"Why are they here?" Mohea hissed. "Why haven't we been taken to Cobra Island?"
"Somebody sabotaged their boats," her friend, a girl named Ohtara, answered. "We tried to fight back before they landed, but they took us by surprise." She shifted uncomfortably, twisting her hands in a futile effort to loosen the rope binding her wrists together, but it was too tight. "We have a better chance of escape here, but now Cobra and his men are stranded here, too, until they can repair or replace their outriggers." The other girl gritted her teeth angrily as she thought of the mongol warlord and his men defiling their island.
'They're not going to get away with this,' she thought furiously. 'We will not be enslaved again!'
"Where's the medallion?" Ohtara whispered. "I didn't see it when they brought you and King Huko back." Mohea glanced around at the guards, who were standing nearby, watching the captive villagers.
"Hidden," she murmured, her lips barely moving. "Kani came to warn us, and we had time to hide it."
"Where is Kani?" her friend inquired quietly. "I didn't see him come back." Her eyes widened as she saw the look on Mohea's face. "He's not... They killed him?" The beautiful girl nodded, her dark eyes filled with sadness.
"He tried to defend us," she whispered. "He was going to hold them off while we escaped. But he never had the chance." A single tear slipped down Ohtara's smooth cheek.
"He won't be the last, I daresay," she murmured disconsolately. "Oh Mohea, what chance do we have? Last time we had help from King Huko and the other three, but now we're on our own, with no outside help to-" Her words were cut off as a guard jabbed her in the ribs with the butt of a wooden spear.
"No talking!" he growled, giving her another vicious poke. Ohtara doubled over, trying to dull the throbbing as he jabbed the spear at Mohea.
The feisty girl clamped her arm over it, trapping the weapon against her side. "Do that again, and I will stuff that javelin down your throat," she said, her voice dripping with contempt. "Do not think that I am incapable of it."
She stared fearlessly and unblinkingly up at the warrior, who was beginning to remember a certain girl from their last invasion, a girl that nearly controlled the operations beneath Cobra Island by the gentle art of blackmail. A girl that charged into battle without a second's hesitation, who wreaked havoc with the improvised weapons the prisoners had to hand. He remembered seeing her several times, and now he recognized her as this same girl, sitting at his feet, tied up but still managing to fight in her own way.
Trying to hide his discomfiture, he tugged his spear free and strode off, leaving the two girls alone under the watchful eyes of the other guards.
"Where is it?"
Hot rage boiled in Cobra's blood, and his fingers kept tensing, as if he longed to plunge his poisonous nails into his prisoner's neck. (Which, in point of fact, was exactly what he wanted to do.)
Huko tilted his head back, glaring at the warlord with narrowed eyes. "You can ask me that 'til the earth crumbles away beneath our feet and you fall into Hell. I will never tell you!"
He gasped as Cobra seized him by the throat, dragging him up onto his toes and slowly sliding his fang-like fingernail down the boy's neck, stopping right at the jugular vein. The warlord's voice was cold as stone.
"The only reason you are not dead right now is because I want the medallion." He pulled the choking boy closer, his hard eyes only a few inches from Huko's. "I will find it, if I have to tear this island apart, leaf by leaf and stone by stone. I will start," he gave the young king a vicious shake, "with your pathetic village. So unless you want to see those pitiful creatures outside utterly destroyed, you can make it easier on all of us and just tell me where it is."
Huko struggled to draw breath, but Cobra's grip was too tight to allow the slightest bit of air to flow through his constricted windpipe. "I...will...never...tell you!" he choked.
The evil man flung him away, and he crashed into the wall, sliding down it to land in an undignified heap on the rough floor. The young king coughed hoarsely, gasping for breath, before raising defiant brown eyes to his captor again.
"Why do you even want it?" he demanded. The anger in his voice covered the fear that bubbled in his stomach and threatened to show through on his face. "It will not work for you, you know that!" Cobra stared down at him, coldly calculating.
