Kaya Stormchild (6 page)

The men eyed
him silently.

“
Let him go,
Spence,” said Rex. He patted Josh’s head, then tucked his fat hand
under the boy’s chin and tilted his face upwards.

“
Where are
your friends, little buddy?” he spoke slowly and loudly.

“
They must
have gone and hid somewhere over there in the woods. If you like,
we’ll go to some other island to play.”

Rex glanced
around at the surrounding trees. Then he studied the boy again for
a long moment, a tight, phony smile on his face.

“
That would
be a good idea. We are trying to get this camp ready for the
summer,” he drawled. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, fixing up the
cabins and everything. So you best run along now. Better go on home
and clean up that scratch,” he added, pointing to Josh’s cheek. “We
wouldn’t want it to get infected, now, would we?”

“
And stay
away from here, or we’ll -” began Spencer, but Rex cut him
off.

“
Or we’ll
have to speak to your parents.” Rex smiled again. “You
are
trespassing, you
know.”

Spencer gave
the boy a shove, but Josh needed no urging to hurry from the
clearing. Soundlessly, Kaya joined him and as soon as they had
reached the trail, they began to run as hard as they could. They
arrived at their canoe, gasping for breath. Tike was waiting for
them.

Once they were
out on the water, Kaya took a handkerchief from her pocket and
dipped it into the sea.

“
Here,” she
said, handing the cloth to Josh. “Press this to your cheek. The
salt water will clean the scratch.”

Josh did as
Kaya instructed, wincing from the sting of the salty
water.

“
Wow!” he
breathed, “that was a close call! My heart nearly jumped out of my
chest with beating so hard!”

“
Yeah,” said
Kaya, “but you sure lied well. Deaf! That was
brilliant!”

“
I don’t know
what came over me,” marveled Josh. “Usually I’m hopeless at lying.
But this time, the whole story just sort of spilled
out.”

“
And Tike,
that was quick thinking – to go out there and let them see that it
was you. I didn’t know what I was going to do if they came towards
the cabin!” Kaya shuddered. “I was so scared, because – oh, Josh,
Tike – you should have seen –!”

The memory of
what she had glimpsed through the cabin window swept over her.
Tears streamed down her face as she paddled. Josh and Tike
questioned her anxiously, but it was several minutes before she was
able to speak. At last, she explained in detail what she had
witnessed.

“
And you know
something else,” said Kaya, her voice still husky. “I could tell
for a moment exactly what that skinny guy was feeling, just like
the Duchess said.
I was inside his
head!
It was right when he grabbed you. I
could feel all his anger and hatred and I knew that he wanted to
kill something. He wanted to kill
you
!”

Josh’s face
went white. He handed the handkerchief back to Kaya and grasped his
paddle tightly. Tike let out a wail and crept closer to Kaya’s
feet.

They spoke
little all the way back to Campbell Harbour, but agreed to meet
early the next day at Jim’s store to discuss what they should do
next. They would let Jim know about the illegal hunters. Then they
would go and tell the Duchess what they had learned. Jim and the
Duchess would know what to do. These men had to be stopped somehow.
And what was this shell they were so excited about? And where was
it? Somehow they had to solve the mystery.

Chapter 4:
The Omrith

After Kaya
dropped Josh off at the dock, she turned her canoe and headed for
Tangle Island, with Tike sitting up in the prow. It was nearly
suppertime when they arrived. Kaya made a small fire on the beach
and boiled a pot of blackberry leaf tea. Then she cooked a chunk of
the salmon Grandmother had caught for her the day before. It was
delicious, especially accompanied by thick slices of fresh bread
from Jim’s store. Tike preferred his fish raw, but he agreed to try
a piece of the lemon loaf for dessert, and even pronounced it quite
palatable.

Kaya and the
otter lingered on the beach together after dinner and watched the
sun sink slowly down towards the horizon. It was already mid-June,
only a week away from the summer solstice, the longest day of the
year. The sun would not actually dip below the distant islands for
a couple of hours yet.

Kaya was
anxious for Grandmother to return. She scanned the sky, her hand
raised to shield her eyes. Normally, the eagle was home by this
time at night, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

At last, far
off towards the south, she caught sight of a dark blur, heading
towards her. It grew as it approached and Kaya heard a familiar
call: it was Grandmother, telling Kaya she was coming
home.

With a
whirring of wings, the eagle came to land on the beach. Kaya ran to
sit down on the sand next to Grandmother, touching her nose to the
eagle’s beak in their accustomed greeting. She was eager to tell
Grandmother her news, but she could see that the old eagle was
weary from a long flight. They sat in silence for a
moment.

“
I’m sorry I
have been away so long,” said Grandmother, once she had caught her
breath. “There was a Great Council on Channel Rock.”

“
A Great
Council,” breathed Kaya, amazed. “But you told me last week there
hadn’t been one for almost thirty years!”

“
That is
true,” said the eagle. “The Council only meets in times of crisis.
Twenty-nine years ago two huge boats collided here in the Strait.
One was carrying a full hold of that heavy dark liquid human people
call oil. Much of it emptied into the water.”

Grandmother
made a clucking sound and shook her head angrily. “The sea was
thick and black and deadly. So many sea-folk and shore dwellers
killed. This time however,” she paused, hanging her majestic head,
“I’m afraid the crisis is something worse, much worse.”

