“Then let us welcome he and his friends,” Peroc shouted.
Cries of approval were shouted as the tribe quickly ran about. Someone placed a gentle hand on James’s back and coaxed him forward. The darkness that had consumed the area at the beginning of the ceremony lifted slightly allowing James to see Kilani, Luno, Roger, and William being ushered in his direction. A blanket was unrolled just in front of him and hands from all directions placed food of various types upon it. Soon James’s group stood surrounding the blanket. They sat upon request. Each of them was adorned with a headdress similar to the one the warrior woman had been wearing when she’d returned from the hunt. James wore by far the largest and most ornate.
The group was instructed to eat while the tribe danced around them in a choreographed display.
“Ho, Chief,” Luno chortled. “Seems you’re wanted just about everywhere you go.”
“Ze are cannibals,” said William. “Did you see ze skulls? Nique te mere!”
“We’d be premature to pass such a judgment. They could simply be how they honor their dead. Let us not jump to conclusions,” said Luno.
“This place gives me an uneasy feeling,” admitted James. “I’m not sure William isn’t right.”
“No sense ’n lettin‘ a good meal go to waste, I dare say,” Roger said, picking up a piece of meat and stuffing it into his mouth. “Fantastic,” he said, chewing.
Reluctantly, James reached down and selected a piece of meat and put it into his mouth. It was, without a doubt, the tastiest thing he’d eaten since he’d arrived in The Never. The others quickly dug in, enjoying the feast. All except Kilani, who slowly picked at the food. When they’d had their fill they were led to the center of the clearing. The ring of fire was long gone as the sun fell below the rim of the crater. The tribe sat in a large circle around the stone platform.
Three women seated just behind the circle played on three drums. Torches stood in the ground around the platform, casting eerie shadows. James and company were seated facing the front of the platform. The drumming changed rhythm the instant they sat. There was a cry of fear in the distance. James looked into the faces of the tribe folk nearest to him and saw no concern. The cries continued. He looked in the direction of the cries and spotted two torches steadily moving closer to the platform.
The warrior woman stood and walked to the base of the platform. She waited silently as the torches approached. The cries had ceased until the two torches, being carried by two members of the tribe, reached the ring of people surrounding the platform. James looked on in horror. They were dragging a woman whose feet and hands were bound. What clothes she wore were tattered and torn. She was very thin and dirty. She had the complexion of a European. Her hair was long and mousey brown. The woman pleaded in a language James was sure he’d heard before but couldn’t understand. She then began screaming and struggling against the two men dragging her toward the platform, but she lacked the strength to gain any real headway.
They finally reached the base of the platform. The drums stopped, and the warrior woman took a step up onto the first level and began to address her tribe. “The island demands this gift in exchange for our good fortune, and tonight we are fortunate indeed,” she said, looking at James. “What was foretold long ago has come to pass.”
The tribe cheered at this. The captive woman looked on in terror at the warrior woman as she spoke.
“Tonight the moon passes for the twenty-second time since our last gift. The time for another has come. The island has been good to us. In return, we must be good to her. If we are not, death will befall us all.”
The drums started again, this time the beats struck in quick succession. The members of the tribe began to sway from side to side. Four tribesmen, two men, and two women, with bodies painted entirely in red, stepped through the circle and grasped the woman. Two lifted her under her arms and the others held each leg as they raised her onto the platform.
James looked at Kilani and Luno, who wore horrified expressions. The red-painted tribesmen reached the top step of the platform. They placed the woman on the table-size stone, which James realized was hovering slightly over the top step. The woman kicked and spat and cried until she touched the stone. The moment she contacted it, she fell silent.
The red-painted tribesmen turned, leaving the woman on the stone. She did not make any attempt to escape. James again looked over at Luno.
“What the bloody hell is going on? Luno asked.
“They said they’re giving the island a gift,” said James.
“Human sacrifice,” said Luno.
James looked back at the platform. The warrior woman had removed a long dagger from her belt and was making her way up the steps toward the woman. James couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He wasn’t about to let it happen. He quickly stood as the warrior woman leaned over the stone table with knife in hand. The woman on the table hadn’t moved.
“Stop,” James cried in the native tongue. “This is not acceptable. You must not hurt this woman.”
“Chief, I have no intention of hurting this woman,” the warrior woman said with a mirthless smile. She took her dagger and cut the bindings on the woman’s wrists and ankles. Held by an invisible force, her arms immediately snapped outward and her legs opened. The warrior woman lifted her head, again smiled at James with her evil smile, and retreated back to the base of the platform.
Perhaps I’m wrong, James thought. The drumming stopped again and the torches surrounding the circle extinguished synchronously. For an instant, they were enveloped in darkness. Then a bright light shone on the platform. It was a perfect circle, its edge fell just one step below the stone table. The moon was aligned perfectly through the center hole in the trees and cast a beam of light more focused and intense than James or any in his group had ever seen.
The light was somehow mesmerizing and James couldn’t help but look in wonder as it crept ever so slowly closer to the edge of the table. The warrior woman stepped completely off the platform, careful to avoid the light, and returned to her place in the circle as the light came within inches of the edge of the table. James remained standing, ready to act.
The round beam of light struck the woman’s outstretched fingers first. She immediately let out a blood-curdling cry. Smoke began to rise from her hand as the flesh on her fingers quickly turned to dust. In an instant, James realized that the warrior woman wasn’t going to kill this woman, but the island was. Beside him, Luno, Kilani, William, and Roger had all gotten to their feet.
James ran toward the platform as the cries continued. Nearly her entire hand was now nothing but bleached bone. A slight breeze blew away the gray powder that moments ago had been her flesh. In the distant darkness the cries of a man echoed those of the victim.
As James reached the edge of the platform, he felt energy similar to that which came from the stone tower he’d touched in the cave on the Second Widow. He tried to surge through it, but he was unable and fell back to the ground. The others in his group hit the ground as well.
He quickly stood. “ Tertiri ze Manukto norge,” he said, sending a surge of electric energy that looked like a miniature lightning storm toward the barrier. The invisible wall absorbed the spell and did not yield. By this time the beam was creeping toward the woman’s elbow and her cries continued at an earsplitting volume. They could also still hear the unknown man’s cries in the darkness.
“You are defying the will of the island,” the warrior woman said calmly.
“The island did not put her on this table. You did,” said James. “ Tertiri ze Manukto suomi,” he said. Several large rocks lifted from the dirt beneath the ground outside the circle. He sent them hurtling toward the invisible barrier. Upon impact, each of the rocks shattered into sand. He then lifted a large amount of dirt into the air. It began to swirl like a hurricane creating a dense black cloud. James again directed it toward the barrier but this time sent it high into the air in hopes of blocking the moon’s rays from hurting the woman further. Unfortunately, regardless of how high he went, the barrier continued even higher.