.

  “You heard them, that beast had bloodlust. She’s taken India. She’s probably killed her!”

  She loped away toward the village, and Charlie had to jog to catch up.

  “Whiskey, stop.”

  Whiskey rounded on her. “Are you going to keep this from the tribe?”

  “No, of course not. But you have to be rational. If they knew—”

  Whiskey didn’t listen. She pushed past Charlie and marched into the camp, scooping up a pot and spoon and banging them together until the tribe emerged from their tents, sleepy and confused.

  “Tare has bloodlust for India.” Whiskey’s voice was a bark in the darkness. “The Elikai were just here, looking for her. India didn’t die today, she was kidnapped. We have to take up arms and demand her return!”

  “No.” Charlie tried to grab her sister. To stop her. To shake her until her teeth rattled. “Stop it. We don’t know that’s what’s happened. India might still have drowned. Tare might be dead too. We don’t know that the Elikai—”

  Whiskey pounded the pot again. “They’ve killed our sister! She has been taken from us! No more talking! We will not let them kill our own!”

  There was a ragged cry from paint—and tear-streaked faces. “Justice!”

  “No.” Charlie tried to protest again. “This will lead to war. More of us will die.” But she was being drowned out by their war cries.

  “We will take them in the darkness!” Whiskey roared.

  The Varekai roared in response.

  Charlie sank to her knees. How could she lead them when they wouldn’t listen?

  The tribe gathered their spears and bows and surged down the path to the canoes. Charlie was left behind, sinking into a helpless kind of despair. How could she stop them? If she didn’t do something, come morning, there might not be any Elikai or Varekai left.

  * * *

  “What is that?” Xícara asked.

  Sugar could hear the distant banging and yells too, but he was afraid to look back.

  Fox was not. After a long moment of silence, he said, “They’re coming.”

  “Charlie and Whiskey?” Sugar asked hopefully.

  “The Varekai. All of them.” In the dim light, Fox’s expression was grim.

  Sugar turned. He could see dozens of flames slowing appearing around the islands, floating a few feet from the surface of the water. Canoes. All of their canoes. The entire tribe was on the move.

  “They’re attacking,” Sugar said, palms suddenly sweaty. “It’s war.”

  “Well,” Fox said. “Paddle faster.”

  * * *

  By the time Charlie ran down the beach after the others, there was only one canoe left: the tiny skiff India had taken out that morning. Unstable, but fast. There was no other choice.

  She propelled it into the channel, hoisting herself in as her initial shove sent the little craft skimming over the water, then grabbed the oar and started paddling west. The tribe would be forced to take the wider channels if they wished to ride abreast, or slow down considerably through narrower canals to pass one at a time.

  Charlie could take a shortcut if she was willing to pull the canoe across a long, wide sandbank. For the other women, with the larger canoes, it would be too difficult, but India’s canoe weighed far less.

  Charlie had to get to the Elikai camp before her sisters. If she couldn’t talk sense into the Varekai, maybe she could talk sense into the Elikai.

  There had to be a way to solve this without the genocide of two peoples.

  Chapter Seven

  Sugar leaped out of the canoe in the shallow water, pounding up the beach with Fox and Xícara in his wake.

  “Get up!” he called to the mostly sleeping village. “Find a spear.”

  There were a few hesitant calls of confusion as the men still around the fire roused and those already in their huts began to crawl out, dazed with sleep.

  “What is it?” Romeo asked.

  “The Varekai. We went looking for Tare, and now they think he’s killed one of their brothers,” Sugar said. “They’re coming now. We need to prepare to fight.”

  The few who were awake enough scrambled for weapons. Fox grabbed a stack of spears and began handing them out, and Xícara fetched slings and a basket of stones.

  “I don’t understand,” Love said. “Why are they attacking us? We did nothing.”

  “They think their witchdoctor is dead,” Fox said.

  Love glared. “This is your fault!” he yelled at Fox. “You were supposed to watch Tare. You let him get away!”

  “And you wouldn’t have?” Fox demanded.

  Love lunged at him, but Sugar tripped him in the sand.

  “Stop it! Don’t be an idiot. Arm yourself, before they overrun the beach.”

  Across the water, the torches of the Varekai canoes were ghosting into view. When they saw the lights of the Elikai camp, they began to drum. The sound carried over the water like the heartbeat of some monster.

  The Elikai stilled as one. For years, the distant sounds of Varekai drumming had uneased them. So close, so loud, it was terrifying.

  Sugar remembered the first blood. The screaming, the hysterical sobbing of the teachers as they bled out their eyes and mouths, vomiting shit and blood and then the rest of their organs in rubbery, pink chunks.

  The darkness, the hunger, the stink... His own fear of the Varekai ran deeper than he had realized.

