Forbidden Passage Read online

  “Hang on a second,” she said. “The first sixteen? We have to get there before half of all these people?”

  “That is the way of Raku Nau,” Ani answered. “I told you before that not all who begin will finish. And not all who finish will wear the seccu.”

  Vanessa took a deep but shaky breath. It seemed as if the rules of this thing just kept getting harder and harder.

  “Anything else?” she asked, not even sure she wanted an answer.

  “It can be easy to get lost on Raku Nau,” Ani said. “Your best chance is to keep up with the group. But also be careful of them. They will try to slow you down in any way they can. For each one of you who earns the seccu, there will be one Nukula who does not.”

  “Then . . . why did they all want us to compete?” she asked.

  “By adding four runners, you have also added two seccu to the competition,” Ani said.

  He fell silent then, but the full meaning of what he’d just said started to become clear. By entering Raku Nau, Vanessa realized, they’d actually increased everyone else’s chances of success. At least, that’s how the other kids probably saw it. Nobody considered them as a threat here. Nobody thought they could actually do this.

  And worst of all—she was beginning to think that maybe they were right.

  Jane did her crying in the dark. She kept her head down on the trail, letting the tears run silently while she had the chance. And she put more words down in her imaginary journal as they all proceeded silently through the woods.

  Dear Mom and Dad,

  I’ve decided to call this place Shadow Island, because I feel like that’s where we are—in a shadow, where nobody can see us. It’s not that I’m afraid you’ll never find this place. Mostly, I’m afraid that you already did, and that you moved on because we were stuck down here, out of sight.

  I know you’re out there somewhere. You haven’t left the South Pacific, and I know you won’t stop until you find us again. We’re doing everything we can to make sure that you do. But there’s so much you don’t know right now.

  I’m trying to be strong. I really am. Please wish us luck.

  Love, love, love, Jane

  It was impossible not to think about Mom and Dad. There was every reason to believe they’d been on that plane that went over, even if she couldn’t know for sure. Watching the giant screen extend over the village and block out the sky had been as hard as anything else up till now.

  The strange thing was, Jane understood the other side, too. This was the Nukulas’ home. They deserved to protect it. But that didn’t make it any easier when she thought about being stuck here for months, or . . . more.

  “How long does Raku Nau go, anyway?” she whispered to Buzz. “Did anybody say?”

  “I don’t know,” Buzz answered in the dark. It was hard to hear him over the sound of the cicadas and other night creatures that filled the woods around them.

  “What if some of us make it and some of us don’t?” she asked. “What happens then?”

  “You know I don’t know any better than you do, so stop asking,” Buzz snapped. It wasn’t like him to speak harshly to her, but it was better than being treated like a baby. Apparently, those days were gone now. She’d have to keep up with her older siblings and do her best.

  And she would.

  CHAPTER 8

  As the first gray light of morning came on, the Raku Nau procession stopped at a clearing in the woods. Carter saw that the trees here were marked all around with more of the red, white, and black paint. Some were striped; others had human and animal figures painted on the bark; and several bore random streaks of color all the way up into the branches. This was a place with some history, he thought.

  “Rest here while you can,” Ani told them. “It won’t be long.”

  For the moment, all the participants broke off into separate groups. They sat or lay down on the ground, maybe conserving their energy for whatever came next. It had already been a long, difficult walk through the dark.

  As usual, the one person who seemed to be alone was the nameless girl from the beach. She sat with her back against a rock, staring into the woods as though she were looking for something.

  “Who is that?” Carter asked Ani.

  “Her name is Mima,” he said.

  “Why is she the only one by herself?”

  “There are no rules here,” Ani answered. “Friendships and cooperation are part of adult leadership, just as they are part of Raku Nau.”

  “So, are you saying she doesn’t have any friends?” Carter asked.

  “Find out if you want to know,” Ani said.

  Carter squinted up at him. “How am I supposed to do that?” he asked. “I don’t even know how to say hi.”

  “Chafa-ka for a friend, chafa-ko for an enemy,” Ani said.

  “But how do I—” Carter started to say, but Ani cut him off and addressed all four of them now.

  “Listen to me. You will be responsible for gathering your own supplies,” he said. “All who come into the woods for Raku Nau begin with nothing.”

  “At least it’s a level playing field,” Vanessa said.

  “We’re used to working with nothing,” Jane added, giving a tired smile.

  Carter noticed that the other participants were no longer wearing any jewelry or beads in their hair, as they had been the day before. Their painted faces, however, made it clear who was working with whom. There were groups of three, four, and five, scattered around the camp. Plus Mima.

  Without thinking, he reached down in the dirt and swiped a smudge under each of his eyes. He looked at Vanessa, Buzz, and Jane, indicating they should do the same thing

  “Now you guys,” he said.

  Vanessa only shook her head. “Go team,” she said sarcastically.

  For a second, it felt like a moment from their old life—back when they were a new family of six and always arguing about stupid stuff. But that life didn’t even exist anymore, Carter thought. It was a strange emptiness, like a hole in his chest he’d forgotten how to fill.

