Freeing a Devil

“I’ll be back,” Kina says to Hekalo. “Don’t stop!”

The sorcerer looks at her in wonderment, but Kina is already running.

She takes advantage of the panic of the scene taking place in the village square to remain unnoticed, cutting around the back side of the remaining huts. She passes the pen, then several more blackened structures before getting close enough that she can risk coming out of her hiding place.

“Pupo!” she hisses.

The old man has become pinned against a fallen palm tree, terrorized warriors nearly trampling him in their efforts to fight the skeletons. He looks up when he hears her name. Unfortunately, so do several skeletons.

“Run to me!” Kina shouts.

One of the Burning Warriors shouts, “The slave is here! Lady Nakali, she is over here!”

Nakali, kept alive by a knot of her finest warriors, looks up with glazed eyes. Though she is too weak to move, she shouts for her warriors to seize Kina.

Seeing that Pupo won’t be able to extricate himself from his situation, Kina comes in slashing at anything that moves. The pahi carves a path through living and dead alike until she is close enough to take hold of Pupo’s extended hand.

Burning Warriors, breaking off from the skeletons, grab at Pupo’s other arm, while others try to approach Kina from the side.

She yanks and tugs Pupo away.

“Don’t let them escape!” Nakali yells.

This is easier said than done. Apart from a handful of them, the skeleton warriors are still focused on their human adversaries. Kina is more concerned with the skeletons trying to outflank her.

For several desperate seconds, she is locked in tight battle with the clawing, moaning skeletons. Then Pupo yanks her over the log, and they tumble together into the sand.

Kina takes advantage of the momentary break to switch positions with Pupo, using herself and the pahi as a barrier between him and the skeletons.

“When I say run, run!” she tells him.

Kina batters a skeleton, then shoves it back into its brethren. This is the opportunity she needs. She orders Pupo to start running, and she is close behind.

A half dozen skeletons crawl over the log and take up pursuit. Kina takes quick glances behind as she and Pupo run through the dense brush near the village, and she is astonished at how fast the skeletons can move.

And then the skeletons falter, stumbling as if losing their balance. They drop to the ground, once more merely piles of bones. For a moment she can see a faint shape leave their bodies, a trembling shadow not much more substantial than the faintest wisp of steam. She recognizes them as spirits, like the ghosts Pupo had trapped in his little wicker cages back on Lohoke`a.

The spell had worked! The traitors had been dismissed from this world.

“What happened?” Pupo asks.

“I’ll explain later,” Kina replies. “For now we have to keep moving.”

As they race through the trees, Kina stops every so often to listen for the sounds of pursuit.

“It’s good to see you again,” she says.

Pupo says, “You too. I thought you were dead.”

“I was sure you were dead. Did `Imu`imu kill Motua?”

Between gasps, Pupo says, “No. Both of us were knocked in the water. We never saw what happened.”

“So he’s alive?” Kina asks. She feels elated at the news. “Where is he?”

“Some of the Burning Warriors went back to Keli`anu. They took him with them.”

Kina looks at Pupo, her joy turning to horror. “He’s back in Keli`anu? To be made into a drum?”

“I don’t know,” Pupo says, miserably. “The rest of the survivors came here, and they took me with them. Somehow their kupuna was able to know where you went.”

“Yeah,” Kina says. “He was guided by his `aumakua.”

“I thought it was something like that. I’m sorry.”

Kina doesn’t respond. She is fantasizing about rescuing Motua, but realizes it is probably already too late. The feeling of moving so quickly from mourning to happiness and back to mourning leaves a sharp ache in her chest.

They rejoin with Hekalo, who is lying, exhausted, on the ground.

“Can you move?”

He shakes his head. “I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Well, we can’t stay here.”

“Who’s he?” Hekalo asks.

“This is a friend,” she says. “I’ll tell you about it later. I need to to stand up. The Burning Warriors will be coming this way soon.”

“Fine,” Hekalo says. “Let them.”