“
What’s
wrong?” Kaya asked anxiously.

“
The Omrith’s
gone,” the eagle said, after a long pause. Her voice was full of
pain.

Kaya leaned
closer. Grandmother was always strong and calm and wise. Kaya had
never seen her guardian afraid. But now she could see that
Grandmother was more than frightened. Someone or something posed a
terrible threat to all that Grandmother held dear.

“
The Omrith?”
Kaya asked, her voice small and hesitant.

The eagle
looked intently at the girl. Grandmother’s eyes were like tiny
black pools that led down into unimaginable depths. Lights shone in
them, like distant stars.

“
Kaya,” she
spoke slowly, “you are young. But you are growing every day in
strength and wisdom. It is time you learned a little of the
Mysteries, the ancient ways of the Salish Sea.”

Kaya gulped
and nodded solemnly for Grandmother to continue.

“
As you know,
there are four Turnings in every year, along with the thirteen
moons. The Spring and Autumn Equinoxes mark two of the Turnings,
while the Summer and Winter Solstices mark the other two. There are
special rites that belong to each Turning, and at the centre of the
rites of the Summer Turning is the Omrith.”

“
But if the
Omrith is missing,” interrupted Kaya. “how can the Summer Turning
happen?”

The eagle
paused and gazed keenly out towards the sea.

“
That is why
the Salish Sea folk are so concerned. There can be no Turning
without the Omrith, and if there is no Turning then disaster
threatens us all.”

Grandmother
fell silent once more.

“
But why?”
asked Kaya impatiently. “I don’t understand.”

Grandmother
turned her gaze to the girl. Her voice changed, deepened, as if
reciting ancient lore memorized long ago.

“
Without the
sacred rites of the Summer Turning, day will not yield to night.
The earth will not be allowed to sleep, or the sea to swell with
storm. The land will know no rest from ceaseless blooming and
ripening, until all its power is spent. Without rest, a mighty
darkness will come at last which will hold us for eons in its
shadow. The balance of the world will fail.”

The eagle was
silent. Tike shivered and crawled into Kaya’s lap.

“
Grandmother,” Kaya asked after a pause, “what is it, exactly
- the Omrith?”

“
I cannot
describe it, for I myself have never seen it. It lives below the
waves, on the top of a vast hill that lies underwater at the centre
of the Salish Sea. But from what the whales tell me, it is a
container or vessel, the home of an ancient power. Its walls are
both dark and light, streaked with black and white in equal
measure. The inside of the vessel shimmers with all the colours of
the rainbow. At the time of the Turning a sound pulses from it, a
vibration that ripples outwards for hundreds of miles.”

They sat in
silence for a while.

“
So many bad
things are happening all at once!” said Kaya softly.

She told
Grandmother about the evil men and the cabin full of their terrible
booty. Grandmother stiffened at the news and her black eyes
narrowed in anger.

Just then they
heard a call from the water. A seal emerged from the waves and
flopped onto the beach not far from them.

“
Kelpie!”
cried Kaya, lifting Tike from her lap and running to greet her
friend. She dropped to her knees on the pebbles and bent to touch
her nose to the seal’s shiny, whiskered one.

“
You’ve been
gone so long!” said the girl.

“
Yes, I just
got back from the spring hunt over in Long Channel. I’ve missed
you, Kaya,” said Kelpie in a smooth, silky voice that reminded Kaya
of the taste of chocolate. The seal turned to smile at Tike, who
had come to stand shyly at Kaya’s side.

“
I’ve missed
you, too, Tike. What have you been up to?”

“
I’ve been
out spying with Kaya and Josh,” said the otter proudly.

Kaya
breathlessly explained the events of the past few weeks to her
friend: rescuing Josh from the storm, discovering the criminals,
and now, finding out about the Omrith. Kelpie let out a moan of
surprise when she heard this last piece of news. She gazed
anxiously at Grandmother, who had come to perch on a driftwood log
nearby.

“
Is this
true?”

The eagle
nodded solemnly. The four friends sat together with grim faces,
each lost in thought.

“
The Omrith
has always been there, at the centre,” whispered Kelpie at last.
“Since before the time of the ancestors. What will we do without
it?”

“
It is too
early to lose hope,” said Grandmother, with a ruffling of her
feathers. She raised her head and looked around at her companions.
A determined gleam shone in her eye, and her voice had lost its
edge of fear. “Our world seems beset with danger from all sides.
But there is still a week left before the Turning. The Council has
sent out an urgent plea to all the folk of the Salish Sea. We will
search through water and land and air. We must find it. We
must
.”

The next
morning Kaya and Tike set off early for Campbell Harbour. Kaya
promised to keep her eyes open and to ask everyone she met if they
knew where the Omrith might be. As they traveled across the water,
Kaya spotted a small pod of dolphins traveling south across their
path. She called to them, using the high, piercing signal
Grandmother had taught her. It was always sure to get the attention
of a dolphin.

Soon, five
silver-grey heads were bobbing in the water near the canoe. They
gazed expectantly at the girl.

“
I’m sorry to
bother you,” began Kaya. She explained her mission. The dolphins
told her they had already heard of the crisis, and were themselves
on a quest to the southern boundaries of the Salish Sea to gather
any news they could.

“
If we learn
the truth, we will inform the Great Council,” one of the smaller
dolphins said earnestly, in the formal, singsong speech of the
Dolphin folk.