  In the silence, Jane was next to speak up. “Ani?” she asked quietly. You never told us where you’re from. Or why you speak English.”

  It seemed to come out of nowhere, but you never knew what Jane’s hundred-mile-an-hour mind was considering at any given time.

  “Now, I am from here,” Ani answered. “But when I came to this island, I was from Tahiti, where my family spoke both French and English.”

  “What happened?” Jane asked.

  Carter expected Ani to keep his story to himself. But this time, he gave a long answer. It had been a ship fire, out at sea, he explained. Very few had made it off the boat alive, and only he had made it to the island.

  He’d been eleven years old—Buzz and Carter’s age—when he arrived, after drifting on nothing more than a plank for days. The same currents and tides that had brought Buzz, Jane, Carter, and Vanessa here had brought Ani as well.

  “I was nearly dead when the Nukula plucked me from the sea. Soon after that, I became one of them,” he said. “I have never wanted for anything here.”

  “Did you go through Raku Nau?” Buzz asked.

  Ani paused. “Yes,” he said then.

  “So where’s your seccu?” Vanessa asked him.

  “His what?” Carter asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Vanessa answered.

  There seemed to be something she wasn’t saying. Something Vanessa knew that the rest of them didn’t. But before Carter could ask again, one of the elders came into the middle of the clearing and drew everyone’s attention in her direction.

  As she began to speak, all of the other participants came onto one knee, with one hand flat on the ground. It looked like some kind of starting position, and Ani gestured for them to do the same.

  The woman tur
ned while she addressed the group, motioning with her hands in all four directions, like points on a compass.

  “What’s she saying?” Carter whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Vanessa said. All the others were listening, but also fidgeting where they knelt, nudging one another, and, as far as Carter could tell, getting ready to run.

  Finally, the male elder stepped forward. He made one sweeping gesture with his hand, as if showing his palm to each of them in turn.

  “I think this is it,” Carter said.

  And then it was. The man let out a long sustained call and dropped his hand to his side. As he did, all the others sprang up and headed straight for the woods. They ran in the same direction the group had been moving all night, farther away from the village.

  Carter looked to Ani for any last words.

  “Go!” he told them. “Collect what you can. You will need food and water, but more than that, do not be left behind. Remember, you are moving toward Cloud Ridge. The others will call it Mayamaka.”

  “Where is that?” Buzz asked.

  “You will see it before long. Try to stay with the group in the meantime,” Ani said.

  “How are we supposed to do that?” Carter asked. It was all happening too fast. Already, the others were disappearing into the jungle. Some were vaulting up trees, while others ran on the ground.

  “Go!” was all Ani gave for an answer. “If you lose the group, it will be over for you before it begins.”

  It was starting to seem impossible. Maybe it even was impossible, but they couldn’t help that right now. All Carter could do—all any of them could do—was run.

  “Let’s do this,” he said, and they all took off sprinting for the woods.

  Jane pushed hard to keep up with the group. As the smallest participant, she also had the shortest legs. The last thing she wanted was to be the reason they fell behind this early in the competition.

  Up ahead, most of the other runners had spread out and begun gathering supplies. The first ones they passed were digging some kind of roots out of the ground, brushing off the dirt, and biting right into them. Others were gathered around a small stream, taking drinks.

  Jane tried to watch everyone at once, even as she scanned the woods for something they could take as their own.

  “Are those bananas?” Buzz asked suddenly. When Jane looked where he was pointing, she saw a heavy bunch of green bananas suspended in a curved leafy tree, straight ahead.

  “Carter and Jane, go!” Vanessa said. Already she’d knelt in the dirt next to some plants like the ones the others had been digging up. “Buzz, help me with this.”

  There was no time to talk. One look from Carter, and Jane raced with him straight over to the banana tree.

  The amount of natural food and fresh water here was a million times beyond anything they’d found on Nowhere Island. It wasn’t a feast, but a bunch of bananas could make the difference between having enough energy for the journey, or not.

  “Get on my back!” Carter said. He bent over with his arms on the trunk. Jane scrambled up until she was standing with her hands higher on the tree, just within reach of the bananas. The trick was going to be getting them down.

  “Should I take them all?” Jane said.

  “Yes!” he said.

  “I’m not sure if I can—”

  “Just do it!” he answered. Several of the others had spotted them now and were heading over. They had to get this done quickly.

  Jane wrapped her arms around the entire bunch and pulled hard, but the thick stalk didn’t budge. At the same time, two other kids appeared at the base of the tree. With a fast leap, they’d each scaled the trunk, holding on with both feet and one hand as they reached for the same bananas.

  One of them was Mima, Jane saw, as the girl made a fast grab for the food. Mima easily tore away several bananas and dropped to the ground. The other boy ripped half of what was left from Jane’s arms before he, too, jumped off. He landed several feet away and continued on without missing a stride.

  There were no rules here—Ani had already told them that. Now that Raku Nau had officially begun, Jane could see for herself that this was going to be even harder than she’d thought.

