Desperate Measures Read online

  “Thank you,” she whispered to Ani. Mima squinted at her, and seemed confused by the emotion.

  “Hold up the hand you used to claim the seccu on Cloud Ridge,” Ani said, and then repeated it in Nukula for Mima. Vanessa and Buzz raised their right hands; Jane raised her left. And Mima had already bent down to pick up one of the frond mats.

  “Now face me,” Ani told Vanessa. “You first.”

  The other adults were using the vines to tie screens around their own children’s arms. Jane knelt down to help Mima while Ani began to do the same for Vanessa.

  “What are we doing, exactly?” Vanessa asked.

  “You will choose a color,” Ani said, and indicated the still-bubbling pots. Each one held a different liquid—deep black, bloodred, and milky white. They were the colors of Raku Nau. “Then you will place your seccu arm into the dye,” he continued. “Red signifies fire. Black signifies earth. White signifies the trees. All of these give life to the Nukula.”

  Vanessa stared at the steaming liquids. The vine- and-frond wrapping pinched her skin as Ani knotted it down, but that was the least of her worries. It was hard to concentrate.

  “Red,” Buzz answered. “For fire.”

  Jane nodded in agreement. Fire it was. They would all do the same.

  Already, several others had dunked their wrapped arms into one pot or another. Their faces were fixed, but not calm. Two of them, a boy and a girl, stood gritting their teeth, up to their armpits in the hot red dye.

  Vanessa held a shaking fist over the red pot and tried to clear her mind. It was the same feeling as watching a dark storm roll in across the Pacific. There was no avoiding this now, only getting through it.

  With a fast move, she plunged her whole arm into the cauldron. The liquid was hotter than any shower she’d ever taken, and she shuddered from the pain. Everything inside her said pull back. But with Laki and the others observing, she didn’t dare.

  The vinegary smell of the dye made her eyes water, too. She blinked several times, fighting off the dizziness, and locked her knees to keep from stumbling over.

  “How long should I do this?” she asked.

  “As long as you can,” Ani answered, while he tied on Buzz’s mat. “In the eyes of the Nukula, you are now adults. The choice is yours.”

  Vanessa took a breath and let it out. How many times had she wanted to be treated like an adult back home? More than she could remember. But that was no comfort at all right now. The only thing that mattered was gutting through this and putting it behind them.

  For Buzz’s sake. For Jane’s.

  And for Carter’s.

  Carter was the first to hear the messengers as they approached. He’d been following at the back of the line of Raku Nau losers, out of the gorge, down from Cloud Ridge, and into the jungle heading west. The sound of the drums from the eastern shore had begun to fade behind them.

  But now—a voice.

  “Betta! Eh Laki, betta!”

  He turned around to see two young Nukula, drip-ping wet and running toward them. Their faces were unfamiliar.

  “Hey!” Carter called out to the front of the line. “Hold up!”

  A few people turned around. The elder who had brought them this far barked out an order, bringing the line to a stop. Then she doubled back to greet the incoming strangers.

  After a short conversation, the elder turned and called out to the group again.

  “Chizo!” she said. “Ekka-ko!”

  Ko? In the Nukula language, ko was used to address an enemy. That much Carter knew from his time on the island. Something very strange was going on, but what? Why would Chizo be an enemy to the tribe?

  Still, Chizo didn’t pause. He jogged right past Carter to where the messengers were waiting. A moment later, the group of three turned and headed uphill, back toward Cloud Ridge.

  Everyone else broke from the line then, following after Chizo and calling out. Only Carter stayed put.

  Before Chizo disappeared around a bend in the trail, he stopped and turned back, long enough to knock his knuckles together as the Nukula often did. The others all returned the gesture.

  And as they did, Chizo looked straight at Carter, across the fifty yards of ground between them.

  Carter’s nerves went electric. It was force of habit. Chizo had tried to destroy Carter’s chances in Raku Nau from the start. But there was no hatred in his eyes now. All Chizo did was raise his chin as if he were saying good-bye. Or maybe to indicate something behind Carter.

