Forest of the Pygmies (14 page)

The area of his harem was encircled by another pole-and-vine fence, along which, every thirty feet or so, torches had been mounted to keep it well lighted. The torches were sticks wrapped with resin-soaked rags that gave off thick black smoke and a penetrating odor. In front of the fence was a larger building decorated with black geometric designs and featuring an entrance wider and taller than ordinary. That suggested to Alexander and Nadia that this dwelling housed the king, since the opening would allow the throne-carriers to pass through with the platform Kosongo used to travel outside his quarters. Surely the taboo against his feet touching ground did not apply inside his compound. In private, Kosongo must walk on his own two feet, show his face, and speak without need for an intermediary, like any normal person. A short distance away was another long, squat, windowless building; this one was connected to the king's hut by a straw-roofed passageway, and was possibly the barracks for his soldiers.

Two Bantu guards armed with rifles were patrolling the area. Alexander and Nadia observed them for a period of time and came to the conclusion that Kosongo did not fear being attacked, because the guard system was a joke. These soldiers, still feeling the effect of the palm wine, were staggering as they made their rounds, and they stopped to smoke whenever it struck their fancy. Every time they met, they paused to talk. The two young people even watched them drink from a bottle that possibly contained more liquor. They didn't see any soldiers of the Brotherhood of the Leopard, which made them feel a little better since they were much more intimidating than the Bantus. However, just the thought of going into the building, not knowing what they would find inside, was sobering.

“You wait here, Jaguar. I'll go first. I'll hoot like an owl to let you know when it's time to send in Borobá,” Nadia said.

Alexander didn't care for the plan, but he couldn't come up with anything better. Nadia knew how to move around without being seen, and no one would notice Borobá; the village was swarming with monkeys. With his heart in his throat, Alexander sent his friend off and watched as she immediately
disappeared. He made a conscious effort to see her, and for a few seconds was successful, though she looked like a veil floating through the night. Despite his edginess, Alexander couldn't help but smile when he witnessed how effective her gift of invisibility was.

Nadia chose a time when the guards were smoking to go to one of the windows of the king's residence. It was no trouble at all to climb to the wide sill and from there look inside. It was dark, but some light from the torches and the moon filtered in through the windows, which were simple openings without glass or shutters. When she saw no one was there, she slipped inside.

The guards finished their cigarettes and made another complete circle of the royal compound. Finally the screech of an owl broke Alexander's terrible tension. He set down Borobá, and the little monkey shot off in the direction of the window where he had last seen his mistress. For several minutes that were as long as hours, nothing happened. Then, as if by magic, Nadia appeared by his side.

“What happened?” asked Alex, forcing himself not to put his arms around her.

“Easy as pie. Borobá knows what to do.”

“That means you found the amulet.”

“Kosongo must be in the other building with one of his wives. A few men were sleeping on the ground, and others were playing cards. The throne, the platform, the mantle, the hat, the scepter, and the two elephant tusks were there. I also saw some coffers; I suppose that's where he keeps his gold ornaments,” Nadia explained.

“And the amulet?”

“It was with the scepter, but I couldn't get it because I'd lost my invisibility. Borobá will do it.”

“How?”

Nadia pointed to the window, where Alexander saw billowing black smoke.

“I set fire to the royal mantle,” said Nadia.

Almost immediately they heard a confusion of yells; the guards who had been inside came running out, as did several soldiers from the barracks. Soon the whole village was awake, and the area was crowded with people running with pails of water to put out the fire. Borobá took advantage of the confusion to grab the amulet and leap out the window. Instants later he joined Nadia and Alexander, and all three faded off in the direction of the forest.

Beneath the cupola of the treetops, the darkness was nearly absolute. Despite the jaguar's night vision, which Alexander had invoked, it was almost impossible to make any forward progress. It was the hour of the serpents and poisonous insects, of wild beasts on the prowl, but the most immediate danger was of stumbling into a bog and being swallowed up by the mud.

