Forbidden Passage Page 4

  Instead, she focused on the people, the clothing, the buildings, the trees—all of it. And she thought about the journal entry she’d write, if only she could.

  This is Jane Benson, reporting for Evans-ton Elementary. Today is July twelfth. It’s been eighteen days since we sailed away from Hawaii. Fourteen days since the shipwreck on Nowhere Island. And now, Day 1 on the new island. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, and the truth is, I’m really, really scared. I know Carter, Vanessa, and Buzz are, too, but everyone expects the baby to be afraid. So I’m not going to cry. Not in front of all these people.

  Right now, we’re in the Nukula village. I’ve counted 103 people, and 22 huts, built right into the trees. I think these are called banyan trees, but I’ll have to look that up—

  “What’s taking so long?” Buzz said between clenched teeth. “I don’t like this.”

  “Me, neither,” Vanessa said, just as Ani finally turned and headed back their way.

  “About time,” Carter said.

  Only Jane stayed silent.

  “You have come on an auspicious day,” Ani said as he approached. “For the Nukula, this is the eve of Raku Nau.”

  Jane squinted up at him. It seemed as if every answer they got only raised more questions.

  “What’s Raku Nau?” she asked.

  “In the Nukula language, it means ‘journey of the worthy.’ It is a test. A passage from youth to adulthood. All Nukula are given one chance to complete Raku Nau before their five thousandth day,” Ani said.

  “Their five thousandth day of what?” Buzz asked.

  “It is how age is measured here.”

  Quickly, Jane’s mind turned over the numbers. Three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, times ten, equaled 3,650. That meant she was almost 3,650 days old herself. And then, to get to five thousand days . . .

  “That’s fourteen years old,” she said. “Almost.”

  Ani raised his eyebrows when he looked at her. “Yes,” he said.

  “But why are you telling us this?” Vanessa asked.

  “Listen to me carefully. You must ask to run Raku Nau,” Ani told them. “All of you.”

  “What? Why?” Vanessa asked.

  “Raku Nau ends with a ceremony at the far side of the island, on the leeward slopes of Mayamaka.”

  “Mayamaka?” Jane asked.

  “It means ‘Cloud Ridge’,” Ani told them.

  “But what if—” Buzz started to say before Ani held up a hand to silence him.

  “The far shore of the island, beyond Mayamaka, is guarded by a small faction of Nukula. The only possible way to reach it is to finish Raku Nau. All four of you. Do you understand?”

  “No,” Buzz said. “What are you even talking about? Why is it guarded?”

  “Hang on a second,” Jane said. It was coming together like puzzle pieces. Everything Ani had been telling them was for a reason, wasn’t it?

  “You said before that we couldn’t get past the tides on the beach,” Jane said, pointing in the direction of the shore where they’d landed with the dinghy. “On that beach, right?”

  Ani didn’t exactly smile, but he gave an encouraging look.

  “Beyond Cloud Ridge, and only from there, the tides flow away from the island,” he explained.

  “Instead of against it,” Vanessa said, catching on. She gave Jane an amazed look—the same kind Jane had gotten from her teachers lots of times, when she was the first to come up with the answer to a complicated problem.

  “Don’t all the tides go in both directions?” Jane said. “In, then out?”

  “To a point,” Ani said. “But there is only one safe passage from the island. That is why it is guarded.”

  “So . . . that’s the way out of here,” Buzz said.

  “The momentum there will push you out to sea. You’ll seem to be lost, but you’ll be visible from above,” Ani continued. “If someone is looking for you, they will have a possibility of finding you, away from the island.”

  “What about our boat?” Vanessa asked.

  But Ani shook his head. “I cannot help you with that. I can give you information. What you do with it is up to you.”

  “We could build a raft,” Jane said. “We’ve done it before. As long as there’s bamboo over there—”

  “Do not assume too much, too soon,” Ani said. “Raku Nau is a difficult journey. Not all who participate will reach the end. Those who are first to finish become tribe leaders, and some of those will one day become elders.”

  As he said “elders,” he indicated the group in the longhouse. Jane noticed that all of them were heavily decorated with beads and tattoos, while other adults wore simple grass dresses or skin wraps, but little more.

  “What about everyone else?” she asked.

  “Those who do not succeed in Raku Nau are considered unworthy of Nukula leadership,” Ani explained. “They serve the tribe in lowly functions. They do not participate in decision making for the village.”

  “You mean, your whole life is decided by the time you’re fourteen?” Jane asked. “That’s not fair.”

  “What you see as fair or unfair, the Nukula see as a way of life,” Ani said. “There is a need for both leaders and helpers in the tribe.”

  “Hang on a second,” Carter interrupted. “Why should we even trust you, anyway?”

  Jane felt embarrassed by Carter’s pushy tone, but it was a fair question.

  Ani nodded. He seemed to think so, too.

  “I know what it is to be washed ashore here. You are the first since myself, and that was many years ago,” he said.

  “And you weren’t allowed to leave?” Vanessa asked.

  “I did not wish to,” Ani answered. “My family was lost in the storm that stranded me here. I was the only one who survived.”