  When Carter turned to look, there was nothing to see but empty jungle. What was that about?

  And then he realized. Or at least, he had an idea. Chizo was showing him a way to escape, wasn’t he? Everyone else was still half a football field away. Even the elder had turned her back for the moment.

  Was it some kind of trick? Or was Chizo paying Carter back for the mercy he’d shown on the floor of the gorge? Carter could have easily won that fight, but instead, he’d stepped off.

  Now, his mind was spinning with new possibilities. The fastest way to reach Buzz, Jane, and Vanessa on the eastern shore was to head up and over Cloud Ridge. That was the way Chizo and the messengers would go.

  But it couldn’t be the only way, Carter thought. This was an island, after all. What would happen if he headed around Cloud Ridge to the north? Worst-case scenario, he’d hit the ocean and use the shoreline to guide him east, toward the sound of the drums.

  He had to try, anyway. Any second, the others would turn back and the chance would be gone. That meant he had to disappear. And he had to do it right now.

  Without another thought, Carter sprinted into the jungle.

  CHAPTER 5

  Carter pushed deeper into the woods. The trees were close, but the ground was free of brush. It gave him an easy head start. By the time the first shouts came up behind him, he’d already covered a good hundred yards or more.

  But that lead couldn’t last forever. Even on a good day, he’d never outpace a group of Nukula through the woods. If there were such a thing as a home-field advantage, they definitely had it.

  Maybe he’d be caught. A million punishments might be coming his way. But none of that mattered more than getting to Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz. He kept his chin down, his eyes on the ground, and his feet moving.

  Finally, when his lungs felt ready to burst, Carter stopped and took a knee in the tall grass. His own heart pounded in his ears, but he could still hear the drums from the east, too. That was good.

  And then another sound emerged. Rushing water. Even better.

  His paper-dry throat clenched. He hadn’t noticed how desperate he was for a drink until now. The sound of the river, if that’s what it was, came from just ahead and to the left. If anything was worth making a run for, this was it.

  He stood up and took off again, heading toward the sound. Before long, the forest thinned enough to show him the rolling white breakers of a riverbed. The water was flowing east, but it looked dangerous, like a highway of rapids and boulders as far as Carter could see.

  Still, this was a way out. Maybe he couldn’t outrun the others, but he could ride the river as fast as anyone. If he was lucky, he’d be washed straight downstream. If he was unlucky, he’d get smashed against one of those rocks.

  Or even worse, he’d wind up held under by a recirculating current. It was called the washing machine effect. He’d heard about it when the family went rafting on the Wolf River in Wisconsin. That was the last thing you wanted if you fell into rapids. Once that happened, drowning was the easy part.

  Before there was time to think anymore, a shout came up from the woods. Someone was coming.

  Another shout, even closer, was all the push Carter needed. With a deep breath, he waded in, picked up his feet, and let the river take him.

  The current pulled him along even faster than he�
��d expected. For several seconds, he was underwater, rising and falling with the river’s swells. As soon as he left one stretch of white water behind, he was into the next.

  It was all a blur until a fallen tree caught him up short. Branches scratched at his arms and legs, and across his face, until he managed to land a hand on one of the sturdier limbs.

  His fingers closed around the moss-slick bark. There was no getting a firm grip, but it slowed him down. He slid several more feet, until his hand lodged into the crook between two branches. His body jerked to a stop, and a sharp pain ran up his arm.

  Still, the water was rushing over his head. He needed air—now. Carter reached around blindly for something else to hold on to, anything he could grab to get himself above the surface. He found a second branch, which snapped off, but then another that held. It was enough to let him shift his weight and free his stuck hand. Then he pulled himself up and out for a quick gulp of air.

  He could see the bank now. And there, clear enough, were three of the runners he’d left behind at the mouth of the gorge. They hadn’t seen him. Not yet. They were scanning the river and the woods on the far side.

