Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (55 page)

“High Elder?”
Teek said timidly.

             
The High Elder turned on him. “What is it boy, speak up. Do you have a confession?”

             
“No!” Teek said tired of being accused for something he had not done. “I was just remembering something that Twee told me before he died that I thought might be of help.”

             
He stared at him impatiently. “Well?”

             
“Yes,” Teek said, suddenly feeling very nervous again. “He...he told me that I would...well that I would go on an...an adventure soon.”

             
“So?”

             
Teek took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves and then looked directly into the High Elder’s eyes. “So, I was thinking that maybe the reason my name was chosen may be due to the fact that…” he paused and then shrugged. “Well, that maybe Twee wants me to go for him.”

             
“No!” Rani shouted. “This is not right. Someone placed his name in the basket as a joke. He is not of age.”

             
The High Elder looked at Rani as if deep in thought but didn’t register that he’d heard a word she said. Long moments passed as the crowd, who had grown rather noisy, voiced their own opinions to each other. Finally looking up, he called for silence and a hush immediately fell upon the gathering.

“I will converse with my councilors,” he boomed, “and then we will give our decision.” Then, without further ceremony, the High Elder and his two councilors climbed the ladder to his home and disappeared inside.

              Immediately, the crowd renewed their noisy conversations while Rani turned to her son. “It isn’t right Teek,” she said a tear on the edge of her eye. “You are not of age to go. It is not right,” she finished, no longer able to get her voice to work as the tears freely wet her cheeks.

Teek reached out to his mother and grasped her hands trying to give comfort. There were so many questions in his mind. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Could Twee have actually caused his name to be drawn? Did he really want Teek to go or was it just a joke or the babblings of an old, dying man?

The minutes quickly passed into an hour but no one came out of the house and neither did anyone leave from their positions around the tree. All were too anxious to see what the decision would be. Teek just held onto his mother, neither saying a word. He was still puzzling through the questions that plagued his mind, trying not to think about what it would all mean for him should the council decide to send him.

Rani could only think of her son. She had already lost one son and a husband to the swamp. It wasn’t right to make her give up her other son to make an appeasing journey he was not even qualified to make. Someone with more experience should be chosen.

Finally, as the sun was reaching its zenith and the heat was oppressive, the three men emerged from the hut and stood on the landing. The crowd went instantly silent. The High Elder looked down at Rani and Teek for a brief moment and then raised his eyes and voice to the crowd.

“After careful consideration and lengthy debate, a decision has been made. We can find no proof of foul play in the drawing or any evidence that an extra chip was placed into the lottery basket. Therefore, we must consider it a sign from the ancestors.” Rumbles of astonishment cascaded through the crowd as the High Elder paused for a brief moment and then looked down at Teek. “The drawing stands. Teek will leave tomorrow.”

A great commotion arose. “It’s not right!” Rani cried out to those around her but to no avail. The Elders had already retreated back into the hut and she knew that the decision would stand no matter what she said.

             
Teek felt mixed emotions as he sat at home preparing for the morning’s journey. His brother and sisters sat by the window whispering to one another other sending small glances at him. Finally, Bink wobbled over and sat down next to him. “Are you ever coming back?” he asked innocently looking up with his large, brown eyes.

             
Teek smiled at him and rustled his hair. “Of course I am. Did you think I would go off and leave my favorite little brother?”

             
Bink looked over at his sisters who were trying not to laugh. “I told you so,” he shouted sticking out his tongue.

             
Teek only shook his head. Looking at his little siblings, he wondered what they would look like when he got back. How long would he be gone? Nobody knew how long the journey would be when he or she left. Most returned within a couple of weeks, though some did not return at all. One person, who had been gone for a month already, had yet to return causing some worry amongst his family as to whether they should send someone else on his behalf.

It was different for each, but Teek figured he wouldn’t be gone for too long. After all, he had been chosen to go by Twee himself. And Twee had promised to watch over him and his family. He didn’t think that Twee would make him stay away too long since, according to
him, the greatest adventures were had at home.

             
Watching his brother play with one of the traps he would take, Teek suddenly didn’t feel much like having adventures anymore. Though he’d always dreamed of leaving the swamp to see what was out in the world, now that leaving was a reality, he suddenly felt that staying home with his family is what he really wanted.

Just then, Rani entered the small hut and sat heavily on the wood floor. Teek could tell that she had been crying. She had gone to talk privately with the Elders one last time and plead that they not send her son out on this journey. By the way she looked and acted, he was pretty sure he knew what their response had been.

“Why don’t you three go outside on the porch and catch fireflies,” Teek said. The other children grumbled a protest but reluctantly did as they were told and disappeared through the reed flap. He looked at his mother for a moment and then crawled over and put his arm around her shoulders.  “Are you all right?” he asked softly, placing his head on top of hers.

             
“It’s not right, Teek,” she whispered, large tears of grief streaming down her face. “It just isn’t right.”

             
“I’m sorry, mother,” he said, trying to find the words that would comfort her. “I wish there was something I could do. In all honesty, I don’t want to go either.”

             
She looked at him trying to remember the little boy he had been such a short time ago. He would be a man soon and she knew she had to let him grow up to be one but not yet. Quickly brushing away the tears, she stood up pulling him up with her. “I’m sorry, son. I should not be acting like this. I act as though you will never return. You will be home again soon.”

