Rito continued to stare.
“Rito!” Eru said impatiently. “We can use these to rescue our village! Nothing the invaders have can possibly hurt us inside here.”
Rito got slowly to her feet. “There’s no room for me inside—”
“No! You enter one of the others and join me. Two of our gods come to life! The invaders will flee like barking monkeys!”
Rito thought this over. It was an actual plan, and it might conceivably work. It beat doing nothing, or hiding until they were inevitably found. “How do I get into it?”
“Watch this.” He pulled some more of the metal sticks, and the statue turned toward its nearest fellow. One hand pulled away from its belly, curled into a cup and scooped out an immense handful of dirt from around the second statue’s base. Two more scoops and a round patch of stone, of a slightly different texture than the rest, was exposed in the bright sunlight.
“Push on the middle of it,” he said. “When it opens, crawl inside.”
She jumped down into the hole and did so. The same grinding sound she’d heard before now came from this statue, and as Eru said, a lit passageway appeared. The rock was covered with shining sheets of metal smoothed to the inside contours of the passage. She climbed up several horizontal protrusions until she emerged into a tiny chamber with the same sort of chair and sticks.
She climbed into the seat, which was cool against her bare back and legs. There were uncomfortable bumps and ridges, but she put her feet on two platforms and looked around the little room.
A rectangular shape glowed directly ahead of the seat and showed the world outside the statue. Then another, smaller rectangle beneath it came to life and showed Eru’s grinning face.
“The big window ahead of you shows where you’re going,” Eru said. “Look to your right.”
On the metal wall were drawings showing which stick caused which part of the statue’s body to move. She tentatively pushed one, and felt the whole statue lurch.
“Come on,” Eru taunted. “Let’s go chase those bastards back to the sea!”
Rito paused for a moment. One of the designs showed the very seat in which she sat, but the creature occupying it did not look…like her. Like the statue, its head was too big, its limbs too short, and its eyes narrow slits. Its form seemed to fit the bumps and ridges that made her squirm. Was this, then, the image of the real god?
There was no time to ponder this. She studied the drawings for a moment, coordinated them with the metal sticks, and then pulled the ones that seemed to make the legs move. A lurching first step rewarded her.
Shang felt the vibration first. He sat in the shade of the trees that ringed the village, sipping water brought from a sweet nearby spring. The village’s men were now locked within a stockade, hastily but sturdily built by his crew. The women cowered in the hut, awaiting their fate. He enjoyed knowing they all watched him, awaiting the signal that would begin their degradation. He could not wait until an entire kingdom felt the same way.
But the repeating rumbles broke his euphoria. He stood up and strode to the center of the village clearing. The sky was blue and cloudless, but a storm could be approaching from the other side of the island. Perhaps it was the same storm that had nearly destroyed them, seeking a second chance. Let it come, he thought.
Teng joined him. “Are those drums?”
“Too regular to be thunder,” Shang said.
“They said there was no one else on the island. Only them.”
“Perhaps they lied. But whoever it is, they have no idea what they’re walking into. Rouse the crew.”
As Teng turned and was about to shout orders, there was a high shriek of terror. Not from one of the villagers, though; it came from Loonk, one of their toughest and most vicious swordsmen. He stood frozen in mid-step, pointing at the sky.
Shang and Teng looked up together as an immense shadow fell over the clearing.
Within the walking statue, Rito saw her village from high above on the glowing rectangular window. She recognized it, yet had never considered what it must appear like to the birds that flew overhead. The view mesmerized her.
In the smaller window, Eru grinned as he said, “There’s a control that lets you speak with the god’s voice; it was the first thing I figured out how to work. Scared away all the birds. Watch this!”
Shang and Teng exchanged a look. They had battled together for years, but never faced anything like this. Already the other crew members were fleeing for the jungle, screaming like the women in the hut.
Not just one, but two of the stone gods they’d seen from the ship now towered over the village. Were the others coming as well? Had they been summoned, or did they simply know, as gods did, that their worshippers were in danger?
The god of the natives was made of stone, with a gigantic head and two long-fingered arms. A deep voice boomed from its unmoving lips: “Release my people!”
Shang ordered, “Bring me the elder!”
Teng, his eyes still on the god, ran over to the stockade. The old man was tied to the outside so that he could translate at a moment’s notice, and Teng half pushed, half dragged him over to Shang. Even the elder looked terrified.
“What did it say?” Shang asked, hoping his voice didn’t tremble.
“The great omai ordered you to release us.”
“And if I don’t? Go ahead, ask. What happens if I don’t?”
The elder drew breath and yelled up, “He asks, what will happen if he doesn’t release your people?”
A bolt of what could only be called lightening shot from the protruding navel of the god and tore through the trunks of a dozen trees. There were more screams.
“Eru!” Rito cried. “What was that? You could’ve hurt someone!”
“I was careful,” Eru said, still delighted.
“They’re not afraid,” Rito pointed out. “Not the leaders.”
“Then we have to be scarier.”
Rito started to protest, but then she had another idea. She looked at the drawings on the wall, carefully considered which sticks to move to make the statue do what she wished, and set to work.
“One god is leaving,” Teng said.
“Of course,” Shang said, puffing up with pride. “Not even a god dares oppose me.” He grabbed Arto by the hair. “Tell the other to go back where it came from, or I’ll kill every man, woman and child in this village. Tell it!”
The elder relayed the information.
The remaining god began to stride through the jungle, circling the village.
“What’s it doing?” Teng asked.
“I don’t know,” Shang muttered, still clutching the elder by the hair.
Suddenly, with surprising speed, the god reached down into the jungle, then stood again. In one hand it held one of Shang’s cowardly men, who screamed as if he’d been castrated in battle. Olon was his name: a rigger, worthless in a fight.
“I can kill your people as well,” the god said, and the elder dutifully translated.
“Kill them,” Shang said. “I do not need their worship. Do you need yours?”
Teng looked at his commander with a mix of admiration and concern.
Eru was no killer, Rito knew. He was bluffing. She pushed her sticks more rapidly, driving toward her destination.
“Rito, where are you going?” he demanded.
“I have an idea,” she said. “Make sure they know what I’m doing.”
The god raised Olon high overhead. The sailor continued to scream, clutching at the stone fingers while simultaneously looking around for anything that might help. Then he froze.