  “But we do have family!” Buzz said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. Our parents are looking for us.”

  “Yes,” Ani answered simply.

  The single word seemed to speak for itself. Jane looked up into his placid face. This man understood them, didn’t he? Even if his loyalty was to the Nukula, he’d been through what they’d been through, too.

  It wasn’t much. But it was something, Jane thought. And as all four of them had learned the hard way on Nowhere Island, sometimes something was the most you could hope for.

  Vanessa spoke up next, and blurted out an answer.

  “We’ll do it!” she said. “Tell them we want in. Ask them!”

  “What are you talking about?” Buzz said. “We don’t even know what this Raku Nau thing is.”

  “It’s our only choice. At least there’s a chance that way,” Vanessa said. It barely mattered what they were saying yes to, because nothing else was even close to acceptable. Whatever Raku Nau involved, it had to be better than living on the island indefinitely.

  “We still don’t know if he’s telling the truth,” Carter said, glaring at Ani.

  It was strange, speaking so openly in front of all these people. But even as Vanessa glanced around, it was clear that nobody understood them any more than she understood the Nukula language.

  “I vote yes,” she said, looking at her sister and two brothers.

  “Me, too,” Jane said.

  Buzz slowly raised his hand.

  “Yeah, okay, fine,” Carter said. He pointed a finger at Ani. “But if you do anything to hurt us—”

  “Carter, stop!” Vanessa said. Right now there were two possibilities. Either Ani was lying, which she doubted, or he was telling the truth. And either way, they needed him to trust them, just as much as the other way around.

  “Please, Ani,” she said. “Tell the elders we want to do this.”

  “It is not only the elders who need to know,” he said.

  “Who else?” Jane as
ked.

  “Everyone,” Ani answered. He turned then and spoke out in a booming voice, addressing the entire village in their own language.

  Whatever he told them, Vanessa could see that it stirred a strong reaction. There were shouts of surprise, and sudden conversations cropped up everywhere. The small group of elders began to speak among themselves.

  But not for long. A tall woman with a cascade of beads down the front of her grass tunic turned to face Vanessa, Carter, Jane, and Buzz. When she held up a single palm, the rest of the village grew quiet.

  Vanessa held her breath.

  “Fah!” the woman said, followed by more of the Nukula language. Even before Ani began to explain, it seemed clear that the woman was saying no.

  “I am sorry,” Ani told them. “She says it is too soon. You are not known to the Nukula. Not yet. Perhaps next time, once you have earned their trust.”

  “When is . . . next time?” Jane said.

  “Another season. Perhaps another year,” Ani said.

  Vanessa could barely believe what she was hearing. Another season? A year? This couldn’t be happening. Her eyes burned with tears.

  “Ask again,” she told Ani. “Please!”

  “They have to give us a chance,” Jane said.

  “At least that!” Buzz said. All of them of them were on the verge of crying now, but none of the Nukula came near to comfort them. They watched, and listened. And for a long time, it was quiet.

  But then another voice broke the silence.

  “Ah-ka-ah!” someone yelled from across the yard. Vanessa looked and saw one of the oldest boys, standing with his friends.

  “Who is that?” Carter asked Ani.

  “Chizo,” Ani told him. “Many expect him to be chief of the Nukula one day. But first, he must complete Raku Nau, like anyone else.”

  The way Carter’s eyes narrowed, Vanessa knew that Chizo must have been one of the boys who had captured him on the beach.

  “What did he say?” Buzz asked.

  “He said yes,” Ani explained. “Ah-ka-ah. He wishes to compete against you.”

  Slowly, the boy sauntered over to where they stood. Carter stepped in close, but Chizo’s eyes were on Vanessa.

  It was a look Vanessa had seen before, at gymnastics tournaments and on the soccer field—even in school sometimes—among the most competitive kids. They were the ones who were already thinking about which college they had to get into.

  She knew, because she was one of those kids.

  Without looking away, the boy spoke again.

  “He asks if you’re prepared for this,” Ani said.

  Vanessa kept her eyes up and met Chizo’s gaze. “Ah-ka-ah!” she said.

  Murmurs of what sounded like approval came from around the yard. But not from Chizo. His look was unflinching, with just the hint of a smile.

  “What’s your problem?” Carter said, but the boy only sneered and walked away. Vanessa expected her brother to follow after him, but for once, he held back. Maybe even Carter could see that he and Chizo wanted the same thing right now—a chance for them to run Raku Nau. Even if it was for very different reasons.

  Conversation was buzzing all around the village again, mostly among the young. They called out to one another, from hut to hut, tree to tree, and across the round dirt yard.

  Then Chizo yelled again, louder than the rest.

  “Ah-ka-ah!” he shouted, facing the elders.

  As he continued speaking, Ani translated quietly. “He says, ‘I am not afraid of these strangers. Let them compete and see true Nukula spirit in us.’”

  “Ah-ka-ah!” Chizo repeated, and the others took it up as a chant. The village quickly filled with the sound of their voices. All the youngest Nukula were calling for Vanessa, Buzz, Carter, and Jane to be given a chance.

