The Unfinished Song: Taboo (31 page)

“I might have figured such a place for your home,” she told Rthan tartly.

He did not smile. “It hasn’t been my home since my wife and child died.”

Brena looked away.

The sand wormed into Kavio’s sandals and cut at the soles of his feet. Fortunately, the sand didn’t last long. Unfortunately, it gave way to rocks, which were worse.

They climbed the rocks in near darkness, since the sun had almost set and the fog obscured the last rays of light. Kavio noted when scraggly vegetation appeared along the trail. Here were a few trees, dry brush and wildflowers, less austere than the beach, but still far from inviting. Kavio suspected no crops could be grown on the island, which meant the Blue Waters must boat in their grains. He thought of what Hertio had said, that Yellow Bear grew the corn, and Blue Waters stole it.

“Is there no easier way into your tribehold, Rthan?” Kavio asked.

“Not for outtribers,” Rthan said.

“Guests,” Svego corrected hastily. “Nargano is most anxious to meet you, so he advised we travel by the most direct route.”

“It’s direct, all right.” Kavio snorted. “Straight up.”

After a period of arduous ascent, they heard rushing water. They rounded the corner of a switchback and beheld a thundering waterfall. Kavio drew in a sharp breath. Behind the waterfall, barely visible, were doors and windows carved into the black cliff. His first fleeting question was whether this was Sharkshead. But, no: The cliff homes were dark, uninhabited. Close inspection showed they were crumbling in places. Also, there was no way any human could have reached those holes in the sheer wall. Only creatures with wings could have lived there. He had reason to know, because he had seen habitations like that before.

His heart leapt in his chest.

“Who lived there?” Kavio pointed.

Svego shuddered. “Don’t worry, this is as close as we’ll get to Ghost Falls. It’s a cursed place, but we’ll be past it quickly.”

“
Who lived there?
” he repeated.

Svego shrank back and refused to answer. Kavio resisted the urge to shake him.

Heavy footsteps crunched on the gravel behind them.

“Aelfae,” Rthan said. “There used to be Aelfae on Sharkshead Island. Hundreds of them.”

Svego blanched white and muttered something about needing to hurry
,
least they arrive past curfew
. Brena drove along her daughter and Dindi, and most of the warriors of both tribes had already gone on ahead. Gremo, as usual, was lagging behind somewhere and had not yet reached the falls. But Rthan lingered by Kavio’s side even after everyone but Gremo had hurried past.

Kavio did not move. A heavy feeling of foreboding rooted him on the ledge of earth overlooking the waterfall and the abandoned cliff homes.

“They’re all dead now,” Kavio said. It was not a question.

“The Aelfae lived on the island first,” Rthan said. “Then humans came. There were constant wars, until eventually a peace treaty was signed. The humans invited the Aelfae to a great feast to celebrate. But it was a trick. The humans slaughtered all of their guests, except a few Aelfae who escaped in the melee. The survivors disguised themselves as animals. It is said that in later generations, some of those shapeshifters slipped back into human clans, mixed their blood with ours, and the fruit of such a forbidden union was always an Imorvae, a child cursed with many-banded magic and evil ways.”

“It’s been known to happen,” Kavio said dryly.

Rthan’s voice rumbled deep and low, like the waterfall. “Some of the Shunned have great power. They can unfold wings like an albatross, ride dolphins or put on the skin of a seal and change form. Even in plain sight, they excel at hiding, and there are probably
Shunned
among us who are not known for what they really are. Such, if found, are immediately condemned to death, for their trickery. Otherwise, out of mercy, we suffer them to live.”

“Your tribe’s mercy to the Imorvae is truly a wonder.” Kavio didn’t bother to hide his scorn.

“Do
you
have wings?”

Kavio looked at him flatly. “Rthan. Do I look like I have wings?”

“I understand they can be disguised as something else.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“How did you survive going over the cataracts, the first time we met?”

“Ah, yes, the first time we met! What fond memories I have of you ambushing me and hogtying me in the bottom of your canoe. I still have nightmares about the hakurl, though.”

Rthan refused to take the bait. “Can you breathe under water? Some of the Shunned cannot be drowned. Their heads must be bashed or their guts spilled to kill them.”

“A paranoid person might begin to suspect this line of questioning is unfriendly.”

“There is one thing I’ve always wanted to ask you, but feared you might think it…unfriendly.”

“How to kill me? Because that’s the sense I’m getting here.”

“Why did your father marry an Aelfae?”

Kavio folded his arms. He wished Rthan would leave and let him study the waterfall in peace. This place swirled thickly with memories of the Aelfae. If a Vision struck him, he would fall insensate on the ground in one of his fits, which, at best, would be humiliating, and at worst, would leave him vulnerable in the presence of a hate-filled enemy.

“I know how you feel about…people like me, Rthan,” Kavio said tightly. “So if you ask merely to be insulting, I have no interest in that conversation. If you really want to know…”

Rthan’s tattooed face gave nothing. “I really want to know.”

“He needed her to help him overthrow the Bone Whistler.”

“Are you sure? Because the tale is told that she seduced and hexed your father, tricking him into betraying his chief.”

“You were misinformed. She and my father had a common enemy. The marriage was a political opportunity for them both.”

“Strange. The Bone Whistler gave everything to your father. Glory, an army, a sister by marriage…”

“The Bone Whistler also oversaw the torture and execution of someone my father loved… his first wife. A deathdebt like that should be something you can appreciate, Rthan.”

