The Serpent and the Crown Page 6

  Rongo nudged Jorobai. “Get your bow ready.”

  The three Olayans strapped their quivers to their backs, and fastened a barrel full of arrows to each side of the boat. The treeline was behind them, and all they could see ahead was water. The color of the water gradually shifted from green to blue. The foreign smell of the water hinted at a new world of creatures that lurked below. “Here they come!” Madrigo cried. Jorobai looked out on the water and saw dozens of curved fins breach the surface and move toward the ship. They looked like the fins of river dolphins but were twice the size and pointed at the tips. “What are you waiting for?!” Madrigo yelled at the Olayans as he clutched his spear. “Kill them!”

  Rongo fired first and his arrow struck the water in front of one of the fins. It stuck up from the water in front of the fin as the shark continued swimming forward. Jorobai fired on the sharks, not knowing where to aim.

  “Imagine it’s a dolphin,” said Kayo as he fired one arrow after another at the oncoming sharks. “But twice the size. Aim for its head.”

  Jorobai saw the outlines of the giant beasts as they approached. They were the length of two canoes, half the length of the boat. A lump formed in his throat as he picked up the pace and fired arrows as he quickly as he could, aiming for their heads.

  He hit the nearest one in the head but it kept coming. It lurched up out of the water and opened its jaws wide as it flung itself toward Jorobai. Its mouth was filled with long, jagged teeth and its eyes rolled back in its head as it came at Jorobai. Madrigo extended his spear, stabbed the shark in the mouth and directed it away from Jorobai. As it dropped back down into the water the tip of its snout hit the side of the boat and nearly knocked Jorobai off his feet. A few droplets of its blood splattered his face but he recovered his balance, found a new target, and fired more arrows.

  The fishermen shouted as they battled the sharks with their spears. Loud sounds of cracking and snapping were heard as chips of wood went flying in all directions. The sharks bit into the ship and were tearing it apart piece by piece.

  “There’s too many of them!” Madrigo shouted. “We must turn back!” He shouted commands to his crew, and the ship began to turn around.

  “No! Keep going forward!” cried Jorobai.

  “Keep firing those arrows unless you want to sink and get eaten!” Madrigo shouted back.

  Turning the ship around and returning to river water was a painstaking process. Some of the men pulled on ropes to adjust the sail. Others tried to paddle, only to have the sharks bite their paddles. They had to release the paddles to save themselves from getting pulled under. Madrigo shouted orders to his men while he continued jabbing at onrushing sharks with his spear.

  Jorobai’s aching arms kept firing as he felt the salt water slosh around in the boat, soaking his feet and ankles. A few of the sharks were killed but the others kept coming. He heard the voices of the panicked crew as they struggled to get the boat back to the safety of the river water. Jorobai fired his arrows until the last one was gone, then grabbed a spear and used it to fend off the sharks. After an arcing turn, they were headed back to the river water. The sharks continued their assault, breaking away pieces of the ship, causing it to slow down with the added weight of the water that leaked in. Eventually they reached the river water and the sharks retreated as the men set themselves to the task of bailing out and patching the boat before it sank.

  While Jorobai, Rongo and the rest of Madrigo’s crew set to the task of bailing out the water and repairing the ship, Kayo sat alone at the stern with the bottle of Amoza. He trained for many years with Ishikaya, and the time had come for him to drink alone. He put up a wall in his mind to block out the commotion, and took a few moments to breathe deeply and allow his mind to be still. He relaxed his whole body and drank a large gulp.

  He puffed on the herbal blend in his pipe and spoke the words: “Sagaya, spirit of the forest, come and hear me in my time of need. Show me how we can overcome the sharks and continue with our voyage.”

  He continued to focus his intention as he exhaled the last of the smoke from his pipe and directed it over the crown of his head with his cupped hand. He blew out the candle, and waited for a few moments as the first wave of nausea came to a crescendo and passed. He sang the chant that he learned from Ishikaya, chanting for Sagaya to introduce him to the spirits of the water and show him the way through the sharks.