  “Ah-ka-ah! Ah-ka-ah! Ah-ka-ah!”

  Vanessa’s insides twisted with a scared, hollow feeling. This was getting more real by the second. Ani looked over his shoulder at the elder council, or whoever they were. They seemed to be the ones who made the final decisions.

  “Wait here again,” Ani said, and went to speak with them. Vanessa felt Jane press in closer at her side.

  “Don’t worry,” Vanessa told her.

  “I’m not worried,” Jane said, though it wasn’t very convincing. Vanessa was worried, too.

  After another long wait, Ani finally came back to where they stood.

  “What’d they say?” Buzz asked.

  “They do not believe you are capable of taking this on,” Ani told them.

  “They’re wrong!” Carter said.

  “But in the spirit of Raku Nau,” he continued, “the decision will rest with the young. And they are saying they want you to compete. If you wish to do so, you may.”

  Vanessa took a deep breath. It was the closest thing to good news they were going to get, but it wasn’t exactly a lucky break, either. This was far from over.

  “So, what happens now?” Jane asked.

  Ani turned again and motioned to indicate the hundred or more Nukula staring at them from all over the village.

  “You have asked for permission to show them your worthiness,” he said. “So—show them that you are worthy.”

  CHAPTER 7

  The journey started before any of them expected.

  Somewhere in the middle of the night, Buzz woke up to shouts around the village, and then the light of a large bonfire in the yard.

  He and his siblings had been given a small hut to share. It wasn’t much, but he’d fallen right to sleep after a day and a half of not sleeping at all. Now, he shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. Something was about to happen.

  “What’s going on?” Carter asked, jerking awake.

  “It’s starting,” Jane said.

  “Already?” Vanessa asked. The light from the fire caught their faces as they all watched, transfixed.

  One by one, the participants were descending from their own huts among the trees. No adults came with them. They walked to the middle of the camp and waited, facing out around the fire.

  Each of them, Buzz saw, had a painted face in some combination of red, black, and white. Chizo and his two friends wore red on the left side and black on the right. Four others had made large white circles around their eyes, against a field of red. One small group had black and white stripes horizontally from chin to forehead.

  The only one with an unpainted face was the girl Carter had first seen on the beach. She seemed to do everything alone around the village. And now, she seemed to be the only one running Raku Nau without some kind of teammate.

  By the time Ani motioned for them to come forward, Buzz counted twenty-eight other runners around the fire. The four of them would make it thirty-two.

  A few of the others looked to be about his and Carter’s age. Mostly, the participants were older. Ani had said that all Nukula were allowed to decide for themselves when to run Raku Nau, as long as it happened by their five thousandth day.

  Vanessa had figured out that she was 4,850 days old. Jane, on the other hand, was 3,591 days old. She was easily the youngest and smallest to take this on, but there was nothing they could do about that.

  It was time to go.

  Ani approached them as they moved toward the fire in the middle of the yard. He whispered something in Vanessa’s ear and pointed them toward an empty space on the circle.

  “Stand here,” Buzz heard him say. “Then follow out of the village when the time comes.”

  Two adults came forward next—one man and one woman—both carrying torches. They slowly circled the group of participants, looking at each one in turn. As they passed Buzz, he forced himself to keep his eyes up. For everything he’d been through—the pitch-black nights on Nowhere Island, the storms that seemed never to end—this was somethin
g else entirely. He was as scared as he’d ever been, but all four of them needed to be strong for one another.

  Stronger than ever, starting right now.

  Vanessa watched carefully as the two elders completed their circle. Once they’d come all the way around, they continued across the yard and out of the village.

  The other Raku Nau participants fell in behind. There was no speaking. It was a silent procession with the four siblings at the end of the line, along with Ani.

  Soon, they stepped onto another path in the woods. This one led in a new direction, deeper into the forest. The path itself was narrow, just wide enough for them all to move single file. But in the light of the torch that Ani carried behind her, Vanessa could see the trees were marked with paint in the same colors as the participants’ faces—red, black, and white.

  This was the way others had gone before, she guessed. At the start of Raku Nau.

  Her stomach let up a nervous tremble. It all seemed suddenly insane. What were they getting into? Yes, it meant the possibility of getting off the island, but for all they knew, it also meant risking their lives before it was over.

  “What do we need to be ready for?” she asked over her shoulder.

  “Everything,” Ani answered. “Use your instincts. Do not try to be Nukula, or anything other than who you are. It will not increase your chances of success.”

  “What will increase our chances?” Vanessa asked. Ani seemed to speak in riddles half the time, but he was also their only lifeline. “Please, Ani. Tell me whatever you can.”

  “There are thirty-two of you now. Only the first sixteen to reach Mayamaka will earn the right to wear the seccu beyond the ridge and down to the far shore. That is where the finishers’ ceremony is held.”

  “The seccu?” Vanessa asked.

  “It is a sacred necklace,” Ani explained, pointing toward the two elders at the head of the line. Vanessa hadn’t noticed before, but she now realized they each wore a leather cord with a purple stone around their necks. She’d seen the same necklace on some of the other adults in the village, but not all.