“No, I can’t lose you. Do whatever you have to do and get up.”

Hekalo sighs, then manages to sit. “Help me up.”

Kina pulls him to his feet. “We have to go back to To`o.”

“I know,” he says. “Lead the way.”

They slip away from the village while the remnants of the Burning Warriors still stagger around, trying to recover from the onslaught. The screams of the dying echo through the forest as Kina, Hekalo, and Pupo make their way up the slope, finally reaching the base of the stone steps.

As they begin to climb, too tired to move very fast, Kina tells Pupo about working with Nakali to find To`o, being captured by the Life Eaters, discovering that To`o is in fact a devil posing as a god, and her bargain with Mokolo to help him unseat To`o and reclaim his island. Pupo asks questions, but Kina has answers for few of them. “Mokolo has promised answers,” she tells him. “I hope he can deliver.”

By the time they reach the canyon and its narrow walkways, Kina feels like she is ready to drop dead from exhaustion herself. They take a breather, during which time she scouts around for some food. There isn’t much to be had along these slopes, but she is manages to find some ripe mangoes and the trio gorge themselves at the top of the stairs.

Following the walkways along the canyon wall is easier, now that it is familiar, though Kina never overcomes a nauseating terror of the depths below. At first, Pupo refuses to step out onto the ledges, but Kina stays close to him and guides his steps, telling him where it is safe to walk. At her urging, he avoids looking into the gaping abyss.

Kina’s worst fear is that the Burning Warriors might rally from their near defeat and follow them up the hill, but though she keeps nervously glancing back, they never materialize. At last Hekalo reaches the end of the platforms. Pupo is grateful to once more be on solid ground.
“It isn’t far now,” Hekalo says.

They continue up through the trees, following the same trail as before until they finally arrive at the crack in the crater rim. Hekalo goes first, sliding sideways through the narrow gap. He is followed by Pupo. Kina holds back, listening. As the sound of her companions scuffling through the rocky split fades out, she is left with just the wind. Clouds keep her from being able to see the ocean from here, but she can see far down the slope at the distant forest and, past that, the sharp canyon walls where the treacherous shelf path winds along the rock. It is too far to make out details, but occasionally she thinks she can see motion down there, as figures move in and out of sight along the canyon.

She turns and follows Hekalo and Pupo through the crack.

Once more crossing the dead rocky waste, they approach the huge stone statue in which To`o hides. A light mist has made everything slick. Droplets of water drip off To`o’s stony brow.

“YOU HAVE RETURNED.”

“We have, Great To`o.”

“KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD.”

The three of them lower themselves to their knees on the wet stone. Showing proper deference, they look down at the ground instead of at To`o’s face.

“We come to you humbly,” Kina says, “but in victory.”

To`o says, “YOU HAVE SLAIN THE DEVIL MOKOLO?”

“Yes, great lord To`o.”

“WHO IS THIS YOU HAVE BROUGHT BEFORE ME?”

Kina realizes To`o is talking about Pupo. “It is an old friend, my lord. We have been happily reunited.”

“AND WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE OTHER SUPPLICANT?”

“She… she was too injured to return,” Kina says. “I promised her we would carry on in her place.”

“VERY WELL. YOU MUST SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE I DEMANDED. DID YOU COLLECT THE TEETH AS A TROPHY OF YOUR VICTORY?”

Kina unrolls the waistband of her skirt, letting the teeth clatter out, one by one. When each one has been removed, she reties her skirt, gathers the teeth into a small pile, and bows.

“Lord To`o, I present to you the teeth of the vile devil Mokolo. He will plague these shores no more.”

“YOU HAVE DONE WELL. TO`O IS GREATLY PLEASED. PLACE THE TEETH UPON THE SACRIFICIAL PILE BESIDE YOU.”

Kina does so, scooping up the teeth and resting them on the huge mound of bones adjacent to the platform.

A long, sibilant hiss issues from the statue. From unseen pores in the stone begins to seep a black mist. Kina realizes the hissing is a jeering laugh, squeezed through the solid stone.