"But it would work for you," he answered softly. "You have changed since I last saw you, and I've no doubt that the medallion would do your bidding." He squatted down, watching the boy with his black, emotionless, snake-like eyes. "You could save your people and yourself; I would let you all go free, if you would just bring me the medallion and use it as I commanded."
Huko stared at him, his dark brows drawn together in an incredulous frown. "That is your definition of 'free'?" he said scornfully. He gave a brittle, mirthless laugh. "If you really believe that I or any other Aumakua islander would fall for that, you are..." he paused, his eyes roving over the man before him, "truly pitiable."
Cobra's jaw clenched in fury, and he struck the boy a vicious blow across the mouth. Huko's head snapped back, and the warm, coppery taste of blood filled his mouth as his lip split against his teeth. The warlord stood up, glowering at him with unveiled hatred.
"You are going to wish you had agreed," he hissed venomously. The young king spat out some blood and returned the glare, his brown eyes snapping with righteous anger.
"I'd sooner die!" An evil smile twisted Cobra's lips as he crossed the room to the frond door.
"That," he said softly, "can be arranged, far more easily than you think."
Mohea stood up, snagging one of Ohtara's hairpins out of sheer luck and Providence as she rose. Her fingers were so cold and numb that she could barely keep hold of it long enough to pull it out of her friend's dark tresses. Ohtara felt the wooden pin slide down her arm as the other girl dropped it to her, and she barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground. She cupped her hands around it to hide it from view, careful to keep her head bowed and make no sudden movements.
One of the warriors marched over to them, brandishing his weapon - some sort of curved metal pole, ending in a fierce hook - at Mohea.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded angrily. "Sit back down, girl, before I cut your legs off!" Mohea threw her head back, glaring at the guard with open disdain.
"With that thing?" she said scornfully. She lifted her chin. "I will stand up if I please; I'm not going anywhere." The man looked as if he might back down, but another, harder looking man strode up - the girls recognized him as one of Cobra's former warriors.
"Sit down," he snarled. "Or I will choose someone at random and kill them." The girl hissed slightly as she sucked in a breath between her teeth. She hadn't the slightest doubt that this man would carry out his threat, and she sank back down to the damp ground, lowering her eyes to hide the sting of defeat. The warrior gave them both a warning look, and the two returned to the fire around which the rest of Cobra's men were sitting. Mohea turned her head slightly to cast her mouth into shadow.
"Did you get it?" she whispered. Ohtara made a low, affirmative sound in her throat.
"Yes," she breathed. "It's slow going, but the rope is beginning to fray slightly." She made a frustrated noise as the hairpin slipped from her numb fingers. "I dropped it," she whispered, tears of pain and irritation stinging her eyes. "I can't get the right angle to stab through." The young girl tried to stifle a sob; she was cold, tired, scared, and very close to giving up all hope. "What now?"
Mohea twisted around 'til the two girls were back to back, brushing her fingers over the ground in search of the slender implement. "I've got it," she hissed, fumbling to angle her hands without moving too noticeably. "Hold still, I'll try to get you free. Pretend to be asleep now, but keep watch for me."
She leaned back against her friend, letting the folds of her skirt fall over her wrists and conceal their bound hands as she began stabbing at Ohtara's bonds with the sharp hairpin. The other girl did the same, shifting a little to keep their hands out of the firelight as it cast its flickering beams towards them. Ohtara tilted her head back against Mohea's, peering from beneath her lowered lashes to monitor the movements of Cobra's warriors. Behind her, her friend grunted slightly as the hairpin slipped, scraping her wrist.
"This is going to take a while," Mohea whispered, and Ohtara resigned herself to the long night of waiting as the determined maiden worked away at the ropes that bound their hands behind them.
Mohea's jaw was set, and if anyone had seen her eyes, they would have quailed at the fire that smoldered in the chocolaty depths.