Alexander switched on his flashlight and took stock of their surroundings. He wasn't afraid of being seen from the village because of the dense vegetation, but he was worried about using up the batteries. They plunged through the thick growth, fighting roots and vines, skirting pools of water, tripping over invisible obstacles, enveloped in the constant murmurings of the jungle.

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Alexander.

“Wait for daylight, Jaguar. We can't keep going in this darkness. What time is it?”

“Almost four,” the youth replied, consulting his watch.

“It will be light soon, and then we can see where we're going. I'm hungry. I couldn't eat the rats from dinner,” said Nadia.

Alexander laughed. “If Brother Fernando were here he would say, ‘God will provide.'”

They made themselves as comfortable as possible in a nest of ferns. The humidity soaked their clothing, they were pricked with thorns, and bugs crawled all over them. They heard the
swish
of animals brushing past them, the beating of wings, the heavy breath of the earth. After their adventure in the Amazon, Alexander had never gone exploring without a cigarette lighter; he had learned that striking stones together was not the quickest way to start a fire. That night they tried to start a small bonfire to dry out a little and keep any animals at a distance, but they couldn't find any dry sticks, and after a few attempts they gave up.

“This place is filled with ghosts,” said Nadia.

“You believe in ghosts?” asked Alexander.

“Yes, but I'm not afraid of them. You remember Walimai's wife? She was a friendly spirit.”

“That was in the Amazon. We don't know what they're like here. There must be a reason why people are afraid of them,” said Alexander.

“If you're trying to scare me, you've succeeded,” Nadia replied.

Alexander put an arm around his friend's shoulders and cradled her against his chest, trying to make her feel warm and safe. That gesture, once so natural between them, was charged with new meaning.

“Walimai was finally reunited with his wife,” Nadia said.

“He died?”

“Yes, now they're both living in the same world.”

“How do you know that?”

“You remember when I fell off that cliff and broke my shoulder in the Forbidden Kingdom? Walimai kept me company until you got there with Tensing and Dil Bahadur. When he appeared at my side, I knew that he was a ghost and able to move about in this world, and in others.”

“He was a good friend. When you needed him you could whistle, and he always came,” Alexander remembered.

“If I need him, he will come now, just as he came to help me in the Forbidden Kingdom. Spirits can travel great distances,” Nadia assured him.

Despite their fear and discomfort, Alex and Nadia soon began to nod; they had not slept for twenty-four hours, and had experienced a multitude of emotions since Angie Ninderera's airplane crash-landed. They didn't know how many minutes they'd rested, or how many snakes and other animals had brushed past them, before they were jolted awake. Borobá was pulling their hair with both hands and screeching with terror. It was still dark. Alexander switched on the flashlight, and its beam fell on a black face almost on top of his. Both the creature and he yelled and fell back. The flashlight rolled on the ground, and it was several seconds before Alexander found it. During that moment Nadia had time to react and grab Alexander's arm, whispering that he should keep still. They felt an enormous hand blindly exploring them, and then suddenly it seized Alexander by his shirt and shook him unmercifully. He switched on the flash again but did not aim it directly at his attacker. In the shadows, they recognized a gorilla.

“
Tempo kachi
, may happiness be yours . . .”

This greeting from the Forbidden Kingdom was the first and only thing that came to Alexander's mind; he was too startled to think. Nadia, on the other hand, made her greeting in the language of the monkeys, because even before she could see, she had recognized what had startled them by the warmth of the body and the breath of newly cut grass. It was the gorilla they had rescued from the trap some days before. As she had then, she had her tiny offspring clasped against the harsh hair of her belly, and she was observing them through curious and intelligent eyes. Nadia wondered how she had gotten here; she must have traveled many miles through the forest, something unusual for those animals.

The gorilla dropped Alexander and put her hand to Nadia's face, pushing her a little, softly, like a caress. Smiling, the girl returned the greeting with a push of her own that did not budge the gorilla an inch but did establish a kind of dialogue. The animal turned her back to them and walked a few steps, then she returned and, again pushing her face close to theirs, uttered a few quiet grunts and, without warning, delicately nibbled Alexander's ear.