  He felt the rush of inebriation come over him and his body felt like an oozing blob that sank down through the floorboards of the boat. He breathed underwater as he looked up and saw Jorobai and the rest of them cutting boards and affixing them to the sides of the hull.

  He saw an aura of white light around himself as he swam down into the depths of the river. Fish of varying colors and sizes glowed before him and swam around him. In the distance he saw the sharks circling, waiting to see if the ship would return. He saw where the water shifted from dark green river water to the clear blue water of the sea.

  Down further he sank, to the muddy bottom of the river, to sit with bottom feeders. He calmly breathed in and out, and began to chant a song for the spirits of the sea to come to his aide.

  He chanted for what seemed like hours, focusing his will and building the intensity of his prayer. He felt the heat rising in his body as he watched the creatures of the deep hunting for one another and battling for survival. Then, in front of him, he saw a small fish circling. This fish had subtle hues of pink and blue coloration, and had several short spines growing out of its back. There was an aura of white light all around it.

  He saw a shark pass above his head. The fish swam up to the underbelly of the shark and pressed its spines into the shark’s flesh. The shark suddenly lurched forward and swam away very quickly. After a moment of thrashing about, the shark went limp amidst a cloud of bubbles and collapsed down to the bottom of the river.

  The little fish returned to Kayo and paused before him. He studied its features: the shapes of the scales on its sides, the size and dimensions of its fins, the exact hues of the pink and blue tones on its underbelly, the size and shape of its glassy eyes, the movements of its mouth and gills, he concentrated as he memorized every detail so he would never be confused when he tried to identify it.

  He floated back up through floorboards and watched the men work as a dizzy feeling came over him. He packed his pipe once again and puffed away as he sang one more chant, to offer his gratitude to the spirits of the forest and the river. An overwhelming weariness came over him and he lay down to sleep.

  “You brought a lazy coward on my boat!” Madrigo shouted as he pointed at Kayo. “My men are working hard to keep this boat from sinking and he just drinks masato, sings to himself and passes out!”

  Madrigo moved toward Kayo and looked like he was about to kick him in the ribs, but Jorobai restrained him. “It’s not masato, it’s Amoza. He is conferring with the spirits. Talk to him before you throw him over the side.”

  “Hey you!” Madrigo nudged Kayo with his foot. “Get up.”

  Kayo stirred, sat up and rubbed his eyes. “While your were sleeping we fixed the boat. There’s no way we are getting past those sharks unless you had a really good talk with the spirits.”

  Kayo’s eyes went wide as he sprang to his feet. “Jorobai! Madrigo! Sagaya be blessed. Cast your nets into the water. The answer is swimming beneath us!”

  “Oh, now I see why you brought your shaman,” said Madrigo as he crossed his arms and raised one eyebrow. “This better be good.”

  When Madrigo’s crew finished patching up and bailing out the boat, they cast their nets over the side. Jorobai, Kayo and Rongo carved darts for their blowguns. The nets came back up full of all kinds of fish. Kayo searched through the pile. As he pointed out which fish were obviously not the kind he was looking for to the crew, they set aside the ones they would keep and eat and threw the rest over the side. “Here,” said Kayo. “You see
the pink and blue on the bottom and the spines coming out of his back? This is the one. Get as many of them as you can.” The crew sorted through the catch, but could only find a few of them. “More more more! Many of them. Drop the nets, I want a barrel full of them!”

  Kayo laid the fish down on the deck and dissected it. He found little sacks below the surface of the fish’s back. He saw ducts that led from the sacks to the tips of its spines and concluded he had found the glands that held the poison that would kill the sharks. He made a small incision with his knife and squeezed the poison out into a jug. “We need a lot of fish.”

  After four days of fishing, Kayo was satisfied. Madrigo made them stay in the fresh water and fish for a fifth day, just to be sure. They used their jug full of poison to prepare the poison darts, 800 all together, 200 for each dart man. Kayo instructed them to take care with the poison, as he suspected that it could be just as lethal to humans as it was to sharks.

  His concern was confirmed when Rongo staged a competition to find the fourth dart man. “See that sloth hanging in that tree?” He pointed to the shore and the fisherman saw the sloth gently scratch its chin. “Let’s see who can hit it.”