  “Hey!” The voice was distant and coming from the other side of the village. A Varekai voice.

  The sudden realization that they had been flanked and the attack was coming from two sides almost made Sugar’s knees give way. But the Varekai that stumbled into the light between their huts was alone and covered in mud.

  Charlie.

  The men raised their spears, and Charlie crashed down on the sand. For a moment, Sugar thought he was wounded, then he realized the other man was simply exhausted. He was panting so hard he could not draw breath to speak, but held up his hands to show he was unarmed.

  “This...” he wheezed.

  “What are we waiting for?” Fox demanded. “Sugar, strike!”

  “Wait,” Sugar insisted. He ventur
ed closer, spear still raised.

  Charlie nodded, eyes pleading. “Can’t...”

  “Can’t what?” Sugar demanded.

  He indicated the water and his approaching brothers. “Happen.”

  “This can’t happen,” Love repeated.

  Charlie nodded vehemently.

  “They’re your brothers!” Sugar insisted. “Make them stop!”

  “They won’t,” Charlie gasped. “I tried. I begged. I commanded...”

  He lapsed into a miserable silence, punctuated by heaving breaths.

  “Sugar, they’re getting close,” Xícara warned, looking over the water.

  Sugar gave Charlie a scathing look. “Unless you’re here to fight for us, I suggest you get out of the way.”

  “No.” He scrambled to his feet and took a few steps closer to Sugar, which startled him into stepping back.

  “Talk with me,” Charlie insisted. “Alone.”

  “I don’t have time for this!” Sugar snapped, but Charlie caught his hand, dragging him away from the other Elikai.

  Sugar’s brothers looked uneasy, but they did not follow, too focused on the approaching warband.

  “What?” Sugar demanded when they were in the darkness beyond the torches. “What could you possibly have to say to me?”

  The Varekai’s hazel eyes met his. There was an urgency there that made his breath catch in his throat. “Take me hostage.”

  “What!”

  “I don’t think my sisters will attack if you threaten me. Their blood is hot, but Whiskey is spurring them on. She loves me. She will not attack if it will cost my life.”

  “This is what you came here to do? To let me kill you?”

  “I came here to save both our people. To stall this fighting until my sisters see sense.” His eyes were pleading. Even in the darkness, with only the moon and the faint light of torches, the green flecks in his eyes flickered with light.

  Both our people.

  Sugar bit his lip. “Okay, yes. If you think this will work. But isn’t this a terrible risk for you? What if I do kill you? Or what if I refuse to let you go when this is over?”

  “You saved me from the crocodile. I trust you.”

  His words made Sugar’s stomach turn. He wasn’t sure he deserved trust, or to have those deep, trusting eyes look at him with such determination and faith.

  He swallowed and slid his knife out of its sheath, then grabbed Charlie around the neck and pulled him back so his spine was against Sugar’s chest. He forced him forward.

  “Bring light!” he ordered. “Let them see what we have!”

  There was a moment of confusion as the Elikai gaped at Sugar, then they hurried to obey.

  “That’s more like it,” Fox said with a fierce grin, and Sugar wondered if he would be so pleased when he realized it had been Charlie’s idea.

  Sugar stood in the light, holding the Varekai against himself. Restraining him was awkward, with his huge breasts in the way. Charlie had still not entirely caught his breath, and the soft flesh was heaving, pressing into Sugar’s arm in an oddly distracting way.

  The drumming stopped abruptly, though the lights were still ghosting forward. It took another few moments for there to be a yell of dismay, and the canoes slowed.

  “They’ve seen we have him,” Xícara said. “They’re stopping.”

  “What now?” Sugar murmured to Charlie.

  “You have to convince them to give up. To go home.”

  “I don’t know what to say...”

  “Think of something,” he hissed.

  Sugar raised his voice to carry over the water. “I have your—”

  “Sister,” Charlie whispered.

  “Sister.” The word sounded alien in Sugar’s mouth. “If you continue your attack, then he will be the first to die.”

  There was a long moment of silence, then Whiskey called back, “Then you will die.”

  “But not before you have watched him bleed out on the sand!” He had tried to stop Tare. He had tried to avoid conflict. Why couldn’t they just go away?

  “Go home!” Charlie yelled. “India would not want you to die for this. We are the last of the Varekai. The last of the Elikai. If we kill each other, there will never be any more of us. Our homes will crumble, our spears will blunt, our animals will wander free. The islands will never hear voices again. Never hear laughter. There will be no singing. No drums, only silence. Crabs will eat our eyes, and we will be nothing!”

  Charlie’s final word rang out so loud it echoed back across the water.

  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Thing. Ing.

  Sugar swallowed, feeling cold, even with Charlie’s warmth pressed against him.