Rthan scowled.

“Now let
me
ask
you
a question,” Kavio pushed. “Why do you want to know why my father married my mother?”

He answered slowly. “I wanted to know why a man would think he could trust a faery.”

“What makes you think my father trusts my mother?”

They heard footsteps before they saw Gremo turn the bend. Travel had been good to him, Kavio thought. Though sweat stood on his forehead and bulging biceps, now that he was clean-shaven and dressed in bear hide legwals, he looked almost normal—if one just ignored that he carried a solid rock on his back the way another man carried a sack.

As soon as Gremo saw the waterfall, he froze and his jaw dropped.

“The power…” he muttered. “The power!”

Sometimes Gremo did still sound crazy, though.

Svego also appeared, returning from further up the trail. “Zavaedi Kavio! If you’ve been hexed, I’ll be vexed! How long have you been standing in this ghost-be-cursed spot? I was afraid you’d tumbled over the edge!”

“Even if he had,” drawled Rthan, “I doubt we’d be rid of him so easily.”

“Your concern is touching,” said Kavio. “Do ghosts often pull folk over the edge?”

“Let’s not speak of unpleasant things,” urged Svego. “Nargano has prepared a great feast to celebrate the peace treaty with Yellow Bear.”

“A peace feast.” Kavio arched his eyebrow at Rthan. “I’ve heard the Blue Waters tribe are as hospitable as they are merciful. I look forward to sharing a meal with you.”

She rubbed her face. Ocean spray had caked her skin with a sticky residue, and she longed for a bath in fresh water. On the trek up the mountain, they had passed a waterfall which had seemed to sing out to her to come dive into the deep, misty pool far below, but Brena had not let her stop to admire it. When Zavaedi Brena was nervous, she became even more acerbic than usual, and she kept snapping at both Gwenika and Dindi. The girls exchanged a glance and Gwenika rolled her eyes. It reminded Dindi of their first journey together, when they had both been on equal footing, just two Initiates on their way to the Tors of Yellow Bear. She grinned quickly and Gwenika grinned back.

Of course, everything had been different then. She’d only been fourteen, and still a child. Now she was fifteen, and a woman. She kept waiting for that grown-up feeling to settle in, preferably gracing her with the mantle of wisdom, but so far, no luck. The only difference she’d noticed so far was that she managed to bumble on a much grander scale than ever before. Mercy, she hoped she wouldn’t somehow bumble the whole peace treaty between Blue Waters and Yellow Bear. As long as no one asked her to serve sugar loaves at the welcome feast….

The sun had set by the time they arrived at the tribehold. Then they had to wait longer for Kavio, Rthan and Svego, who had been delayed, to arrive. Dindi heard waves crashing and she realized that the hold was adjacent to the sea. She wondered why they had not simply beached here in the first place, rather than trudging across the whole island.

The tribehold grasped a rocky outcrop like the talons of an impossible raptor. It resembled the other Blue Waters holds they had passed, except on a much grander scale. The spikes of the outer barricade were formed from the rib bones of some immense animal; each bone was twice the height of a man. Fires burned in turtle shells at intervals along the wall. The only entrance was through the gaping jawbones of something huge, probably the same creature that belonged to the ribs. Whatever it was had serrated triangular teeth bigger than her head.

“The giant white shark.” Svego gestured to the jaws. “Very rare and larger even than the great white sharks that swim these waters. Few men have faced one and lived, but the warrior who founded Sharkshead killed one and used its bones to build the hold. It is said he had seven children, and dropped the heads of six of them into the water to lure the giant shark close enough to his harpoon to kill it.”

“He doesn’t sound like a very good father,” said Gwenika.

Rthan said sharply, “His children had already been slain by the Aelfae. He used their blood to make an alliance with the Merfae, and avenge them. No father could do more.”

“How about not letting them get killed in the first place?” asked Gwenika.

“That’s enough, Gwenika,” snapped Brena. “Guard silence for once in your life!”

Inside the barricade was a second barricade made from uncut stones. They had to walk through a narrow, spiraling corridor between
bone
and stone for half-way around the tribehold before they entered the main plaza. Inside, it was not as large as Dindi had expected. It was nowhere as impressive as the Tors of Yellow Bear. There were hundreds of oiled skin huts, but they were no larger than the huts in other small clanholds. Like all other Blue Waters settlements, the settlement stank of fish and brine. She wondered how close they were to the sea. She couldn’t see the water from here, but she swore she could hear
the swoosh
and sigh of waves.

At least Svego had not lied about the welcome feast prepared for them. Dindi felt starved. Reed mats formed a square in the middle of the central plaza around the dancing amphitheater, although instead of an elevation, the stage was formed by a depression several feet deep, covered with loose wooden planks.

The elders of Sharkshead sat in ritual array to welcome the peace party. The womenfolk here had the longest hair Dindi had ever seen. Most of them had thick black tresses entwined with ropes of pearls and coral that trailed past their ankles. To keep their hair from dragging in the mud and midden, they favored a style of tucking it into a belt around their hips or to the bracelets about their wrists. Pearl, mother-of-pearl and coral were the favored jewels for their belts and armbands. They wore little else except tattoos denoting their clan affiliations.

Six muscular men carried a turtle-shell throne in which was seated a small figure veiled in gauzy blue cloth and a net of pearls. Evidently it was a girl, though they could not see her face under the veil, for her hair was so long that a seventh man walked behind the throne holding it aloft on giant, stylized comb.