  All of the men took a shot, but it was Jinjo, a tall and lean young fisherman who killed one of the sharks with a spear in the previous fight, who brought the sloth down with a shot to its neck. It reached for the dart and brushed it away, but soon lost its hold on the tree and fell to the ground. It moved for a moment, but soon froze, stuck with its arm reaching out in a state of paralysis.

  Jorobai handed Jinjo a blowgun and 200 darts. Rongo and Jorobai positioned themselves at the front end of the boat and assigned Kayo and Jinjo to the rear. When Jorobai signaled they were ready, Madrigo raised the sails and steered them toward the sea.

  Rongo practiced pulling the poison dipped darts from the various miniature quivers attached to his belt and loading them into his blowgun, while in the distance the shark fins carved trails in the water. Jorobai thought of his son as he honed his will for the fight ahead. Kayo took one last puff from his pipe while Jinjo examined the blowgun and figured out the fastest way to load his darts. The rest of the crew prepared for battle with their spears.

  Once the ship entered the salt water again, the sharks attacked, slamming into the sides of the boat and biting into the hull. Jorobai and his team of dart men shot darts wherever they saw a shark and, one by one, the sharks succumbed to the poison and fell away.

  Instead of two or three shots with a bow, one dart was all it took to make the kill. But more sharks kept coming and soon they made a frightening adjustment: leaping higher out of the water and throwing themselves, jaws agape, toward the men with the blowguns. Jinjo lost his blowgun when a shark came leaping up at him. He was caught off guard and used the blowgun to jab the shark in the eye as he moved out of the way of its teeth. The other men stabbed it with spears and pushed its back off the railing, but it dragged the blowgun down with it. After that, Jinjo picked up a spear and thrust it directly into the nose of any shark that leapt toward him, cutting their faces and sometimes delivering a killing blow to the eye. The weight of each shark shoved him further back into the ship with every contact he made.

  Kayo also suffered from the new attacks. One shark leapt high and he shot the dart right into its mouth. He tried to get out of the way but it fell on him and nearly tipped the boat over. The other sailors pushed it off with their spears, but when Kayo got back to his feet, his head ached, his nose and mouth were bleeding, and his blowgun was shattered.

  Jorobai was confident that the plan would work as he found himself dispatching the sharks at a much quicker pace with the blowgun than with his bow. One by one they rose up and one by one they fell. But the boat was damaged from the repeated impacts and once again he found himself ankle deep in water and wondering if they could kill them all. After dispatching one shark to his left, another shark came rising up at him from the right. As he loaded a dart he turned to see its gaping jaws flying toward his face. There was no time to shoot so he ducked, pushed the blowgun into the roof of the shark’s mouth and shoved it away from him.

  As he redirected the path of the shark’s head, the blowgun shattered with the dart inside of it. The dart embedded itself in his right hand. Jorobai cried out in pain and fell on his back. Kayo ran over and pulled his head up out of the water in the bottom of the boat. He held him up in the middle of the boat as foam bubbled up out of Jorobai’s mouth. Kayo pulled the dart from Jorobai’s hand and tied a cloth around it to stop the bleeding. He watched as Jorobai’s eyes rolled up and he lost consciousness.

  Seeing there was nothing he could do but hope that Jorobai’s body could beat the poison, Kayo leaned him up against the mast and carried on attacking the sharks with his spear. Jorobai’s face swelled and turned blue. His body went into convulsions as he choked on the white foam that oozed out of his mouth.

  Rongo, with his experience as a hunter in the jungle, was the best shark killer. It was he, not Jorobai, who taught Jankaro how to make poison darts from the bodies of frogs and hunt small game. The sharks never got close to him and he killed dozens of them before he ran out of ammunition. He grabbed a spear and leaned as far over the railing as he could to pierce through the faces of the sharks before they could get close to him. The danger seemed to subside as he noticed the pace of attacks had slowed as the number of sharks dwindled.