“What does she want?” he asked with alarm.

“For us to follow her. She wants to show us something.”

They did not have to go far. Suddenly the animal gave a leap and climbed to a kind of nest among the tree branches. Alexander aimed the flashlight toward it and was rewarded with a chorus of unsettling grunts. He switched it off immediately.

“There are several gorillas in this tree, it must be a family,” said Nadia.

“That means there's a male and several females with young. The male could be dangerous.”

“If our friend has brought us here, it's because we're welcome.”

“What do we do now? I don't know what the protocol is between humans and gorillas in a situation like this,” Alexander joked nervously.

They waited, motionless, beneath the huge tree. Gradually the grunting stopped. Exhausted, they sat down among the roots of the enormous tree, with Borobá clinging to Nadia and trembling with fear.

“We can sleep in peace; we're protected here. The gorilla wants to repay us for the favor we did her,” Nadia assured Alexander.

“Do you believe that animals have those kinds of emotions, Eagle?” Alexander was doubtful.

“Why not? Animals talk among themselves, they form families, they love their young, they band into societies, they have memories. Borobá is smarter than most of the people I know,” Nadia replied.

“On the other hand, my dog, Poncho, is pretty stupid.”

“Not everyone has Einstein's brain, Jaguar.”

“Poncho definitely doesn't.” Alexander smiled.

“But Poncho
is
one of your best friends. There's friendship among animals, too.”

These friends slept as deeply as if they were in a featherbed. The proximity of the great apes gave them a sense of complete safety; they couldn't be better protected.

A few hours later, they awakened with no idea of where they were. Alexander looked at his watch and realized that they'd slept longer than they'd intended; it was after seven. The heat of the sun was drawing moisture from the ground, and the jungle, wrapped in warm fog, felt like a Turkish bath. The two friends jumped up and looked around them. The tree of the gorillas had been vacated, and for a minute they had doubts about what had happened the night before. Maybe it was just a dream, but no: There were the nests among the branches, and some tender bamboo tips, the gorillas' favorite food, had been left by their sides as gifts. And if that weren't enough, they realized that several pairs of black eyes were observing them from the thick undergrowth around them. The presence of the gorillas was so close and so palpable that they didn't have to see them to know they were watching.

“Tempo kachi,”
Alexander said as good-bye.

“Thank you,” said Nadia in the language of Borobá.

A long, hoarse roar answered them from the impenetrable green of the forest.

“I think we can take that as a sign of friendship,” Nadia said, laughing.

In the village of Ngoubé, dawn announced itself with a mist as thick as smoke, which drifted in through the uncovered door and windows. Despite all the discomforts of the hut, Kate, Angie, and Brother Fernando had slept deeply, with no idea that there had been a fire scare in one of the royal huts. Kosongo had had little to complain about, however, since the flames were doused immediately. When the smoke cleared, it was discovered that the fire had begun in the royal mantle—which was interpreted as a very bad omen—and spread to the leopard skins, which flared up like dry tinder, causing the dense smoke. The prisoners knew nothing of this until several hours later because their hut was at the far end of the village

The first rays of the sun sifted through the straw roof, and in the light of dawn the friends were able to examine their surroundings: a long, narrow hut with thick walls of dark mud. On one of the walls, apparently scratched with the tip of a knife, was the calendar of the preceding year. On another wall they saw verses from the New Testament and a crude wooden cross.

“This is the mission, I'm sure of it,” said Brother Fernando emotionally.

“How do you know?” asked Kate.

“I have no doubt. Look at this,” he said.

From his knapsack he took a paper that had been folded several times and smoothed it out carefully. It was a pencil drawing sent by the missionaries who had disappeared. Prominent were the central square of the village, the Tree of Words and Kosongo's throne, huts, animal pens, a larger building marked as the king's quarters, and another used as barracks for the soldiers. The drawing showed the mission at the exact spot where they were being held.