  Carter kept as low as he could. The rise and fall of the water hid him from view, but he couldn’t stay here much longer. His grip wasn’t going to last, and the river seemed to want nothing more than to suck him farther downstream.

  Carter squeezed his eyes shut. He focused every thought on his hands.

  Hold on. Don’t let go. Hold on. . . .

  He just had to keep this position for a few more seconds. Just until the others turned away. Why were they taking so long to move on? His hand cramped. He could feel it giving way.

  One of the runners on the bank pointed into the woods. The others looked in that direction, and they all turned to run farther upstream.

  Half a second later, Carter’s fingers slipped free. He was moving again, tossing through swells and dips like a piece of driftwood as he scraped past one unseen rock after another. The river was carrying him east, anyway. But that didn’t mean he was safe.

  It didn’t even mean he was going to survive this.

  Buzz’s head swam as he pulled his arm out of the hot red dye. He’d gone as long as he could, but if he didn’t stop now, he was going to pass out. And there was no way he’d let these people see him hit the dirt. Everyone else had stayed on their feet including Vanessa, who had finished first. If they could get through it, Buzz thought, so would he.

  “You did well,” Ani said. With three flicks of his stone knife, he cut the cords around Buzz’s screen and let it drop to the floor.

  His whole arm tingled. He stared at the pattern left behind on his skin—red diamond shapes, bigger around his shoulder and smaller toward the wrist. It was like the full-sleeve tattoos he’d seen on lots of people back home. But never on kids. And definitely never on someone like him, an eleven-year-old gamer who didn’t exactly have a reputation for being tough. Not before all this, anyway.

  Jane eased her arm out next. Her face was wet with sweat, but not tears. At nine years old, she was the youngest one out here, but nobody complained less than Jane.

  That left only Mima. All of the others had finished. She stayed steadfast, up to her armpit in the hot liquid. Her eyes were like glass. Her mouth was set in a line that showed no emotion, no pain. Buzz had never known anyone so unafraid of anything as her.

  For years, Mima had lived as an outcast among the Nukula, ever since her parents had committed the unpardonable crime of trying to leave the tribe. They’d paid with their lives in the island’s killer tides and left behind a daughter whose only chance for redemption was Raku Nau itself.

  Now, with a seccu around her neck, Mima had a chance to claim her place as an adult in the tribe. Even Laki watched with approving eyes while Mima gutted it out longer than anyone.

  Up to now, the marking ceremony had taken place in silence. All Buzz heard was the hiss and spitting of the fire. But a sudden commotion from overhead seemed to fill the room with noise. Several people were moving through the jungle nearby. And then a voice came down through the foliage-covered bamboo ceiling. Whoever it was sounded urgent, but the only word Buzz understood was “Chizo.”

  Before the messenger had even finished, Laki was on the move. He headed up the tunnel toward the canoes and Trehila. Ani whispered to Mima, who slowly pulled her arm out of the dye, as all of the others began to follow the chief out of the arena.

  “Chizo has arrived on the eastern shore,” Ani told them. “He will be sent straight to the top of Trehila, while the tribe witnesses his exile.”

  “How long does he have to stay up there?” Vanessa asked.

  “Perhaps for a season or more. Perhaps a year,” Ani said.

  “A year?” Jane asked.

  “I never thought I could feel sorry for him,” Vanessa said, “But—”

  “Don’t even,” Buzz interrupted her.

  Buzz had been the one taken captive by Chizo, in the midst of Raku Nau. He was the one who’d been tied up and attacked by an army of fire ants while Chizo watched, and even laughed. Sympathy was the last thing on Buzz’s mind right now.

  “Come on,” he said, and moved toward the tunnel behind all the others. “I don’t want to miss this.”

  Everyone had gathered at the base of Trehila by the time Vanessa, Buzz, Jane, Mima, and Ani got there. The giant screen still stood in the closed position, but Chizo was there now, along with the two guards Laki had sent to retrieve him.