  “You will die if we leave,” Whiskey called to Charlie.

  “Then it was you who killed me, sister! And I hope the rest of you have the sense to pick a better leader than Whiskey.”

  The silence that followed seemed petulant, and Sugar wondered if that was his imagination. Across the water, he could hear the low murmur of words, but he could not make out what the Varekai were saying.

  They called out no goodbyes and no last threats. The canoes simply turned and left. Charlie sagged against Sugar, and he was forced to hold the other man upright, lest he just slide down onto the sand. He wasn’t sure if it was despair or relief.

  “They’re going,” the Varekai said quietly.

  It was a sentiment echoed more loudly by Sugar’s brothers. There were some ragged cheers, as if it was them who had won the battle instead of Charlie’s speech.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Fox asked, appearing at Sugar’s side. Charlie straightened and tried to step away from Sugar, but he held on tight, letting the blade press into the soft skin of his neck.

  “Tonight, we’re going to stay alert and keep Charlie at the ready, in case they come back. We’ll reassess in the morning.”

  He refused to look at Charlie as he forced him back into the village. He didn’t want to see the hurt, accusing look on his face.

  In his wake, he could hear Fox giving orders, setting up watches and organizing the camp in case the Varekai came back. Sugar was happy to let him take control. He desperately needed time to think. He’d never intended to come out of this with a prisoner.

  “You can’t keep her here.” Romeo fell into step with Sugar, eyes glittering dangerously.

  “Her?” He raised an eyebrow.

  When Romeo had come to them, he had used the wrong words too. “She, her, sister.” Sugar had almost forgotten, it had been so long ago.

  Romeo chewed the inside of his cheek. “Sugar.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t keep her here.”

  “You said that.”

  Charlie was looking between them, uneasy with the exchange. They’d tried to get Romeo back a few times. Not by force. Rather, it had seemed they intended to mount a rescue. But Romeo would not go with them. No one hated the Varekai as much as he did, though Sugar didn’t really understand why. It seemed to run deeper than Romeo being left behind, but he refused to talk about it.

  “Send her back.” Romeo’s teeth were gritted.

  “We need him,” Sugar said evenly. “In case they attack again. I’m not going to hurt him.”

  Romeo’s expression blazed into intense anger. For a moment Sugar thought he would attack Charlie, or him, or both. Instead he spat on the ground and stalked away, shaking with rage.

  Sugar propelled Charlie to his hut, then inside. Keeping Charlie here was a dangerous prospect already, and now he was worried Romeo was going to bust through the door with an axe in the middle of the night.

  Charlie settled across from the door, curled up on the furs and watched him with more curiosity than wariness. Sugar rest
ed his spear against the wall outside and crawled in too, sitting near the door and watching the preparations of his brothers.

  “That was an impressive speech,” he said finally.

  “You weren’t going to make it,” Charlie retorted.

  Sugar sighed. He wanted to be asleep right now, but it didn’t look like that would be happening anytime soon. “Had I the words. I’m more interested in building. Creating. There were so many tools in Eden that we don’t have here. I want them back.”

  “Like what?”

  “Plumbing.”

  Charlie nodded in agreement. “So that’s what you want for your people? Technologies?”

  “We would have more leisure time,” Sugar said. “And more security, perhaps. There were no crocodiles in Eden.”

  “Eden was absent a lot of things,” Charlie said with a dismissive wave. “The ocean, the sky. It was the whole world once, but only because we never knew how small it was.”

  “I remember it being large,” Sugar said quietly.

  “You remember wrong.”

  “We had new brothers,” Sugar pointed out. “Our numbers were consistent.”

  “Ah.” Charlie looked sad. “Well, we were working on a solution to that. India was.”

  “I’m sorry. I want them to be safe too.”

  Charlie stretched out on his belly on the furs. The thickness of his breasts caused his shoulders to sit high, and the big, round fat deposits in his ass stuck upward in an entirely alien way. Had it been one of his Elikai brothers, they would have curled up and slept. Or had sex, then slept. The idea of touching the Varekai made his chest uncomfortably tight.

  “Did your brothers elect you as leader because your ass is so big?” Sugar asked.

  Charlie gave him a hard look. “I beg your pardon?”

  Sugar blushed. Why did his mouth always betray him around Charlie? “I just... Nothing. It’s late.”

  Charlie ignored him, frowning at the Elikai village through the doorway.

  “Where do you think they are? Tare and India?”

  Sugar pondered. “I don’t think Tare killed him. We had concerns about bloodlust, the way he wanted to follow India around. We even posted a brother with him at all times, but it didn’t work. He gave Fox the slip and—” Sugar shrugged. “I know it sounds bad, but he said he didn’t want to kill India. He was just curious. Maybe they’ve wandered off together.”