Cobra stood on the beach at the edge of the water, his long fingers wrapped so tightly around the hilt of his machete that his knuckles were dead white. If he were a more emotional man, he would have been pacing - as it was, he stood like a granite statue, staring out over the ocean, jaw locked so painfully tight that it felt like his teeth were fusing together.
Behind him, the witch doctor, Zarabua, shuffled along the strand, picking up various shells and dropping them into his belt pouch. He tossed a broken piece of a sand dollar around in his hand before adding it to his collection, and cast an amused glance at his cohort.
"You can stop fretting, Cobe. As soon as we have the medallion, I can reverse its power so it will work only for you, you can trot off to the future, take your revenge on the boy, return here, destroy this pathetic island, and live happily ever after." Cobra turned away from the water, habitually running his thumb down the fang-like nail on his index finger.
"What good is it if that Aumakua brat won't tell me where the medallion is?" he said, anger and frustration clearly evident in his voice. "He will tell me nothing, not even to save his village." Zarabua picked up a golden abalone shell, holding it up and letting the sunlight slant through it.
"There are other ways of finding it, you know," he said absently, turning the delicate shell over in his stained fingers and squinting up at it. Cobra looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked. The witch doctor rolled the abalone between his fingers, watching the sunlight sparkle on the translucent surface.
"The girl was with him, was she not?" he murmured.
"What?"
"The girl. You know, the one who's been causing trouble with the guards. Moa-what's-her-name. She was with the boy when your men captured him, correct?" The warlord frowned, recalling to mind the previous afternoon, when Huko and Mohea had been dragged into the village and the medallion was found to be missing again.
"Yes, I believe she was. Why?" Zarabua looked at him pityingly.
"So, she must know where the bloody amulet is hidden, too," he said, speaking slowly as if spelling it out to a simpleminded child. Cobra instinctively stiffened his fingers, but kept his hand still. The witch doctor still had to prove useful before he could be disposed of.
"What makes you think she will tell me any more than the boy will?" he demanded.
"It is a well known fact that women are softer than men," his companion stated. He glanced up at the mongol warrior, baring his rotten teeth in an ugly smile. "I'm sure you can find a way to...persuade her to reveal the location of the medallion."
Cobra tilted his head, a slow smile spreading across his wickedly handsome face. The witch doctor grinned and nodded, practically watching the ideas swirl around in the warlord's mind.
"She seems to be quite loyal to the brat," he noted, "not only as her king, but as her friend. It's a simple matter of threatening his life, forcing her to tell you where the amulet is hidden, and then," he clenched his fist, swiftly crushing the fragile golden shell into splinters, "you will have whatever your heart desires."
The unpleasant laughter of the two evil men echoed down the beach, contaminating the very air with their vileness.
"Give me the hairpin and tie my hands again, I have a plan."
Ohtara tucked the wooden pin into Mohea's hair, hastily rebinding her friend's hands and slipping the loosely knotted rope back over her own wrists. "What are you going to do?" she whispered.
"I'm going to send a message to Billy and Allie," the other girl answered quietly. "Don't ask questions now; just sit tight 'til I get back." Ohtara looked at her, anxiety shining out of her brown eyes.
"Be careful," she whispered. Her friend flashed her a reassuring smile and stood up, walking up to a small clump of warriors.
"I have to go into the jungle."
The men looked at her suspiciously. "Why?" one of them demanded. Mohea stared at him coldly.
"Why do you think?"
They shuffled uncomfortably for a moment, then the leader of the group spoke up. "Well, don't just stand there. Untie her hands and escort her into the jungle. If you let her escape, Cobra won't be happy." He turned to the girl, grinning maliciously. "If you try to escape, Cobra won't be happy about that either. And remember, you've still got friends here."
The lovely girl tossed her head, staring down her nose at the warrior. "I won't forget," she said icily. The cords restraining her wrists were cut, and five of the men escorted her away from the village. Once they were out of sight of the huts, she turned and leveled a fierce glare at them. "If any of you even start to look the wrong way, I will demonstrate how to kill someone with just an elbow," she said threateningly. Two of them looked faintly startled, but the other three just glared back.
"Get going, girl, and hurry up," one of them growled. "Don't worry about us; as long as you don't try to run off, we won't bother you." Mohea lifted her chin haughtily and swept over to a large tree several feet away.
As soon as she was out of sight of her escort, she yanked the hairpin from her loose bun and pulled her journal out of a hidden pocket deep in her skirt, her heart pounding. She took a few deep breaths, clenched her teeth, and scraped the sharp wooden pick along her leg, drawing blood. Flipping to the back of the little book, she dabbed the hairpin on the scratch and scrawled a hasty message on a blank page.
Billy,
We need you and Allie. Cobra is back. We don't know how, but we need your help.
Mohea
She blew on the morbid ink substitute to dry it before closing the journal and slipping it back into her pocket. Tearing off a strip of her skirt, she wrapped it around the scrape and stood up, wiping the blood off the hairpin and concealing it in her dark tresses once more.
Mohea returned to the quintet, trying to gather her dignity. "I'm going to the shore to wash - you can trail along if you want to or go back to your twisted master, I don't care." She stalked off down the path, her face burning with the humiliation of the whole situation. The five men hurried to keep up.
Three of them were seasoned warriors who had served under Cobra for many years, the other two, mercenaries who had been convinced to join his ranks upon his recent return. All five of them were ruthless killers with no regard for men, women, or children, but none of them could fail to be impressed - or at least astonished - at this girl's poise and courage. They followed her in silence as she made her way to the beach.
The island girl plunged her hands into the warm, briny water, feeling along the bottom for a sharp shell or stone. Her fingers brushed across the jagged edge of a broken piece of conch, and she seized it, pressing it into her palm and curving her hand slightly to keep it in place. She continued her search 'til one of the guards yelled down to her.
"That's enough, girl! Come on now, or we'll shoot you in the legs, and then you'll have to do your business at the village." Mohea gritted her teeth in anger, but stood up and walked back up the beach to the five men, who promptly surrounded her and marched her back to the rest of the captives. One of them grabbed her arms and tied her hands behind her again, shoving her over to her spot by Ohtara. She sank down next to her friend, feeling the adrenaline she didn't know she had seep out of her system, leaving her weak and trembling.
"Did you do it?" Ohtara hissed urgently. Mohea nodded.
"Yes, I did it," she murmured. "Here." She pressed the broken shell into the other girl's hand. "Cut me loose again."
Ohtara obliged, unobtrusively sawing away at the ropes restraining her friend. It was still somewhat difficult, but far simpler than trying to stab the bindings to death with a wooden hairpin. "Now what do we do?" she whispered. Mohea couldn't help the grim smile that spread across her face.
"Now, we wait two hundred years for them to get the message."
Great big giant thank you to Casey Storm for reviewing so faithfully. You're what keeps me posting here, girl. :)
To everyone who's reading this story, please, please take just a minute to leave a review. I'm sort of unsure about my writing - are things progressing too fast? Too slow? Is there too much detail, or not enough? I need feedback! :/