  Just when he thought they were about to be in the clear, he noticed off in the distance a giant shark fin approaching, tearing away at the water, heading directly for the bow. As it drew closer, he saw the outline of its body in the water. It was enormous, more than twice the size of the other sharks. It was almost the size of the boat. It appeared to alter its course slightly as it made its way directly toward Rongo.

  “Rongo, get back!” Kayo cried out and hurled a spear at the giant shark. It pierced the shark’s back, but didn’t alter its course.

  “Up ahead!” Madrigo cried out to the crew. “Hit it with your spears!” The fishermen hurled their spears, but failed to slow the advance of the mighty beast.

  The great shark hurled its body directly over the railing, right at Rongo. Its jaws opened wide. Rongo let out a war cry and with both hands he thrust his spear forward, penetrating deep into the roof of the great shark’s mouth and up into its brain. But its momentum carried it forward and its jaws came crashing down, covering the upper half of Rongo’s body. It collapsed into the bow of the ship, snapping off the head of the carved fish man and tipping the stern into the air. The other men slid and stumbled forward. The shark’s body rolled sideways, sliding back over the railing and crashing into the water. It dragged Rongo down with it. The ship lurched back and forth, causing the men to stumble and fall into each other. When Kayo regained his balance, he watched in horror as the wounded and bloodied shark sank with Rongo’s legs kicking out of its mouth.

  Jorobai opened his eyes to find himself paralyzed. His throat was constricted and he could barely breathe. “Water,” he mouthed the words to Kayo, who knelt by his side, “I need water.” Kayo fetched the jug and attempted to hand it to him, but when Jorobai made no motion to take it, he held the jug to his mouth. The water helped Jorobai’s throat loosen up and he breathed easier. He moved his head slightly from side to side. “I can’t move.”

  “You’re awake and talking. That’s better than you were a short time ago.”

  “What happened?”

  “We made it through.” In spite of his proclamation of victory, Jorobai could see the grief in Kayo’s eyes.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Rongo…” He couldn’t bear to speak the words.

  “What happened to my brother?!”

  “Soon after you passed out, we had nearly defeated all of the sharks. Then there was a great one among them, a king. It was enormous, nearly the size of the boat. It sensed Rongo was the greatest threat. We tried to kill the shark before
it reached him, but our spears could not stop the shark king. So Rongo extended his spear, and the great shark impaled itself. In the same motion his jaws closed over Rongo. Then together they sank into the sea.”

  “No. No! Tell me it’s not true! How can my brother be gone?” Jorobai cried aloud. “He died, and all to serve me, to help me; he sacrificed himself.” Tears poured down his face. “I am forever in debt to him.” Together he and Kayo sat in silence.

  “He was a true warrior,” said Madrigo as he sat down next to Jorobai. “I knew these waters were dangerous, that is why it took such a high price to get anyone from my village to come out this far. There is more danger out there. I’ve heard stories beyond what you canoe people can imagine. For your sake and mine, we should turn around. How could your son be across the sea? Now you must realize that there is no way he could be out there. He must be somewhere in the jungle.”

  Jorobai lifted his head and looked at Madrigo through bloodshot eyes and shook his head “no.” His grief hung heavy in his gut and throat. His body was weak from the poison. He was a widowed farmer lost at sea, his son had been missing for a long time and now his brother was dead. He felt that everything had been taken from him. All that was left was his conviction that he had to find his son. He gazed out upon the sun’s rays as they danced upon the water and clenched his fists. He couldn’t let go of his quest. One day he would find Jankaro and embrace his son once again. He would do whatever it took to find his son or die trying. The image of a blue bird flying over the water and linking him to Jankaro was all he had, so he was going to follow it. But the pain of losing his brother to an angry monster tangled him up and burned him from the inside. “We made an agreement,” he said softly as he started to regain control of his voice.

  “We did,” said Madrigo with a frown as he stood up. “But I don’t want to lose any more men.”

  A few days of despair passed on the open sea. Jorobai regained his strength as the poison wore off, but his bitterness of losing Rongo could not be soothed. He paced the deck every day until he lost track of time, stopping every so often to stare angrily at the sea.