             
He wasn’t sure if she really meant what she said or was just pleading that it be true. He knew she was thinking of his twin, Tahben, who had been killed years before. She feared for his life. “I will be fine, mother. It will be a quick trip, I am sure of it. Twee will watch over us all. He promised he would.”

             
Rani looked hard at her son and then patted his hand. “I know,” was all she said and then called the other children back in who could now be heard laughing and banging around outside.  

*     *     *

              The sun found him deep in the swamplands north of his home when it finally appeared in the great, blue sky. He left home before sunrise, sneaking out so no one would know he had gone. It was painful enough to be leaving his family. He did not want to make it any harder on any of them by waiting and being forced into long, heartrending good-byes.

             
He had reached the end of his knowledge of the area an hour before and was now making his way cautiously past large trees with moss covered limbs. His eyes darted everywhere searching for any signs of danger. He remembered well the tale of his mother’s passing many years before and the dangers she had faced were fresh in his mind. Though his favorite childhood story, it would now serve him well in helping him stay alive and avoiding the pitfalls and threats that she had faced.

He did his best to keep going in a straight line keeping the rising sun to his right. He needed to find the great lake known as the Maddox and then head up the river that fed it. There was no set course on appeasing journeys but that was where his mother had gone and that is where he would go. The water was where he felt comfortable and he had no desire to enter the evil forest in which his mother had almost lost her life.

              As the sun got higher in the morning sky, the heat began to intensify and the air seemed to thicken with humidity inviting the bugs out that now swarmed unpleasantly around him. He poled his canoe to the side and approached a small piece of dry land covered with long weeds. W
hat luck
, he thought,
Dung weed
.
Twee must really be looking out for me after all
. Grabbing a hand full, he rubbed the stems all over his body. A putrid smelling liquid oozed from the plant making him shine with its rancid oil. The smell was horrid, but it kept the bugs off which were a worse menace then having to put up with the odor. The effects were almost immediate.

             
The hours past slowly and Teek quickly became bored with the tedious work required in pushing his canoe forward. His apprehension at being in unfamiliar territory had faded with the passing day and he soon fell into a slow rhythm of motion. His eyes were no longer darting here and there to catch every sight and sound. Caution had long since been replaced with the dangers of complacency. The slight sound of rippling water passed his ears unnoticed as he continued with the seemingly unending labors of dipping his long pole and then pushing along, dipping his long pole and then pushing along. His mind traveled down different waterways as he continued on not giving much notice to his surroundings.

             
A log floated soundlessly through the water and approached his small craft with unusual quickness. Teek kept his eyes straight ahead as if caught in a fevered trance, oblivious to the large piece of wood that would soon collide with his canoe. The loud cry of a distant bird broke through the fog surrounding his mind just as the log hit the front of his dugout. Teek jerked his head up in surprise and was thrown off balance. He teetered for a moment, fighting to regain his footing but was finally thrown back into the bottom of the canoe. His hand hit the side, knocking away his pole and throwing it into the swamp.

             
Scrambling up onto his knees, he pulled his dagger thinking he was under attack. His body shook with the realization that had he fallen into the swamp his life may have already ended. His eyes darted about almost expecting the swamp to reach up and pull him into its depths. Again, the log bounced against the front of his canoe pushing it slightly to the side before it turned slightly and floated away. Teek stared at the drifting log and sat back unable to control the nervous laughter that escaped his turned up lips.

“I must have really been out of it,” he breathed, wiping the nervous sweat from his forehead. “It’s a good thing it was just a log and not a crocodile.”

              Replacing his dagger, he quickly searched for his pole finding it drifting away on the water ripples his bouncing canoe had produced. Letting out a sigh, he placed a hand in the water and began to paddle pushing the canoe towards the escaping push pole. Progress was slow but he was making up ground when suddenly he noticed how quiet the swamp had become. Stopping for a moment, he sat up and glanced about while straining his ears for any sign of life. The silence was deafening. Nothing presented itself as an immediate danger as long moments passed without the slightest sound or movement. Finally, letting out a big breath, he shook his head.
I must be getting paranoid.

Dropping his head down toward the water, he brought his hand forward preparing to dip it in and paddle forward. A slight movement in the murky water below was his only warning. Teek instinctively jerked back just a large crocodile broke the surface and reached high out of the swamp snapping its power jaws mere inches from his face. A large splash crashed into his canoe tipping it precariously to the side as the crocodile reentered the water. Dropping to the canoe bottom, he lay flat against the wood bracing his hands and feet to either side in an attempt to steady the small craft as the huge reptile bumped against it from the bottom.

              His heart raced. Had he been a fraction slower he would have been caught in the croc’s gaping mouth. His dugout rocked again as the crocodile made another pass as if daring the small Waseeni to come into the water after him. Teek pressed harder against the sides of the wooden craft, pressing his body against the bottom, and then waited. He knew that if he could keep himself from tipping over a while longer, the crocodile would tire and leave in search of other prey.

             
He was bumped three more times and then all went quiet. He lay silently, utterly exhausted from the ordeal and cursing himself for being so stupid. “What were you thinking?” he chided. “A moment’s hesitation and you never would have returned home.” Long moments passed and he was still trying to catch his breath and let go of the fear that had such a tight grip on him. A little shakily, he rolled over onto his side and got up on his knees to check and make sure that the area was clear.