  The good news was that the tussle over the bananas had left the remaining seven dangling from the tree. Jane ripped the broken stalk and dropped down next to Carter with what she had.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s all I could get.”

  “Don’t worry, you did good,” Carter said.

  Just then, a nearby shout caught Jane’s attention. It was Mima again. The girl stood empty-handed now. She was yelling after Chizo and one of his friends as they ran off, laughing and clutching the bananas that she’d been holding just a moment ago.

  “Come on,” Jane told Carter, and approached the girl where she stood catching her breath.

  “Here,” Jane said. She tore off two pieces of fruit from their own seven and held them out. Carter didn’t say a word. Jane knew he wouldn’t mind.

  Mima looked up at them with a suspicious glance. She made no move to take the bananas.

  “Chafa-ka,” Jane said. She pointed to herself then, and spoke her own name slowly. “Jane,” she said, and pointed to her brother. “Carter.”

  The girl looked at her again. Then she snatched the bananas out of her hand with a nod, and ran off.

  “You’re welcome,” Jane said quietly.

  “We have to go!” Carter said. “Buzz! Vanessa! Come on!”

  The rest of the group was moving again, headed down a V-shaped cut in the hillside where two slopes came together. Jane could hear rushing water in the distance, but couldn’t see what was waiting for them that way.

  “What’d you get?” Vanessa asked, running with Buzz to join them. The two each had a small handful of tubular roots, still half covered in dirt. The bananas were rock hard. It wasn’t going to be much of a breakfast, and they’d have to eat on the run. But they’d had worse on Nowhere Island. As long as they didn’t have to go back to eating grubs and snails, Jane thought, she wasn’t going to complain.

  She could just see Mima now, not on the ground but leaping from trunk to trunk using her arms and legs like bumpers. Just before she disappeared down the hill, she took a long jump to the ground, then kept on running.

  “What’s our strategy?” Buzz asked. Most of the group had disappeared in the same direction. This was a fast-moving game.

  Except—not a game at all, Jane thought.

  “Our strategy is keep up!” Carter said, and led the way downhill. “Let’s go!”

  CHAPTER 9

  Buzz ran with the others, following the stream they’d drunk from. It flowed down the ravine and toward the louder water sounds.

  “What is that?” Carter asked.

  The stream ran straight into a river at the bottom of the hill, where the woods ended. As they reached the bank, they were facing a high wall of sand-colored stone on the opposite side. The river itself ran along the wall as far as Buzz could see in either direction. But the water also flowed into a narrow canyon, almost directly across from them.

  That’s where the others seemed to be headed. They entered the canyon single file, squeezing one by one through the opening before each of them disappeared inside.

  “How do they know that’s the right way to go?” Buzz asked. It wasn’t even a canyon, really. More like a crevice. There was no knowing what waited inside. The only other way to go was downriver or upriver, and that looked to be a mile or more in either direction, just to get around the mountain of rock that stood in front of them.

  “Maybe they’re guessing,” Jane said, “But their guess is better than ours.”

  “Keep going!” Carter said. “And watch your step!”

  The river was shallow but shady, with green algae-covered stones everywhere. Buzz
felt his foot slip on the first one he came to.

  Vanessa grabbed him under the arm. “Don’t go too fast,” she said. “You could break an ankle in here pretty easily.”

  Buzz focused on his steps and tried not to think too much about what came next. Even from here, the slot canyon looked claustrophobic.

  When they reached the far side, Carter and Jane didn’t slow down. They pushed right in.

  Vanessa looked at Buzz and took a deep breath. He could tell she was uneasy, too, but neither of them said a word. Most of the other runners were already inside, and the last group was just starting to cross the river. This was no time to hesitate. Vanessa went next, behind Jane and Carter. Buzz brought up the rear.

  It was like stepping through a door and into a narrow hallway. The crevice walls on either side were nearly vertical, and they were close enough to touch with both hands.

  “Can you see anything?” Vanessa called out to Carter.

  “Not much,” he called back.

  Buzz craned his neck, but it was too shadowy in the canyon, and too crowded with runners to see more than backs of people’s heads. Their shouts and even some laughter echoed back and forth, filling the small space with sound.

  The closeness of the rock was uncomfortable, but it also made it easier to stay upright. When Buzz stumbled, one quick catch with his palm was enough to keep himself moving along, faster than he’d imagined might be possible in here.

  Which was a good thing. The four runners behind him were in close now. He could tell they were looking for the first opportunity to pass.

  Soon, they all came to a fork. Where the canyon divided, the water flowed in two different directions. For whatever reason, everyone in front of them had gone to the right. Carter, Jane, and Vanessa did the same, followed by Buzz and the four others breathing down his neck.

  They hadn’t gotten much father when a voice from up ahead echoed back, louder than all the others.

  “FAH!”

  It was Chizo, Buzz recognized. He and his friends must have been at the front. Fah meant no, which probably meant they’d reached a dead end.