The mist pours out and makes a cloud that sinks low to the platform. Hekalo and Pupo scramble out of the way as it begins to fill the air around them. Kina steps back, her hand straying toward the pahi.

“Great lord To`o, you promised us answers to our questions.”

To`o doesn’t answer, or perhaps cannot, as he has now emerged from the stone as a poisonous black mist. The mist roils across the ground until it encounters the pile of bones and starts to ooze into the space between them.

“Run,” Kina says to Hekalo and Pupo.

But it is too late. Believing itself free of Mokolo, To`o has come out of its hiding place and is now assembling a new body—a body which it has been gathering, through the willing aid of the duped Life Eaters. The bones rattle and grate and then shift into a vaguely boar-shaped frame. Skulls, femurs, rib cages—all of it locking together into a towering figure propped up on four stout and powerful legs. A head forms from a lattice of hip bones, the lower jaw made of shoulder blades. Kina can now see Mokolo’s teeth lined up along this makeshift mouth, forming a razor wall of fangs nested two rows deep.

To`o lowers his huge jaw, easily large enough to scoop up Kina. Kina decides it is the moment to strike. She lifts the pahi and swings at To`o, a solid blow that should have cleaved through its bony head. 

But the bones shift like blowing sand out of the way, reforming after her pahi has passed.

To`o swings its head back to her and drops its jaw once more. “TRAITOR,” it bellows. “MOKOLO IS NOT DEAD!”

At that moment, the wind begins to pick up, howling down through the rocky caldera like a sea squall. Obscured by sheets of rain, Kina can see a towering man, easily three times the height of a normal human, striding across the old volcanic stones. As he grows closer, Kina can see the man is nude except for a cloak made of brilliant yellow feathers and a matching curved helmet atop his head. In his hand is a club cut from a palm tree.

To`o turns his head to look at this giant, a low growl issuing from his throat.

To`o, a voice says, seeming to fill both the air and the earth and Kina’s own body. You are the traitor, and you will die this day.

To`o reassembles his body so that his head now faces the opposite direction, ready to face Mokolo head on.

Kina is backing away, eyes locked on the two powerful beings squaring off, causing her to stumble over rocks and fumble to the ground. Distantly, she hears Hekalo yelling in alarm. She is able to look away long enough to see him running back toward her, Pupo by his side. They are yelling something about Burning Warriors.

“What?” Kina shouts. She can hardly hear over the howl of wind and another sound, like a rumble coming from deep in the earth.

“Burning Warriors! They’re here!”

Kina looks past Hekalo and sees dozens of warriors emerging through the narrow gap in the crater wall. They fan out, unwilling to move any closer once they see what is happening. Among them is Nakali and her kupuna. Nakali still looks weak. She has been carried up here on a crude palanquin by several burly warriors. She is ordering them to do something, but from this distance, and with all the noise, Kina can’t make out what it is.

She looks back toward To`o and sees the hideous devil has charged Mokolo. They are locked in a struggle, To`o’s jaws clamped down on Mokolo’s massive arm, and Mokolo trying to pry To`o’s limbs from its body.

Hekalo and Pupo drop down near Kina. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replies. “Just a little stunned. We should get out of here.”

“Agreed,” Pupo says. “You know another way out?”

“Last time we were here, we climbed the crater wall to get out. We were being chased by warriors then, too.”

Pupo looks up at Mokolo. “Why doesn’t he just smite that thing, or wish it out of existence?”
Hekalo says, “He’s far too weak. The mana here is almost gone. I’m sure he is barely able to form a body and bring down this rain.”

The rumbling underground is getting louder. Then, pouring out from cracks in the old volcanic crater floor itself, comes warm water. It smells of rotting eggs and flint. Kina stands up quickly, astonished at how fast the water is coming in.

“This volcano is going to erupt,” Hekalo says.

Kina shakes her head. “No, this is something else. Mokolo is doing this!”