  Vanessa had never noticed how much Chizo and Laki looked alike. Chizo seemed to be pleading with his father, from the way his voice went up and the way he kept trying to catch Laki’s eye.

  Laki stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the ocean as though Chizo wasn’t even there. A few murmured to Laki from the side, but he ignored them, too.

  Finally, Chizo stopped trying. He turned away from Laki and stepped onto the first rung of the vine ladder that ran to the top of Trehila. As he did, Laki broke his own silence with a single word.

  “Shesto!” he said.

  Chizo slowly turned back to look at Laki again, and Laki held out a hand. His palm was flat, as though he was expecting something.

  “Ma betta e tikko fotza, Chizo!” Laki said.

  Several in the crowd gasped, but not Chizo. Without a word, he slipped a small ring off his left pinkie and dropped it into his father’s hand. The ring was wood, or maybe bone. Vanessa couldn’t tell from where she stood. As soon as Chizo had given it up, he turned once more and started his climb without looking back.

  “That was the blood ring,” Ani said quietly. “It marked Chizo as Laki’s son.”

  “And now . . . he’s not?” Jane asked.

  Ani shook his head. “This has never happened before” was all he said.

  While everyone watched, Chizo moved quickly up the side of the huge palm. Soon, he was above the jungle canopy, lit by the westward sunlight that streamed over the other treetops. It was scary to watch him go so high. There were no jacklines, no safety nets, and nothing but the vine ladder to hold on to as he followed the curve of the tree, all the way out over the water.

  When he reached the tiny guard hut built into Trehila’s crown, he maneuvered onto the platform and disappeared. Almost right away, another boy appeared and started his own climb down.

  It was a strange turn of events, Vanessa thought. Just as Mima was finding a place in the tribe, Chizo was losing his, exiled by his own father. The Nukula had their own customs, that was for sure. But if the faces of the other tribe members were any clue, not everyone here seemed to approve of this choice.

  And already, something else was happening. The climbing boy had barely started down when Chizo’s voice rang out from the top of the tree. The climber stopped and looked, then pointed toward the beach with one hand.

  Vanessa peered out through the gaps
in the big screen. A swimmer had just arrived on the shore. It was the female elder who had followed them through Raku Nau. Now she was running toward them and yelling some sort of announcement to the tribe.

  Or maybe it was a warning. When Vanessa looked to Ani, even he seemed concerned. Laki motioned the woman over while everyone else began to buzz and chatter.

  “What is it?” Jane asked. “What’s going on?”

  “It is your brother,” Ani said.

  Vanessa’s breath caught in her throat. “Carter?” she said. “Is he okay?” All kinds of possibilities ran through her mind before Ani could even answer.

  “He has run off,” Ani said, just as Laki boomed out a single word to the assembled tribe.

  “Ohzooka!” he shouted.

  And everything changed again.

  CHAPTER 6

  “Ani, what’s happening?” Buzz said. “What’s oh-zoo—”

  “Ohzooka,” Ani said. “It is a hunt. The last time it was declared was the day you came to the island.”

  Jane shuddered just thinking about it. The pit Vanessa had fallen into when they landed on Shadow Island had seemed like the end of the road. Then Jane and Carter had been taken as well. It was part of the young Nukulas’ training, to capture them, but there was no knowing that at the time.

  Everything was happening so fast. All of the tribe’s new leaders—those Nukula who had earned the seccu that day—gathered around Laki. He held the blood ring over his head and continued to address the group.

  Mima looked back once, but Ani waved her on to join the others. Then he spoke to Jane, Vanessa, and Buzz in a fast burst of instructions.

  “Listen to me,” Ani said. “Nothing about today has gone as expected. Laki is offering the blood ring to anyone who will bring Carter here to the eastern shore. This is an opportunity, and you must seize it.”

  “An opportunity for . . . what, exactly?” Buzz asked. “To get that ring? To lead the tribe? That’s crazy!”