The sky has opened up, rain coming down so heavy that Kina can hardly see the old impassive statue where To`o had been hiding. The battling god and devil are lost in the blurring rain, as are the Burning Warriors. Water from the sky is merging with the upwelling ground water, and in just the short time since all this began, water is already ankle-deep in the crater.

“He’s flooding it!” Kina says.

Pupo sloshes around in the water. “Then we really need to leave, and fast!”

“Why would he do that?” Hekalo asks, but Kina has no answer for him.

“Run for it,” she says.

“Which way?” Pupo wails.

There’s no way to tell which direction they are headed, but Kina knows they need to start moving, so she leads them in a direction she believes to be opposite the Burning Warriors.
They don’t make it far before the water is waist deep between rocks, slowing down their progress even further. Soon the water is cresting even the tall rocks, like a tide rising across tidepools.
Kina shouts, “Start swimming, if you can!”

In all the violence, the water is swirling and rushing, making it hard to see stay afloat. Very quickly, Kina and Hekalo and Pupo are torn from each other by the surging water. Kina shouts their names as they vanish into the storm.

She paddles helplessly for a minute, knees knocking against submerged rocks. Then out of the wall of rain appears a huge, rounded object. Instinctively, she grabs at it, discovering it is the rain-slick statue of To`o. It is hard to find purchase, but she takes hold of the statue’s huge nose and manages to hold on against the pull of water. Already the statue is submerged up to its mouth, which Kina recalls being just over her own eye level.

Grunting with exertion, she is able to pull herself up onto the statue, climbing up so that she is perched partially on its brow. She shouts for Hekalo and Pupo and scans around but sees nothing but roiling water.

Out of the deluge something is advancing rapidly. It is a sundered mound of bones, still holding a barely discernible shape.

“To`o!” she hisses.

It fights the rising water until its huge head swivels her way. In moments it thrashes across the short distance and leaps up onto the statue. The whole thing totters over under its powerful mass. Kina is flung back into the water.

When she surfaces, she realizes she has dropped the pahi. Without pausing even to take notice of To`o’s new position, she dives down into the water, feeling her way along the fallen statue until she reaches the bottom. There, visible due to its glowing glyphs, the pahi rests against the rocks. She grabs it and kicks back to the surface.

To`o is facing away from her. Now that the statue has fallen over, it no longer rises above the level of the water but it is still tall enough to stand upon.

Kina is soaked and nearly blinded by the falling rain. She struggles up onto the statue just behind To`o. There isn’t time to think. She raises the pahi to strike.

To`o shifts his mass of bones to reverse his head. Instantly he is face-to-face with Kina. He roars, revealing rows and rows of teeth, steeped in the blood of a god.

Kina swipes at To`o with the pahi and once more he simply rearranges his body to avoid the strike. But Kina is anticipating this, and reaches out with her other arm to take hold of the ribs forming his neck. To`o bellows and hoists itself up, and Kina comes with him.

“BETRAYER,” it bellows. “TO`O WILL BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD!”

Kina lifts the pahi and brings it toward the neck for another attack. This time the pahi meets bone, slicing clean through. To`o lets out an unearthly wail and flings Kina away. She flips through the air and hits the water in a stunning clap.

Like being caught in a powerful wave, Kina can do little except hold on to the pahi tightly and try to right herself. She feels the blade slice across her thigh as her legs kick, then she is up again. She sputters out a mouth full of water and opens her eyes. To`o has once more spun to face her, still standing atop the fallen statue not more than a few strides away. It’s jaw slides open on powerful hinges and she sees it drop down onto its haunches for a pounce.

It launches into the air. Kina cringes, but To`o never drops onto her. Its body is knocked aside in the air, a huge spear tearing through its torso.

To`o lets out a shriek and falls into the water. In its death throes, it churns the water, spinning and twisting and gnashing. Out of the sheets of rain strides Mokolo. The water parts for him. He leans over To`o and jerks the spear from its body, then raises the spear for another strike.

And that’s the last Kina sees of To`o.